Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 54

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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All the family have been zealous participants in the work of the Red Cross and in every measure designed to promote the efficiency and the speedy and honorable termination of the war with victory for the allies.

Mrs. Powell was born April 26, 1854, fourth in a family of five children, two sons and three daughters. Her parents were Frederick and Mary (Heine) Dralle. She has two brothers still living. Henry, though long a resident and farmer of Adams County, is now living at Champaign, Illinois, where he has educated his children, Ruth and Frederick, in the Illinois State University. The other brother of Mrs. Powell, Frederick, is a retired resident of Quincy.

Frederick Dralle, Sr., father of Mrs. Powell, was born in Germany and grew up and married there and on coming to America landed at New Orleans and at once came north to St. Louis and to Quincy. A wagon maker by trade, he for many years conducted a shop at Quincy. He and his wife were members of St. Peter's Lutheran church. Mr. Dralle died in 1863 and his wife in 1883. Both are at rest in Woodland cemetery. Mrs. Powell was reared in Adams County and had a good training and has sustained the character of the splendid housewife and one devoted to the best interests of her home and husband.

After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Powell took up farming in Ellington Township, where gradually their possessions have assumed the form of perman- ent prosperity represented in a fine homestead of eighty acres and a total owner- ship of 220 acres in Ellington Township. Mr. Powell possesses two old parch- ment deeds that record original transfers of land from the Government to private ownership in Adams County. Both these deeds bear the date of October 7, 1834, and were signed by Andrew Jackson, then president of the United States. The date of the deeds was only two years after the Black Hawk Indian war.

Politically Mr. Powell is a democrat. He cast his first vote for Samuel J. Tilden, and has steadfastly maintained the principles which he cspoused in his youth. He has been selected as delegate to senatorial conventions, and has served as trustee of the Township of Ellington. He and his wife are both advocates of good schools and are members of the Episcopal Church in Quincy. Mrs. Powell was reared a Baptist. As prosperity has come to them and has enabled them to relax somewhat the strenuous toil of their earlier years, they have taken much pleasure in travel. In 1917 they made an extended trip to California, visiting the marvelous cities of the South, Los Angeles and Pasadena, and then traveling over the smooth automobile highways to San Francisco. They returned by way of Salt Lake City, and were greatly impressed by the splendors and ceremonies of the Mormon Temple and its wonders. The Powell home is only four miles from the courthouse at Quincy, and it is a beautiful place to live and also a contributing unit in Adams Connty's total of agricultural enterprise.

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JOSEPH H. LUBBE, member of a family that has been identified with Quincy since 1845, has been a figure and factor in business affairs forty years or more, and is one of the wealthy property owners of Quincy and has used his means and influence in many ways to develop and extend the prosperity of his community. Mr. Lubbe is one of the leading Catholic Church men of Quincy. His home is one of the residential landmarks of the city a beautiful residence which he erected some years ago at 1233 Park Place.

He was born at the corner of Eighth and Hampshire streets, on lots that he still owns, December 23, 1852. He is a son of Anton J. and Elizabeth (Sanders) Lubbe. His father was a prominent pioneer of Quincy. Born in Bakum Olden- burg, Germany, in 1822, he came to the United States and located at Quincy in 1845. In 1849 he married Elizabeth Sanders, who was born in the Kingdom of Hanover. In 1847 A. J. Lubbe engaged in the dry goods business, and continued in that one line for over forty years. He was also a grocer, and much of his success and prosperity came from manufacturing and dealing in altar wines. Anton J. Lubbee died in Quincy in 1894, at the age of seventy-two, and his wife passed away in 1898, aged seventy-nine. They were prominent early members of St. Boniface Catholic church. A. J. Lubbe was active as a democrat, served as an alderman for several years, and was also a supervisor. They had twelve children, nine of whom grew up. Those to reach mature years were named Anthony Joseph, Francis, Henry Bernard, Aloysius, Martin, August, Anna and Godehard. One of them, Rev. Francis, was a Jesuit priest and died in the prime of life at Ysleta, Texas.

Joseph H. Lubbe was reared in Quincy, spent one year in college in addition to the work of the parochial schools, and when a young man took the responsi- bilities of managing his father's business. He especially developed the trade in altar wines, and in former years he shipped this product for sacramental pur- poses all over the country. He has judiciously used his income and his oppor- tunities to acquire much valuable property in the heart of Quincy and now gives most of his time to the management of those private interests.

