Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 108

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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farmers. These tanks were equipped with heaters. His brother Frank in- vented and patented the first tank heater in the United States. William Funk built up a considerable business in this line and continued it until about ten years ago. Since then he has lived rather quietly on his present farm, which he bought in 1887. Mr. Funk and his brother Frank at the death of their father secured the old Funk place and, as above noted, own it and for some years operated it in partnership. Mr. Funk has a comfortable home and forty acres of land, which was the old Robertson homestead, and he has built a new house and barn and made other improvements. Like his father he has employed his leisure in doing some neat eabinet work, especially in making home furni- ture.

Mr. Funk has always been a republican in polities. He served nearly ten years as township assessor, and was also a supervisor. He has owned land in other localities, but all his interests are now eoneentrated at Beverly. He is not a member of any ehureh or fraternity. His wife is a Methodist.

Mr. and Mrs. Funk have two children. The daughter, Mabel E., is the wife of S. C. Lawson, who for several years has done work in oil development around Tulsa, Oklahoma. The son, Frank W., who now operates the old Funk farm and also the home place of William Funk, married Fern Hull, and they have a daughter, Margaret Ruth.

CHARLES F. BISHOP. There is no business which requires for its successful handling more experience and exact knowledge of many complicated conditions than the commission business, especially the handling of poultry, eggs and kindred lines of produee. Capital is of course an essential to such a business, but it is not money but the knowledge born of experience that brings success.

The leading commission man in this line at Quiney is Charles F. Bishop, whose warehouse and offices are located at 220 Front Street. He has heen in

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his present plant since 1915, and for three years before that was at 101 Front Street, at the foot of Maine. Mr. Bishop has extended his trade connections all over Western Illinois and Eastern Missouri. He is one of the men whose combined enterprise has served to make the Mississippi Valley one of the greatest concentration points for poultry supplies in the world. Mr. Bishop has two feeder plants, one at Hannibal, Missouri, and the other at Keokuk, Iowa. The immense volume of his business is well indieated in the shipment of from twelve to fifteen carloads of poultry every month, and besides this he ships many carloads of eggs and butter. Mr. Bishop has been in this branch of the provision trade for twenty years. For twelve years he was associated with Swift & Company of Chicago, and it was with that great packing house that he acquired his thorough and detailed knowledge of every branch of the business.

Mr. Bishop was born in Trumbull County, Ohio, September 18, 1877, a son of Addison J. and Belle (Powell) Bishop. Trumbull County is one of the oldest centers of settlement in the Western Reserve of Ohio, and the Bishop family were there among the pioneers. Addison J. Bishop in 880 took his family west to Kansas and settled near Minneapolis in Ottawa County. They were pioneer farmers and homesteaders in that section, and the father lived there until his death in March, 1910, at the age of sixty-five, his first wife having passed away a number of years before, ad the age of thirty-eight. He married a second time. Addison Bishop and wife took with them to Kansas two children : Adelbert and CharlesCF. 'Adelbert died when about thirteen years of age. After they went to Kansas other children were born: Addie, wife of John J. Jennings, of Ottawa County ; William J., who is a druggist at Greeley, Colo- rado, and by his marriage to Anna York, of Nebraska, has two sons, Daniel and York.

Charles F. Bishop grew up on the Kansas farm and was educated there in public schools. He was about twenty years of when when America entered the war with Spain, and he enlisted and served with the famous Twentieth Kansas Infantry, under the command of one of the most brilliant soldiers in American annals, Fred Funston, who was colonel of the regiment when it went to the Philippines, and who afterwards achieved rank as brigadier-general and as one of the ranking major generals of the United States forces, and died in active service on the Mexican border in 1916. In the Philippines Mr. Bishop had fif- teen months of active experience, participated in many battles, was also on de- tached duty, and was one of the American soldiers who were granted by special act of Congress a medal eommending his meritorious service. After returning from the Philippines Mr. Bishop began his employment with Swift and Company in 1900, and left them to take up a business of his own at Quincy.

