Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 90

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 90

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Grant in the United States army. Lura married Frank Boekhold, son of Henry Bockhold, and has two children, Sylvester and Henry.

JOSEPH EHRHARDT carries the heavy responsibilities of managing and oper- ating a large farm in Melrose Township ten miles southeast of Quincy. Mr. Ehrhardt has made a success of farming and his farm and home bear many evidences of his unusual enterprise and progressive energies.

Mr. Ehrhardt is a son of the late Philip Ehrhardt, whose life story is sub- ject of a sketch on other pages. Joseph was born on a farm adjoining his present place June 22, 1869. He lived at home until his marriage, which occurred February 9, 1897. Mrs. Ehrhardt bore the maiden name of Sophia Huber, daughter of Adam and Elizabeth (Rupp) Huber, a family elsewhere re- ferred to.

After his marriage Mrs. Ehrhardt settled on the farm where he now lives. This is the old King farm, and had been owned by Philip Ehrhardt for the preceding seven years. The King farm contains 146 acres, and Mr. Joseph Ehrhardt has subsequently added ninety acres adjoining on the south. He bought the ninety acres at $33 an acre. Mr. King, the former owner, built the house, which occupies a slight elevation some distance back from the road. This house has been remodeled by its present owners, and Mr. Ehrhardt has also added extensively to the farm equipment, including a substantial cow barn, silo and other facilities. He keeps a herd of from thirty to forty graded Guern- sey cattle, and milks about fifteen cows. For many years he has made and sold to a special line of customers his butter, which commands fancy prices. He also keeps some fifty or sixty head of hogs, and markets about that number every year. Mr. Ehrhardt is not an office seeker, and is content to support the policies of the democratic party as a citizen. He and his family are members of St. Antonius Catholic Church.

Mr. and Mrs. Ehrhardt have a family of nine children, all of them at home. Their names in order of birth are Lawrence Adam, Henry Philip, Wilfrieda Elizabeth, Leonard George, Philip Harmon, Agnes Frances, Justine Cather- ine, Wilbur John and Mary Cecelia.

WILLIAM HENRY BARNARD. For nearly fourscore years the interests and associations of the Barnard family have been with Pleasant View loeality Sec- tion 23, in Liberty Township, formerly known as Barnard Postoffice, two and a half miles east of Liberty Village. The Barnards are a family whose history will be read with interest and instruction. Each generation has fulfilled its part in the work and citizenship of the community. In some respects there has been a steady progress, so that each successive generation has been a little better off and a little better able to render service to themselves and to the community than the one preceding. In many families unfortunately the reverse is true.

William Henry Barnard represents the third generation in Adams County, and his son, now a prominent railway official, is of the fourth generation.

The family history may properly begin with the name Jason Barnard, a native of Virginia. IIe married Jency Carter. They lived for some years near Lexington, Kentucky, where William Barnard was born December 18, 1825. In 1831, when William was six years old, the family came west by the familiar means of transportation then available, horses and wagons, and settled in Ralls County, Missouri. Marion, a brother of William, was carried all the way by his mother on horseback. The family lived in Missouri until the fall of 1842. when Jason Barnard secured a traet of land now contained in the Barnard homestead in Liberty Township. William was then a boy of seventeen, and he always remembered one part of the preliminary work done on the land, the digging of a well. Of Jason's brothers one, Jonathan, remained in Missouri, another, Thomas, moved to Iowa, and still another, Calvin, lived in Indiana. Jason spent the rest of his days on the old farm in Liberty Township and died there in 1879, in his eighty-fourth year. ITis wife died in 1866, at the age of sixty-eight. The land of the original home was originally prairie, and all the

Um Barnard

LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

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buildings first put there are now gone. William had constructed a small house for his father's comfort in old age, and that house is still in use as an outside apartment. Jason's children were : Guilford, who went to Oregon at the age of twenty-five and died aged eighty-two; Emily, who died a young woman ; Nancy spent most of her life in Adams County, married Wallace Shohoney and died when past eighty years; William; Marion, who served in the Civil war and died in Adams County November 14, 1916, at the age of eighty-six; Fanny who married Andrew Casey and died in young womanhood; Eliza, who married Anson Welte, and died when past sixty; Calvin, who was a Union soldier and gave his life as a sacrifice to his country during the war; and Maria, who mar- ried Martin MeRae and went to Kansas, where she died at a ripe old age.

