Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 51

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 51

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The Kiem farm in Melrose Township is known as the Spring Brook Stock Farm, and has been brought to a high state of productiveness both for the culture of grain and raising of live stock. The home is two miles from the city limits, and is within half a mile of the State Aid stone road. It is a farm of

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much value and also an abode of hospitality, where the many friends of the family find a cordial welcome. The Kiems appreciate the value of money for what it will bring, and have made their home one of such conveniences and advantages that many city dwellers might envy. The house and barns are lighted by acetylene gas, the heating is by furnace system, and all other modern details are successfully worked out. The family also enjoy the advantages of a good tonring car.

GEORGE KEIL. The rich farming community of Fall Creek Township has known three George Keils. It is an old and noteworthy family. They have been among the most substantial people of that locality, have cleared and im- proved the land and proved their worth as citizens at every point.

The George Keil under present consideration owns the old Keil homestead in Fall Creek Township, eleven miles southeast of Quincy. On that farm he was born December 24, 1863.

His grandparents were George B. and Louise Keil. The former was born in Frankisch Grumbach, Hesse-Darmstadt, November 19, 1808, and died April 23, 1892. His wife, Louise, was born September 27, 1818, in Lippe-Detmold, and died February 14, 1869. These dates are found on the headstones in the Bluff Hall Cemetery, where both were laid to rest.

A son of these parents was George Keil, Jr., as he was known. He died at the early age of forty-five. He married Margaret Speckhart, and they were married on the farm where their son George was born and where he now lives. Margaret Keil is still living, residing among her children.

Mr. George Keil owns 260 acres of his father's home, and has added eighty acres of adjoining land; also owns eighty acres a mile east, and has a 120-acre farm in Payson Township, with twenty-four acres of standing timber. All this land is used for general farming.

While Mr. George Keil is one of the successful farmers and progressive citizens of this locality, his home place is partly by preference and partly by accident somewhat remote and it does not indicate to the passer by its real value. The residence stands half a mile back from the country road and is not visible until close at hand. The approach is through pasture and over ditches. There is still another point of approach, through a picturesque gorge, whose overhang- ing rocky sides threaten the traveler, and whose bed at times roars with the torrent flood.

Mr. Keil is a democrat, as was his father, and served as road supervisor one or two years.

At the age of twenty-seven he married Hannah Heitholt. She was a widow at the time, and her children by her first husband were Fred, George and Emma Wollbrink. Mr. and Mrs. Keil had one daughter, Anna, wife of Henry Althoff, and they live on her father's Payson Township farm. For his second wife Mr. Keil married Christina Blumer. They have three children, Elizabeth, Wilma and George.

The family attend the Bluff Hall Congregational Church. Mr. Keil's home was built by his father almost a room at a time. His father at the time of his marriage had two rooms of logs, and these were added to from time to time. The land originally was covered with heavy timber, and in the process of clearing much of it was burned and went to waste.

HON. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BERRIAN came to Quincy at the age of fourteen, grew up in the community, developed with it, and for over half a century his life and actions were a determining factor in its history. He was long prominent in public affairs, and was one of the ablest lawyers of Quincy.

He represented a prominent old family of the East, and was a son of George W. and Hannah (Brower) Berrian. George W. Berrian, his father, was one of the first men to prospect over this section of Western Illinois. In 1818, in company with an uncle, he made the long overland trip to this state, and

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in the state formed the acquaintance of John Wood, afterwards governor, and the founder of the City of Quincy. From this trip Mr. Berrian carried away many impressions which finally determined his investment in land here and the establishment of his permanent home at Quiney. The family once owned a seetion of land now known as South Park in the southern portion of Quincy, and also in the northern seetion, part of which was platted as the Primrose Addition. George W. Berrian spent his last years in New York City and died at Brooklyn at the age of eighty years. His wife, Hannah Brower, was a native of New York City and survived her husband several years, both dying when about the same age. She was an active member of the Methodist Church. George W. Berrian and wife had three sons: George W., Jr., who died in 1898; William, who died in 1896; and Benjamin Franklin.

Benjamin Franklin Berrian was born in New York City October 2, 1830, and died at his home in Quiney July 15, 1911. He was active almost to the last and was stricken with heart disease while measuring some land which he had sold.

