Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 21

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 21

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While the general name applied to the motion picture business may be "amusement," it is not amusement from every angle and, in fact, is a very serious enterprise from the standpoint of both owners and managers. This industry that has so rapidly developed and extended over the world has become almost one of the indispensable elements of modern life. This art has opened so many doors to knowledge and enjoyment that it is to be hoped no censor nor any national calamity will ever do away with it. In the management of the Quincy houses Mr. Nelson has not only shown himself a capable man of business, but one who is careful to present only the best and most artistic productions.

RUPP BROTHERS & COMPANY. This firm is probably the oldest institution at Quincy to exemplify in practical and commercial ways the conservation principle concerning which so much is now heard on all sides. It is no longer considered a virtue even in America to throw away and waste valuable material. Rupp Broth- ers & Company for nearly half a century have been using and utilizing what the public throws away and counts as waste. The founders of the business, following the custom of junk dealers from time immemorial, traveled about over Quincy territory gathering up their materials with a poor horse and wagon. Today Rupp Brothers & Company are responsible for the largest tonnage that goes out of Quincy on the railroads, and most of their material has right of way on the roads as preferred traffic for government use.

The new plant of the company recently established at Walton Heights in East Quincy, with ready access and traffic facilities from the Burlington Rail- road, represents the last word in the construction of a plant of this kind. The machinery for loading and unloading comprises several magnet cranes capable of lifting ten tons of iron at a time. They have also installed wonderful break- ing and cutting devices for preparing the metal for shipment and subsequent use. Large boiler irons are cut up rapidly by an acid heating device which practically melts away the heavy iron by simple contact. The company employs about eighty people all the time, and their sales run into several hundred thousand dollars annually. All of this is merely suggested as items to show the remarkable development of a business which started on the simplest scale.

An old Quincy directory of forty years ago indicates the name of the firm as George Rupp & Brother, Junk Store, at Broadway, corner of 18th Street. The founders of the business were George and his brother Fred, both natives of Nassau, Prussia. George was born in 1842, and he and his brother came to the United States in 1867, locating at Quincy after coming up the Mississippi River from New Orleans. Both were poor young men in a strange land, and one of the first means they found to earn a living was selling mustard. They also worked on farms, and in 1870, having managed to acquire a horse and covered wagon, they started out buying iron and other products, and from that business both became wealthy. From the original location of 18th and Broadway they moved to 12th and Broadway, and about 1885 took over a property at 100 to 112 North 10th Street, where the business was located until the Walton Heights plant was occupied. The business was incorporated in 1894. George and Fred Rupp were esteemed business men and citizens of Quincy for nearly half a century. George Rupp died here in 1909 and his brother Fred in August, 1917. Their widows are still living.

George Rupp married in 1872 Elizabeth Reuming, a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She is still living at the age of sixty-seven. George Rupp was a Catholic and independent in politics. He and his wife had five sons and five daughters, all of the sons living and four of them married. The president of

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the company is Mr. Fred Rupp, and George A. is secretary and treasurer. At Walton Heights the company has acquired four aeres of ground for their large buildings. They also operate three braneh houses, one at Hannibal, Missouri, one at Moberly, Missouri, and other at Chillicothe, Illinois. They have an exten- sive system of reaching out into the various distriets, having two men cover- ing Illinois as buyers and six men in other fields. The average shipment from Quiney amounts to over 120 ears a month or 1,500 ears per year. While most of the prodnet handled is iron, they are also collecting large amounts of paper and rags and have electric presses which put this material into large bales for shipment.

Fred and George A. Rupp were both born in Quiney and both attended the high school and the Gem City Business College. Of these two brothers Fred is the only one married. He married Anna Sehupp, who was born and educated in Quiney, daughter of Charles Sehupp, a native of Germany. Charles Sehupp married Miss Charlotte Schupp, who is still living at the age of sixty-seven. Fred Rupp and wife have had the following children : Virgil, a student in St. Francis College ; Marion, who died in 1918, at the age of sixteen; Omer, Doro- thy, Celeste, Anna, Maria and Lawrenee. The Rupp brothers and their respec- tive families are all Catholies, and they are affiliated with the Knights of Columbus.

