Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 58

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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JAMES EDWARD LOHR. of Paloma, has for twenty years been engaged in the hay and grain business. In that time he has had dealings with nearly every farmer in Gilmer and Honey Creek Township, and in an experience covering such a long period of years and involving so many transactions the people have come to have a high appreciation of Mr. Lohr's commercial integrity and the importance of the service which he renders. For a number of years Mr. Lohr has handled between 100,000 and 150,000 bushels of grain and 150 earloads of hay annually. In recent years he has also been a lumber mer- chant, being manager of the Paloma Lumber Company since it was established three years ago by the Moller-Vanden Boom Company of Quincy. In the local vards at Paloma are carried a stock valued at $20,000, including everything needed in building. Mr. Lohr is alone in the hay and grain business, but had as his partner and associate until two years ago, J. H. Lummis.

Mr. Lohr was born in Morgan County, Illinois, November 27, 1871, but his parents had lived in Adams County and soon returned here. He is a son of the late William L. and Sarah (Booth) Lohr. William L. Lohr was born in Morgan County December 27, 1843, and died at his late home two miles east of Fowler on the Cannon Ball Trail in Gilmer Township October 10. 1914. He was a son of Peter and Susannah (Davis) Lohr. He was a small boy when his mother died, and Peter Lohr lived to a good old age, past eighty-five, dying at Columbus as a retired farmer. William Lohr came to Adams County when about twenty-one years of age and for a time was employed by D. L. Hair, then superintendent of the County Poor Farm. While here William L. Lohr met Miss Sarah Booth, member of the old and prominent family of that name. She was born in Adams County September 7. 1847, and was just twenty years of age when she married on January 31, 1867. After their marriage they lived in Morgan County on his father's farm four years, and then came to the place in Gilmer Township where William L. Lohr spent the rest of his days. He found that farm with only a small frame house, and he was respon- sible for placing there the substantial buildings which adorn it today. William L. Lohr was a republican in polities, and his family have long been identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church at Paloma. For a number of years Wil- liam L. Lohr had a special distinction of service in the community as a grower of cane and operator of a mill producing a high grade of sorghum molasses, a

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commodity greatly appreciated by his patrons, but even in these days of sugar scareity seldom produced on a commercial seale. Mrs. William L. Lohr is still living. She became the mother of seven children: Susie, Mrs. J. Henry Mor- ton, of Honey Creek; Nellie, who died November 3, 1914, just a month after the death of her father, in her thirty-ninth year: Sina B. and Jennie, still at home with their mother; Edward : Rolla L., who operates the old home farm, married Edna Middelbury, of Fowler; Harry B., who is in the United States Army and is now being trained in an automobile school at Kansas City. Both Rolla and Harry were associated for ten years as threshermen in this county.

James Edward Lohr was one year old when his parents returned to Adams County, and he grew up on the old farm in Gilmer Township. At the age of twenty-four he married Miss Mary Hastings, daughter of William Hastings of Mendon. References to this family are made on other pages. After his marriage Mr. Lohr farmed for two years in Ellington Township, and then came to Paloma and bought out the Lummis Brothers general store. For six years he bought and sold hay and grain as a side line, and then sold his store and gave particular attention to the hay and grain business. He owns a half interest in the Grain and Livestock Company of Coatsburg and Loraine, and is associated with Mr. Lummis in the ownership of a cotton and corn planta- tion of 500 acres in MeIntosh County, Oklahoma. Mr. Lohr is a past noble grand of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and a member of the Mystic Workers of the World, and he and his wife belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church.

ARTIIUR HENRY Loos. On other pages will be found a somewhat extended account of various members of the Loos family, and here it is the purpose to single out one of them who has made a specially good record as a progressive farmer and eitizen in Fall Creek Township, his home being ten miles southeast of Quincy in the very northeast corner of the township.

He was born March 26, 1881, a son of George F. Loos. His father was also born in Adams County, in 1848, and for many years had a fine farm of 100 aeres in section 34 of Melrose Township.

It was on that farm that Arthur Henry Loos grew to manhood and got his education in the local public schools. On November 4, 1903, he married Elizabeth Schnellbecher, daughter of William and Kate (Speekhart) Schnell- becher. The annals of the Schnellbecher family are also published elsewhere. William Schnellbecher was killed by lightning. and Mrs. Loos' mother after- ward married Henry Kauffman. a Melrose Township farmer. Both are now deceased, and there were four children by her second marriage: August, John, Clarice and William Kauffman.

