Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 104

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 104

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Mr. Helhake married June 3, 1908, Lenore E. Barnett, a native of Oakland, California. He was affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Travelers Protective Association, the Chamber of Commerce and was a mem- ber of St. Peter's Catholic Church. (Written by D. F. Wileox at request of Mrs. Helhake.)

ERDE W. BEATTY is now in his third conseentive term as elerk of the Cir- euit Court of Adams County. Mr. Beatty is one of the busiest men around the courthouse at Quiney, and everyone who has dealings with his office under- stands his thorough technical and business qualifications for his job. Mr. Beatty is a native of Adams County, and his record is that of one of the best citizens of Quiney.

He was born at Quincy May 11, 1859. His parents, Thomas and Sarah (Owens) Beatty, were also natives of Adams County, where their respective families were established in pioneer times. Thomas Beatty was a blacksmith and carriage maker by trade and a great many years ago established a busi- ness at the corner of Twelfth and Hampshire streets on the present site of the Beatty Automobile Company. He was an industrions worker, an honest and competent citizen, and although he died in March, 1891, his name is still re- membered and cherished in the community. His widow is still living at Quiney. They had ten children: Erde W .: John E., of Kahoka, Missouri; Mary E., instructor of art in the Quiney High School; Thomas M., head of the Beatty Automobile Company of Cleveland; Isaae C., who died in March, 1903; Anna MI., who died in 1894; Helen S., a teacher in the public schools of Quincy ; George F., who died in August, 1903; James P., now captain of the One Hun- dred and Twenty-Third Machine Gun Company, formerly a part of the Fifth Illinois Infantry, stationed at Fort Logan, Houston, Texas; Harry C., a resi- dent of Los Angeles, California. Captain Beatty saw service overseas. He received special mention in the leading newspapers of England and America

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as a hero: "Captain Beatty Rescues Nurses on the Warilda. Wounded and Ill With Pneumonia, But a Hero in Rescuing Survivors. The Warilda was sunk in the English Channel August 3, 1918; he saved the Waaek Nurses."

Erde W. Beatty grew up in Quincy, attended the public schools, and as a boy worked with his father in the shop. He also aequired a boyhood experi- enee in the grocery business. In 1879, at the age of twenty, he was appointed engineer of the eity waterworks, and held that office for six years. Following this for a short time he was connected with the paper mills and then for eleven years kept books for Peter H. Meyer, the well known building contraetor. Mr. Beatty had his first experience in publie affairs as deputy assessor, and was elected eity treasurer, ex officio town collector of Quincy, Illinois, for two years. He was next appointed in charge of the Quincy Manufacturers' Ex- hibit at the World's Fair at St. Louis, and then spent a year on the road sell- ing hardware and stoves. Mr. Beatty then assisted in organizing the Quiney Transfer Company, but was ealled from that business to work with the eity assessor in making the first quadrennial assessment of real estate in the eity.

Whether in private or publie business Mr. Beatty had exhibited such qual- ifications that when his name was presented to the voters of Adams County in November, 1908, as candidate for the office of Circuit Court elerk there was no hesitation in his generous endorsement and his election. He was re- elected in 1912 and again in 1916, and it is the generally accepted opinion throughout Adams County that the affairs of the office were never in better hands.

Mr. Beatty is a democrat in polities. He is a Mason and a member of the Mystic Order of Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm of the Master Masons Grotto, was one of the first loeal members of the Modern Woodmen of America, belongs to the Woodmen of the World, the Loyal Amerieans of the Republie, and for twenty-one years served as vestryman in the Church of the Good Shepherd, Protestant Episcopal, and is now its senior warden.

October 19, 1893, Mr. Beatty married Anna C. Wild, a native of this eity. They have two children: Edward Corbyn Obert, born in August, 1894; and Sarah Margaret, born in July, 1897. The son is now first lieutenant of Com- pany H., Three Hundred Forty-First Infantry, National Army, and now in serviee overseas, being in the Third Provisional Regiment. He is one of the original offieers of the Eighty-Sixth Division, known in Chieago and abroad as the "Blaek-Hawk Bunch."

MAURICE E. GRAFF is one of the live young men of Beverly, is a general merchant there and is also assistant eashier of the Beverly State Bank.

