Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 84

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 84

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Brief reference to the children of Fred C. Kaiser and wife is as follows:

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Henry; Maria M., widow of Henry G. Echternkamp; Catherine, wife of J. M. Wilson, a resident of Quiney and a railway mail elerk; Margaret, widow of Fred Adams, of Quiney; Elizabeth, who died at the age of thirteen ; Fred, who lives in Saskatchewan, Canada; and William HI., who was born in 1881 and has always made his home on the Kaiser farm, living there with his mother.

THEODORE A. MIDDENDORF. As former president of the Middendorf Brothers & Company Lumber Company, Theodore A. Middendorf oceupied a prominent place in the business affairs of Quiney. This business was started in a small way many years ago and through enterprise and business acumen has been developed into a concern that commands a very wide trade territory at Quincy and environs and up and down the river. It has always remained in the Mid- dendorf family. At the beginning of the past war Theodore A. Middendorf, on account of two of his sons going to war, severed his connection with the Middendorf Brothers and Company Quincy yard and in partnership with his sons bought out the braneh yard of the firm at Ursa, Illinois. This is eondueted at present under the name of the Ursa Lumber and Coal Company. Mr. Midden- dorf is acting as president. Associated with him are his sons Leo H. as vice president and Theodore W. as secretary-treasurer and general manager.

Theodore Middendorf was born at Quiney, January 8, 1860. His parents, Bernard H. and Elizabeth (Jelsing) Middendorf, were born in Germany and came to the United States in 1840 and to Quiney in 1849. Here the father died in 1888, having been prosperous in the grocery business for many years and active and useful in the upbuilding of many enterprises here.

Theodore Middendorf was mainly educated in St. Francis College, now Quiney College and Seminary. When he started out to be an independent worker and self-supporting he entered the employ of Diekhut Brothers, and remained four years in their lumber yard and sawmill. He was then twenty- two years old, and for two more years was associated with his brother, William H. Middendorf, now president of the Broadway Bank, in the grocery business. In 1884 he embarked in a lumber business and for twenty-five years was so engaged on the corner of Tenth Street and Broadway, Quiney, and then sold out. At a later date a new family partnership was formed and the plant was removed to the corner of Seventeenth and Spring streets. The present firm is composed of the two Middendorf brothers, William H. and Henry B. together with a son of William H. Middendorf and Walter Bernsen. The scope of the business eovers lumber and building materials.

Theodore Middendorf was married November 29, 1888, to Miss Elizabeth S. Bernsen, whose parents, John B. and Mary (Timpe) Bernsen, are deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Middendorf have five children, namely : Francis, who is a priest belong- ing to the Franeiscan Order, doing missionary work among the Indians in Upper Wiseonsin ; Theodore W., who is secretary and manager of the Ursa Lumber and Coal Company ; Leo H., who is vice president of the same company; Roger A., who is still with the army in France; and Frank, who is attending college. The whole family belongs to St. Francis Roman Catholic Church, and the needs of the parish are matters of which they take generous cognizanee. The comfort- able family home is at No. 530 North Eighteenth Street, Quincy. Mr. Middendorf belongs to the St. Francis Society, and he is a member also of the Third Order of St. Franeis and of the St. Aloysius Orphan Society. He is a man of generous impulses, and benevolent movements of all kinds elaim his interest and when his judgment approves he willingly gives to ease suffering.

EDWARD A. MOLLENHAUER is a practical farmer, but is also recognized as an all around business man and a very capable and publie spirited factor in the life and affairs of Quiney and Adams County. He still owns and looks after his fine farm in Gilmer Township, but for several years has lived retired in Quincy and is connected with a number of business interests there.

Both his grandfather and father were born in the Kingdom of Hanover.

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His father, Henry G. Mollenhauer, was born October 2, 1821. The grandfather was a Hanoverian farmer. In 1835 the family took passage on a sailing vessel at Bremerhaven, Germany, and after six weeks landed at New York. From there they came on to Quincy, which was then merely a river town and dependent entirely upon the river for its communications with the outside world. The Mollenhauer family settled in Burton Township, where they undertook the reclamation and clearing up of a tract of wild Government land. The grand- mother died on this old farm. and the grandfather retired to Quincy, and he died at the home of his only daughter in Missouri when past seventy years of age. He was known among the pioneers as a hard working and industrious eitizen and was faithful as a member of the Lutheran Church. He had three children. Henry G., Augusta and John. Angusta married Fred Feigenspan, and both died in Missouri. John married and died in Adams County, leaving a family of sons and daughters.

