Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 55

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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Mr. and Mrs. Keil have four children : Carl George, John Adam, Clara Mar- guerite Elizabeth, and William Fred Alfred, all of whom are at home.

JOHN HOFMEISTER has been a farm owner and farm cultivator all his active life and has well earned the retirement he now enjoys. His home is in section 36 of Liberty Township, five miles southeast of Liberty Village.

He was born March 24, 1853, on the old home farm in Beverly Township where his youngest brother, David, now lives. His parents were William and Elizabeth (Diehl) Hofmeister. His father was born at Mansheim, Hesse-Darm- stadt, Germany, November 25, 1819. He came to the United States in 1846. His brother was living at Charlestown, Indiana, where he had a cooper shop. William Hofmeister learned that trade with his brother in Indiana, and in 1849 came with another brother to Adams County and located in Beverly Township. On May 10, 1849, he married at Quiney Elizabeth Diehl, of Beverly Township. They were married by Rev. Philip Barth of Quincy. She was born in Pennsyl- vania and was sixteen years of age at the time of her marriage. She had come from Pennsylvania to Adams County a year or two before her marriage. Eliza- beth Diehl had a sister and three brothers: John Diehl, who died at advanced

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age; IIenry, who died in Missouri; Balzer, who went West and died there; and Anna, who married William Kuntz and lived in MeKee Township.

Soon after his marriage William Hofmeister bought the farm of his wife's father, and lived in that one location for sixty-six years. He died March 16, 1916, at the remarkable age of ninety-six years, three months and twenty-two days. For many years he kept a eooperage shop on his farm, converting the timber on his land into barrels for the pork packers at Quiney and for other uses. He had put about two-thirds of his land into cultivation, and continued his farm management until he was seventy years of age. His wife died February 5, 1888. William Hofmeister was well edueated, possessed a remarkable memory, and was one of the prominent men of his community for many years. He aequired citizenship soon after coming to America and was always completely satisfied with this country and its ideals. He owned 240 aeres of land. He was converted while living in Indiana in 1848, and for many years was an active member of the Bethel German Methodist Church in MeKee Township. He was a member of that church when they worshiped in a log house. At the time of his death he was its oldest member. For two years he was confined to his room, but he always enjoyed company and was a great social favorite. He was laid to rest in the cemetery at Kingston, a mile and a half from his old home. The present honse on the farm was built by him in 1869 and he also put up barns and other buildings.

In his family were four sons and one daughter. The only daughter, Mina, was her father's housekeeper for many years and died August 22, 1906. The son, William, spent his life on the old farm as a bachelor and died Septem- ber 16, 1913. The next in the family is John Hofmeister. Davis is still at the old home in Beverly Township. Charles was a dealer in musical instru- ments at Barry, Illinois, and died at Blessing Hospital in Quiney.

William Hofmeister was not the only member of his generation to reach advanced age. His sister is still living at New Albany, Indiana, at the age of ninety-three. William was one of six children, and all but one passed the age of ninety. All but one of them came to the United States. One brother, Conrad, settled in MeKee Township of Adams County. He came to America on money supplied him by his brother William. He died when past ninety years of age, and his three sons and one daughter are still living in the county. Lizzie, another sister of William, married Jacob Getz and also settled in Me- Kee Township, where she died.

John Hofmeister lived at home to the age of twenty-four, and during his youth he assisted in clearing up the old farm. He then bought eighty acres in McKee Township and spent some years on that, elearing up the land and getting it into condition for profitable farming. He then bought his present place of 160 acres in Liberty Township, thus constituting him the owner of 240 acres. He had spent about twenty-three years on this farm and built the house and a substantial basement barn in 1895. Much of the land was orig- inally covered with heavy timber and he put a sawmill into operation and sold large quantities of bridge timber. He does general farming and stock raising, breeding Polled Angus eattle and regularly turn off about 100 hogs for the mar- ket every year. Mr. Hofmeister is a republican.

April 15, 1885, he married Emma Knapheide, of Quiney, daughter of Henry and Catherine (Aehelpohl) Knapheide. Concerning the Knapheide family of Quincy a more complete sketch is given on other pages. Mrs. Hofmeister was born in Quincy November 18, 1858, and was educated in the publie sehools.

