Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 106

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

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Mr. McKinnay married for his present wife Effa A. Watson. Mrs. Me- Kinnay was born in Haneock County, Illinois, about forty years ago, and was liberally edneated, being a graduate of the Quiney lligh School and was a popular teacher until her marriage. Mrs. McKinnay eomes of an old colonial family of Connectieut. Some of her aneestors were soldiers in the Revolu- tionary war, and she is entitled to two bars indicating her direet lineage from soldiers of that struggle. Mrs. MeKinnay is vice regent of the Quiney Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Mr. and Mrs. McKinnay have one daughter, Mary Marjorie, born July 15, 1910.

LENUS WEISENBURGER is one of the present generation of active farmers in Burton Township. He bought his present farm in section 1 only two years ago, paying upwards of $100 an acre for it, but his management has shown that such high prieed land ean be profitably managed, especially when in the hands of such a thrifty and energetie farmer as Mr. Weisenburger.

Mr. Weisenburger, whose home is thirteen miles east of Quiney, was born in Burton Township March 28, 1875, son of David and Medora (Epley) Wei- senburger. He was only six years old when his father died. Lenus has a sis- ter, Nellie, Mrs. Ellis Franks, of Liberty Village. His mother married for her seeond husband Edward MeRae. Lenus lived at home with his mother to the age of twenty-one, and after his mother and stepfather moved from the farm he continued its management. The mother finally sold the old place to her children, and Lens sold his interest to his sister after two years

Ile learned the carpenter's trade, for five years ran a feed mill at Liberty Village, and did earpenter work and operated a threshing outfit for twelve or fourteen years. For five years after his marriage he managed the old Deege farm belonging to his father-in-law, and in 1914 bought the old Thompson place of 160 acres, paying $15,000 for it. It contained an old honse and other buildings, and he has sinee built a splendid farm house and has brought all the equipment up to date. One feature of the farm is a deep well, 320 feet. It is very rich and productive soil, much of it lying on the prairie, and Mr. Weisenburger uses it for the staple erops, and raises large numbers of hogs every year. He is a democratie voter, as is most of the family.

At the age of twenty-two Mr. Weisenburger married Anna Deege, danghi- ter of Philip Deege, who came to the United States in 1857, was a blacksmith by trade, and for many years was a prosperous farmer in Burton Township. Mr. and Mrs. Weisenburger have two children : Merle and Emery. The family attend the Liberty Lutheran Church.

GEORGE W. MONTGOMERY. However long the years of his life, the fullness and completeness of his career, there is an inevitable sense of loss when such a man as the late George W. Montgomery is removed by death from the com- munity where his work and interests centered. Mr. Montgomery was an old time resident of Clayton, very successful as a business man and finaneier, and he used his means and his influenee in many ways to forward the larger wel- fare of the community, and neglected few if any of those ealls made upon him by the poor and unfortunate. He was exceedingly kind hearted, and had friends and admirers by the hundreds, all of whom regarded his death in the sense of a personal bereavement.

Mr. Montgomery was born in Brooke County, West Virginia, in the rugged distriet north of Wheeling, February 24, 1841. His parents were Daniel and

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Juliet (Mahan) Montgomery. His father was born in Greene County, Penn- sylvania, in 1805, and his mother in Baltimore, Maryland, of English descent. George W. Montgomery had a public school education and in 1865 came west and located at Clayton. For a short time he taught school, and in 1867 estab- lished a drug store, which was continued under his name and management for about thirty-two years. In 1879, with Mr. H. C. Craig, Mr. Montgomery entered banking, and he continued as a private banker for many years. In 1905 he with others organized the Clayton Exchange Bank, of Clayton, he owning the building in which that institution was located, and was president of the bank until his death June 18, 1913. Mr. Montgomery owned and handled large amounts of real estate, both city and country property, in Adams County and elsewhere, and was also in the insurance business for many years. One choice piece of property he owned was 135 acres in a farm ad- joining the Village of Clayton. 1Ie also owned some large tracts in western states. He prospered as a busines man and through the integrity of his char- acter and the energy and persistence of his efforts, since at the beginning he was a poor boy and could depend only upon his own energies and resources.

