Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 40

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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Joseph B. C. Freiburg attended the parochial schools until thirteen years of age, when he went into his father's shop and learned the shoemaking trade in every detail. After his father sold that place the son started a shop of his own at 705 Maine Street and conducted it about four years. He then went to Chicago and for nine months was employed in the factory of C. M. Henderson & Company, shoe manufacturers, and subsequently spent about an equal length of time with the factory of John Meyer of St. Louis. On returning to Quincy he and his father engaged in shoe manufacturing for themselves, and con- tinued to expand until they had the largest shoe shop in the city, equipped with modern machinery. In 1910 Mr. Freiburg bought the entire business. He keeps seven skilled workmen at steady employment, and practically all his work is special shoes made to measure and for the particular comfort of the wearer. Mr. Freiburg has the professional knowledge and skill that enables him to treat almost every type of diseased foot or leg from the hip down. He is inventor of a leather leg top for variocose veins. An enthusiast in his work, he gives all his time to advanced study as well as to the closest supervision of his work and the management of his factory.

Mr. Freiburg married, September 25, 1890, Miss Anna B. Blomer, who was born at Quincy and was reared and educated here. She is a sister of Dr. Joseph and John Blomer, elsewhere referred to in this publication. Mr. and Mrs. Frei- burg had the following children: Irene, Robert, Raymond, Andrew, Hen- rietta, IIelen, Gerald and Joseph. Only three of them are now living. The daughter Irene lost her life at the age of nine years when the St. Francis School was destroyed by fire. Four of the sons died in early childhood. The

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daughter Henrietta is a graduate of St. Mary's Academy and Gem City Business College and is a stenographer and bookkeeper. Helen is a graduate of St. Elizabeth's School in St. Louis. Gerald is a graduate of St. Francis College of Quincy. Mr. Freiburg and family are members of St. Francis Catholic Church. He has never taken a very active part in politics, although being a loyal democrat and as a good citizen demonstrates his willingness to co-operate with others in forwarding movements for the general good. He is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus and the Western Catholic Union.

CHRISTIAN BECKER. A man of good business capacity, industrious and enterprising, Christian Becker, a well-known citizen of Quincy, has accumulated a competency through his own efforts, and is now living retired from business cares, his commodious and modernly constructed home being one of the most attractive in the city. He is a native born citizen, his birth having occurred in Quincy May 9, 1869.

His father, Charles Becker, was born in Germany, and was there educated. Determining in early life to try and seek his fortunes in a newer world, he immi- grated to America, the poor man's paradise, settling in Illinois. Taking up his residence in Quincy, he embarked in business as a butcher, and was thus employed until his death, January 2, 1891. He married Margaret Keim, who was also of German birth and breeding, and of the twelve children born of their union but two are now living, Anna, wife of Charles F. Rambrechts, of Quincy, and Christian, the subject of this brief sketch.

Having obtained a good common school education, Christian Becker learned the trade of a butcher while working with his father. Turning his attention to agriculture on land inherited from his father in Missouri, he was there engaged in general farming for sometime. After the death of his father Mr. Becker bonght his brother's interest in the butcher shop established by his father, and managed it successfully for a short time. He subsequently ran a sand boat on the river for two years, but has since lived retired from active pursuits, de- voting his time to the care of his private affairs. Mr. Becker has valuable farm- ing interests, owning 318 acres of good land in Lewis County, Missouri, from which he receives a good annual income. He has a beautiful home at No. 1435 State Street, Quincy, and on it he and his family delight to entertain their many of Salem Church.

Mr. Becker married in September, 1891, Anna Barbara Boehl, a native of Adams County, Illinois, and they are the parents of four children, namely : Charles M., of Quincy; Lewis M., a student at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado ; Edna L .; and Edwin H. Politically Mr. Becker supports the principles of the republican party. Religiously he and his wife are members of Salem church.

NICHLAS HEINTZ. A venerable and highly esteemed citizen of Quincy, and one of its leading merchants, Nichlas Heintz has been in truth the architect of his own fortunes, by his untiring energy and the diligent use of his faculties and opportunities having risen from a state of comparative poverty to a position of affluence and influence. He was born May 25, 1839, in Alsace Lorraine, Ger- many, where he spent the first fifteen years of his life.