William Barnard, of the second generation in Adams County, grew up at a time and in an environment which almost precluded his gaining an educa- tion. The fact is that when he married he was unable to write his name, and his wife laboriously tanght him the art of writing. Later, by much applica- tion, he became well informed, and was a highly intelligent and useful citizen. He married November 2, 1845, when only twenty years of age. llis wife was Elizabeth Pearce, who was born in Tennessee November 16, 1824. daughter of Joshua and Sarah Pearce, who came from Tennessee prior to 1842 and settled in Liberty Township. After his marriage William Barnard settled on land owned by his father, most of it in the timber, and he had to cut away the trees and grub out the stumps to make it available for crops. In course of time he had a good farm. In 1877 he returned to the old homestead to care for his father. At that time he opened a stock of general merchandise and also began the eon- struction of the present home on the farm. Two years later the merchandise was established in a store building of its own near the house. In 1894 the orig- inal building was struck by lightning and burned, entailing a loss of all the stock. On June 22, 1882, William Barnard was commissioned postmaster at Barnard, his commission being signed by the then postmaster general, Timothy Howe. Barnard Postoffice continued on the official list of postoffices and also as a community center until the service was supplanted by the rural free deliv- ery in 1904. In 1902 William Barnard gave up his office and was succeeded by his son William H., who was postmaster until free delivery started. After the store was struck by lightning it was rebuilt, but was located on a corner a few rods distant from the old site. When the postoffice was diseontinued the stock of merchandise was sold. After leaving the postoffice William Barnard lived quietly retired. He was a republican practically all his life. He was reared a demoerat, but was so impressed by observation of events at a demo- cratie barbeeue when he was young that he changed his party. He was one of the original members of the Pleasant View Baptist Church, situated a half mile from his home, and was a trustee of the church the rest of his life. He grew up in a pioneer time when every boy was supposed to know how to handle a gun. Ile beeame a fine marksman, and in early years killed many deer, and kept up his praetiee with the rifle until failing eyesight and old age compelled him to desist. His wife died in 1895 and he died January 16, 1917, in his ninety- second year.

The children of William Barnard and wife were: Amelia, unmarried and still at the old home; Philip, who died at the age of six years: William II. ; Charles W .. in business at Liberty Village: Oliver G., formerly a merchant and now owner of the waterworks plant at Orient in the State of Washington; and Maria, who died in 1885 aged twenty-nine years.

William Henry Barnard was born on the old farm March 18, 1855. He made the most of his limited advantages in school, has always keenly realized the value of a good education, and his liberal assistance to his son to realize the best possible training has been well rewarded by the latter's career. William HI. Barnard has spent all his life on the old home farm, has superintended its cultivation. and managed both his father's and his grandfather's places. His residence is on a tract of land which has been in the family possession now for seventy-seven years.

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March 2, 1880, Mr. Barnard married Miss Mary Miller, who was born in the same community March 22, 1858, a daughter of Fred Miller, one of the prominent old residents of Liberty Township. The old Fred Miller home is now owned by Mrs. Barnard and the other heirs.

William Frederick Barnard, only son and child of Mr. and Mrs. William Henry Barnard, was born September 21, 1883. He was given all the advan- tages at home and in local schools and at the age of nineteen took a course in the Gem City Business College, graduating in 1904. Soon afterward he was employed as a clerk in the offices of the Wabash Railroad at Springfield in the maintenance of way department. Five months later he was promoted to the division point of that road at Decatur, and was soon chief clerk to the chief engineer. In 1915, when the general offices of the road were moved to St. Louis, Chief Engineer R. O. Howard ealled him to that point as his chief clerk, with corresponding increase of responsibility and salary. Then, with the new man- agement of railroads under government supervision, Director General MeAdoo appointed Mr. Barnard superintendent of insurance for the Wabash Railroad, his appointment taking effect October 15, 1918. His offiees are in the Railway Exchange Building at St. Louis. At the age of thirty-five, therefore, he has risen to one of the important responsible positions in the great railway industry of the country. IIe lives in St. Louis, and has been married sinee December 8, 1910. He married Lena Mae Keown, who was born near Pattonsburg, Missouri.

SAMUEL THOMPSON. The name Thompson is one of the first to oeeur in the history of early settlement in Fall Creek Township. There have been a number of the family who have contributed their energies and enterprise to local developments. One of them was the late Samnel Thompson, whose son, Arthur J. Thompson, now owns and operates the old home farm fourteen miles south- east of Quincy.

