USA > Illinois > Adams County > Quincy > Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II > Part 9
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While Dr. Steiner was a student of Valparaiso Normal School in Indiana he met Miss Emma I. Russell, and that was the beginning of a romance which eventuated in their marriage. Mrs. Steiner was born at Ironton, Ohio, Jan- uary 9, 1862, and was educated in the public schools there and at Valparaiso and was a teacher before her marriage. Dr. and Mrs. Steiner had two children : Panl R., who died when two years old; and Hugh Wynne, who was born in 1891. This.son was educated in the Quincy High School, in the Military School at Booneville, Missouri, and graduated with the class of 1915 from the University of Wisconsin. He is now connected with a large manufacturing corporation at St. Louis, and is at present in California assisting in the building of a branch factory in that state. He married Louise Johnson, daughter of Dr. Johnson of Barry, Illinois. She is a graduate of the Illinois Woman's College at Jack- sonville. Dr. Steiner is a Royal Arch Mason.
WALTER F. EMERY. This is one of the most honored names in the pioneer annals of Adams County. Walter F. Emery came here in 1832, while his good wife, whom he married here, was an even earlier settler. She was a niece of the noted ex-Governor Wood, and had come with the Wood family to Quincy during the early '20s. She grew up on the site of the town which her uncle founded. Many of the interesting details in the early history of Quincy as noted on other pages may be considered as the background and environment in which both Walter F. Emery and his wife lived and acted for many years.
Walter F. Emery was born in Vermont July 7, 1797, and died in March. 1876, at the age of seventy-nine. He was of old New England ancestry, and descended from one of two brothers, John and Anthony Emery, who came to the colonies prior to the Revolution. The history of the family in detail was published some years ago by Rev. Samuel Hopkins Emery, who for a number of years was pastor of the Congregational church at Quincy.
Walter F. Emery grew up in his native state, and when a young man
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sought the scenes of the far West. He first located at Galena, Illinois, where he was a lead miner. From there he came to Quincy in 1832, and here he met and married Miss Matilda Goodrich, who was born in New York State June 17, 1815, and died at Quincy, December 14, 1887, at the age of seventy-two. As already stated, she was a niece of Governor Wood, the founder of Quincy, and at the time of her death she was probably the oldest resident of Quincy.
After his marriage Walter F. Emery entered 168 acres of Government land three miles south of what was then the Town of Quiney, but the tract now is just outside the limits in Melrose Township. On this farm Walter Emery built a double log house, and in many ways improved the land and brought much of it under cultivation. In 1849 he left Quincy to join the throng of gold seekers bound for California and was 21% years in the far West, engaged in mining operations. He went out across the plains, but returned by way of Panama and the Atlantic coast. He made and saved some little money while in the West, and after his return he settled down to the quiet vocation of farming, which he followed the rest of his life. He had many of the experi- ences of the pioneer, including breaking land with oxen. Besides his home place in Melrose Township, he owned 400 acres in Columbus Township and also owned the site of the Woodland Cemetery which he later sold to Governor Wood. He began voting as a whig, and was one of the original members of the republican party. He also held a number of township offices, and was a man whom to know was to trust. He was a man of splendid physique and of great powers of endurance, and in pioneer times he bore the reputation of being the cham- pion eradler of the county. He was able to cradle four acres of grain per day, and even a modern generation of farmers can appreciate how much labor and endurance that required.
Walter F. Emery and wife had eight children four of whom died young. Charlotte, the oldest of the family, married Frederick Smith, and died in Cali- fornia, the mother of two daughters, Minnie, who is still unmarried, and Agnes, who died after her marriage, leaving a son and daughter. James L. Emery owned a part of the old homestead, and died there in March, 1909. He mar- ried Miss Ella Heppelman, of Iowa, who died before her husband.
The living representatives of the family of Walter F. Emery and wife are John F. Emery and his older sister, Emily A., both of whom live on the old homestead adjoining the city at East State and Twenty-Fifth Street. John F. Emery was born on this farm October 28, 1847, and has spent most of his life in this one locality. He has been a successful farmer, and now owns forty-six acres of the old homestead. He married at Quincy Miss Mary T. Howard, who was born at Hannibal, Missouri. She died in 1896, at the age of forty years, the mother of five children. Two of the daughters are still living, Laura B. and Lula Pearl. Laura B. is the wife of Fred Ohlendorf, a farmer in Melrose Township. Mr. and Mrs. Ohlendorf have three children, Pearl, Jessie and Clyde. The other daughter, Lula Pearl, has one son, John E. Garver, attending high school.
