USA > Illinois > Adams County > Quincy > Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II > Part 80
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His parents were George and Katie (Seller) Oberling, both natives of Ger- many. The grandfather, George Oberling, Sr., and the maternal grandfather, Christian Seller, brought their respective families to the United States and set- tled in Adams County in the early '40s. His father located as a pioneer on land now included in Overlook Farm. He and his wife spent their last years there, his death occurring at the age of eighty. George Oberling, Sr., spent all his life in Quincy and followed the trade of shoemaker. These families were Lutherans and all the male members were democrats.
George Oberling, Jr., was about eighteen years of age when he enlisted at Quincy in an Adams County regiment in 1861 for service in the Union army. He was fighting the cause of freedom three years, and during that time par- ticipated in such memorable battles as Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, the Atlanta campaign and many others. He had many hardships but, had no real wounds. Once a ball pierced his canteen and he had many other narrow escapes.
After returning from the war he married Miss Seller. She died in Colum- bus Township when past three score years. George Oberling was born October 26, 1843, and is now living in the Soldiers Home at Quincy in rather feeble health.
In Columbus Township Jacob Oberling, who is always known among his friends and associates as Jake Oberling, married Miss Anna M. Senner. She was born on what is now the J. C. Gibbs farm in Columbus Township April 5, 1871, and was reared and educated there. Her parents were Peter and Eliz- abeth (Kercher) Senner, both natives of Germany. On coming to the United States they located on what is now the farm and home of Supervisor Gibbs of Columbus Township. They practically dug that land out of the woods, and lived there many years, secing their efforts blessed with abundant fertility and ample provision for themselves and their family. Mrs. Oberling's father died in another part of Columbus Township at the age of sixty. Mrs. Senner now lives with a daughter in the Village of Columbus and is past seventy-four years of age. She is a member of the Lutheran Church at Coatsburg.
Mr. and Mrs. Oberling and their family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. A brief record of their children is as follows: Charles is a farmer in Columbus Township, married Eunice Leash and has a daughter, Ethicl, now four years old. Oscar lives in the Village of Columbus and mar- ried Mabel Knoblock. William is an exceptionally fine mechanic and is now employed as an instructor in the government automobile and tractor school at North Kansas City, Missouri. He married Helen Wheeler. Lee Oberling married Margaret Knoblock, and they live on one of Mr. Oberling's farms in Columbus Township. Maria is still unmarried and at home.
JOHN CHRIST GIBBS. While the business career of Mr. Gibbs has been that of a farmer, and a very capable one at that, in Columbus Township, his long and effective public service as a supervisor has made his name familiar all over Adans County. He is now in his fifth term as supervisor for Columbus Town- ship, and has for three consecutive terms served as chairman of the board. He was elected to this office on the democratic ticket. His home is a good farm of eighty acres in section 5 of Columbus Township. This farm is all improved and thoroughly cultivated, and contains a substantial nine room house built in 1903, and his barn, well equipped for both stock and grain, is several years older. He also owns fifty-four acres in section 6 of the same township, using this land
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chiefly for pasturage. Mr. Gibbs bought his present home farm twenty-one years ago. He had previously lived on another farm in the same township.
John Christ Gibbs was born in Memphis, Tennessee, September 21, 1870, and was two years of age when brought to Adams County. He is a son of William and Harrict I. (Shadden) Gibbs, both natives of Tennessee. His father on coming to Adams County located in Honey Creek Township, and for a number of years conducted a blacksmith shop in Coatsburg. He died there July 8, 1889, aged fifty-eight years, two months and ten days. He was a democrat in politics. His first wife, whom he married in Tennessee, died leaving the following children: Frances T., Cordelia, America and Mason. Cordelia is now deceased and the others are still living, all of them in Adams County except America, whose home is in Oklahoma. William Gibbs mar- ried for his second wife Harriet I. Shadden, of an old Tennessee family. She died when her son John C. was two years old. She was the mother of three children. William Gibbs married a third time, but had no children by that wife. He was an active member of the United Brethren Church.