Samuel Thompson was born August 27, 1852, on the farm where his son Arthur now lives. His parents were Josiah and Priscilla (Crandall) Thomp- son. The real pioneer of the family was Samnel Thompson, father of Josiah. Samuel was a Pennsylvanian. He married Cynthia Hewitt.

It was in 1832 that Samuel Thompson, the elder, eame to Adams County, and bought land in section 23 of Fall Creek Township. His wife died there in 1852.

Josiah Thompson was born in Athens County, Ohio, May 20, 1823. He was a small boy when he came to Adams County. At the age of twenty-one he mar- ried Priscilla Crandall. It is said that she was the first white ehild born in Fall Creek Township. Her birth occurred August 27, 1825. She was the daughter of Rial and Anna Crandall, natives of New York State. Priscilla Thompson died May 2, 1871, and her husband December 30, 1875. Josiah Thompson was a whig and republican in politics and became one of the largest land owners in Adams County. He owned at one time 20,000 acres, most of it lying in the bottoms. He was a very ambitious and hard working man and had much to show for his energies. He was a member of the Fall Creek Metho- dist Church and was one of the men who vigorously upheld the cause of the Union during the Civil war. Of eight children only two are now living, Cyn- thia A., widow of Capt. M. W. Hughes and residing in Quincy, and Minnie, wife of George Myers, of Fall Creek Township. Mr. and Mrs. Myers live on the old Croeker property, where the noted mill once stood at the stone bridge. Another child now deceased was Mary Evaline, who married James Groves.

Samuel Thompson, son of Josiah and Priscilla, married Sarah Bennington, daughter of John and Martha Bennington. Her father eame from England, lived for a number of years in Missouri, but spent his last years with Mrs. Thompson. Mrs. Thompson was born one mile west of Payson on the Quiney Road. She died March 16, 1917.

Samnel Thompson took possession of the old homestead in 1879, having 160 aeres under his management, and later he acquired 160 aeres in the bottoms of

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Fall Creek. He was a very progressive man, and did a great deal in his brief lifetime. He died in California March 15, 1887, at the age of thirty-five. He owned a ten acre orange grove at San Bernardino, California. After his death his widow returned to Adams County and died just thirty years after him.

Of the three children Arthur J. Thompson is the oldest. The two daugh- ters were Lucy Rose and Alma. Both graduated from the Payson High School and subsequently taught in the grade schools of Quincy, while Lucy Rose taught for three years in the Springfield public schools. She is now the wife of Dr. C. C. Atherton, assistant superintendent of the State School for the Feeble Minded at Lincoln, Illinois. The daughter Alma married Dr. Ralph T. Hinton, also a prominent physician and specialist and now superintendent of the Elgin Insane Asylum.

Arthur J. Thompson was born January 13, 1881, on the old farm, gradu- ated from the Payson High School, and for twelve years has been in the rail- way mail service, his run being between Hannibal and Chicago on the Wabash. For ten years of that time he lived at Quincy. In those twelve years he expe- rienced only one serious wreck. This occurred at Griggsville when the train jumped the track while crossing a trestle, but the engine did not turn over until it reached firm ground. The engineer was killed and the fireman crippled.

For the past two years Mr. Thompson has managed the home farm. He is a general farmer and horticulturist. He has an orchard of eight acres, chiefly in apples, and his apple crop runs between 900 and 1,200 barrels annually. It was 1,200 barrels in 1918. It is a commercial proposition, and he usually sells the fruit on the trees to buyers, though occasionally the apples have been packed on the farm and marketed by Mr. Thompson. He also raises much stock, includ- ing hogs, and has a thorough equipment of hog buildings. The substantial house was built by his mother about 1892, and there is a generous equipment of other buildings.

June 4, 1913, Mr. Thompson married Inez Carter. Her father is A. M. Carter, of Plainville, a well known Payson Township citizen elsewhere re- ferred to.

JOHN PHILIP EHRHARDT. The brief story is told on other pages of the late Philip Ehrhardt and his struggles as a poor man to found and establish a home and the successful issues of his life. His son John Philip Ehrhardt has much the same force of character and ability, and in fifteen years has, from a start of practically a landless man, accumulated one of the good farms in Melrose Township. His home is 71/2 miles southeast of Quincy on rural route No. 5.

