Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 68

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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During more than sixty years of residence on one farm Valentine Reusehel has contributed many improvements and has witnessed vast changes in the growth and development of a community. He built the substantial house in which he now lives in 1865, erected barns and kept the fields producing, the land growing better instead of worse, and contrived to prosper year in and year out. He found his greatest joy in outdoor activity, and has lived a re- tired life about fifteen years.

He married Christian Lock, who was eighteen years of age at the time of her marriage. She was a sister of Ed Lock of Quiney. Mrs. Reuschel died at Coatsburg three years ago. Her children were: Anna, who married Adam Koch and died young : Henry: Bertha, who died in young womanhood: Ida, who is the wife of Ed Simons, of Honey Creek Township, and has one child, Clarence ; Pauline, who married Henry Rohe and died at the age of forty-two, the mother of two children, Walter and Irene; William, who lives on one of his father's farms and married Annie Janssen.

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Henry Reusehel, who now has the management of his father's farm, was born January 2, 1868, in the same house where he now resides. The land under his direct care and supervision comprises 120 aeres, and he is one of the many suc- cessful farmers and stockmen in this community. His chief stock is the Poland China hogs, and he sends about sixty head to market every year. Mr. Henry Reuschel served two terms as tax collector of the township, and during that time collected about $9.000 annually. For the past twenty-one years he has given service as a trustee of the local school board. On his own farm stands a build- ing used as a granary which was the school building of the district when he first went to school. Both he and his father are democrats, and they have long been among the leading supporters and contributors to the Lutheran Church at Coatsburg. Henry Reuschel married Miss Amelia Doeringh, of Gilmer Town- ship, daughter of Waldemor and Marie (Fuehr) Doeringh.

WILLIAM F. HARRIS. The life and affairs of the community of Payson Town- ship, especially around Plainville, have been touched at many points by members of the Harris family. The Harrises came here at the very beginning of perma- nent settlement, more than eighty-five years ago, and including the youngest members of the last generation there have been five generations to live in this community.

The founders of the family here were Nathaniel D. and Margaret (Bishop) Harris, both of whom were natives of Wythe County, Virginia. In 1830 Nathaniel D. Harris came west and acquired a tract of land in Adams County. He brought his family about the same time and had just completed the erection of a cabin and moved in when the deep snow of the winter of 1831-32 fell. They had no difficulty in procuring an abundance of meat from the wild game then so abundant, but they were compelled to ponnd eorn for meal. Seven years later the Harris family bought land on Stone's Prairie in Payson Town- ship and Nathaniel Harris and wife spent the rest of their days there. His first settlement was in Richfield Township in the midst of the dense timber. Nathaniel Harris died when past fourscore years of age. One of his sons. Emory, died in Payson Township when about forty years of age. Another, named William, at the age of seventeen left Adams County and went to Portland, Oregon, where he was a merchant and iee manufacturer and died at the age of eighty-two.

Franklin Harris, son of Nathaniel D. Harris, was born in Wythe County, Virginia, September 12, 1823, and was seven years old when he came to Adams County. There were few schools and those of a very primitive character during his boyhood. He early learned the art of frontier life, did practical work as a farmer, and on May 18, 1848, at the age of twenty-four. he married Emily L. Shaw. She was born in Oswego County, New York, in March, 1827, and was reared in Pike County, Illinois. After his marriage Franklin Harris moved to the farm now occupied by William F. Harris. All but fifteen aeres of that land was covered with a heavy growth of timber. He worked steadily and effectively for a number of years to bring the fields under cultivation, and was a farmer until March 10, 1870, when he bought a store in Plainville. Thereafter for fifteen years he was the leading merchant of that village, and also kept and to some degree supervised the operation of his farm of 160 acres. For five years prior to 1877 he also served as postmaster at Plainville. In 1885 he retired from the store and lived in the village until his death on November 12, 1902. His wife died February 24, 1913. They were happily married for over half a century. Franklin Harris never held any public office after that of post- master. He was a republiean and especially active in the Methodist Episcopal Church, serving as class leader. He was a charter member of Payson Lodge of Masons. That lodge was organized in an upper room in his house on the farm. He became a past master and was active in the order all his life. He was buried with the Masonic ritual. The honse which is still standing on the farm was built by Franklin Harris in 1864 and the barn was erected in the preceding year, both struetures having stood the storm and wear of more than half a century. Frank-

LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

HENRY BLOMER

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lin Harris and wife had seven children. The oldest, Lucy E., died at the age of fifteen. Mollie J. is the widow of Frank Robinson and lives at Plainville. Anna Lee was the wife of Albert D. Lester, and she died at Guthrie, Oklahoma, at the age of fifty-two, having left Adams County about twenty-eight years ago.

