Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 5

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 5

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Mr. Stoekheeke and his young bride eame to America in September 1867. They journeyed by ocean steamer, the Deutschland, from Bremen to New York City, being on the ocean seven days. From there they came west to St. Louis, spending one winter in the eity, and in the spring of 1868 arrived at Quincy. For two and a half years Mr. Stockheeke made his home in Quincy, and then moved to a rented farm in Ellington Township. He also rented in Ursa Town- ship five years. In the meantime his affairs had been prospering owing to the diligence practiced by himself and wife, and he was able to effect the purchase of 147 acres in Mendon Township. This land he converted into a fine farm, ereeting good buildings both house and barns, and also increasing the area to 227 acres. Still later he invested some of his surplus in 160 acres in section 16 of the same township. That also represents a complete farm in its equipment. Mr. Stockhecke did all around farming, specializing in good livestock, and though most of his work was done in an era of low prices he was able to retire with a comfortable competenee in 1908. Since then he has lived in a substantial eity home, a two-story brick, seven-room residence at 1030 Kentucky Street in Quiney. Mr. Stockhecke is a republican voter, but beyond casting an intelligent vote has never been in polities. He and his family are all members of the Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church. It now remains to mention briefly the ehil- dren.

Herman P., the oldest, is a successful farmer in Ursa Township. He married Mary Thyson, and their family consists of Lawrenee, Arthur and Minnie.

August W., the second son, oecupies his father's 160 acre farm in section 16. He married Nora Starr, and their children are Bessie, Curtis and Charles.

Edward Stockhecke occupies the old homestead farm. He married Emma Opsmeyer and has a daughter, Theresa.

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Elenora is the wife of a well known Quincy jeweler, Mr. Van Loher. Their children are Elma, Volta, Wilma, Lillian and Robert.

Emma Stockhecke is the wife of Walter Altenberg and lives with her parents.

WILLIAM T. DUKER. One of the solid, reliable and representative business men of Quincy is William T. Duker, who for over thirty years has been in busi- ness as a merchant, and is now proprietor of a general department store that would do credit to any city in Illinois.

A native of Quincy, where he was born December 14, 1861, Mr. Duker represents some well known old time families of the city. His parents were Theodore and Elizabeth (Brinckhoff) Duker. The mother was born at Phila- delphia, Pennsylvania, and the father was born in Hanover, Germany, and was brought to America in 1846, at an early age. The grandmother on the maternal side was named Elizabeth Von Hobbard. She was a beautiful woman, of noble birth and lineage, and left her native land because of her marriage out of the royal kin. The Brinckhoffs came to Quincy in 1846 and the husband here was a contractor and builder. This family has furnished a familiar name to Quincy in the Brinekhoff Addition in the western part of the city. Theodore Duker came to Quincy in 1848, had a cooperage shop for a number of years, and then for about fifteen years was a general merchant. He finally retired from busi- ness and died in 1906, at the age of seventy-eight. His wife passed away in 1899. William T. Duker was the oldest of the six sons of his parents, and altogether there were eleven children.

As a boy he attended the public schools of Quincy and also St. Francis' College. Experience in the line which has become his permanent vocation began as a boy clerk in a dry goods store. For a time he was in Kansas City, and in 1889 he became associated with II. B. Menke. These two enterprising men stocked with merchandise a single front building and as their enterprise pros- pered they put up a large store at 704 Maine Street and later leased a building at 614 Maine Street. The partnership was dissolved in 1898, and since then Mr. Duker has been in business alone. At this writing he is constructing a modern and handsome department store building, 72 by 130 feet, six stories in height, at the corner of Sixth and Maine streets. The building has two balconies, thus giving eight complete stories. It is fire proof construction, with a com- plete sprinkling system installed, and also modern facilities of ventilation.

February 12, 1888, Mr. Duker married Elizabeth Bowles, a native of Peoria, Illinois. They have two children, Edna B. and William T., Jr. In politics Mr. Duker is independent. He has never songht office and has rendered valuable public service through various organizations of which he is a member. He is president of the Quincy National Bank, took an active part in building the modern Hotel Quincy, and has held various offices in the Chamber of Com- merce, being now vice president. Fraternally he is identified with the Knights of Columbus, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is a member of the Catholic church.

