USA > Illinois > Adams County > Quincy > Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. II > Part 95
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Mr. Adair while living in Honey Creek Township became interested in
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the breeding of fine hogs. Since 1880 he has been one of the foremost ex- ponents of the Poland China, and is not only a pioneer breeder of that strain in this county but in Illinois. He developed the business as a specialty and for many years directed practically the resources of his farm and his personal management to this line. He exhibited his stock in all the nearby county fairs and also at the state fairs, and won his share of the prizes. For many years he held annual sales at the farm, employing a professional anctioneer, and these sales were always attended by a large number of farmers and others interested in the Poland China stock. Most of his animals were sold for breeding purposes, and they did much to raise the standard of swine all over this part of Illinois. Mr. Adair continued this special branch of his business actively from about 1890 until 1907. In 1890 he moved to Clayton Town- ship. and at the present he and wife have 140 acres, eighty acres of this be- ing in Clayton Township and sixty acres in Brown Township. A part of this land came to his wife through her father's estate.
Ilis term as supervisor from Clayton Township ran from 1906 to 1912. He was chairman of the board in 1910-11, and at the same time was chair- man of the board of review. It was only at the urgent request of his fellow eitizens that he consented to become a candidate for the office. His fellow citi- zens were especially interested in the subject of bridge improvement, and they selected Mr. Adair to carry out their plans and ideas. As supervisor he at once secured appropriations for the construction of several bridges, each costing $1,500. Three of them were built wholly of concrete and the other two of steel. During his term one of the important improvements in the village limits of Clayton was a bridge, and the village being without funds for build- ing it Mr. Adair secured an appropriation from the county board. The bridge, of concrete. was constructed at a cost of $1,000. Mr. Adair is an active party worker as a democrat and has served as a member of the County Central Com- mittec. He is a member of the Masonic order and the Modern Woodmen, and Mrs. Adair is identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church.
They have two sons, J. Leroy Adair, state's attorney, and Orville Ray. The latter is a merchant miller at Clayton, and by his marriage to Marie Love has two children, Ruth Virginia and Grace Mary.
GEORGE WILLIAM KEASEL. A stanch and intelligent farmer and one of the upright and progressive citizens of Melrose Township, the home of George William Keasel is thirteen miles southeast of the courthouse, close to the Quincy-Payson road.
This is the old Keasel homestead, and Mr. Keasel was born there in the house which he still occupies July 29, 1873. He is a son of Henry and Cath- erine (Ertle) Keasel. Both parents were born in Germany. The father came to this country when a young man, and he and his wife were married at Quincy. For several years he was teamster for the Eagle Mills in Quincy. About 1860 he bought eighty aeres of partly cleared land in Melrose Town- ship, and took possession of it when its chief improvements were a log house and barn. He built the present house in 1868, also the barn, and increased his acreage by twenty. He worked out of debt, made a good farm, and was always regarded as one of the careful, methodical and successful farmers and one of the very public spirited citizens of his locality. He was a democrat and was a member of St. John's Lutheran Church at Quincy, but in later wears attended the Bluff Hall Church 51% miles from his home. Henry Keasel died October 18. 1902, and his wife July 25, 1900. They had two sons and two danghters: Elizabeth is the wife of Henry King, Sr., of Quincy, Henry lives in Fall Creek Township on the old home place, Catherine mar- ried William Albsmeyer, and died in Kansas, and George William is the youngest.
George William Keasel has spent his life on the old farm except a few years when he rented. In 1917 he returned to the old place to take active
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charge, employing his resources for general farming. He was always kept out of office and in politics is an independent democrat.
October 24, 1917, Mr. Keasel married Miss Emma Vorndam, of Quiney, daughter of Casper II. and Frederica Vorndam, who reside at 522 Jackson Street in Quincy. Her father is a watchman in the local foundry. Mrs. Keasel is a member of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Quincy.
MARTIN WOLF. The home of Martin Wolf is in Melrose Township, ten miles southeast of the courthouse, where the Payson road crosses Mill Creek by the areh stone bridge. This locality has been familiar to Mr. Wolf from his earliest recollections. The old bridge was built in 1856, and almost at the same spot and in the same year, November 15, 1856, Martin Wolf was born to his parents, William and Elizabeth (Wagner) Wolf.
