USA > Illinois > Adams County > Quincy > Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II > Part 19
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Mr. A. R. Bush is a democrat, member of the Masonic Order and Knights of Pythias, and was reared in the Episcopal Church. November 19, 1898, he married Miss Anna Meyers, a native of Quincy. They have a family of six children : Harold Lockley, Donald Clement, Grace Lillian, Albert Richard, Jr., Derrick Sidney and Roger Roland.
GEORGE MCADAMS was born in Ursa Township and during his active career has made his presence known and felt through a long experience and service as a grain buyer and grain dealer. With grain elevators at Ursa and Rock Creek on the Burlington Road, he handles a considerable share of the grain raised and shipped out of Adams County.
A number of interesting changes have occurred in the methods of marketing grain. Up to about forty-five years ago all the grain raised in Ursa and that section of the county was brought on wagons to the Quincy mills by individual farmers. About 1877 William Lemmon began arranging with some of the farmers to bring their grain to the station at Ursa and load directly from the wagon into the cars on the track. As a track buyer he was succeeded by John H. James, who was employed for a number of years by the Dick Brothers Milling Company on a salary. In 1902 Mr. James and Mr. George MeAdams bought the interests of the Dick Brothers, and in order the better to handle the grain and give themselves and the farmers a broader market they built an elevator at Ursa. In the same year Mr. McAdams built the Rock Creek elevator
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on his own account. September 9, 1909, the interests of Mr. James passed by purchase to Mr. George MeAdams, and since then the latter has been proprietor and manager of both elevators. Through these elevators he handles most of the surplus grain raised in the surrounding agricultural community, and ships extensively to the Chicago and St. Louis markets, and also occasionally to Peoria and Quincy. Corn and wheat with some oats comprise practically all the grain that goes through the elevators. Mr. MeAdams handles an immense volume of the grain trade in the county.
He was born in Ursa Township in 1863, and was reared and educated in that locality, completing his education by a course in Carthage College and graduating from the Gem City Business College in Quincy. He is widely known over Adams County not only because of his operations as a grain dealer but also through his capable service for four years as county treasurer. He was elected to this office in 1894, at the age of thirty years. For eight years he was also supervisor of Ursa Township.
His father, William MeAdams, was born in Logan County, Kentucky, August 1, 1815, of Scotch ancestry. He was a pioneer in Adams County, settling here in November, 1835. On May 1, 1838, he married Miss Elizabeth Taylor, also a native of Kentucky. William McAdams acquired a fine estate of over 300 acres in section 18 of Ursa Township, and for some years was one of the prominent farmers of that section. He was a democrat in politics and a member of the Christian Church. He died on the farm at the age of seventy-six and his wife at fifty-seven. They were the parents of four sons and four daughters. The only ones now living arc, George and his brother John, the latter of whom lives in Quincy retired from active business.
Mr. George MeAdams married in Adams County Miss Blanche K. Leachman, who was born at Ursa and educated in the public schools. She is a member of the old and prominent Leachman family of Ursa Township. The Leachmans originated in Virginia, from there went to Kentucky, and came to Adams County in 1835. Mrs. McAdams' parents were James and Lucy (Selby) Leach- man, who spent all their lives in Ursa Township, where her father died at the age of sixty-two and her mother at fifty-six. Her father was a democrat, but in later years was an ardent prohibitionist, and both he and his wife were members of the Christian Church.
Mr. and Mrs. McAdams have two sons. William Chauncey, was born in 1896, was educated in the schools of Ursa and Quincy and is now assisting his father in business. The younger son, George Eugene, born in 1909, is attend- ing public school at Quincy. The family attend the Christian Church, of which Mrs. McAdams is an active member. Mr. McAdams is a director of the Ricker National Bank of Quincy.
JOSEPH NICHOLAS TIBESAR, a retired business man of Quincy, is one of the striking personalities in local citizenship. He comes of an old and prominent family of Western Europe, long identified with some of the districts in the immediate war zone of the recent conflict, and as a youth there he was liberally educated, had a thorough technical training, and has always been a student as well as a practical man of affairs. He not only inherits the intellectual qualifi- cations of his ancestors but also their splendid physical stature and manhood.
