Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 60

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 60

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Mr. and Mrs. Rump have four children : Clarence K., is a city mail carrier in Quincy and married Marjorie Lehman; Archie Alexander is on his father's second farm, the old Perry place, and married Myrtle Nell Inman ; Myrtle Gertrude is the wife of Stanley Inman, of Payson Township, and has one son, Stanley Rump Inman : Clara Delia, the youngest of the family, is a student in high school and in the opinion of her friends she is one of the most attrac- tive, vivacious and blithesome young women of Adams County. Mr. Rump is a democrat in polities but has never sought publie service or office of any kind. He was reared in the Lutheran Church and Mrs. Rump and sons are members of the Christian Church.

WILLIAM FRED KALTENBACH is proprietor of one of the fine farm homes in Burton Township, located a mile east of Newtown. He is living now in the same environment in which he grew up as a boy, and for over sixty years the Kalten- bachs have been among the prosperous, honest, industrious and eapable people in that part of the county.

Mr. Kaltenbach was born in Burton Township February 19, 1871, son of

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Alois and Anna Sabina (Saxey) Kaltenbach. Alois Kaltenbach was born in Baden, Germany, and at the age of sixteen came to Adams County with his parents, William and Syephana Kaltenbach. The grandparents secured a farm in Payson Township, and the grandfather died at the age of eighty-five. Alois remained at home with his parents until his marriage in 1865. He was then twenty-eight years of age and his bride eighteen. He had as his chief capital at the time of his marriage an extensive experience as a farm laborer. For one year he and his wife lived at the old home, and after that they rented nntil 1872 and then bought 160 acres in Burton Township, now owned by their youngest daughter, Rosina. Alois Kaltenbach also bought 158 acres additional, giving him almost a half section, but always kept as two farms. His second farm was the old William Rowe farm, and he rented this land to his oldest daughter for nine years, until 1897, when it was taken over by William Fred Kaltenbach. Alois Kaltenbach died April 10, 1917, at the age of seventy-eight. His wife died in 1911 at the age of sixty-eight. He was a democrat in politics and for many years attended St. Bridget's Catholic Church at Liberty, but had formerly been a member in St. Anthony's Church in Melrose Township. He donated liberally towards the churches. Several of the family are buried in St. Anthony's Cemetery. Alois Kaltenbach and wife had four children : Amelia, Mrs. Theodore Meyer, living on a farm in Burton Township; Anna, wife of John Ormond, a farmer in Liberty Township; William F .; and Rosina, wife of Albert Meyer, on the old Kaltenbach farm.

William F. Kaltenbach grew up on the old homestead, attended the local sehools, and on March 2, 1897, married Elizabeth Flick, daughter of Andrew and Marie (Lambert) Flick, of Richfield Township. Her parents now live in Liberty Township. Mrs. Kaltenbach was born October 9, 1874. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Kaltenbach at once located on the second farm of his father, running it for ten years, but he now owns it and forty aeres additional, and in the fall of 1918 he bought forty-three acres adjoining, giving him a large and well proportioned place of 241 acres. When his father bought the land it had a house on it, but this house was added to by his father and the son has built additional rooms, and also two large barns. He devotes his land to generał farming and keeps from twenty to twenty-five head of cattle. Mr. and Mrs. Kaltenbach are members of St. Bridget's Catholic Church. Their chil- dren, four in number, and all at home, are Loretta. M., Alois A., Anna Viola and Albert William.

JAMES B. COOK is the present supervisor of Burton Township. He is also a farmer, a large land owner, and has been successfully identified with agricul- tural enterprise most of his life. Mr. Cook has three sons who are serving their country in the uniform of United States soldiers.

Most of his life has been spent in Adams County, but he was born at Fort Madison, Iowa, October 27, 1860, son of James J. and Dorothy C. (Brown) Cook. His father was a native of England. His mother was born in Quincy, daughter of David Brown, a native of Bavaria, Germany. David Brown at one time drove a stage between Quincy and Alton. James J. Cook was a wagon maker by trade and had a shop at Fort Madison, Iowa, from 1861 until 1867. He then came to Adams County and settled on a farm two miles cast of Adams postoffice and sixteen miles southeast of Quincy. He bought eighty acres of improved land and made much of this farm in the way of further improvements before he died. The substantial house which he erected is still used. The farm is now owned by his daughter, Mrs. Martha Sinnock, of Quiney. James J. Cook died March 27, 1896, at the age of fifty-eight. Ilis widow survived him about five years, passing away at the age of sixty. James J. Cook was a republican voter but never aspired to holding public office. He contributed liberally of his means to the support of church and other worthy canses. His family consisted of the following children: Mary, who died as the wife of John Reed, of Burton Township; Martha, Mrs. Edwin Sinnock, of

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Quincy ; Emma, wife of John Hunsaker, of Chicago; Blanche, who died un- married at the age of twenty; Bertha, who is unmarried and is living in Chi- cago with her sister; Edward Theodore, a thresherman and rancher at Three Forks, Montana ; James B. ; and Harris, who died in childhood.