William F. Harris was born in the house where he now lives May 16, 1866. His home and farm is 11% miles southwest of Plainville and twenty miles soutlı- east of Quiney. As a boy he attended the local schools in Plainville, and was also a student in Chaddock College at Quincy during 1881-82. He had plenty to do working and elerking in his father's store, and in 1885, when his father retired from business, he succeeded him and continued merchandising there until 1889, when he sold the store to his brother-in-law, Mr. Lester. In 1890 he returned to the home farm and has found satisfaction and profit in looking after that business ever since. He acquired the interests of his sisters and has added considerable area to its cultivation, having the entire farm keyed up to a high standard of production.

November 8, 1887, Mr. Harris married Eva Cane. She was born in Jackson- ville, Illinois, and during her girlhood spent a few years in Nebraska. Later she finished her education in the schools at Plainville, and was seventeen years of age at the time of her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Harris have four living ehil- dren. Clarence is a partner with his brother-in-law, Arthur Richmond, as a farmer. He married Ella Gaines and has two children, Irma and Iona. Lura, the wife of Arthur Richmond, lives on a farm adjoining that of her father, and has two children, Ivan and Junior. Anna is the wife of George R. Clark and is now living at home with her parents while her husband is in the service. He is a veterinary with the United States Army now located at Newport News, Virginia, and prior to entering the army service practiced at Golden. Edith Harris is a well trained and talented musician and is still at home. Mr. Harris has filled all the chairs in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and several times has represented his lodge in the Grand Lodge. He is also affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America.

JOHN G. BLOMER. Many of the city's most substantial interests revolve around the name Blomer, and as a family they have been a factor in Quiney life for nearly seventy years.

The first generation here was represented by John Blomer, who was born in the Kingdom of Hanover March 30, 1794. He married Christine Maria Brinkman, who was born June 6, 1804. The passport which was issued to them at Muenster February 22, 1843, is an interesting document still cher- ished by their grandson, John G. Blomer. They had just enough money to pay their passage over the ocean, and on reaching St. Louis John Blomer learned of the presence of a Catholic priest in Quincy, through whose influ- enee he came to this eity. Being very poor, he worked as a day laborer, and later was a farmer. He was naturalized in 1850. His old home was on Hamp- shire Street between Eleventh and Tenth. That is the only original build- ing still standing on that side of the street. When it was put up it was almost at the edge of town. John Blomer died December 2, 1869, and his widow survived him many years, passing away February 16, 1883. They had six children : Adelheit, who married George Hoelker, a farmer in Melrose Town- ship, who died at the age of thirty-two. Adelheit died February 20, 1905. She was the mother of four children, and the three to reach mature years were: Elizabeth, wife of Bernard Berter, a well known grocery merchant on Vine and Twelfth streets; Carolina, wife of Bernard Schlangen, of Quiney ; and Christina, who never married and spent her life with her mother. Johann Gerhard Joseph, the second in age, was a tanner by trade, and his four children are all living: Christine, of Hannibal ; Thomas, of Texas; Joseph, of El Paso, Texas; and Frank. The next in the family was Johann Heinrich or Henry. Johann Bernhard, the fourth, moved to Waeo, Texas, but died at Quincy. Johanna Christina married George Busker and both died in Texas. Vol. 11-27

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Maria Anna became a Sister of Notre Dame, was for many years connected with an institution at Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and died at the age of sixty- five.