Miss Emily A. Emery has spent her life at the old home, and was liberally educated in seminary and college. She has a beautiful home of seventy-five acres and has done much to improve this land and keep it up to the high stand- ards set by her honored father. Her beautiful home is perhaps most widely known for its flowers. She has developed a remarkable skill in growing flowering plants of all kinds, both in the open ground and in the house, and there is never a day in the year when flowers are not abloom at the old Emery home.
ANTON BINKERT. For more than half a century the name Anton Binkert has had honored and useful associations with the business and public life of Quincy. Mr. Anton Binkert is representative of one of the substantial German families that came to Adams County more than eight decades ago, and during his active career he has filled public stations with credit, has been prominent in
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business, and has also done much to build up and beautify the city which he regards as the home and center of his best interests.
Mr. Binkert was born in the Kingdom of Baden, Germany, June 4, 1836. Six weeks after his birth his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Anton Binkert, set out for the New World, traveling by sailing vessel and coming to Quincy. Anton Binkert, Sr., when he stepped from the packet on shore at Quincy had only 5 francs or 95 cents in his pocket. He had to begin at the very bottom and his industry carried him through and enabled him to win an honored name in his adopted city. For eighteen years he worked for one man and then utilized his modest capital in starting a general store, which later he developed into a large business.
Mr. Anton Binkert grew up in Quincy, had an education supplied by the public and parochial schools, and at the age of eighteen began learning the trade of carriage blacksmith. He served as an apprentice and journeyman for eight years. Mr. Binkert is one of the few men still living who knew intimately by experience the life of the western plains prior to the Civil war. He crossed the plains to Colorado in 1859, 1860 and 1861, going out in the spring and coming back in the fall. During the winter he worked in carriage shops in Quincy, and the money which he made by this vocation he spent prospecting for gold in Colorado.
In the latter part of 1861 Mr. Binkert was appointed a sutler's clerk with the Sixteenth Regiment of Illinois Infantry, and was in the army for three years. In the meantime his father had given up merchandising, and in 1865, when the sons returned to Quincy, they all started their business together under the name A. Binkert & Sons. There were two other brothers, Thomas and Damion, who were also in the Union Army. Thomas was likewise a sutler, with the Seventy-Eighth Illinois Infantry, while Damion served as a private in the Sixteenth Infantry. At the battle of Big Shanty Damion was taken prisoner, and spent nine months of imprisonment and torture in the notorious Andersonville prison. He was not released until practically the end of the war. The firm of A. Binkert & Sons continued a prosperous business for a number of years and Anton Binkert, Sr., died in 1872. The sons in the meantime had sold out and had joined John Ware in the tobacco business as manufacturers. Two years later a fire destroyed the warehouse and factory and brought a heavy loss to all the partners. A little later the brothers again resumed general merchandising at the corner of Twelfth and Hampshire streets. This firm of Binkert Brothers, groceries and dry goods, was continued by Thomas and Damion Binkert until they died. In the meantime Anton Binkert had left the business in the hands of his brothers at the time of his election to the office of county treasurer in 1877. He filled that office with credit and efficiency for five years and after retiring engaged in the real estate business. He continued that most successfully until he retired, turning his affairs over to his sons George and William, who have continued it and have added an insurance department. Binkert Brothers, Insurance and Real Estate, is still located at the place where Mr. Anton Binkert was in business for so many years, 214 N. Sixth Street.
Twenty-five years ago Mr. Anton Binkert bought fifteen acres on Twelfth Street between Jersey and Kentucky streets. This he laid out and developed what is known as Park Place, perhaps the most widely known and highly devel- oped residential district of the city. It is now practically covered with fine brick homes, hundreds of them, and it is one of the real beauty spots of the city. Mr. Binkert could desire no better monument to his business energy than this fine residential section, which he helped so much to make.