C. HENRY WURST. Any business that can live, grow and prosper for more than half a century has beyond all doubt proved its usefulness and serviee, and possesses elements that make it a real institution of any community. The vitality of such a business, and the quality of the service rendered, are largely a matter of personal effectiveness. To live so many years a business must de- pend upon the loyalty, faithfulness, industry and good judgment of its personal factors.

Such an institution at Quiney is the C. H. Wurst Company at Seventh and State streets. It is one of the largest general hardware concerns in Western Illinois, but far more interesting than its material equipment and growth are the individuals who founded and have kept up its vitality to the present day.

It was established by the late Christian Gottlob Wurst, who, though he passed from the living more than thirty-five years ago, is still remembered by many Quiney people as a scholar and thorough business man, a complete exem- plification of the old time merchant, with his punctual habits, diligence, and complete integrity of character. It was characteristic of this gentleman of the old school that he should keep a diary, and from that diary the story of his life from childhood has been told.

Christian Gottlob Wurst was the son of a schoolmaster at Sulzbach, Wurtem- berg, Germany. When a small boy he was left fatherless. The burden of earing for the family fell on an older brother, who had completed his studies and become a schoolmaster before the father's death. This brother not only helped to provide for his younger brother, but supervised his education, teaching him the elementary branches during the long evenings.

When Christian reached the age of fourteen it was decided that he should learn the tinner's trade. For a number of years therefore he traveled about Germany, seeuring work wherever possible, and in 1850 received his diploma as a finished tinsmith.

November 17, 1853, he left Bremen on the ship Carolina, arriving in New York six weeks later. Here he worked in a number of shops until April, 1855. when he decided to go west to Oquawka, Illinois, county seat of Henderson County, where a New York acquaintance had referred him to two friends. His diary states that he had $27 in gold and good, warm elothing when he left New York. He found Oquawka to be a thriving eity of about 1,000 inhabitants. Here he learned the English language.

In the fall of 1856 he journeyed to Quincy by steamboat. He described

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Quiney as a good city of 18,000 population. Business, however, was dull, and he left the following spring for Palmyra. This town, he said, had 1,000 in- habitants, and was the nicest, liveliest little city he had yet visited. Business continued dull and in the fall he went to La Grange, Missouri, where he re- mained until the next spring, when he went back to Palmyra. That was his home until the spring of 1859. St. Joseph, Missouri, next attracted his atten- tion, but he found no work there, so went by steamboat to St. Louis. After working three months he went on to Nashville, Tennessee. That city he de- scribed as being too hot, so he left a few days later for Quincy, and then decided to buy some tools and open a shop in Mendon, Illinois.

Business was good and that same year he bought the shop and residence from Mr. Durfin for $1,000. In 1861 he married in Quincy Miss Catherine Wolf, who at once returned with him to Mendon.

In the spring of 1866 he started to sell out his holdings in Mendon. He then returned to Quincy and purchased the brick and frame building that was stand- ing at Seventh and State streets, and stocked it with merchandise and tools. The place was opened for business August 20, 1866, fifty-two years ago. There were bad years and good years but the store and shop steadily grew in popu- larity. It was sixteen years after he became a business man of Quincy that Christian Gottlob Wurst died in 1882. He left his widow and son Henry, then a lad of seventeen years, to care for the business. Under their manage- ment great progress was made. In a short time the young man found the entire responsibility resting on his own shoulders. With each succeeding year trade increased and new patrons were attracted to the establishment.

The late C. Henry Wurst was born at Mendon, Illinois, April 4, 1865. His boyhood was spent in Quincy attending school and assisting his father in the store and shop. He was the responsible head of the business for thirty years.

In 1890, when he was twenty-five years of age, the business outgrew the old building. This building was accordingly wrecked and the east half of the present structure erceted. In 1908 more room was again demanded, supplied by building the west half, making the building 37 by 60 feet, three stories high with basement, and an extension in the rear of the west side. Fire seriously damaged the building the next year, but all was quickly restored to the original condition. Even with this equipment the business found itself cramped, and later they bought property two doors north of the store, where extensive ware- houses and shops were erected.