JUDGE JOSEPH SIBLEY. The Adams County Bench and Bar of the last cen- tury has had no more honored and dignified figure than that of Judge Joseph Sibley, who was associated with all the great lawyers and statesmen that made Illinois famous at that time, and his own abilities rank him among the best of these.

His American ancestry goes back to the time of the Mayflower in New England. The first Sibleys on leaving England settled in Connecticut, and later moved to Massachusetts. Judge Sibley's father, Aaron Sibley, spent his active life as a New England farmer at Westfield, Massachusetts. IIe married Tryphena Agard. IIer father, Joshua Agard, enlisted from Connecticut and served in the Continental line of the Revolutionary Army. The oldest brother of Aaron Sibley. Moses Sibley, was also a Revolutionary soldier. Thus two different lines of the family are entitled to membership in the patriotie soci- eties. Aaron Sibley and his four brothers spent their lives in Massachusetts.

Mariate sibly

J. Sibley

LIBRARY )T THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

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Judge Joseph Sibley was born at Westfield, Massachusetts, January 2, 1818. When a young man he went to Schenectady, New York, and studied law under Judge Potter. After his admission to the bar he sought a western field for his experience, and went to Nanvoo, Illinois, arriving there soon after the death of the Mormon leader, Joseph Smith. He did well in practice in that county, and in 1853 located at Warsaw, then a small but growing town.

Joseph Sibley was first chosen to the bench in 1855, when he was elected a circuit judge. His term as cireuit judge ran for a longer period than that of any other judge in his district. He was on the bench twenty-four consecutive years. In 1865, in order to aeeommodate his residence to the exacting demands of his judicial position, he moved to Quiney, and here bought an entire square of land at 1200 North Eighth Street. There he built his large home and in the next block lived his friend, O. H. Browning, at that time a secretary in President Johnson's Cabinet. Senator Browning and Judge Sibley were fast friends. When under the new constitution Illinois established its Appellate Courts, Judge Sibley was appointed one of the three judges to represent this distriet, and finished out his judicial career on that bench. Judge Sibley was also a member of the Legislature two terms, 1850 and 1852.

In 1879 he retired from the bench and became associated in practice with J. N. Carter and W. H. Govert. Mr. Carter, who recently died, was a judge of the Supreme Court of Illinois. This firm was one of the most successful in Western Illinois and Judge Sibley was an active member until he was in- jured by slipping on a banana peel and after that was unable to participate in office practice, so he constantly received at his home his fellow lawyers and was considered invaluable to them in advice and counsel. Judge Sibley died June 18, 1897, when nearly eighty years of age. He was a lifelong democrat and a very vigorous partisan when not on the bench. He was reared in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

In 1849, at St. Louis, he married Miss Maria E. Brackett. Mrs. Sibley, who is still living and one of the most honored women of Quincy, belongs to one of the oldest and most historie families of the state. She was born in that interesting Freneh community of Cahokia, Illinois, February 8, 1829, daughter of Dr. James L. and Hortense (Jarrot) Brackett. Her maternal grandfather, Nicholas Jarrot, was a native Frenchman and was one of the followers of General Lafayette in bringing assistance to the sorely beset colonists at the time of the Revolution and was in the War of 1812. He died at Cahokia. Illi- mois. The old Jarrot mansion honse at Cahokia was construeted after General Clark had conquered the Northwest. It is constructed of brick made on the grounds and still kept in good repair, having survived the earthquake of 1812 and the floods of 1844 and 1851, when the river was above the second story.

In 1776 Vital Beauvais married Feliste Jannis. The bride on that ocea- sion wore a wedding gown made of genuine cloth of gold, which is now in possession of the family. Later, in 1828, when her granddaughters were mar- ried, this wedding gown was made into two gowns, and though 140 years old one is still preserved as a sacred relic and to all appearances is as good as new, and also her wedding ring. Another family possession is a small ehest in which this French ancestor brought with him to America his stoek of gold. Dr. James L. Braekett, father of Mrs. Sibley, was a son of James Brackett, a colonist of Maine and a soldier in the Revolution. Dr. Brackett when a young practieing physi- cian eame West and earned high station in his profession and as a eitizen of Cahokia, where he died when past fifty-one years of age. Ilis widow lived to be eighty-seven and her mother was ninety-six when she died.

