Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 23

Author: Wilcox, David F., 1851- ed
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 952

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Andrew MeMullen responded to the indneements held forth by a relative to come to Adams County and establish a shop at Coatsburg. His wife's aunt, Mrs. IIngh Hunter, lived in Honey Creek Township and it was through the Hunter family that the MeMullens came west. Andrew MeMullen was a black- smith at Coatsburg five years and then started a shop at what is known as Dorsey Corners, one mile east of the old MeMullen home. Subsequently he bought forty-four acres in the present MeMullen farm, paying $900 for this tract of timber land. He built his house there and also erected a shop, and continued industriously at his forge until about 1909, when failing health caused him to retire. He was a skillful and expert blacksmith in every line, had a large patronage, and was as popular as he was a good workman. He died October 9, 1911, at the age of seventy-four. His widow survived him six months, passing away in April, 1912, when about the same age. Andrew MeMullen in- ereased his landed property until he had 114 acres in the homestead, and also eighty acres a short distance away. He gave all his attention to his shop and his sons looked after the farm. After Andrew MeMullen came to Adams County five other children were born: George E., born August 20, 1869; Ida E., wife of Albert Steiner, a farmer at Bowen ; Theodore G., in the transfer business at Council Bluffs, Iowa ; Lizzie May, who died in childhood; and Arthur R., born November 25, 1880.

George E. and Arthur R. MeMullen bought the old homestead from their father and through their .extensive operations as farmers and stoekmen have greatly increased their holdings, buying first the Turner farm of 116 acres, then another 40 acres, the Naderhoff farm of 160 acres on the south, combining in one farm 510 aeres. For their land they paid prices ranging from $87 to $125 an acre. It is on this big farm that the MeMullen Brothers have established and developed their stock business. They keep their fields under cultivation for a maximum of erops, but even at that buy large quantities of feed for the hundreds of cattle and hogs they fatten for market every season. Besides hogs they feed from eighty to a hundred head of cattle every year. The MeMullen Brothers are well known in the livestock markets of Chicago.

Arthur MeMullen married Angust 29, 1912, Edith Emma Zeiger, daughter of Henry Zeiger, of Clayton Township. Their children are named Raymond Leland, Russell Gordon, Elizabeth Marie and Leona May. George MeMullen

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is unmarried. He is affiliated with the Odd Fellows. The MeMullens were reared in the Episcopal Church and the sons attend worship at Clayton.

HENRY F. CHITTENDEN, of Mendon Township, has many of the character- istics in physique, mind and heart that distinguished his ancestry and served to make the name Chittenden one of the best known and most honored in the annals of Adams County from carliest pioneer times. Mr. Chittenden has de- voted his life's labors to farming and farm management, and as a matter of course his resources and influence have been sought in other lines of business. He is now a member of the Board of Review, is a bank director at Mendon and a trustee of the Adams County Mutual Life Association. Mr. Chittenden is a large man physically, and broadminded as a citizen, one of the best esteemed of Mendon Township people.

Before touching upon his individual career it is appropriate that the impor- tant facts should be stated concerning his honored grandfather, Col. John B. Chittenden, founder of the Village of Mendon. Colonel Chittenden was born at Guilford, Connecticut, January 16, 1790, fourth of the seven children of Deacon Abraham Chittenden. He was reared as a farmer and in carly life became identi- fied with the Congregational Church and in his twenty-first year was chosen a deacon. January 12. 1814, he married Eliza Robinson, daughter of Col. Samuel Robinson of Guilford. They became the parents of seven children.