Mr. Bishop married at Springfield, Missouri, Miss Mabel M. Smith. She was born at Marshfield, Missouri, in October, 1879, but was reared and educated at Springfield. Her father was Isaac Newton Smith, who for thirty years was district manager of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York and died at the height, of his business career in the fall of 1914, when past fifty years of age. Mrs. Bishop's mother was Margaret Butcher, of Pennsylvania, who is still living at Springfield. Mrs. Bishop's brother Incius M. is married and lives at Tulsa, Oklahoma, and her sister Ada is the wife of John J. Tooker, of Springfield, Missouri, and they have three children.

Mr. and Mrs. Bishop have one daughter, Margaret E., born November 20, 1906, a student in the Webster grade schools. Mr. and Mrs. Bishop are aetive members of the Presbyterian Church and in politics he is a republican and as the leading representative of his line of business is a member of the Quincy Rotary Club. Mr. Bishop for a man of his age has had an unusual share of Masonic honors and eredits. He has taken all the degrees of both the York and Scottish Rite except the thirty-third supreme honorary degree. He is a member of the Lodge, Chapter, Council and Commandery at Quiney, the York

LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

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Rite, also the Scottish Rite Consistory, and is a member of the Mystic Shrine at St. Louis.

ADAM RANKIN WALLACE, SR. Eighty years ago members of the Wallace family eame to Adams County from Kentucky. In Camp Point Township they have been especially conspicuous as farmers, business men and citizens, always conseious of their obligations and well qualified by leadership and ability to perform their civic duties.

The old Wallace homestead is in section 2 of Camp Point Township. Adam Rankin Wallace, Sr., was born at Paint Liek in Garrard County, Kentucky, De- cember 27, 1823. His birthplace was next door to where Unele Tom's Cabin was written. He was a son of Josiah B. and Mary or Polly (Mason) Wallace. Josiah Wallace died in Kentucky when his children were small, and in 1835 his widow came to Adams County, bringing her children and also a negro slave named Nellie, who lived in this eounty until her death about 1860. The family made the long journey in wagons drawn by oxen and brought with them only the barest necessities, leaving behind the comforts to which they were aeeustomed in a state long past the pioneer condition. The first winter was a severe trial to the family accustomed to a milder elimate, a seeure house and an abundance of provisions : fainter hearts might well have yielded to the inelination to return to the land of their birth. The winter was spent in a cabin 14x14 feet, which remained the home after the family had bought a quarter seetion in seetion 2 of Camp Point Township. At that time wild game was abundant, and the young men often killed deer in the woods near their home. Venison at that time was their main source of meat supply.

The children of Josiah B. Wallace and wife were: Mason, who came to Adams County on horseback about a year before his mother; Allen, who was born in Kentucky and died in 1876; Isabel, who became the wife of Jason Wallace; Jennie, who married Seth J. Morey, who was a prominent early day surveyor in Adams County and also at one time conducted a woolen factory at ('layton; James, who was for many years a prosperous farmer and land owner in Camp Point and Houston townships; and Adam Rankin, Sr.

Adam Rankin Wallace Sr. was about thirteen years of age when his mother came to Adams County. He attended the publie schools of his native state and of this county. During his mature lifetime he became one of the most sub- stantial farmers and citizens of the county. He owned seven hundred aeres in Camp Point and Houston townships, his home being in section 2 of the former township.

The late Adam Rankin Wallace grew up in a political atmosphere saturated with the influence of the great Henry Clay of Kentucky, and when he cast his first vote for president he honored this great whig. Upon the decadenee and dissolution of the whig party he joined the republican forees when they first organized and remained steadfast to that party allegianee the rest of his life. He was active and prominent in political affairs and often a delegate to con- ventions. In religion the Wallace family were adherents of the United Pres- byterian Chureh.

Adam R. Wallace Sr. was one of the organizers of the Adams County Fair Association, and to no one enterprise perhaps did he give more of his enthusiasm and interest. He laid out the grounds of the association at Camp Point, which is now the beautiful Bailey Park, set out most of the trees, and was general superintendent for twenty years. It was in recognition of his splendid services te the organization that in 1882 the Quiney exhibitors at the Fair presented him with a handsome silver iee piteher.

Adam Rankin Wallace, Sr. died February 10, 1904. On December 31, 1852, he married Sarah Jane Lyle, who died August 13. 1910. With her parents, William and Margaret Lyle, she had come to America from Ireland when she was quite young. In 1902 Mr. and Mrs. Wallace celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. Their children were: Mary, who died in infaney; Adam Rankin,

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Jr., Mary, wife of T. J. Downing; John R., of Clayton Township; Emma J., who lives on the old homestead with her brother Adam; and Samuel M., men- tioned in following sketch.

