Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 91

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 91

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Mr. Lepper is a republican. He cast his first presidential vote for James G. Blaine in 1884. and has always been in sympathy with his party on its fun- damental principles and policies. IIe and his wife are zealous advocates of the cause of public education and Mr. Lepper has served as a member of the school board. He is one of the men who recognize the necessity of Illinois getting into the list of good roads states, and has never lost an opportunity to advocate this desirable improvement. Both Mr. and Mrs. Lepper attend worship in Melrose Chapel.

JOHN NORRIS. One of the fine country homes in Columbus Township is found in section 16, owned by Mrs. Emma A. Norris, widow of the late John Norris, who was a capable and industrious citizen of the township for many years and enjoyed the high esteem of a large community.

The late John Norris, who died at the old home September 25, 1917, was born in Little York, Pennsylvania, July 17, 1848. He was left an orphan by the death of his father at the age of sixteen, his mother having died when he was four years old. His parents were William and Elizabeth (Cooper) Nor- ris, both natives of Maryland but married in Pennsylvania. They were mem- bers of the Methodist Church. John Norris grew up in the home of an uncle, Thomas Norris, in Maryland, and had a farm training. In February, 1870, he and his cousin, James Norris, set out for the West, and arriving in Adams County John Norris went to work for David Pierce in Gilmer Township. Later he farmed on his own account, and on February 3, 1876, married Miss Emma A. Linn. They were married at the home of the bride in Columbus Township. Mrs. Norris was born on the farm where she now lives March 23, 1852. She was reared and educated here, and besides the local schools attended colloge at Abingdon. She was one of a large family of children. Her brother Amos and herself are the only ones living in Columbus Township in Adams County, the others being residents in other states.

Mr. and Mrs. Norris after their marriage farmed in Hancock County for one year, and then returned to her father's old farm in section 16 of Colum- bus Township. John Norris was successfully employed with the management of that place for nearly forty years. Mrs. Norris' father died November 7, 1881, at the age of seventy-seven years, six months and seventeen days. He was born in Ohio and married in Indiana Nancy Gant. She was a native of South Carolina, but was reared and married at Brookfield, Indiana. Four of their children were born in Indiana. The Linn family came to Adams County with wagons and teams during the '30s, and as pioneers they bought 200 acres of raw land in section 16 of Columbus Township. Mr. Linn improved this land, and also owned 160 acres in Hancock County. His widow, who was born in 1809, died at Camp Point May 4, 1904, at the venerable age of ninety- five years. Both Mr. and Mrs. Linn were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and they were noble, good people, with all the qualities of kindly neighbors and good citizens. Mr. Linn was a republican. The home in which Mrs. Norris and children now reside was built by her father more than seventy years ago. John Norris had the active management of this farm until about five years before his death. Mrs. Norris still owns 200 acres in the town and has capably managed her affairs with the assistance of her children.

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Mrs. Norris had five children, but the only one now living is William A., who helps run the old farm. William married Lena Brackshick, of Colum- bus Township. Their children are Raymond, Ernest, Allen, Ethel, Ivan May and Beulah, the four older now in school. They also lost two children, Earl, at the age of four months, and Carl, in infancy. The four deceased children of Mrs. Norris were Nannie May, Clyde, Nellie and Walter. The last three died in infancy and Nannie May at the age of twenty. Mrs. Norris has a grandson, Henry Louis, son of her daughter, Nannie May. This grandson has been carefully reared. by his grandmother and was twenty-one years of age in July, 1918. 11e is getting in readiness to enter training camp for military service.

OSCAR GUNTHER is of the third generation of the Gunther family in Adams County, and is the successful manager of the old Gunther homestead farm in Camp Point Township, a locality in which he has spent all his life. He is one of the younger men and at the same time one of the most successful farmers and stock raisers in Adams County.

His grandfather, Carl F. Gunther, was born in Germany January 2, 1793. He married Justina Renschel, a native of the same country. They lived in Germany until past middle life, and two of their sons came to Adams County before the parents. Their children were six in number: Dr. Julius Gunther, who arrived in New Orleans in 1851, and had a long and active career as a physician ; Frederick Gunther, who came to America by way of New Orleans in 1852 and for many years was a well known resident of Honey Creek Town- ship; Ernestine, who remained in Germany and died there in 1915, at the age of eighty years; Jnstina, who died in 1898; Lonis; and Christina, wife of Christopher Nicolai.