Mr. Binkert was a charter member and the prime mover at Quincy in organ- izing the Western Catholic Union. He supported it liberally with his own means, and was also one of its first directors and served as the supreme treas- urer and secretary for a number of years. He was succeeded in that office by the present supreme treasurer, Joseph J. Fryberg.
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Mr. Binkert was first elected to public office in 1872, when he was chosen alderman from the Fifth Ward. After two years he resigned to become the first collector of the city under a new law establishing that office. He was in that position one year, and was then chosen county treasurer. It is a significant record that Mr. Binkert was never defeated for any office for which he was a candidate. He has always been identified with the democratic party. Seven years ago he was again elected alderman, from the Fourth Ward, and served one term. He and his family are all active members of the Catholic Church.
In 1863, in St. Lawrence, now St. Peter's, Catholic Church, Mr. Binkert married Miss Helen Beatty. Mrs. Binkert was born in Ellington Township of Adams County in 1839 and was reared and educated there. She is a daughter of John and Mary (Truelock) Beatty, both natives of Ireland. Her parents came to the United States in a sailing vessel, spending many weeks on the water and landing at New Orleans, Louisiana. From there they came up the Mississippi River to Quincy and here joined his brother Thomas Beatty, who had located in Ellington Township years before. John Beatty and wife began life here on a tract of raw land, and with loyal co-operation they developed a good pioneer home and lived to enjoy its comforts in their old age. They were pioneers here and Quincy was only a hamlet when they first arrived. Mrs. Binkert and her mother were reared as Protestants but joined the Catholic church in the early '60s.
Mr. and Mrs. Binkert had six children to grow up. One son, Thomas, died in New Mexico, leaving a wife and two children. The living children are : George A., who is associated with his brother William J. in the real estate business at Quincy. Both sons are married. George has two children, Paul and Charles, and William has a son, Donald. John Binkert, the third son, is connected with the Gas, Electric Light and Heat Company at Quincy and has a son, Emmett. The daughter, Cora, married Herman Lubbe, and they live in St. Louis. Mr. Lubbe is commercial salesman for a St. Louis wholesale house. They have a family consisting of Richard, Margaret, Robert and Mary, all the children being well educated. Maude, the youngest child, is the wife of Fred Moller of Quincy, a member of the Moller Lumber Company. They have two children, Lawrence and Mildred Moller, both of whom have completed the work of the parochial schools.
HENRY H. STEINAGEL. One of the most interesting farms of Gilmer Town- ship is that occupied by Henry H. Steinagel and his sister. Mr. and Miss Steinagel have had their home a mile east of Fowler for many years and have combined their efforts most profitably and have a great volume of productive service credited to their energies and intelligence.
Henry H. Steinagel was born in Melrose Township October 11, 1861, fourth among the five children of Adam and Minnie (Fisher) Steinagel. A more com- plete account of the Steinagel family will be found on other pages. Henry H. Steinagel was a small child when his father died, and during his youth he owed much to the self-sacrificing work and care of his widowed mother, who kept her children about her until they were grown and ready to do an independent part in the world. Henry HI. Steinagel had experience in working out for different employers, and many years ago he and his brothers bought land in partnership and finally he acquired as his individual share ninety acres, consti- tuting his present farm. Since then he has added forty acres to this place, and also has seventy acres three miles distant adjoining the farm of his brother William H., and another half interest in twenty acres of timber land. His home farm is the old John Stewart fruit farm of Gilmer Township. John Stewart was one of the pioneers in the development of Adams County land to fruit growing, and forty years ago had a nursery and a large acreage in various fruits. Henry H. Steinagel bought this farm, improved with good house and
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barn, and has continued to improve it and keep it up to an even higher stand- ard than under its previous ownership.
As already indicated, he has had a valuable assistant in his sister Margaret Caroline, who has been his housekeeper, and they have always lived together and neither have married. Miss Steinagel for many years has been a noted butter maker, and for a long time one merchant took all the product of ten or twelve cows. She also owns a fine farm of 160 aeres near her brother's place, and a half interest in all the livestock on the homestead. Mr. and Miss Steinagel are active members of the Lutheran Church at Fowler.
