Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 82

Author: Wilcox, David F., 1851- ed
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 952

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Mr. and Mrs. Meyer had three children. Florence, the second, died when ten years of age. Their daughter Ella was educated in the public schools of Quincy and is the wife of J. E. Strauss, now of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Their son Harvey William, born May 4, 1903, has attended the Quincy city schools and is now a sturdy yonth helping his father on the farm. The family are members of Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church at Quiney, and Mr. Meyer is a republican voter.

ALBERT DICK. Endowed by nature with the habits of industry, honesty and thrift that inevitably command success in the business world, Albert Dick, of Quincy, is numbered among the representative members of his city, being see- retary of the Dick Brothers Brewery Company. He was born March 17, 1865, in Quincy, which has been his home and the scene of his business career.

His parents, Mathew and Eleanor (Deideshecmer) Dick, were both born and reared in Bavaria, Germany, and after coming to America continued their journey westward from the Atlantic Coast to Adams County, Illinois, where

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both spent the remainder of their lives, the father dying in Quincy in 1886, and the mother in 1876. During his active career the father was engaged in the milling and brewing business as an active member of the firm of Dick Brothers. Four children blessed their union, as follows: Albert; Ernst, con- nected with the Dick Brothers Brewery; Lizzatta, widow of W. C. Fick, late of Quincy ; and Elenora, who died in early womanhood.

Having acquired a practical education, Albert Dick entered the official department of the brewery with which he is now associated, and has since become familiar with the workings of every department of the immense plant. In 1909 he became secretary of Dick Brothers Brewery Company, and has served efficiently in that capacity ever since. On September 2, 1889, Mr. Dick was united in marriage with Anna B. Giegerich, and of their marriage two children have been born, namely : Arthur J., now located at Davenport, Iowa, and Willis E., located at Chicago, Illinois.

LOUIS H. BERGER, who died April 8, 1918, was a distinguished Quincy lawyer, distinguished not only by more than forty years of continuous work and success, but also by an exhibition of talents and skill that brought him a recognized position among the keenest and most resourceful attorneys in the State of Illinois. More than any of his contemporaries at Quincy his name appeared as counsellor in important cases before the Federal tribunals, both in the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court at Washington. His abilities were eminently displayed in corporation practice.

He was a splendid representative of the Jewish people and also represented a Hebrew family that for many hundreds of years lived in Southern Germany, Bavaria and Wuertemberg. His father's people were largely educators and merchants, while on his mother's side his forebears were largely agriculturists. Three of his father's brothers were teachers in the schools of Bavaria.

His father was Simon Berger, who for many years was active in business affairs at Quiney, and had the oldest insurance agency in the city, operated ever since 1872 and today known as Simon Berger Insurance Agency. He was sole proprietor until a few years before his death, and in 1905 took in a son. Simon Berger grew up in Bavaria, and as a young man filled the office of court reporter in the old country. He abandoned that work and went to Bel- gium, where he remained 21% ycars, and left there to come to the United States. He arrived in this country at the close of the Mexican war, having crossed the ocean on a sailing vessel belonging to a corporation owned by his uncle. He was seventeen weeks in making the voyage, landing in Boston, where he engaged in the jewelry business. He married there Miss Theresa Wineberger, whose family also came from Germany. She had lived at Bangor and Bath, Maine, before her marriage.

To these parents at Boston, Massachusetts, Louis H. Berger was born in 1855. In 1858 the family came to Quincy, where Simon Berger entered upon a business career which continued for nearly half a century. He was at first a dealer in tallow, waste and furs. Later he was in the grocery trade, also a tobacco and cigar manufacturer, and then in the insurance business. His long and useful life came to an honored close on December 25, 1910, at the age of eighty-three. His wife died September 26, 1899.

Lonis H. Berger grew up in Quincy and most of his early training was re- ceived from his talented and cultured mother. He also had other instruction, and he studied law under well known local attorneys, including the Hon. O. H. Browning, former attorney general and secretary of the interior under Presi- dent Johnson, and also was a student with Jackson L. Grimshaw, one of the giants of the Illinois bar. With the inspiration of association with such men Mr. Berger rapidly mastered the principles of jurisprudence, and also gained a practical training as clerk and secretary to a firm of lawyers. He did this clerical work long before typewriters were introduced into law offices.

