USA > Illinois > Adams County > Quincy > Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II > Part 18
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Theodore Dougherty married. April 18, 1883, Ellen Campbell. Her parents were John and Margaret (Owens) Campbell, both natives of County Monaghan, Ireland. Mrs. Dougherty was born in Gilmer Township, April 18, 1858, and when she was ten years of age her parents moved to the Big Neck community, where her father died at the age of sixty. The Campbells had a family of twelve children, five of whom are living: Margaret, Mrs. Jacob Gross, of Camp Point ; Maria, Mrs. Frank Powell, of Bowen; IIannah, Mrs. Milton Kelley, of Wyaconda, Missouri; Samuel Campbell, who lives on the old home- stead in Keene Township; and Mrs. Dougherty.
The year he married Mr. Theodore Dougherty secured his present farm of eighty acres from his brother Andrew J. He has his farm improved with a good house. Most of the land was originally timber, but is now an expanse of fertile fields. He has been a successful grower of wheat, hogs and other good livestock, and has marketed from forty to eighty head every year. His hog raising has been handicapped by the heavy ravages of the cholera. Mr Dougherty still retains his home, but rents out his fields for cultivation.
A brief record of his family is as follows : Roy, is a telegraph operator with the Burlington Railway in Knox County, Illinois, and married Zoe Epperson. Beulah is a very accomplished teacher, having spent ten years in that vocation in Adams County and having finished a course in domestic science in the Bradley Polytechnic Institute at Peoria, and is now connceted with the schools of Greenville. Illinois. Floyd married Anna Grosh, and is now farming the Grosh farm in Keene Township. Alice taught six years in Adams County .and four terms at Marblehead and is now the wife of Wallaee HIaxel, a teacher in the Gem City Business College. Both daughters are members of the Eastern Star and Roy is affiliated with the Masonic Order. Mr. Theodore Dougherty is a republican, and was reared in the Episcopal Church, but has no church connections. He is a member of Masonic Order at Mendon.
JOHN E. MILLER, M. D. For nearly a quarter of a century Doctor Miller has practiced his profession in Illinois, and since coming to Quincy his attain- ments as a physician and surgeon have spread his fame abroad from this eity.
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He is one of the busiest surgeons of Quiney, and about four-fifths of his work is in surgery.
Doetor Miller is of southern birth and ancestry. He was born at Austin, the capital of Texas, June 27, 1871, son of George E. and Mattie (McQuiston) Miller. His father's family came from Virginia while his mother's people were originally Missourians before they located in Texas. Both Doetor Miller's parents were born in Texas, were married at Austin, and his father was for many years a farmer and cattle raiser. He died in Texas in 1903, at the age of sixty. His widow later eame north and lived at Quiney until her death in 1915, at the age of seventy.
Doetor Miller was liberally educated, attending the University of Texas, and from there entering the Baltimore Medical College at Baltimore, where he finished his course and received his M. D. degree in 1893. For about a year he practiced at Loekhart, Texas, but in 1894 came north and settled in Pitts- field, Illinois. He has a medical lieense in two states. At Pittsfield he was prospered in his work, and steadily improved his opportunities and abilities. In 1900 he interrupted his praetiee to take a tour abroad and spent much time in the great hospitals and elinies at Vienna. On returning to this country he resumed his work at Pittsfield, and his trend toward surgery in- flueneed him to build and manage a private hospital in Pittsfield. Then in order to have a wider field for his surgical practice he removed to Quiney in 1907, and for five years praetieed as a partner with Dr. J. H. Riee. Since 1912 he has been alone in practice, and has a fine suite of offices in the Majestic Building. Nearly every day Doetor Miller is to be found in the operating rooms of the two hospitals at Quiney and he handles many of the difficult and compli- cated major operations.
By his first wife Doctor Miller has two children, Helen and William Estill. The daughter is the wife of Professor W. A. Sehimell, who is now engaged in the hardware business at Pittsfield. They have two children, W. A., Jr., and Margaret. The son, William Estill, was born at Pittsfield, graduated from the high school there, from the Illinois Wesleyan College at Bloomington in 1918, and is now a student in Washington University at St. Louis. In 1914, at Pitts- field, Doctor Miller married for his present wife Miss Alice Hoos, who was reared and edneated in that eity. She is the mother of one daughter, Wilda Idel, three years old. Doctor Miller is a Knight Templar Mason and also belongs to the Scottish Rite Consistory at Quincy. He took his first Masonic degrees at Pittsfield, but has transferred all his membership to Quiney except that in the Royal Areh Chapter.