Mrs. Loos was eighteen years old at the time of her marriage. They started out a young couple on their present farm, having fifty-six acres of the old homestead, and they also own seventy acres adjoining across the road, inchuid- ing ten aeres of timber. Mr. Loos has gone ahead and done much to improve and increase the value of his farm, erecting a new barn and remodeling the other buildings. 1Ie farms as a stockman and grain raiser and keeps a herd of good eows, milking eight to ten regularly. He converts the eream into but> ter for special customers and uses the skim milk largely to fatten from fifty to sixty hogs, which he sends to the market every year. Mr. Loos has been too busy to seek publie offiee, and is content to east his vote as a democrat. He and his wife have four young children. Florence, the oldest, is now in the eighth grade of the public schools. The other three are Helen, Hazel and Or- ville. Mr. and Mrs. Loos attend the Payson Congregational Church. He is a school director. Mrs. Loos had a sister and brother, Catherine, Mrs. Chris Raabe, of near Mendon, and Fred Schnellbeeher, in Fall Creek Township.

REICHI BROTHERS & COMPANY. In these stirring times it is significant to refer to some special instances of the strength and validity of new ideas which have gained hold in many parts of the country. In the business world it has

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long been recognized that in union there is strength, that the combination of resources effects larger and better results than strictly individualized effort. The same thing is equally true of agriculture, with some modifications, and it is undeniable that two farmers working together can accomplish more than twice as much as one alone.

It is this idea which is at the foundation of the firm Reich Brothers & Com- pany in Fall Creek Township. They are not merchants, but are a firm of gen- eral farmers and stoekmen, handling a large body of land, using up-to-date methods, and getting all the advantages that come from a combination of re- sources. Their enterprise is divided among three farms, though operated prac- tically as one, and their homes are about fourteen miles southeast of Quincy and two and a half miles west of Payson.

The members of the firm are George Fred and William Reich and a brother- in-law. Charles Willis. William occupies the old Reich farm proper. The old Seehorn farm, where Mr. Willis lives, is one of the oldest estates in that part of the county, and the same is true of the Abijah Harris farm, which is the home of George Fred Reich. On this land is the old Harris residence, one of the landmarks of the county.

The firm was organized in 1917. The partners operate 620 acres in a body, and they have carried out many extensive improvements. One feature which indicates their progressiveness is the use of gas tractors in plowing their large fields. They grow extensive erops of wheat, corn and oats, and in 1917 they fed over 100 cattle and marketed over 100 head of hogs.

The father of the Reich brothers was the late Frederick Reich, who was born in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, May 3, 1841, and died August 11, 1900, at the age of fifty-nine years, three months and eight days. Ifis death was the result of injuries received in an accident three days before his death. He was a small child when his parents brought him to Adams County and settled . in Fall Creek Township. His mother lived to advanced years. Frederick Reich on June 26, 1864, married Elizabeth Keil, daughter of George Keil. She was also born in Germany and was brought as a child to Fall Creek Township. She is still living on the old Reich farm. Frederick Reich learned the black- smith trade at Quiney and followed it actively for eleven years. He then took charge of the Keil farm, and his wife's father spent his last years in that home and died when past eighty years of age. Frederick Reich bought part of the present farm, eighty acres, later secured thirty acres adjoining, and still later

purchased 160 acres. though leaving it to his sons to pay for this part of the land. Subsequently the sons acquired 251 acres, giving them all told 620 acres. As noted above, this includes the old Abijah Harris farm. The Abijah Harris residence is one of the oldest in that part of the county. It is said that one of the first schools in Adams County was taught in the house of Abijah Ilarris himself about 1833. Marcus Thompson, father of John G. Thompson, once said that he attended school in that old building, which is still standing. This structure has special interest from the fact that most of its covering is of walnut boards.

Frederick Reich and wife were active members of the Bluff Hall Congre- gational Church, and he was one of the early treasurers of that society. He and his wife had two sons and two daughters. The oldest is George Fred. The daughter, Licetta, is the wife of Charles Willis, one of the present partners in the firm. Their home is the old Seehorn place. Mr. and Mrs. Willis have two sons, Frank and Emmett Willis. Charles Willis worked for the Reich brothers as a hired hand for several years. until his marriage, and finally was taken into the partnership. The second child is William Reich. The second daughter is Margaret, wife of William Born, superintendent of sub-postal station in St. Louis. They have three daughters, Dorothy, Margaret and Louise.