James B. C'ook lived at home until he was twenty-one years of age. During that time he attended the common schools and for a brief period of six months worked in a book store, but otherwise his life has been identified with the open country and with agricultural enterprise. He rented a farm until he married, at the age of twenty-four, Miss Sarah Winget, of Burton Township, daughter of William Winget, whose home was near the Cooks. Mr. and Mrs. Cook are of the same age and grew up as schoolmates. After their marriage they lived five years on a farm adjoining Quincy, for three years were farmers in Shelby County, Missouri, and about twenty-five years ago returned to Adams County and bought their present place, which adjoins the old Cook homestead. Here Mr. Cook owns eighty acres of well improved land, and he is also operating the old homestead and handling both farms produetively and with very grati- fying returns.

Mr. Cook was first eleeted to his office as supervisor of Burton Township in 1913. He is now serving on his third two-year term. In his official capacity he directly superintended the building of the Town Hall in the center of the township, and has also been interested in the construction of conerete bridges and eulverts throughout this part of the county. He is a director of his home school and as a republican has been delegate to various congressional eonven- tions and member of party committees. Mrs. Cook is a member of the Baptist Church.

Their oldest child, Graee L., died at the age of twenty-one, having taught school in this county four years. Mamie A. was also a teacher in the county, but is now the wife of J. A. Pullman, of Burton Township. Charles is serving with the colors, sergeant in a regiment of heavy artillery with the Expeditionary Forees in France. Howard died in infancy. Frank L. is with an ambulance corps in France. Russell L. is also a soldier in France. The son Henry died in infancy. Aubrey and Clarenee both had two years in high school and are now assisting their father on the farm. Robert, the youngest is still a school- boy.

SAMUEL S. HARKNESS. This history of Adams County is being published inst ninety-five years after the first member of the Harkness family located here. Their first settlement was in Fall Creek Township, and in that com- munity both his father and grandfather lived. Samnel S. Harkness has spent most of the years of his life in Burton Township, with enduring honor and with that esteem which is paid a man faithful to duty, hard working, and a conseientious citizen. Mr. S. S. Harkness' home is seventeen miles southeast of Quincy.

Ilis birth occurred in Fall Creek Township Jannary 21, 1850. His parents were Loren and Sarah (Tibbitts) Harkness. The grandfather, and the pioneer in this eounty. was Ebenezer Harkness, who was born in the State of Maine about 1785. Ile eame to Adams county and settled in Fall Creek Township in 1824. Two of his brothers also eame to the county. Ebenezer Harkness at one time kept a tavern near the Mississippi River, where a ferryboat trans- ported passengers across the river, and he also drove a stage between Quiney and Atlas and Naples. Ebenezer Harkness had three sons: Lyman, who mar- ried Mary Avis and lived in Haneock County, where he died in advanced years ; Loren ; and Daniel, who never married and died at the age of fifty. A daughter, Laura, married Willard Keyes, a well known pioneer citizen of Quincy.

Loren Harkness was born at Springfield in Bradford County, Pennsylvania. February 9, 1816. lle married, October 8, 1840, Sarah Tibbitts, who was born at Cincinnati, Ohio. September 7, 1818. Loren Harkness died April 15. 1865, and his widow survived him thirty years alnost to the day, dying April

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14, 1895. After his marriage Loren Harkness lived at home with his father, operating the old farm, and in 1860 moved to Burton Township and aequired the land now owned by his son, Samuel S. Ebenezer Harkness also lived here until his death in 1863, at the age of seventy-eight. Ebenezer Harkness was a member of the first grand jury in Adams County. He voted as a whig and later as a republican.

