Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 3

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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Germany was also the birthplace of Mr. Kaempen, who was born April 12, 1850. Both of these men came to the United States when quite young. Mr. Kaempen came to Quincy in the spring of 1868. He is a born mechanic, his father and grandfather on both sides having been carpenters and mechanics in the old country. The first associations between Mr. Buerkin and Mr. Kaempen came as fellow employes with Mr. Lockworthy and Burge at Quincy. Mr. Kaempen was in Mr. Lockworthy's employ for about twenty years. In 1876 he was shop foreman when that contractor put up the Adams County court- house.

The firm and corporation of Buerkin & Kaempen has been employed in the construction of some of the most noteworthy buildings, private homes, business houses and public structures in and around Quincy. Among others they erected the Masonic Temple, the Armory, the Young Men's Christian Association build- ing, the Chamber of Commerce building, the New Gardner Governor building and others. The company has about 250 men at times on the pay roll, and many of their employes have been with them for a long period of years.

Mr. Kaempeu married Miss Louisa Buxman, a native of Quincy and of German parentage. They have eight children, four sons and four daughters. Besides the two sons named above as members of the company there are Charles and Evert, both students in the Quincy High School. These four sons are all single men. The daughter Hermina is the wife of Fred Fredericks, now living in California, and they have a son and three daughters. Lanra was edu- cated in the high school and the University of Illinois, and is now a teacher in the Madison School at Quincy. The daughter Flora married Dr. Herman Wendorf, and they have a son, Herman, Jr. Emma Kaempen was also a suc- cessful teacher and her death recalls a well known tragedy. As a teacher in one of the country districts she was boarding with a family who fell victims to the mad vengeance of an alleged kinsman and Miss Kaempen lost her life with the rest. Mr. Kaempen and family are members of the Evangelical Church and formerly for thirty years was identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

HON. ROLLAND M. WAGNER, Adam County's representative in the Fiftieth General Assembly, has through his active and progressive career as a lawyer at Quincy since 1909 amply fulfilled the expectations of his friends who from their early acquaintance with his earnest and studious purposes and activities predicted more than ordinary success for him in the legal profession.

Mr. Wagner was born at Liberty, Adams County, Illinois, July 27. 1885,

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and already in his thirty-third year may be said to have attained that degree of success which makes his future seenre. His parents are Charles A. and Clara (Collins) Wagner. The Collins family were numbered among the pio- neers of Adams County, where Mr. Wagner's mother was born. His maternal grandfather, Oliver Collins, was born in this county more than eighty years ago and has spent his entire life here and is still possessed of all his faculties. He and his wife, who is also past eighty, make their home with their danghter, Mrs. Charles Wagner. Charles A. Wagner was born in Ohio, and came to Adams County with his parents. He was only nine years old when his father died, and was the oldest of four children, all of whom are still living and all married but one. Charles A. Wagner finished his education at Knox College, and after some years as a farmer joined his father-in-law, Oliver Collins, in conducting a general store at Liberty. Ile and his wife are still living in this county, now practically retired. They are well known people. Their home is at Coatsburg. In the family were seven children : Clifford, deceased; Nellie, wife of John Y. Lawless, of Coatsburg; Herman T., a farmer at Waterloo, Iowa; Rolland M. : Clinton B., of Coatsburg; Edna, wife of Leroy Myers, of Paloma, Illinois, and mother of a daughter, Lucile; and Hazel, of Quiney.

Rolland M. Wagner graduated and afterward did post-graduate work in the Liberty High School, and for two years was a teacher in local schools. He then entered the University of Michigan Law School for one year, and the last two years was a student in Northwestern University Law School at Chicago, where he graduated in 1909. IIe remained for some months in Chicago gaining valuable experience and performing some useful service at the same time as an employe of the Legal Aid Society. In 1910 he was admitted to practice in the Federal Courts. In October, 1909, returning to Quincy, he entered upon his career as a full fledged lawyer. In 1913 Mr. Wagner was appointed assistant state's attor- ney under his present partner, Mr. Wolf, then state's attorney of this county. The first case he handled was the State vs. Dobbs, but his chief fame as a prose- cutor came from his work in the case State vs. Ray Pfanschmidt. Ray Pfan- schmidt, it will be remembered, was tried for the murder of his father, mother, sister and a school teacher who was boarding at the Pfanschmidt home. It was proved in the course of the trial that he committed the erime for mercenary reasons. Mr. Wagner and his associate labored assiduously preparing the evi- dence for this trial and Mr. Wagner's arguments before the jury required six honrs for delivery.

