Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 30

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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of the prominent Webb family of New York State, where she was born and reared. They had five sons, all of whom are married except one.

Lawrence P. Bonfoey from high school entered the Missouri State Univer- sity, and was graduated in the law department in 1905. He was admitted to the bar the same year after examination before a committee of which Judge Shelton, chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court, was a member. Mr. Bonfoey has never practieed law but has found his most congenial and profit- able pursuits in a business career. For ten years after leaving college he was in the insurance business with the Travelers Insurance Company. He had charge of several of their branch offices, being located at Buffalo, New York, Boston, Massachusetts, Philadelphia and from there going to Chicago, where he was in charge of the office in that eity until he was assigned to come to Quincy.

Mr. Bonfoey married Miss Octavia Monroe, daughter of Edward N. Monroe, president of the Monroe Drug Company. Mr. and Mrs. Bonfoey grew up in the same Missouri town, Unionville, where she was born thirty-three years ago. She was educated in the high school there and is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. After completing her college course she spent a year of travel and study in Europe, and returned home to marry Mr. Bonfoey. They are the parents of four children : Lawrence P., Jr., Franees Ann, E. Mon- roe and McBurney Webb. The family are all members of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Bonfoey is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, having affiliations with the Lodge and Chapter of the York Rite in Unionville and with the Quiney Consistory. In polities he is a republican.

HENRY A. RIDDER. The business men of Quiney recognize as one of their oldest associates Henry A. Ridder, who has been continuously a dealer in gro- eeries and food stuffs for over thirty years. There is probably not a single expe- rienee in the eareer of a successful groceryman which Henry A. Ridder has not had. For a number of years his store, one of the landmarks in the city, has been at the corner of Seventh and York streets, at 300 South Seventh. He began selling groceries from that point in 1890, and in 1895 he completed the substantial and well appointed two-story structure that adorns the site, on ground 30 by 55 feet. This store he has filled with stoeks of staple and faney. groceries, and he uses the second floor as his own home.

Mr. Ridder was born in Quincy, at the corner of Ninth and Broadway. October 23, 1865. He was edueated in the parochial schools and St. Francis College, and at the age of eighteen entered the grocery business, being for three years associated with Fred Willer. Since then he has been a groeeryman on his own account. For seven years he had his business at Ninth and Broadway, on the same spot where he was born.

His father, the late John Ridder, was one of the pioneer German citizens of Quiney. He was born in Westphalia, Germany, February 10, 1831, of old Ger- man stoek. He was well reared and edneated, and when a young man eame to the United States, arriving in New Orleans, November 25, 1853. The following year he was at Cineinnati, and on September 5, 1855, reached Quiney. Here he entered upon an apprenticeship at the blacksmith's trade with the well known pioneer wagon makers, Rogers Brothers. After completing his apprentice- ship he established himself independently in 1859, and his first shop was at Twelfth and Broadway in a building of historie interest, the old barracks which had been constructed years before for the training of soldiers. This building on the southeast corner of Twelfth and Broadway when first constructed stood far out on the prairie away from the main business portion of Quiney. John Ridder continued his business and built up an important manufacturing establishment, making farm and spring wagons, and also doing general black- smithing, horse shoeing and jobbing repair. He always had a high reputation for the quality of his work. For a number of years his associate in business was Edmund Rith, whom he later bought out. Jolin Ridder retired from busi- mess at the age of seventy-one, and spent his last years at the old family resi-

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denee in which he had lived from 1872. This home was at 823 North Twentieth Street, one of the early houses built in that part of the city. John Ridder died there February 13, 1904, at the age of seventy-three. On June 16, 1859, he married Rosena Stuckenburg, a native of Louisville, Kentucky. She died May 1, 1908, when about sixty-five years of age. For a number of years they were affiliated with St. Bonifaee Catholic Church, and later were members of St. Francis parish. John Ridder was a democrat. He and his wife had a large family of children, six sons and four daughters. One of them died in infaney, and Lizzie and John are also deceased. One resides in Denver, Colorado, and all the others in Illinois, most of them in Quincy. These children are named Henry, Bertha, Mollie, Tillie, Albert and Adolph.