As a youth he acquired a good education and soon after reaching man- hood took an active part in public affairs. He was the first alderman from the Fourth Ward in 1857 and was re-elected in 1858 and in 1860. In 1869 he was elected mayor of Quiney, and that administration was signalized by many important economies and reforms, including cash payments for city expenses. In the meantime he was studying law in the office of Wheat & Marcy and was admitted to the bar. He was elected county judge with probate jurisdiction in 1877, and for seventeen years held that important offiee. He was distin- guished by a judicial mind, absolutely fearless and with an unimpeachable integrity and was always ready with his legal ability to uphold justice and suceor the needy and unfortunate.

Along with his law practice he developed many important business interests. He platted Primrose Addition to the city and encouraged the location of a fine elass of people there by founding the beautiful park that bears his name, Berrian Park.

Judge Berrian married for his first wife Charlotte Elliott, who died May 26, 1863, leaving three children : John S., a resident of Los Angeles; Benjamin F. Jr., who died September 1, 1918; and Hannah MI., wife of Judge Lyman MeCarl, one of the editors of this publication.

January 28, 1868, at Quiney, Judge Berrian married Genevra Nance. Mrs. Berrian, who resides at the old home on North Twelfth Street, a part of the original Everett estate, has lived in Quincy sinee she was five years of age. The present Berrian home has been her place of residence for forty-seven years and many large and handsome trees have grown up as adornment since the Berrians located there. Mrs. Berrian was born December 11, 1844, sixteen miles east of Quiney at the old village of Columbus, daughter of Clement and Permelia (Watson) Nanee. Her father was one of the earliest settlers of Columbus, which one time was a rival for county seat honors. He located there in the late '30s and for a number of years was a merchant. In 1849 the Nance family removed to Quincy, where Mrs. Berrian grew up. For many years she has been an active and sustaining member of the Unitarian Church, of which Judge Berrian was also an active supporter. Judge Berrian was also prom- inent in Masonry, a Knight Templar, and in polities was a democrat.

Mrs. Berrian was the mother of one child, Clement Nance Berrian, who was born October 18, 1883, and spent much of his life as an invalid. He was liberally educated, and had the promise of a brilliant career when he was stricken with tuberculosis of the spine. He died October 25, 1911, only a few weeks after the death of his honored father.

ALTROGGE BROTHERS. One of the conspicuous instances of successful farm- ing and general agricultural and stock raising enterprise in Adams County is furnished by Altrogge Brothers, Henry and John Altrogge, whose scene of oper-

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ations is five miles southeast of Quiney and half a mile east of Melrose Chapel in the township of that name. Both are young men, but have displayed re- markable energy, foresight and all around business ability in handling their affairs, and have made their success in an era of high prices, when the average man considers the acquisition of a farm almost beyond his reach.

Both are natives of Adams County and were born at Walnut Springs where their mother Mrs. Theodore Altrogge is still living. Henry was born May 12, 1873, and John, October 27, 1880. They are sons of Theodore and Mary (Willing) Altrogge. Theodore Altrogge was born in Germany and was seven years of age when he was brought to the United States with his parents. His mother died on the ocean and was buried at sea. The father came on to Adams County and settled on land where Mrs. Theodore Altrogge is still living. He died soon afterward. He was both a farmer and shoemaker. Theodore Altrogge grew up on the old place, learned the shoemaker's trade, and also farmed thirty-two acres. He died there December 2, 1904, at the age of sixty-five years, five months and sixteen days. His children were: Henry; George, living with his mother: Lizzie, wife of Andy Klauser, of Ellington Township; John ; Frank, a stock buyer and shipper at Quiney; and Mary, Mrs. John Grawe, of Melrose Township.

Henry and John Altrogge have been associated in business since 1907. For six years they rented land and then bought their present farm, the old Matt Pease place of 100 acres. For this they paid $135 an acre, and bought it alto- gether on time. It has been paid for and they have also acquired forty aeres of pasture land three miles away at $40 an acre. They also operate 120 aeres under lease of the L. P. Wheeler farm and thirty acres of the Nickamp farm. All this constitutes a large body of land, much of which is devoted to general grain farming, principally wheat and corn, and in less than ten years by their co- operating energies they have acquired a property that makes them at once among the most substantial citizens of the county. The house on their home farm was burned election day in April, 1916, and it was rebuilt in the same vear. In 1913 the brothers built a large barn, and they have an equipment of buildings thoroughly adequate for all their needs.