Mr. Ehrhardt was born nearby April 16, 1875, son of Philip and Justina (Mast) Ehrhardt. His boyhood was spent at the old home, and for one year he had charge of the homestead for his father.

On April 16, 1902, on his twenty-seventh birthday he married Miss Frances Dietrich, daughter of Nicholas Dietrich, a well known citizen whose career is taken up individually elsewhere. The Dietrich home is seven miles cast of Quincy on the State Street road. During the two years after his marriage Mr. Ehrhardt farmed the old homestead, and in the fall of 1903 bought his present farm. This is the old Jacob Krapp farm, owned many years ago also by Levi Wolf. It contains 120 acres and Mr. Ehrhardt went in debt for the entire purchase price of $6,000. He has rebuilt the house and barn, made many other improvements, and has paid out completely on the land, a record which shows the possibilities of modern farming even in an era of high prices. He does general farming, raises a great deal of grain. has twenty or thirty fat hogs for the market every year, and conducts a small creamery with Guernsey grade cows. He milks several cows and sells cream.

Mr. Ehrhardt has also been a participant in public affairs. In 1912-13 he was tax collector, and turned into the county treasury between $17,000 and $18,000. In politics he is a democrat, and with his family is a member of St. Antonius Catholic Church.

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Mr. and Mrs. Ehrhardt had six children. Wilfried, the oldest, died from an operation for appendicitis January 18, 1917, at the age of fourteen. The other children, all at home, are Isabel, born in 1905; Edward, born in 1908; Alfred, born in 1911; Jerome, born in 1914; and Elnora, born in 1916.

CHARLES H. HIRTHI. This is the name of a family that came from Germany seventy or more years ago, were early settlers in Adams County, by thrift and industry made good and has long been identified with the best citizenship of their respective localities.

Now living on a farm adorned with handsome buildings and with splendid improvements, in section 18 of Ellington Township, Charles HI. Hirth was born on Mill Creek in Melrose Township October 22, 1852. He is a son of Jacob and Catherine (Mause) Hirth. They were born in provinees along the River Rhine in Germany and were young when they eame with their respective par- ents to America. Jacob Hirth made the voyage on a sailing vessel, being eleven weeks before landing at New Orleans. The family eame up the river to St. Louis, where they remained for some time. Jacob was a carriage maker by trade, but his father was a farmer and finally left St. Louis to bring his family to Adams County. He located on a farm. Jacob Hirth married in Quiney and followed his trade there for a number of years. In 1861 he moved to a farm on Mill Creek in Melrose Township, and in 1865 went to Ellington Township, where he bought a good farm and was successful in its operation. His wife died there in 1870. Her parents, Henry Mause and wife, came direct from Ger- many to Adams County, and were among the pioneers along Mill Creek in Melrose Township. They were there at an early day and when the deer and wild turkey were so numerous that they had to be watched to keep them from eating the crops and grain. Henry Mause and wife died on their farm when in advanced years. Jacob Hirth died in 1908, at Quincy. He was a republican and he and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Charles H. Hirth grew up on a farm, received a common sehool education in Riverside and Ellington townships, and sinee then has been working hard to provide his home and prosperity. He and his wife have lived twenty-three years on their present farm. They erected a large eight-room house, two sub- stantial barns, one 40 by 60 feet and the other 30 by 40 feet, and they have adorned their home by the planting of a large number of trees which now are stately and tall and furnish abundanee of shade.

In Ellington Township Mr. Hirth married Miss Ella Berrian. She was born in that township and was educated there, a daughter of George and Eliza- beth (Anderson) Berrian, the former a native of New York State and the latter of Pennsylvania. Her parents were married in Ellington Township, and were farmers there. Her father died at the old homestead at the age of forty-four, and her mother survived to the venerable age of eighty-four. Her mother was a Presbyterian, and all but one of her seven children are living.

The oldest ehild of Mr. and Mrs. Hirth is Charles E., who graduated from the Quincy High School and took medieal studies at Chieago and St. Louis and in other medical schools, and for the past fifteen years has been a successful physician and surgeon in Utah, his home being at Vernal. He is unmarried. George Edgar, the second son, lives at home and runs the farm, and is also unmarried. Cora J. is the wife of Alfred Dairy of Grand Haven, Michigan. Ralph Earl is at home and married Eunice Platt. Mrs. Hirth is a Methodist. Mr. Hirth is a republican.