After the death of his father Henry G. Mollenhauer took over the old home- stead of 105 acres, and later increased it by the purchase of another thirty-five acres. He lived there many years, and in 1899 retired to Quincy, where he died May 7, 1911. He was an exceptionally good farmer, a broad minded and public spirited eitizen, and in polities interested himself in the democratic party and the affairs of his township, holding several local offices. For six terms, eighteen years, he was road commissioner of Burton Township. He married in that township Louisa Glaeser. She was born in Hanover, Germany, in 1822, and when she was seven years of age her parents came to the United States and settled on a tract of wild land in Columbus Township of Adams County. Her parents spent the rest of their lives in that township, and passed away in ad- vanced years. They were also members of the Lutheran Church. Mrs. Louisa Mollenhauer was the oldest of four children. One died young. Her brother. Jacob, is a farmer in Columbus Township and has sons and daughters. Her sister, Elizabeth, is the wife of Louis Wilkie, a retired farmer at the Village of Columbus. Mrs. Henry G. Mollenhauer is still living, at the age of seventy- five. She was the mother of eight children. Her son John died at the age of forty years, leaving three children : Lillie, Carl and Joy. Matilda Mollenhauer married Charles Hyer, and they live on a farm near Paloma, and have three children, Nellie, Alma and Roy. Louis Mollenhauer is a farmer in Lewis County, Missouri, and has two daughters, Anna and Iva. Lydia lives at Pueblo. Colorado, widow of Charles Kleinschmidt, and has two daughters, Edna and Lila. The next in age is Edward A. Mollenhaner. His younger sister, Amelia, is the wife of Henry Kleinschmidt and lives on a farm near Chillicothe, Missouri. They have children named Walter, Linnie and Lyda, a twin, her sister dying in infancy. George Mollenhauer was educated in the local schools, as were his brothers and sisters, and is also a graduate of the Gem City Business College and is now successfully farming in Burton Township. He is married and has children named Lewis, Howard and Harold, twins, and Virgil. Mollie, the youngest of the family, is the wife of Albert Kuhn. of Burton Township, and they have a son, Loren.

Edward A. Mollenhauer was born on the old homestead in Burton Township February 24, 1872. He grew up there, attended the public schools, and re- mained at home assisting his father in the farm work to the age of twenty-one. Later he farmed for himself and established his own home by his marriage in Gilmer Township to Lydia Theisen. She was born in that township September 3, 1876, and was reared and educated there. Mr. and Mrs. Mollenhauer have one daughter, Daisy, born April 19. 1898. She graduated from the Quincy High School with the class of 1916, spent one year in Carthage College, and finished a course in the Gem City Business College in 1917. For a time she was cm- ployed in the Gem City College, and is now a stenographer in the local office of the Standard Oil Company. She is also continuing her studies in music.

After his marriage Mr. Mollenhauer was a farmer in Camp Point Township. and in 1904 made his first purchase of land, 160 acres. It was an improved farm.

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but since he took charge he has greatly advaneed the improvements and raised the efficiency and value of the farm many per cent. The farm is improved with a good ten-room house, stock and grain barns, and he himself built one of the barns in 1911. Mr. Mollenhauer has also bought several other farms, and after improving them has sold them at a nice profit. In 1912 he left the farm and came to Quincy, where he owns a comfortable home at 2432 Broadway. He is still active in looking after his interests, and is also handling outside property for the State Street Bank of Quiney. He is a democrat, a member of the election board, and is also on the registration board, and was a school director in Gilmer Township for three terms. He and his wife are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He is Sunday school superintendent and teacher and has been president of the City Sunday School Association.

GEORGE J. FLESNER has spent his life quietly but with a record of real achievement and accomplishment as a prosperous and progressive farmer in Northeast Township, and is one of the very able and influential men of that section of Adams County.

He was born in the township on January 29, 1860. His father, John H. Fles- ner, was born in Germany, eame to Adams County when a young man and secured forty acres in Northeast Township. Later he also owned a farm of 120 acres in Clayton Township. He died September 6, 1914, at the advaneed age of eighty-eight. He was twice married. By his first wife he had children named Henry, John, Annie and George. He married for his second wife Adelina Heineke, who was born in Adams County. She became the mother of two daughters, Marie and Helena. John H. Flesner was a democrat in politics and a member of the Lutheran Church.