IIenry Blomer, who was born in Ilanover, Germany, November 10, 1833, was ten years of age when brought to Quincy. Here he attended the St. Boni- face School one year, and also spent one year in a Methodist school. He' learned the brick laying trade, and later became a contractor in company with Robert McComb, one of the early day contractors of Quincy. Still later he was associated in business with the father of the late Mayor Steinbach. He was a general brick contractor, put up store blocks, residences, and during Civil war times, when building operations were largely suspended, he put up the old distillery smoke stack south of town. He was paid only $1.50 a day for the work. When the stack was completed he had to take down the staging himself as no workman was willing to risk his life for $1.50 a day. Not long afterward his business was seriously affected by labor strikes. He survived two of them, but the third left him practically bankrupt. During the dull season in the building trade Henry Blomer packed pork at Quincy. He was associated in that enterprise with C. A. Vanden Boom, and thus brought about the establishment of the noted firm of Vanden Boom & Blomer, for many years leading pork packers at Quincy, with plant at Tenth and Broadway. Every winter they would kill from 500 to 600 hogs per day. Eventually Mr. Vanden Boom retired from the partnership, and was suc- ceeded by Blomer, Wolf & Michal, and when Mr. Wolf retired to engage in the harness business the firm remained Blomer & Michal. They finally incor- porated as the Blomer & Michal Company, and Henry continued as active head of the enterprise, with a plant at Front and Delaware streets. Eventu- ally this business was crippled by a fire, and soon afterwards was closed out. Henry Blomer died May 20, 1906, after a long and active life. At the time of his death he was a director in the Mercantile Trust & Savings Bank, and had been one of the first directors of the Quincy Grocery Company but sold his interest in that enterprise. For one term he was an alderman and was a democratic voter. In early life he was a member of the Concordia Singing Society and also belonged to the old volunteer fire company. He was mar- ried in St. Boniface Catholic Church, and later became a member of St. Francis Church. He built his home at Fifteenth and Broadway, and the grounds of that residence are now included in St. Mary's Hospital grounds.

In St. Boniface Church May 16, 1861, Mr. Blomer married Anna Klatte, a native of Oldenburg, Germany. She died January 5, 1911, aged seventy- two. They had a family of five children: Anna B., Mrs. Joseph B. C. Frei- burg; John G .; Marie Christina, Mrs. J. N. Tibesar; Ida E., who is unmar- ried and lives at the old home at Fifteenth and Broadway; and Joseph H., a Quincy physician.

Mr. John G. Blomer, who is now retired from active business, was born in Quincy January 26, 1870. He attended the St. Francis parochial schools, spent five years in St. Francis College, graduating with the degree Master of Accounts. He then entered actively into the business of his father, pork packing, and was treasurer of the company from its incorporation and final- ly succeeded to his father's interests. He remained active in this concern until it was closed out. Since then he has devoted his attention to his pri- vate affairs and is a director in the Quincy National Bank and the Quincy Building and Loan Association. He is a grand knight of Quincy Council No. 583 of the Knights of Columbus, and has been a delegate to the state con- vention of that order. He was chairman of the Knights of Columbus Com- mittee for the raising of the War Fund, and when that movement was con- solidated with the United War Fund he was one of the six local officials en- trusted with raising the money and acting as trustees. Mr. Blomer is a mem- ber of St. Francis Catholic Church and is a democratic voter.

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ANDREW BAUNER is the fortunate owner of one of the well cultivated and valuable farms of Camp Point Township, land that has responded to his efforts as an agriculturist for thirty years. He has earned all the prosperity he enjoys and his success in business and his publie spirited citizenship are the chief source of the esteem in which he is held in his community.

Mr. Bauner has been an American citizen for over thirty years. He was born in Germany July 6, 1851. He was reared and educated in his native land, and came to America in 1881. He soon located at Camp Point, and for five years worked as a farm laborer and then another five years he rented the place which he now owns. Its former owner was Emery Downing. This farm is in section 16, and there Mr. Bauner bought 160 aeres and later acquired fifty-seven aeres in section 15. Mr. Bauner is of the class of men who are not content to own land without developing and improving it, and besides the condition of the soil which is reflected in the generous crops he bas built and kept up his barns and other buildings and has all the equipment and facilities that belong to the modern stock farm. Hs farm is the home of some very fine Shorthorn cattle and Poland China hogs and he has everything well adapted to his business as a stock farmer.