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He was admitted to the bar September 6, 1876, at the age of twenty-one, and from that time forward was constantly busy with the work of a large general and corporation practice. His first legal case was a marine suit in the United States Courts. He was the first practicing member before the United States Supreme Court of Adams County bar. While he did not regard himself as a specialist in that line, he was undoubtedly one of the best informed patent lawyers in his part of the state. He argued many eases of importance before the Federal Courts of Appeals in Iowa, Illinois and Missouri. Mr. Berger also served as eity attorney and corporation counsel for Quincy, and was connected with many notable canses. Many cases he undertook without expectation of remuneration and as a matter of seenring justice to the poorer elasses. By appointment from the bench he acted as attorney for the defense of one Dan "Porter, who was aceused of murder in a case that was locally famous in the criminal trials of the county.

He was also known as the champion of good streets, and while he appeared little in politics he was rather proud, and his friends were likewise, of the fact that his only important politieal defeat eame from putting to test, in the Supreme Court of Illinois, the validity of the Cow Ordinance. In early years he was active in various fraternities, but inereasing professional responsibilities caused him to withdraw. Mr. Berger was a confirmed bachelor. He served for a number of years as trustee of the Jewish Temple of Quiney.

WILLIAM SCOTT GRAY. Many of the faets and incidents in the history of Iloney Creek Township have been carefully and effectively presented in this publication by William Scott Gray of Coatsburg. Mr. Gray has lived in that community all his life and has been a keen observer of men and affairs, so that his qualifieations as a historian are acknowledged by all. His own eareer has been a most useful one as an educator and later as business man, and the follow- ing paragraphs are meant as a record of his own life and the principal faets concerning his family.

Mr. Gray was born in Honey Creek Township on a farm adjoining Coatsburg on the north, February 15, 1853. His father, Richard Gray, was born on the Isle of Wight. England, January 27, 1815. The grandfather, Isaac Gray, was an English farmer and married Sarah Hawkins, of a noted family of ship builders at Portsmouth, England. Isaac Gray brought his family to the United States in 1830 and spent one year in New York and five years in Indiana before coming to Adams County. He was attracted to Western Illinois by some advertising literature which pictured Quincy as a coming town. He was one of a number of colonists who located in the county in 1836. . Ilis own home was established in seetion 36 of Honey Creek Township, adjoining the site later occupied by the Village of Coatsburg. This land was in the military traet granted the soldiers of the War of 1812 and he bought a hundred sixty acres for thirty dollars. The original owner paid thirty dollars an aere for this traet. Its only improvement was a log cabin. This old farm of Isaae Grey is now owned by his grandson, George H. Gray. Isaae Gray besides farming was a veterinary surgeon, prob- ably the pioneer of that profession to practice in Adams County, and he fre- quently answered ealls that took him twenty to thirty miles away from his home. Nevertheless he managed to develop his farm, and lived there in peace and inde- pendenee until his death in 1855, at the age of sixty-eight. His widow remained on the old homestead until advaneed years, and then spent her time with her son Riehard and her daughter Lavinia until her death in 1884, at the age of ninety-two. She had lived in Adams County sinee 1836. Isaac Gray and wife were active in supporting and organizing schools, churches and other local in- stitutions. They attended the Methodist Episcopal Church at Columbus, two and a half miles away from their home. The family of Isaac Gray consisted of the following children : Richard ; Lavinia, who married Stephen Booth and lived in Gilmer township at the time of her death at the age of eighty-five; Caroline,

William S. Gray

LIBRARY OT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

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who married Mr. Lynch and died in lowa; William Wallace, who spent several years in the lead mine region of Wisconsin, but later returned to Gilmer Town- ship and finally removed to Iroquois County, where he was a large land owner and where he died at the age of eighty-four; Isaac, who became a pioneer in Minnesota, was identified with the lumber industry, rafting logs from Stillwater, but spent his last days in Oregon, where he met an accidental death at the age of seventy-eight; Maria, who married a Mr. Elliott and died in young womanhood after the birth of one child; and George, who is the only survivor of this genera- tion of the family and is the only one of his brothers and sisters born in the United States. He went out to California as a young man about 1856 and is living at Hydesville in that state at the age of eighty-six.