FREDERICK LEPPER. If true suecess consists in a steady betterment of one's material circumstances, a growing enlargement of views and inereasing influenee as a member of the community, the life of Frederick Lepper has been exception- ally successful by all the standards that might be applied to it.

Mr. Lepper is a native of Adams County, is a practical agriculturist of

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Melrose Township, but for fourteen years lived at Quiney and was connected with the Gem City Stove Works.

Ile was born February 28, 1865, second in a family of twelve children, eight sons and four daughters, whose parents were Frederick and Fredericka (Eller- man) Lepper. All the children are still living except one, and are residents of Melrose Township with one exception. This son is a rural mail carrier.

Frederick Lepper, Sr., was born in the Province of Westphalia, Germany. He was only a boy when he came to the United States, making the voyage on a sailing vessel, and was some weeks on the ocean before landing in New York City. He had no money and a brother sent him the means to complete his journey to Quincy. Here he began working for wages as a baker, and for a number of years was employed in the great stove works at Quincy. Ile made a success as a business man and eventually acquired a good farm of 160 acres in Melrose Township. IIe was a republican, a school director and a devoted friend of publie edueation, and he and his wife were members of St. Jacob's Lutheran Church in Quincy. He died March 2, 1905. His remains are at rest in Wood- land Cemetery. As a seal of his devotion to his adopted land he volunteered and served as a Union soldier in the Civil war, being in duty in the Trans- Mississippi Department until awarded his honorable discharge.

His wife was born in Germany and was eleven years old when brought to Ameriea. IIer parents made the voyage in a sailing vessel and were twelve weeks on the ocean. The Ellerman family located in Adams County, where Mrs. Fredericka Lepper died in August, 1918. She was on the farm for many years. She did a noble part in rearing her large family of children, and was always ready to do kindness to any one in need in the community. She was seventy-five years old at the time of her death, had the strength of her mind unimpaired and was a devont worshiper in her chureh.

Mr. Frederick Lepper was educated in the Irwin School at Quiney and also in the Hickory Grove School. IIe has been a busy citizen sinee reaching his majority, and soon after attaining manhood he married and took upon himself the responsibilities of a home. November 28, 1887, he married Miss Fred- ericka A. Voth. Three children were born to them, two sons and one daughter. Alfred was educated in the public and parochial schools and is a practical farmer in Melrose Township. He is a republican, and he and his wife attend worship in the Lutheran Memorial Church. He married Miss Alice Wolfe. The daughter Alma is the wife of Leo Humphrey, a fruit grower and farmer in Melrose Township, but now in the motor truck department and in Franee. Mrs. Humphrey was educated in the Emerson School and in the country schools and received special training in music. The youngest of the family is Robert, who was edneated in the common schools and is associated with his father on the farm. He is a member of Melrose Chapel.

Mrs. Lepper was born in Quincy June 17. 1867, daughter of Casper H. and Elizabeth (Mester) Voth. She was one of their nine ehildren, four sons and five daughters. The five daughters are still living and all reside in Quincy except one, Elizabeth, widow of Prof. II. Rankohl. She is living in Detroit. Michigan. Professor Rankohl was a teacher and for many years identified with the work of the parochial schools. They had eight children. all living.

Casper II. Voth was born at Lippinghausen, Germany, and came to the United States soon after his marriage. A farmer by training, he was a poor man when he reached Quiney and for several years worked at any toil that would afford him an honest competence. He had been trained as a soldier in the German army. IIe was a republican, and he and his wife were members of St. Peter's German Evangelical Lutheran Church, of which he was a ehar- ter member. He died at the home of his daughter Mrs. Lepper August 4, 1905, and is at rest in Woodland Cemetery. Mrs. Voth died in Quincy Deeem- ber 3, 1900, aged seventy-six years.

Mrs. Lepper was educated in the common and parochial schools, and has

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been a faithful and loving wife and mother all these years and has stood be- side her husband in counsel and advice.

After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Lepper made their home in Quincy for fifteen years, and from his earnings as an employe of the stove works accumulated the modest capital with which they bought their present farm of 120 acres. The Lepper farm is 212 miles from the city limits on the ex- tension of South Twenty-fourth Street. It is a very valuable farm and is managed to the acme of productiveness and its increasing valuc. Mr. Lepper specializes in Shorthorn cattle, while Mrs. Lepper has found both recreation and profit in a fine flock of Barred Rock chickens.

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Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 90

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