Carl F. Gunther and wife arrived at New Orleans in 1853, and about six months later journeyed on up the Mississippi River, reaching Adams County in 1854. They bought their first land in Honey Creek Township, 160 acres, and developed and improved a fine farm comprising 320 acres. Carl F. Gun- ther spent his active life as a farmer and died near Coatsburg in 1881, at the age of eighty-eight. Ilis wife died September 26, 1861, when about fifty- three.

Louis Gunther, a retired resident of Camp Point and father of Oscar Gun- ther, was born in Germany April 5, 1847, being six years old when his par- ents came to America. He grew up on the Honey Creek Township farm, and in 1869 moved to Camp Point Township to manage 160 acres which had been acquired by his father in 1865. He became owner of that land, and today he owns 235 aeres in Camp Point Township and eighty aeres in Honey Creek Township. Since 1917 he has given over the active responsibilities of the farm and enjoys the comforts of a good home in Camp Point. In politics Louis Gunther has been one of the loyal and steadfast republicans, casting his first presidential vote for General Grant about fifty years ago and never onee fail- ing to support a republican candidate for the presidency. In his home local- ity he served as road commissioner, director of school district No. 5, and was also a trustee of the township schools. He and his family are Lutherans.

Lonis Gunther married for his first wife April 4, 1869, Caroline Girky, who died July 26, 1870. In October 26, 1871, he married Susan Hocheraver, who was horn in Adams County, in Ellington Township, in 1853. Her par- ents, Simon and Margaret Hocheraver, located in Adams County about 1848 and were farmers in Ellington Township for many years. Mr. and Mrs. Louis Gunther were the parents of six children: Simon, a farmer; Clara, wife of Charles Dittmer, and they occupy the Gunther farm in Honey Creek Town- ship; Kate, wife of John Schroeder, of Camp Point Township; Cora, wife of William Murrah, a farmer in Honey Creek Township; Oscar C .; and John, who died in infancy.

Oscar C. Gunther was born on the old homestead where he now lives April

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14, 1887. While getting his education in the country school at Coatsburg he was also getting experience that has been valuable to him in his work as an agriculturist. For several years he has rented the homestead farm of 230 aeres, and the results he obtains demonstrate his high class methods of farm- ing. Mr. Gunther is a breeder of pure bred Polled Angus cattle and has about thirty-five head of this fine stock. He has most of his land under cultivation to the staple crops, but the revenue side of his farm operations is largely through livestock.

Mr. and Mrs. Gunther are members of the Lutheran Church. In 1917 he married Miss Emma Bauner, who was born in Camp Point Township, daughter of Andrew Banner, a well known citizen of that locality elsewhere referred to.

JOHN BRODERICK. While the live and enterprising men of Columbus Town- ship are under consideration special mention should be made of John Brod- erick and his fine country home in section 13. His farm comprises 200 aeres. This is the old O'Reilly farm, later owned by the Dunlop heirs, from whom Mr. Broderiek bought it in January, 1918. Mr. Broderick is one of the younger generation of farmers and is making headway by keeping high class livestock and pursning all the most advanced methods of farm enterprise. His live- stock consists of Poland China hogs, full blooded Polled Angus cattle and mixed breeds of horses. More than half his farm is under cultivation, and is prodnetive of bountiful yields of erops.

Mr. Broderiek has been a farmer all his active career and spent thirty- two years in MeKee Township from childhood to mature manhood. He at- tended the rural schools of that township and in 1916 graduated from the Gem City Business College.

Mr. Broderick was born at Scottsville, Kansas, December 24, 1882, but was brought to Adams County when four years old. His parents, Maurice and Sophronia (Hoffman) Broderiek, were both natives of Adams County, were married here, and most of their children were born within the county limits. They lived in Kansas five years, and while there their son John and their daughter Mary were born. Maurice Broderick died in McKee Town- ship in 1891, at the age of forty-five. His widow is still living, aged fifty- nine. She is a Protestant while Mr. Broderick was a Catholic.