Mr. Henry A. Ridder married in this city Catherine Rolf. She was born in Adams County and finished her education in St. Francis parochial schools. Her parents are both now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Ridder have four children. Henry A. Jr., born in 1891, was educated in St. Boniface School and is now asso- eiated with his father in the business. He is still unmarried and lives at the family home. Helen C. was edueated in the same school as her brother and is also at home. Sylvia C. received her education in St. Boniface School and St. Mary's Academy. Cornelius from St. Boniface School entered the Gem City Business College, where he is still a student. The family are all aetive members of St. Boniface Church and live in that parish. Mr. Ridder is a demoerat and is affiliated with the Western Catholic Union.

HENRY C. MUELLER, who graduated D. D. S. from the Dental Department of Washington University at St. Louis with the class of 1899, has for years been recognized as a leader in his profession at Quiney, and enjoyed the pro- fessional honor of being president of the Adams-Haneoek Dental Society. He is also a member in good standing of the other professional organizations, and is a member of the local Dental Club.

He has been in praetiee at Quiney sinee he graduated and in 1911 he took special preparation and training in Anesthesia at the Chicago Dental College. Sinee the building was completed he has occupied a suite of offiees in the Illi- nois State Bank Building, the equipment and arrangement of these offices having been the objeet of special care, study and expense on the part of the doctor.

Doetor Mueller was born in Quiney, March 23, 1877, and prior to entering professional school was a student in the grammar and high schools. His parents were Stephen and Frederieka (Peiffer) Mueller, both natives of Germany and of fine old stoek. They came to America when young, were married in Quiney, and spent the rest of their days here. The father learned the trade of gunsmith in his native country, and in Quiney learned and followed for many years pattern making with the Stove Works. He was one of the organizers and direc- tors of the Gem City Stove Company, but for the past two years has lived retired, having attained the age of seventy years. His good wife died here in 1912, at the age of sixty-four. They were active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the father is a very active and decided republiean in polities. There were five children in the family: Emma, widow of Jaeoh Feisel, lives in Quiney, and her only daughter died at the age of twelve years; Doctor Mueller ; Miss Minnie, at home with her father; Lewis, of Montana, is married ; Anna is the wife of C. E. Brosie, in the monument business at Quiney, and they have a daughter, Florence.

Doetor Mueller married at Quincy Hester H. Nauman, a native of Illinois and daughter of Rev. Philip and Melvina (Frederick) Nauman. Her father is now ninety-one years of age, a resident of Quiney, and a superannuated min- ister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Her mother died at Quiney in 1910. Doetor and Mrs. Mueller have three children: Dorothy, aged twelve, now in the eighth grade of the publie schools; Lowell C., aged nine, and also a school- boy ; and Virginia, aged five. Mr. and Mrs. Mueller are members of the Ken-

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tneky Street Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he is a deacon. Fraternally he is past master of Herman Lodge No. 39, Aneient Free and Accepted Masons. is a Consistory Scottish Rite Mason, and is affiliated with the Woodmen of the World.

GUSTAV M. JACKSON. The oldest established retail and wholesale millinery business in Quiney and in Western Illinois is that now conducted by Gustav M. Jackson, who grew up in the business under his father and for more than ten years has successfully directed the enterprise. His large and well equipped store is at 430 Maine Street on the Public Square. Mr. Jackson has done much to promote the wholesale feature of his business in the past eleven years, and his goods now go to retail shops all over the states of Illinois, Missouri, Iowa and Kansas.