WILLIAM MEALIFF. Long years have been vouehsafed William Mealiff, and at the age of more than fourseore it is possible to claim for him a life of useful activity, honorable dealings with his fellow men, the contribution of something wholesome and enduring to his community in Adams County, and altogether his is one of the names entitled to and receiving the respect and veneration paid to worthy old age. Mr. Mealiff resides in Honey Creek Township 31/2 miles northeast of Mendon.
He was born in County Cavan, Ireland, February 12, 1834. He grew up in his native country and was twenty-five years old when in 1859 he came to the United States and joined some cousins and other relatives in Mendon Town- ship. The next ten years he was hard at work earning a living, saving some- thing, and getting familiar with American methods. Two of those years he spent with the Taleott family, seven years with Mr. Weed, and one year with Abraham Chittenden. He had some thrifty habits that enabled him to save from his meager wages about $1,000 altogether, and he used that capital to buy a tract of wild timber in Honey Creek Township. The price agreed upon was $12.50 per aere. There he built a story and a half frame house, containing five rooms, and shortly afterward, in 1876, married Miss Anna Hewitt. Mrs.
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Mealift was born in Mendon Village and was twenty-three years of age at the time of her marriage. Her parents were Thomas and Sarah (Kells) Hewitt, of Mendon Village. Thomas Hewitt also came from County Cavan, Ireland, in 1849. and for a number of years followed the trade of wagon maker. He settled on a farm three-quarters of a mile south of Mendon and died there in 1898, at the age of eighty-eight. In 1852 he married in Mendon Sarah Kells, who had also come from County Cavan in 1850. She is still living, at the age of eighty- eight, in Mendon. In the Ilewitt family were five children : Anna. Mrs. Mealiff ; Robert. a railroad man at Burlington, Iowa : Martha, wife of G. H. Baldwin, of Mendon : Sarah. Mrs. Frank Heineke, of Mendon ; and Elizabeth, Mrs. George Chant. of Stronghurst, Illinois.
After his marriage Mr. Mealiff lived on the farm until 1911. He was asso- ciated with his cousin James Mealiff in purchasing that land in section 4. but in 1885 acquired James Mealiff's interest. James Mealiff is still a resident of the township. In section 4 of Honey Creek William Mealiff owned 200 acres. In 1909 he bought his present farm two miles away, consisting of eighty aeres, the purchase price of which was $105 an acre. It contained an old home and its present substantial residenee was erected in 1910 and he occupied it in 1911. In making the move to the new farm Mr. Mealiff was largely influenced by the fact that his first farm was five miles from Mendon over rough roads with few bridges, while his present land is only three miles from market and the social eenter and has an excellent highway between. Mr. Mealiff and son still operate both farms and are among the large grain and stock raisers of the county. He is a republican and was reared in the Episcopal Church and for many years has served as vestryman and warden.
Mr. and Mrs. Mealiff have a most interesting family of children. Grace, the oldest. is the wife of John F. Dickerman. Lawrence is a bachelor and lives at home. having assumed most of the responsibilities in connection with the management of the home farm. Lavania Elizabeth was a successful teacher in Adams County for seven years and taught altogether ten years, and is now the wife of John Davidson, a retired ranchman at Salt Lake City, I'tah. Gordon was a teacher for two years in the county and attended the mechanical engi- neering course at the University of Missouri at Columbia two years, and is now a successful farmer in Honey Creek Township. He married Laura Bogart. The daughter Martha Ellen is a graduate in domestie seience at the Bradley Polytechnic Institute of Peoria, taught domestic scienee elasses in the Peoria public schools. and before taking domestic science taught rural schools. She is now teaching in high school at Vernon, Kansas. The next member of the family is Walter, who is serving with the United States Army in the motor division and now in England. Ada. the youngest, graduated from Mendon High School with the class of 1917 and is still at home.
JOHN F. PIEPER. A prosperous business man of Adams County, John F. Pieper. of Quiney, president and general manager of the Quiney Show Case Works, is a substantial representative of the manufacturing and mercantile interests of both eity and county. A native-born citizen, his birth occurred July 2, 1854.