ALOIS W. DUKER. Industrious and capable and endowed with good busi- ness ability and judgment, Alois W. Duker has had a busy career and is now aetively associated with the industrial interests of Quiney, which is his native city, his birth having occurred here on January 23, 1881. He is a son of Theodore and Elizabeth (Brinkhoff) Duker, and a brother of W. T. Duker, in whose sketch, which appears on another page of this volume, further parental history may be found.
As a boy and youth Alois W. Duker received excellent educational advan- tages, attending first the parochial school, then St. Francis College, and being prepared for his future career at the Gem City Business College. Starting then in life as a clerk in the department store of J. S. Slusher of Quiney, he remained thus employed for five years. The following two years Mr. Duker had charge of the shoe department of the Ebert & Freed store at St. Louis, Missouri. Re- turning to Quiney, he was engaged in the shoe business on his own account for about four years, and later, in partnership with his brother, was engaged in mereantile pursuits for two years. Disposing of his interest in the firm, Mr. Duker bought the Mills Brothers' Bottling Works, which he has since operated with success.
Mr. Duker married December 8, 1902, in Saint Louis, Missouri, Lulu Dorothy Sullivan. Her father, James Sullivan, a native of Virginia, located in Quiney in 1877, and for several years was employed as a mail elerk. His wife, whose maiden name was Nancy Dorothy Lightner, was born and bred in Lewis County, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Duker have one child, Olivia Margaret, born Febru- ary 18, 1909. Politically Mr. Duker is a demoerat and an earnest advocate of the principles of that party. Socially he is a member of the South Side Boat Club, and of the Quincy Turnverein. Religiously he is a member of Saint Boniface Church.
FREDERICK W. KNOLLENBERG, president of the Knollenberg Milling Company, was born in Quiney, Illinois, December 2, 1849. As a boy he attended the public schools, later attending the commercial department of Quincy College, now the Gem City Business College, where he was awarded the first diploma issued by Professor Musselman.
On November 27, 1873, he was married to Miss Louisa M. Pfansehmidt, of Quincy, Illinois, who died in 1908. To this union were born seven children.
Clara, the eldest, who died in infancy.
Fred C., a graduate of the Gem City Business College and of the Law Department of the University of Michigan, now a very prominent lawyer of El Paso, Texas, where he has built up a very extensive legal praetiee. He mar- ried Miss Florence Cox, of Monmouth, Illinois, and they have one daughter, Elizabeth.
Bertha M. was married to William H. Paul in 1898. She died in 1901, leav- ing an infant daughter, Gladys, who has made her home with Mr. Knollenberg, graduating from the Quincy High School in 1918 and now a student in Knox College at Galesburg, Illinois. Mr. Paul is now living in Colorado, where he owns and operates a 900 acre ranch.
Cora E. married Charles H. Johntz, of Kansas City, Missouri, where they
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now reside and where Mr. Johntz holds a responsible position with Armour & Company. They have one daughter, Margaret.
Mary E. married Dr. Loran E. Orr, a practicing physician of Petersburg, Illinois, who has been in service as a first lieutenant in the Medical Corps, United States Army.
Luella M. is at home. She is a graduate of the Quincy High School and of the Quincy Conservatory of Musie and is a teacher of that art in her alma mater. She is also connected with the school, being secretary and treasurer.
Florence K. married Phil S. Herr who is the efficient superintendent of the Knollenberg Milling Company. They have two children, Robert W. and Jeanne Louise.
Mr. Knollenberg is a republican and he and his family attend the Congre- gational Church. He is a member of Quincy Lodge 296, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Quincy Chapter No. 5, Royal Arch Masons; Quincy Com- mandery No. 77, Knights Templar, and also of Quincy Lodge No. 100, Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks.
In 1872 Mr. Knollenberg established a flour and feed store at 1026 Maine Street. In addition to handling flour and feed, he packed apples, bought wheat, corn and other grains besides handling considerable poultry. These varied enter- prises made him a very busy man and brought him considerable success. Then in 1876, in company with Jacob Williams and J. H. Wavering, a flour milling company was organized under the firm name of Knollenberg, Wavering & Com- pany. In the construction of the mill at this time, the services of the well known millwright, the late Henry Grimm, were secured. In 1878 Mr. Williams, who is now deceased, sold his third interest and the mill was then operated under the firm name of Knollenberg and Wavering for a period of twenty-eight years.