For nine years John Altrogge was associated with his brother Frank as a buyer and shipper of livestock, and sent about two carloads to market every week. The brothers are democrats and are members of St. Antonius Catholic Church, this old center of worship being two miles from their home.

Henry Altrogge married in 1908 Miss Mary Tulle, who died December 21, 1915. Her only son died in infancy. John Altrogge married, June 14, 1911, Eleanor Kroner. They have a family of three children, named Raymond, Ilelen and Mildred.

WILLIAM J. SMITHI. The present county clerk of Adams County has many interests and associations that identify him with this section of Illinois. He was born here, and when Adams County was just emerging from its wilderness condition his grandparents established homes on tracts of Government land. There is a long and honorable record of the family, who have been known as substantial land owners and agriculturists and men who have borne their responsibilities with credit in every relationship.

The county clerk was born at Ursa in Adams County July 26, 1870, a son of William B. and Susan (Lowry) Smith. The paternal grandparents were James Glenn and Sarah (Cundiff) Smith, who came from Kentucky to Adams County in 1830, and the 160-acre farm which the grandfather acquired from the Government and developed for agricultural purposes is now owned by his grandson, Thomas B. Smith, of whom mention is found elsewhere in this work. This old homestead is situated near Ursa. William B. Smith was a native of Kentucky and was a small child when the family came to Adams County. He died at the age of fifty-eight and his wife two years later. The maternal grand- parents of William J. Smith were John and Isabel Lowry, who brought their

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family from Londonderry, Ireland, where Susan Lowry was born, and settled on a farm in Adams County in 1836. William B. Smith and wife were the parents of six children: Sarah E., deceased; Isabella L. Walker, deceased ; Thomas B., owner of the ancestral estate near Ursa, and in whose sketch appears the family record ; Margaret and Susan, who died in infaney ; and William J.

William J. Smith lived on the farm and attended the rural schools until he was fourteen, after which he continued his education in the Quincy public schools and spent one year in the college at Carthage, Illinois. He faced the serious responsibilities of life at the age of eighteen, and for three years was employed in the office of John H. Best, traffic manager of the Quiney, Omaha & Kansas City Railway. He then went baek home and participated in farming there for four years. Taking a eivil service examination, he went to work for the Government as letter carrier in Quincy and was with the postal depart- ment there for ten years. He still retains his membership in the Letter Carriers' Association. Mr. Smith resigned as letter carrier to become deputy county clerk in 1906, and the four years he spent in that office was an invaluable prepa- ration for his present duties. Leaving the county clerk's office he went on the road as traveling representative of Armour & Company, and continued that work until eleeted county clerk in 1914. Mr. Smith's political activities have been in the demoeratie party. He is a Mason, a member of the Woodmen of the World, the Loyal Order of Moose, and belongs to the Adams County Mutual Benevolent Society. His church is the Presbyterian.

February 25, 1902, he married Maude E. Brazier, of Macon, Missouri. They have one child, Elizabeth. By a previous marriage Mr. Smith has two children, William Bryant, now an auditor, and Hunter B., a machinist.

GEORGE M. WAGNER, a well known business man of Payson, is a genial, accommodating merehant, whose personality makes for increased trade. He has a wide aequaintanee, and the prosperity he enjoys is only an adequate return for the service he has rendered.

Eight years ago Mr. Wagner bought the stock of goods formerly owned by E. E. Thompson in the Masonic Building at Payson. He has since added to the stoek, and now earries the normal value of $6,500 in his store. Mr. Wagner was born in Payson Township February 13, 1872, son of L. C. and Elizabeth (Ferguson) Wagner. His father was born in Pike County, Illinois, of German parentage, and spent his active career in Pike and Adams counties. He died June 11, 1911, while the widowed mother is still living at Payson.

George M. Wagner grew up on the home farm, worked out by the month, and at the age of twenty-four married Frances Moore, daughter of Roger and Emeline Moore. Her father is deceased and her mother lives at Payson. Mrs. Wagner was born in Columbus Township and was nineteen years of age at the time of her marriage.