Mr. Jackson is a son of Manheim and Caroline Jackson, both natives of Posen, a German provinee, originally a part of Poland. They grew up in that country but as young people before their marriage they came by sailing vessel to America. Caroline Jackson as a girl learned the trade of milliner, followed it for several years before her marriage, and her husband then joined her in the same line of business. They came to Quincy in the early days and were milliners here until 1866. By that time they had built up a good trade, but decided to sell out and return with their three children to their native land. Manheim Jackson soon found that his ideas had greatly changed since he left Posen, though the country and its people had not, and after three months he returned to America. Manheim Jackson was an originator in the millinery business, For a number of years his shop made women's bonnets exclusively. Just before the outbreak of the Civil war he formed the shape and made the first hat com- monly ealled now the sailor shape, and he did much in subsequent years to give it its well deserved popularity. His first shop was on Fourth Street on the west side of the Square in a frame building, and he occupied four different places in the same bloek. He was a very active business man until the last seven or eight years of his life. He died in March, 1907, when nearly seventy- five years of age, having been born in May, 1832. He had survived his wife some years. She was fifty-nine when she died. Manheim Jaekson was a prom- inent Mason, member of Herman Lodge at Quiney, and was buried under the auspiees of that body. There were three children, Gustav M. being the oldest. Joseph M. is now in the United States internal revenue service at Spring- field, Illinois. Fannie is the wife of Arthur K. Walker, of Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Gustav M. Jackson was born in the one hundred block on Fourth Street, Quincy, November 17, 1860. He attended the public schools of Quiney and also a college at Atlanta, Georgia. As a boy he was given a thorough training in his father's shop and is a past master of the millinery business in every detail. For some years he had a store at 513 Maine Street, but in 1914 located at his present quarters, where he has his main store room, 25x115 feet, fully stocked with the best ereations of the milliner's art, and also uses the basement of the same size.

At Kansas City, Missouri, Mr. Jackson married Miss Minnie French. She was born in Iowa in 1869, and at the age of five years her parents, Joseph and Hannah French, moved to Kansas. Her parents endured all the trials and vicissitudes of life in Kansas during the '70s and '80s, when they were regul- larly assailed by grasshoppers, winds, drought and blizzard. Her father died there when Mrs. Jackson was a small girl, and her mother is still living, at the age of seventy-five, and makes regular visits to her daughter in Quiney. Mr. and Mrs. Jackson have one daughter, Ruth Elise, born August 6, 1895. She is a graduate of the Quiney High School, of the University of Chicago, and also took work in the Gem City Business College. She is living at home. Mr. Jackson is affiliated with Lodge No. 100 of the Benevolent and Protective Order

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of Elks, and has been a member since 1903. In politics he votes as a demo- crat. The family home is at 424 North Eighth Street.

ELIZABETH B. BALL, M. D. The recognition extended by her professional brethren as well as by the general public indicates that Doctor Ball chose wisely when she determined upon a professional career, and she has rendered a splendid service both as a practitioner and as a factor in building up the institutions and the larger work of the medical fraternity of Quincy.

Doctor Ball is a graduate from the department of medicine of the University of Illinois at Chicago with the class of 1907. She supplemented this thorough training by a year as interne in the New England Hospital at Boston, while in 1913 she did postgraduate work in London, England. Doctor Ball began prac- tice at Quincy in 1908, and for several years has maintained offices in the Illinois Bank Building, 648 Ohio Street. For nine years she has been a member of the Blessing Hospital staff, and has been especially prominent in the Adams County Medical Society, which she has served as secretary since 1910. It was through Doctor Ball's influence that the county society undertook the publi- cation of the Adams County Medical News, which is published monthly by the secretary of the society, and contains all the information concerning current medical and scientific events of interest to the local profession and much that is informative, instructive and interesting to the general public. The Medical News has been published for five years, and Doctor Ball is its editor. She is also a member of the Illinois State Medical Society, and secretary of the med- ical section, and a member of the American Medical Association, and every year since she was elected secretary of the county society has attended the con- ference of the County Society Secretaries in the state.

Doctor Ball was born at Quincy and graduated from the Quincy High School with the class of 1902. The following year she entered the University of Illinois at Champaign, pursuing a literary course for one year before taking up her professional studies at Chicago. She is a member of the Greek Letter sorority of the University.