John Christ Gibbs grew up in the Village of Coatsburg, attended school there, and since reaching his majority has given his efforts most successfully to farming. He married in Columbus Township Anna E. Marshall. She was born in that township March 10, 1868, and was reared and educated there. Her parents were John C. and Mary E. (DeMoss) Marshall, the former a native of Germany. Her grandparents, John C. and Mary Marshall, on! coming from Germany located in Columbus Township and improved some land there, where they died when past sixty years of age. The Marshalls were a Lutheran family. John C. Marshall, Jr., after his marriage lived on a farm in Columbus Township, where he died October 28, 1888. He was born in 1840. Mrs. Gibbs' mother is still living, a resident of Columbus Vil- lage, making her home with her son Garnet. She was seventy-four years of age on July 4, 1918.
Mr. and Mrs. Gibbs have three children: Garnet C., born November 19, 1894, was educated in the Hazelwood district schools and in February, 1918, entered the service of Uncle Sam as a member of the engineer corps, was sta- tioned at a camp in Oregon and at this writing is at Rockford, Illinois. Loyd Marshall, the second child, was born March 16, 1902, and is a schoolboy. Mil- dred A., born April 17, 1904, is in the ninth grade of the public schools. The family are members of the Christian Church.
NATHAN F. FISHER, a son of Henry and Catherine (Fessenden) Fisher, has for many years been one of the leading farmers and progressive citizens of Liberty Township. His home place is 21% miles east of Liberty Village. The Fishers and the Fessendens have for a long period of years been among the most prominent people in that part of the county.
Henry Fisher was born in Bavaria, Germany, June 11, 1836. In 1854 he came to the United States in order to escape enforced military service, and for a brief time remained at Ganesville, Ohio. Later he joined relatives in Brown County, Illinois. He learned the trade of blacksmith, and once worked in a foundry, receiving 25 cents for his first week's wages. In 1860 he came to Adams County and went to work in the blacksmith shop on the farm of Fred Miller. He was a skillful workman, thrifty and steady in habits, and continued employment on the Fred Miller farm until he had saved about $1,000. The Fred Miller farm was but a short distance from the Fessenden farm, and the young blacksmith soon made the acquaintance of Catherine Fessenden, and on September 30, 1866, they were married.
Mrs. Catherine Fisher was born February 17, 1842, on the farm where she now resides in Liberty Township. Her father, Nathan Fessenden, who came of the same family as that to which the late statesman, William Pitt Fessenden, belonged, was born in Vermont and followed the foundry trade in Boston. After settling in Adams County he married Sarah Lierle, a daughter of William R.
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Licrle, a member of one of the very old and numerous families in Adams County. The various members of the Lierle family and much other information will be found on other pages of this publication. Nathan Fessenden died in August, 1868, at the age of sixty years. His widow survived him many years, passing away October 4, 1911. She was born October 28, 1817, and was there- fore in her ninety-fourth year when she died. For fifteen years she had lived with her daughter Mrs. Catherine Fisher, who gave to her mother most devoted care. At her mother's death Mrs. Catherine Fisher received eighty acres of the old homestead. Catherine was one of three sisters. Her sister Elizabeth married Calvin Craig, of New Canton, Pike County, Illinois, and died less than a year after her marriage. Her sister Lucy married Isaac Miller, a son of the Fred Miller, for whom Henry Fisher worked so many years. The Millers lived in Kansas some years but finally returned to Liberty Township, where Lucy died at the age of thirty-five. She was the mother of Maud, who died in childhood, and Fred, who now lives at Galesburg.
After his marriage Henry Fisher took a shop in Liberty Village and conducted it with a large and flourishing trade for ten years. In those days he made in his shop practically everything used. even horseshoe nails. He worked long hours, practically night and day. He always had a keen interest in agriculture, and finally sold his shop in the village and moved ont to a farm. He bought eighty acres adjoining his wife's home, built a good house and barn, and added more land until it was a complete farm. He also set up a shop on his farm, did work for his neighbors, and most of the work of his fields was performed by his children or by hired hands. Henry Fisher continued active until his death in May, 1906. He was a member of the Lutheran Church and was a democrat in politics. His wife is a member of the Pleasant View Baptist Church. The Pleasant View Church grounds were donated by Henry Fisher, and recently its cemetery was enlarged by gift from Nathan F. Fisher. The latter is a trustee of the cemetery and is a trustee and deacon of the church. Mrs. Cath- erine Fisher now lives with her son Nathan. She is a remarkably bright and capable woman and though past seventy-five years of age is still active. Mneh of her life has been spent in doing for others and in whole-hearted devotion to the welfare of the community and lightening its troubles. For years she was superintendent of the Sunday school. She was the mother of three children, Nettie, Charles and Nathan. Charles died at the age of thirteen. Nettie Fisher was one of the most successful educators Adams County has ever had. She taught twenty-one terms, most of that time in the home school, and at one time was in a school near Des Moines. She had attended one term at the Dixon Normal School, and was constantly improving her advantages by attend- ing educational institutions. She always received the highest wages as a teacher. Later she married Arthur Miller, of Mount Sterling, Illinois, and she died at Los Angeles, leaving one son, Carl Miller, now living in California.