William Wolf, his father, was a native of Kentucky and was brought to Adams County by his parents, Jacob and Sophia Wolf, in 1834. They settled on the old farm a half mile north of the present farm of Martin Wolf. William died in 1877, at the age of sixty-three. As an Adams County pioneer he cleared up a portion of the wilderness, and he built the house which is still standing on the farm and still owned by the family. Jacob Wolf died at the old home aged eighty-four, and Sophia died at the same age but four years later. Jacob's children were: William; Barbara, who married William Manigold and both died in Liberty Township, their son Louis now owning their old farm; Sophia, who married B. Miller, and both died in Quiney; Lonisa, who married Henry Dover, and she died in Quincy; and Fred, who in young manhood went out to California and has never since communicated with his family.
William Wolf married at the age of thirty-five Elizabeth Wagner. She was born in Germany and was eighteen years of age when she came to Adams County, and her home was in Melrose Township until her marriage, at the age of twenty-seven. She and her husband then occupied their eighty acre farm, about half of which was bottom land along Mill Creek, and built the house still occupied by their son Martin. William Wolf spent the rest of his days developing the farm, and upon that he concentrated all his energy and enthusiasm. He had no time for public office, though he was a very loyal democrat. He was also a member of the Lutheran Church at Quiney. He died in 1877, and his widow survived until May, 1908, at the age of eighty-four. William Wolf had a family of eight children, five of whom reached maturity. Jacob, who for eighteen years was employed in Dick's brewery at Quiney, and died at the age of fifty-six; Henry, of Melrose Township; Martin; William, of Quincy ; and Barbara, who died in 1900, at the age of forty-two, the wife of Henry Kamphaus.
Martin Wolf has spent his entire life on the farm. He bought the old place and for a number of years supplied a home and every comfort to his mother in her declining years. He has increased somewhat the area of the old place, and has done much to improve and increase its general value and productiveness. He has the farm in nse for general erop production and live- stock. Mr. Wolf has held no office, and is content to vote the democratic ticket.
At the age of twenty-seven he married Miss Elizabeth Huber, daughter of Lawrence and Elizabeth (Zoph) Huber, of Melrose Township. The Huber home is four miles northeast of the Wolf home and three miles west and south of Burton, where Mrs. Wolf's father settled and cleared up a good home- stead still owned by the son, George Huber. Mrs. Wolf was born on that farm and was twenty-two years of age at the time of her marriage. Her father was a native of Baden and her mother of Bavaria, and they were married after they came to Quincy. Mrs. Wolf was only three months old when her father died. She was one of the seven children left to the care of her mother, who did a noble part by the children, rearing them to lives of usefulness and honor, and herself living to be seventy-two years of age.
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Mr. and Mrs. Wolf lost one daughter in childhood named Rosina. The oldest of their four living children is Edward, who farms in Pike County, Illinois, on one of the Seymour places. He married Emma Bock, daughter of William Bock. Their three children are Grace, Dorothy and Edna. Albert, who farms the home place, married Kate Dietrich, daughter of Nicholas Diet- rich. They also have three children, Rosella, Malvin and Paul. Clara married Matt Bliekhan, of Melrose Township, and is the mother of four children, Mary, Hilda, Elsie and Joseph. The youngest child, Mary, is still at home with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Martin Wolf. The Wolf family are members of St. Antonins Catholic Church.
JOHN ROBERT ABBOTT. The Township of Melrose has had no citizen whose work and interests have been more closely identified with its general welfare than John Robert Abbott, who now and for some years has been the efficient supervisor of the township. He is a native of Adams County, was formerly a resident of Quincy, and for a number of years has been in close touch with the agricultural affairs of Melrose Township.
Mr. Abbott was born December 31, 1866, and his birthplace was within a stone's throw of the banks of the Mississippi. He is a son of William II. and Annie (Kennedy) Abbott. He was the fifth in their family of ten children, four sons and six daughters, seven of whom are still living but only two are residents of Adams County, the other being former Mayor Abbott of Quincy.