His parents, Peter and Mary (Sieren) Heintz, were born, reared and mar- ried in Germany. In 1854, accompanied by their three children, they came to the United States and located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where they hoped to make a permanent home for themselves and family. That dread disease, chol- era, was then raging in that vicinity, and they soon fell vietims to the malady, both dying within a week after arriving in that city. They left three children, as follows : Margaret, widow of Nicholas Miller, of Mankato, Minnesota ; Annie, deceased ; and Nichlas, the subject of this sketch.

While living in his native country Nichlas Heintz acquired a public school education, and while assisting his father on the home farm obtained a good

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knowledge of agriculture. Left an orphan in a strange country when still a youth, he began working at the shoemaker's trade in Milwaukee, receiving his board in compensation for his labor. At the end of ten months he went to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he continued at his trade for a year, getting not only his board but $1 a week for his work; his wages being subsequently some- what increased, he remained there five years. In 1859 Mr. Heintz came on board a steamer to Quincy, Illinois, in search of a favorable location, having $17, only, to his name. Entering the employ of Mr. Kettler, he continued at his trade two years, and was afterwards a clerk in the shoe store of C. Brown, Jr., & Company for six years, and proved himself so efficient in that ca- pacity that he was then given an interest in the business, the firm being very desirous of retaining his services, and he remained with the house for eleven years more. In 1878, the partnership being dissolved, Mr. Heintz opened his present establishment on Mainc Street, being head of the firm of Heintz & Markley. A year and a half later Mr. Heintz bought Mr. Markley out and admitted to partnership Mr. Bowen, who remained a member of the firm for 41/2 years, when the partnership was dissolved, and his four sons were made members of the well known firm of Heintz & Sons. A man of sterling integ- rity and good business ability, Mr. Heintz has accumulated a fine property in the city, and has been active and prominent in public affairs.

Fifty-four years ago, in 1863, Mr. Heintz married Wilhelmina Einhaus, and in 1913 this worthy couple celebrated the golden anniversary of their wed- ding, receiving the congratulations of hosts of friends. Of the ten children born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Heintz, one has passed to the life beyond and nine are living. Mr. Heintz is independent in politics and takes a great interest in all matters pertaining to the public welfare. Fraternally he is a member of the Knights of Columbns. Religiously he and his wife are faithful members of Saint Boniface Church.

MILTON K. WEEMS. Among the industries that make Quincy important in the commercial and industrial world there are several that are owned and con- ducted by Milton K. and Frank H. Weems, these being the Pure Ice Company and the Weems Laundry Company, Milton K. Weems being president of the latter and treasurer of the former.

Milton K. Weems was born near Angusta, Hancock County, Illinois, Decem- ber 1, 1859. His parents were Jesse E. and Louisa (Kimball) Weems, and his grandparents were Jesse E. and Nancy (Richards) Weems, while his great- grandfather was the biographer and historian, Rev. Mason Lock Weems, who is credited with relating for the first time the story of George Washington and the cherry tree. This is probably correct, as Dr. Weems was pastor of the church at Mount Vernon and was a personal friend of General Washington. The father of Milton K. Weems is a highly respected resident of Quincy and in former years was identified as a civil engineer with railroad construction in several states. The mother of Mr. Weems survived only into middle age. There were four children in the family, namely: William Lock, who died in 1881: Milton K .; Frank H .; and Mary, who died at the age of nineteen.

In June, 1870, the Weems family came from Clayton to Quincy, where Mil- ton K. was an ambitious, industrious youth and while attending school, he pro- vided partially for his own support by carrying newspapers, which has been the foundation of many a fortune. He proved steady and reliable and found no difficulty in securing a position in the banking house of L. & C. H. Bull, and entered upon his duties there in September, 1877. He was still ambitious, how- ever, and kept seeking an opportunity to go into business for himself and two years later recognized it in a chance to start a first class laundry. Associated with his brother, Frank H. Weems, he secured a small building on Jersey Street and they launched their enterprise on July 4, 1879. Prosperity attended the careful management of the infant industry and within less than a decade the firm found it necessary to greatly expand. They purchased their present site

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on Fifth and Jersey streets and erected a commodious building and put in equipments that make it one of the finest in this section.