The children of Mr. and Mrs. IIofmeister are noted as follows: Lydia Edna, wife of Rev. F. W. Carwell, a retired minister of the Methodist Epis- eopal Church now living at Parsons, Kansas: Linda Catherine married H. E. Carwell, a farmer at Troy, Missouri, and a brother of Rev. Mr. Carwell : Mil- ton Henry has a farm a mile and a half west of the old home and married Graee L. Zoller, who is organist of the Bethel Church : Alma Elizabeth is still at home; Ralph Oliver is now in active charge of the home farm and also oper-

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ates the 160-acre farm adjoining, owned by the widow of James Craigs. Ralph O. Hofmeister is one of the pushing and energetic young men of the county.

GEORGE ARROWSMITH. One of the oldest and most prominent families in Adams County have been the Arrowsmiths, who acquired their first holdings of land near Quincy eighty-five years ago, and have been residents of the county practically 101 years. The Arrowsmiths are English, William H. Arrowsmith was born in Newbury, England, and came to America prior to the Revolutionary war. He was a royalist and moved to Nova Scotia.

One of his children was Edward Arrowsmith, born in Nova Scotia, and as he grew up learned the trade of sail maker. He followed that as a business and also owned several vessels and was extensively identified with the shipping trade. Ile died during a cholera epidemic in New York City July 20, 1832, when a comparatively young man, little past forty years of age. He married Mary (Smith) Glentworth, a native of New York State. A short time before his death Edward Arrowsmith had bought from a revolutionary soldier a tract of land comprising 320 aeres adjacent to Quiney, Illinois. All this land was then covered with hazelbrush and was in a state of complete unproductive- ness. His land was located in section 31 of Ellington Township.

Mrs. Edward Arrowsmith was left a widow with nine children. About 1843 she eame with these children to take possession of the land in Adams County, Illinois. The family lived in Quincy until they could put a small house on the farm, and then they took possession and the sons John and George largely improved the land from a wilderness condition and made it a fine farm. Mrs. Edward Arrowsmith died there July 25, 1872, at the age of eighty-six. She and her children were all Episcopalians. Mrs. Edward Arrowsmith had the following children : John, George, Edward, Jr., Thomas, William, Mary, Char- lotte, Edwina and Elizabeth, all of whom married except Charlotte, and all those married had children. They are all now deceased and about half of them died in Adams County.

George Arrowsmith was born in New York, March 20, 1818, and he received his early education in the schools of New York City. In 1847 he married at Quincy Miss Ann Eliza Berrian, an own cousin of Judge Berrian. She was born in New York City May 19, 1821, danghter of William A. and Sophia (Riker) Berrian. IIer uncle, Washington Berrian, and her great-unele, Rich- . ard Berrian, made a prospecting tour over Illinois in 1819 and visited the site of Quincy. Her father, William A. Berrian, was a prominent merchant of New York. In 1833 he brought his family by canal and the river route to Quiney, arriving November 7. The following year he bought a farm seven miles east of Quiney, and lived there until his death, being one of the pros- perous and well known citizens. Mrs. Arrowsmith was about twelve years of age when she came West. Other children who accompanied their parents were George, Louisa, Susan and Mary. Two other children were born in Adams County, Theodore and Josephine. The only surviving member of these chil- dren is Mary, who is now eighty-nine years of age. William A. Berrian died June 25, 1868, in his seventy-eighth year, and his wife, who was born in 1801, died December 28, 1877.

After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. George Arrowsmith built a good house on what was then a back road. Later, as Broadway was laid out, they moved the house to its present location, enlarged it, and lived there in much com- fort and enjoyed all the benefits of their thrift and progressiveness as sub- stantial farmers and land owners. George Arrowsmith is remembered as a man who was reliable in business, faithful in friendship and one who enjoyed the respect and good will of all with whom he was associated. IIe died at his farm home Jannary 31, 1886, at the age of sixty-eight. His widow survived him many years, keeping her home with her sons and daughters, and passed away in honored old age March 13, 1910. George Arrowsmith was a republican, his sons having followed him in that political belief, but his only publie duties

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were as school director and in that influence which proceeds from every public spirited citizen to the welfare of the community.