Richard Gray was fifteen years old when brought to this country and had just rounded out his majority when he came to Quincy. Before coming here he had cast a vote in support of the whig candidate in Indiana. After coming to Adams County he married Maria Hart, a native of Ohio. She died leaving two children : Albert 11., who was a farmer near Coatsburg and died in 1916 at the age of seventy-two; and Mary M., who lives at Coatsburg, the widow of W. H. Henderson. For his second wife Richard Gray married Elizabeth (Reaugh) Bass, widow of John Bass. She was born in Kentucky, July 18, 1819, and came to Quiney with her parents, Matthew and Mary Reaugh, in 1832. Her parents located near Columbus and she grew to womanhood there and at the age of twenty married John Bass. They went to the lead mines of Wisconsin, where Mr. Bass died, after which she returned to Adams County. She and Richard Gray had been youthful sweethearts in Adams County, but when they married each had two children. The Bass children were: Frances J., who married A. W. Howell and she died in 1916 on a farm near Springfield, Missouri; and Caroline, whose sweetheart enlisted for service in the Union Army, and she died of typhoid fever at the close of the war, when twenty-one years of age. Richard Gray and his second wife had fonr sons: Zachary Taylor, who has never mar- ried and lives in Gray County, Kansas: Richard Monroe, who served as sheriff of Adams County in 1880-82, lived near Coatsburg until 1914, when he moved to Marion County, Missouri, and died there September 30, 1918; William Scott; and George H., who owns his father's old homestead at Coatsburg and also the farm of his grandfather Isaac.

Richard Gray though he was never inclined to office holding was honored with various places of local responsibility in the township. He was also a stock- holder in the railroad company when it built the line through the Village of Coatsburg. He was one of the very active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Richard Gray died Jannary 9, 1909, when nearly ninety-four years of age. He was at that time the oldest man in point of years and point of residence in Coatsburg. His character and good habits undoubtedly did much to prolong his life. He was always temperate, curbed his appetite, was men- tally cautious, conservative, a safe counsellor and adviser and a very helpful type of man for the community. He began voting as a whig and later became a democrat, but on the whole was quite independent.

William Scott Gray during his youth enjoyed the advantages of the village sehools at Coatsburg and also graduated from the Maplewood High School at Camp Point, later attending Abingdon College and the Illinois State Normal at Normal. This training supplemented the faculties of his good mind and prepared him for a successful career as a teacher. Mr. Gray was active in school work from the age of twenty until he was fifty, and all his service was rendered in Adams County. For twenty years he was principal of the Coats- burg Public School and for two years was principal at Mendon. Later he was republican candidate for county superintendent of schools, and after that he retired from school work. Mr. Gray is remembered by a great many of his former pupils not only for what he taught in the formal lines of instruction, but for the influence he constantly and carefully exercised in developing char-

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aeter, deeision, and all those qualities that when projected into mature years makes a successful man or woman. He always sought to recognize as early as possible the strong qualities of his pupils, and encouraged them at every oppor- tunity. It was for these high ideals as a school man that he became so greatly beloved among his pupils, and many now successful men acknowledge a great debt to him while he was their teacher. Mr. Gray for many years was active in institutes as an instructor. He is now serving as president of the High School Board of Adams County.

While teaching he had also become interested in the grain business at Coats- burg, and in 1906 he built the grain elevator there and operated it for ten years or more. In 1910 he also organized the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Coatsburg, but later sold this bank to the State Street Bank of Quiney. Dur- ing the high tide of his activity as a grain merchant Mr. Gray shipped annually about 100,000 bushels of grain from Coatsburg. At present he enjoys the com- forts of a good home adjoining the village. As a republican he has been active in local party eireles and has been a delegate to various state conventions. He has refused to become a candidate for the Legislature, though his friends urged that nomination upon him. Mr. Gray is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and has served as steward and trustee. He is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America.