Mrs. Sibley is thus a woman of many historie associations. She was reared and edueated in St. Louis and still possesses all her faculties and takes keen enjoyment in life, so that she greatly belies her age. She is now in her ninetieth year. In the campaign for the Third Liberty Loan at Quincy Mrs. Sibley was' honored and did honor to her community by marching at the head of the Daugh- ters of the American Revolution, and going in sprightly step the entire distanee

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of fifteen blocks covered by the parade. She is the head of five generations, something seldom scen now-a-days, and some three years ago a picture of them was taken. She was a great-great-grandmother at eighty-six, Jarrot Sibley was a great-grandfather at sixty-four, and Julia Hartley was a grandmother at forty-two, and still none were married under twenty years.

Judge and Mrs. Sibley had two children. Jarrot Joseph, born in St. Louis in 1851, is a well known agriculturist of Mendon Township of Adams County, and has made his place a mecca for stoekmen. In 1872 he married at Palmyra, Missouri, Amanda Carson, who died in 1906. They had six children. Julia is the wife of John Hartley of Kahoka, Missouri, and is the mother of seven ehil- dren : Belle, who married Earl Newnham, is the mother of two children, Thurs- ton and Marguerite; Amanda married Otto Wright; Robert and John, both unmarried; Ruth and Ruby, twins, both married; and Minah. Cora, the second child of Jarrot J. Sibley, died in infancy. The third child, and eldest son, is Nicholas J., who married Elverta Thomas in 1899, has two daughters and two sons, and is in the employ of the Government at Granger, Missouri. The fourth child, Joseph W., lives in Oregon and has three children. John S., the fifth, lives in South Dakota and is unmarried, and Grover C., the sixth, is one of the lead- ing lawyers of St. Louis. In November, 1908, at Canton, Missouri, Jarrot J. Sibley married Louise Stewart, daughter of William Stewart, a prominent farmer in that locality.

The only daughter of Judge and Mrs. Sibley is Julia. She was well edu- cated at Quincy Female Seminary and St. Mary's Academy. She has been an instructress in musie, French and English literature. Judge Sibley was a great lover of books, and during his lifetime gathered about him what is eon- ceded to be one of the largest private libraries in Quincy, and he also had a fine law library. His private collection contains many interesting works that have a great value among book collectors, and are rare both from point of age and also in their titles and their publishers. Mrs. Sibley is an active member of St. Peter's Catholic Church. Both she and her daughter are life members of the Quincy Historical Society, and Miss Julia is secretary of that organization. Both are also members of the Daughters of the American Revolution and Miss Julia Sibley is a former regent and registrar and corresponding secretary of the local chapter.

JOHN B. SCHOTT. For over sixty years the name Schott has been a distine- tive one in Quincy's progressive commercial affairs. It is especially associated with Quincy's importanee as a center of the manufacture and distribution of leather and saddlery products. The John B. Schott Saddlery Company, built np on the nucleus of a pioneer tannery, was subsequently advanced to a front rank among similar firms in the Middle West.

The stimulating factor and head of this business for many years was the late John B. Schott. He was born in Bavaria, Germany, March 28, 1833, a son of Philip Anthony and Margaret (Fischer) Schott, both of whom represented some of the most substantial families of old Bavaria, people of education and a high degree of commercial ability and integrity. Mr. Schott was a tanner, and he and his wife spent all their lives in their native town, where they died when past sixty. John B. Schott was one of six sons to grow to manhood, and all of them learned their father's trade. He aequired a liberal education, and in 1852, at the age of nineteen, started for America. He traveled on a sailing vessel and after a number of weeks landed in New York City. He worked at his trade as a tanner and eurrier at Cineinnati, Ohio, for about four years. It was in response to an advertisement which offered the rental of a tannery at Quincy that Mr. Schott arrived in this city on the 16th of May, 1856. He made arrangements to take over an old tannery at the corner of Sixth and State streets, and he subsequently married the daughter of the founder of that busi- ness. Though he came to Quincy with very little capital, Mr. Schott was a man of mueh ability in his line, and his energy enabled him to make a suceess

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of the business. At first only six or eight men were employed but he pushed the business rapidly and in 1861 bought the property. In 1865 he bought other property at 613-615 Hampshire Street, where he engaged in the general leather business, besides conducting the old tannery. Another addition to the business came in 1875, when he took up the manufacture of horse collars. In 1877 the company engaged in the wholesale manufacture of saddlery goods, and at that time employed twenty-five men. In 1879 a building at the corner of Third and Hampshire streets was acquired and that for many years has been the headquarters of the J. B. Schott Company. In 1889 Mr. Schott erected a five story addition in Hampshire Street, a building that is still known as the Schott Building. The goods manufactured by this firm have been sold in practically every state of the Union and even abroad. From six to eight men represent the company on the road, and altogether there are about 100 employes.