William Reich married Margaret Willis, a sister of Charles Willis. They have two sons. William and Charles.

George Fred Reich married in 1899 Minnie Bock, daughter of Daniel and

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Frederika (Gasser) Boek, both of whom died in Melrose Township. Mrs. Reich was born in Melrose Township June 3, 1872. She is the mother of four sons, Arthur, Theodore, Leo and Fred, and she lost one danghter. Irena, in infancy. Another member of the family of George Fred Reich is Mrs. Reich's sister, Katie Boek.

EDWIN NICHOLS YINGLING. Some of the first settlements in Adams County were made in Fall Creek Township, several years prior to the establishment of Quincy. The Yingling family while not among the first were among the very early settlers, loeating there more than eighty-five years ago. Ever since the name has stood for all that is good in citizenship, industry and high char- acter. One of the family was Edwin Niehols Yingling, who spent all his life in the county, and had a farm four miles east of Marblehead and fifteen miles southeast of Quincy, still oeenpied by Mrs. Yingling.

He was born in Adams County April 19, 1836, and died November 1, 1904. His parents were Joseph and Naney (Nichols) Yingling. Joseph Yingling was born in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, May 29, 1791. His wife was born January 28, 1802. They were married August 19, 1824, and came to Adams County from Bourbon County, Kentucky. Joseph Yingling died December 21, 1864, and his widow May 27, 1881. They had four children. The oldest, James A., who was born in Kentucky in 1829, inherited the old homestead, later moved to Quiney, and died in the West but was buried at Quincy. A daughter. Elizabeth A., married a Mr. Thompson, and their two sons are Emir Thompson, of Payson Township, and Wilbur Thompson, of Quiney. Another daughter, Mary B. Yingling, became the wife of Charles Stewart. Charles Stewart was born at Barneygat, New Jersey, January 7, 1838, son of Samnel and Rachel (Malcolm) Stewart, of Scotch-Irish ancestry. Charles Stewart and Mary Yingling were married February 11, 1866. She was born June 5. 1838. Charles Stewart eame to Adams County with his parents in 1840 and they settled in section 11 of Fall Creek Township. In 1868 they sold their old home and located sonth and west of Newtown in Burton Township, but finally retired to Payson, where Samuel Stewart died at the age of seventy- two and his wife at eighty. Their seven children were George, Charles, Selina, Helen. Samuel, Jane and Isaac. Charles Stewart in 1861, with several other neighbors, went overland to California but at the close of the war returned to Adams County, and after his marriage settled on the farm now occupied by his son Wilmer. Charles Stewart died February 29, 1916, and his wife October 29, 1891. They are buried in the old Craigtown Cemetery at Payson.

Edwin N. Yingling was married December 29, 1868, to Ilelen Stewart, a sister of Charles Stewart, above noted. She was born March 3, 1842, and died February 28, 1891.

At the time of his marriage Mr. Yingling seenred the farm now occupied by his widow. He had spent several years in California as a young man. The Yingling homestead was included in his father's original estate. It contains ninety acres. He and his wife lived in a log house until the present substan- tial structure was erected abont forty years ago. It was then and still is one of the best homes in that community. The farm is now rented. Mr. Yingling was a democrat, served as road commissioner, and was always public spirited in matters of local moment.

On July 20, 1896, Mr. Yingling married Christine R. Seiz. She was born in Wuertemberg, Germany, December 28, 1859, and eame to the United States in company with her brother. Gottfried Seiz, in 1880. Her brother now lives in Burton Township. Mrs. Yingling for a number of years was employed in the Yingling home, and after the death of the first Mrs. Yingling she married and continued as head of the household, and today occupies the old home and has carefully looked after the business affairs.

Mr. Yingling's only child by his first wife was Elmer E. Yingling, who died in infancy. The present Mrs. Yingling is the mother of one daughter,

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Esther Nancy, who remains at home with her mother. Mrs. Yingling is a member of the Christian Church at Payson. Mr. Yingling took a fatherless young boy to rear in his home, named Harry Cram. He was one of the Ying- ling household until he married Dolly Sparks, and they now live in the West.

Joseph Yingling, father of Edwin N., before coming to Adams County was a merehant. He was a very methodical man, as is evidenced by the accounts which he kept carefully for many years. His account books, now carefully preserved by his grand-daughter, Esther N. Yingling, show various transae- tions from the year 1819 until 1854-55.