Prior to 1911 the business was conducted as a private institution. It was Mr. Wurst's desire that two of his faithful employes be permitted to take an interest in the business, and accordingly the C. H. Wurst Company was in- corporated with C. H. Wurst, Herman I. Ehrhardt and A. J. Hermsdorfer as directors and Mr. Wurst as president.

October 27, 1912, C. Henry Wurst succumbed to injuries received in a street car accident and passed away at the age of forty-seven, still in the prime of life, but he had already achieved distinction as one of Quincy's most successful business men. Owing to his quiet, modest manners only those who knew him well realized the extent of the business he conducted. Among his friends he was accepted as a man of sound business judgment, deliberate but painstaking, quiet but firm.

He has a worthy successor as president and head of the board of directors of the company. This is his wife, Mrs. Wurst, who upon assuming the un- expected responsibilities proved as capable and resourceful as she had previously in the management of her home and household. She keeps in close touch with all details of the business, though in her fellow directors she has two of the very capable business men of Quincy, formerly associated with her husband. One is Mr. Herman I. Ehrhardt, now superintendent of the company and one of its directors since 1911. Mr. Ehrhardt is a man distinguished by great capacity for detail as well as possessed of all the qualities of the good executive.

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He has the general management of the retail store and the business in general. The other active man in the business is A. J. Hermsdorfer, who like Mr. Ehr- hardt has been in business for over fifteen years, and who is superintendent of the mechanical department and has given the tin and metal working shops an enviable reputation.

At Quiney in 1897 Mr. C. Henry Wurst married Miss Lillie C. Ebert. Mrs. Wurst was born and reared and educated in Quincy. She is a daughter of Jacob and Mary (Schaefer) Ebert. Her father was born in Wuertemberg on the Swiss border in 1826 and his parents died in Germany. At the age of twenty- seven he came to America, and after a long voyage landed at New Orleans. He was possessed of a college edneation and in Germany had learned the trade of stone mason. He first located at Bushnell, Illinois, but six months later eame to Quincy and with Mr. Brosi engaged in the quarrying and stone mason con- tracting business. Mr. Brosi soon left Quiney, and Mr. Ebert continued the business alone. He supplied stone materials for many of the foundations in homes, business houses and public buildings in Quiney. He was an active worker and died in the prime of life, at the age of fifty-five, in November, 1881. Soon after coming to Quiney Mr. Ebert married Miss Schaefer, who was born in Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, and was thirteen years old when her parents, Wendel and Anna E. (Danm) Schaefer, eame to the United States. They were on the ocean six weeks, landed at New Orleans, and then came up the Mississippi to Quiney. Mr. and Mrs. Schaefer died here, the latter at the age of sixty and the former at eighty-six. Wendel Schaefer was an all around blacksmith. The Schaefers were members of the German Methodist Episcopal Church. The mother of Mrs. Wurst died June 3, 1916, lacking only a month of her eightieth birthday.

Mrs. Wurst was one of a family of fifteen children, of whom a daughter and two sons died in early childhood. Twelve grew to maturity, six sons and six daughters, all but three married, and all are still living except the oldest son, George, who died seven years ago and who had sneceeded to and conducted his father's business as a stone contractor.

Mr. and Mrs. Wurst became the parents of six children, and with these children they had a most happy home life at 1254 Kentucky Street, where Mrs. Wurst still resides. Their oldest child, Ella, died at the age of eleven years. Henry E. graduated from the Quincy High School in 1918, at the age of eight- een. and a few months later entered the Illinois State University. Katharine, aged sixteen, is member of the Quincy High School, elass of 1920. Emily died at the age of five years, and was buried on the same day her sister Ella died. Mary is nine years old and in grammar school, while the youngest, Charles E., is seven years old. Mrs. Wurst is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the late Mr. Wurst was one of its trustees.

LOUIS DEDERT. Few of the veteran farmers of Adams County have a greater volume of work and production to their eredit than Louis Dedert, now living retired at Quiney. Mr. Dedert's home is at 1606 Payson Avenue, where he has lived since August, 1911. This is a comfortable city home, a seven room house located on a large lot 100 feet square.

