Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 12

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 12

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Mr. Albsmeyer came to Adams County over fifty years ago. He was born in Kreis Hertford, Prussia, in May, 1845. His parents were farming people and spent all their lives in Germany. In 1867 Fred was persuaded by a couple of young men then revisiting in Germany to come to America. Arriving in Adams County his friends took him to the home of George Beilstein of Melrose Township. Mr. Albsmeyer had a $10 gold piece on landing in this country. He had worked at low wages on farms and in the coal mines in Germany, and after coming to Adams County he spent four years working at $15 a month in Melrose Township for William Bengert. He was thrifty, looked to the future, saved his money, and at the time of his marriage had $400 for capital and also a team and an interest in a threshing machine.

February 21, 1872, Mr. Albsmeyer married Miss Charlotta Dickmann. She was born in Prussia, and came to the United States in 1871. After their marriage they rented a farm in Melrose Township five or six years. Mr. Albs- meyer then arranged for the purchase of the Peter Shear farm of 115 acres. This farm was in the very sontheast corner of Melrose Township, cornering on Fall Creek, Bnrton and Payson Township. The purchase price was $6,300. Mr. Albsmeyer had only $300 to pay down, and went in debt for the balance at 8 per cent interest. The land had few improvements, chiefly a log stable and a small house. For several years there were no crops, and hog cholera swept away the few hogs he had. He was unable to pay even the interest and had to borrow money for that purpose. Later he bought forty acres more at $70 per acre and the land had no building whatever. He kept steadily at work, clearing and improving his land, and using his fields for the production of wheat, oats and corn. In spite of losses he kept raising hogs, though two or three times his bunch was cleared out by the cholera. Gradually his debts shrunk, and in the meantime his farm increased in value. He built a new barn, enlarged the house, and made as fine a body of land as conld be found in that community. Later Mr. Albsmeyer bonght 160 acres in Harper County, Kansas, and his son lived there for several years. Mr. Albsmeyer still owns this Kansas property. In 1907 he retired from the farm and has since enjoyed the comforts of a good home in Quincy, his son William being manager of the farm.

Mr. Albsmeyer early became an American citizen and has regularly voted the democratic ticket. He is a member of the Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church at Quincy.

The only son of Mr. and Mrs. Albsmeyer is William F. They have three daughters: Anna, wife of Ed Stockheke, of Mendon, and mother of one child, Grace; Lydia, who married William Speckhart, of Fall Creek Township and has four children, Alfred, Ralph, Alma and Wilma; and Clara, still at home.

William F. Albsmeyer married Catherine Speckhart, daughter of Adam Speckhart, one of the best known citizens of the county. For the past eleven years the son has operated the homestead farm. He and his wife have four children : George, Elmer, Esther and Marie. The son George is now a member of the Students Army Training Corps at the State University in Urbana.

JAMES MEALIFF, owner of Fairview Stock Farm, has been a resident of Adams County over half a century, and from farm hand at low wages has progressed through many years of strenuous effort to the ownership of one of

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the excellent places in Honey Creek Township, and has independenee in material eireumstanees and at the same time has reared and helped the children who have grown up around him. Mr. Mealiff has had to work for all he got, but while out of necessity attending closely to his own affairs he has had an un- selfish and publie spirited attitude toward the community and has done what he eould to help forward the wheels of progress.

Mr. Mealiff was born in County Cavan, Ireland, February 7, 1843. He grew up on a farm and the knowledge of farming as acquired in Ireland was prae- tieally the only asset he brought to America. He was not yet twenty-one when he landed at New York December 22, 1863. He remained in the east two months and in February, 1864, arrived in Mendon Township. At that time he was $35 in debt, and while this is an insignificant sum in the present day it required Mr. Mealiff the better part of a half year to pay off the obligation. For the first year in this eounty he worked for Abraham Chittenden at wages of $12.50 per month. Having a special use for his money and not enjoying a large social acquaintance which required its expenditure, he saved practically all that he earned. In the spring of 1865 Mr. Mealiff enlisted to serve his adopted country as a soldier in the Union Army. He enlisted in Company D of the One Hun- dred and Fifty-Fifth Illinois Volunteers, and was sent to Tullahoma, Tennessee. He spent his time there drilling and doing guard duty, and was still thus employed when Lee's army surrendered. When the news of Lineoln's assassina- tion reached him he was standing on the pieket line. He also did some duty in guarding bridges and railroads and was discharged in September. 1865, after eight months of service.