His father, Semon Henry Pieper, was born in Germany and there spent the days of his boyhood and youth. Immigrating to the United States in 1848, he located in Quiney, where he built up a large and lucrative business as a eab- inet maker, remaining a resident of the city until his death in September, 1905. HIe married Mary Folkers, a native of Germany. She survived him but a very short time, passing away in December, 1905. Of the five children born of their marriage but one, John F., of whom we write, is now living.
Beginning life for himself poor in pocket but rich in energy and ambition, John F. Pieper engaged in agricultural pursuits, spending two years as a general farmer and two years as a dairyman. Loeating then in Quiney, he learned the
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cabinet maker's trade, which he subsequently followed for a time. In 1875 he began the manufacture of show cases, and met with such encouraging results that in 1876 he admitted to partnership H. H. Schleeter, with whom he was associated three years. Subsequently, with II. C. Pfeiffer as a partner, Mr. Pieper established the Quiney Show Case Works, with which Mr. Pfeiffer was identified until his death. Mr. Pieper is president and general manager of the company, which under his able and judicious supervision is in a flourishing condition, being one of the most enterprising and substantial firms of the kind in the county.
Mr. Pieper married in March. 1878, Louisa Erke. a native of Columbus Township. Adams County, Illinois. Five children have blessed their union. namely: Henry F., of Quincy, who is associated in business with his father as assistant manager of the works: Ida, wife of August Staeklebach, foreman of the cabinet department of the Show Case Works: Clara: Frank .I., and Bertha. who lived but four short years. Mr. Pieper is a member of several fraternal organizations of the state, including the Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons, and is a prominent member of the Salem Evangelical Church, which he has served as a trustee for the past seventeen years.
J. LEROY ADAIR. The profession of law is one to which many aspire, but in which only a comparatively few seeure success in any remarkable degree. Mere training. industry and persistence do not necessarily make a sneeessful lawyer. Ile must possess inherent ability and talent for his profession, and it is the lack of this quality that keeps many in the ranks of the mediocre.
One of the talented among the younger members of the Quiney bar is J. Leroy Adair, now state's attorney of Adams County, and whose work and abilities have found constantly growing favor since his early years.
Mr. Adair was born at Coatsburg in Adams County February 23, 1887, a son of Henry L. and Sarah E. ( Pevehonse) Adair. Both families came from Kentucky, settling in Brown County, Illinois, in 1818. the year Illinois was admitted to the I'nion, and removing to Adams County in 1830. Henry L. Adair is now a retired farmer living at Clayton, Illinois. There were two chil- dren. J. Leroy and Orville Ray, the latter a business man of Clayton.
J. Leroy Adair graduated from the Clayton High School in 1903, at the age of sixteen. Following that he taught school a year, had a mercantile experience as a groceryman at Clayton for two years, and from there entered the Illinois College at Jacksonville and following this spent three years in the University of Michigan Law School at Ann Arbor, where he was graduated LL. B. in 1911. Mr. Adair did his first work as a lawyer at Muskogee, Oklahoma, where he re- mained two years, but in 1913 returned to his home county and has been making rapid progress in his profession. He served as city attorney of Quiney during 1915-16. and in 1916 was chosen to his present responsibilities and dignity as state's attorney. Mr. Adair is a demoerat and a member of the Masonie Order. April 15, 1911, he married Miss Maude E. Gruber, of Clayton, Illinois.
JOHN F. GARNER came into the honors and responsibilities of membership in the Adams County bar about a week after reaching his twenty-first birthday. For nearly twenty years he has borne the reputation of a hard working, earnest and successful attorney, and many of the best honors of his profession and of eivie life have been bestowed upon him.
A native of Hancock County, Illinois, where he was born October 6, 1878, Mr. Garner is a son of James R. and Helen (Finlay) Garner, both natives of Hancock County. His father is now living retired at West Point, Illinois.
The only child of his parents, John F. Garner attended high school at Carthage, Illinois, and was a student in literature and law at Chaddock College of Quiney. He graduated from the law course in 1898, at the age of twenty, and was admitted to the bar on October 14, 1899. His services as attorney have
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been employed in much of the important litigation in the courts at Quincy and he is now sharing his practice with Mr. Charles L. Bartlett, under the firm name of Bartlett & Garner.