Mr. Tibesar was born in the Duchy of Luxemburg February 14, 1859. His father, Maximillian Tibesar, was born in Belgium in 1808, and for generations the family had lived in and around Brussels. Maximillian married Mary Schleimer, of Luxemburg, where she was born in 1824. Her father was a native of the same Grand Duchy and had served as a soldier under Napoleon the First. Maximillian Tibesar after his marriage settled in the Belgium dis- trict known as the Walloon and later lived in Luxemburg on a farm estate. He died in 1861 and his wife in 1879. Both branches of the family were Catholics.
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Joseph Nicholas Tibesar acquired a liberal training in the schools in Europe, and was given a thorough technical apprenticeship in blast furnace and the iron works trade. He was superintendent of a large furnace plant on the border between France and Belgium. At the age of twenty-five he was granted a two years vacation for the purpose of acquainting himself with the most improved technical methods of the iron industry. In 1884 he went to England to look over the iron districts of that country and later in the same year came to America, through New York and on to South Bend, Indiana, where some cousins were connected with Notre Dame University as instructors. He him- self enrolled as a student there, taking a course in elocution under Charles W. Stoddard and studied chemistry under Professor Zahm. Later for a time he was in Chicago and from there came to Quincy and was a student in St. Francis College. A year later he was made a professor in that institution, teaching French, chemistry, mathematics and natural sciences. For six years he was one of the men who gave strength and prestige to the faculty of St. Francis College. He then entered business as a grocer, and in 1898 joined the Blomer & Michael Packing Company. In 1900 he became a member of the Wholesale Quiney Grocery Company and represented that house four years. He then went back to the packing company and continued with it until fire destroyed the plant on February 14, 1913. Since then Mr. Tibesar has been practically retired from business, and enjoys the comforts of a fine home at the corner of Vine and Fifteenth streets.
After coming to Quiney Mr. Tibesar married Miss Christina Blomer. She was born in Quincy in 1872, and is a graduate of St. Mary's Academy and was liberally educated in music. Her father was Henry Blomer, a prominent figure in Quincy affairs to whom further reference is made on other pages. Mr. and Mrs. Tibesar are the parents of eight children: Maria, who was educated in St. Mary's Academy and took special work in music: Agnes, a graduate of St. Mary's Academy in the commercial course; Leopold, who graduated from St. Francis College with the degrees A. B. and A. M., and is now preparing for the priesthood in a Catholic seminary; Cyril, a graduate of high school and now a pharmacist student ; Maurice, a student in St. Francis College; Norbert and Sevrin, both in St. Francis parochial schools; and Octavia. The family are all members of St. Francis Catholic Church.
WILLIAM CLARK CHATTEN. Of the old American families in Adams County one that is conspicuous for the high character of its members and what they have done to improve this region from pioneer times to the present is repre- sented by William Clark Chatten of Riverside Township.
Mr. Chatten was born in this county June 17, 1860, the youngest of five children, and the only son of Clark and Abigail (Brown) Chatten. He has three sisters still living. Elizabeth, residing in Riverside Township and mother of three children, is the widow of Isaac Shinn, a former attorney of Quincy ; Anna is the widow of Frank Chapman. She lives in Quincy, and has two children. Lucy is the wife of William Bywater, a gardener and grower of small fruit in Riverside Township. They have two children.
Clark Chatten, the elder, was born in the State of New Jersey July 10. 1813. He grew to manhood there, had a common school education, and on coming to the west sought a home in Fall Creek Township of Adams County. Around his log cabin home in the early days the wolves howled and the deer ran fearlessly, and even an occasional Indian prowled among the brush. From Fall Creek Clark Chatten moved to Riverside Township and bought the old Fair Ground property. There he lived until his death and accumulated a farm of 300 acres. This land was sold after his death and the property divided among his children. He was a republican, but began voting as an old-line whig. He showed a special interest in public schools and education, and he and his wife were active members of the Methodist Church. He was one of the pioneer
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fruit growers of the county and the fruit from his farm were awarded a num- ber of medals in the Fruit Growers Convention and the State Fair. His death occurred in Fall Creek Township, and his children erected a handsome monu- ment to him and his wife. His wife was born in Essex County, Massachusetts, October 29, 1819, and died February 14, 1903, having survived her husband nearly thirty years. Clark Chatten died July 2, 1874.