He was born in the Village of Liberty in this eounty October 9, 1890, son of George S. and Anna (Kuntz) Graff. His mother is still living in Liberty. His father died in January, 1905, at the age of forty-seven. He was born in Liberty Township, a son of Paul and Jane Graff. George S. Graff during most of his active life had a harness shop at Liberty. He was an active mem- ber of the Presbyterian Church and was affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

Maurice E. Graff, only child of his parents, spent his boyhood at home and attended the local schools. At the age of fifteen he went to work at his father's trade, and later took over the business and condueted it until 1917. In that year he entered the bank at Liberty and was sent to Beverly as assist- ant eashier of the Beverly Bank, formerly a branch of the Liberty Bank. Then in 1919 he became one of the incorporators of the Beverly State Bank and is now its assistant eashier. On February 11, 1918, he broadened his enterprise by buying the W. E. Inslee general store at Beverly and continued that. He has also been associated with Steve Lawless and others in several business ventures in this part of the county. Mr. Graff still owns his store and shop building at Liberty.

He is a republican voter, is an official of the Modern Woodmen of America.

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is a past noble grand of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Liberty, and is also a member of Liberty Lodge of Masons. He takes keen interest in all outdoor sports and is an enthusiastic hunter. On September 22, 1915, Mr. Graff married Miss Elma Clary, of Liberty Township.

NEAL E. MONROE is vice president of Monroe Color & Chemical Company, one of the large industries today of America, and a business that in two years has developed the great plant at Quiney. The company is one of the larger color manufacturers in the United States. The executive officers of the cor- poration are: Edmond N. Monroe, president; his son Neal E. Monroe, vice president; S. H. Jackson, vice president; L. P. Bonfocy, vice president; and R. W. Jackson, secretary and treasurer. The company at Quincy manufac- tures products that are technically known to the trade under the following names: "Direct Union Colors, H. Acid, Benzidine Base, Dinitrobenzol, Meta- phenylenediamine and other Intermediates."

The Quincy branch of the business is located on the North Bottom Road, adjacent to the Burlington tracks. The company has done much to develop and manufacture special dyes, largely along the lines of new processes, and these dyes have an extensive use in textile manufactures. The Quincy busi- ness employs from forty to forty-five people, including four graduate chem- ists who are in the experimental department and constantly improving vari- ous types of dyes manufactured from coal tar products. This is one of the companies that is endeavoring with a large degree of success to supply the deficiency in dye stuffs made by the war.

Neal E. Monroe learned the drug and dye business under his father, E. N. Monroe. He was born at Unionville, Missouri, May 11, 1888, is a graduate of the high school there, later graduated from the Morgan Park Academy at Chicago, and completed his education in law at the Missouri State University. Instead of becoming a lawyer he became associated with his father in busi- ness, and is now giving all his time to the manufacture of dyes and chemicals. He has been a vice president of the company for the last six years. Mr. Monroe is the oldest living son and the second child of his parents.

He married Miss Mary Bert, a Quincy girl, who was born here in 1893 and was educated in the city schools and the University of Chicago. She is a daughter of Harry Bert and a granddaughter of John L. Bert. The Bert family were prominent early settlers of Quincy and as a family they have long been identified with the Unitarian Church. Mr. Monroe was reared in the faith of the Presbyterian Church and is a republican voter. He and his wife have one daughter, Nancy Ann, born December 5, 1914.

GEORGE A. HENDRICKS is one of the keenly alert and successful business men of Adams County, and has a host of loyal personal friends always ready to express their confidence in any movement which he leads. Mr. Hendricks is now devoting much of his time to the office of cashier of the Beverly State Bank, which was opened for business January 1, 1919, with a capital of $12,000. The president of the bank is Steve Lawless. The directors are H. G. Henry, John G. Sykes, S. D. Moore, George A. Hendricks and Steve Lawless. This bank succeeds the Beverly Bank, which was a branch of the Bank of Liberty.

Mr. Hendricks was born in Richfield Township of Adams County Novem- ber 9, 1869, son of William and Elizabeth (Sparks) Hendricks. He was only an infant when his father died, leaving the widowed mother and two children. The daughter, Mary, now lives with her mother at Beverly Village. George A. Hendricks on account of the early death of his father came face to face with the serious circumstances and responsibilities of life when most boys are in school. He lived with his mother in Richfield Township and received most of his schooling there. At the age of twelve he went to work as a farm hand, and for several years he was never paid more than $15 per month. He worked for one man four or five years, with several advances in salary. He

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made every possible effort to save something from his income, and it was this saving disposition and methodieal and industrious habits which laid the secure basis for his later prosperity. He finally began farming as a renter and he boarded or kept bachelor's hall for himself until his marriage at the age of twenty-six. After his marriage he rented land three years longer and then bought his first farm and has ever since been a land owner. He has owned several farms and every one has been improved for the better.