Sarah Tibbitts, mother of Samuel S. Harkness, was a daughter of Samuel, a granddaughter of David and Betsy (Wright) Tibbitts. David Tibbitts was a son of Samuel and Sobriety (Drew) Tibbitts, and Samuel's father was Joshua Tibbitts, who came to America about 1685 and settled at Dover in Staf- ford County, New Hampshire. Sarah Tibbitts lost her parents when she was a child and she came to Adams County with her aunt and uncle, John and Betsy Bean, who located in Fall Creek Township. Loren Harkness did not live long after eoming to Burton Township, but did much in that time to clear up and improve his farm. He was only forty-nine when he died. He had seven children: Oscar, who enlisted at the age of eighteen in the Seventy- eighth Illinois Infantry, saw active service until the close of the war, and is now living in an old soldiers' home in California ; Samuel S .; Eugene Bell, a farmer at Lakin, Kansas; and James Edward, who died March 20, 1900, at Quincy. These were the sons of Loren Harkness and wife.

Samuel S. Harkness was fifteen years of age when his father died. His brother Oscar on returning from the army took charge of the old farm, and Samuel S. Harkness had the privilege of the local schools of Camp Point and Payson. At the age of twenty-two he married Elizabeth Rhodes Young, who was born in Orange County, Virginia, May 20, 1851. They lived happily to- gether for over thirty years, until Mrs. Harkness passed away April 5, 1905. She had come to Adams County as a child with her parents, Columbus L. and Nancy Young, who settled in Burton Township and later lived on a farm adjoining that of the IIarknesses. Before his marriage S. S. Harkness had taken charge of the old homestead, after his hrother Oscar moved out to Kan- sas to become a homesteader. He has looked after that farm ever since, his mother living with him, and at her death he bought out the interests of the other heirs. The old homestead comprised 155 aeres and he still owns all of it except five acres. This is a well improved and valuable farm, productive of all the staple crops and grain, and Mr. Harkness has always raised and grown a number of stock. He served as school director about fifteen years, and as a republican has allowed his name to go on the ticket a number of times as eandi- date, though the democratic majority in that township has always been very strong. Mr. and Mrs. Harkness were very active members of the Baptist Church at Newtown, and he served as superintendent of the Sunday school for ten or twelve years. Since the death of his wife he has lived rather retired and not been so closely identified with the church and other affairs as formerly. Mr. Harkness has always been a peace loving man, and has never had a law suit. However, he is familiar with court procedure, since he has sat on a num- ber of local juries and on grand juries. He has been connected with the County Farm Improvement Association.

Mr. Harkness had five children: Oscar T. is connected with the Fairbanks- Morse Company at Portland, Oregon. The daughter Lucy died in infancy. Herbert is a farmer in Burton Township and married Lena Wells. William is the manager of the homestead farm and married Mary Meyer, of Burton Township. They have three children, Margaret Elizabeth, Wilfred and Har- old. William Harkness was for five or six years a rural mail carrier, but is now giving all his time to general farming and the raising of good cattle and hogs. Columbus Loren, the youngest of the children, is a graduate of the Payson High School, took the full course of mechanical engineering in the Illinois State University, but instead of following his profession entered Young Men's Christian Association work as general secretary at Lincoln, Ne- braska, also performed similar duties at Louisville, Kentucky, but is now in- Vol. II-24

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spector for the Prudential Insurance Company at Lonisville. He married Mabel Knight, of Decatur, Illinois.

FRANK KARL GLEICHMANN. During the dozen years he was a resident of Quincy Frank Karl Gleichmann was a successful and progressive merchant, and altogether a citizen whose memory is gratefully recalled by a large circle of friends. He was German born and fought for the Union in this country as a Union soldier.

He was born in Saxony, Germany, March 1, 1837, and died at Quincy May 27, 1889. His parents were Gottlieb and Elizabeth (Kern) Gleichmann. His parents spent their lives in Saxony. His father died there when Frank K. was a boy and the mother married a second husband. Frank K. Gleich- mann was fourteen years old when he left home and set out for the New World, coming from Hamburg on a sailing vessel to New York. In New York he joined an uncle at West Hoboken. That was about the time the horse car line was put in operation to New York City. Soon afterward Mr. Gleichmann took up and learned the trade of tailor and subsequently was employed in the finishing department of the Steinway Brothers piano works. That was the employment from which he was called at the outbreak of the war to serve as a soldier. He enlisted in the Fifth New York Infantry, and saw much hard service, including the great Atlanta campaign. He was captured in one of the hattles, was sent to a Confederate prison at the old Fair Grounds at Raleigh, North Carolina, and was kept there nine months, being fed on a poor quality of pork and beans and in such meager rations that he was more dead than alive when he was released and sent north with the Union lines. As returning health and strength permitted he resumed his trade in New York and Phila- delphia. On account of continued failing health he came west and located on a farm in Lewis County, Missouri, near Canton. The open life of the farm bronght him restored health and strength and in the spring of 1877 he located at Quincy and entered the grocery business with a store on Seventh Street. At the corner of Seventh and Oak streets he built a large building, with a store on the first floor and his own home above. It was in that home that he spent his last days. He was a man of great industry, very capable in handling busi- ness affairs, and his qualities of thrift laid the foundation of his ample competence. He was a Lincoln republican and a member of the Lutheran church.