In Quincy Mr. Lubbe married Miss Emma IIoehn. She was born here and was educated in the local schools and also at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her parents were pioneers of Quincy, coming from Germany. All the family were members of St. Boniface Catholic church. Mr. Lubbe served as the first recording sec- retary of the first Western Catholic Union Society of his church, and has always been active in church affairs.

Of the eight children born to him and his wife only two survived infancy. The daughter, Anna Mary, is a graduate of St. Mary's College at Notre Dame, and is now the wife of Dr. Raymond J. Padburg, of Quiney. Doctor and Mrs. Pad- burg have two children, Mary Josephine and Anna May, the former in school. The son, Albert J., was born and reared in Quincy, attending St. Boniface School, and also studied journalism at the University of Michigan. He was press corres- pondent for the St. Louis Republic, and is now a lieutenant in the Signal Corps of Photography.

DANIEL E. ROBBINS. Among the early families to settle in Payson Town- ship were the Robbins and Prince families, who were connected by marriage, and for eight years these names have been significant of good citizenship, honest industry and agricultural enterprise.

The founder of the Robbins family here was Daniel Robbins, who was born in the Town of Plymouth, New Hampshire, October 15, 1813, son of Asa and Jemima (Brainard) Robbins, natives of the same place. The grandfather, Jonathan Robbins, served as a soldier in the Revolution. Asa Robbins fought in the War of 1812. Daniel Robbins grew up on a New England farm, attended the common schools, and later from money earned by his own labor paid a term or two of tuition in a seminary at Plymouth. In the fall of 1839 he came West and settled in Adams County. He located near the Prince family, and on April 26, 1842, married Mary A. Prince, daughter of Deacon David Prince.

Daniel E. Robbins

LIBRARY SF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

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Deacon David Prince, who died in 1873, was one of the real founders of Payson Village and Township. David Prince was a sergeant in an artillery company in the War of 1812. One of his sons, David Prince, Jr., was a physician and surgeon, and at Jacksonville, Illinois, enlisted and served as a surgeon in the Civil war. Another son of Deacon David was Edward, who was colonel of the 7th Illinois Cavalry and a former member of the Quincy Blues. Later he became prominent as a lawyer of Quincy, and was one of the men chiefly instrumental in establishing the waterworks of that city.

Deacon David Prince brought his family west in 1835, and also introduced a stock of goods from New York and established the first store at the village of Payson. He was also associated with those who built the old windmill, the pioneer flour mill of the township. He was one of the charter members of the Congregational Church, and its first deacon. Mrs. Daniel Robbins was born at Bloomfield, New York, April 19, 1820, and was thirteen years of age when she came to Adams County.

A brother of Daniel Robbins was Cephas Robbins, who located in Gilmer Township of this county about 1838. While still a young man he was struck and killed by lightning, and his only child. Louisa M. Robbins, was for many years a teacher in Quincy. Daniel Robbins acquired a good farm of 148 acres in Payson Township, and also owned 480 acres of bottom lands eight miles away. The home farm was open prairie, with only a few spots of timber. He put up good buildings, his land lying partly within the corporation limits of Payson, and he devoted himself to farming and also to horticulture. At one time his orchards produced 7,000 boxes of peaches. He died in August 1888, when about seventy-six years of age, and his wife passed away in Decem- ber of the same year at the age of sixty-nine. The old house on the Robbins farm was erccted in 1860. Daniel Robbins was a whig and later a republican, served as a deacon in the Congregational Church, and he was widely known as Deacon Robbins. His son Daniel E. has the same official connection with the old church.

Daniel Robbins and wife had seven children. The only two now living are Daniel E. and Annie, Mrs. Albert Arthur of Chicago. The son David was a member of Company C of the 50th Illinois Infantry and was killed at the battle of Altoona in the Atlanta campaign October 5, 1864. The son George B. was a sheep rancher near San Antonio, Texas, for five years, but later returned home and died in 1885. Cephas Robbins spent some years in Western Kansas, but died at Oskaloosa in that state. The daughter Mary married Adam Eckman, and they lived on the bottoms near Seehorn, where she died in 1890.

Daniel E. Robbins, whose farm is a half mile southwest of Payson, was born on an adjoining farm on his grandfather Prince's place, December 7, 1843. In 1862, at the age of nineteen, he enlisted in Company D of the 7th Illinois Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel Prince, later colonel of the regiment. The regiment was originally commanded by the noted Pitt Kellogg. Mr. Robbins served about a year as a private, a year as sergeant, and subsequently was commissioned a first lieutenant and regimental commissary. After Lee's sur- render he remained in Mississippi and Alabama, and for a considerable time had charge of the commissary when its chief duty was to feed refugees. He saw much hard service, and in the entire service, sixty-seven men of his regi- ment were killed.