Adam R. Wallace Jr. and his sister Emma J. have always lived together, she assuming the burdens and responsibilities of keeping and managing the old homestead where both of them were born and have spent their lives. Adam, Jr., was educated in the public schools and he and his sister Emma jointly own the old home of two hundred seventy acres of the Wallace estate, and he also owns 100 acres in a traet across the road from the home. He and his brother Samuel are associated under the name Wallace Brothers, and this is one of the most widely known firms of stock men in the county. Their specialty is pure bred Sherthorn cattle, a strain which their father introduced into this county many years ago. In fact the senior Wallace was the first to import thoroughbred Shorthorns to this part of Illinois, and brought the first animals of pure strain to Adams County in 1859 from Kentucky. This stock has been developed and improved by the Wallaces until the Wallace Shorthorns bear favorable comparison with any specimens of that strain and in some points have marked superiority as individuals.

SAMUEL M. WALLACE is a lawyer by profession, was an active member of the har of Quincy for a number of years, but has largely given up the profession in favor of stock farming, and is one of the firm of Wallace Brothers of Camp Point, whose particular strain of Shorthorn cattle is not one of the least valu- able assets of Adams County farm enterprise. Mr. Wallace is also prominent in other directions, and is one of the best known citizens of the county.

He was born in Camp Point Township Mareh 18, 1867, son of Adam Rankin and Sarah (Lyle) Wallace. Of his parents and ancestry a more detailed account will be found on other pages. Mr. Wallace was reared at the old homestead, attended the local schools, the Maplewood High School at Camp Point, and in 1889 graduated from the law department of the University of Missouri. The next twelve years he spent in handling a successful practice at Quiney. He then returned to Camp Point and was identified with the home farm until his father's death. He individually owns 120 acres in Houston Township and also rents a portion of the old homestead from his brother Adam R. Jr. While the firm of Wallace Brothers concentrate their efforts upon pure bred Shorthorn cattle, Mr. S. M. Wallace has made some individual contribution to the stoek raising activities of the county as a breeder of saddle horses.

Mr. Wallace in 1917 was appointed township food commissioner or ad- ministrator under the General Food Bureau. He is an ardent republican in politics. Mr. Wallace has an ideal home life. Mareh 24, 1909, he married Miss Mande Mason, of Richmond. Kentneky. Mrs. Wallaee was born, reared and educated in Central Kentucky, and possesses many of the charms that tradition- ally have been associated with Kentucky women for generations. IIer parents were .John and Sarah (Cornelison) Mason, her father a prominent and wealthy l'armer who lives at Richmond, Kentucky. Mrs. Wallace is a most accomplished lady, has rare ability as a conversationalist, and was liberally edneated. As a girl she graduated from Madison Institute in Kentucky and later Central University. Prior to her marriage she taught at Richmond, Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Wallace have one daughter, Sarah Lyle, born March 18, 1913. This is the only grandchild of the late Adam Rankin Wallace, Sr.

JAMES E. DEMOSS. For many years the DeMoss family has been numer- ously represented in Columbus and adjoining townships, and their activities and influence in farming, stock raising and general business affairs have been in proportion to their number. One of them is James E. DeMoss, one of the most capable farmers as also a very successful trader and stock man.

Mr. DeMoss is now practically giving all his attention to farming and farm supervision. His home place of 58 acres is in sections 3 and 10 of Columbus

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Township, and he also owns eighty aeres iu seetion 11 and twenty-seven aeres of native timber in another part of that township. His home farm is well improved with good buildings and other equipment, has a large number of graded stock, and he feeds practically every ton of his erops on the place and buys much more. His farm is situated on the old Telegraph Road.

On this farm which is now his home he was born February 14, 1877, and was reared here. He attended the Oakwood Distriet School and also the school at the Village of Clayton. For about four years Mr. DeMoss followed the business of buteher and stoek trader at Clayton, and for the past eleven years has occupied the old homestead.

