Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 42

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

USA > Illinois > Adams County > Quincy > Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II > Part 42

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In polities Mr. Earel has been a democrat practically from the formation of that party, though in local affairs he frequently supports the man rather than the party. He has done much in behalf of his home community and county. For twenty years he served as a member of the Board of Supervisors, and in 1875 was elected county treasurer, and also filled other offices in Columbus Town- ship. He has been a steadfast friend and supporter of the public schools for many years. Both he and his wife are rigid adherents of the temperance canse. He has filled all the chairs in the lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows at Crown Point, and is also a member of the Encampment. Mr. Earel has always been interested in archaeological remains and has collected many speci- mens from the old Indian mounds along the Mississippi Valley. Most of his collections were made when he had charge of the river levee. In the Earel home is also one of the few spinning wheels still found in Adams County. This spin- ning wheel was used by Mr. Earel's mother more than a century ago. Mr. and Mrs. Earel have used their means to put them in touch with the great outside

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world and have traveled extensively, and among other trips they made in 1903 a long journey of 8,000 miles over the West, including visits to the cities of Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Pasadena, Tacoma, Portland and Seattle. Mr. and Mrs. Earel celebrated their silver wedding anniversary in 1881, and in 1906 their home was the scene of a brilliant and happy gathering of 200 guests to honor them on the golden anniversary of their wedding. The Earel home is a place of comfort and solid prosperity and is also notable for the fine flavor of hospitality of the southern type which has prevailed there not only in years of prosperity but in earlier times when hospitality meant something of a sacrifice.

JOSEPH W. IRELAND. Well skilled both by training and by experience in the art and science of healing the various diseases to which domestic animals are heir to, Joseph W. Ireland, of Quincy, has gained distinction in his profession and won a place of prominence among the leading veterinary surgeons of Adams County. A native of Canada, he was born August 15, 1861, on a farm in King Township.

Samuel Ireland, his father, emigrated from England to America, and for a time lived in Champlain, Clinton County, New York. Crossing the Canadian line, he bought land in King Township, cleared and improved a farm, and was there a resident until his death, at the venerable age of ninety-three years. His wife, whose maiden name was Caroline Hill, was born in England, and died on the home farm at the age of eighty-three years. They reared a family of five sons and four daughters, Joseph W. being the seventh child in succession of birth.

Ilaving laid a substantial foundation for his future education in the public schools, Joseph W. Ireland entered in the fall of 1882, the Toronto Veterinary College, from which he was graduated in the spring of 1885. Coming then to Illinois, Doctor Ireland began the practice of his profession at Belvidere, re- maining there three years. The following year he spent on the road, practising veterinary surgery and dentistry. On July 7, 1889, the Doctor located in Quincy, and having erected at 1033-35 Maine Street a commodious brick building has since been prosperously engaged both as a liveryman and as a veterinary, in ' both lines of business being successful. He has other interests, being president of the Bankers and Farmers Loan and Trust Company, an organization formed for the purpose of writing insurance on live stock.

On June 29, 1896, Doctor Ireland was united in marriage with Ida A. Root, a native of Quincy. Three children have blessed their union, namely: Joseph, who died in infancy; Robert, a graduate of the Quincy High School, is now attending the College of Mines at Golden, Colorado; and Enid, a graduate of the Quincy High School, and now a student at Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois. Politically the Doctor is independent, voting for the best men and measures with- out regard to party affiliations.

WILLIAM R. GELSTON. There is no public utility of Quincy which comes closer to the life and daily needs of the people than the city waterworks plant. It is therefore a position of unusual responsibility which William R. Gelston holds as superintendent of the waterworks. That has been his relationship with the city continuously since January 1, 1907, and his competent services have been retained by reappointment through every board of waterworks commis- sioners. Mr. Henry C. Sprick, the treasurer of that board, has been a member continuously since Mr. Gelston became superintendent of the plant. The president of the board is W. J. Singleton, and the secretary is Mr. John Ingram.