Mr. Hendricks has been a resident of Beverly Township for the past fif- teen years. He sold one good farm of 120 aeres here but still retains 200 acres. For twelve years he has been well known as an auctioneer and has cried pub- lie sales, farm auctions aud real estate sales over this and adjoining counties. In this way he has gathered a large acquaintance, and as a result of his work as an auctioneer the custom has grown up to eall him "Colonel," a popular title which Mr. Hendrieks is careful to explain means no army record.

As a farmer he has been a feeder of cattle and hogs, and has prospered in spite of some exceptional reverses. In August, 1917, his large barn filled with hay, grain and other supplies and nearby sheds were consumed by fire en- tailing an aggregate loss over insurance of fully $1,500. In the fire a new automobile was also burned. Mr. Hendricks has one of the neat homes of Beverly Village, and it is a center of hospitality to his numerous friends.

One of the invincible proofs of his personal popularity came when he was elected and served three consecutive years as supervisor of Beverly Township. He was elected a democrat in one of the few strongholds of the republican party in Adams County, where the normal republican majority is very large, and a democrat must indeed have unusual qualifications to get elected. Mr. Hendrieks is present preeinet committeeman of his party. He has served as consul for the Modern Woodmen of America and is a member of the Masonic Order at Kingston. He is active in the Methodist Church at Beverly and served some years as superintendent of the Sunday school and is now assist- ant superintendent.

July 9. 1896, Mr. IIendrieks married Miss Iva Golliher, daughter of James Golliher, a well known former resident of Richfield Township now liv- ing at Barry and coneerning whom more detailed information will be found on other pages. Mr. and Mrs. Hendrieks have two living children. Their second child, Susie, died at the age of five years. Lydia Leora is the wife of William Nelson, who lives on Mr. Hendricks' farm near Beverly. The youngest child is William Arden, a bright and vigorous youth of five years, who almost daily is seen piloting his individual roadster and rendering much valuable assist- ance to his father on the farm.

SCOTT MCCARL, of Richfield Township, has achieved much of the substan- tial success in farming and stoek raising which his brother, Judge Lyman, has attained in the field of professional effort and polities. He owns a big farm and a fine country home seven miles northwest of Barry and twenty- five miles southeast of Quiney, and part of the farm is of special interest to all members of the MeCarl family, since it comprised the old homestead where all of them had their youthful associations.

On that farm Scott MeCarl was born April 23, 1862, sou of Alexander W. and Minerva MeCarl. Alexander W. MeCarl died February 22. 1910, and his wife in March, 1893. Scott MeCarl has spent his entire life on the old farm and lived with his father until the latter retired when Seott was abont thirty years of age. The present commodions country home was built in the spring of 1890 and the principal barn in 1882.

Scott and his brother Grant were jointly interested in the management of this farm for some years, and increased its area by the purchase of an addi- tional 120 aeres. In 1903 they separated their interests, Grant removing to another farm nearby, while Scott bought the entire place of 240 acres. He conduets a general stoek farm, raising grain and fattening a goodly buneh Vol. II-41

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of cattle for the market every year. For several years past his active asso- ciate in the enterprise has been his son Fred, for whom a separate set of build- ings was erected as his home.

February 11, 1892, Scott MeCarl married Sarah Loser, daughter of Lafe and Lydia (Schmalhof) Loser. Mrs. McCarl was born at Newtown in Adams County July 7, 1868, and was fourteen months old when her father died and ten years old at the death of her mother. Her mother had in the meantime married Thomas Abbott, who is now deceased. To the age of five Mrs. McCarl lived with her grandparents, Jacob and Margaret Schmalhof. of Richfield Village. Mr. and Mrs. MeCarl have two children: Fred and Minerva. The daughter is still a student in the high school. Fred spent one year in high school, then taught a term of school, and married a neighbor girl, Bessie Lock.

Mr. Scott McCarl has served as school director and is an active supporter of the Mount Zion Baptist Church. He has been a vigorous supporter of all war movements in his county. Mrs. MeCarl was educated in the country schools and for three years was a teacher in Payson and Richfield townships.

ALBERT W. LARIMORE. There are many reasons for the prominence of the Larimore family in Payson Township, where they have lived since pioneer days. and where the cultivation of land, well ordered prosperity, and good citizenship have marked all their ways.