August 13, 1866, after returning from the war, Mr. Robbins married Miss Anna C. Thompson, daughter of the late Philo Ellsworth Thompson, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this publication.

Mrs. Robbins was born at Payson January 3, 1844, and she died in June 7, 1904, she and her husband having traveled life's highway together for thirty-eight years. After their marriage they had lived five years on his grandfather Prince's farm, then on a farm adjoining the old homestead, and in 1890, two years after his father's death, he acquired the home farm of

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148 aeres. This farm was heavily burdened with debt and as administrator of the estate Mr. Robbins saw the place sold under mortgage, but he became the purchaser. He has operated it for over a quarter of a century, and he also owns his previous farm of eighty acres. Altogether he has 250 acres in cultiva- tion and has a fine ten aere orchard. His farming for the most part has con- sisted of raising hogs and cattle, eorn and wheat. Mr. Robbins is now living praetieally retired, but keeps his home on the farm and gives his time to his apiary and also to meehanieal work. He has a shop fitted up with blacksmith and wood working tools, and puts in some hours every day at work that is both pleasurable and a source of use and profit. He is a republican, but his only offices have been as village trustee and as school director for seventeen years. He is a member of the John Wood Post.

Mr. Robbins has a family of five children : Ellen was a teacher in Lincoln, Illinois, also in Medora County, Dakota, where she served as county superin- tendent of schools. She married in Dakota and is now living at Fresno, Cali- fornia. Mary, who had also taught for a time at Payson, married S. M. Hughes, and she died at Galesburg, Illinois, at the age of forty-five. Grace, who also taught at Payson, married A. T. MeCrory, and they are now living at Okmulgee, Oklahoma. Ernest T. Robbins, the only son, is a graduate of high school, as were his sisters, and in 1900 graduated valedictorian of his class from the Illinois State University. After that he spent five years on the farm, and then took post-graduate work in agriculture and animal husbandry in the Iowa Agricultural College at Ames. While there he had charge of the cattle on the college farm for four years. For another four years he served as assistant editor of the Breeders Gazette in Chicago, and then became County Agricultural Agent or advisor for Tazewell County, Illinois. He was thus engaged for five years, and is now farm superintendent of the large farm of Henry F. Scar- borough in Adams County. He married Ida Folkrod, daughter of George Folk- rod, of Ellington Township. Edith A. Robbins, the youngest of the family, remains at home with her father as his housekeeper. At one time she was also a teacher in the Payson schools. She is very active in Red Cross and other war activities and organizations, and is also greatly interested in literary and social movements.

MRS. EDGAR S. BUTTERWORTH. One of the most interesting farms and homes of Adams County is in section 31 of Ellington Township, known as the Sunny Ridge Farm. It has an antiquarian interest as well as an interest due to its care and productiveness at the hands of civilized men. It was evidently a rendezvous for aboriginal tribes, and many Indian relics have been dug up from the soil of the ridge. Mrs. Edgar S. Butterworth, who has lived on that farm since childhood, has in her beautiful home a large collection of Indian tools and implements dug up from the land. It was the old home of her father, the late Thomas Kidney, and is noted as one of the leading fruit farms.

The early history of the Butterworth family goes back to Quaker stock, some of whom came to Pennsylvania at the time of William Penn. The grand- parents of the late Edgar S. Butterworth were Henry and Charlotte (Fowler) Butterworth, who came from Birmingham, England, soon after the Revolution- ary war and lived at Newburgh, New York. They had a family of five sons and one daughter. One son, Samuel, was at one time head. of a Government mint, and another son, John F., was commissioner of Central Park in New York City for many years.

Sylvanus Butterworth, father of Edgar S., was born in Orange County, New York, and in 1840 came west and settled in Shelby County, Missouri, where he acquired 600 aeres of raw land and improved it into a large farm. One of the most interesting facts connected with his history as a Missouri farmer is that he brought in 1843 at great expense and after mueh difficulty of transportation, three head of imported Shorthorn or Durham cattle, which

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were the first thoroughbreds of that strain west of the Mississippi River. Syl- vanus Butterworth was also a merchant in Missouri, and died there in advanced years. He married in Missouri Miss Virginia Vandiver, a native of Virginia and of southern family. Her parents had moved to Missouri in 1834. Her father, John Vandiver, invented the first practical corn planter but never reaped great rewards from his invention, since he was unable to place a proper value upon his work and patent, and allowed others to reap where he had sown. Sylvanus Butterworth and wife had three children: Theodore who came to Quiney in 1866 and two years later established the Western Agrieulturist and Livestock Journal, and in 1892 moved that paper to Chicago and published it as the Livestock Journal, one of the largest trade papers of its kind in the United States. He finally went west and died in California. Glorianna, the second child of Sylvanus Butterworth, married John Settle, and they live in North Dakota.