Nathan F. Fisher lives at home and carly took upon himself many of the responsibilities connected with the management of the farm. About seventeen years ago he bought eighty acres where he now lives, this having been originally owned by his father. He has built a good house and barn, has added forty acres besides, and in addition has conducted the old home. Mr. Fisher has been liberal in the support of the Red Cross, Liberty Bond and other patriotic move- ments. He is a democrat. Since he was twenty-one years of age he has served continuously as school director except for one year. He is a member of the Adams County Mutual Insurance Company, is a Woodman, and, as above noted, is very active in the Pleasant View Baptist Church.
At the age of twenty-one he married Miss Lydia Kuntz, of MeKee Township, daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Kuntz, both now deceased. Her father was an old soldier and his life was shortened by his army service. Mrs. Fisher was born in McKce Township. Five children have come to their union. Bertha, the oldest, is the wife of Harry Frischkorn, now living at Selma, Montana. They have one child, Florine L. Charles H. is at the same locality in Montana, where
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he and his brother-in-law took up homesteads. He married Ethel Carter and has two children, Delbert C. and Floyd Orville. Nettie, formerly a teacher in Adams County, is the wife of Everett Taylor, who now operates the old Fisher farm. Edith M. is at home, as is also Floyd F. The daughter Bertha was for seven years a teacher in Adams County before her marriage.
ERNST WILLIAM SCHAFER. The best Americans today are those whose ener- gies are devoted to the prodnetive processes by which the world is fed and elothed. Measured by this standard, Ernst William Schafer, of Fall Creek Township, has an enviable record. Mr. Sehafer has been a practical farmer all his life, and has sought no honors beyond those connected with good honest toil and kindly relations with his community. Mr. Schafer's place, where he was born and where he has spent all his life, is located near the town hall in Fall Creek Township.
He was born on that farm March 20, 1866, a son of William and Flora (Kruger) Sehafer. His parents came with three children from Lippe-Detmold to America and settled in Adams County. The father began renting the farm now owned by his son. He had about $200 on reaching this country, having earned that or rather saved it from his meager wages in a briek yard in Ger- many. He continued as a renter for some ten or fifteen years before he bought 160 aeres included in the fine farm of his son Ernst William. For that land he paid $40 an aere, and went in debt for a considerable part of the purchase money. After that he made the land pay for itself. Some years later he bought another 160 acres adjoining, about half of it bottom land. By that time land values had greatly increased, and he paid $10,000 for this tract. The first 160 aeres is nearly all bottom land, with about five aeres of big walnut timber. The present substantial residenee on the farm was built the year William Sehafer died. His first house was erected of logs, and his first considerable improvement was a good barn. The children slept in the loft of the barn, and in the winter they frequently woke up to find their covers overlaid with snow. William Schafer also bought sixty acres of chiefly pasture land. He was once asked to serve as road boss, but he never showed any inclinations to accept sueh publie responsibility. He was a very active member and liberal supporter of the Evangelieal Church, and was laid to rest in the churchyard. His good wife died in March and he passed away in May, 1899, at the age of eighty-one. His family consisted of the following children: Jettie, who married Alexander Miller, and both are now deceased ; Julia died about five years ago in Eubanks, Missonri, her first husband having been Henry Felton and her second, Fred Riese; Hannah married John Speekhart, a well known citizen elsewhere re- ferred to: Latta is the wife of Gus Higgenbarmer, a retired gardener living at Quiney : Henry lives on one of his father's farms; Louise, wife of August Reich, of Fall Creek Township; Ernst William; and Minnie and Amelia, both unmarried.