After the war Mr. Mealiff continued work for Mr. Chittenden two years, and continued to give his labor to other farmers in the county for six or seven years longer. He commanded about the highest wages paid for farm labor, $22.50 a month for nine months out of the year. Among his other employers were Perey Sproat, Clark Striekler and W. W. Benton.

December 28, 1871, seven years after coming to Adams County, Mr. Mealiff married Jane Ilewitt, daughter of William Hewitt, whose family also eame from County Cavan, Ireland. Mrs. Mealiff died in 1886, at the age of thirty years. Mr. Mealiff in May, 1888, married his first wife's sister, Eliza Hewitt.

Early in his married career Mr. Mealiff and his cousin, William Mealiff bought 200 aeres of wild land, and they were partners in its ownership and development for about ten years. James Mealiff then sold his interest to his cousin and invested the proceeds in his present farm of 160 acres, located 31% miles east of Mendon. Later he bought another forty aeres, so that his farm comprises 200 acres. His land has been carefully handled and improved with a good house, barn and other buildings, and has been the seene of some profitable mixed farming, grain crops and the raising of Shorthorn eattle, hogs and horses.

It would be one of the interesting stories of individual experience could all the details be presented of Mr. Mealiff's struggle toward independence. When he married and bought his first land he had saved about $500 from his wages. Naturally he assumed a big debt, and for years paid 10 per cent interest. Care and provision for his family used up most of his earnings and it was thirty years before he could eall himself entirely clear of debt. He also experienced the eras of low prices. Many times he sold his hogs at 3 cents a pound after feeding them 50 eent corn, so that there was absolutely no reward for his labor and care. Mrs. Mealiff also raised a flock of turkeys, and the best price that could be obtained for these birds was 4 eents a pound. Mr. Mealiff is a vestry- man in the Episcopal Church at Mendon and while a republican voter has avoided any mention of office for himself.

By his first wife he had five children: William A., a bachelor, who is now handling the farm for his father : Elizabeth, who died at the age of twelve years ; Sarah Jane, who died at the age of twenty-five, the wife of John F. Diekerman ; James Edward, a farmer in Mendon Township who married Julia Talcott ;

LIBRARY T THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

Charles E. Delaplain

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and Robert H., who for the past fifteen years has lived at Monte Vista, Colorado. By his second wife Mr. Mealiff had one son, John K., a farmer in Keene Town- ship. This son married Ruth Chittenden, daughter of H. F. Chittenden.

CHARLES E. DELAPLAIN is a Quiney business man who has the reputation of having made a success in practically every one of life's undertakings. He has been a very busy man, was formerly a stock buyer and dealer, but has found his chief and most profitable field of operations as a real estate man. His offices are in the Sterns Building at Quincy, where he has been located sinee establishing his business at Quincy in 1916.

Mr. Delaplain was born at Plainville in Payson Township of this county April 27, 1868. His father, John Delaplain, was a native of West Virginia, of French ancestry. When a young man he came West and settled near Quincy, and for several years followed his trade as a carpenter. IIe helped build the old Scheers barn, the largest in the county at that time. For some years he was also associated in trade with Mr. Watt, a merchant at Payson. Later John Delaplain built the first store at Plainville in the south end of the county. In order to clear the site for his store building he had to cut and carry away part of a field of corn there. Thus he was in a business sense the originator of Plainville and conducted a general merchandise store for the benefit of that community thirty-six years. Finally selling out, he moved to Winfield, Kan- sas, and died there two years later, in 1894. He was a democrat, and for six terms held the office of postmaster at Plainville. He was a very active man in his community and his influence was especially directed to the building and support of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which his wife was also very aetive. It was in the Plainville community that John Delaplain married Miss Lucy Monroe, daughter of Elijah Monroe. Her father was born in Ross Coun- ty, Ohio, and married a Miss Ilendershot. Elijah Monroe came to Illinois and lived on the line between Adams and Pike counties. He died at the age of seventy-four and the mother at eighty-six. Mrs. John Delaplain was born near Zanesville, Ohio, and is still living at Winfield, Kansas, bright and active at the age of eighty-four. Her children are three in number: Ida, Ollie and Charles E. Ida married D. D. Hadzell, of Oklahoma, and has reared to adult years three sons and four daughters. The daughter Ollie still lives with her widowed mother in Winfield.