Throughout his life he was an ardent democrat, easting his first presidential ballot for George B. McClellan in 1864. His name was well known loeally and also in state politics. He was elected and served five terms as a member of the Board of Supervisors, and during that time was a member of the commit- tee which had in charge the remodeling of the courthouse in Quincy and was also a member of the County Farm committee. In 1896 he was elected a mem- ber of tlic Legislature to fill the unexpired term of Mitchell Dazey and was re-elected to that office. In the Fortieth General Assembly he distinguished himself by his efforts in behalf of progressive legislation, and was a member of the committees on banking, education, fish and game, and the committee to visit educational institutions. He was a delegate to many democratie con- ventions, and for twenty-three years was a member of his home board of education, serving as sceretary for fifteen years. All these honors were most fitly bestowed upon a man whose qualifications entitled him to leadership either in public or private affairs.

He was affiliated with Clayton Lodge No. 147, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, having been made a Mason in 1879. He was also a member of Clay- ton Chapter No. 104, Royal Arch Masons, Delta Commandery No. 48, Knights Templar, and filled the office of eminent commander four terms. He held all the chairs in his lodge of Odd Fellows, was a representative to the grand lodge four terms and was also a member of the encampment. In religion he was a Christian Adventist.

November 14, 1899, Mr. Montgomery married Miss E. Florenee Long. Mrs. Montgomery has looked after the interests left by her late husband with conscientious fidelity to all parties concerned. Mrs. Montgomery is a mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Her parents, Robert D. and Harrict (Haley) Long, were residents of Brown County, Illinois.

HIERMAN KILL. There is much besides his success in business and farming to distinguish Herman Kill among the citizenship of Richfield Township. He is a man of sound intelligence and progressive ideas, whether applied to his private affairs or any community undertaking. He is a persistent advocate of progress, and as he has never gotten into a rnt himself he is not satisfied to see his community stagnate. Mr. Kill's home is ten miles north of Barry.

He was born in Burton Township of this county March 7, 1865, son of William and Catherine (Vollmer) Kill. His parents were both natives of Bavaria, Germany, but were married in Adams County, having come to this country when young. William Kill did work as a farm hand, later rented, and about 1870 bought a place in Richfield Township, a mile north of where his son Herman now lives. IIe died soon after occupying that home. His widow afterwards married John Schmidt in Burton Township. They returned

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to Richfield Township, and the mother died about twelve years ago. She had ten children, and those surviving are Ilerman, Jacob, Frederick, Lewis, John, Elizabeth, Hannah, Caroline and Edith.

Herman Kill began working as a farm hand when sixteen years old. At first he was paid only $5 a month, and in spite of low wages his thrifty habits enabled him to save something from his carnings and after about six years he made his first purchase of land, forty acres adjoining the old home. He lived there and worked the land five years as a bachelor, his mother keeping house for him part of the time. About 1892 he bought his present place of 100 acres, paying $33 an acre. It was an old farm and had been rented for a number of years, consequently the soil was much impoverished. Later Mr. Kill bought eighty acres a half mile north at $47 an acre. It had no build- ings. Mr. Kill has made his farm a good home as well as a place of business, and has a commodious house erected fifteen years ago. The main barn was built about six years ago. By proper rotation of crops and by keeping live- stock he has brought his soil to excellent condition. Ile usually fed from 100 to 125 head of hogs every year, but has more recently turned his attention to cattle, handling about fifty a year. There is a stream running thorugh the land, with water in it the year around. Another valuable feature is a deposit of coal about three or four feet under the surface, and by "stripping" enough of this coal is made available for Mr. Kill's home use and also for use by the neighboring district school and some of his close neighbors.

He has frequently answered the call of other enterprises, and for twenty years operated an agricultural implement store at Liberty, and was agent for agricultural implements over a wide area. He built up a large business in that line, and had his farm handled by a renter. For about fifteen years he also operated a threshing outfit, sometimes with partners and sometimes alone. He wore out three outfits, and year after year covered the same territory and served the same customers. For some years Mr. Kill has been local justice of. the peace and is a democrat in politics. For three years up to 1919 he was manager of the Liberty Telephone Company and has also been a director of the company, resigning the office on account of business duties. He was one of its original builders. He and his associates constructing a metallic circuit from Liberty to Quincy.