CHARLES LIONBERGER. A farm that has been in one family ownership for over half a century and has many interesting associations with good and honest people of Adams County now deceased is that of Charles Lionberger in Pay- son Township, 34 of a mile east of Plainville.

On that farm and on the site of his present home but in another house Charles Lionberger was born March 15, 1862, son of John and Elizabeth (Kite) Lionberger. His great-grandfather, Peter Lionberger, was a native of Germany and a colonial settler in Virginia, and was there in time to join the colonies in their struggle for independence and served in the revolution. By his first wife he had a son, also named Peter, who married Elizabeth Smith. The second generation fared westward from Virginia and settled in Ohio. John Lionberger, father of Charles, was born near Newark in Licking County, Ohio, August 11, 1816. In 1842 he came to Illinois in company with Benjamin Lionberger and William Morris. William Lionberger, his brother, was born January 21, 1829, and married Amanda Taylor, and for many years was a resi- dent of Adams County. After about a year and a half in Adams County John Lionberger returned to Ohio, but soon came back and took up his home on what is now the Lionberger homestead, living in a little log cabin. On Octo- ber 20. 1840. he married in Licking County, Ohio, Elizabeth Kite, who was born in that county March 20, 1821. Her parents were Adam and Sarah (Parr) Kite. The Kite family had moved from Page County, Virginia, to Ohio about 1804. Mrs. John Lionberger's grandfather was a native of Hesse, Germany, but came to America prior to the war for independenec, and one of his family was a colonel in the Hessian Army. Adam Kite at the time of the Revolution was detailed to stay home and keep guard over the people of his locality.

A brother of Elizabeth Kite, and unele of Mr. Charles Lionberger, was the late William Kite, an interesting character and a man of pioneer instincts who was always on the move and seldom remained long in one place. He fol- lowed farming in Ohio for a time, went to Missouri, then to Adams County, Illinois, lived at Huntington, Indiana, from 1860 to 1864, spent the next four years in Adams County, and for eight years was in Missouri and one season at Sherman. Texas. For three years he lived in Indian Territory, where his wife died and was buried. They had four children. Again William Kite was back among old familiar seenes in Ohio, then went to Crawford County, Illi- nois, again to Adams County, was in Missouri for a time, and his last days were spent in the home of his nephew, Charles Lionberger, where he died March 12, 1910.

John Lionberger died June 16. 1887, and his wife on December 14, 1882. They were the parents of eight children: Sarah, born April 2, 1842, deceased ; George, born March 20, 1844, deceased : Alfred, born April 22, 1846, married Maggie Greene, had a family of five sons and two daughters and lived in Liv- ingston County, Missouri; Alvira, born June 16, 1848, was married to George Green and had eight children: Calvin, born April 28, 1850, deceased; Isaac, born March 10, 1852, deceased ; Louisa, born June 20, 1855; and Charles.

Charles Lionberger grew up on the old homestead in Payson Township, attended the country schools and the Gem City Business College, and has given the best energies of his life to farming, and always on the old home-

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stead. He worked for his father there until reaching his majority. Ile owns 204 acres, 160 aeres in section 23 and the remainder in section 24. Part of it is in timber. The substantial house was erected in 1875, and with that excep- tion Mr. Lionberger has added all the building improvements. He gives par- tieular attention to livestock, and sells a number of eattle every season direet from the grass and is also a breeder of Poland China hogs.

April 14, 1891, Mr. Lionberger married Miss Ollie Blauser. She was born March 4, 1872, daughter of John and Amanda (Wagy) Blauser. John Blauser was born in Pennsylvania November 27, 1844, and spent the last eight years of his life in the home of his daughter, Mrs. Lionberger, where he died Novem- ber 22, 1918. He came to Illinois when about six years of age with his par- ents, who made the journey down the Ohio and up the Mississippi rivers. These parents were Jacob and Chrisanna (Lupton) Blauser, the former also a native of Pennsylvania. The Blausers eame to Adams County in company with the Carmony family, they being related, and as there were twelve children in the Carmony family, the party made almost a boat load. Jacob Blauser settled two miles south of Payson, and died there when past eighty years of age. Chrisanna, his wife, died when about sixty. Jacob Blanser and wife had four sons who are still living: Jacob, of Fall Creek Township; William, of Pike County, Illinois; Henry, of Spokane, Washington; and Alexander, of Quiney. There were also three daughters: Melinda, Mrs. John Bohn, of Payson ; Anna Mary, widow of George Nowell, of Payson; and Catherine, Mrs. M. Thompson. of Fall Creek Township. John Blauser, father of Mrs. Lionberger, had a good farm in Richland Township, two miles east and a half mile south of Plainville, but this property has sinee been sold. He and his wife, Amanda, had two daughters: Mrs. Lionberger and Nellie. The latter was born Novem- ber 28, 1873, and married Frank Waters, of Plainville, and became the mother of three children. John Blauser by his second marriage also had two ehil- dren : Elmer, who died at the age of seven years, and Florence, born July 15, 18SS, now the widow of Burdett Seott and living at Memphis, Tennessee.