William Clark Chatten grew up in Adams County and most of his knowl- edge of men and affairs is the product of his own learning, though he attended the common schools during his youth.
On September 8, 1885, Mr. Chatten married Miss Carrie P. Edwards. Mrs. Chatten was born in Adams County October 19, 1868, sixth among the seven children of Paul and Mary Ellen (Platt) Edwards. Of this family there was only one son. Mrs. Chatten was educated in the common schools and in the thirty-three years since her marriage she has stood faithfully beside her hus- band in co-operating with him in business and at the same time has been a splendid homemaker and her children have found in her their best friend and counselor.
To Mr. and Mrs. Chatten were born six children, four sons and two daugh- ters. Five of them are still living. Lollie Belle, the oldest, received her train- ing in the township schools and also took musical instruction. She is now the wife of Ernest Wisman, a cattle and hog farmer in Riverside Township. They have a daughter, Mildred, who is now in school and has shown much musical talent. The second child is Walter C., who was educated in the public schools and in the National Business College and is now connected with the Interna- tional Harvester Company. He married Miss Anna Thomas, and they have two children. Beulah Marie and James William. Beulah Marie is a student in the public schools and has also taken instruction in music. James William is at- tending the Webster School. Walter C. Chatten is a republican voter. Paul Glenwood Chatten is a well known citizen of Adams County, a practical fruit grower. and is manager of his father's estate. He resides in a modern cottage which his father built on the home farm near their own home. Paul Glenwood married Miss Edith Melntyre. The fourth of the family is Frank William Chatten, who was educated in the common schools and in the Musselman Business College, is a republican voter and married Miss Addie Thomas and resides in Riverside Township. Ernest Marion, the youngest, was educated in the common schools and spent two years in the Gem City Business College.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Chatten started farming in Riverside Township, and went in debt for their first property. They worked hard and as the fruit of their long continued efforts now have an estate of sixty acres in Riverside Township and forty acres in Ellington Township. Mr. Chatten was able to buy the sixty acres in Riverside Township largely through the savings of his wages earned as a farmer. Though they began life in debt, today they possess vastly more assets than liabilities, and have also reared a capable family. Theirs is one of the most beautiful fruit farms in Riverside Township. It is appropriately known as Orchard Home Fruit Farm. Mr. Chatten is a re- publican in politics but has never sought any official distinctions. He takes an active interest in the Farm Improvement Association and the Apple Growers Association, and is looked upon as an authority on the subjects connected with the growing and handling of fruit. Mr. and Mrs. Chatten have a fine home, which means more to them than anything else in the world, and they are also able to enjoy their friends both near and at a distance by means of their five passenger Nash touring car.
HENRY II. MOLLER, who died at Quincy, was for many years one of the leading figures in the city's Inmber interests.
He was born at St. Louis, Missouri. May 29, 1848, and was eight years of age when his parents settled in Quincy in 1856. He had a fair education and
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carly in life learned to rely upon himself as a means of advancement in the world. Perhaps his first position was with the Ricker Bank, where he remained four years. Later he worked in the planing mill of Menke & Grimm, and fol- lowed several other occupations for a time. On July 1, 1875, the lumber firm of Moller & Vanden Boom was organized, and thereafter Mr. Moller remained its senior partner and had much to do with the upbuilding of its business. The firm conducted four large lumber yards in Quincy and also had an extensive wholesale trade to nearly all the towns and cities in the Quincy territory.
Mr. Moller was always an unselfish citizen, willing to devote his times and means to the encouragement of worthy local enterprises, and for five years was a member of the board of supervisors. He also served as chairman of the poor farm committee and in many ways sought to improve that county institu- tion. On January 10, 1871, he married Miss Louisa Vanden Boom, and they became the parents of four sons and one daughter.
FRED E. MOLLER, who practically grew up in the lumber business under the supervision and direction of his father, the late Henry H. Moller, has made that industry the chief claim upon his time and energies through his mature manhood.
He was born at Quincy December 10, 1879, and received a good education in the parochial schools, St. Francis College and the Gem City Business College. He was only fourteen when he began working in the yards and around the offices of the firm of Moller & Vanden Boom, of which his father was senior partner, and out of experience and a natural adaptability to this special line of work has become one of the best known lumber dealers in the Mississippi Valley. He is now treasurer of Moller & Vanden Boom Company.