A member of this family is Albert W. Larimore, whose home is a mile east of Plainville. His father was John W. Larimore, who was born in Hamp- shire County, Virginia, December 30, 1811, son of James and Naomi (Wolver- ton) Larimore. James and wife were natives of the same place. John W. was second in a family of seven children, and as a boy lived on the Virginia farm or plantation. In 1842 he came west, settling in Macon County, Missouri, but in the fall of 1844 loeated in Payson Township of Adams County. He bought a farm of eighty acres a mile north of Plainville, built a log house, and lived there until about 1860. He then went to a larger place of 240 acres a half mile away, and later bought a quarter section a half mile north of Plainville. His last years were spent retired in the Village of Plainville, and he died at the venerable age of ninety-one in 1902. Ilis wife also reached advanced years. John W. Larimore was not only a busy and successful farmer but was a fluent speaker and rendered much valuable service as a local preacher in the Methodist Church, often filling pulpits and officiating at funerals.

On November 21, 1837, five years before he came west, John W. Larimore married Elizabeth Fahs. She was born and reared in Hampshire County, Virginia, daughter of Philip and Rebecca (Baker) Fahs. John W. Larimore and wife had six children. The oldest is Albert W. William, born Decem- ber 20, 1840, served as a Union soldier up to the battle of Shiloh and was wounded on April 6, 1862, and died just a week later. Isaac M., who was born February 25, 1844, has been a farmer for many years in Payson Town- ship, and is now living at Plainville. Rebecca, born June 9. 1848, married Robert Price, and lives with a son in Minneapolis, Minnesota. James A., born September 30, 1850, was a farmer, but is now in the livery business in Pike County, Illinois. Naomi, born March 25, 1856, died unmarried at the age of thirty.

Albert W. Larimore was born in Hampshire County, Virginia, December 11, 1839, and was three years old when his parents came west to Missouri. They soon became dissatisfied with Macon County and started to return home, but along the way concluded to locate near Plainville in Adams County. Here Albert W. grew up on the home farm, was educated in the local schools, and was at home until his marriage in 1862. He then bought eighty aeres of his present farm. This farm was offered at public sale at the courthouse in Quincy, and he acquired it at $30 an acre. At once he built a portion of the present home, which has been extensively remodeled to its present comfortable facil-

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ities. Mr. Larimore continued buying land until he had 400 acres adjoining the old place, acquired at prices ranging from $40 to $75 an acre. Part of this land was comprised in the old Vickers homestead. A hundred sixty aeres of it is now oceupied by Mr. Larimore's son Edward. Mr. Larimore set out two or three orchards. One of 131/2 aeres is entirely planted to Jonathan apples, and he sold this highly developed traet at $300 an acre. A forty-acre tract, largely in Ben Davis apples, is now a part of his son Edward's orchard. Ap- ple growing has been one of the important features of Mr. Larimore's efforts as a farmer, and on the whole has been quite profitable. He also bought 160 aeres of the old Pottle farm, and this is now owned by his son William O. Mr. Larimore's home farm now contains about 280 aeres. He has always kept much stock. For a number of years he and his brother Isaae were associated in the breeding of high grade Clydesdale horses, keeping several fine stallions and doing mueh to improve the quality of horse flesh in this part of the county. They were in fact the first to introduce Clydesdales here. Mr. Larimore beyond serving on juries has never sought public office. He has been a republican since the time of Lincoln, and his father before him was a whig and republi- can. In early life he joined the Good Templars order and has always been a strong advocate of temperance and prohibition.

June 5, 1862, Mr. Larimore married Miss Julia F. Pottle a native of Adams County and daughter of Brackett and Mary ( Woodruff) Pottle. Julia Frances Pottle was born July 3, 1837, on the old Pottle farm and died August 15, 1917. She inherited 120 aeres of her father's place and her husband subsequently bought eighty aeres more. Mr. and Mrs. Larimore had four children: Wil- liam O., mentioned elsewhere in this publication; Anna, who died in child- hood; Edward N., a farmer near the homestead; and Mary Neva, wife of Frank Peniek, a well known Quiney attorney.

Brackett Pottle, father of Mrs. Larimore, was a noted citizen of Adams County. Hle was born in Stafford County, New Hampshire, May 18, 1804, son of Dudley and Betsey (Hoit) Pottle. His father saw active service in the War of 1812. Brackett Pottle lived at home to the age of twenty-one and in 1825 went to the vicinity of Boston, spending a year at Lexington, during which time he saw General Lafayette while that noted Frenchman was on his visit to America. He also heard Daniel Webster deliver his famous speech at Bunker Hill before an audience of 60,000 people. In 1826 he witnessed another event in American history, the funeral procession of President John Adams. For ten years he lived in and near Boston, and eight years of that time were spent in employment, usually hard manual labor. Much of the time his wages was only $6 a month. While working he allowed a hogshead of molasses to get away from him and drop into Boston Bay, and he had to take the value of the molasses out of his own wages. In spite of that and other mishaps he managed to save a little money and in the spring of 1833 came west and first worked on the farm of Deacon Kimble in Adams County. He also became associated with Ex-Governor Wood and Mr. Kimble in entering 900 acres of land in Payson Township in partnership. That land included part of the present site of the Village of Payson. The tract was divided the following year.