William H. Abbott was born at Barnstaple, Devonshire, England, Septem- ber 29, 1831. He represented the thrifty class of people who for generations have characterized the population of old Devon. As a youth he attended the national schools, and also worked in his father's woolen mills. He was super- intendent of these mills, but when about twenty-six years of age left the old country and came to America. The voyage was made on a sailing vessel, and he was eight or ten weeks in crossing the occan to New York. He remained in New York State a couple of years, two or three years at London, Ontario, and from there came to Adams County. Part of the time he followed the trade of brick and stone mason, and for a number of years was proprietor of a restaurant and bakery on Front Street in Quiney. He finally moved to the country and spent his last years as a farmer. He died September 24, 1894, and his remains are at rest in the Woodland Cemetery. In New York City William H. Abbott married Miss Annie Kennedy, and they came together to Quincy. She was born in County Antrim, Ireland, in July, 1838, and died January 17, 1906. When she came to America she was eighteen years of age, and had a very perilous trip. The voyage was made in an old type of sailing vessel called the Enterprise, and it was beset by storms and other misfortunes until it finally became almost a dereliet. The boat was driven from its course and was almost thrown on the bleak and inhospitable shores of Greenland. At one time the ship was thought to be sinking and the hatches were nailed down. A number of sailors, owing to exposure to the severe cold, had hands and feet frozen and many amputations were necessary. It was seventeen weeks before the boat finally made harbor at New York. Mr. John R. Abbott now has among his private possessions an old English Bible which belonged to his grand- parents and which was published in 1823. Thus it is ninety-five years old.
John R. Abbott was educated in the common schools of Adams County, and also did much to improve his mind by self study. He has always been an exceedingly busy man. In early life he was clerk in several of the stores and commercial establishments at Quincy. He learned the harness and saddlery business and for abont twelve years followed that trade in Quincy.
January 19, 1898, he married Miss Cora May Martin, who was born on Oak Street in Quiney February 10, 1871. She is a daughter of Hiram G. and Elizabeth (Pate) Martin. She was one of five children, only two of whom are
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now living, her brother Frank having for a number of years been an engineer with the Burlington Railroad, but now a coal mine superintendent at Carter- ville, Illinois, where he lives with his family. Mrs. Abbott was educated in the city schools of Quincy and is a woman of keen intellectual interests and dc- serves her full share of the credit for the prosperity she and Mr. Abbott have enjoyed.
In 1899, the year after their marriage, they moved to a farm in Melrose Township and since then they have made for themselves a comfortable home and prosperity and have been active participants in the life and affairs of the community. Their farm comprises sixty-seven acres of fine land on the State Aid road, located about five miles from the courthouse. Mr. Abbott is both a grain and fruit raiser.
He has always given his active political allegiance to the democratic party. He is one of that increasing number of men who appreciate the character and the fine ideals of statesmanship in President Wilson and ardently hope and exert their influence toward the success of his policies in this country and abroad. Mr. Abbott had lived in Melrose Township only a few years when his qualifications for public office brought him to the front. He was first elected township supervisor in April, 1908. That was a close and hotly contested campaign, his rival for the office being C. S. Hearn, one of the best known citizens of the township. In 1910 Mr. Abbott was re-elected, and was again elected in 1914, re-elected in 1916, and his party has again made him candi- date in 1918. In politics and in public affairs Mr. Abbott has stood for straight and honorable principles and methods, and has kept the township business free from everything that would savor of inefficiency. He has always advocated proper improvements for the township in keeping with its place in Adams County. The nine schools of Melrose Township are in excellent condition, and Mr. Abbott was a very important and instrumental factor in establishing the good roads, especially the splendid State Aid road, which runs through the township as a continuation of State Street in Quincy. As a party man Mr. Abbott was selected as a delegate to the State Convention of Peoria in 1906 and also attended state conventions at Peoria in 1912 and at Springfield in 1914. He is affiliated with Preux Chevalier Lodge No. 18 of the Knights of Pythias at Quincy.