Since retiring from the office of assistant state's attorney Mr. Wagner has been associated with Mr. Wolf in private practice and they are one of the busiest firms in Adams County. In 1916 Mr. Wagner was elected as representative of Adams County to the Fiftieth General Assembly and also to the Fifty-First Gen- eral Assembly. He was a member of the judiciary committee and on the com- mittee of judicial practice and procedure and was also a member of the legisla- tive committee to visit penal institutions. As a democrat he was four years sec- retary of the Executive County Committee. Mr. Wagner is a director of the Public Library of Quiney and was formerly attorney for the Quiney Humane Society. He is unmarried. Fraternally he is a member of Quincy Lodge No. 1, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, one of the oldest lodges in the state, is past president of the local lodge of Eagles, is an official member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, is a member of the Turnverein, the Quiney Country Club, the Y. M. C. A. and is a member of the Presbyterian Church.

ALEXANDER OHNEMUS. For more than three quarters of a century the name Ohnemns has been vitally identified with the business welfare and upbuilding of Quiney. Mr. Alexander Ohnemns, of the second generation of this family in Quiney, is now retired from business, but in his time played a large and constructive part in affairs.

The Ohnemns family originated in Baden, Germany, where they lived for

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many generations. Andrew Ohnemus, father of Alexander, was born in Baden in 1820. When about twenty years of age he came to the United States by sail- ing vessel, and from New York came west to Quiney about 1840. By trade he was a harness maker. He and his brother Mathias established a business of this kind at 325 Hampshire Street. At that location they erected two three- story brick buildings, which are still owned by Alexander Ohnemus and have been in the family possession for over seventy years and have never been with- out tenants. In 1860 Mathias Ohnemus sold out his share of the business to his brother. Andrew Ohnemus lived in a fine home at 14th and Vermont streets until his death on July 22, 1868. His old home at 14th and Vermont was ereeted when that portion of the city was practically in the country, and it stood as a landmark and pioneer home in the district until building progress caught up and enveloped it.

At Quiney Andrew Ohnemus married Agnes Metz. She was born in Ger- many about 1830 and came to the United States with her parents at the age of eight or ten years. Her parents also located in Quincy, and were farmers in Riverside Township, where they died within a month of cach other, her father at the age of eighty-eight and her mother at eighty-two. The Metz and Ohnemus families were all early members of St. Boniface Catholic church at Quincy. Agnes Ohnemus died at her home at 14th and Vermont streets in 1903 in advanced years. She and her husband were married in St. Boniface Church, but later transferred their membership to St. Francis parish. In their family were three sons and three daughters. Three are still living: Anton, a well known Quiney business man, secretary and treasurer of the Excelsior Stove Works, and father of three children : Margaret, who lives at St. Louis, widow of George Puster and the mother of a son Alvin ; and Alexander.

Alexander Ohnemus was born at the old home of his father at 325 Hampshire Street May 15, 1854. As a boy he attended St. Francis parochial school and learned the tinner's trade by a practical apprenticeship. In 1879 he went into business for himself in one of his father's buildings at 327 Hampshire Street, setting up a stove, hardware and tinware business. He successfully conducted that until 1900, when he sold out and then became associated with Mr. W. F. Berghofer for eight years in the sheet metal industry on Jersey Street. Ten years ago Mr. Ohnemus retired and is now looking after his private affairs and interests. He lives in a fine two-story frame house at 317 Chestnut Street. This residenee he built in 1885, more than thirty years ago. In polities Mr. Ohnemus is a democrat, a member of the Eagles and one of the early members of the Firemen's Benevolent Association.