Mr. Bauner is independent in politics. He was a member of the local school board fifteen years, and is a member of the Lutheran Church. After he had been in America about twenty-five years he went back for a visit to the old country in 1905, and during the three months he was gone he acquired much knowledge of the modern Germany. On March 4, 1887, Mr. Bauner married Miss Sophia Gilbert, who was born in Adams County and represents one of the old and prominent families here. She was born at Columbus in this county August 5, 1865, daughter of Charles and Catherine (Gilbert) Gilbert. Her parents were both natives of Germany and came to Adams County about 1847. They made the journey on a sailing vessel and Charles Gilbert was twenty- seven and his wife seventeen when they arrived in Adams County. They mar- ried at Newtown, and shared their journey and its sorrows and joys for more than fifty years. From Columbus Township they moved to Gilmer Township, and were successful farmers in that community for many years. Charles Gilbert died December 15, 1905, at the age of eighty, and his wife passed away May 30, 190S, aged seventy-one. Of their fourteen children five are still living.

Mr. and Mrs. Bauner have six children : Katrine, wife of Oscar Hver and the mother of one son, Arthur; Emma, wife of Oscar Gunther, son of Louis Gunther, one of the early settlers of Adams County; Edward, who died in in- fancy; John, who lives at home with his parents; Lillian and Ora, who are also members of the home circle.

FRED W. FLOETMAN has lived in Adams County sixty years, learned a me- chanical trade when a youth, but spent the greater part of his aetive career as a successful farmer in Concord Township and is now enjoying a well earned retirement at Camp Point. Of his thorough Americanism and good citizenship no better proof could be cited than the service he rendered in the Civil war as a soldier of the Union with an Illinois regiment.

Mr. Floetman was born in Germany December 20, 1839, a son of Henry Floetman. As a boy he had the advantages of the common schools of Germany and left there in 1853, at the age of fourteen, with his parents, who settled in St. Charles, Missouri. Three years later the family moved to Quincy, where Henry Floetman followed his trade as tailor until his death in 1857. His wife died about 1859. Their two children are Hannah H. and Fred W., the former a widow living in Quincy.

The only school advantages Fred W. Floetman had in this country was while attending an English Sunday school. He first learned the tinsmith trade and later became a molder, and worked at that occupation about twenty-five years. He finally invested his earnings and savings in a farm in Concord Township,

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and acquired 275 acres in that locality. This land he developed to a high degree of productiveness and vale, and still owns 235 acres of it. In 1910 Mr. Floetman retired to Camp Point, where he built a fine home on Ohio Street and where he enjoys every comfort, including the society of his many friends. Mr. Floetman is a republican and is proud of the fact that he voted for Abraham Lincoln. In 1861, the first year of the war, he enlisted in Company F of the Third Illinois Cavalry, and saw active service on many of the battlefields of the South for three years. He has long been affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic and in church affairs is a Presbyterian.

Mr. Floetman married in 1865, after returning home from the war. His wife was Miss Mary Hokamp, who was born in Germany and came when about ten years of age to Quincy with her parents. She was born May 8, 1842, and died April 30, 1913, at the age of seventy-one. Her father, William Hokamp, died at Quincy during a cholera epidemic, and her mother died in Germany. Mr. and Mrs. Floetman had a family of eight children. Two of them, both named Mollie, died in childhood, one when about twelve months of age and the other at the age of twelve years. William, the oldest living child, is foreman in a printing house at East St. Louis. John now occupies the old homestead farm in Concord Township. Fred is in the wholesale grocery business at Des Moines, Iowa. Minnie is the wife of W. Taylor, of Camp Point. Clara married Charles McClintock, of Adams County. The devoted companion of her father is the daughter Louise, who superintends the management of the household at the home in Camp Point.

GEORGE CRESWELL GILL is in point of service one of the oldest fire insur- ance men of Illinois. He is now manager of the Quincy Adjustment & Serv- ice Bureau, a constantly growing institution. He has been identified with practically every phase of fire insurance for nearly fifty years, beginning before he was of legal age.

One achievement to Mr. Gill's credit was the development of a practical schedule for rating conflagation hazard. He spent four years in devising and perfecting this system, and it is the only system in existence for applying a conflagation rating to cities and towns as units. In 1909 Mr. Gill was ap- pointed a member of the Illinois Fire Insurance Commission by Governor Charles S. Deneen, and was a member and secretary of the commission two years. Upon him devolved much of the work which made the performance of the commission notable.

The Quincy Adjustment & Service Bureau has been in continual demand by practically all of the fire insurance companies. Mr. Gill has also been an independent operator in the insurance field, and from Quincy his service ex- tends over the three states of Illinois, Iowa and Missouri.