September 11, 1879, he married Miss Annie L. Gilliland, daughter of Dr. W. E. Gilliland. Doctor Gilliland, who died February 28, 1912, was an old and prominent practitioner at Coatsburg, and was born in Morgan County, Illinois, January 1, 1833. He had lived in Adams County from the spring of 1841. His parents were Kentnekians and came to Illinois in 1827. Doetor Gilliland studied medieine under John T. Gilmer and Dr. J. W. Bonney, and in 1869 entered the St. Louis Medieal College, from which he graduated in 1870. From that time for a period of nearly forty years he was engaged in praetiee in Honey Creek Township. Doetor Gilliland married Miss Sarah Moyer, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1836. Mrs. Gray was the oldest of their five children, and was twenty-three at the time of her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Gray have a family of four children, the youngest child, Russell, dying iu infaney. Lillian is a graduate of the Illinois State Normal and of the University of Chicago and is now a sueeessful teacher of English in the high school at Duluth, Minnesota. Edward E. is a graduate of Camp Point High School, the Gem City Business College, and is now in the lumber and grain business in Colorado. William Scott Gray, Jr., is a young man whose career has been followed with much interest by his old friends in Adams County. He is a graduate of the Maple- wood High School of Camp Point, the Illinois State Normal, and has degrees from both the University of Chicago and Columbia University of New York. His seholastie degrees are Bachelor of Science, Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy. He is now Dean of the College of Education of the University of Chicago, and reached that position at the age of thirty-one.

CHARLES E. BOWERS. The qualifications and experiences which have dis- tinguished Charles E. Bowers among his fellows have been the possession of what amounts practically to genius in salesmanship. Mr. Bowers for a number of years represented as salesman and sales manager some of the largest farm implement manufacturing coneerns in the United States, and sold agrieul- tural machinery all over Illinois and other states. He has for a number of years been employing his skill and experience in a way that constitutes another important service, handling real estate, especially farm lands. His offiees are in the State Bank Building at Quiney, but through his offices he transaets deals in farm lands over a wide territory, and has hundreds of sat- isfied elients.

Mr. Bowers represents an old Pennsylvania family of Franklin County, where his grandparents lived and died and where his parents, William and Harriet

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(MeLaughlin) Bowers, was born. Through his mother Mr. Bowers is eligible in the Sons of the American Revolution. Her grandfather was a soldier in the struggle for independence. All her brothers were soldiers in the Civil war, one of them losing his life in battle. William Bowers, his father, was born in Frank- lin County, Pennsylvania, about 1835 and his wife in 1842. They married in that county. William Bowers was a blacksmith, and during the three years he served an apprenticeship to that trade was paid only three dollars a month. He later owned a smithy and wagon shop of his own. In 1860 he brought his wife and two children to Illinois, and at Jacksonville established a shop. In 1865 he moved to Adams County, and giving up his trade he bought a farm in Mendon Township. He developed a good home, prospered by his farm enterprise, and in 1892 retired from the farm and spent his last years at Loraine, where he died in March, 1913. His wife passed away in April, 1903. Had he lived until May William Bowers would have been eighty-five years of age. He and his wife were very active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in politics he was an important figure in the democratic party for years. He served as township commissioner, and was honored with a number of offices in Mendon Township. He was also a Mason. The two children who were born in Pennsylvania and came west with their parents to Illinois were Ira W. and Mary A. In Jacksonville three other children were born, Charles E., Jennie and Laura. The youngest of the family, Belle, was born in Adams County. Four of these children are still living. Ira W. is a railroad man in the State of Washington, is married and has a son, Alva. Laura is unmarried and with a niece lives in Adams County. Belle is the wife of Severn Baker, a well known farmer in Lima Township of this county. Mr. and Mrs. Baker have a daughter, Cleta, who holds a Government position in Washington, D. C.

Mr. Charles E. Bowers was born at Jacksonville, Illinois, July 1, 1864, and was too young to remember when the family came to Adams County. He grew up here, was educated in the schools of Mendon Township and Village, and his youthful experience gave him more practical knowledge of farming than he has ever applied. His natural inclinations led him into salesmanship, and his first work in that line was selling agricultural implements in Adams County. His success led to his promotion by the McCormick Harvester Company as manager, and eventually he was general manager for the Champion Harvester Company over most of Illinois and parts of Missouri and Indiana. He built up a large trade connection with retail dealers and with individual buyers throughout these three states. While selling agricultural implements he also gained a thorough knowledge of land values that stood him in good stead in 1908, when he entered the real estate business at Quincy, specializing in farm lands in Illinois and Missouri. He has a fine suite of offices in the Illinois State Bank Building.