Jannary 16, 1894, Mr. Kill married Miss Minnie Klarner, daughter of Edward and Jane (Schmalshof) Klarner. They have four children, all at home, William, Carl, Clem and Verna. The sons William and Carl were en- rolled under the draft law, but were never called into service.

Mr. Kill has been much interested in historical data and records, and was instrumental in gathering data for the township in 1918, especially facts bear- ing upon the schools and teachers. He has followed the wise policy of making his children confidantes and associates in the farm, and they already have a more than ordinary knowledge of livestock and other agricultural matters. Mr. Kill is deeply interested in their education and training and no other fact stands out as more illuminating testimony to his worthy character as a citizen.

HENRY BARTLETT, retired banker of Clayton, represents an old colonial English family of America, and also some of the carly settlers in Adams County. He was born at Kingston in this county October 9, 1847. His father Nathaniel Gorham Bartlett was a grandson and namesake of Nathaniel Gorham of Massachusetts, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Na- thaniel Gorham Bartlett was born at Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1791. At the age of seventeen he graduated from Phillips Academy of Andover, Massa- chusetts, clerked in a hardware store, and later was clerk in the Recorder's office of Boston. Several years later he went to Canada, and farmed and taught school there fourteen years. Returning to Boston he remained only a short time and came west and settled in Beverly Township of Adams County in 1838.

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In 1841 he married Miss Laura Mills. She was born in Connecticut in 1811. After their marriage they located on their farm at Kingston, and in 1849 moved to Liberty Township and in 1859 removed to Clayton, where the father lived until his death in 1871. His wife died January 20, 1892. Nathaniel Gorham Bartlett had a sister Rebecca who became the wife of Mr. Vose, a hardware merchant at Boston. One of their children was the late Judge Henry Vose of Boston, a sister, Catherine married Rev. James Walker, for many years presi- dent of Harvard College; a brother, Henry Bartlett was for many years a leading physician of Roxbury, Massachusetts, and George Bartlett was lost at sea while a member of the Merchant Marine. John C. Bartlett, a brother of Nathaniel G., became a physician and lived at Chelmsford, Massachusetts.

The children of Nathaniel G. Bartlett and wife were: James, who was born in Kingston, Illinois, in 1842, married Catherine Ayers, and became a large land owner and wealthy business man of Wayne, Nebraska. He served with Company E of the Seventy-Eighth Illinois Infantry in the Civil war. He is now living at Glenwood, Iowa. Charles, the second child, was born in 1844, enlisted in February, 1865, in Company K of the One Hundred and Fifty- First Illinois Infantry and died at Columbus, Georgia, in October, 1865. IIe is Imried at Andersonville, Georgia. Mary Bartlett, born at Kingston in 1845, died at Clayton unmarried in October, 1891. The next in age is Henry, and Joseph died in infaney, while Laura C., born at Kingston in 1857 married Frederick Kuntz of Clayton.

Henry Bartlett attended the publie sehools of his native town, also a private school in Payson one year, his teacher being Mr. Wallace. At the age of twenty-one he came to Clayton with his parents and in 1869 bought a half interest in the drug business of Lloyd & Miller, and continued selling drugs nearly five years. He has been eonneeted with various enterprises, being at one time a member of the grocery house of A. M. Lackey & Company and in the firm of Henry Bartlett & Company. August 1, 1887, he and John R. Wallace engaged in the banking business under the name of Bartlett & Wallace. They continued it as a private bank of far extending and unimpeachable record un- til 1916, when they reorganized it as the Bartlett & Wallace State Bank. Mr. Bartlett retired from the banking business in 1917.

In 1875 he married Susan M. Laekey, daughter of Abel M. Lackey of Brown County, Illinois. Mrs. Bartlett died at Clayton in 1909, the mother of two children : Charles L., born in 1877, and Bertha E., born in 1881. The son is now an attorney at Quiney, and the daughter who died August 8, 1918, married John H. Krugh. Mr. Bartlett since an early age has been a devout member of the Baptist Church, identified with church activities and Sunday school work. IIe is a republican, and for nine years was township supervisor, director of the school board six years, and for one year president of the Town Board of Clayton.