In September, 1831, with his wife and four sons, in a two-horse covered wagon, John B Chittenden started for Illinois, and Quincy. He was joined by Samuel Bradley and a number of others in Connecticut, and altogether they comprised a colony of thirty-six persons and five wagons. The purpose that led Colonel Chittenden upon his westward migration has been stated as fol- lows: First, to establish, strengthen and extend the Christian religion by the organization of churches, Sunday sehool and Bible classes ; second, to provide better for his family of boys in a new country. After three months of trials and hardships ineident to such travel he found himself and family frozen on the Mississippi River near Hannibal, and thence they were transported by wagon and team, the last few miles on the ice of the river. Arriving at Quincy in December they spent the first night in the home of Governor John Wood. March 2, 1832, Colonel Chittenden bought from Jacob Gorshong, an old French settler, the southwest quarter of section 11 in what is now Mendon Township. Its improvements consisted of a field of about ten acres and a log house. The log house is historie because in it the Congregational Church of Mendon was formed, that being the first Congregational church organized in the State of Illinois. In February, 1833, Colonel Chittenden bought an adjoining quarter in the same section, and soon after laid out and started the Village of Mendon. Later he sold his interest in the town site and retired to his farm two miles north of the village. There he lived until the death of his wife October 30, 1862. Mrs. Eliza Chittenden has been described as a most exemplary lady, whose law was the law of kindness and who never allowed herself to speak an unkind word to anyone. Colonel Chittenden did not long survive the passing of his beloved wife. He died January 23, 1863, at the age of seventy-three. Of him it has been written : "Ile had a clear and logical mind and was an able reasoner, and was a fluent and interesting public speaker, an earnest worker in all causes of reform, unselfish in everything, thinking always to promote the happiness of others. His faith in and love for the church was unbounded. He was an honest, upright man and a sincere Christian."

Abraham Chittenden, a son of Colonel Chittenden and father of Henry Franklin Chittenden, was born in Guilford, Connecticut, December 15. 1824, and was therefore seven years of age when the family reached Adams County. While his opportunities to obtain a formal education were limited, he was given an excellent practical training, assisted his brothers in the management of the farm, and finally sceured 120 acres of the old homestead in section 36 of Mendon Township. He bought other land, and in 1881 remodeled the substantial house

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that still adorns the property. He was actively identified with farming until 1902, when he retired to Mendon and died in that village May 27, 1904. On December 19, 1852, he married Letitia Barelay, who was born in Lyons County, New York, and came to Adams County with her parents in 1851. Mrs. Letitia Chittenden is still living, at the age of eighty-two. Abraham Chittenden was a deacon in the Congregational church. He was a republican, but never sought official honors. He is remembered by the old timers as one of the most powerful men physically in the county, and when in his prime he thought nothing of leaping a fence six feet high. Most of the land contained in his old farm was sold, but his son Henry Franklin still has forty acres of it. Abraham Chittenden and wife were the parents of three children : Henry F .; Sadie E., who died in San Antonio, Texas, May 9, 1912, wife of George Shupe; and Abraham I., who lives at Wichita, Kansas.

On the farm which he still owns, three miles northeast of Mendon, on the line between Mendon and Keene Township, Henry Franklin Chittenden was born November 4, 1853. Nearly all his life has been spent in this vieinity. For two years he attended an academy at Denmark, Iowa, and through seven winters both before and after his marriage taught school in this vieinity. March 9, 1877, he married Ella S. Mills, of Denmark, Iowa. They were schoolmates in the Academy, and she also taught in her native state before her marriage. After his marriage Mr. Chittenden gave his chief energy to farming until ten years ago. Besides his homestead he owns a farm of 240 acres a mile east in Keene Township, and another of 260 acres on the township line between Keene and Honey Creek Township. He gave his personal supervision to these three places for many years, and has since retired. When in his prime as a farmer he kept about 100 head of eattle, about the same number of hogs, and every year had. about seventy aeres in eorn, forty aeres in wheat and forty acres in oats. Mr. Chittenden acquired most of his land in the era of low prices, much of it at about $35 an acre, though for some tracts he paid $52 an acre. He is a republican and has served as a member of the County Board of Review for the past four years. He has always been active in church and Sunday school in his neighborhood and as a Modern Woodman of America has attended the Head Camp as delegate.

Mr. and Mrs. Chittenden had a family of five daughters and one son. Nellie E., who died in young womanhood, after her marriage to James Norris, both having been teachers; Frank B., who died at the age of twelve years; Ada L., who was formerly a teacher and is now Mrs. R. H. White, of Mendon; Sadie F., at home ; Mary M., who died at the age of twenty-six, the wife of Emmet Erghott ; and Ruth E., who taught school and is now the wife of John Mealiff, who manages one of Mr. Chittenden's farms.