In 1894 the Pure Ice Company was organized and this too has become an exceedingly important enterprise, with trade connections all over the country, with immense warehouses and refrigerating plant and with adequate railroad facilities.

For some years Milton K. Weems was interested also in Colorado land but subsequently closed out his holdings there and returned to Quincy. Although continuously connected with the enterprises above mentioned, for some ten years Mr. Weems was not active but has again entered the business field and his influenee continues as formerly.

Mr. Weems was married September 16, 1885, to Miss Mattie Matthews, who died February 27, 1896. They had one son, Jesse E., who lived but six months. Mr. Weems was married August 3, 1901, to Miss Florence Moore, and they have three children, namely: Elizabeth M., Nancy O., and Mary Virginia Patricia. Mr. Weems has never been very prominent in politics but nevertheless has been an earnest eitizen and when matters of principle must be decided definitely, either in public affairs or in business, he is firm and unyielding in support of right. He belongs to the Christian Seience Church.

HENRY HARMON BECK. At a time when the world is laying extraordinary and unprecedented demands upon the agricultural producers, it is a good angury and promise of results when it is known that some of the agricultural enterprise of Adams County is in the hands of such capable people as Mr. and Mrs. Henry Harmon Beck of Riverside Township. Their industry has enabled them to accumulate a large amount of land in this locality, and how expertly they have managed it from the point of view of production needs no comment to their many friends and neighbors, who have always looked upon Mr. and Mrs. Beek as among the most substantial residents of their locality.

Mr. Beck is a native son of Adams County, and both he and his wife represent old German stock long identified with this part of Illinois. He was born Feb- ruary 26, 1860, third among the two sons and two daughters of August and Anna (Walbrink) Beck. He is now the only survivor of the family. His father was a native of Germany, born in 1827, and died in 1886. When a boy he came to America, and spent the rest of his life in Adams County. Quincy was only a village when he was growing to manhood. He frequently told his children that he might have purchased for a pair of boots the block of land where the Hotel Newcomb now stands. However, he made his ultimate choiec of land in Ellington Township, where he bought 112 acres, going in debt heav- ily. In early years he was a wage earner, working by the month, and his expe- rience and industry enabled him to accumulate a good property, including sixty acres in Riverside Township. He was a republican voter and he and his wife were active members of the Salem Evangelical Church at Quincy. He aided in the erection of this house of worship and he and his wife were members the rest of their lives. He was a man of honor and integrity, and held in high esteem. His wife was also a native of Germany and came to America when a young woman. Both she and her husband made this voyage in an old fashioned sailing vessel. It required about twelve weeks to cross the ocean at that time, whereas now the voyage can be accomplished in five days. One of the monn- ments in the Green Mount Cemetery mark the last resting place of August and Anna Beck.

Henry H. Beck grew to manhood on his father's farm and was educated in the common schools. He also has a reading knowledge of the German language. His life has been along the lines of agricultural effort and in his business he finds a most capable coadjutor in his good wife.

January 25, 1899, Mr. Beck married Miss Christina Wattman. They are justified in the pride they take in their two sturdy young sons, named William Henry Roy and John H. The former was educated in the common schools and

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has a life scholarship in the Gem City Business College. He is now actively 'associated with his father on the farm. He is a republican and a member of the Ellington Presbyterian Church. The younger son has also completed the work of the common schools and is preparing to take a business college course.

Mrs. Beck was born in Adams County November 23, 1868. She was next to the youngest of ten children, four sons and six daughters, born to John Henry and Anna Louise (Sowerhidie) Wattman. Four of these children are still liv- ing, all in Adams County. Mrs. Beck's parents came from the same part of Germany as Mr. Beck's parents. Her father and mother are now deceased and lie in Green Mount Cemetery, where a monument stands sacred to their memory. Mrs. Beck was educated in the common schools. She is a most capable woman in every respect, has exeellent business judgment and a large fund of common sense, and has devoted her years sinee marriage to the making of a home and the rearing of her sons.