HENRY R. HILL

Tribute by Governor Frank O. Lowden, of Illinois

"I wish to say a word in tribute to Henry R. Hill. Illinois is justly proud of her men at the battle fronts. Thousands of her sons have laid down their lives that our government might endure. Cantigny, Chateau Thierry. St. Mihiel and the Argonne forests are names that will stand in all our future history along- side of Concord and Lexington and Yorktown, Gettysburg and Vicksburg and Appomattox. The sons of Illinois have an imperishable part in all these great names. No one of her soldiers in this war, however, has written a braver page than General Hill. Regarded as he was by the state anthorities, an ideal and experienced soldier, he' sailed for Europe in command of a brigade. For some reason, which we do not understand but which we know eould not refleet upon his soldierly qualities or his honor, he was supplanted in this command. He

Henry R. Steel.

LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

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was then at liberty to return to his home, and could have done so without the slightest stain. Instead, he preferred to remain and asked only that he be given a soldier's work to do, whatever rank he might retain. He was placed in com- mand of a battalion and, leading that battalion in a desperate charge, he fell. And I maintain that, under all the circumstances, he died a finer hero's death, though he wore upon his shoulder only the major's gold leaf, than though his shoulder had been bespangled with a general's stars. All honor to the self- effacing, loyal and gallant son of Quincy, who found a grave on foreign soil."

Springfield, November 29, 1918.

Frank O. Lowden, Governor of Illinois.

Citation for Distinguished Service Cross

Major Henry R. IIill, deceased, 128th Infantry .- For extraordinary heroism in action near Romangne-sous-Montfaucon, France, October 16, 1918. With abso- lute disregard for his personal safety Major 1Till led his battalion over the top personally, reached the objective, and cleaned out enemy machine-gun nests. When a group of enemy machine gunners were about to open fire on his flank Major Hill noticed them, and, armed only with a captured pistol, he immediately went forward to engage them. Taken by surprise, three of the crew surrendered, but one, remaining in the pit, turned theymachine gun on him; and as Major Hill's pistol failed to work he was instantly killed by the machine-gun fire. Next of kin, Mrs. Cecilia R. Hill, mother; 516. Maine Street, Quincy, Ill.

The foregoing is the closing chapter in the life of Henry R. Hill, according him the highest honors that can come to an American officer and soldier, the Dis- tinguished Service Cross awarded for heroism in battle by the Commander in Chief of the armies of his country ; the highest commendation of the Governor of his state, the Commander in Chief of the soldiers of Illinois.

From his earliest manhood General Hill had been a soldier. He enlisted as a private in Company F, Fifth Infantry, Illinois National Guard, at Quincy, in 1894. Promotion followed promotion until in the great World war he held a commission as brigadier general in the American army in France.

At the outbreak of the war with Spain in 1898 General Hill was first sergeant of Company F, and went with his company to Chickamauga, but the Fifth Regi- ment did not get to Cuba. May 26, 1899, he was commissioned a second lieu- tenant ; captain. August 18, 1902; lieutenant colonel, November 12, 1908. On December 2, 1914, he was commissioned brigadier general and assigned to the command of the Second Illinois Brigade.

When the national guard was ordered to the border in 1917, during the trouble with Mexico, he was the only national guard general ordered south. There he commanded the Second Brigade. Twelfth Provisional Division, at Camp Wilson, near San Antonio, Texas. His work was highly commended by General Funston and others of the southwestern military department, and it is due in large measure to the distinguished service he rendered at that time and the abilities he displayed as a military commander that he was one of the very few national guard generals who retained his rank when the state troops were taken over by the war department. He served on the border from June 1, 1916, to Jannary 27, 1917.

General Hill was placed in command of the military forces at East St. Louis in July, 1917, at the time of the fatal race riots, by order of the President, after the police and militia had failed to restore order. He remained there for three weeks, brought order out of conditions amounting to armed warfare, and was president of the military board of inquiry that investigated the handling of the serious situation by the militia, after the rioting began. For this service he was accorded the highest commendation by the civil authorities of East St. Louis and of the state and national authorities as well.