He is a member of the Rotary Club of Quincy. At Quincy in 1898 Mr. Bowers married Mary Agnes Schwartz. She was born in Quincy in 1872, and finished her education in St. Mary's Academy. Her parents, Frank and Bridget (Morris) Schwartz, were a well known family of Quincy for many years. Her father was a native of Alsace and of French ancestry, was liberally educated and came to America in young manhood. He married his wife in this country. She was of Irish parentage. Both families were Catholics. Mr. and Mrs. Schwartz were members of St. Peters Catholic Church at Quincy. Frank Schwartz while a resident of Quincy had his business activities as a general farmer and stockman in the bottoms of the Mississippi Valley. He was a democrat in poli- tics. In the Schwartz family were three sons and two daughters. One son, John, died after his marriage, while the two living sons are Riley and Henry Schwartz, the former married and is the father of a daughter. Mrs. Bowers' sister, Lillian, is the wife of John B. Ricker and has a family of one son and three daughters.

Mr. and Mrs. Bowers have three children : Morris William, born in May, 1901, is a student in the Quincy High School. Marian Agnes, born in 1905, is attending St. Mary's Academy. Charles Elwood, born in April, 1909, is in the

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St. Rose parochial school. Mrs. Bowers and her children are members of St. Rose Catholic Church, while Mlr. Bowers retains the faith of his parents, that of the Methodist Church. In politics he is a democrat.

AUGUST SCHAFFER, of Fall Creek Township, has reached that venerable sta- tion in life from which he may survey fourscore years. Nearly sixty of these years have been spent in Adams County. Here he worked out his destiny, from that of a poor struggling youth to one of the leading farm owners. He has prospered, and has made his prosperity and his American citizenship subject to no qualification or doubt. Every one knows him as a man of most substantial character, and he is one of that type of Illinois farmers who have not only re- sponded to all appeals to increase the productiveness of the soil, but have been equally liberal in supporting Liberty Bond issues and other war activities. Naturally quick witted and fairly well educated in his native language, Mr. Schaffer easily learned English, and his patriotic instincts have run true and deep ever since he came to this country.

He was born in Lippe Detmold. Germany, June 4, 1838. He came to Illinois in 1859. His cousin, William Schaffer, of a family elsewhere noted, had been in the county for several years. Two of his aunts were also living in Quincy, Mrs. Henry Hohnsteiner and Mrs. William Schmiedeskamp. August Schaffer had spent his early life on a farm in Germany, but from the age of fourteen worked in a brick yard. He had a few dollars when he landed at Quincy. Going out to Fall Creek Township, he visited with his cousin for two months. trying vainly to secure regular employment. After that he went to the vicinity of Galesburg and hired out at $12 a month in harvest for two months. Later he cut broom corn at $1 a day and board. Returning to Fall Creek Township, having spent only 50 cents while away, and with about $50 saved up. he went to work for William Schmiedeskamp, who had the contract for building the first church at Bluff Hall. He was paid small wages and did heavy work driving teams, hauling logs and burning lime until the church was finished. Later he worked on the farm of Clark Chatton near the church and kept his services employed with various parties until he had accumulated about $200. He then went to Hannibal, Missouri, attending a sale of Government horses captured from bushwhackers-this being during the period of the Civil war-and secured two good horses for $90. After that he rented a farm in company with John Broekmeier for a year and lived with Mr. and Mrs. Brockmeier. There was a good wheat crop, and this sold for 90 cents a bushel. He next rented a farin on the hill.

In 1863 Mr. Schaffer married Minnie Schmiedeskamp. of Quincy, daughter of Fred Schmiedeskamp, a stone mason there. She was nineteen years of age at the time of her marriage. After the crop was sold Mr. Schaffer invested in some household equipment, chiefly a stove, cupboard, and other necessary articles.

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Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 82

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