JAMES E. ADAMS. It was in the old Adams homestead at Quincy, Illinois, that Maj. James E. Adams, one of Quincy's most prominent and respected eiti- zens, was born January 15, 1848. Although other sections have also benefited through his energy and talents, he has been a permanent resident of his native city for the past quarter of a century. Aside from his own achievements he bears an honored name at Quiney, to which plaee his parents came in 1839, when New England sent of her best to settle in Illinois. They were James and Mary G. (Arrowsmith) Adams. The maternal grandfather acquired large tracts of land and some of this land is now the busiest portions and most highly improved sections of the Quiney of today.

James Adams, father of Major Adams, was a foundryman and in association with his brother, George Adams, built the first foundry at Quincy and was the pioneer in the industry that is of such great importance in the city. The brothers were both men of great business enterprise in many lines. For about forty years they were the leading pork packers in this section, long before the marketing of meat assumed anything like its present proportions, and for as long a time they were extensive shippers of grain and produce. For a half century

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the Adams name was held as a synonym for business enterprise and personal integrity.

James E. Adams was educated in the public schools and the old Quincy Seminary, and his education was not completed when, although only sixteen years of age, he enlisted in 1864, for service in the Civil war, becoming a member of the One Hundred and Thirty-Seventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry. Not- withstanding his youth he served with the utmost courage and efficiency until the war closed.

Before the railroad bridge at Quincy was built the ferry had to be utilized for the transfer of thousands of tons of freight, and one of the companies oper- ating was the Great Western Dispatch Company, with which the young soldier became identified after the war as a transfer clerk. Subsequently he aceepted the position of cashier for the Merchants' Union Express Company. He learned something about civil engineering and went out on surveys for the Q. M. & P. Railway.

In 1869 Mr. Adams went to Texas, where he became deputy clerk of the Circuit Court of Parker County, and afterward engaged for a time in mercantile and banking business at Weatherford, Texas. He had become active in the republican party and it was in 1872 that he was appointed by President Grant. a post trader in the regular army and was assigned to Fort Griffin, Texas, where he remained until 1876, when he removed to Edina, Missouri. He was one of the organizers of the Bank of Edina, of which he was cashier until 1892. He served as mayor of Edina for four years and the city prospered under his administration. He was also interested in the platting of Marceline, Missouri, being president of the Marceline Town and Land Company, and during this · period became active in the development of coal properties in that section that have continued to be of vast importance to the present day. In 1892 Major Adams returned to Quincy and here his business interests have since been mainly centered, banking being his active field.

Major Adams was married at Weatherford. Texas, to Mrs. Sallie (White) Ellison, a widow. The children were: Josephine W., who is the wife of Henry E. Long, of Kansas City, Missouri; Ethel E., who is the wife of Garrett B. Schuller, of Phoenix, Arizona; Ina D., who is deceased; and Mary C., who is the wife of Frank A. Wilson, of Quiney.

Major Adams has served in many distinguished publie eapacitics. He was commissioner of the United States District Court for the eastern district of Missouri from 1878 to 1892, and was one of the famous 306 who as delegate to the republican national convention of 1880 from the First Missouri District, cast thirty-six consecutive ballots for the renomination of President Grant. During the MeKinley campaign he was president of the MeKinley Club at Quincy, and since, in political affairs, has been equally active and conscientiously interested. He was also a delegate to the Republican National Convention of 1916 from the Fifteenth Congressional Distriet. Illinois. From the time of its organization he has been identified with the Grand Army of the Republic and he is a valued member of the Quincy Post. Major Adams was reared in the Episcopal Church.

EMMETT HOWARD. Possessing in a marked degree the qualifications needed for successfully conducting large affairs, Emmett Howard, of Quincy, is actively identified with the adavneement of the mercantile interests of Adams County, and as a wholesale dealer in house furnishing goods is carrying on a large and substantial business. A native of New York, he was born August 12, 1867, in Rathboneville.

His parents, Albert and Jeannette (Knickerbocker) Howard, were lifelong residents of the Empire state, the father having been engaged in agricultural pursuits. They reared three children, as follows: Clifton, of Hot Springs, Arkansas: Emmett, the subject of this sketeh : and Albert F., of Farmville, Virginia.