George J. Flesner grew up on his father's homestead farm, was educated in the local schools, and has been making his own way in the world for forty years or more. The results of his experience and hard work has substantial evidence in the farm of 240 acres he owns in Northeast Township. He devotes his time to general crops and livestock, and has done much to improve it with buildings and other facilities. Mr. Flesner is a democrat and a member of the Lutheran Church.

In 1883 he married Miss Kate Bruns, who was born in this county, daughter of Ehm Bruns, one of the early settlers. His death occurred May 31, 1876, at the age of fifty-one years. Mr. and Mrs. Flesner have five children : Mrs. Cath- erine Totsch, Mrs. Anna Aden, Ehmes Flesner, Mrs. Marie Gronewold and Lewis Flesner. All except the youngest are married and in homes of their own.

DANIEL SHANK. It would be appropriate to describe the career of this well known retired resident of Clayton as a life of steadfast faith in the rulings of an all wise providence, a high purpose and unremitting industry. The results achieved may well speak for themselves. One achievement alone, as the dis- tributor or the man who put before the public the Missing Link apple, the creator being unknown, would give him a permanent place in the history of American horticulture.

Daniel Shank was born in Brown County, Illinois, six miles east of Clayton, September 10, 1845. He is a son of William and Julia Emeline (McCord) Shank. His father was born near New Salem, Virginia, and his mother in Ten- nessee. William's family went to Ohio when he was six years old, and later moved to Indiana, where the MeCord family had already settled. They were married in Johnson County, Indiana. The Shanks were of old Pennsylvania Dutch lineage while the MeCords were Irish. Julia McCord's father was a typical Irishman. William Shank and wife were married in 1842, and the fol- lowing September he came to Brown County, Illinois, driving over the roads and trails of that day accompanied by one child. He had two sisters living in Illinois, and a brother Jacob came about the same time. Jacob is still living in Schuyler County. Both William and Jacob Shank served all through the Civil

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war, fighting side by side in Company E of the One Hundred and Nineteenth Illinois Infantry. All these people first settled in Brown County. The three sisters afterward came to Adams County. Maria married Daniel Roberts and lived at Clayton from 1859, where they died in old age. Two of their grand- children are their only deseendants. Anna married John Lomax, and from Brown County they moved to Clayton during the '50s, and in 1859 went to LaClede, Missouri. The Lomax family were intimate with the family of Gen. John J. Pershing. Three of the Lomax sons are still at LaClede. Sarah mar- ried Abraham Stover and moved to Brown County, Illinois. They raised a large family now scattered over various places in Illinois and Kansas.

William Shank lived in Brown County until 1884, when he moved to Clay- ton, and was retired there until his death in 1906. He was a very religious man, and had the deep respect of a large community. He was in his eighty- fifth year when he died. His wife, Julia Emeline, passed away in 1888, at the age of sixty-four. They were the parents of seven sons and two daughters. John served all through the Civil war in Company B of the Fiftieth Illinois Infantry, and is still living at Mount Sterling, Illinois. The second in age is Daniel. James was at one time a farmer in Brown County but for a number of years has lived at Granby, Missouri. William Henry is a minister of the Baptist Church, served at one time as pastor at Pittsfield, Illinois, and is now connected with the church at Claremore, Oklahoma. Lydia, now oeeupying the old home of her father at Clayton, is the widow of D. M. Crowder, of Bethany, Illinois, who died in 1906. Sarah Emily was first married to Mitehell Alexander and is now the wife of Daniel F. Eyman, of Schuyler, Illinois. Jacob F. died at Claremore, Oklahoma, where his widow is still living. Charles Edwin is a gardener and florist at Clayton, Illinois. Stewart Thomas married Laura Curry, of Clayton, and died at Diamond, Missouri.

Mr. Daniel Shank grew up on the home farm in Brown County and made good use of his educational advantages, so that for one winter term he himself was a teacher. His early ambition was to become a nurseryman. His father was a skilled fruit grower, and had a more than ordinary knowledge of the science of grafting when that art was not so well known as it is today. His early duties required much handling of horses, and he early became an expert driver of horses and mules and oxen. In fact he mastered all branches of farm work. His father was about forty-three years of age when he went into the army, and the son was prevailed upon to run the home farm for three years during his absenee.

