USA > Illinois > Henry County > The biographical record of Henry County, Illinois > Part 26
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LOWRY BROTHERS.
This enterprising firm of liverymen of Geneseo, Illinois, is .composed of Andrew P. and Thomas M. Lowry, both natives of Indiana county, Pennsylvania, and sons of
William C. and Mary J. (Duncan) Lowry, who were also born in that state and are still living on the farm in Indiana county where the birth of our subject occurred. The fa- ther is now about seventy-five years of age, while his wife is sixty-five. Throughout his active business life he has been engaged in agricultural pursuits, and the old home- stead upon which he lives is composed of one hundred and fifty acres of rich and val- table land. For several terms he has effi- ciently served as supervisor of his township, and has held other minor offices. During the Civil war he joined a Pennsylvania reg- iment and served for about a year, being honorably discharged when hostilities ceased. Religiously he and his wife are faith- ful and consistent members of the Presby- terian Church. Her parents were Thomas and Jane ( Machesney ) Duncan. Her fa- ther was also a native of the Keystone state and a tanner by trade, which occupation he followed until his death. He died about thirty-five years ago, but his widow is still living and makes her home in Marion, Indi- ana county, Pennsylvania.
William C. and Mary J. (Duncan) Lowry are the parents of six children, all born in Indiana county, Pennsylvania, and all still living, namely : Sadie J., at home; Andrew P. and Thomas M., of this review; Olive B. resides with parents in Pennsyl- vania; Harry L. resides in Indiana county, I'ennsylvania, and Settie resides at home.
Andrew P. Lowry was born September 30, 1858, and remained on the home farm until he attained his majority, receiving his literary education in the common schools of the township in which he lived. In 1879 he came to Illinois and located in Annawan township. Henry county, where he engaged in farming for seven years, and then re-
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moved to the city of Geneseo, and embarked in his present business with his brother Thomas M. They conduct a general livery and feed stable, and enjoy a liberal patron- age. They are energetic and progressive business men, and have met with well-mer- ited success in their undertakings. On the 24th of May, 1892, Andrew P. Lowry was united in marriage in Geneseo with Mrs. Elsie McFadden, a native of Canada, and a daughter of Colon and Catherine ( Bowen ) Fick. Her mother is now deceased, but her father is still living at Annawan, where he is engaged in the manufacture of wagons and also operates a feed mill.
Thomas M. Lowry was born on the 11th of August, 1860, and was a young man of twenty years when he left the parental roof and came to this state, being engaged in farming in Annawan township, Henry coun- ty, for about three years. He then came to Geneseo and established himself in the livery business with his brother as previous- ly stated. He is a member of Geneseo Lodge, No. 172, I. O. O. F., and is also connected with the Mystic Workers of the World, while politically he is identified with the Re- publican party. He was married in Rock Island, Illinois, September 8, 1887, to Miss Celia Fick. a sister of his brother's wife, and by this union were born three children : Charles William, who was born in Geneseo and is now twelve years of age; Oral Mary, who was born in the same place and is now four years old : and Bessie, who was a twin of Oral M. and died in infancy.
AARON PALMER.
For about forty-five years the subject of this sketch has been a resident of Kewanee, his home at present being at No. 210 West
Sixth street, and during all this time he has been actively identified with its business in- ests. He is now engaged in draying and gen- eral teaming and controls the greater part of that business done in the city.
Mr. Palmer was born in Lake county, Ohio, November 20, 1833, and is a son of Norris and Lucy ( Emerson ) Palmer, natives of New York and Ohio, respectively. The father became a well known farmer of the Buckeye state, where he died at about the age of forty years. The Palmer family is quite prominent in Concord and Mentor, Ohio, and each year its members hold a reunion either at Concord or Painesville. For her second husband the mother of our subject married Alexander Livingston, and by that union had four children, while by the former mar- riage she had five. She was an earnest member of the Methodist Church and died in that faith when less than forty years of age. Of the children born of the first union only our subject and his sister, Mrs. J. S. Stone. of Omaha, now survive. Those deceased are Grove N., Isaac Gideon and George, the last named having died young, while the others grew to manhood.
Aaron Palmer was educated in the public schools of Ohio and Illinois, having come to this state with his step-father in 1849. and located on a farm in Wethersfield township, Henry county. For a time he and his broth- er, Grove Norris, conducted a general store in the village of Wethersfieldl, and later were engaged in running a threshing machine and separator for eight seasons threshing much of the wheat raised in their section of the county. They at first used an old Elgin thresher, and later a J. I. Case separator, manufactured at Racine, Wisconsin. On dis- continuing that business Mr. Palmer en- gaged in raising and selling hedges and
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fruit trees. Since then he has devoted his time and energies to his present business, and in connection with general teaming and draying has also run a hack, and engaged in funeral work, keeping four teams constantly busy.