In New York City Mr. Gleichmann married Miss Frederica A. Becker. She was born in Germany September 16, 1848. She was a small girl when her mother died and her father, Carl Johan Becker, married a second wife and became a wealthy market man in Germany. The Beckers were a Lutheran family. Mrs. Gleichmann was the oldest of her mother's children. She was fifteen when she came to the United States. Miss Becker made the trip alone from Hamburg, Germany, being eight weeks on the ocean. She joined some relatives in New York, and lived there, working for her living, until her marriage. Her sister Amelia afterwards came to the United States and married a Mr. Mayer, and now lives on Staten Island and is the mother of two daughters, Pauline and Amelia, the latter a teacher. Another sister was Agnes, who also came to this country, and died leaving two sons, Albert and Karl.

Mrs. Gleichmann became the mother of two sons, Karl A., who died at the age of eight months, and Henry B. Henry B. Gleichmann was born in Lewis County, Missouri, November 26, 1869. He was seven years of age when brought to Quincy, and in this city he grew up and received his education in the Lutheran parochial and public schools, and in the Gem City Business College. After the death of his father he continued the business, and very successfully until 1915. He and his mother own some valuable property in Quincy and Mr. Gleichmann is a director in the Quincy Stove Manufacturing Company and has many interests to claim his time and attention. He is a member of Herman

Funk Gleichmann Friedericke, a Gleichmann.

LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

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Blue Lodge of Masons and his mother is a member of Alpha Chapter No. 109, Eastern Star, and both are devout members of the Lutheran church.

ABRAHAM H. D. BUTTZ. More of the real history of Liberty Village can be told in the experiences and fortunes of the Buttz family than ean be ob- tained from any other source. Abraham H. D. Buttz was formerly called Junior in order to distinguish him from his father. Both of them have been prominent in connection with every movement and event in the history of Liberty Village. In faet nothing of importance there has ever occurred with- out the support of this family. For the last year or so Mr. Buttz has been totally blind, but despite such handicap seems to enjoy life, possesses a happy disposition and is not only fond of the society of friends but his many friends constantly seek him out. He still possesses all the powers of intelleet which have distinguished him in former years.

His father, A. H. D. Buttz, Sr., was born August 13, 1809, in Northamp- ton County, Pennsylvania. Jacob Buttz, his grandfather, was a soldier in the War of the Revolution and was in Washington's army during the historic erossing of the Delaware River just before the battle of Trenton. Michael R. Buttz, father of A. H. D. Buttz, was born in Sussex County, New Jersey, moved from there to Northampton County, Pennsylvania, and was a miller and mer- chant and at one time represented his county in the Legislature. He was a demoerat.

A. II. D. Buttz was educated at Nazareth, Pennsylvania, partly under the instruction of Moravian teachers. In 1831 he set out on foot from Pennsyl- vania to seek a permanent home and location. His journey's end brought him to Adams County, and three miles east of Liberty he hired out to Captain Pierec. Together they built a house and soon opened a little store. Paris T. Judy sold lots at Liberty, but the land was owned by a Kentuckian named Tal- bot, whose son-in-law, A. W. Dudley, laid out the town. In 1835 Mr. Buttz se- cured some ground there, and built a store on the present site of the brick store which was for so long under the ownership of the Buttz family. In 1850 Mr. Buttz ereeted the present brick store. It stood on the site occupied by the frame store ereeted in 1835. In the same year he put up a dwelling house, which is still in use. A. H. D. Buttz, Jr., was born in that home. Just across the street from the store D. P. Meacham built one of the first residences and opened a butcher shop and a small stock of merchandise. On September 13, 1835, A. H. D. Buttz married Miss Mary E. Meacham, daughter of D. P. Meacham, just mentioned. She was born in Ohio July 3, 1819, and was brought to Adams County by her parents in 1829. The Meacham family eame to this county by way of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and settled in section 20, Liberty Township, just across the road from where A. H. D. Buttz now lives. It was in a log house on that farm that A. H. D. Buttz, Sr., and wife were mar- ried. D. P. Meacham, like many of the early pioneers, was rather too liberal in his potations. After his wife's death he spent some time with his son-in-law, Mr. Buttz. At that time the latter was trying to make a farm. Mr. Meacham was also very fond of talking and one day was requested by Mr. Buttz not to annoy his workmen. He became very angry and left home and was never heard of again by his family.