From time to time he has been called from the duties of his private profes- sion to publie office. Governor Deneen appointed him to fill out the unexpired term of Judge MeCrory as county judge for nine months. In 1911 he was eleeted mayor of Quiney, and filled that office two years. Mr. Garner in 1898, while the Spanish-American war was in progress, enlisted in the Quiney divi- sion of the Naval Reserve. He held all the petty offices of the division, was elected Ensign in 1900, Lieutenant (J. G.) in 1901, and a few months later in that year was elected Lieutenant, commanding the Division, and so continued until his request to be placed on the retired list. He did much to put the organization on an efficient basis, and continued in active service until put on the retired list January 9, 1913. Mr. Garner is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite and a Knights Templar Mason. In politics he is a republican.
March 31, 1903, he married Cora Jansen, a native of this city and a daughter of Henry H. and Julia (Kendall) Jansen. Her father was born in Adams County, and was for a number of years a successful member of the. bar. The mother is also a native of this county and is still living at Quincy.
HENRY DISSELHORST. Through a period of forty years the Disselhorst fam- ily has been identified with Ellington Township, and the name is synonymous with good citizenship and most effective labors in agriculture and other lines.
The founder of the family here was the late Fred Disselhorst, who was born in Hanover, Germany, May 14, 1850. At the age of twenty-one he embarked for the United States, landed at New York, and came west to St. Louis. He lived there for a time and later came to Adams County, where he hired out as a farm hand. Later he married in Ellington Township Miss Amelia Ahlemeier. She was born in Adams County April 19, 1857, daughter of John and Mary Ahlemeier, natives of Germany. Her parents on coming to the United States settled in Adams County, were married there, and spent the rest of their days in Ellington Township. Both were active members of the Lutheran Church.
Fred Disselhorst and wife had very little capital when they married and continued renting until they purchased their first farm of eighty aeres in Ellington Township. This land was greatly improved by Fred Disselhorst and he provided liberally for his children as they grew up. His industrious career eame to a close September 16, 1914. He was a republican in politics and held a number of offices in the township. Mrs. Fred Disselhorst now lives at 815 South Fourteenth Street in Quiney. She is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, of which her husband was also a member. Fred Dissel- horst's mother died in Germany. The father and other children eame to the United States and the father died in Adams County when about seventy-five years of age. Of the other sons and daughters those still living are Ernest, Charles, William and Mrs. William Wittler.
Fred Disselhorst had six children, Henry being the oldest. Minnie is the wife of Henry Hoehne, living on a farm in Missouri, and has three sons and two daughters. Mary is unmarried and resides with her mother. Anna mar- ried Fred Thyson, a farmer in Ellington Township, and they have a son, Chester. Lena is the wife of Albert Rottman, an Ellington Township farmer. Fred is a farmer in Ellington Township, married Lydia Wagner, of Melrose Township, and has a son, Virgil.
Henry Disselhorst grew up on his father's farm in Ellington Township. attended the Washington District School and since his marriage he and his wife have lived on his mother's farm in section 9 of Ellington Township. Under his management this is a very productive property. He conduets it as a stock and grain farm. Among other buildings he has one of the large barns in the
LIBRARY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
telement Brush
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township, 36 by 54 feet. His home is a two-story seven-room house of modern construction. He grows good stock and has fine erops of cereals.
November 18, 1903, Mr. Disselhorst married Nora C. Schroeder. She was born in Honey Creek Township of this county and was educated in the Oakland Grove School. Her parents were Henry and Sophia (Diekhut) Schroeder. Her father was born in Germany and was brought to America by his parents at the age of nine years. His parents spent the rest of their lives in Adams County. He married an Adams County girl, Miss Dickhut, and farmed in Melrose Town- ship for several years and later bought a place in Honey Creek Township. That was their home for a number of years, finally moving to a farm in Ellington Township and ten years ago retiring to the Village of Fowler. Mr. Schroeder is now seventy years of age and his wife several years younger. Both are members of the Evangelical Church. Politically he is a republican.
Mr. and Mrs. Disselhorst have had three children: Walter F., who died at the age of two years seven months; Florence Marian, born August 7, 1908, now in the fifth grade of the common schools; and Mildred Laura, born August 14, 1913. The family are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church at Fowler, of which Mr. Disselhorst is a trustee. Politically he votes as a repub- lican.