Edgar S. Butterworth was born in Shelby County, Missouri, October 29, 1848, and received his education there. In 1866 he eame to Quiney with his brother Theodore, and in 1870 he married Miss M. C. Alexander, of Quiney. They then returned to Shelby County, where he followed farming, and from there moved to Webb City in Southwestern Missouri, where his wife died in the prime of life. Of their two children one died in infancy and the daughter Mabel at the age of twenty-five.

After this misfortune Mr. Butterworth returned to Quiney and was ad- vertising manager of the Western Agrieulturist and Livestock Journal, pub- lished by his brother, and did much to build up the prestige and commercial prosperity of that paper. Following this for four years was in the drug busi- ness as a member of the firm W. H. Alexander & Company at Fourth and Maine streets.

In 1891 Mr. Butterworth married at the home of his bride in Ellington Township Miss Sophia M. Kidney. After his marriage Mr. Butterworth de- voted his time to the farm which Mrs. Butterworth had inherited from her father, located a half mile from the city limits of Quincy. Thirty-seven acres comprise a large orehard of apples and peaches, and he found both pleasure and profit in operating this valuable old property.

Mrs. Butterworth was born two miles north of her present home March 26, 1854, and attended the local schools and the old Female Seminary in Quiney. She is a daughter of Thomas and Sophia Louise (Berrian) Kidney. Thomas Kidney, her father, was born in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, in 1822, and was a son of John and Matilda Kidney. His parents eame west to Quincy in the fall of 1837, when he was fifteen years old. Later John Kidney went back to New York State and died there about 1879, at the age of eighty-six. Thomas Kidney engaged in farming in Adams County and was especially successful as a pioneer fruit grower. In 1846 he married Miss Berrian, who was born in New York City in 1824, and eame to Adams County when about nine years of age with her parents, William and Sophia (Rieker) Berrian, a prominent fam- ily whose annals are reeounted on other pages of this publication. Thomas Kidney built his beautiful home on the farm near Quincy in 1873. It comprises fourteen rooms, and is one of the most commodious country establishments in the county. Thomas Kidney passed away Mareh 8, 1889, and left no will. He always said the law was the best will he could make. After his death Mrs. Sophia Kidney divided the farm of seventy aeres between her two children, William A. and Sophia M., giving her daughter the old home placc. She re- mained with her daughter twelve years, passing away February 23, 1903, after a residence of almost half a century in Adams County.

Edgar S. Butterworth died on his home farm in Ellington Township Decem- ber 5, 1905. Since his death Mrs. Butterworth has kept her home there, and the farm is earefully conducted by her son Edgar T., a young man of great enterprise who interits many of the estimable qualities of both his father and his maternal grandfather. He was born August 11, 1896, and was edueated in both the rural and city schools. Mrs. Butterworth and son are members of

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the Congregational Church. While a very busy young man, Edgar T. Butter- worth finds much time to cultivate outside interests, and is a student and prae- tical taxidermist.

ALFRED G. KOCH. Fortunate is the man who finds early in life a useful work to do and does it conscientiously and thoroughly. The community is also fortunate that has such a man. Alfred G. Koch when only a schoolboy showed unusual proficiency as a mechanic, and for a number of years was an all around carriagesmith, and he could doubtless take his place in the ranks today and earn a good living by his trade. However, for a number of years his interests have been concentrated on a small farm and store at the corner of Thirtieth and Broadway, in section 31 of Ellington Township. Mr. Koch owns eleven acres, all thoroughly improved and intensively cultivated, with small fruits, ineluding peaches and cherries. He has a nine-room brick house, good barn and other facilities. Mr. Koch has lived in that place four years and has done much to improve the house and grounds, setting out the fruit trees and revamp- ing the barn. He raises some fine grades of the red hogs.

At Thirtieth and Broadway he has been proprietor of a grocery for eight- een years. Mr. Koch was born in Melrose Township November 7, 1870, and attended school in Ellington and Melrose townships and also in Quiney. When not in school he was handling the tools in his father's blacksmith and carriage shop, and made expert use of them long before an average boy thinks of a real vocation. One of the first pieces of practical work he ever did was shoe- ing his school teacher's horse. He became an expert horse shoer. and also learned in all details the trade of carriagesmith. When he was fourteen years of age he built a complete wagon, from tongue to endgate, and traded it to George Chase for a four year old horse. From that time on he was a full fledged mechanie, and earned a good living at his trade until he took over his present business.