Ernst William Schafer has spent all his life on the old farm. He inherited the original homestead of 160 aeres, and he and his brother Henry owned to- gether the sixty acres previously referred to, until he bought his brother's share. That gives him a farm of 220 acres, though a few aeres have been taken out for the right of way of the Power Line and Railroad. Except the house and barn he has erected all the buildings on the farm. This is one of the most productive farms in the county for eorn and wheat, wheat having been a special erop with Mr. Schafer for many years.
March 12, 1898, he married Miss Catherine Keil, daughter of George and Margaret (Speekhart) Keil. She grew up in the same neighborhood as her husband, and was twenty years of age at the time of her marriage. She is a sister of Adam Keil, and member of the well known family of that name fre- quently mentioned on other pages. Her father died about thirty-five years ago. Mr. and Mrs. Sehafer have four children, all at home, named Andrew, Fred,
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August and Margaret. The family attend worship in the Bluff Hall Congrega- tional Church.
Besides his home place Mr. Schafer and his brother Henry some years ago secured 140 acres of bottom land on Sny Island, and they still own that in part- nership.
CAPT. WILLIAM SOMERVILLE. Noteworthy among the citizens of honor and integrity whom Adams County has been called upon to mourn within the past few years none were more highly esteemed and none are more missed than Capt. William Somerville, of Quincy. An officer in the Civil war, and later active in public affairs, his services in military and civil life are eminently entitled to honorable recognition and commendation. A son of James Somerville III, he was born August 15, 1837, in Hollidaysburg, Blair County, Pennsylvania, where his great-grandfather, James Somerville I, located on immigrating to this country from Scotland in about 1735, and where his grandfather, James Somer- ville II, spent his entire life, dying in 1840, at the venerable age of ninety years.
James Somerville III, born in 1800, lived in Pennsylvania until 1850. Follow- ing the march of civilization westward in that year to Hancock County, Illinois, he settled with his family on a farm in Carthage. Listening to the lure of the far distant gold fields, he went to California in search of the precious metal, but being disappointed in the results of his mining ventures he soon returned to Carthage, served in Civil war for a time, and was afterward engaged in tilling the soil during the remainder of his active life. llis wife, whose maiden name was Susan Stover, daughter of Michel and Katherine (Fischer) Stover, was born in Hagerstown, Maryland, in 1810, coming from pure Dutch ancestry, and she (lied in 1856 in Hancock County, Illinois, aged forty-six years.
A lad of thirteen years when he came with his parents to Illinois, William Somerville attended the public schools for a time, acquiring the common branches. Soon after the outbreak of the Civil war, filled with the same patriotic ardor that inspired his Grandfather Somerville, who served as a soldier in the Revolutionary army, he enlisted May 9, 1861, in Company D, Sixteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, one of the most noted regiments of the Western army, and with his comrades participated in many of the more important engage- ments of the conflict. Faithful at all times to the duties imposed upon him, and brave and fearless in battle, he won promotions by gallant conduct on the field of battle, rising from the ranks to the responsible position of captain of his company.
Among the many battles in which Captain Somerville took an active part was the one at New Madrid, the engagements at Island No. 10, and the two at Farmington. He was with his command during the Atlanta campaign, fighting gallantly on various occasions. He accompanied Sherman on the march to the sea, thence through the Carolinas up to Bentonville, North Carolina, where, in March, 1865, the captain was wounded in the groin by a minnie ball and incapacitated for further service, the war being ended when his wound had healed.
Returning to Illinois after receiving his discharge from the army, Captain Somerville was actively identified for a period of twenty-eight years with the internal revenue service, a position that he filled most acceptably, gaining national distinction for the bravery and tact with which handled the moonshine distillers and other crooked employes of the Government, who were appre- hended through his vigorous efforts. In his brave and fearless pursuit through the mountain strongholds of the illicit distillers, the captain made himself so obnoxious to the moonshiners that they placed a price upon his head and vowed to shoot him if they ever had a chance. In the spring of 1897 Captain Somer- ville resigned his office in the revenue service to accept the position of superin- tendent of the Soldiers' Home at Quincy, Illinois, having been appointed by Governor Tanner. In that capacity he displayed rare good judgment and execu-
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tive ability of a high order, the affairs of the institution having been adminis- tered efficiently and satisfactorily under his supervision.