In Quincy Mr. Ohnemus married Miss Ella M. Clark. She was born in East St. Louis October 10, 1859. When she was two years old she lost her mother and she and her brother Amadeus were sent to Adams County to be reared by their maternal grandparents, Darius and Agnes Wertz, of Melrose Township. Mrs. Ohnemus grew up on the Wertz farm and at the death of her grand- parents received a generous endowment from them. Mr. and Mrs. Ohnemus had one son, Albert N., whose vigorous manhood and manly character are recalled with extreme regret by his many friends. He was born November 10, 1881, and died in the prime of his usefulness August 30, 1915, at the age of thirty-four. He was educated in the parochial and city schools and the Gem City Business College, and also completed a course at the Illinois State Univer- sity. He was laid to rest in Calvary Cemetery. Mr. Ohnemus is a member of the Catholic church, while Mrs. Ohnemus is a Lutheran.

WILLIAM F. SIVERTSON. Several generations of the Sivertson family have lived in Adams County, and they have furnished a number of strong-minded, highly capable and energetic citizens to the various communities in which they have lived. The principal seat of the family has been in Honey Creek Town- ship, where some of the name are still found. The founder of the family here

Vol. II-2

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was Christian Frederick Sivertson, who was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, February 20, 1809. When he was only nine years old he ran away to sea, and had many interesting experiences in early life. He came to this country in 1832. He was sixty days in making the voyage to New York, and after about six months in that city and state he went to Washington County, Ohio, and found employment on a river steamboat. He was a shipbuilder by trade and also worked as a marine engineer. As a river man he came to Quincy, and at Quincy on October 22, 1840, married Miss Marcia Lakins. She was born in Whitehall, New York, February 1, 1816. After leaving the river Christian F. Sivertson acquired a fine tract of 160 acres of land in Honey Creek Town- ship for $500 and used the skill of his trade to build the substantial house that now stands on the land. The interior finish for this house was brought from Cincinnati. He also erected several homes for his neighbors and built the school house at the corner of his farm. He spent his last years in retirement at Paloma, where he died August 26, 1891. His wife died January 7, 1894. They were buried at Coatsburg. Christian F. Sivertson was a member of the Free Baptist Church of Paloma. He served at one time as treasurer of his township, and was regarded as a very fine type of citizen. He and his wife had four children. Emily Frances, born December 21, 1842, married Thomas Ingram, and died April 10, 1862, at the age of twenty. The second child was William Frederick Sivertson, whose career is taken up in the following paragraphs. Mary Sophia, was born March 5, 1847, and died in middle life unmarried. Edgar Charles, born April 8, 1853, was the youngest of the family.

William Frederick Sivertson was born in Honey Creek Township December 21, 1843, in the same house now occupied by his son William F., Jr. On August 12, 1862, he enlisted in Company I of the One Hundred and Twenty-Fourth Illi- nois Infantry, in what was known as the Excelsior Regiment, and also the Tem- perance Regiment. Most of its recruits were from MeDonough County, and his captain was Captain Griffith. He saw three years of active service, being honorably discharged August 15, 1865, as a corporal. He was at the siege of Vicksburg, at Champion Hill and many other engagements.

January 5, 1882, [William F. Sivertson married Miss Laura H. White, daughter of James M. White, whose name is the caption of a separate sketch on other pages. The late Mr. Sivertson is remembered not only as a good farmer but as a citizen inclined to intellectual pursuits. He was a student, and kept up with all current events by extensive reading in history and other lines. He was active as a republican in township affairs, served as town clerk for a number of years, and altogether was the type of man whose presence means much to any community. He died April 30, 1910, and his good wife passed away February 3, 1911. They were the parents of two sons, Leon F. and William F., Jr. Leon F. was associated with his brother on the old home- stead until his death at the early age of twenty-eight. He married Florence Dickhut, and she survives with one child, Donald.

William F. Sivertson, Jr. was born December 28, 1886, in the house built by his grandfather and which he still occupies. He attended high school at Camp Point and spent one year in Illinois University. After his education he and his brother took the management of the home farm, and they also bought sixty- five acres of other land and also acquired a tract of 320 acres. At the death of his brother William F. sold the first purchase, but has continued to improve and develop the 320 acres, known as the old T. S. Emery farm. He occupies the old homestead which he owns jointly with his brother's widow. Mr. Sivertson is a successful hog raiser, and sends several carloads annually to market. He also feeds sheep and cattle. He is a republican party worker and has served as party committeeman and judge of elections. He is a member of the Methodist Episco- pal Church at Paloma.