In August, 1917, after this country entered the great World war, General Hill was awarded a commission as brigadier general in the national army by

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order of President Wilson and on the 23d of that month went to Camp Logan, near Houston, Texas, to take command of the Sixty-Fifth Brigade, United States Infantry, composed of the former Third and Fourth Illinois Infantry, the regi- mental numbers having been changed to the One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth and One Hundred and Thirtieth United States Infantry regiments, respectively. At the end of the training period his brigade was conceded to be one of the most efficiently organized and best trained in the American army.

He left for France with his brigade, May 1, 1918, and was first sent to Brest and then to Tours. After months of waiting for active service, with many other former volunteer and national guard officers, General Hill was offered his discharge and was tendered a commission as colonel in the Service of Supplies. Both of these offers he declined, true soldier that he was, saying that he had gone to France to serve his country and preferred a position at the front, in any capacity, where he could render the greatest service. On August 29, 1918, he accepted a commission as major in a regiment then moving to the front line trenches. In ten days he was at the front, engaged in the last and greatest battles of the war and on October 16th, gave up his life in the Argonne Forest, in the heroic manner recorded in the foregoing citation for the Distinguished Service Cross.

General Hill was born in Quincy, Illinois, June 20, 1876, a son of Frederick T. and Cecilia Hill. Henry Root, his maternal grandfather, who came to Quincy in 1837, was a pioneer merchant, president of the Quincy, Missouri & Pacific Railway, the founder and president of the Union Bank. On his father's side his ancestry dates back in America to 1620 and on his mother's side to the heroes of the Revolution.

In civil life General Hill had occupied a prominent place in Quincy for many years. He was the owner and manager of the business of the F. T. Hill Company, founded by his father and one of the leading and the oldest concerns in the carpet and furnishing trade in the state. Identified with the Masonic fra- ternity, he held positions of trust and responsibility in its various organizations and also in other fraternal and civic societies. But there was martial blood in his veins and he had made a study of military affairs and service until he fully qualified himself for its high commands.

Embracing every opportunity for serving his country, Henry R. Hill died the hero that he was, facing the machine gun fire of the enemy, determined to clean out the machines that were dealing out death to his comrades and pre- venting the advance of his armies. It was the typical act of a true American commander, the deed of a brave man standing at the very head of his troops leading them, not driving them, willing to take, even before they were ealled upon to do so, the consequences of the commands he gave them. It was the deed of the kind of American who won the greatest war the world has ever known, waged on his part and on the part of others like him for the cause of humanity and righteousness. The things that make life great and glorious, the noblest attributes of manhood and Americanism were his. Such a life will go down into the history of Quincy, and of Illinois as one of the state's foremost soldiers who died a soldier's death.

WILLIAM J. RUFF. A man of marked business acumen and foresight, pos- sessing good executive ability and mueh inventive talent, William J. Ruff, of Quincy, has made an exhaustive study of the more modern and seientifie methods used in the manufacture of beer, and is justly given a place of promi- nence among the leading brewers of Adams County. A son of the late John Ruff, he was born January 28. 1865, in Quincy, which he has always claimed as his home.

John Ruff spent his entire life in Quiney, dying while yet in the prime of life, his death occurring May 16, 1880. He married Annie E. Lock, who came from Germany to Adams County, Illinois, when a girl of seven years. She survived her husband but a few short years, dying at her home in Quincy on

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September 30, 1884. Of their eight children three are now living, as follows : William J .; Casper II., of Quincy : and Lizette, wife of George II. Sehaffer, of Quiney.

Obtaining his preliminary education in the parochial sehools, William J. Ruff entered the Gem City Business College at the age of twelve years. Three years later, owing to the death of his father, he was forced to discontinue his studies and begin the battle of life on his own account. After serving an ap- prenticeship at the brewer's trade, mastering its various branches in three years, Mr. Ruff went to Europe in order to take up the study of that branch of chemistry relating to brewing. Leaving home on May 16, 1883, he went to Worms, Germany, the city in which Martin Luther appeared before a diet in 1521, and there studied scientific brewing under the instruction of Dr. Sehneider. While thus occupied Mr. Ruff eoneeived the idea of pasteurizing beer by auto- matie control of the process, and the director of the school advised him to follow that method, and it was immediately adopted at Zweibrueken Pfallz, where he remained as an instructor for two weeks, during which time he was instrumental in having a large cargo of pasteurized beer shipped to Cape Town, Afriea.

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Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 106

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