For seven years Mr. Gill was sergeant at arms of the Fire Underwriters Association of the Northwest, a national organization of over 1,200 members. He is now a life member. The association meets annually at Chicago.

Mr. Gill was born at Olympian Springs, Kentucky, a property once owned by Henry Clay and subsequently purchased by his grandfather, Col. George Lansdowne, and later owned by his father, Harrison Gill. His father was mainly instrumental in raising a regiment for the Union Army, and his only brother served as captain. in that regiment. George C. Gill, despite the fact that his early youth was spent in a region of Kentucky mountaineers. had the home influence and social environment of the finest type, and had a good fundamental education to develop his talents. Mr. Gill is widely known as an author and has contributed many interesting sketches to magazines of general circulation in addition to numerous technical articles on insurance. He is author of a novel, published about ten years ago, "Beyond the Blue Grass," in which he has set down many of his early studies, observations and

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experiences of the Kentucky mountaineers, including the moonshiners and other typical characters of that region.

After the war Mr. Gill removed to Illinois, and practically ever since has been engaged in the insurance business, chiefly as special agent, inspector, and adjuster. He came to Quincy in 1902 and was manager of the Quincy Inspec- tion Bureau until 1909. He had previously lived for a number of years in Chicago. Mr. Gill was chairman of the committee which had in charge the unveiling of the monument to George Rogers Clark in 1909, an occasion which was honored by the presence of the governor of Illinois and many notables from other states.

Mr. Gill married at Tuscola, Illinois, where he had his headquarters in the insurance business for a number of years, Miss Jennie Bright. Mrs. Gill, who died in January, 1916, was born at Clinton, Indiana, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Coleman Bright. Her father represented an old and prominent Vir- ginia family. Her mother, whose maiden name was Susanna Harrison, be- longed to the noted Harrison family of Virginia, a family which has given this nation two presidents, two mayors of Chicago, and also the Hon. James O. Harrison, who succeeded Henry Clay as representative from Kentucky in Congress. Her great-grandfather, Thomas Harrison, founded the Town of Harrisburg, Virginia. When Mrs. Gill was a small girl she moved to Tuscola, Illinois, with her father. She was the only surviving member of nine children, Mrs. Gill had a great following of loyal friends not only in Quincy but in other parts of Illinois. She was a woman of great literary taste and judgment, had a charming personality, and was a beautiful character both in her home and in society. Mr. and Mrs. Gill had two sons and two daughters. Albin B. Gill is now in the government railway mail service as chief clerk between St. Louis and Detroit on the Wabash Railway. Harry C. Gill is a graduate of the Illi- nois State University, and is now connected with the Hartford Fire Insurance Company at Hartford, Connecticut. Mrs. Grace G. Kingsbury, now living in New York City, is an accomplished musician and has more than ordinary literary ability. Blanche, like the other children, was carefully reared and educated, mainly in private schools, and spent some two years in European travel and study. She is now at home with her father.

Mr. Gill is a Knight Templar Mason, being affiliated with Tuscola Com- mandery No. 37. He is also a life member of the Chicago Press Club.

AUGUST HORNECKER. Students of country life conditions, have frequently pointed out that there are many kinds of farmers-almost as many as there are people. August Hornecker represents a type by no means too common. He was during his active years a builder of land fertility and valne as much as he was a successful crop and stock raiser and a keen student of market and business conditions affecting his work. One or two farms that had been laid waste by carcless and profit-skimming methods were redeemed under his man- agement and have actually been added back to the wealth of the county. Mr. Hornecker is a prosperous citizen, but no one better deserves prosperity.

While he was born in Germany, in Baden Eistad, May 2, 1854, he has lived in America since infancy, having been brought to this country at the age of two years by his parents, Andrew and Lena Hornecker. His father owned a small tract of land in the old country, and Andrew's step-brother, Jacob Hornecker, was in Adams County some years before Andrew came. The lat- ter bought 140 acres of land in Gilmer Township, in the southwest corner of that township. He had some means received from the family estate in Ger- many, and that coupled with the energy and progressiveness he manifested as an American citizen brought him, a comfortable competence. His farm con- tained an old house, and it was his residence for a number of years. About 1870 he built a substantial brick house, which is still standing. That farm has passed out of the possession of the Hornecker family. Andrew Hornecker

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Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 68

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