While his father was in the army Daniel Shank on June 9, 1864, married Catherine Hazletine Judson Merritt, a neighbor girl of his own age. She died in 1885 in Brown County on the home farm. During those busy and vigorous years Mr. Shank cleared off about 400 acres of fine white oak land, converting the timber into railroad ties. He bought considerable tracts of standing tim- ber and also frequently the land itself. Ile possessed a true Inmberman's skill at estimating how many ties a certain tract of stumpage would make. He fre- quently worked as many as twenty men in cutting and hewing ties. His parents were always much opposed to what they regarded as wholesale destruction of good timber. Out of these operations Mr. Shank secured about 310 acres of land and converted it into a farm. In 1881 on his farm he established his first nursery. The business grew so that he felt obliged to get better railroad facilities, and in 1888 he eame to Clayton and bought twenty aeres, one tract of eight acres and the other of twelve acres. He set this to smaller nursery stock. Later he paid $40 an acre for another twenty aeres and in 1918 this was sold for $266.66 an acre. The land had been set to an apple orchard, with berries between the rows of trees. The berries were very productive in their time and the apple orchard is now a most valuable one. At the same time Mr. Shank was growing nursery stoek, and in the course of years he had built up a business worth $20,000 annually. He employed from eight to ten men the year around, from twenty to thirty during packing seasons, and in the

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height of the berry season there were from thirty to fifty pickers at work. He also varied this industry by growing vegetables, and engaged extensively in the canning industry. In 1892 he sold his nursery to his sons and the following five years he was in the furniture business. He then bought back an interest in the nursery, and gave most of his time to the canning feature of the business. He early learned that it was unprofitable to keep a given tract of land in suc- cessive nursery stoek, since the land required a rest of about two years after the young trees were removed. This interval he made profitable by the grow- ing of tomatoes, and has had as high as forty acres in that erop and has con- traeted with neighboring growers for all they could produce.

A number of years ago a groceryman named John Spangler at Rushville called Mr. Shank's attention to a seedling apple, and asked him to grow some of the trees. He made his first experiments in grafting from this seedling at Rushville in 1886. In 1888 he set a row of the trees, and when they eame into bearing he discovered that he had one of the hardiest and most prolific apples known. John Spangler sold all these trees that he could grow for a number of years, and the apple is today the leader in sales from the Missing Link apple orchard. It has no equal as a cross polenizer, and is very superior as an excellent keeper. Mr. Shank has exhibited quantites of this apple when eighteen months old. He named it the "Missing Link" apple. It has some resemblance to the Willow Twig and the Minckler, but its qualities are far superior to either. Some horticulturists have persisted in passing it as a Wil- low Twig, and yielded their prejudices only after being convinced of its great difference in individuality of tree and flower and in the remarkable keeping qualities of the fruit. It has required tenacity and a dogged determination on the part of Mr. Shank to give this peculiar apple its proper place in horticul- tural production, and convince the doubters of its merits. About 1914 Mr. Shank retired, turning his interests over to his sons, and still owns all his farms and orchards. The only public office Mr. Shank has ever held was a term as justice of the peace. He is a republican voter. He now enjoys the eom- forts of a good home at Clayton.

For his second wife he married in 1887 Amanda Jane Smith, of Brown County. By his first marriage there were eight children: Maggie Elizabeth, the oldest, married Philip Alexander. They moved to one of her father's farms in Newton County, Missouri, where she died and where her husband passed away about five years later. Of their five children one son, Charles, is now a farmer near Camp Point in Adams County. Susan Emma, the second child of Mr. Shank, is the widow of Samuel Fenstermaker and lives at Jaek- sonville, Illinois. William O. Shank is a graduate of the Rochester Theologi- eal Seminary, and as a Baptist minister served four years at Portland, Oregon, and six years at Winfield, Kansas, being called to the pulpit at Winfield with- out even a trial sermon. He was pastor of the Central Baptist Church at Quincy when he entered Young Men's Christian Association work in France, having the supervision of twelve cantonments.