After his marriage Mr. Wagner began clerking for G. W. Lawrenee and Brother in a general store. He was there six years, at wages of $1 a day. For two years he was with Mr. Thompson at inereased pay, and also did consider- able business as a teamster, freighting for local stores, until he bought his present establishment. Sinee then he has given all his time and energies to his business, which has grown most satisfactorily. Mr. Wagner has also served as township tax collector, and is a democrat in politics. Both he and his wife are members of the Christian Church, and he was made a Mason in Payson Lodge four years ago.

STEPHEN A. BENSON. The farm that he owns, the way in which he manages it and his standing as a man and citizen in the community entitled Stephen A. Benson, of Payson Township, to some special mention in this work. Mr. Benson's home is one mile south of Plainville, and the Benson family have been anchored in that locality for over sixty years.

Stephen A. Benson was born at Kinderhook, Pike County, Illinois, about

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seven miles from where he now lives, October 5, 1854. His parents were Pleas- ant C. and Catherine (Parks) Benson, the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of Pike County, Illinois. Pleasant C. Benson eame to Pike County, Illinois, when a lad with his parents, John and Lucinda Benson. The grandparents spent their old age in Adams County and died when abont ninety years of age. One son of John and Lucinda remains at Kinderhook. Another son, John, Jr., went to California at the same time with Pleasant, making the trip overland, and remained in that state. He was killed when still compara- tively young, leaving a wife and three children in California. Pleasant C. Benson remained only a year in California and had the average experience of the early day miners and prospectors in that region. Returning to Illinois, he married and in 1856 moved to the farm where Stephen A. Benson now lives. Later he had his home for a time at Barry, and finally retired to Plainville, where he died in his sixty-fourth year. His widow survived him fifteen years and also passed away at Plainville. Pleasant Benson owned 240 acres in a body, most of it prairie land, though including some timber. His improve- ments in the way of buildings still stand. During Civil war times he built. the present barn, though it has since heen remodeled and worked over by Stephen A. Benson. About sixty years ago he built the house, and that is one of the interesting structures of old time workmanship and materials built at the time in Adams County. The siding for the house was ent from heavy black walnut. There are many hundreds of feet of fine walnut Inmber still in the house. Pleasant Benson was not a man who appeared much in public life, and was satisfied to give his time quietly and ineonspicuously to his farm and his family. He belonged to no ehurel nor fraternity. He and his wife had only two children, Stephen A. and Clara. The daughter married Wilson Lester and died when about fifty years of age in Plainville. Pleasant Benson gave her 160 acres and also built a house and otherwise improved it for her.

Stephen A. Benson has spent all his life on the farm to which his parents moved when he was an infant. He managed the farm during his father's life- time and now owns 160 aeres in the old estate. He has grown the staple erops and has done much stock feeding, his chief interest along that line being the feeding of hogs. Like his father before him he is a democrat, but is chiefly a voter.

September 24, 1876, Mr. Benson married Miss Eliza Wagy, daughter of Oscar and Rebecca J. Wagy, of Plainville. Mrs. Benson was born in Payson Township August 11, 1856. Mr. and Mrs. Benson have three sons. Charles, born July 28, 1877, lives on the home farm, and served three years as road commissioner. Ellis is cashier of the Plainville Bank and married Gertrude Ramsey. Floyd is still at home. Mr. Benson is an active Mason, also an Odd Fellow at Plainville, and has filled the chairs in both orders and has repre- sented both lodges in the Grand Lodge. He is a member of the Royal Arch Chapter at Barry, fourteen miles from his home. He and his wife are both enthusiastic Eastern Star members. Mrs. Benson was initiated in the Eastern Star at Kinderhook thirty years ago and has been very active ever since. She has filled all positions, including worthy matron of the Chapter and was delegate to the Grand Chapter at Chicago.

EDWARD NORTON LARIMORE. Members of the Larimore family have lived so long and have been so prominently identified with Payson Township that it is difficult to specially identify any member of the family by unusual promi- nence. Identification, however, is easy in the case of Edward Norton Larimore, who for many years has been proprietor of the Bli Bro Farm of Aberdeen Angus cattle and has done as much possibly as any other Illinois man to popu- larize that strain among the farms of the state. His farm is 21 miles southeast of Quiney and 2144 miles southeast of Plainville.