Charles E. Delaplain spent his youth and boyhood at Plainville in the southern part of the county and while there learned the trade of butcher, and that occupation introduced him to the general business of stock buying. He also had some experience as a general merchant, and the various things he undertook seemed to prosper in his hands. For the past nineteen years he has been giving nearly all his energies to the real estate business. He is affiliated with the Odd Fellows Lodge and the Woodman Camp at Plainville. Mr. Delaplain has been twice married, but has no children. His present wife was formerly Miss Imo N. MeEntee, who was born and reared near Barry, Illinois.

AUGUST BASSE. For over sixty years the name Basse has been identified in the minds of many Quiney people with the jewelry business. The Basses are a remarkable family, remarkable for their genius as artistie workmen in different kinds of material, and also as thorough business men, upright eitizens and people who are worth while in any community.

The late August Basse was born in Essen, Germany, January 15, 1840. His people for many years had lived in the great German art center of Duesseldorf, and for years they had conducted a business for the manufacture of pewter ware. August Basse, Sr., was born at Essen and in 1836 he married Henrietta Huls- mann, also a native of Essen. August Basse, Sr., learned the trade of wood- worker and wood carver. He had much of that wonderful skill which is attrib-

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uted to the world famous carvers in wood and other materials in Germany. Some of the rare pieces he executed are still extant. He brought to America with him a wonderfully intricate and interesting sample of wood carving, representing a spread eagle in wood and a Dutch hound in ivory. He attached these to a beautiful eane. He and his family came to America in 1855, and from Philadelphia came west to Illinois. In 1856 he established a jewelry store at 518 Maine Street in Quincy and there built up a large and successful business. His brother-in-law Mr. Henry Hulsmann, was associated with him as gold and silversmith.

This business was finally acquired and succeeded by August Basse, Jr. who had grown up and learned the trade in New York and Boston. He gave the best years of his life to its management and was one of the prominent business men of Quincy. He died in this city June 15, 1907. He was reared a Lutheran and was a republican in politics.

March 19, 1864, at Quincy, August Basse married Marie Kespohl, who was born in Germany May 21, 1842. She was reared and educated in Germany, a daughter of Henry and Augusta (Kuster) Kespohl, natives of the same place. The Kespohl family came to the United States and located at Quincy, where her parents spent the rest of their days. Her father died in 1881 and her mother some years later at the age of seventy. They were members of the Intheran Church and reared a large family of children, four of whom are still living.

To Mr. and Mrs. August Basse were born six children : Clara died when one year old. August is now in business at Salt Lake City and is married but has no children. Bertha, who like her brothers and sisters was well educated in the city schools of Quincy, has always lived at home with her mother. Sophie, who died March 12, 1916, was the wife of E. Roy Harris, of Perry, Illinois. Mr. Harris died July 28, 1914, and they left two sons, Richard A. and Lloyd E. Richard A., who enlisted in the army medical corps at Jefferson Barracks, was a student in chemical engineering at the University of Illinois. Lloyd E. is a member of the Quincy High School class of 1919 and lives with his grand- mother. Henry Basse is successor to his father's business as a jewelryman, and thus continues a line of trade which has been in this one family for three generations. He married Valinda Stollberg. Marie L., the youngest of Mrs. Basse's children, is the wife of Henry Pieper, and they have two children, Marie L. and John H.

EDWARD N. MONROE. In all respects a worthy representative of the industrial and manufacturing interests of Adams County, Edward N. Monroe is numbered among its more active and successful business men, the large and well equipped plant in which he manufactures dye stuffs of all kinds being advantageously located on the bay, near Quincy. Coming from a long line of honored New England stock, he was born April 7, 1855, in Chillicothe, Ohio, where his child- hood days were spent.

HIis father. Edward Monroe, was born and bred in Massachusetts. For a time during the Civil war he was connected with the Union army in Wash- ington District of Columbia, but after the surrender of Lee he moved with his family to Putnam County, Missouri. Buying a tract of wild land, he improved a good farm, and there resided until his death. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary Hard, was born in Vermont. and died on the home farm in Missouri.

The only child of his parents, Edward N. Monroe acquired a practical edu- cation in the public schools, and soon after entering his teens, about 1870, began work in a drug store at Unionville, Missouri. In 1876 he embarked in business on his own account, and subsequently experimented largely as a manufacturer of dyes, meeting with exceptionally good results in his undertakings. In 1907 Mr. Monroe located in Adams County, Illinois, and established his present manu- facturing plant in, or very near, Quincy, the factory covering an area of 40,000 square feet, while his chemical rooms and laboratory occupy a space of about

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100,000 square feet. In the art of manufacturing dyes Mr. Monroe has met with rare success, the products of his factory equalling in beauty and durabil- ity of color the dyes that were formerly imported into this country from foreign lands.