Mr. Gelston is a civil engineer of wide experience and has had many respon- sibilities of oversight and supervision in connection with the construction of the modern waterworks system which Quiney now refers to with pride. The pump- ing station and the filtering plant were both constructed since Mr. Gelston be- came superintendent. This filtering plant has a capacity of 6,000,000 gallons every twenty-four hours. The two plants are operated with engines of 450

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horse power, and the water is carefully analyzed every day so as to insure its purity. Through the perfect system of filtering used fully 99 per cent of all im- purities are removed before the water enters the mains of domestic supply. The present pumping plant was constructed in 1910 and the filtering plant in 1914. This filtering plant was constructed on a solid foundation after 3,000 cubie yards of stone had been removed, the plant proper and the upper works being made of solid concrete. This filtering plant stands on a lot 89x172 feet.

Mr. Gelston is a western man by birth and early training, and for eight years was a civil engineer with the Burlington Railroad before he accepted his present position at Quincy. He was born near Omaha, Nebraska, January 1, 1868. a very short time after Nebraska was admitted to the Union. A brother and sister were born when Nebraska was still a territory. His father, George W. Gelston, was a famous old timer of Iowa and Nebraska, and one of the old stage coach drivers of pioneer days. He was a native of Connecticut, a typieal Yankee in many respects, and coming west identified himself with Iowa territory, where he used his skill as a driver of stage coaches to what was then the western boundaries of civilization, the Missouri River. Later he went into Nebraska and continued his vocation until it was superseded and rendered obso- lete by the advent of railway transportation. Frequently he was driver of stage coaches over vast areas in which Indians were more numerous than white settlers, and he was exposed to all the risks and hazards of an occupation which has been celebrated in all accounts of western life. When he retired from his position as a driver he located on a farm twenty miles from Omaha, and lived there until his death at the age of sixty-seven. He was personally acquainted with many of the noted frontiersmen and pioneer characters of the Middle West. He married in Nebraska Mary Wilkening, who was born in Germany but was brought as a child to the United States. Her family lived for about a year at Quincy and then moved to Nebraska. She is still living at the age of seventy- five. retains all her faculties unimpaired, and has had her home on the old farm in Douglas County, Nebraska, for fifty-five years. She was the mother of a large family of two daughters and seven sons, all of whom are still living, the youngest being thirty-five years old. All but two are married. William R. Gelston has a brother, Edward, who has achieved snecess as an electrical engi- neer and is now at Oakland, California, connected with the Southern Pacifie Railway.

William R. Gelston grew up in his native county, attending school there, and in 1894 graduated from Grinnell College in Iowa. Since then he has prac- ticed his profession as a civil engineer, and as already stated, was for eight years connected with the engineering department of the Burlington Railway. He was assigned tasks all along that great system, and had many interesting ex- periences in the western states and territories. All of his experience well qual- ified him for the responsibilities he enjoys and the service he renders the people and the City of Quincy. In 1916, on the score of his experience and attainments, Mr. Gelston was elected a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and is also a member of the Illinois Engineers Association, the American Waterworks Association, and the New England Waterworks Association, and has attended many of the conventions of these professional bodies and partiei- pated in their proceedings.

Mr. Gelston married at Homan. Arkansas, Miss Elizabeth Chavey. She was born in Indiana, but from the age of ten years lived in the State of Arkansas. She was paying a visit to a sister in Omaha when she met Mr. Gelston. Mr. and Mrs. Gelston have one son. W. Richard, born in 1909 and now attending the public schools of Quiney. The family are members of the Presbyterian Church and in national politics Mr. Gelston votes as a democrat.

GEORGE H. MOYER is a Quiney business man whose hard working industry and genial manners have won him a host of friends, not only in the strict lines of his business relationships but among all classes of citizens.

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As a boy he learned the trade of harness maker, and that has been his regular business in Quincy for over twenty-five years. He has a large and well equipped shop at 1205 Broadway, and manufactures and handles a large volume of leather and harness goods.

His first location on starting business for himself September 1, 1890, was an old land mark known as the Prairie House. at the corner of Twelfth and Broadway. It was the oldest building in that section of the city. Mr. Moyer had his shop there for six years before the building was torn down and was there- fore its last occupant. The Prairie ITouse in its time had a rather checkered history, and at one time was an old fashioned tavern, saloon and dance hall run very much on the plan of resorts in western mining or ranching towns. On leaving that location Mr. Moyer moved his shop across the street and established the plant where he has now been located for over twenty years.