Mr. Larimore was born March 9. 1870, and is a son of Albert W. and Julia

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F. (Pottle) Larimore. A complete account of the Larimore family in the vari- ons generations and branches will be found on other pages.

Edward N. Larimore spent his boyhood at the home farm, and had one year of instruction in Knox College and took the short course in the Agricul- tural School of the State University. In 1891 he moved to his present farm, where he bought 160 aeres, but now has 226 aeres.

In addition to his efforts as a livestock breeder Mr. Larimore has been unusu- ally successful as an orehardist. On taking possession of his farm more than a quarter of a century ago he set out an orehard of twenty-five acres. These trees have been in bearing now for fifteen years. Later he set out another thirteen aere tract and two years later bought thirty aeres more of orchard. He now has three separate orehards, totaling sixty-eight acres. The thirteen acre orehard is almost entirely Jonathan apples. The principal variety is Ben Davis, and he also has many Grimes Golden trees. In 1914 9,086 barrels were packed in the orchard. He handled that large erop himself. In 1918 he sold his erop on the trees. Mr. Larimore is a charter member of the Mis- sissippi Valley Apple Growers' Association. He was one of the pioneers in using the spray to battle diseases. He and two other men started spraying in the same year. For a long time it was necessary to spray only once a year, but now commercial growers elaim at least three sprayings a year necessary. Mr. Larimore keeps all his trees trimmed to low heads, and fertilizes with home prodneed manure. He uses elover as a cover erop, but each year cultivates his orchards with a disc harrow.

Mr. Larimore's Aberdeen Angus herd was established in 1886. It is next to the oldest herd of that kind in Illinois. His father made the start with one imported eow, and gradually the business has been built up on a registered basis. Mr. Larimore's herds at one time contained seventy animals. He now has only nine registered eows, and eighteen head altogether. He does not exhibit any of his stoek and is satisfied with only local sales. It was some years before neighbors began to wake up to the fact that some of the finest beef stock in the world was being produced on the Larimore farm. Since then the quality of the Larimore herd has been sought by farmers and stockmen all over this section, and today there is hardly a neighborhood which does not have some of the original stock from the Larimore herd. The original nucleus of the stock was Old Maid of Bli Bro. The head of his herd for a number of years was Imported Delacourt, an almost full brother to a pair of celebrated Seotch bulls, and an animal of great individual merit. The present head of the herd is Eno Woodeote. This is a grandson of Prince Ito, a $10,000 animal. Mr. Larimore is also a grower and feeder of hogs for the market. His farm was formerly the old Viekers farm, the house having been built by a still earlier owner than Mr. Viekers.

Mr. Larimore is a director of the State Bank of Plainville. He is Central Precinet Committeeman of the republican party, and has attended several state conventions of delegates. During 1918 he gave much of his time to war work, including the campaigns for Liberty Loans, Red Cross, and the United War Work campaign, being captain of the latter organization. Mrs. Larimore is equally active in Red Cross and other movements. Not a little is due the un- tiring efforts of Mr. and Mrs. Larimore for the fine showing made by Payson Township. Mr. Larimore is a recognized prince of good fellows, and has a circle of loyal friends all over this part of Illinois. He is affiliated with the Masonie Lodge at Plainville, and has held most of the chairs of the Lodge. He and his wife are members of Plainville Methodist Church.

October 5, 1898, Mr. Larimore married Miss Winifred Hartshorn, of Rich- field Township, daughter of Alvin Hartshorn, still a resident of that town- ship. Mrs. Larimore was born in Richfield Township and was twenty-four years of age at the time of her marriage. She finished her education in the Barry High School and was a teacher in Adams County prior to her marriage.

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CHARLES J. HYER. One fact which stands out as evidence of Charles J. Hyer's progressiveness and success as a farmer is that he lives in a farming community which, it can be safely asserted, has no superior in point of rural management and productiveness anywhere in Western Illinois. The Hyer farm is on the township line between Payson and Fall Creek Township, a mile west of Payson Village, and its own improvements make it a worthy part of the landscape which includes such splendid homes as those of Henry and L. K. Seymour and that of H. F. Scarboroughi. Practically every farm in that com- munity might be taken as a model of productiveness, while the character of the owners represent the highest elements of good farming, good citizenship, and all around success in life.

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Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 51

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