Conspicuous in political matters, Captain Somerville was active and in- fluential in republican ranks; fraternally he was prominent in Masonic circles, having been a member of lodge, chapter and commandery; he was likewise an active and interested member of the Grand Army of the Republic and of the Loyal Legion.
For his first wife Captain Somerville married Helen M. Alexander at Eaton, Ohio, a daughter of Thomas K. and Charlotte (Perry) Alexander. The Perrys came to the United States about 1635, and the Alexanders are an old Virginia family. Mrs. Somerville was born at West Alexander, Ohio, January 23, 1841, and died in Quincy in April, 1871, when thirty years of age, leaving four children, two of whom died in infancy. The remaining two are Miss Carrie Somerville, and James A. Somerville, who is identified with the Missouri Pacific Railway Company and makes his home in Saint Louis. Captain Somerville married for his second wife Mary Thompson, a daughter of Thomas and Amelia (Williams) Thompson. Mrs. Somerville was a native of Quincy. Captain Somerville died January 9, 1911, in Quincy, which had been his home for upwards of forty years, and his wife, who survived him, passed to the life beyond December 21, 1915.
THOMAS B. DEMPSEY. One of the oldest as well as one of the best country estates in Ellington Township is the old Dempsey homestead in section 2. It has been continuously occupied by people of the Dempsey name since it was acquired, largely in an unimproved condition, by James Dempsey seventy years ago. Through all these years it has responded to intelligent cultivation and management, and is today more valuable and productive than ever, with a grandson of the original owner in charge of fields and general management.
At that old homestead the late Thomas B. Dempsey was born October 1, 1855, and in the same environment spent practically all the days of his life. He died September 1, 1916, at the age of sixty-one.
His father, James Dempsey, was born in Londonderry August 15, 1820. He was one of the interesting pioneers of Adams County, and had a long and useful life, terminating March 12, 1899, when he was seventy-nine years of age. He was of pure Irish ancestry, the Dempseys all being Catholics, and with few exceptions Irish farmers. James Dempsey grew up in Ireland and had about rounded out his majority when in 1841 he came on a sailing vessel with his brother Charles to New York City. They landed there six weeks after starting from home, and James Dempsey soon went to Pennsylvania and found self supporting employment. While there he married Bridget McCafferty. She was born in the same Irish county as her husband, being a year or two younger. She had come to America with her brothers William and Robert, also by sailing vessel. In Pennsylvania she found employment at Catasaqua, and was there until her marriage. Her brothers William and Robert both enlisted at the time of the Civil war, one fighting for the North and the other in the uniform of the gray. William lost his life during the war, and after his army career Robert returned to Ireland.
James Dempsey after his marriage worked at the Iron Works at Allentown, Pennsylvania. About that time his parents, Patrick and Mary Dempsey, came to America, and they spent their last years in Ellington Township of Adams County. Other members of the family to live in Adams County were Mark, Ed, Charles and Patrick Dempsey.
Two children were born to James Dempsey and wife in Pennsylvania. Then in the late '40s by canal boat and river and overland traffic they reached Adams County. They invested their limited capital in a tract of partly improved land, 160 acres, in section 2 of Ellington Township. It was years of toil and unceasing diligence on the part of James Dempsey that this land was con- verted into a fine farm. He lived there the rest of his life. Both he and his wife were active members of St. Peter's Catholic Church in Quincy but later
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became identified with the founding of St. Joseph's Church in Mendon Town- ship, and they gave liberally of their means to the building of the church and were always workers in its organization. James Dempsey and wife had the following children : Thomas. James, Jr., William, John, Patrick, Mary, Sarah. Catherine and Ellen. All the sons are now deceased. The only one of the sons to marry was Thomas B. Dempsey. The daughter Mary died as the wife of Frank Dougherty, and left nine children. Sarah died after her marriage to George Burns, and left a son who was later killed in a railroad accident. Another daughter, Ellen, is the wife of Gotlieb Schuefle, of Quiney, and they have five sons, two of them in the United States service.
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