John B. Schott invested much of the surplus of his business in local real estate and owns some especially valuable property between 14th and 15th streets on State Street, in which locality he had his home for forty-seven years. After only two days illness he died at his home May 6, 1910, at the age of seventy-seven. He was an independent voter, but his business position alone made him a factor of importance in the city and he was always liberal in his support of worthy causes.

February 17, 1859, Mr. Schott married at Quincy, Miss Adolphina Schleich, and they lived to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary. Mrs. Schott, who is still living, was born near Berlin, Germany, December 9, 1839, daughter of F. Julius and Wilhelmina Schleich, both natives of Prussia. Some of her ancestors were prominent as teachers and preachers in the Lutheran church. Mrs. Schott came to America with her parents on board a sailing vessel between Bremen and Baltimore in 1847. They were six weeks in making the passage, and the family brought with them all their household equipment, including cooking utensils and beds and bedding. From Baltimore the family came on west to Quincy, where Julius Schleich established himself at his trade in a tannery. He had sought a home in the new world to become free from the political and other restrictions that sent so many liberty loving sons of the fatherland to this country during the late '40s. Julius Schleich built a tannery at the corner of Sixth and State streets which was the first institution of the kind in Quincy. Troubles assailed him in the management of this business, and he died in 1851, at the age of thirty-nine, leaving the property much involved. The tannery was finally taken over, as already noted, by the late John B. Schott, who made it the nucleus of the business just described. The widow of Julius Schleich survived him a great many years and was ninety-three years old when she passed away May 20, 1903, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Schott, with whom she had lived for over forty-five years.

The Schott home at 1421 State Street is one of the stately places in the city, and indicates in its atmosphere the substantial qualities of its owners. One special feature of the place are the fine trees growing on the spacious lawn. These trees were set out when small by Mr. and Mrs. Schott, and they now stand as living signals of their earlier lives.

Mr. and Mrs. Schott were the parents of six children, Antonia, Julia, Emma, John F., Adolph and Robert. Antonia, who lives at 1301 State Street, is the widow of Louis Wolf, formerly president of the Quincy National Bank and manager of the J. B. Schott Saddlery Company. Julia is the wife of Charles H. Lauter, manager of the Schott Company. They have two children, Carl and Margaret, the former a chemist. Emma died at the old home at the age of forty-five, unmarried. All the sons, John, Adolph and Robert, are connected with the company and business established by their father. All are married, and John has four children, John, Jr., Herbert, Theo- dore and Frances, while Adolph has one son, Frederick.

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JOHN J. FISHER. There are many ways in which a city becomes known to the outside world, through its size, its striking history, its location with respect to the routes of travel, the possession of some distinctive resources or by a special line of products that it sends out to the world. It is probable that the largest number of people who have never lived in Quincy and whose destiny has never led them to a close acquaintance with the community have more associations with the name as suggestive of stove manufacture than in any way. It is of one of the men who have contributed to this fame of the city as a stove manufacturing center that this article has to deal.

In fact the Fisher family have been stove foundrymen and manufacturers in Quincy for more than half a century. John J. Fisher was born in this city July 6, 1869, a son of John C. and Mary A. (Weilage) Fisher. His father was a native of Baltimore, Maryland, and his mother of Germany. John C. Fisher was a molder by trade and coming to Quincy during the early '40s, as a young man, he engaged in work at his trade as a stove plate molder and about 1865 organized and established the Excelsior Stove Works, with which he was actively connected until his death. His associates in this business were Samuel Wood and Joseph Easterly. Subsequently, in 1890, after the death of Mr. Fisher, the Excelsior Stove Works discontinued business. His widow, who was born in Hanover. Germany, and was brought to Quincy in childhood, is still living in the city. John C. Fisher at one time represented the Third Ward in the city council.