January 17, 1906, he married Miss Maude Binkert, a native of Quincy. They have two children : Lawrence, born November 14, 1907; and Mildred, born June 1, 1910. Mr. Moller is independent in politics and with his family worships in St. Boniface Catholic Church.
LOUIS AHLEMEIER during a brief lifetime of less than fifty years was regarded as one of the ablest and most successful farmers of Ellington Town- ship, and a citizen whose name always stood for the best in public spirit and value to the community.
He was born on his father's farm in section 10 of Ellington Township December 15, 1861, and died there January 23, 1907. He grew up on the farm, and in 1900 succeeded to its ownership upon the death of his father, John. He owned 120 acres, constituting the homestead, and also acquired 160 acres in an adjoining section. These two farms he developed to a high degree of productiveness. Both were well tilled, well stocked, and each had a complete set of good farm buildings, including a seven room house and ample barns and other shelter. The land of these farms is rolling and well drained, and the estate is still undivided, held in trust for the children. The original eighty-acre homestead in section 10 is owned by Mrs. Allemeier. In 1910 she retired from the farm and has since lived in Quincy, owning a com- modious brick home on South Fourteenth Street. Mr. Ahlemeier bought the 160-acre farm in section 9 a short time after the death of his father. The buildings on the original 120 acres in section 10 had been erected by his father.
Mr. Allemeier was a son of John and Mary (Brown) Allemeier, both natives of Germany. They came from Hanover and were married either just before they left that country or after they landed. They made the voyage on a sailing vessel, being seven weeks in crossing. They arrived in New Orleans and thence went up the Mississippi River to Quincy. For a time they rented land, and then bought the original eighty acres in section 10 of Ellington Town- ship. This land was improved from the bare wilderness, and by hard work
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they succeeded in providing liberally for their family and in making a good home. John Ahlemeier died there in 1900 and his wife in 1892. She was then sixty-one and he was in his eightieth year. Both were for many years active members of the Salem Lutheran Church at Ninth and State streets iu Quincy. They were buried side by side in the Greenmount Lutheran Cemetery.
Louis Ahlemeier was the youngest of three children. His sister Amelia is the widow of Fred Henry Disselhorst and is now living at 813 South Fourteenth Street in Quincy. The other sister married Fred Peuster, a carpenter, living at the corner of Fifteenth and Payson Avenue in Quincy. Mr. and Mrs. Peuster have two sons and two daughters, one of the sons being a soldier.
Louis Ahlemeier married September 29, 1891, Miss Sophia F. Drebes. She was born in Waldeck, Germany, February 10, 1872, and at the age of sixteen she and her sister Emma, then aged fourteen, crossed the ocean from Bremen, landing at Baltimore after a rapid passage of two weeks. They then came on to Quincy. Emma married John Schafter, and they now live on a farm in Missouri and have six children. A brother, Christ Drebes, was the first of the family to come to America, and he is a farmer near Palmyra, Missouri. He married Amelia Merker, and they have a family of eight children. A few months after Mrs. Ahlemeier came to this country her parents, John and Frederica (Krause) Drebes, followed her by the same route and located on a farm in Marion County, Missouri. The father is still living there at the age of eighty and is now in quite feeble health. Mrs. Ahlemeier's mother died in November, 1906, at the age of sixty-five. The Drebes were all Lutherans. The six children were: Christ; Mrs. Ahlemeier; Emma; Charles; Minnie, widow of Louis Peuster, of Palmyra, Missouri, and mother of two sons and two daugh- ters : and Fred, a resident of Quincy, who is married and has a family of children.
Mrs. Ahlemeier is the mother of three children: Frederica A., who was educated in the Washington District schools in Ellington Township, is still at home; John W., aged twenty-one, still lives with his mother; Sophia A., aged seventeen, has completed her education and is also at home. All the family are regular attendants of the Salem Lutheran Church. Mr. Ahlemeier was a re- publican in politics.
JOHN H. STEINER. No one has done more to impress and influence the educational affairs of Adams County than John H. Steiner, the present county superintendent of schools. Mr. Steiner has made education his life work, is a native of Adams County, and his intense loyalty to all home institutions has pervaded his work at every point.