When Mr. and Mrs. Beck were married they possessed little cash eapital, and their present prosperity is the result of thrift and honest industry kept up through a long period of years. Their present farm in Riverside Township, comprising sixty acres, was bought in 1916. In 1913 they had acquired eighty acres east of their present home and they have another eighty-four aeres in Ellington Township. Their sons have become interested in the raising of Shropshire sheep.

In politics Mr. Beek cast his first vote for James A. Garfield and has been steadily identified with the republican party ever sinee. He and his wife are very active members of the Salem Lutheran Church at Quiney.

WILLIAM H. PAPE. Adams County is a many sided industrial community, and its long continued prosperity is doubtless due to this very fact that the people have not depended primarily upon one pre-eminent line of manufactur- ing but upon a varied assortment of substantial mills and factories that in the aggregate have known few periods of depression and have furnished oppor- tunity for all the working energies at hand. Keeping pace steadily with the growth and development of other modern factories has been the milling of grain products. Quincy is today one of the important centers of grain milling in the Mississippi Valley and one of the best known and oldest of these mills is the Aeme Roller Mills, of which the firm of Pape & Loos are proprietors.

Probably no one family name has been longer associated with milling in Adams County than that of Pape. The pioneer representative of the name in the local milling industry was the late Frederick Pape, who was born in Han- over, Germany, August 24, 1820. He eame of good family stock and was reared and edneated in his native country. At the age of sixteen he began an appren- ticeship to the miller's trade, and in 1847 he immigrated to Ameriea, crossing the ocean in a sailing vessel seven weeks over from Bremen to New York. As a miller he followed his trade up and down the Mississippi River at Quiney, Keokuk, Dubuque and other places. After about two years he located at Payson in Adams County, and bought what was known as the Payson windmill. It was a grist mill, operated with an old fashioned wind power. He paid $500 for this rather erude institution, and condueted it until about 1864, when he sold it and its improvements for $3,000. In June, 1864, he bought the Melrose Mills in seetion 28, Melrose Township, remodeled the property, and continued its operation until his death on October 3, 1895. The Melrose Mills under his management became noted for the high quality of their flour products. Fred- erick Pape was a man of distinction n the county, bore the reputation of being an honest miller and an honest man, was highly skilled in his special trade, was a democrat in polities and a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. In 1851 he married at Payson Miss Margaret Acton, who was born in Scotland in April, 1826, and died at Payson, Illinois, July 14, 1862. She came to the United States when a young woman. She was the mother of five children, Herman

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dying at the age of four years and Fred, Jr., as an infant. The daughter Jane married a Mr. Pohl, a native of Adams County of German parentage, and after their marriage they moved to Kansas, where she died and where her husband still lives. She was the mother of eight children. Emma died in Melrose Township at the birth of the last of her four sons and four daughters. William H. Pape is the oldest of the living children. On June 5, 1878, the late Frederick Pape married for his second wife Mrs. Jennet Palmer, widow of John Palmer. She was born in Scotland May 1, 1828.

Mr. William H. Pape was born at Payson in Adams County, August 15, 1857. He was about seven years old when his father moved to Melrose Town- ship and bought the Melrose Mills. After getting his education in the local schools he learned the trade of miller under his father and became his father's active assistant. They were partners until the death of Frederick Pape in 1895 and Mr. Pape then continued the operation of the old mill until April, 1897, when he moved to Quincy and took over the Acme Mills. At that time Charles Loos was admitted to partnership as junior member of the firm of Pape & Loos. The Acme Mills have been in operation at Quincy since 1897, and in the past twenty years the business has grown until it is no longer a merely local enterprise. They manufacture a large and varied line of cereal products, handle grain, and their package and bulk products are flours and meals made of wheat, rye, buckwheat, entire wheat, graham flour, cornmeal, etc. Mr. Pape also does a large business as a dealer in Kansas and northern hard wheat flour, hay, straw, corn, oats, clover seed and stoneware. The Acme Mills have a capacity of 100 barrels per day and they have all the special machinery re- quired for grinding their specialty products.

For a number of years the power has been electricity. The firm employs from twenty to twenty-five men, and under war conditions it is probable that the business will increase in importance rather than diminish. Mr. Loos has charge of the sales and collections, while Mr. Pape is the practical and expert miller and administrator of the general management and the manufacturing end.