Mr. Moyer was born in Missouri September 13, 1866, son of Henry ond Sarah (Levan) Moyer, both natives of Pennsylvania, where they were married, subsequently coming west to Missouri and finally locating at Keokuk, Iowa. Mr. Moyer is of an old Pennsylvania family. The Moyers were originally French Huguenots, and lived in Holland before coming to Pennsylvania. His ancestors were in Pennsylvania prior to the Revolutionary war. His mother's parents came west to Missouri with a colony of settlers and spent their lives in that statc.

George H. Moyer had very limited educational advantages. He learned the trade of harness maker, and in 1880 came to Quincy and worked at his trade until he set up in business for himself ten years later. When he started his shop he had only $25 capital, but had a large number of good friends who were willing in every way to help him. Mr. Moyer got his real education outside of school, and by practical experience and by constant reading of good books and papers. He is thoroughly posted on all current affairs and discusses many mat- ters outside the ordinary interests of men.

Mr. Moyer married in Melrose Township of Adams County Elizabeth Barry. She was born in that township in 1864, and still owns the old farm where she was born. Mr. and Mrs. Moyer have one son, Edmund Milton, born January 6, 1903. He is now a pupil in the Quincy city schools. Mrs. Moyer is member of St. Peter's Catholic church. Mr. Moyer is affiliated with the Chamber of Commerce.

WILLIAM F. BERGHOFER. Few cities anywhere have a more varied line of manufactures and industries than Quiney. It is an important center for the manufacture and distribution of poultry supplies of different kinds, including incubators. and one of the principal firms helping to swell the volume of the city's business in this respect is that of Berghofer, Mitchell & Company, who have a large plant and turn out a big annual aggregate of sheet metal work, the Marvel Stove Range, fruit cannning devices, and incubators, feed and watering troughs and other poultry supplies, some of which have a widely attested pop- ularity and are the direct invention of Mr. Berghofer, head of the company.

Mr. Berghofer is a veteran in the sheet metal and general hardware and tin- smith industry. He was born at Palmyra, Missouri, November 8, 1848, son of Henry and Henrietta (Sehaler) Berghofer. Both parents were born in Prussia, and on coming to the United States about 1845 located at LaGrange, Missouri, and later at Palmyra, where they spent their last years. The father died at the age of eighty-seven and the mother at eighty-one. They were members of the Lutheran Church. Their four sons and two daughters all grew up, one daughter dying unmarried at the age of thirty. These children were: William F .; Henry, of Quincy; Mary, wife of Doctor Bremmer, of Ashton, Illinois; Catherine, deceased ; Jacob, of Palmyra ; and Edward, of Florida.

William F. Berghofer grew up at Palmyra, and until he was twelve years of age attended a pay school. At the age of sixteen he left home and came to Quincy and learned the trade of tinsmith under H. C. Dasbach, an uncle by

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marriage. After three years of apprenticeship he worked as a journeyman, and in 1878 entered business on his own aecount in Saline County, Missouri. There he condueted a tinshop and also handled a general stock of hardware. Ile was one of the merchants in that flourishing town in the Missouri River Valley until 1888, when he returned to Quiney and established a sheet metal works. Out of that has grown the present extensive business, doing every elass of gen- eral sheet metal and tin work, and emphasizing the specialties above mentioned. In 1891 Mr. Berghofer built his plant at 510 Jersey Street, 25x185 feet. In 1900 Alexander Ohnius became a partner, but eight years later the partnership was dissolved and in 1908 Mr. Berghofer associated with himself his son-in-law, E. H. Mitchell, who looks after the general commercial end of the business. They employ from ten to twenty-five men. Mr. Berghofer is president of the company, and the business is practically a family affair, ineluding Mr. Mitehell and also a son of Mr. Berghofer.

At Quincy March 24, 1870, Mr. Berghofer married Miss Mary Niemeyer, a native of Quincy, where she was reared and educated. Her parents were natives of Germany and spent their long and useful lives in Quiney. Mr. and Mrs. Berghofer had three children. Walter died in Missouri at the age of five years. Their daughter Katherine was born at Paris, Missouri, was educated there and in Quincy, and is the wife of Mr. E. H. Mitchell. Mr. Mitehell is a native of Palmyra, Missouri. The son Elmer J. H. was born at Slater, Missouri, was educated in Quincy, and is now junior member of the company. He married Viola Ruff, daughter of Casper Ruff, of Quiney. They have a daughter. Gladys. Mr. Berghofer votes independently. He is affiliated with Bodley Lodge, No. 1, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and he and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

GEORGE W. DRALLMEIER was born in Quiney, and an early service, beginning when he was sixteen years of age, as clerk in the well known drug firm of Heid- breder Brothers fixed permanently his vocation and his business interests, and continuously since that time he has been connected with this firm, being now partner and manager of the store of Heidbreder & Drallmeier at 1707 Broad- way.