In January, 1918, in Columbus Township, John Broderick married Miss Agnes Dunlop, and to this union one ehild was born, John Henry Broderick, February 5, 1919. Mrs. Broderick was born on the farm where she now lives October 3, 1878, and was reared and edneated in this locality. She also attended the Maplewood High School at Camp Point. Mrs. Broderick is a Catholic, and her father was a Protestant and her mother a Catholic. She is a danghter of Thomas and Amelia (O'Reilly) Dunlop. Her father was born in Belfast and her mother in County Cavan, Ireland, and they were married in Quincy, Illinois. Fifty-two years ago Thomas Dunlop bought 160 aeres in section 17 of Columbus Township from his brother-in-law, Thomas O'Reilly. Later he inereased the farm to its present size, 200 acres, and erected the sub- stantial residence still on the farm. Thomas Dunlop died January 19, 1889. at the age of seventy-six. His widow survived him until March, 1915, and was then eighty-one years and nine months old. In the same year their son William T. died as a young man, and they also lost a daughter, Janet, wife of Gerald Hoffman. Mrs. IToffman left a son, who was one of the first young men to enlist in the great war and is now serving in the navy. Three of the Dunlop children are still living, including Mrs. Broderiek. Her sister, Mrs. Felix Penders, is on a farm at Stillwater, Minnesota, and is married and has two sons and two daughters. Helen is the wife of Edmond Wood, a farmer at Augusta, Illinois, and has six children. Mrs. Broderick has a half brother, Robert Dunlop, who lives at El Reno, Oklahoma, and has a daughter.

Mrs. Broderiek's maternal unele, Thomas O'Reilly, above named, was one of the prominent and Christian men of his day in Adams County. He came

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here a poor man, and eventually seeured and improved nearly 600 acres near Columbus Village, in sections 17 and 18. Mr. Broderick is a democrat in pol- ities.

EDWARD M. KOCH. An Adams County citizen whose memory deserves a special tribute in this publication was the late Edward M. Koch, whose life was one of effective purpose and successful results as a farmer and citizen. For many years he lived in Mendon Township and was a native of this county.

He was born in Melrose Township November 20, 1858, and died October 3, 1907, when not yet fifty years of age. His parents were Gottlieb C. and Elizabeth (Powell) Koch. His parents were born at Muehlhausen in Alsace, close to the battlefront of the present day. The father was born May 14, 1834, and the mother May 12, 1835. Gottlieb Koch died February 19, 1891, and his widow passed away June 16, 1917. He died in Mendon Township. They came to the United States on sailing vessels, being seven weeks on the voyage, and were married after they reached Adams County. They spent many years as farmers in the county and were distinguished as hard working people, devout members of the Lutheran Church, and kindly neighbors. After the death of the husband his widow spent her last years with her daughter Mrs. Elizabeth Kessell at Beatrice, Nebraska. There were four children in the family, including Edward M. and Mrs. Kessell. Another daughter is Mary, wife of Ernst Lock, living at 629 South Seventeenth Street in Quincy. She has an adopted daughter. Another son, Adam Koch, is a farmer in Mendon Town- ship and has a son, Karl.

Edward M. Koch grew up in Adams County, and received most of his education in the parochial schools of the Salem Lutheran Church at Quincy. He started in life as a tenant farmer in Mendon Township, and as his efforts brought increased results he finally purchased his homestead of eighty-five acres in that township and lived there until his death.

In the Lutheran Church of Gilmer Township Mr. Koch and Miss Louisa H. Meyer were united in marriage February 5, 1890. She was born in Elling- ton Township June 8, 1867, and was reared and educated there. Mrs. Koch's parents were Gottlieb D. and Augusta H. (Haner) Meyer, both natives of Germany. Her father was born May 24, 1820, and her mother March 18, 1829. Her mother came to America in 1851, by way of New York City, and her father in 1852, through New Orleans. Her mother worked one year in St. Louis and then came to Quincy, and they were married soon afterward, and two years later bought a farm of 120 acres in Ellington Township. Mrs. Koch's parents lived out their lives in that locality. Her father died Janu- ary 3. 1894. Her mother subsequently sold the farm and spent her last years on Madison Street in Quiney, where she died May 8, 1916. Both were active members of the Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church. Mrs. Koch was one of a family of two sons and six daughters. Her brother William is married and is a farmer in Hancock County and has a large family of nine daughters and one son. Her sister Emma is the wife of Ernest Dissenhauf, of Adams County. IIer sister Anna is unmarried and living at Quincy. The brother Gottlieb D., Jr., served in the Spanish-American war and is now in the West. Mrs. Koch also has three deceased sisters. One of them was Mrs. Carolina W. Ruska, who was survived by eight children. Rica H. married Ernest Dissenhauf. Lydia was the wife of Henry Schipman.