He and his wife had the following children: Georgianna, Mary, Charlotte, Louisa, James and George. The old homestead is now occupied by the three daughters, Georgianna, Mary and Louisa. Their sister Charlotte died some years ago. The daughters were liberally educated in the local schools and are highly intelligent women. Louisa was for some years a teacher in the local schools. There was another daughter, Sophia, twin sister of Mary, who died at the age of three years and two months. The son, James R., was born on the old farm and now lives there and has its business management. He married Helen MeAfee, and his children are James, Rieker, Marian and Helen, all of whom are married and have children of their own, and he also has an unmar- ried son, Paul, who was a soldier in the One Hundred and Twenty-third Ma- ehine Gun Battalion and saw active service in Franee. The other son, George, Jr., is a skilled pattern maker. He finished his trade in St. Louis and for sev- eral years was teacher in a manual training school in that city, and is now engaged in a similar position at. Kansas City, Missouri. He married in St. Louis Rosetta Ochartrand and their children are George, Dwight, Mildred and Wendell. George and Wendell were both soldiers in the war. Both first lieutenants of the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth Field Artillery. The Ar- rowsmith sisters except Mary are members of the Good Shepherd Episcopal Church, and Mary is a Baptist.

JOHN JOSEPH ORMOND. An attractive group of buildings, many broad aeres under perfect cultivation, evidences of eare and good management on every hand, constitute the outstanding features of the fine farm home of John Joseph Ormond in Liberty Township, on the line between Liberty and Burton town- ships and sixteen miles east of Quiney.

Mr. Ormond was born at Plainville in Adams County, August 1, 1855. His parents, Patrick and Bridget (Dalton) Ormond, came to Adams County in 1851. Patrick was born in Waterford County, Ireland, in 1819, and eame to Adams County immediately on his arrival in this country. He had married Bridget Dalton in 1847. She was born in 1814. Patrick Ormond worked in Quiney at day labor until he was able to buy his first land. This purchase was northeast of Plainville in Payson Township. About 1870 he moved to Rich- field Township, loeating a mile and a half from his former place. He owned . 220 aeres there in section 7. His wife died there at the age of seventy years. Patriek spent the last thirteen years of his life with his son John J. and died at the age of eighty years. He and his wife were devout members of the Cath- olie Church at Liberty. There were two children, Bridget and John J. The daughter married Thomas Pendergast and went to California, where she died.

John Joseph Ormond, now the only survivor of the family, grew up at home and remained with his father assisting in the management of the farm. In 1902 he bought his present place, the old John Wolfe farm originally settled by David Wolfe. Mr. Ormond secured 197 acres of the John Wolfe place and ninety acres of the Jacob Wolfe farm. He paid fifty dollars an aere for the first land and $125 an aere for the second tract. The second farm he bought for his son. John Wolfe put up the substantial brick house and Mr. Ormond has ereeted barns and other outbuildings and has extensively remodeled and given effieieney to the arrangement of all the farm equipment. He also owns an- other farm of 150 aeres in Burton Township.

November 14, 1893, he married Anna Kaltenbach, member of a well known family of Adams County more particularly referred to on other pages. Mrs. Ormond was reared in Burton Township and was twenty-five years of age at the time of her marriage. They had seven children. One died in infancy, and the daughter Irene died in 1912, at the age of thirteen. Those living are: Joseph, who operates his father's ninety aere farm, married Irene Smith, daughter of Frank Smith; Alice is the wife of Carl Smith, a farmer in Colum-

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bus Township, near Camp Point; William, Cornelia and Jerome are all at home. Mr. Ormond is a democrat and he and his family attend St. Bridget Catholic Church at Liberty.

MARION CARTER is a native of Adams County, member of one of the old families here, and for many years has been successfully identified with agri- culture in Liberty Township. His farm home is four miles east of Liberty Village.

He was born in McKee Township May 6, 1850, son of Travis and Patsy (Fuqua) Carter. His father, a native of Kentucky, came to Adams County in the early days and settled in McKee Township, where he devoted his active life to developing a farm. He died there at the age of fifty. Patsy Carter died when Marion was a small child. Travis Carter afterward married Lucy Fuqua, sister of his first wife. After his death she became the wife of George Cutforth, one of the well known old residents of McKee Township, where both of them died in advanced years. The children of Travis and Patsy Carter were: Mary, who married Charles Cutforth, a son of George, above mentioned, and both are now deceased ; Martha, who married Wash Sparks, both deceased ; Kittie, who married Jacob Hearlson, both deceased; Robert, who went to Iowa when young and died in that state; Fanny, who married Charles Fessenden, of Adams County, and both are now deceased ; and Marion, the youngest and only survivor. George and Lucy Cutforth had two daughters, Janie, wife of George Hess, of McKee Township, and Eva, wife of Charles Robb, of Colorado.