His wife lives in Quincy. Her maiden name was Ardella Hamilton and they have five children. Ellen Mabel Shank was married to Lewis Ulmer, and since 1893 they have lived in Chi- cago, where Mr. Ulmer is an employe of the Chicago postoffice. George Albert Shank, born February 3, 1872, was a member of the nursery company until his death June 27, 1915. He married Hattie Byrns, of Brown County, daugh- ter of Dr. George Byrns. She is now Mrs. C. H. Nethereutt. George A. Shank left one son, Lyle Albert. John M. Shank, born June 9, 1873, died August 4. 1913. He was a third owner in the nursery. He married Josephine Cain, daughter of Dr. Milton Cain, of Lewistown, Illinois. He left two children, Herbert Milton and Margaret. Mrs. Josephine Shank still retains an interest in the nursery business. Her husband was an advanced member of the Ma- sonic Order and at one time was president of the School Board of Clayton. Both have been active in the Christian Church. Henry Shank is now active snceessor to his father as manager of the nursery company. He married

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Ruth Cain, a sister of his brother John's wife, and they have two sons, Harold and Wallace. Louis C. Shank is also connected with the business. Louis C. married Mayme Omer, daughter of Alex Omer, of Clayton Township, and they have two children, Maxine and Lewis Omer.

Mr. Shank by his present wife had two daughters, Allene M. and Laurel Edna. Allene is the wife of Ray M. Curry, a farmer two miles north of Clayton. They have two children, Dorothy Edna and John Allen. Laurel E. is a graduate of the Clayton High School, attended Lombard University at Galesburg, and for the past four years has been a teacher in the Clayton schools.

Mr. Daniel Shank has been a member of the Baptist Church since he was ten years old and has been a teacher in the Sunday school since the age of sixteen. For thirty years he has taught the Men's Bible class, and still gives his time every Sunday to that work. For many years he has donated a gospel tithe of his ineome to church and philanthropy, and did that even when deeply in debt. He considers this to have been the key to his success in life. Mr. Shank is a elose Bible student, and believes that the principles of the Christian reli- gion are the only safe and consistent rule of life. While he has never cared for the honors of public office, he has been deeply allied to publie improvement, and again and again has extended financial and moral assistance to every under- taking for the general good.

WILLIS COOK was a successful farmer before he became an even more suc- cessful business man, and his interests today are still closely connected with the agricultural industry. Mr. Cook is associated with other men, especially Charles C. Lawless, at Paloma, where they do an extensive business as grain and stoek dealers, eattle feeders and farmers.

The Cook family has been in Adams County more than seventy years. Vari- ous members have taken an active part in different communities, at Quiney, in Ellington and Burton townships and elsewhere. Willis Cook was born in Bur- ton Township October 17, 1875, a son of Reynard and Margaret (Powell) Cook. Reynard Cook was born at London, England, August 24, 1838. At the age of eight years he was brought to the United States by his parents, John and Ann (Reynard) Cook. His parents died in Ellington Township and were buried in the Woodland Cemetery. John Cook died suddenly from heart trouble. As a boy Reynard learned the trade of machinist at Quiney, and just before the Civil war broke out he was living at Galena, Illinois. IIe rode from that Mississippi River town into Wisconsin and organized a company of volunteers to serve in an infantry regiment. He was commissioned eaptain and was with his command until discharged on account of siekness. After recovering he returned to the army and resumed his commission and rendered a gallant and faithful service until the close of hostilities. He was in the Mississippi River campaign at Island No. 10 and in a number of other engagements.

Soon after the war Captain Cook returned to Adams County, resumed his trade as a machinist, and in Ellington Township married Miss Powell, who was reared there, daughter of John and Mary (Lewis) Powell. Mrs. Reynard Cook was born on the old Powell farm four miles northeast of Quiney and was eighteen when she married. After five or six years of work at his trade in Quiney Reynard Cook in company with his brother James established a wagon shop. A little later both of them took farms in Burton Township, and Reynard Cook applied himself industriously to the business of farming for about twenty years. He was then made postmaster at the Soldiers' Home near Quiney and served about eight years in that office under Commandant Summerville until the latter's death. He then lived retired at his old home at 1331 North Sixth Street until his death May 30, 1917. Though he lived a long and useful life, he had suffered much from illness dating back to the time of the Civil war. He kept his health through mueh outdoor activity and in his later years spent much of his time in outdoor pleasures, especially as a fisherman and hunter. He was a republican and an active worker in the party, served several terms as super-

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Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 84

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