December 4, 1881, Mr. Pape married Miss Emma Reeder, who was born in Melrose Township, daughter of Addison and Lusetta (Frasier) Reeder. The Reeders are a prominent old family of Adams County, having come here about eighty years ago. Her parents married in Ursa Township, and subsequently had a farm in Melrose Township. In 1881 they went west to Kansas, and spent their last years in Missouri. Mrs. Pape's mother died at the age of eighty-two. The Reeders were Methodists, while the Papes were Lutherans in religion. Mr. and Mrs. Pape are the parents of four children. Jessie, born in Melrose Township and educated in the rural schools and the public schools of Quincy, including a business college education, is now the wife of Mr Christian Mast of Melrose Township. They live in Quiney and have two sons, Frederick and Harry, the former now in school. Laura A., the second child, also a native of Melrose Township, completed her education at Quincy and was a teacher in Melrose until her marriage to Moses Crocker, a native of Adams County and a business man of Quincy. Mr. and Mrs. Crocker have one daughter, Doro- thy L., attending school. Archie L., born in 1890, was reared and educated in Quincy and acquired a thorough knowledge of the trade of millwright. In July, 1917, he enlisted in the American Expeditionary Forces, landing in France in December of the same year, and is now a sergeant in the Aviation (Corps. Frederick Addison, the youngest child, was born March 9, 1895, is a graduate of the Gem City Business College and for several years has been assistant bookkeeper in his father's mill. The head bookkeeper of this estab- lishment is Mr. George Kelker, who married a niece of Mr. Pape. Mr. Kelker has been for twenty years in charge of the company's books. Politically Mr. Pape is a democrat, and though not an office seeker has served as a member of the local Food Commission. He and his family are members of the Methodist Church.

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C. ARTHUR FIFER is probably as widely known as any other Quincy citizen. At home his chief business is as secretary of the Quincy Show Case Company, of which his brother William A. Fifer is vice president, and an industry of great importance and long standing founded by their father over forty years ago. Other particulars concerning the business will be found on other pages of this publication.

C. Arthur Fifer is also president of the C. Arthur Fifer Music Publishing House of Quincy and New York City. Mr. Fifer organized this music company in 1916. It has been chiefly the medium for publication of some of his own popular songs. Mr. Fifer is known as author of "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep," "We're Going Over," "Wait for Your Honey Boy," and other songs, the words and music of which have stirred the pulses of millions within the last two or three years.

Mr. Fifer was born at Quincy September 20, 1884. He was educated in the local grammar schools, the high school, and attended Dartmouth College. He is a member of the Beta Theta Pi College Fraternity. After school he worked in Boston and Chicago with the Western Electric Company for abont two years. Then returning to Quincy he took his father's place in the office of the Show Case Company, and has been steadily with that business now for the past eleven years.

Mr. Fifer married March 30, 1912, Mrs. Susan (Warfield) Tibbets, widow of C. J. Tibbets. She has one son, Capt. Paul W. Tibbets, who is with the Thirty-Third Division in France. Mr. Fifer is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason. He is a member of the Quincy Country Club, the Rotary Club.

AUGUST R. DICK. An eminently capable and prosperous business man of Quincy, August R. Dick, president of the enterprising firm of Dick Brothers, is actively identified with the manufacturing interests of Adams County, the company of which he is at the head having one of the most extensive and finest equipped brewing plants in the county. A native of Quincy, he was born Octo- ber 14, 1873, of German ancestry.

Jacob Dick, his father, immigrated when young from Germany to the United States. Locating in Saint Clair County, Illinois, he lived for a time in Belle- ville, from there coming to Quincy. With two of his brothers, John Dick and Mathew Dick, he embarked in the brewing and milling industry, establishing the original firm of Dick Brothers, of which he was a member until his death in 1876. His wife, whose maiden name was Margaret Redmond, was born in Quincy, where she is still a resident. She bore him six children, namely : Anna, wife of J. B. Ellis, of Quincy ; Catherine, deceased; August R., the subject of this sketch ; and Thomas, Julia and Jacob, all of whom died in infancy.

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Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 40

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