In the fall of 1834 Mr. Pottle married Miss Lydia E. Thompson. Iler father, Rev. Enos Thompson, was a minister of the Methodist Church from Athens County, Ohio. After their marriage they settled on a farm three miles east of Payson, and the first Mrs. Pottle died there in May, 1835. In the fall of that year Brackett Pottle married Mary Woodruff, daughter of Darius and Ruby Woodruff, who came from Connecticut. Mary Woodruff had come to Adams County with the family of Deacon Scarborough, elsewhere mentioned in these chronicles. She carried with her the infant son of Deacon Searborough and married after she reached this eounty. Mary Woodruff clied in November, 1869. Her children were: Julia Larimore, Elijah Love- joy and Albert. In 1873 Brackett Pottle married Sarah M. Ramsey

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Griffith. He removed to Payson in 1870 and owned considerable land in and around that village. He was a very devout Christian, a constant and regular member of the Congregational Church, and very striet in his observance of Sunday practices." He helped establish the church at Payson and was its last surviving original member. He died at the age of ninety years. His son Elijah L. became a successful farmer and merehant at Chillicothe, Missouri, but finally retired to Chicago, where as a means of oeeupation he became a tieket seller for the Chicago Elevated Railway. Ile died in Chicago about five years ago. Albert Pottle oceupied the old home farm for many years, and died at Plainville.

JOSEPHI BENZ. Seven miles from Quiney southeast in Melrose Township is the well ordered and valuable farm home of Joseph Benz. It is more than seven- ty years since the Benz family came to Adams County, and in all those years the name has been synonymous with industry, thrift, good citizenship and liberal support of all community activities, including church and schools.

Mr. Joseph Benz was born in Adams County at the east end of Quiney, on Twenty-Fourth Street, a bloek south of Maine. His birth occurred Feb- ruary 12, 1853. His parents were Joseph and Crescentia (Nadler) Benz. Joseph Benz, Sr., was born in Karlsrhue, Germany, March 19, 1819. He re- ceived his early education in the sehools of his native country, and in 1846 he married Crescentia Nadler, who was born in Germany May 31, 1824. In 1847 they came to America and settled at Quiney. Joseph, Sr., had followed the trade of buteher in Germany and for a time he worked in the same line at Quincy when there were only two butchers in the town. He was employed by a Mr. Bowman for one year. He then rented a traet of land on Twenty- Fourth Street, and a year later moved three miles east, where he had the possession of one farm for twelve years. He then bought land included in the present farm of his son Joseph, and was getting nicely started on that farm of 120 aeres when death overtook him in his labors, October 11, 1869, at the age of fifty years. When he moved to his farm it had only a log house, and that building has sinee been included in the present home. He cleared off some of the land and sold wood at Quiney, white oak cordwood for $8 a cord and later for $6.50 and $7 a cord. His death was the result of pneumonia. He left a widow and eight children. He was a democrat and a member of the Catholic Church. His children were: Louise, who was a seamstress and died unmarried at the age of sixty-two; Bertha, who lives in Quiney, widow of Henry Helmar; Sophia, also a resident of Quiney, widow of Jacob Herbilt, a carpenter and builder; Joseph, oldest of the sons; Frank, a retired farmer from Marion County, Missouri, now living in Quiney; George, who was a farmer in Burton Township but died at Payson in 1917; Mary, unmarried, and living with her brother Frank in Quincy; Emma, who became a Sister of Charity in the convent at Hoboken, New Jersey, and died there sixteen years later. The widowed mother kept these children together, and used her unusual talents as a business woman to pay off the debt upon the farm and acquire more land, enlarging the house in its present form. She left the farm in 1881, at the time of her son Joseph's marriage, and then bought a home in Quiney, where she died September 19, 1896, at the age of seventy-two. She had long been a member of St. Anthony's Catholic Church in Melrose Township. and helped build that edifice. Both parents were laid to rest in the St. Boniface Cemetery at Quiney.

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Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 104

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