His grandfather, James DeMoss, was born in Ohio of French ancestry. He came to Illinois during the '40s, and married here Margaret White. About that time they settled on the farm in Columbus Township that is now owned by their grandson. They were very active people, successful as farmers, and left honored names. The grandfather died in Columbus Township and his wife at Camp Point. Both were past seventy years of age. They were members of the Christian Church.

John DeMoss, father of James E., was one of a family of sixteen sons and daughters. Two of these sons and four of the daughters are still living and are all married. John grew up on the old homestead, and married at Clayton Naney Haslett. She was born in Ireland, where her parents both died. She come to this country with brothers and sisters, locating at Clayton. After her marriage she and her husband lived on the old homestead, and they finally moved to the Village of Clayton, where she died March 31, 1916, at the age of sixty. John DeMoss is still living at Clayton, and is still more or less aetive as a trader. He is a republican and a member of the Christian Church. His children are three in number: James E .; Birdie, who died during the winter of 1918, was the wife of Charles Peaeoek, of Idaho, and they have a son, John ; Ellen Charlotte is the wife of Harry Griffin, a farmer in Allen County, Kansas, and they have a son, Willett.

James E. DeMoss married at Clayton March 14, 1906, Miss Anna Wiggins. She was born in Hancock County, Illinois, in 1884 and was educated in the schools of that county. Mr. and Mrs. DeMoss have the following children : Roy E .. horn in 1908 : Ruby, born November 5, 1914; Glenn Otis, born Jannary 24, 1916; and Ruth M., born March 29, 1918.

W. R. SYKES, farmer of seetion 35 in Beverly Township, was born at Beverly in 1842 and is the oldest native of the township now residing in it. The farm of 305 acres is now owned in part by his two sons. The seventy-five acres now including the buildings was given him by his father over sixty years ago, and was the last prairie land feneed bordering the road on the "divide" between Quiney and Griggsville Landing.

Mr. Sykes taught fifteen terms of distriet school and then went to farming. In 1867 he was married to Miss Hattie Eager, who died two years later. In 1882 he was again married, to Miss Adelaide Pottorf, by whom there are four children living, Eliza, Ethel, Walter and Webster, each of whom is the owner of a good farm. Wehster is a Mason and Odd Fellow, and Walter is a thirty- second degree Mason. Walter served four months in the army and was under orders to be ready to go to Franee on short notice when the armistice was signed. In May, 1918, he married Miss Ermyntrude Askew, a most estimable and popular young lady. The other three children are at home. Mrs. Sykes has no relatives living in Illinois, but many in Kansas who are prominent citizens.

Mr. Sykes' father was born in Huddersfield, England, in 1817 and died at his home in Beverly Township July 23, 1884. He was treasurer of Beverly Township twenty-eight years and justice of the peace thirty years and before

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the present school system examined and gave certificates to all the teachers of Beverly Township.

The mother was born in Beverly, Massachusetts, and with her sister named the Town of Beverly, Illinois. She died January 7, 1877, aged fifty-nine years, two months and twelve days. Her maiden name was Eliza G. Raymond.

Grandfather Sykes was born in Huddersfield, England, August 2, 1792, · came to New York City in 1820, and was foreman in the finishing department of a cloth factory. About a year later Grandmother Sykes with three small chil- dren started from Huddersfield to join her husband. The vessel became unsea- worthy and turning back managed to reach Cork, Ireland, thirteen weeks from the time it left Liverpool. Grandmother went back to IIuddersfield, England, took another vessel and arrived at New York after seven weeks' voyage, having spent twenty weeks on the ocean in getting from England to America.

Grandfather Sykes came from New York City to Quincy in October, 1834. He came ont to Beverly Township and built the second house in the township and moved into it with his family in November, 1834. Mr. Ezariah Mayfield and family were the first settlers, having built their house in the spring of 1834 and Mr. John B. Robertson and family built the third house in the township and moved into it in the spring of 1835. There is yet on file Grandfather Sykes' naturalization paper dated New York City September 25, 1834, also a commission from Augustus C. French, the eighth elected governor of Illinois, authorizing him to act as assessor and collector of Highland County, dated November 29, 1847.

Highland County was first a part of Adams County, then Marquette, then Highland, and then by aet of the Legislature approved February 27, 1847, reverted back to Adams County when the inhabitants persistently refused to organize,

HENRY REES has perhaps the oldest established business as a paving and sewer contractor in Western Illinois. Ile has been continuously engaged in that line of work at Quincy for twenty-seven years, and his father, whom he suc- ceeded, had the distinction of laying some of the first pavements and construct- ing some of the first modern sewers in Quincy.