Mrs. Koch remained on the home farm five years after the death of her husband and since February, 1913, has been a resident of Quincy. She owns her present home at 1431 Ohio Street. She and her children are members of the Evangelical Church. The children are three in number: Arthur K. E., Florenz E. and E. E. Esther. Arthur, born May 21, 1895, was educated in the rural schools of Mendon Township and is now a successful farmer near Newton, Kansas. He married in Quincy Miss Carrie R. Barth, who was born in Lima Township of this county, a daughter of Ezra and Mollie W. (Braken-

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siek) Barth. Mr. and Mrs. Barth still live in Lima Township. Arthur Koch and wife have one son, Lester Barth Koch. Florenz E. Koch was born Au- gust 10, 1896, was educated in the public schools and is now an enlisted man in the government service, being a carpenter mechanic in the aviation depart- ment. The daughter Esther, born August 16, 1901, lives with her mother and is a member of the Quincy High School, class of 1919.

WILLIAM HENRY PERKINS is one of the oldest living native sons of Adams County, has spent his years profitably as a farmer and horticulturist, has reared a capable family, and has many reasons to be well satisfied with the retrospect he can now contemplate while living at his beautiful rural home, Sunset View Farm, in the Township of Melrose. More than three quarters of a century separates his present days from the time of his birth, and in that period he has witnessed the wonderful development of this section of Illinois.

He comes of old New England ancestry, his people having been of stanch Massachusetts stock. Mr. Perkins was born in Adams County March 6, 1841, third in a family of four children and the only son of Jacob and Mary V. (Vinning) Perkins. He is now the only survivor of the family.

His father was born at Malden, Massachusetts, in 1800 and died in Adams County, Illinois, in 1875. He grew to manhood in his native state and in 1834 started west for St. Louis. That year was not a propitious one for making a comfortable and expeditions journey to the Middle West. There were no rail- roads over the Allegheny Mountains, and he followed perhaps the most popular route of the time. He came to the Great Lakes by the Erie Canal, had a lake voyage to Chicago, was in Chicago when that great city was only a village corporation, and thence traveled overland and by river to St. Louis, and from there the boat carried him up the Mississippi River to Quincy. Quincy was then but a river landing place. His first stop was made on what is now Front Street. He had had some business experience in Boston but was unfortunate and lost all his money and therefore when he came to Quincy it was to begin life practically at the bottom. He did work as a wage earner with the Pease pork house and later, as opportunity and his means made it possible, he took up farm- ing. For twenty-five years he occupied the farm now owned by Mr. Loring Wheeler in Melrose Township. Later he bought as a country home twenty acres and lived there in comfortable circumstances until his death. On that old homestead stands a giant tree more than 100 years old, and its sheltering branches at one time probably protected the wild Indians from the blasts of the storm and it stands in fact as a monument of the old days in Adams County. Jacob Perkins was one of the fine pioneer class of Adams County. He began voting as a whig, but at the birth of the republican party threw in his allegiance with that organization and both he and his son William H. were advocates of the policies of Lincoln. He was a Universalist in religion and his wife was a Methodist. Both are now at rest in the Woodland cemetery.

His wife, Mary V. Vinning, was born at Malden, Massachusetts, in 1807, and died in 1892.

William Henry Perkins was reared and educated in Adams County. He attended one of the typical log cabin schools of Melrose Township. The teacher he best remembers was Edward Humphrey. Since he left school his life work has been that of horticulturist, and few men have had a more suc- cessful experience in the growing of fruit. Mr. Perkins has a farm of eighty acres where he resides, and for a number of years its most profitable crop was small fruits. Some seasons in the height of the berry picking he had from forty to sixty girls and women busy in gathering the fruits, and he frequently paid out as high as $1,400 for labor each season. Mr. Perkins also has sixty-five acres in Melrose Township, and that too has been largely developed as a fruit farm.

March 16, 1871, Mr. Perkins married Miss Mary L. Felt. Six children, three sons and three daughters, were born to their marriage and three are

IN H Perkins

LIBRARY Of THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

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still living. The oldest is Cora L., who was well educated in the local schools and at Lombard College at Galesburg, and is now the wife of William B. Duncan, an agriculturist in Ursa Township of Adams County. Mr. Duncan is a repub- lican, and is the owner of 120 acres of land. They have two children, John W. and Richard P. Arthur L., the only living son of Mr. Perkins, was educated in the common schools and in the Gem City Business College at Quincy, and now has the active management of his father's farm in Melrose Township. He married Miss Laura Harvey, and they have a daughter, Mary E., now in the sixth grade of the public schools. Arthur Perkins and wife are members of the Christian Science Church. Mary V., the third child, finished her education in Mrs. Deane's private academy at Quincy and is now the wife of Frank B. Wheat. Mr. Wheat is a successful business man at Los Angeles, California, having built up a splendid business as a manufacturer of office, bank and store fixtures and furniture. He began with a capital of only $600. Mr. and Mrs. Wheat favor the Christian Science belief. They have one daughter, Mary E.