Mr. and Mrs. Abbott have always striven to broaden their interests, not only in the community life about them but in those things that go on in the world at large. One of the most delightful experiences they have enjoyed during their married life was an extended tour they made in the year 1907 to castern cities with the primary objective the Jamestown Exposition at Norfolk, Virginia. They left Quincy May 24, 1907, went by way of Cincinnati to Gordonsville, Virginia, and were in Virginia long enough to appreciate the true character and flavor of southern hospitality. From Gordonsville they procceded to Wash- ington, District of Columbia, and they carry in their memories all the historic sights and scenes of the nation's capital, including the various Government buildings and the White House, the noted thoroughfare of Pennsylvania Avenue, the little Ford Theater where President Lincoln was assassinated, and other landmarks. They also went to Mount Vernon, visiting the home of the im- mortal Washington and also his tomb, and spent many interesting hours in the house and about the grounds of Mount Vernon. From there they went on to the exposition and also visited Old Jamestown. Mr. and Mrs. Abbott have some interesting relies of the little red brick church, the material for which was brought from old England more than three centuries ago. Mrs. Abbott brought back a piece of bark from the large tree that stands in front of the old church ruins. Leaving Jamestown they went through Washington to Phila- delphia and to New York City, spending three days in the metropolis, and came home by way of Niagara Falls, where they spent three days, and altogether made a trip of 3,000 miles, every mile of which they thoroughly enjoyed and made an opportunity for instruction and lasting impressions.
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PHILIP' ENIRIIARDT. A long life and one that meant much for himself, his family and his community was that of the late Philip Ehrhardt of Melrose Township, who died at the farm and home which his efforts and service of many years had perfected on January 6, 1913.
He was born in Thuringen, Germany, December 15, 1827, and was in his eighty-sixth year when he died. He came to the United States at the age of thirty-three, in company with a party of neighbors. In his native village he had worked in a brick yard, making brick and tile, and his earnings all went to his parents until the last year. On coming to Adams County he was em- ployed by William Wand, father of John Wand, at farm labor at 50 cents a day. He continued such employment with such meager wages until after his marriage.
In St. Boniface Church at Quiney on August 30, 1859, he married Justina Mast. She was born December 15, 1841, also in Thuringen, Germany, and was about nine years old when her parents, August and Katharina (Schrecke) Mast, came to America. The Mast family spent six years in Marion County, Missouri. Katharina Schrecke's brother Ferdinand was then living in that county, a cooper by trade. At the end of six years Mr. and Mrs. Mast came to Adams County and rented in Melrose Township near St. Antonius Church. August Mast enlisted for service in the Civil war, and his son John also went with him, being then nineteen years of age. He and his son were in the same company. At the end of one year August was discharged, but John remained until the close of the war. On returning home August Mast secured a farm on the Payson road in Melrose Township, and lived there until his death at the age of sixty-three. His widow survived him and passed away at the age of seventy-nine, at the home of her daughter Mrs. Ehrhardt. In the Mast family were six children: Justina; John, whose service as a Civil war veteran has already been referred to, became a farmer near Moberly, Missouri, and died there in May, 1915; Henry, a resident near Moberly ; David, a farmer who lives near the old homestead in Melrose Township and operates the old home farm; Philip, who lives near the farm owned by his brother John in Randolph County, Missouri; and Bernhard, whose home is in the suburbs of Quincy.
Philip Ehrhardt after his marriage went to farming. He had saved some money from his meager earnings and about that time he received $100 from the old family property in Germany. He bought a team and rented land for five years, and then bought the homestead which Mrs. Ehrhardt still owns. He paid $2,000 for fifty acres, paying about $400 down and borrowing $85 to pay his share of the bounty raised by the township to secure recruits for the army. This was during the Civil war. Mr. Ehrhardt paid 10 per cent interest on a loan of $1,000, and before the principal was reduced he ealcu- lated he had paid out $1,200 in interest. He finally got the interest rates reduced to 8 per cent. In spite of all those handicaps his constant struggle with fortune enabled him to accumulate a good farm of ninety-nine acres. It was an era of the lowest prices, when eggs sold at 4 eents a dozen and poultry at 5 cents a pound. The Ehrhardt family lived for several years in a log shanty, with the cracks stuffed with corn chucks. The building contained only one room, and the window had but half a sash. After two years he built a somewhat better home, made more commodious by a loft, in which the children slept. There was a hole in the ground for certain supplies, but there was no regular eellar under the home for twenty-six years. About 1896 Mr. Ehrhardt built the substantial residence in which he spent his last years. He took an interest in citizenship, became an American voter as early as possible, and was a demoerat but never sought office. He could write the German lan- guage, but never became familiar with the English script. He was a member of St. Antonius Catholic Church, and all the deceased members of the family are buried in the churchyard nearby.