The first pavement laid by Mr. Henry Rees was on Eighth Street, and his first sewer construction was an extensive contract known as the North End sewer. From those initial works to the present time he has handled an immense volume of business of this kind, not only in Quincy but in many surrounding towns. The business of contracting is an uncertain one, involving many unfor- seen risks and obstacles, and the most successful contractor is not one who has never sustained a loss but one who has accepted losses as inevitable and at the same time fulfilled the letter and spirit of his contract. That is the business record of Mr. Rees, who grew up in this business under his father.

His father was the late Casper Rees, who took his first paving contract thirty years ago. when he laid the pavement on the entire bloek around Washington Square. Casper Rees was born in Baden, Germany, in 1831, and married Barbara Durley, both of whom were natives of Oberkirch. Their first child, Bertha, was born in Germany, and when she was still an infant the family emigrated to America during the '60s, loeating in Quincy. Casper Rees was a stone mason by trade, and found employment in that line and at teaming for some years, gradually developing his enterprise until he was the first recognized paving contractor in the eity. IIe died in 1891, at the age of sixty years. His widow survived him four years and was sixty-two years old at her death. In Quincy they were communieants of St. Boniface Church and later of St. Francis Parish, and their bodies now rest in St. Bonifaee Cemetery. Their living chil- dren are: Mrs. Bertha Middendorf, of Quincy; Henry; and Frank, who is a teamster and is married and has a family.

Mr. Henry Rees was born in Quiney, at the corner of Fifth and Vine

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streets, October 29, 1870. His early education was acquired in St. Boniface and St. Francis parochial schools, and from school he entered almost immediately into the business of his father. Thus he was well qualified by training and experience to take over the business at the time of his father's death. Mr. Rees has from time to time added modern equipment until he has all the facilities for the successful, prompt and efficient handling of any contract in paving or sewer work. Among the machinery is an immense caterpillar drainage and ditehing machine.

Mr. Rees married at Quincy IIelen Voigt. She was born in Baden, Germany, in 1872, and eame to the United States in 1885 with her aunt, Mrs. George Benz. They took passage on a vessel at Bremen, and from New York City eame west to Quiney, arriving here September 3, 1885. Mrs. Rees is a daughter of Ernest and IIelen (Kanbe) Voigt. Her father died at Baden in 1917, when about fourscore years of age, and her widowed mother is still living there, at the age of eighty. Mrs. Rees is the only member of her family in this eoun- try. She has two brothers, Arthur and George, and two sisters, Marian a widow, and Cecelia, who still reside in Germany.

Eight children were born to the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Rees: Frank, who lives in Quincy and married Velley Gartensmeier; Leota, who has completed her education; llelen and Bertha, both students in high school; Carl, in the parochial schools; Walter, aged ten years, also a schoolboy; and Edith and Edward, twins. The family are members of St. Francis Catholic Church, and Mr. Rees is a member of the Western Catholie Union.

CEYLON SMITH. Quiney has many kindly and grateful memories of the late Ceylon Smith, who resided here half a century, built up a distinctive in- dustry, became a man of wealth, and used his means and his influence wisely and helpfully to make both a better and greater city. The only surviving rep- resentative of his family is his daughter, Mrs. Ella May Lewis, and his five grandsons, whose attainments and service in church, missionary and army work reflects the greatest credit both upon their devoted mother and also their grand- father.

Ceylon Smith was born at Winchester in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, May 5, 1829. His father, Samuel Smith, was also a New Hampshire man, and his first wife, the mother of Ceylon, died in middle age as the result of acci- dent, leaving her son a small boy. The Smiths were old New Englanders of English origin.

Ceylon Smith was reared in his native town and at the age of seventeen went to Springfield, Massachusetts, and learned the molder's trade. IIe married in Springfield in 1853, Miss Rosala Lee. Their wedding ceremony was per- formed by Rev. J. B. Ide. Miss Lee was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, and was three years old when her mother died and only ten years when she was orphaned by the death of her father, A. T. Lee. IIer father was a Springfield lawyer.

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Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 108

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