Doctor Ball represents Irish and English families. Her father, Nicholas Ball, was born in Ireland, but when a young man went to England and married at Manchester, Jane Kinsella, who was born and reared in that city, member of a prominent English family. Her brother, Edward Kinsella, was one of the leading stock holders in the Manchester Ship Canal. Doctor Ball's parents three years after their marriage came to the United States in June, 1881, and from New York came west to Quincy, where her father's uncle, Mr. John Nolan, had lived for some years. Doctor Ball is the only child of her parents, both of whom are still living. Nicholas Ball was for a number of years in the em- ploy of Senator Browning until the latter's death, and later with H. F. J. Ricker, the Quincy banker. They are members of the Catholic Church, as is Doctor Ball. They attend worship at St. Peter's Church at Eighth and Maine streets. Doctor Ball was formerly director of the church choir and is still a member.

AUGUST W. WERNER, M. D. Member of the Quincy medical fraternity for the past ten years, Doctor Werner is a graduate of the Bennett Medical College of Chicago with the class of 1898. Before beginning active practice he served as interne in Bennett Hospital at Chicago, and a large and valuable patronage has been bestowed upon his services and abilities since hc located in Quincy. For the past six years his home and offices have been at 1401 State Street, where he erected a modern two-story, ten-room residence, with a well equipped office attached. Doctor Werner is a member of the County and State Medical so- cieties and the American Medical Association, and is also a member of the Library Committee of the County Medical Society. For the past four years he has been a member of the staff of Blessing Hospital.

Doctor Werner was born in Brunswick, Germany, October 27, 1871, and was reared and educated there as member of a family of the higher classes. He

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graduated from the gymnasium of his native town in 1891, and soon after- ward came to the United States and located at Quincy. Here he took up the work of wood engraving, which he had learned in Germany, and followed it until he began the study of medicine.

His parents, August and Louise (Seifert) Werner, are still living in Ger- many, past sixty years of age, and both were born in the famous Harz Moun- tains, but have spent most of their lives in Brunswick. During his active career Doctor Werner's father was a car master on one of the large railway lines through Brunswick. He is now retired on a pension. Both are active members of the Lutheran Church. Doctor Werner was the oldest of three children. His brother Oscar is manager of a large woolen house at Berlin, and has a family of two children. The only sister is Elsa, who came to Quincy to visit her brother and while here met and married Joseph Michalke. They now live in a town near Berlin, Germany, where Mr. Michalke is son of a prominent manufacturer of electric goods.

Doctor Werner married at Chicago in 1899 Miss Hedwig A. Almeuraeder, who was born in that city and was educated in the public schools and a busi- ness college. Her father was a native of Wiesbaden, Germany, and died in 1908, at Chicago, where he was prominent as a sculptor and artist. He was a cousin of Max Bruck, the great German composer. Mrs. Werner was only mine years old when her mother died and her father afterwards married a prominent Chicago society woman. Doctor and Mrs. Werner have one daughter, Dorothy Sophia, born in 1900 and a graduate of the city high school with the class of 1918. Mrs. Werner and her daughter are members of the Unitarian Church. Doctor Werner is affiliated with the Royal Arcanum.

JAMES EVANS. His friends and neighbors have good reason to speak of James Evans as one of the fortunate men of Adams County, since he owns a large amount of its fertile and productive soil and has several farms and one of the best rural homes in Honey Creek Township. The Evans homestead is two miles northeast of Mendon. His good fortune is largely of his own crea- tion. He has lived in Adams County seventy years, his family have been here eighty years, and while he had some material inheritance besides the worthy family qualities he acquired from his forefathers, it was a matter of good judgment, solid industry and long continued effort that brought him to his present position.

Mr. Evans was born at Quincy, January 27, 1849, a son of George and Mary Ann (Green) Evans. George Evans is appropriately numbered among the pioneers of Adams County. He was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, August 19, 1813. A cooper by trade, he came to Adams County in 1837 and for fourteen years had his home at Quiney. In 1851 he obtained a place four miles south of Mendon, in the township of that name, and twelve miles northeast of Quincy. His place was on the line of Mendon and Ellington Township. In 1853 he moved to a new farm, which had a small frame house and a few acres cleared. The remaining timber he worked up annually into great quantities of barrels and hoop poles. His barrels were chiefly made for the flour milling industry and he also hauled many loads of hoop poles to Quincy. At his new home in section 35 of Mendon Township he acquired 170 acres, built a new house and barn, and surrounded himself with much prosperity. He died there at the age of seventy-two and his widow survived him several years. He was never a public man, was much esteemed for his good judgment and was regarded as a valuable man to the community. In 1848, at Quincy, he married Miss Mary Ann Green, who was born at Maysville, Kentucky, December 17, 1830. She came to Adams County when a child, and her father, George Green, became a well known citizen of Richfield Township. Mr. James Evans frequently visited his grand- father Green at his home in that township. George and Mary Evans had a fam- ily of three sons and four daughters: James; Frank, who lived in Mendon Township and died when about fifty years old; George, who occupies the old