The family of Mr. and Mrs. Philip Ehrhardt comprised the following chil- dren : Emily, who died in infancy : Justina, who died at the age of eight years ; Henry, who died in infancy; Maria K., wife of John Lenz, of Melrose Town-
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ship, referred to in later paragraphs: Philip, who died in infancy; Joseph, who lives adjoining the old home and operates the farm for his mother : Henry, who died in infancy ; Herman I., who owns a hardware business at Quiney ; John, on a farm near the old homestead; Moritz, who died in infancy; Elizabeth, wife of Anton Sanders, near Moberly, Missouri; Mary Anna, who died in in- fancy ; Maria Rosa, wife of Joseph Kroner, living near Moberly, Missouri; and Albert W., who is a bookkeeper in Quincy.
JOHN LENZ has spent most of his life in Adams County, has for over thirty years been a prosperous farmer, and owns and cultivates one of the good places in Melrose Township.
He was born at New Orleans November 23, 1862, son of Nicholas and Selma Lenz, who came from Alsace Lorraine. After a brief stay in New Orleans they came north and settled at Quincy and later moved to Melrose Township, occupy- ing the farm in section 25 where their son John now lives. Nicholas Lenz died here in 1884, at the age of sixty-three. His widow survived him thirteen years and passed away at the home of her son John at the age of seventy-two. John Lenz grew up in this county, attended the local schools, and in April, 1887, married Miss Maria Katharina Ehrhardt, who was then twenty-one years of age. Mrs. Lenz is a daughter of the late Philip Ehrhardt.
For six years after his marriage Mr. Lenz rented a farm on Mill Creek, and then returned to the old homestead and at the death of his mother bought ont the other interests. He has continued farming there for a quarter of a century and has a well improved estate. He and his wife are the parents of four children. John, Jr., is a farmer in Melrose Township. Katherine mar- ried William Dietrich and died ten months later. Nicholas is the family repre- sentative in the American army, serving in Battery D of the Three Hundred and Thirty-sixth Field Artillery with the American Expeditionary Forces in France. Elizabeth, the youngest, is at home.
GEORGE FREDERICK Loos. This volume contains several sketches of the Loos family, who have long been prominent and successful people in Adams County. One of them is George Frederick Loos, now living retired at 514 North Twelfth Street in Quincy. Mr. Loos gave the greater part of his active years to farming and developed one of the best places in Melrose Township, now occupied by one of his sons.
Mr. Loos was born August 10, 1848, in Melrose Township, in the Mill Creek Valley. His father, John Michael Loos, a native of Krumbach, Hesse Darm- stadt, Germany, came to America in company with a considerable party headed by John Speckhart. He had been a laboring man in Germany, working in a slate quarry. He was twenty-four when he arrived at Quiney, and here he found employment during the summer in a brick yard, and during the winters worked in a pork house. That was his employment for four years. IIe married at Quincy Miss Mary Walthaus, a daughter of Henry Conrad and Mary Margaret Walthans. She was three years of age when her parents eame from Germany, and after two years in Pennsylvania the Walthaus family located in Adams County and for many years lived on a farm in Melrose Township near St. Antonius Catholic Church. Henry Walthaus spent his last days with his daughter Mrs. Loos. Grandfather Walthaus and Grandfather Loos both built small log houses on the farm, and having come from the same locality in Germany they spent many happy hours together during their last years. One of these grandfathers served under Napoleon, and the flintlock musket he carried is still kept by the family. John Michael Loos at the time of his marriage settled on a farm, and that place is still owned by his son William.
George Frederick Loos being the oldest son had much to do from an carly age on the farm. He aequired 143 acres of his own, and continued to operate it until 1913. He built a fine house, standing on an elevation and affording a view for many miles in all directions. Mr. Loos was a practical, general
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farmer. He also bought a farm two miles east, where one of his sons now lives. During the past five years since he has lived in Quincy Mr. Loos has employed his leisure time working in the Pape & Loos Mills, in which his son Charles is a partner.
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