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Educated in New York State, Emmett Howard attended first the public schools of Morrisville and later the Cazenovia Seminary. In 1887, with the restless spirit characteristic of the true American, he started westward iu search of remunerative employment, and for several years was employed as a traveling salesman, selling household goods. In 1896 he located at Springfield, Missouri, where he remained three years. Coming from there to Quincy in 1899, Mr. Howard opened a retail store, putting in a stoek of household furnishing goods. Succeeding well in his venture, he gradually enlarged his operations and is now carrying on a strietly wholesale business, his establishment being advantageously located at 117-119 North Third Street. IIe is also prominently identified with other important industries of the city, being president of the Quiney Paper Box Company, and likewise of the E. Howard Mercantile Company.

Mr. Howard married, March 14, 1894, Mrs. Julia Watson, widow of Beverly Watson, and they have one son, William Howard, who is associated in business with his father. Politieally Mr. Howard is a democrat. Fraternally he is a thirty-third degree Mason, and is president of the Masonic Association. He also belongs to the Order of the United Commercial Travelers of America and to the Travelers' Protective Association.

FRED G. WOLFE. Most of the successful lawyers of the country have served at one time or another a period as an official prosecutor. It is considered one of the most valuable parts of a lawyer's experience, and in Illinois a lawyer who can retire with a creditable record as a state's attorney has his prospects for the future well insured. The office of prosecutor is also a splendid opportunity for publie serviee, and as such it was regarded during Fred G. Wolfe's incum- beney in Adams County from 1913 to 1917. Mr. Wolfe was a very able man in office, and has done much to distinguish himself in his profession. He is now serving as county judge, having been elected in November, 1918, on the dem- ocratie tieket for a four-year term.

He is a graduate of law from the University of Michigan Law Department with the class of 1909. He had been admitted to practice by examination at Chicago prior to his graduation. He at onee located in Quincy, and the first ease in which he appeared publicly as a member of the bar was as attorney for one party in a litigation over an estate. He won the case for his elient.

Judge Wolfe was elected state's attorney of Adams County in 1912, and for four years gave all his efforts to the duties of the position. After retiring from that position he maintained his offiees as an attorney in the Sterns Build- ing and commanded a splendid practice.

He was born in Adams County, near Liberty, on a farm. December 20. 1876. He grew up as a farm boy, and was educated in the public schools until he entered college.

He represents one of the oldest families of Liberty Township. A record of things historieal in that township states that the first sermon was preached there by George Wolfe of the Dunkard denomination in 1829, and a Dunkard church was organized in 1831. It was also Elder George Wolfe who solemnized the first marriage in the township. This pioneer of the Dunkard faith was the great-grandfather of Judge Wolfe. As an early settler he patented 160 acres of land, built a log cabin, and there lived and died. He had come from Union County, Illinois, and the family lived for a time at Kaskaskia before sojourning in Adams County. The great-grandfather was born in Pennsylvania in 1780, and is credited with being the first preacher of the Dunkard Church west of the Allegheny Mountains. He was a leader of a little colony of the brethren who settled as a group in Adams County. This pioneer minister was a notable figure in the early days, a man of great physical strength and equally strong in moral and religious eonvietions.

David Wolfe, grandfather of Fred G. Wolfe, also eame to Adams County as a pioneer and built a log cabin adjacent to that of his father. This old log

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building is still standing. He died in Liberty Township when in middle life. The maiden name of his wife was Permelia MeKnight, who lived to be over ninety-four years of age. Both were active members of the Dunkard Church. David Wolfe was also prominent in public affairs, was a leader in the demo- cratic party and at one time represented the county in the State Legislature. He died in 1879. Jacob B. Wolfe, father of the Quincy attorney, was born in the old log cabin home in Liberty Township in 1850. For many years he was a successful farmer in that locality, but for the past twenty years has been a general merchant at Coatsburg, in this county. He married Emily Grubb, who was born in this county and died in the fall of 1879, when in the prime of life. Her people were Presbyterians. Fred G. Wolfe was one of four children. His sister Nellie married Charles C. Lawless and died leaving two children. Ebert Wolfe lives in Quincy and has a family of three children. Josephine is the wife of Arthur Chandler and has two sons.

Fred G. Wolfe married in Quincy Miss Nita Williams, who was born in Missouri but reared and educated in Quincy.