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farm ; Etta, Mrs. James Rowbothamu of Mendon Township; Lina, Mrs. William Rowbotham of Mendon Township; Emma, widow of John Myers, living at Fow- ler ; and Ida, who died one year after her marriage to DeWitt Worman.

James Evans was four years old when his parents moved to the country and being the oldest son he put his strength to the test at an early age in help- ing his father clear away the timber and brush. He lived on the home farm until he was twenty-five. He knows full well the severity of the labor re- quired to clear and bring much of the land of Adams County into cultivation. One of his early tasks was driving an ox team to a breaking plow. It was im- possible for an ordinary breaking plow of that day to turn over the heavy virgin soil, filled with roots. Therefore, another team of horses preceded the breaking plow, hauling a coulter which cut a deep gash in the sod, permitting the following plow to turn it over. Frequently within his recollection breaking the land covered with hazel brush was accomplished by using four or five yoke of oxen to a heavy plow. Mr. Evans made his first independent home on ninety acres near Mendon, which had been cleared, and for which he contracted to pay $65 an acre. He went in debt, paid 10 per cent on the principle, and with abundant crops of corn and wheat met his payments and soon had it clear. He later sold this land to his brother-in-law, Frank Dudley, for $75 an acre. Mr. Evans then came into Honey Creek Township and bought 140 acres of his present farm at $65 per acre. There was an old house on the place, and prac- tically all the land was under cultivation. It was the old Shuey farm. Since then he has increased its area to 200 acres, and some of the land cost him only $50 an acrc. His fine rural home was built in 1903 and his barn two years later. Besides this place Mr. Evans owns ninety acres three miles south, and has 100 acres in Ellington Township, each with good improvements. Mr. Evans has figured rather prominently as a stockman in Adams County. For about twenty years he bought and shipped stock, and his operations in that field brought him a wide acquaintance over this part of the state. In those days it was an easy matter to buy cows at $12 per head. On his own land he has bred and raised some high grade stock, and in recent years his main dependence has been in hogs. Mr. Evans has always kept close to the land and has never sought office, though he served at one time as constable.

At the age of twenty-five he married. In seeking a wife he did not have to go among strangers but found in a neighbor girl, Miss Nettie B. Myers, the most capable and the best woman he has ever known. She is a daughter of Henry Myers, of Mendon Township. Mr. and Mrs. Evans have a family of children of whom they may well be proud. Henry G., the oldest, lives near Coatsburg in Camp Point Township and married Edith Henning; Charles B. occupies a farm adjoining that of his father and married Isadore White ; George R. is a farmer two miles southwest of Mendon and married Lena Bogart; James D. is still at home : Fred A., who occupies the Ellington Township farm of his father. married Elsie Tieken, supervisor of Honey Creek Township; Ella M. is the wife of John T. Austin, of the home community; Minnie C. is the wife of B. J. Brenner and they live at Lewistown, Missouri; and the youngest, Carrie, is still in the home circle. These children grew up with the advantages of a good home and with the best opportunities afforded by the local schools, each faithfully performed his duties while at home, and Mr. Evans assisted his sons and daughters that have married to secure homes of their own.

THEODORE E. MESTER. The name of Theodore E. Mester is identified with the business interests of Quincy, where for many years he was a fertilizer manufacturer and gave substance and vitality to that particular industry and made it important both to himself and as a source of added business to the community.

Mr. Mester represents families who came out of Hanover, Germany. His father, Charles Mester, came to the United States when a young man, and married his first wife in St. Louis. Her Christian name was Louisa and she

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Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 30

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