Mrs. Perkins was born in Adams County June 23, 1848, fourth in a family of eleven children, six sons and five daughters. Her parents were Jeremiah and Adrianna (Leach) Felt. Six of their children are still living: William, a farmer at Mendon, Missouri, a republican, a Methodist, and has a family of wife and three children; Mrs. Perkins; George, a horticulturist and farmer at Scottsville, Michigan, a republican, his wife a member of the Christian Church, and of their five childern, three sons, Garrett, Stanley and George, are now soldiers of the American army; Ella, widow of Ira Coe, of the prominent Coe family of Melrose Township; Charles, a farmer and stock man at Mendon, Missouri, a republican in politics, his wife a Methodist, has two children; Adri- anna was liberally educated and is the wife of Weymouth Butcher, a retired resident of Long Beach, California, now deceased, where they were members of the Congregational Church.

Mrs. Perkins was well educated and comes of a prominent old family of Adams County. She attended Lombard College at Galesburg, and has given the best of her culture and her efforts to the rearing of her children and to the service of her community.

Jeremiah Felt, father of Mrs. Perkins, was born near New Ipswich, New Hampshire, May 2, 1817. He died in Adams County in March, 1906. He grew to manhood in his native state, was a pioneer of Adams County, and for some time also lived at Galesburg, Illinois. Among his early experiences in Illinois was hauling hogs in a wagon to Chicago and selling them at the market price of 3 cents per pound. His first land in Adams County was eighty acres in Melrose Township, where his daughter, Mrs. Coe, and her son Wilbur now reside. Jeremiah Felt was descended from a family that furnished patriot soldiers to the Revolutionary war. He and his wife were active members of the Universalist Church and in politics he was successively a whig and republican. His wife was born in Boston, Massachusetts, December 12, 1820, and died in August, 1895. Both are now at rest in the Woodland cemetery.

Mr. and Mrs. Perkins have always shown themselves true friends of public schools and public education and of every good and humanitarian cause in their community. Mr. Perkins served for twenty-five years as a school director. He and his wife are members of the Unitarian Church at Quincy. They have songht not so much wealth but abundance of living, and from time to time have used their means for increased knowledge and culture gained through travel and association with books and people of like ideals. They are well acquainted with their native land in the western and northern and southern states as well as the New England communities, where their ancestors lived. In 1881 they made a trip to the Mardi Gras at New Orleans, in 1888 went to Boston, and at other times have traveled through the states of Oregon, Wash- ington, California, Utah and Colorado and the Yellowstone Park. One of the modern inventions that has added much to their pleasure and their ability to see the country and their friends is a modern touring car. Their homestead lies

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only a mile and a half from the city limits of Quincy and the home and sur- roundings indicate from afar the care and thrift and intelligent management that Mr. Perkins has so long bestowed upon his farm.

DANIEL B. HERR. Following Broadway in Quincy two miles east brings one to the attractive farm home and estate of Daniel B. Herr in Melrose Township. Mr. Herr has been a resident of Adams County half a century. He is honored as a veteran of the Civil war, and also by reason of his steadfast citizenship during all the years of his residence in Adams County.

Mr. Herr was born in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, January 7, 1840. His ancestors came to America about 1700, and the family record shows that there are now between 30,000 and 40,000 of them. His father was a farmer and miller and Daniel B. during his boyhood when not in school worked in the mill. He had just about reached his majority when he enlisted in 1861 in the Seventh Pennsylvania Cavalry. From that time forward until the elose of the war there was no interruption to his service as a soldier. At the end of 216 years he veter- anized and remained with the regiment until the war was over. During the last month he was in Alabama. The colonel of his regiment was made a brigade commander, and it chanced that Mr. Herr was among the troops who effected the capture of Jefferson Davis in Georgia. He was never wounded or captured. He held the rank of corporal.

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Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II, Part 91

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