Mr. Monroe married Flora Waggoner, a native of Pennsylvania, and into the household thus established three children have been born, namely : Neal E., who is associated in business with his father, having charge of the manufactory ; Burk C., deceased; and Octavia, wife of Lawrence P. Bonfoey, of Quiney. Mr. Monroe is a republican in polities, and is a director and the vice president of the States Savings Loan and Trust Company.

AUGUST H. HEIDBREDER. The prominent and prosperous business men of Adams County have no more able or worthy representative than August H. Heidbreder of Quincy, a leading druggist who has established a chain of stores in the city and is carrying on an extensive and substantial business. He was born March 6, 1856, in Quincy, Illinois, of German aneestry.

His father, John H. Heidbreder, was born, bred and educated in Germany. Soon after his marriage with Hannah Schaeffer he immigrated to the United States, and following the march of civilization westward to Illinois, he located in Quincy, where he at first engaged in teaming, and in 1875 he sold his teaming business and engaged in the drug business, with his son August H., with whom he was prosperously associated until his death. To him and his wife ten chil- dren were born, as follows: Louisa, deceased ; August H., the special subject of this brief sketch; Wilhelmina, deceased; Minnie, widow of Philip Breer, of Salt Lake City, Utah ; Reeka, widow of Rev. William Meigar, of Quiney; Mary, deceased : Hannah, of Quiney; Emma, of Quiney; George H., who died July 9, 1917; and Elizabeth, deceased.

Receiving his preliminary education in the public and parochial schools, August H. Heidbreder fitted himself for a business career at the Gem City Business College. In 1875 he embarked in the drug business with his father, being located at the corner of Eighth and State streets, and continued there for a number of years. In 1892 Mr. Heidbreder admitted his brother. George H. Heidbreder, to partnership, the firm name becoming Heidbreder Brothers. In 1907 Mr. Heidbreder's oldest son Albert H. Heidbreder, became a member of the firm, and the name was changed to Heidbreder Brothers and Company. Three years later this firm, with characteristic enterprise, built a three-story brick and stone building, more commodious quarters being needed to meet the demands of his trade. Mr. Heidbreder has founded five drug stores in Quincy, and in their management is actively and profitably interested.

He married Mary Niekamp, a native of Quincy, and into their home eight children have been born, namely: Albert H., associated with his father in the drug business; Charles A., secretary of the Quiney Stove Company, of which Mr. Heidbreder is president; Frank H., deceased; Minnie, wife of William Evers, of Quiney; Mamie, deceased; Ella, wife of Albert Niemeyer, a druggist, located at the corner of Twelfth and State streets, Quiney ; and Herbert H. and Edgar Phillip, now serving in the United States Army, being members of the Medieal Corps. Mr. Heidbreder is a valued member of the Saint Jacobi Lutheran Church, and of which his father was for thirty-two years the treasurer. He succeeded his father and served eight years in that office, a total of forty years for father and son to hold the same position.

BENJAMIN F. CATE lives a mile south of Paloma in Gilmer Township, and has been a factor as a farmer and good citizen of that locality all his aetive career. The Cate family came into Adams County about eighty years ago and they and their family connections have exercised an important influence in the various communities where they lived, always in behalf of better farming and better improvements, schools and churches.