JAMES MORRIS WHITE was one of the finest figures in the citizenship of Honcy Creek Township. He was born in Monroe County, Tennessee, December

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22, 1824, a son of Thomas and Nancy (Morris) White. The White family is of English and Welsh ancestry. William White and three brothers emigrated from Wales to America. His son, Richard White was a Virginian and moved across the mountains into Tennessee. Richard White married Elizabeth Cal- thorp. The original settler, William, had a Welsh father, but his mother, a Hamner, was of an English family.

James Morris White was nine years old when in November, 1833, the family left Alabama, where they were living at the time, and started north for Quincy. The day before beginning this journey was made memorable by a great fall of stars, which all histories have recorded and which James M. White well remembered and frequently spoke of in his later years. The White family reached Quincy December 11th, having had to wait eight days at St. Louis for the only boat then plying up the Mississippi. In the spring of 1835 they moved to Froggy Prairie, and in 1836 bought a farm in the central part of Honey Creek Township. This land is now owned by John L. Grigsby. James M. White's father spent his last years there, and in the same locality the sen grew to manhood and on March 31, 1853, married Miss Margaret Elizabeth Guymon. She was born in Illinois February 28, 1834, daughter of Elder Isaiah Guymon, a prominent minister of the Baptist church. The Guymon family lived close to the farm of the White family. Elder Guymon went to Missouri during the war, and died in that state at the advanced age of ninety-one. He was a very pronounced Union man. His father, Isaiah G. Guymon, was of Scotch ancestry, served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war and was next to the tallest man in his regiment. He migrated from Stokes County, North Carolina, to Illinois. Elder Guymen was one of the earnest and forceful preachers of his time, a thorough Bible student, and carried a great deal of conviction inte all his discourse. He never preached for a salary, making his living from his farm.

James M. White spent all his married life on his farm a mile and a half northwest of Coatsburg, and that land was in his ownership for over seventy years. He died there October 19, 1916, and at that time was probably the oldest man in the county. His wife died April 2, 1872, at the age of thirty- eight. James M. White was a vigorous and stalwart republican and had no faith in anything the democratic party did. He voted for every republican candidate for president except at the first election of Lincoln.

James M. White was an exemplary temperance man and practiced all that he preached. He never used tobacco, and his strength of will made him com- plete master of both his intelligence and his body. He was very decided, and his firmness and readiness of decision would have made him a great business executive.

He and his wife had six children, four daughters and two sons. The oldest daughter, Eleanora C., died at the age of twenty as the wife of George Lovejoy. Laura Helen was Mrs. William F. Sivertson Sr. Nannie has had a career of ex- ceptional interest. She attended Knox College at Galesburg, graduating with the class of 1887, taught school in Adams county and in the high school at Gil- man, Illinois, and from there went to Washington and for eighteen and a half years was clerk in the treasury department. At the death of her sister, Mrs. Sivertson, she returned home to care for her father, and is now living at Paloma. She is secretary of the Red Cross Society and acting assistant cashier of the Bank of Paloma, and while a resident of Washington was a member of the Congregational Church in that city. William L. White, the older son, graduated from Knox College in the same class with his sister, taught school in Adams County, and is now living at Alameda, California, as salesman for the United States Steel Products Company. James Alvin resides at Peoria, where he is connected with the Avery Manufacturing Company. Mary, the youngest of the children, is the wife of David C. Hair, son of the late D. L. Hair of Adams County. Mr. Hair is a railway conductor, living at Okolona, Mississippi.

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HION. LYMAN McCARL. The present generation at least in Adams County knows Lyman MeCarl as well as any other personality in Quincy. The present records therefore are set down not to tell who he is or what he is doing or has done, but as a matter of history for a later generation.

Lyman MeCarl, son of Alexander W. MeCarl and Minerva ( Likes) MeCarl, was born on a farm in section 32 of Richfield Township, Adams County, Illi- nois, May 3, 1859.

A man of liberal edueation and culture, it is evident that Judge MeCarl acquired his training and did not merely receive it. He attended the district sehools near the old home and at the age of seventeen entered the Maplewood High School at Camp Point, where he graduated in the spring of 1878. After two years as a teacher he entered Lombard College at Galesburg, from which institution he was graduated Bachelor of Science in June, 1885. Two years later he returned and took his Master of Science degree at Lombard.