Marion Carter was about eighteen years old when his father died. IIe carried on the farm for several years and on August 24, 1871, he mar- ried Miss Emma Gordon. Her parents were John and Elizabeth (Howe) Gordon, and their home was the farm where Marion Carter now lives. Mrs. Carter was born there and was about nineteen years of age at the time of her marriage. Her parents both came from Kentucky and they developed the pres- ent Carter farm. After his marriage Marion Carter spent one year on the home place in MeKee Township, and then bought a farm near the Gordon home. A few years later, after the death of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon, he bought their property, comprising forty acres in the home place and a second forty acres a mile distant in McKee Township. Mr. Carter has lived there ever since and has made his proprietorship count for many improvements in the farm. Mrs. Carter died May 20. 1891, at the age of thirty-eight. She was the mother of nine children, eight of whom reached mature years: Fred, a farmer in South Dakota; Alonzo and Roy, both farmers in South Dakota ; Herschel, who died in Cass County, Iowa, at the age of forty years; Adam, of Cumberland, lowa; Harry, of Liberty Township ; and Ethel and Erva, twins, the former Mrs. Charles Fischer, of Selma, Montana.

On March 24, 1894, Mr. Carter married Ellen, better known as Nell, Barnard, daughter of Francis Marion and Susan (Pearce) Barnard. Some records of the Barnard family are published on other pages of this publication. F. M. Barnard died November 14, 1916, and his wife on July 19, 1913. Mrs. Carter is one of six living children : Sarah, Mrs. John Robb, of Decatur, Arkansas; Guilford, whose postoffice is Waldron, Kansas, but whose home is in Oklahoma; Elizabeth, wife of Isaac Miller, of Macomb, Illinois ; Jane, Mrs. Henry Hughes, of Annabell, Missouri ; Mrs. Carter ; and Minnie, wife of Julius Kline, of Liberty Township.

At the age of twenty years Mrs. Carter began teaching in Liberty Township, and followed that profession for twelve years before her marriage, and also taught two years after her marriage. She was well educated in the local schools, had a short course in Chaddock College, and while teaching attended institutes every year. She has always kept an active interest in educational matters and espe- cially in Sunday School work. She was a Sunday School superintendent for sev- eral years and is still a teacher. She has also been a worker in the Red Cross and other war movements. Mr. and Mrs. Carter have one daughter, Ivan, who

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was at home with her parents during the absence of her husband, Lawrence Graff, a soldier with the American Expeditionary Forces in France, but now at home.

Mr. Carter has rebuilt and remodeled his present home, and constructed a number of the outside buildings. He is a republican and a member of the Pleas- ant View Baptist Church.

SIMON DEDERT in his management of his farm in section 3 of Ellington Town- ship exemplifies all the thrift and good judgment for which the Dedert family have long been noted in Adams County.

Mr. Dedert owns 164 acres. His home place contains eighty acres and is improved with a complete set of farm buildings, including a barn 38 by 40 feet and a seven-room house. As is usually the case in this section he grows the finest of stock and all his grain and other produce are fed on the farm, his revenues coming through the route of livestock. He has steadily conserved and built up his soil fertility. For over twenty years he has owned this eighty acre farm, a part of the old Dedert homestead, and about a dozen years ago he also bought eighty-four acres adjoining, thus giving him a well proportioned farm.

Mr. Dedert was born in Ellington Township December 17, 1872, and as a boy attended the rural schools and also the Intheran Parochial schools. When he was twenty-six years of age he began on his own account and bought the eighty aeres from his father's homestead. Later he operated the entire estate for his mother. Simon Dedert is one of the sons of William and Louisa (Sehlippmann) Dedert, people who were hard working and thrifty farmers in Adams County and whose names deserve lasting memory and respect for the fine family which they produced. A more complete record of the experiences of these parents will be found on other pages.

Simon Dedert married in Melrose Township Frederica Burgdorff. She was born in Melrose Township and is five years younger than her husband. Her par- ents were Charles and Frederica (Freeze) Burgdorff. Both parents were born in Germany. They married in Melrose Township and for many years were truck gardeners there. Mrs. Dedert's mother died at the age of three score and her father died at the home of a daughter in Riverside Township when eighty years of age. Both were members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Mr. and Mrs. Dedert take the greatest of pride in their four young children. The oldest is Paul C .. born in 1906, now in the sixth grade of the public schools ; Lloyd is seven years old and is also in school ; the two younger children are Earl and Wesley. The family attend worship in St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church at Fowler. Mr. Dedert is a republican voter.

JOEL KINGSBURY SCARBOROUGH. Adams County has had many able men of great nobility of character, but few whose careers deserve more consideration and more of the enduring memory than the late Joel Kingsbury Scarborough.