Mr. Dedert eame to this city home from his farm in seetion 10 of Ellington Township, where he owns eighty aeres. On that farm he spent most of his life. HIe was born December 28, 1859, and was reared and received his edueation in Quiney and Ellington Township.

Ilis parents were William and Louisa (Sehlippmann) Dedert. Both were born in Bielfeld, Germany, the father about 1830. They were married in Ger- many and eame to America on different ships, landing at New York and thence coming to St. Louis. Leaving his wife at St. Louis William Dedert came on to Quiney during the winter of 1851-52 for the purpose of finding work. Soon afterward the river froze over and he was unable to rejoin his wife at St. Louis

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until the next spring. They rented land, and later bought the eighty acres in seetion 10 of Ellington Township where they lived for many years. The wid- owed mother finally retired to Quincy and died in the spring of 1912. They were members of the Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church and both are buried side by side in the Green Mount cemetery. William Dedert was a republican but never interested in politics only to the extent of easting his vote. Their children were Henry, William, Louis, Frank, John, Edward, Simon, Theodore and Mary. All of them married except Frank and Mary.

Louis Dedert, third in this family, grew up on the farm and became an energetie farmer and stock raiser, and followed that vocation successfully until he retired. He married for his first wife in this county Cornelia Speckmann. She was born at Quincy in 1864 of German parentage. Her death occurred in Ellington Township December 2, 1911. Her two children, Freda and Mabel, are both unmarried and at home with their father. In the spring of 1913 Mr. Dedert married at Quincy Lena Ermann, a sister of his first wife and widow of George Ermann. George Ermann was born in Wuertemberg, Germany, October 5, 1860, and came to the United States when a young man. At Quiney he took up his trade as a custom shoemaker, and followed that vocation until his death when nearly twenty-nine years of age. He was the father of three children. Walter Ermann, born in Quiney in 1885, is a well educated and trained musician and is employed in the Weiler's music store at Quincy. He married Minnie Boehl, and their children are Florence, Wilbur and Charles. Alfred Ermann, born in 1887, is now in the army service, attached to the Hos- pital Corps at Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis. Arthur, born in 1889, was, like his brothers, well educated in the eity schools and is now a farmer at LeGrande, Oregon. He married Hulda Schroeda, of Adams County, and has one daughter, Anita. The family are members of the Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church at Quincy and Mr. Dedert is a republican.

CHARLES W. BREITWIESER. Among the able business men who have contrib- uted for many years to the commercial importance of Quincy is Charles W. Breitwieser, for a long time prominent in the grocery line and at present owner and operator of the Gem City Transfer Company. Mr. Breitwieser has chosen to spend his life in his native eity. He was born at Quiney, Illinois, March 5, 1862. lfis parents were John and Amelia (Reineeker) Breitwieser, natives of Germany.

John Breitwieser for many years was a well known and highly esteemed resident of Quincy, where he spent his entire life after coming to the United States in 1837. He was a shoemaker by trade and as he was of industrious habit acquired a sufficient competency and provided well for his family of nine chil- dren. Of these two survive and are residents of Quincy : Charles W. and Amelia.

The father of Charles W. Breitwieser was a man with practical ideas and when his son had reached his thirteenth year decided that it was time he leave school and learn a trade, henee Charles entered a cigar factory with the expec- tation of becoming a cigar-maker. A year later, however, a more attractive opportunity presented itself and he accepted a position in a retail grocery store and remained there for sixteen years. With this preparation in 1892 he went into the grocery business for himself, having learned its details thoroughly, purchasing from William Evers, and for thirteen years he condueted a first class grocery near the corner of Fifth and Hampshire streets. In 1905 he embarked in another line by purchasing the transfer business of two companies here and consolidating as the Gem City Transfer Company. Under all condi- tions and eireumstanees this business is conducted in a satisfactory manner and both visitors and loeal patrons unite in praise of the service.

Mr. Breitwieser was married September 15, 1886, to Miss Clara R. Rothgeb. who was born at Quiney. They are members of the Memorial Lutheran Church at Quincy, and he is a member of its board of trustees. Fraternally he is a Blue Lodge Mason, and politically he is a republican.