He and his family were active members of St. Mary's Catholic Church. They had eight children, two of whom, William and Adelaide, died young. Otillia is the wife of Theodore Ehrhart; Martha is the wife of Otto Duker; the third in age is John J., of Quincy; Henrietta married F. W. Rummenie, of St. Paul, Minnesota : William Joseph and Frank H. reside in Quincy.

John J. Fisher grew up in his native city, attended St. Mary's parochial schools to the age of eleven, at which age he went to work earning his own living as clerk in a confectionery store and later in a grocery house. Then in 1884, he began an apprenticeship in the foundry of the Excelsior Stove Works and was with that company until it discontinued business in 1890.

On the first of May in that year Mr. Fisher went into the stove repair busi- ness, under the name Excelsior Stove Repair Company, and in 1893 his business was incorporated and in 1896 the capital was increased and the name changed to the Excelsior Stove and Manufacturing Company. Since then the company has manufactured stoves, ranges and furnaces under the popular trademark name "National Stoves, Ranges and Furnaces," which have been shipped to every quarter of the globe. Mr. Fisher is president and treasurer of the com- pany and now two branch houses are maintained, one at Oklahoma City, Okla- homa, and the other at St. Paul, Minnesota. It is one of the larger local indus- tries. employing several hundred men and doing an annual business valued at more than $1,000,000.

Mr. Fisher is also vice president of the National Furniture and Stove Com- pany St. Paul, Minnesota, is president of the Quincy Freight Bureau : is chair- man of the Transportation and Classification Committee of the National Asso- ciation of Stove Manufacturers and is vice president of Potter & Vaughn Com- pany. He has acquired many other interests with business and civic enterprises and during the last year has served as a member of the National Defense Neighborhood Committee and a member of the Conservation Committee of the War Industries' Board of the National Association of Stove Manufacturers. He and his family are active members of the St. Peter's Catholic Church.

On May 31, 1902. he married Miss Ellen C. Nolen, of Quincy. Their only child, a boy, died in infancy.

Mr. Fisher has undoubtedly had a large and sustaining part in Quincy's industrial life and yet it is his disposition to refer to this role with exceeding modesty and disclaiming honor for himself gives credit for all the success of

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his business to his loyal and faithful assistants, associates and workmen, who in co-operation have produced the results by which the name of the Excelsior Stove and Manufacturing Company has such interesting and worthy signifi- cance.

JOHN J. METZGER. Of the old time business men of Quincy one whose name is still spoken with respect due to the energy and character of its possessor is that of John J. Metzger, who was at one time connected with the pork packing industry of this city, was also a grocer and land owner, and one of the most prominent and public spirited citizens Quincy ever had.

Ile was born in Wuertemberg, Germany, October 30, 1842, of Catholic ancestry. When he was three years old his parents Martin and Margaret Metz- ger came to the United States and after a voyage of many weeks landed in New Orleans. From there they proceeded up the Mississippi River to Burling- ton. Iowa, but soon located at Edwardsville, Illinois, where Martin Metzger died when past seventy years of age. After his death the family came to Quincy and located at 17 Vermont Street. Here the mother spent her last years.

John J. Metzger in early life became associated with others in pork pack- ing, and carried on an extensive business. In early life he learned the trade of saddler and for some time worked at his trade with the late J. B. Schott. Along in the late '70s he was in the grocery business at the corner of Sixth and York streets. He finally retired and built his fine home at 533 York Street, where he lived until his death October 25, 1910, at the age of sixty-seven. He owned eighty acres of land just south of the city and since his death has been reclaimed for the purpose of cultivation by the South Quincy Drainage System. This was an improvement which he always advocated during his lifetime.

Many remember Mr. Metzger chiefly for his active connection with many public affairs and as a leader in his church. He was prominent in local politics as a democrat and was once candidate for mayor. He was one of the organizers of the first volunteer fire departments. was its first chief. and was in active serv- ice for over twenty-five years, being chief much of the time. One of the honors which he always appreciated was the chief's bugle given him by the ladies of the city. He and his family were prominent in St. Boniface parish of the Catholic Church and he was one of the organizers of the Western Catholic Union, served as its supreme president, and was also an official of the local branch and attended nearly all the conventions of the order. On October 16. 1889, his services as president of the Supreme Council received a beautiful recognition when he was presented with a gold headed cane. He was also president of the local branch known as St. Peter's No. 16, and this service was also given a grateful token when he was presented with a gold badge. He was active in the Catholic Benevolent Society.

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Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 5

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