Fully four-fifths of his long life was spent in the southern part of the county, largely at Payson. In that locality the name Scarborough has been significant and prominent for more than eight years. Chronologically the first of his family to be considered was his unele, Deacon Albigence Scarborough, who came from West Hartford, Connectient, and in the fall of 1834 bought land in Payson Township which had been entered at the government land office the previous year. In the spring of 1835 Deacon Scarborough laid out the Village of Payson, which he named in honor of a much admired minister in New Eng- land. In 1836 Deacon Scarborough and associates undertook the construction of a windmill at Payson, and when it was completed several years later became an important part of the county industries. Deacon Scarborough was very liberal in upbuilding the town, donating lots for various publie purposes, including the site of the first school. He was one of the organizers of the Congregational Church, and also set out the first apple orchard in that typically fruit growing section, and also planted the first peach seeds.

LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

J.K. Scar borough

PERThompson

LIBRARY SF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

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It was the presence of this uncle that brought Joel Kingsbury Scarborough to Adams County. The latter was born at Brooklyn, Windham County, Con- neetient, November 12, 1824. His life was as prolonged as it was useful and honorable, and when he died at his home in Payson, May 3, 1915, he had attained the age of ninety years, five months, twenty-one days. He was a son of Joel and Lucretia (Smith) Scarborough. He was born three months after the death of his father, and his mother died when he was twelve years of age. His brother William S. subsequently graduated from Yale Law School and became a Cincin- nati lawyer. His sister Esther Delia married Professor Mason Grosvenor, one of the founders of Illinois College. The sister Mary Ann became the wife of Rev. Cephas A. Leach, who for a number of years was pastor of the Payson Congregational Church.

Joel K. Scarborough early manifested a scholarly mind. He read Rollin's Ancient History at the age of eight, and at the age of ten was studying Latin, Algebra and Geometry. By the time he reached the age of fourteen he had what was then considered a good academic education.

In the fall of 1838 he arrived in Adams County in company with his oldest sister Mary A. The journey westward was made by the crude facilities of that time, by railroad, steamboat and canal boat, stage coach, as far as Pittsburg, and thence on account of the low water they traveled to Cincinnati by stage, thence taking passage on a steamboat and eventually arriving at Quincy.

He found his uncle then living in a log cabin at Payson, and for the next two years was in his uncle's employ. At the age of seventeen he went to Hudson, Ohio, then the seat of Western Reserve College, now Western Reserve University of Cleveland. He lived at Hudson two years, part of the time studying in the college, and also improving his mind by home study. Returning to Adams County he resumed employment with his unele until he was twenty-one years of age, and all that time he devoted his leisure to study.

He was only fifteen years of age when he bought part of the land comprised in his later farm, a tract of raw prairie without a single improvement. After leaving his uncle he undertook development and cultivation of the farm, board- ing for several years with Mr. Edward Seymour. He was exceedingly vigorous and methodical in all his work, and his farm in course of time came to be recognized as a standard and model of improvements and thorough cultivation. He planted many trees about his home, developed a large orchard, and invested his financial surplus in other land until his holdings took on large seope. He had more faith than many of the early settlers in the ultimate value of the bottom lands along the Mississippi. In the early days he went on horseback 'to Pittsfield to attend a sale of swamp land. When the commissioner of the land offiee began the sale Mr. Scarborough was the only one present, and after his bid of 10 cents an acre had been repeated several times by the commissioner the transaction was concluded, whereby Mr. Scarborough received an entire quarter section at 10 cents an acre. He also acquired another quarter section at 15 cents an aere. Later he acquired other lands along the Mississippi Valley and on Sni Island. He was one of the most prominent in bringing about the organization of Sni Drainage District, resulting in the building of the Sni Levee. Mr. Scarborough was one of the committee of three which employed the services of the Ex-President of the United States, Benjamin Harrison, to defend a suit before the United States Supreme Court to determine the validity of the first bonds issued by this drainage district, which by a previous decree had been dcelared unconstitutional. Through the reclamation afforded by the building of the levec and other improvements in the district much of the land which Mr. Scarborough had bought for practically nothing beeame in his possession worth fully $100 an acre. His home farm comprised 170 acres, and he owns several other farms in that vicinity. He was never a fancier of prize stock, but fed and fattened many carloads for the market. The Adams County Fair was first started on his land, which he leased for that purpose, but later it was removed to Camp Point.

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Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 55

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