Mr. Steiner was born on a farm three and one-half miles northwest of Loraine in this county, January 5, 1874, the oldest of eight children of George M. and Elizabeth (IIumphrey) Steiner. The family is one of the oldest and most highly respected in Adams County. The grandfather, Michael E., settled on the old homestead in 1836. George M., the father, was born here, while the mother was a native of Kentucky. George Steiner here laid the basis of his prosperity as a farmer. At his death, which occurred December 2, 1917, he was the owner of over 700 acres in Adams County. He organized the Loraine State Bank and for thirteen years, up to the time of his death, was the president.
Johu H. Steiner spent his early life on the farm and received his education in the public school. After completing the course in district school he gradu- ated from Loraine High School in 1889 and in May, 1893, completed the course in Chaddock College in Quincy.
The next year he took up teaching, which was to be his vocation for life. He taught four years in the rural schools. He was for five years the principal of Coatsburg High School and for five years the principal of Jefferson School, the third largest school in Quincy, with thirteen teachers and enrollment of over 500 pupils. Having had training and experience all along the line, Mr.
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Steiner understands the requirements of the rural school as well as the village and eity sehools, and has done much to improve and vitalize school work with respect to modern needs and conditions.
He was elected county superintendent of schools in 1910, with a majority of 1,194; re-elected in 1914 with a majority of 1,500; and re-elected 1918 with a majority of 1,668.
Mr. Steiner is a democrat in politics, is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Quiney Lodge. No. 12; the Masonie Lodge in Loraine, and is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason in Quincy.
On September 3, 1916, he was united in marriage to Miss Anna M. Brosi, of Coatsburg. They have one child, George Brosi, born July 21, 1917.
JACOB F. DAUGHERTY. No name in Quiney stands for service that is more appreciated than that of Daugherty. Daugherty is in fact one of the oldest names of Adams County, and the people of this family have always been promi- nent as landholders, farmers, business men and citizens, but that of Jacob F. Dangherty is especially associated with the undertaking business. Some years ago it was said that no Protestant American had ever been able to set up a snecessful undertaking business in Quiney in competition with Mr. Daugherty. He was active in the business until 1908, when he turned the business over to his son. He has handled the funeral arrangements of more than 6.000 Quincy citizens in the past forty years.
Mr. Daugherty was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, not far from the City of Pittsburg, Mareh 10, 1840, a son of Michael and Elizabeth (Funk) Daugherty, both natives of Pennsylvania and the former of Seotch ancestry and the latter of German stock. Michael Daugherty brought his fam- ily to Illinois in 1851 and settled on a farm in Ursa Township of Adams County. Michael was a blacksmith by trade, but after coming to Adams County gave his time to agriculture and developed one of the finest farms of the county. He died here August 28, 1892, and his wife on June 14, 1900. He was eighty- two and his wife was nearly ninety-three when death eame to them. They were the parents of nine children, two of whom died in infaney. John M., who sue- eeeded to the ownership of the old Daugherty homestead, and the son James W., who lived in Oregon, both died in the year 1917. Mary, widow of Martin B. Kuhns, is still living in Adams County, Samnel is a resident of Gilpin, Colo- rado, Michael has his home in Oakland, California, and Naney is the wife of W. H. Barr, of Medford, Oregon.
Brought to Adams County at the age of ten years Jacob F. Daugherty has by personal experience known the ehanging developments of this part of Western Illinois for over six decades. Ile grew up here on his father's pioneer farm and after his education in the local schools remained at home and assisted in its enltivation until he was about twenty-eight years old, at which time he moved to Quiney and engaged in the livery business for about five years, but in 1876 took np undertaking and embalming which he continued until his retire- ment. The business is still continued in his old location at 619 Maine Street, where it has been located over fifteen years and where the firm has some of the best equipped undertaking rooms found anywhere in the state. Mr. Daugherty has also for many years been interested in the monument business to which he has been giving his attention sinee 1908.
In 1862 Mr. Daugherty married Miss Lonise Turner, daughter of John Turner, an old time citizen of Adams County. Six children were born to their marriage : Bertha, widow of F. B. Porter, of Quiney; Nellie, wife of A. M. Brown, of Quiney; Pauline and Leroy, both deceased; Arthur W., who is an undertaker and succeeded his father in the business; and Grace, wife of W. A. Bishop, of Los Angeles, California.
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