Mr. Drallmeier was born in Quiney, at 1001 Kentucky Street, in 1875. Ilis early education was imparted to him in the grade schools, and at the age of sixteen he went to work for J. H. Heidbreder, the well known druggist. He has been with that firm continuously for twenty-seven years and in 1904 he graduated from the Chicago School of Pharmacy, now the pharmacy department of the State University. Sinee getting his degree he has been a licensed phar- macist and has been manager of the store on Broadway and a partner in the firm which controls five of the most complete drug stores in the city. Mr. Drallmeier also established for the firm the store at Twelfth and Broadway.

He is a son of Fred and Caroline (Kelker) Drallmeier. Fred Drallmeier was born in Germany but during infancy lost both his parents and was reared practically among strangers, at least not among immediate members of the fam- ily. When he was three years of age he was brought to America on a sailing vessel and grew up at Quiney, learned the trade of cigar maker and is still at that vocation. His wife was born in Quincy and is a year younger than her husband. Both are still living here and are active members of the Lutheran Church. They had a large family of three sons and eight daughters, all of whom are still living, all married and nearly all of them have children of their own. One son, Fred, is a pharmacist at Gillespie, Illinois.

George W. Dralmeier married at Quiney Miss Etta Hunsaker, who was born near Quiney in Melrose Township. Her father was John Hunsaker and her grandfather was the well known old pioneer Alexander Hunsaker, who came from Pennsylvania and was one of the first settlers along Mill Creek in Melrose Township. He aceumulated large holdings of land and was widely known in business affairs. He finally went west and died at the home of a daughter in

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Walla Walla, Washington, when past eighty years of age. John Hunsaker, father of Mrs. Drallmeier, was for many years in service as a member of the old city fire department of Quiney. He is now on the retired list, drawing a pension, and is about seventy years of age. John IIunsaker married Sophia Berian, of another pioneer family of Adams County. She died in 1913, at the age of fifty-four. Mr. and Mrs. Dralhmeier have one son, Roy E., born April 15, 1904, now a junior in the Quiney High School. Mr. Drallmeier is a member of the Masonie Order, but after his family he devotes all his interests and most of his time to his business. He learned pharmacy thoroughly both by experi- ence and by technical study, and much of the success of the firm of which he is a partner is due to his hustling energy and his personal popularity.

GEORGE ERTEL was that type of business man and citizen whose memory Quincy cannot afford to neglect. He was an inventor, a manufacturer, a large owner and improver of local real estate, and his influence was always steadily directed toward the welfare of his community as well as himself.

He was born in 1832 in the Province of Lorraine when it was a French possession and at one of the interesting villages along the River Rhine. He was of German ancestry. He was a small boy when his father died. His father had been a river man on the Rhine and spent his active career in the trans- portation industry. Mr. George Ertel grew up and received his early educa- tion in his native village, and there learned the trade of cabinet maker. About the time he completed his apprenticeship, at the age of eighteen, he headed the family, consisting of his widowed mother and three other children, Valen- tine, Daniel and Anna Mary, in their immigration to the New World. They embarked on a sailing vessel at Havre, France, and seven weeks later landed in New York. From there they went to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where the mother lived until her death. The Ertels are of Protestant German stock. Mr. George Ertel's brothers Valentine and Daniel and his sister Anna Mary all went to Wisconsin, became farmers in that state, and spent their lives there. They all lived to fullness of years and all left families.

George Ertel had as one of his first American experiences employment at his trade at Elmira, New York, and three years later he returned to Williams- port, Pennsylvania. At Williamsport he met and married Miss Eva E. Gard- ner. She was also born at Newburg on the River Rhine in Lorraine, Septem- ber 18, 1838, daughter of John and Barbara (Rhinehardt) Gardner. Her parents were natives of the same vicinity. John Gardner was a well to do business man there and had trade connections with Carlsrue, Strassburg and Baden. The Gardners lived in that section of Germany until the sons were nearly grown and in order to escape the impositions of a military government the family immigrated in 1851 to America. John Gardner and wife were accompanied by their five sons and four daughters and by a number of friends. They also sailed from Havre, France, on the ship Edwina, and less than five weeks later landed at New York. Thence by rail and canal they journeyed to Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Ertel's parents finally joined her and other members of the family in Quincy and her father died here at the age of sixty- nine and her mother when nearly ninety-five years old.