The summer of 1885, it is a matter of special interest to note, Judge Me- Carl spent compiling and writing a county history of LaSalle County to be published by the Lewis Publishing Company, publishers of the present work on Adams County. He then returned to Adams County and taught school and at the same time carried on his law studies under Capt. W. H. Keath of Quincey.

Judge MeCarl was admitted to the bar June 16, 1888, so that his career as a lawyer is a record of thirty years of honest and earnest practice combined with various official duties. IIe was for two years deputy eircuit clerk under George Brophy. In 1890 he entered partnership with William G. Feigenspan, their partnership being known as MeCarl & Feigenspan and continuing to mutual advantage for twenty years, until Mr. MeCarl was elected county judge. In June, 1891, he was appointed by Judge Oscar P. Bonney, master of chan- cery in Adams County, an office he filled for six years. In November, 1910, he was elected to his present offiee as county judge of Adams County, and was re-elected in 1914.

Judge MeCarl in politics is a democrat and in religion a Unitarian. He is a member of the Masonic order, the Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In a business way he is also president of the Tri- State Mutual Life Insurance Company of Adams County. Many organizations and causes have at different times sought his active support and assistance. He is president of the Associated Charities of Quincy and is president of the Board of Trustees of Lombard College at Galesburg, his alma mater. Since the war began with Germany he has willingly made those sacrifices demanded of every loyal citizen. Besides the service flag in his home with two stars indi- eating that his two sons are in the ranks of the army, Judge MeCarl is a director of the Red Cross Society and a member of the Council of Defense and chair- man of the Legal Advisory Board for Quincy.

April 23, 1893, Judge MeCarl married Miss Hannah M. Berrian, only daughter of the late Judge Benjamin F. Berrian. To them have been born four children : Margaret, Richard B .. Donald E. and Charlotte. The daughter Margaret has much talent as a singer and served as chorister in the Unitarian Church nntil December 4, 1918, when she was married to Ensign Theodore P. Wright. Richard B. is one of the sons who represents the family in the army, and is now stationed with an Ambulance Corps in Paris, France. Donald E., who was in the Navy Aviation Service at Minneapolis, Minnesota, has been released on inactive duty and now is a member of the sophomore class of Lombard College at Galesburg, and that institution has graduated both Mar- garet and Richard B. Charlotte, the youngest of the family, is in the junior class of the Quincy High School.

ALFRED J. BROCKSCHMIDT. Scholarly in his habits, talented and aceom- plished, Alfred J. Broeksehmidt, of Quiney, a lawyer of wide experience, has won a commanding position in the legal profession and an honored position

Lyman mecarl

LIBRARY )T THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

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among the esteemed and respected citizens of his community. A son of John Henry Brockschmidt, he was born in Quincy, August 11, 1860.

A native of Germany, John Henry Brockschmidt was born at Bohmite, near Osnabruck, in the Kingdom of Hanover. Realizing the superior advantages Ameriea offered for obtaining a living, he immigrated to this country as a youth, settling in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1856, a stranger in a strange country, and unable to speak English. While looking for employment he was taken ill and removed to a hospital. While there he wrote to an uncle in Quincy Illinois, explaining his plight, and the uncle immediately sent for him to come to him. Arriving in this city, he found employment in a hat factory, and apprenticed himself for a period of three years, his wages to be, in addition to his room and board, $25 the first year; $50 the second year; and $75 the last year. In the meantime the ambitious lad attended night school, in which he acquired an excellent knowledge of the English language. With this founda- tion of knowledge, energy, perseverance and thrift, his advance in life was rapid and continuous, and he never failed to thoroughly impress upon his chil- dren the inestimable value of a good education in the attainment of any desirable position. He subsequently embarked in mercantile pursuits in Quincy, and carried on a prosperous business until his death, October 24, 1897.

The maiden name of the wife of John Henry Brockschmidt was Caroline M. Epple. She was born in Adams County, Illinois, and died at her home in Quincy, April 8, 1876. Six children were born of their union, as follows: Alfred J., the special subject of this brief review; Lorenzo J., deceased ; Ositha M., who died September 9, 1913; Louisa Philomena, who died August 24, 1912; Francis J., who died March 17, 1909, and Agnes, deceased.

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Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 3

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