Mr. Lionberger has found sufficient interest for the energies of his life- time on the home farm. He served a very efficient term as road commissioner three years. Ile is a demoerat, and supports all the churches. He is a mem- ber of the Adams County Mutual Life Insurance Company.

J. PHILIP SPANGLER. The community of Burton Township knows J. Philip Spangler as a citizen and farmer whose progressiveness is above question and who has utilized the capital and opportunities with which he started life to acquire abundant possessions and extend his holdings and usefulness until he is one of the chief farmers in that locality. His home is thirteen miles east of Quiney.

Mr. Spangler was born in the same township, not far from Burton Village, September 28, 1868, son of John and Margaret (Wirth) Spangler. Both par- ents were natives of Germany, his father born in the valley of the Rhine. His mother eame with her parents to America and he came to this country alone. After their marriage in Quincy they became renters in Burton Township, later bought forty acres and he gradually improved his holdings until he had 310 aeres in the homestead and eighty aeres a mile and a half north, which is now owned by his son J. Philip. John Spangler was a very resourceful and energetic farmer. He built a number of buildings on his land and managed his affairs so successfully that he was finally able to retire and spent his last days in the village of Liberty, where he died December 24, 1898, at the age of seventy-two. Ilis widow passed away at the same age. They had the follow- ing children: Lizzie, wife of Charles File, of Kansas: John, who was a stock buyer and died at Liberty in April, 1915, when about fifty-five years of age ; Mary, unmarried and living in California ; J. Philip; Henry, on the old home- stead : and Jacob, who operates a hack line from Quincy to Liberty.

.J. Philip Spangler married in 1894 Miss Lulu McBride, of Liberty, daughter

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of Samuel McBride. Her father was a well known Liberty Township farmer and died in 1918. Mrs. Spangler was eighteen at the time of her marriage.

After their marriage they came to occupy their present home farm, which Mr. Spangler's father had owned as above noted. Some years later Mr. Span- gler bought the James Lytle farm of 170 acres adjoining his homestead, and he paid for this large and well improved farm $22.250.00. He now has it all under cultivation, and is doing his part as one of the Liberty farmers of America.

Mr. Spangler has served as road commissioner one term, is a democrat, is a trustee of the Pleasant Grove Methodist Episcopal Church, and has been very active in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Liberty, passing all the local chairs and twice serving as representative to the Grand Lodge. He and his wife have one daughter, Mabel, at home.

AUGUST F. STORMER. A highly esteemed citizen of Quincy, and one of its successful business men, August F. Stormer has won an extended reputation as an undertaker, and his services are sought not only in the city, but in the surrounding country. A son of Frederick William Stormer, he was born in Ellington Township, Adams County, Illinois, October 22, 1868.

Frederick W. Stormer was born and brought up in Germany. Immigrating to the United States in 1857, he located in Adams County, and having bought Jand in Ellington Township was engaged in tilling the soil until his death. Hc married Anna Margaret Lueninghouer, a native of Germany, and to them eight children were born, as follows: Henry, deceased ; William, of Quincy : Theodore, of Quincy : Anna and Edward, deceased; John L., of Quincy; August F., the special subjeet of this sketch; and Herman H., of Quincy.

Receiving his preliminary education in the country schools, August F. Stormer subsequently eontinned his studies in the Quincy sehools for awhile. Returning home, he assisted his father on the farm for about six months, and then, a lad of fourteen years, he entered the employ of the Dayton Book & Paper Com- pany, with which he remained four years. Being forced to resign that position on aecount of ill health, he stayed with his parents two years, and then re-entered the service of his former employers. Two years later Mr. Stormer made a ehange of occupation, and afterward became associated with the paper house of Ben Lock, remaining in the establishment six months. Entering then the employ of George Stornmann, he was for sixteen years engaged in decorating. becoming quite skilful.

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Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 58

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