Judge Wolfe is an active member of the County and State Bar assoei- ations, and in Masonry is a member of the various branches, including the thirty- second degree of Seottish Rite. His father was at one time master of the Liberty Lodge No. 380. Judge Wolfe has membership in the Odd Fellows at Liberty, of which he is past grand, and is a member of the Elks and Moose at Quincy. He and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church.

FRED W. HECKENKAMP, JR., Supreme President of the Western Catholic Union, is one of the prominent Catholie laymen in Illinois. He has served four- teen years as supreme president of this order, with offices in the Illinois State Bank Building. His name is identified with many other Catholie institutions and affairs. He is a Knight of Columbus, a member of St. Joseph's Benevolent Society, of St. Aloysius Orphan Society, of the Catholic Federation, and does much to support and direet a number of activities under the immediate auspices and management of the Catholic Church.

His positions in the church and the responsibilities with which he has been honored are in large part a reflection of his sueeessful private business career. Mr. Heckenkamp is a member of an old Quincy family and is proprietor of what is no doubt the largest greenhouse and floral establishment in the eity. He owns two well equipped greenhouse plants on Adams and Jackson streets, and hundreds of people every year visit his peony and gladiolus farm near Har- rison Street and Sixth Avenue. He has about five aeres in cultivation to these flowers. It is no unusual thing for him to produce about 25,000 gladiolus bulbs every season, and he has two aeres in peonies. He also grows about 10,000 asters every season. Under glass he has about 40,000 square feet.

This business was originally established in 1881 by his father, Fred W. Heck- enkamp, Sr. It was a very small house on Adams Street, but the Heckenkamps apparently possessed the faculty of succeeding in the production of plants and flowers with the aid of nature, and when the business was turned over to Fred W., Jr., in 1891 it was already a growing and prospering concern. The son has inereased it many fold. In 1896 he introduced a seed and produce com- mission business, but after continuing it for seven years gave it up in order to concentrate all his time and energies on his floral business. His business store and headquarters are at 126 North Sixth Avenue, where he has a fine plant. At his greenhouses he has a seasoning or underground cooler that keeps flowers in perfect condition after they are picked and before being marketed.

Fred W. Heckenkamp, Jr., was born in Quincy January 21, 1871, and was reared and educated here. He attended St. Francis College. and since reaching his majority has been in the floral business. He is a son of Fred W., Sr., and Mary A. (Kroner) Heckenkamp. Both were natives of the Kingdom of Han- over, and were young people when their respective parents came by way of New Orleans to America. The Heckenkamps arrived in Adams County in 1849

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and the Kroners in 1845. They established homes on farms in Melrose Town- ship, and there Fred W., Sr., and wife grew up. He was the first student to register in old St. Francis College, now Quiney College. Later he took up the vocation of teaching, and an old Quiney directory of forty years ago gives his name with the profession of teacher. For thirteen years he taught in St. Mary's parochial schools. He also did farming and gradually concentrated his efforts on the floral business. He finally became president of the German Fire Insurance Company of Quiney, but after six years retired from that office and engaged in the general fire insurance business on his own account and built up an immense patronage all over Adams County. He is now retired and with his wife lives at St. Vincent's Home in Quincy. Both were early members of St. Boniface Catholic Church but finally transferred their membership to St. Mary's parish. He has always been an active demoerat, and was once an alderman from the third ward and was defeated after a strenuous campaign for the office of mayor. His wife first married John Vogelpohl, a native of Hanover, and an early business man of Quincy, long prominent in the affairs of the German Insurance Company He died in the prime of life, leaving two daughters, only one of whom is now living, Sister Wilhelmina, Mother Superior of St. Elizabeth Academy at St. Louis. Fred W. Heckenkamp, Sr., and wife had eleven children, ineluding: Mrs. Elizabeth Wiskirchen, who is married and has a family of sons and daughters; Mrs. Ed. D. Brewer, who is now business manager of St. Elizabeth Academy at St. Louis and has two daughters, both teachers; Fred W., Jr .; E. B., who is in the real estate business at Seattle, Washington, and has sons and daughters; Sophia, wife of William Wavering, of Wavering Brothers Milling Company at Quincy; Sister Chrisologa, a teacher in the parish schools of Quiney.

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Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 23

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