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JOHN L. GRIESER. Some of the valuable and important interests of Adams County represented in farms and other properties have been built up and aeeu- mulated by the late John L. Grieser, and are at present managed by his capable sons. The family has been a factor in the life and affairs of this country for eighty years or more.

The late John L. Grieser was only about four years old when brought to this county. He was born at Baltimore, Maryland, September 3, 1834, son of Leonard and Dorothy (Hack) Grieser. His father was a native of Alsace-Lorraine, then a part of Franee, and his mother was either born in that country or of German parentage. They came to Illinois and located in Quincy about 1837, and some years later moved to a farm in Ellington Township. Leonard Grieser, Sr., and wife spent their last years on a farm. They were active members of the Lntheran Church. All their children are now deceased.

John L. Grieser, who died at his home 401 Elm Street in Quiney, August 26, 1906, aged seventy-two, was the oldest of his parents' children, and grew up in Quiney and in Ellington Township. After his education he took up the business of farming, and for many years his enterprise was chiefly eentered in the wood business, with headquarters at Quiney, shipping from wood lots up and down the river for many miles. At the same time he carried on his farm operations and was one of the leading stoek raisers in Ellington and Ursa townships. He owned good farms in both townships. He was a man of progressive ideas and was one of the citizens who took the lead and brought abont one of the greatest improvements Adams County has had, the Indian drainage distriet. Ursa Town- ship land lay in this district, and was highly benefited from the improvement, though not more so than many other lands adjoining.

Mr. Grieser gave his personal superintendence to his farms and other lines of business from his home in Quiney. For many years he lived on State Street, but later moved to the residence on Elm Street where he died. He was a repub- liean voter and an active member of the Baptist Church.

Mr. Grieser met and married his first wife, Adelia Davis, at Canton, Missouri. She was a native of Missouri and died at the State Street home of the family in 1873. Her only child, Mande, is the wife of Dr. Otis Johnson, the prominent Quincy surgeon.

At Taylorville, Illinois, Mr. Grieser married Miss Hattie Ash. Mrs. Grieser, who resides at 305 Sonth Sixteenth Street, was born in Maconpin County, Illi- mois, and was educated largely in Christian County and at Quincy. She is a daughter of Rankin and Virginia (Clark) Ash, the former a native of Chester County, Pennsylvania, and of an old Pennsylvania family. Her father came to Illinois and was an early settler in Macoupin County, where he married Miss Clark. Her mother was of Seotch ancestry and a native of Kentucky and when a young girl accompanied her parents to Maconpin County, where her father was a carriage maker. Mr. and Mrs. Ash after their marriage lived on a farm near Gillespie, where their only child, Mrs. Grieser, was born. The family removed to Quincy and Mrs. Grieser's mother died at the age of thirty-two and her father at fifty-five. They were also a Baptist family.

Mrs. Grieser became the mother of ten children, namely: Maxie, unmarried and living at home with her mother; Edward, who died in young manhood : Wil- liam A., who is also a bachelor living with his mother and is managing the family farms in Ursa and Ellington townships, and is also one of the commissioners of the Indian Grave Levee district. Nina, who like the other children was well educated in the Quincy schools ; Harry A., who is foreman in one of the depart- ments of the West Coast Ship Building Company, and thus is doing his part to help win the war: Leroy O., who is a graduate of Illinois State University with the class of 1916 and is associated with his brother William on the farm ; Zoe, who died at the age of eight years; Grandison L., a young man of twenty-five who finished his education in Illinois State University, later enlisted and is now in training for wireless service in camp at Indianapolis ; Robert W., aged twenty- two, has been with the ambulance corps in active duty in France since the

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winter of 1917-18; Virginia F., a graduate with the class of 1918 from St. Mary's Academy. Mrs. Grieser is an active member of the Baptist Church and most of her children are likewise affiliated.

CALVIN H. WHITE. Glendale Farm, a half mile east of Mendon, has a reputa- tion for its fine stock by no means confined to Adams County. Stoekmen gener- ally keep in close touch with the firm of C. II. White & Son, and farmers who have succeeded in incorporating some of the blooded strains from the Glendale Farm refer with a special touch of pride to the faet.

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Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 21

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