Mr. Koch is a son of Henry C. and Johanna (Hemptick) Koch. His par- ents were born in Lorraine when it was French soil, as it is today. His father was born in 1832 and his mother in 1836. They came to America before mar- riage. The father settled in Adams County prior to the Civil war, and during that war bought forty acres of land in Burton Township. He married and began life on his farm, but after a few years sold out and moved to Melrose Township, buying five aeres on Thirty-Fifth Street near the city limits in Melrose Township. There he established a blacksmith and carriage shop on his land. He had learned the trade at Quiney in the old Rogers carriage and wagon factory. He lived on his place at Thirty-Fifth Street until a few years before his death. He and his wife spent their last days in the home of a daugh- ter, Mrs. George Upschultz of Melrose Township. Henry C. Koch died there in 1907 and his wife in 1910. They were long members of St. John's Lutheran Church on Kentucky Street. He was an ardent republican and held several minor offices in Melrose Township. Of the children, Charles for twenty-five years has been an employee of the Collins Plow Company. He is a widower. Robert is married and has children. George Ameil is a carriagesmith at Quincy and has four daughters, Laura, Augusta, Hilda Emily and Alice, and one son, Roy.

At the home of the bride 916 Spring Street in Quincy Mr. Koch married Elizabeth Reuter. She is a daughter of William and Catherine (Vandenboom) Reuter, both natives of Germany. They are still living at the old home on Spring Street. Mrs. Koch was reared and educated in Quincy. Her sister Theresa is the wife of Henry Gerding of Quincy and has a son, Paul. Mr. and Mrs. Koch's children are: Virginia, born in 1899, educated in the public schools and a proficient stenographer ; Dorothy, who was born in 1902 and has finished the public school course; Alvera H., attending school; Elizabeth, born in 1906; and Jeanette, born in 1910. Mr. Koch is a republican. He is a man of liberal public spirit and sympathies, and since the war began has been active in behalf of all patriotic movements and the various campaigns for raising funds.

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ADAM KEIL. In the field of practical achievement, in the clearing up and development of land, the making of two blades of grass grow where only one grew before, one of the men whose work deserves special mention is Adam Keil of Fall Creek Township. Mr. Keil resides twelve miles southeast of Quincy.

He is a member of one of the best known families of Adams County. It is unnecessary here to enter at length upon the family history, which has been told on other pages. Adam Keil was born on the old home near his present place December 23, 1869. He grew up on that farm and worked with his brothers at farming and threshing and contracting until he married.

At the age of twenty-seven Mr. Keil married Anna Margaret Rothgeb. She was reared in Quincy and had lived for several years before her marriage in the old Squire Seehorn family.

After his marriage Mr. Keil located on his present farm. As his share of his father's estate he received $6,000, and he used that capital to buy 142 acres. Later he acquired 85 acres of bottom land 21% miles away. Still later he bought another 260 acres and now has, all told, 387 acres. Few men could have used this land and made so much out of it as Mr. Keil. The 160 aere tract was bottom land which no one else wanted. It was partly swamp, and had abso- lutely no economic value. Two creeks meandered through it, and the area was covered with water, swamp grass, brush and timber, all of which had to be cleared away. Mr. Keil used a great deal of practical engineering skill in draining the land. He built levees against the water courses, straightened, dredged and channeled out the streams so as to give a free outlet to the surface waters, and eventually not only had his own land in cultivation and practically free from excess moisture, but his enterprise affected favorably the value and productiveness of all the adjoining land, though his own initiative and labors were not recompensed exeept on his own land. This farm lies west of Fall Creek station and about 21% miles from his home place. Wheat is the big erop Mr. Keil grows on his bottom land. He had 200 acres in that eereal in 1918 and the average production was thirty-two bushels to the acre. He also raises rye and oats on a large scale. The money feature of his farm, however, is livestock feeding. He keeps about 30 head of cattle, about 175 hogs, and sends between 100 and 125 hogs to the market every year, and also feeds a bunch of cattle, ranging from a half earload to two earloads. 1Ie buys much feeding stock in St. Louis. He keeps a bunch of mules for work purposes. Mr. Keil has improved his land with a complete set of modern farm 'buildings, with every facility for lightening the burdens of management. He also operates a threshing machine outfit and has done a great deal of road work and other con- traeting. One season he and his forces graded about seven miles of highway.

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Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 54

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