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The place where Benjamin F. Cate was born September 29, 1862. is six miles south of his present home. His parents were Walter and Jane (Pierce) Cate. Walter Cate was born at Greenfield. New Hampshire, and was twelve years of age when in 1836 he accompanied his parents by wagon and ox team to Western Illinois. His father, Walter Cate, Sr., and wife both died in Gilmer Township. Walter Cate, Jr., grew up here as a frontier youth and before his marriage managed to accumulate a few acres of land and build a small house. He married Jane Pierce, daughter of David Pierce. She was born in Tennessee and came with her parents to Gilmer Township about 1840. The Pierce family also drove through with wagon and team. David Pierce died after reaching advanced years. Though Walter Cate and wife began their housekeeping in limited circumstances, their thrift and industry enabled them to make a fine farm of about 300 acres, and this they finally sold, and for the last twelve years Mr. Cate lived retired at Camp Point, where he died at the age of eighty-nine. His wife, who was sixteen when she married, died at the age of sixty. Walter Cate served as a justice of the peace for a number of years, was a demoerat in polities, and a Baptist in religious faith, though his last years were spent in the Methodist Church. He and his wife had a large family, twelve children, and eleven of them reached maturity: Levi, a retired resident of Camp Point : Nannie, who married R. L. Booth of Camp Point, where she died in 1918, at the age of sixty-one : Arthur. living retired at Camp Point : Mary, Mrs. J. T. Sims, of Augusta, Illinois; Benjamin F .; George, an undertaker at Redondo Beach, California ; David, a resident of San Diego, California: Emma. Mrs. Clifford Richards, of El Centro in the Imperial Valley of California; Lou, who is unmarried and lives with her brother George; Nona, Mrs. A. B. Childs of Olathe, Kansas; and Iva, Mrs. Charles Taylor, living on a farm at Plymouth. Illinois.

Benjamin F. Cate was reared at the old home, attended the local schools, and remained with his father on the farm for several years after reaching his majority. When twenty-four years old on January 19, 1887, he married Miss Emma Lummis, daughter of Joseph and Sarah (Lawless) Lummis. The Lum- mis and Lawless families have been factors in Adams County since early days, and further reference to them will be found on other pages of this publication. Mr. and Mrs. Cate were married in a house that formerly occupied the site of. their present home. Mrs. Cate has lived in this one locality since she was seven years old. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Cate farmed for five years on a part of his father's place and in 1892 they bought her father's farm, at which date her father retired. This farm contains eighty acres and it has since been improved with a new house, barn and garage, and is operated up to the maxi- mum of produetiveness by Mr. and Mrs. Cate's son-in-law Ed Kopsieker. Recently Mr. and Mrs. Cate bought a home at Paloma, where they intend to spend their last years in comfort. Mr. Cate served as township clerk for seven years, and as supervisor eleven years, and for four years was deputy sheriff under Sheriff John Tombs. He is an active democrat, is a trustee of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Paloma and for many years was superintendent of the Sunday School.

Mr. and Mrs. Cate's oldest child, Walter, was a young man of much promise and was drowned at the age of twenty-two, while on a fishing expedition to the Mississippi River. Their daughter Alta is the wife of Ed Kopsieker, already referred to as the manager of the Cate farm. Mr. and Mrs. Kopsieker have a daughter, Aliee Florence. The younger daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Cate, Florence, is a graduate of the Coatsburg High School and is still at home.

LEONARD M. SCHMITT, who died July 2, 1915, was for a long period of years an active merchant and druggist at Quincy, and represented one of the sterling German families that were identified with the pioneer upbuilding of this com- munity. He was a good business man and was always straightforward in his

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relations and a sustaining worker in every public spirited movement that had a worthy cause behind it.

His parents were Leonard and Margaret (Jost) Schmitt, both natives of Hesse Darmstadt, Germany. They came to America in 1836. Leonard Schmitt, Sr., had learned the trade of cabinet maker and carpenter in early life, and after locating at Quincy he was a follower of his trade, and much of his work was manufacturing coffins as needed in the town. About 1845 he became a contractor and builder, and many of the homes and other structures of the city dating from that year were monuments to his enterprise. He continued in busi- ness until 1865, when he retired with an ample competence and after that lived in the city until his death in April, 1898, at the age of eighty-seven. His wife died in March, 1896, at the age of cighty-one. They had been married over half a century and practically all their married lives were spent in the home at 810 Hampshire Street which Leonard Schmitt, Sr., built. They were early and prominent members of St. Boniface Catholic Church, and he was identified with the Western Catholic Union and in politics was a democrat. They were the parents of a large family of children, all of whom grew up except one that died in infancy. Elizabeth, wife of Safford Dehner, lives on Hampshire Street ; Mrs. Catherine Pireo died in St. Louis; Mrs. Lucy Denkhoff died at Quincy ; Mrs. Margaret Schwantz died at Poplar Grove, Arkansas; Sister Hyacinth, of the Order of St. Francis, is connected with St. Elizabeth's Hospital at Louis- ville, Kentucky ; Mrs. Joseph Jacoby lives at Quincy; Mrs. Gerry Jansen lives in St. Louis: Leonard M .; George died in Chicago; and Nicholas lives in St. Louis.

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Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 12

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