JOSEPH HALEY. One of the well known farms of Gilmer Township is the old Myers place, situated at the west edge of the old county seat of Columbus, and now owned and occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Haley. Mrs. Haley is a daughter of the late Jacob T. Myers and is a member of that well known Myers family whose history and record through the different generations has been detailed on other pages of this publication.
Before her marriage Mrs. Haley was Anna Myers. She was born in this county March 20, 1859, and on November 11, 1885, became the wife of Joseph Haley. Mr. Haley was born in York County, Pennsylvania, March 1, 1857, and has lived in Illinois since 1880. All his active career he has spent as a farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Haley have four children : Ida Jane, wife of Elmer Powell, living at Philadelphia in Marion County, Missouri; Lnella, Mrs. Walter Herron, of LaPrairie, Illinois ; Osear, at home; and Nina, Mrs. Ed Thomas, of this county.
The father of Mrs. Haley, Jacob Myers, spent the last three years of his life on the farm where the Haleys now live. After his second marriage his second wife lived here and was cared for by Mr. and Mrs. Haley, and she left the farm to them at her death. Mr. and Mrs. Haley are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, are identified with the Red Cross, and Mr. Haley is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Woodmen.
ALBERT R. BUSH. One of Quiney's oldest and most substantial industries is the Bush Foundry and Metal Wheel Works. It is a business which was estab- lished on a small seale and gradually developed to larger scope and importance by Clement Bush, and is still continued under the active management of his sons, his son Albert R. having the official title of manager.
The founder of this business during the past eight or nine years lived retired and spent most of his time in California. Clement Bush was a man whose character and abilities meant much to Quincy and his name will always have a worthy place in its history. He was born in Bitton, near Bristol, England. in 1838. son of John Nash and Mareia (Ford) Bush. His father was a blacksmith and foundryman, and died at the age of eighty-two, and the mother passed away at sixty-five. At the age of twelve Clement Bush had all the schooling that he was permitted to enjoy and began earning his own living. At fourteen he was an apprentice in a foundry and two years later, in 1857, came to America. He first located at Seneca Falls in New York, working with a foundry there for two years, and subsequently in a foundry at Auburn, New York, for two and a half years. In 1861, having had some four years of active experience in
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the United States, he returned to England and in 1863 became proprietor of a foundry near Bristol. He continued in this business for seventeen years, and while it was a prosperous establishment he lost most of his fortune through misplaced investments. In order to recover under new and more auspicious circumstances what he had lost he came to America, living at Montreal, Canada, for two years and working in the shops of the Grand Trunk Railway. Because his wife had a distaste for the rigorous northern winters Clement Bush came to Quincy in 1884. He was led to locate here largely through the influence of the Young Men's Business Association. For two years he took charge of the foundry of Wright & Adams on Front and Broadway, and then rented the foundry and operated it on his own account for three years. In 1890 he estab- lishedi a new business on Broadway on a lot which he bought, and after nine years he enlarged his plant by the addition of metal wheel works. His industry grew, his pay roll increased in number of workmen and aggregate sums paid out and more and more his products had a wider distribution and reputation. In one branch of his industry he specialized in the manufacture of Bush wheels for farm wagons. He was also a stockholder in the Quincy Engine Works. About eight years ago Mr. Clement Bush retired from business and made his home at Long Beach, California, where his death occurred May 27, 1918. He married in 1865 Ellen Lockley Woodland, whose father, Richard R. Woodland, was an attorney at Bristol, England. Mr. Bush was called upon to mourn the loss of his wife on May 11, 1903, after they had been happily married for nearly forty years. Five children were born to their marriage: Clement J., who was born November 18, 1866, and has long been identified with his father's business; Albert Richard; Frank A., also of the Bush Foundry; Blanche E., wife of Thomas C. Hughes, of Herscher, Illinois; and Florence, wife of Lionel Hiles, of Seattle, Washington.
Albert Richard Bush was horn at Bristol, England, November 18, 1872, and was about sixteen years of age when his parents came to the United States. He received his first advantages in the schools of his native country, and about the time his father came to Quincy he began learning the general foundry business. This he has followed actively all his career and always in association with his father. He took the general management of the plant when his father retired and has kept it up to the same high standard of workmanship and output that everything bearing the name of Clement Bush has always enjoyed.
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