Mr. and Mrs. Ertel after their marriage came to Quiney and here he soon entered business for himself. He was the patentee of a special type of hay press, and manufactured and sold those presses for a number of years. He also originated a special type of poultry brooder, and that was also a com- modity which was widely manufactured and sold. Through his manufacturing enterprise he gained the capital which enabled him to invest and develop some valuable property. Ile built the Ertel Block, a well known landmark in the Quincy business district, part of which was modeled for theatrical uses. Mr. Ertel built the fine brick home at 1261 Park Place where Mrs. Ertel still lives and where his death occurred February 16, 1907, at the age of seventy-five.

GEORGE ERTEL

LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

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Mr. Ertel was a Mason and in polities voted independently. Mrs. Ertel has one son, Charles M., who was born in Quincy, was educated in the local schools, and succeeded to his father's business. He married Miss Odella Morrell, a native of St. Louis, who was reared and educated in that city. Charles M. Ertel and wife had four children: Elsie, the oldest, died after her marriage to J. C. Goves, and her daughter, Ruth, aged six, is Mrs. Ertel's only great- grandehild. Edna, aged twenty-one, was edneated in the Quincy schools and is now a student of art at Chicago. Georgianna, aged nineteen, is a student of art in Quiney. Pauline, the other granddaughter of Mrs. Ertel, died at the age of eighteen.

NEWTON J. HINTON. There are hundreds of people in Adams County who need no introduction to the serviee by which Newton J. Hinton has made his life one of distinetive eredit and honor in the county. Mr. Ilinton for forty years or more has been an educator, and most of those years have been spent in Adams County. Sinee 1898, a period of twenty years, he has been principal of the Franklin School at Quiney, and in point of continuous service is the oldest principal and school administrator in the eity.

Mr. Ilinton represents a very old family of Adams County and it was during a temporary absence of his parents in Memphis, Missouri, that Newton J. was born Mareh 3, 1857. When he was a year old his parents returned to Melrose Township, three miles from Payson, on Payson Prairie. In that locality his maternal grandparents, Peyton and Sarah (Basnett) Griggs, had settled during the '30s and had improved a farm from a portion of the wilderness. Peyton Griggs and wife were from Kentucky. He died in this eounty in 1863, when about sixty years of age, and his widow died at Payson in 1893. She was born in 1803. They were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and as a fam- ily the politics ran democratie. Peyton Griggs and wife had seven sons and three daughters, nearly all of whom married and had children. One of these was Mary Ann, better known as Polly, who was born in Melrose Township about 1833, and spent most of her life in the county. She was the mother of Professor Hinton.

The latter's father, Samuel Hinton, was born in St. Clair County, Illinois, in. 1831, of Virginia parentage. His father Vaehel died when Samnel was a small boy. The latter at the age of twenty moved to Adams County, and soon afterward married Miss Griggs. They lived in Melrose Township a time, then spent two years in Missouri. On returning to Melrose Township Samuel Hinton bought a small farm. From there he moved to Fall Creek Township, rented land, and condueted some of the extensive orehards of the Chatten family, noted fruit growers in that vicinity. About fifteen years later Samuel Hinton moved to Anthony, Harper County, Kansas. While there he became blind, and finally returned to Quincy and spent his last days in the home of liis son Newton, where he died in April, 1917, at the age of seventy-nine. He was an active Methodist and a republican. His first wife, the mother of Newton J. Hinton, (lied in Fall Creek Township. She was the mother of nine children, and those still living are: Lois, wife of C. E. Tilton, who lives retired in Columbus. Illinois, and has three sons and two daughters; Newton J .: Albertine, wife of C. W. Collins, who resides at Labelle, Missouri, and represents the Quincy Herald, Mr. and Mrs. Collins being the parents of two sons and two daughters; and Amanda, wife of George Tilton, a farmer near Garnett, Kansas, and they have four sons and one daughter.

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Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 42

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