In 1883 the mill was remodeled, introducing the gradual reduction system and at the same time the capacity was increased to 100 barrels per day. An elevator was erected in 1891, having a storage capacity of 30,000 bushels. In 1902 the mill was again remodeled at which time the capacity was again increased to a capacity of 200 barrels per day.
In 1904 Mr. Knollenberg purchased the interest of J. H. Wavering and incor- porated the present company as the Knollenberg Milling Company. The com- pany has erected two new storage steel clad warehouses 40 by 180 feet with a combined floor space of 14,400 square feet. These warehouses permit the expedi- tious handling of all kinds of commercial feeds and are built adjoining the Wabash industrial switch. They are connected with the railroad by platform, so that two or three cars can be loaded or unloaded at one time. A train shed has been built to cover the track so that loading and unloading goes on without any interference because of bad weather.
The company has also constructed an underground conveyor for carrying wheat and other grains from the cars across the street to the elevator, where the grain is elevated and weighed in an automatic scale before being stored in bins.
Thousands of families in this part of the country as well as some of the south- ern states are familiar with the soft wheat flour put out under the names of "City," "Excellent" and "Banner" brands and the hard wheat flour under the names of "Star" and "Crescent."
This enterprising concern is under the efficient management of the following named officers : F. W. Knollenberg, president and treasurer; Grover G. Jones, secretary ; Phil S. Herr, superintendent.
JAMES A. MARTIN. All the years of his life Adams County has been the home of James A. Martin, and those have been years of achievement in the material sense and also in the acquisition of community esteem paid him for his worthy life and the influence he has exerted for good.
The Martin family has been longest identified with Gilmer Township. Mr. Martin's home is fifteen miles east of Quincy and 31/4 miles from Columbus.
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He has been a successful farmer, and has been equally successful in handling community obligations. He is now road commissioner of the township.
Mr. Martin was born on the old Columbus Road near St. Joseph Catholic Church in Gilmer Township, January 1, 1860, son of Gregory and Mahala (McAfee) Martin. Gregory Martin was born in Loudoun County, Virginia, January 1, 1816, was reared in Kentucky, spending ten years in Bracken County and lived in Grant County from 1832 for five years. In 1837 he first came to Adams County, Illinois, but went on to Clarke County, Missouri, where he lived over seven years and while there he married Miss MeAfee. She was born in South Carolina in 1826. She moved with her parents to Missouri at the age of seventeen and was eighteen when she married Gregory Martin. In 1846 they came to Adams County and settled on the old farm where their only son and child, James, was born. Gregory Martin died on that homestead April 7, 1887, at the age of seventy-two. His widow died there in 1908, aged eighty- three. He was a member of the Baptist Church at Columbus and his wife was a Methodist.
James A. Martin lived at home with his parents to the age of twenty-five. On March 30, 1887, he married Mary E. McConnell. She was born in Gilmer Township December 1, 1859, daughter of John and Margaret (Woods) McCon- nell. Her parents were both natives of County Monaghan, Ireland. Margaret Woods was brought to Gilmer Township in 1837, when six years of age, by her parents, William and Sarah Woods. John McConnell came to this county at the age of twenty-one. John McConnell died here about 1868, and his widow afterwards married James McConnell, his brother. James MeConnell died in 1912, at the age of ninety-seven, and his wife in 1908, aged seventy-seven. Mrs. Martin has three sisters and a brother: Margaret, Mrs. David West, of Wyoming; Sarah J., who is unmarried and lives in Nevada; Leona, widow of Dr. James Cornish and living with Mrs. Martin; and W. J. McConnell, of Gilmer Township.
After his marriage Mr. Martin spent one year on the old homestead and was a renter for fourteen years. He was sole heir to the old Martin farm, and at his mother's death acquired that estate. In 1905 he bought his present farm, consisting of 160 acres, from Ed Yeargin. It was well improved with house and barn, but Mr. Martin has given closest attention to every detail of keep- ing up the buildings and other improvements of the place. Ile has done much to increase the value of the farm.
In the way of public service Mr. Martin served as tax collector, as constable twelve years, and for the past four years has been road commissioner. He is a republican living in a democratic community and it is personal popularity and a recognized efficiency in getting public work performed that have brought him his frequent honors in politics.
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