Mr. Buttz, Sr., continued the business of his store until about 1856, when he was succeeded by Meacham & Karns. his sons-in-law. They were succeeded by Buttz Brothers, comprising M. R. and A. II. D. Buttz, Jr. M. R. Buttz left the firm to enlist in the Civil war and the business was carried on by his brother. In 1865 P. H. Mercer, who also married one of the daughters of Mr. Buttz, Sr., became a partner in the store and continued until 1877. After that for several years it was continued by W. H. Meacham, a son of D. P. Meacham, who con- dueted it until 1880. At that time this business, after a continuous operation of forty-five years praetically in one family, was discontinued.

A. H. D. Buttz, Sr., died in September, 1883, when past seventy-four years

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of age. ITis home had been in Liberty Township and Liberty Village since 1835. He acquired 160 acres just east of the village, and in 1847 built on it a substantial brick house which is still standing and is in the southern part of the village. The land was all prairie and he hired men to improve it while he looked after his business as a merchant. Much of his money he invested in land and at one time had between 1,000 and 1,200 acres of land in Adams County, and property in Quincy and in Kansas. He began voting as a whig and after- wards was a stanch republican. He was the first postmaster of the Village of Liberty, establishing the postoffice in his store. He held the office for thirteen years, until there occurred a change of political administration. He was very popular in a township where most of the voters were democratic, and he was one of the two men who in the early days voted the opposition ticket to the dem- ocrats. That was before the day of the secret ballot, and all voting was done viva voce. Mr. Buttz was reared a Presbyterian, but always supported denom- inations without special respect to creed. His widow survived him and lived to the age of ninety years. She was blind and helpless in her last years and lived at the home of her daughter Mrs. Almeron Wheat at Quincy.

A. H. D. Buttz, Sr., and wife had eleven children, seven of whom reached maturity. Michael R. graduated from the Northwestern Christian University in Indiana, was a lawyer by profession, practicing at Quincy, served as a soldier through the Civil war, went out to Kansas and died there in 1875, at the age of thirty-six. Mary died at Liberty at the age of sixty-seven, the wife of P. H. Mercer. who died February 9, 1919. The next in age is A. H. D. Buttz, Jr. John W. is a resident of Liberty. Jesse S. died on the old original Meacham farm at Liberty in April, 1916, his widow still living at the homestead. Mira resides at 835 Cedar Street in Quincy, widow of Almeron Wheat, formerly a prominent attorney.

Abraham H. D. Buttz was born at Liberty November 21, 1843. He has spent all his life within eighty rods of the place where he was born. On Novem- ber 9. 1865. he married Hattie Foster, daughter of A. M. and Mary (Griswold) Foster. of Burton Township. She was born in that township in September, 1843. Her parents came from New York City, where her father was a cab- inet maker and expert mechanic.

After his marriage Mr. Buttz began housekeeping in Liberty and in March, 1885, moved to his present home farm just north of the village. Part of the house and barns were built by his father and he subsequently enlarged and im- proved them. He has eighty acres in that tract and forty acres three quarters of a mile north. From 1885 his attention was steadily directed to farming until about eight years ago. Mr. Buttz sold his interest in the old store in 1876. In 1877 he built a mill and conducted it until 1881, when, on account of adverse circumstances caused by competition of larger mills, he sold out.

Mr. Buttz in 1882 took charge of his father's affairs, managing the farms and other properties, and upon his father's death a year later was appointed administrator with his mother to settle the estate. This trust he executed with splendid judgment and integrity. All the work was done to the satisfaction of parties concerned without the intervention of the Probate Court, a fact the more notable when it is remembered that the Buttz estate was the largest in Liberty Township. valued at more than $100,000, the real estate alone being worth more than $80,000. Mr. Buttz has since been called upon to settle sev- eral other estates.

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Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 60

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