On Christmas day. 1856, at the Method- ist Episcopal parsonage on West Fifth street-then considered the finest residence in Kewanee-was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Palmer and Miss Prudence Tunnicliff, a native of Derbyshire, England, who came to America with her parents, Edward and Sarah Tunnicliff, and first located in Zanes- ville, Ohio. In 1855 the family came to Ke- wanee, where the father is now living re- tired at the age of eighty-seven years, the mother at the age of eighty-two. He was a manufacturer of brown and yellow pottery ware, his family in England being potters. Mrs. Palmer is the eldest of his thirteen children, the others being George, now dep- uty poor master in Kewanee, who took his brother William's place in the Civil war and served three years; William C., who enlisted in the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry and died at Tip- ton, Missouri, after having served five months; Joseph S., who was also one of the boys in blue and is now living in Bingham, Iowa; John, a resident of Moline, Illinois; Edward M., clerk of the circuit court and a ranchman of Burwell, Nebraska; Mary, widow of Danel Holt, and a resident of Ke- wanee; Anna, wife of J. S. Minor, who is connected with the shoe department of Lay & Lyman's store in Kewanee; and five chil- dren. deceased.
Unto Mr. and Mrs. Palmer have been born ten children, as follows: Lucy E., who died at the age of fifteen months: Sarah, who died at the age of two months and six-
teen days; Addie MI., wife of Bert Roul- ston, of Bingham, Iowa; William C., who- is mentioned below; Ernest E., at home: Nora J., who died at the age of fifteen months: Walter A., a physician of Redwood. Minnesota, who married Alice Bonny, of Chicago, and has two sons, Walter L. and Donald ; Bessie MI., wife of G. C. Stratton, head clerk in Hoffman's store of Kewanee, by whom she has three children, Frank P .. and and Prudence F., twins, and Geneveive ; Grove G., who is his father's assistant in business; and Frank N., who died at the age of five years.
Mr. Palmer, his wife and family hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, where he sang in the choir for over twenty years, and has also served as class leader and leader in the young people's meet- ing. Fraternally he is a member of the Knights of Honor and served as its secretary and treasurer for many years. Since casting his first presidential vote for John C. Fre- mont he has been an ardent Republican, and for one year he filled the office of tax col- lector of Kewanee. He is one of the worthy citizens of that place and is a man highly respected and esteemed by all who know him.
William C. Palmer, son of our subject. was born on the 29th of October, 1863, in Kewanee, and was educated in the public schools of that city and at a business college in Quincy, where he was graduated in 1892. Prior to taking the commercial course, he had clerked in a grocery store for five years. and for ten years was similarly employed by the firm of Lay & Lyman, of Kewanee. He then embarked in the furniture and under- taking business on his own account as a member of the firm of Roadstrand & Palmer. but fifteen months later Mr. Roadstrand sold
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liis interest to Mr. Good, and the name was changed to Palmer & Good. In February, 1900, Mr. Good took the furniture depart- ment, while Mr. Palmer kept the undertak- ing business, which he has since carried on with marked stecess, doing the largest busi- ness in that line in the city. Politically he is a supporter of the Republican party, socially is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias, while religiously he is officially connected with the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was married, June 25. 1890, to Miss Rena Murchison, by whom he has two children, Willie M. and Merwyn. Mrs. Palmer was born in Illinois, and is a daughter of Cap- tain Alexander and Maggie Murchison, who were natives of Scotland and Pennsylvania, respectively, and are now residents of Weth- ersfield township, this county.
MARTIN ROOS.
Martin Roos comes from the Fatherland, and the strongest and most creditable char- acteristics of the Teutonic race have been marked elements in his life and have enabled him to win success in the face of opposing cir- cumstances. He possesses the energy and determination which mark the people of Germany, and by the exercise of his powers he has steadily progressed, and has not only won a handsome competence, but has com- manded universal respect by his straight- forward business methods. He is now liv- ing a retired life in Geneseo.
father, who was a prosperous and progress- ive man, as well as an honorable and upright citizen of his community, died at the age of forty-two years, when our subject was only two years old. The mother survived him, and was sixty-five years of age at the time of her death.
In their family of six children our sub- ject is the youngest and only one now liv- ing. Of the others, Henry, born in 1800, came to the United States in 1852, and lo- cated in Loraine township, Henry county, Illinois, where he owned and operated a farm of two hundred and forty acres until his death, in 1872. He left a widow and six children. Jacob, born April 10, 1803, spent his life as a farmer in Germany, where he died at the age of eighty years. He mar- red and had one child. Philip, born De- cember 5, 1805, came to America in 1853, and died about twenty years ago, leaving a farm of one hundred and twenty acres in Loraine township, this county, which is now operated by his son Jacob. Edward P. died in Germany in the fall of 1839, at the age of twenty-seven years.
Martin Roos grew to manhood upon a farm in his native land, and received a good common school education. In 1840 he sailed for the new world, and after a voyage of thir- ty-two days the vessel cast anchor in the har- bor of New York, on the 3d of June. On landing our subject found that he had only five dollars with which to begin life in a strange land, but he was willing to work and possessed the determination to succeed, which have been important elements in his career. For a year he was employed as a farm hand in Pennsylvania for six dollars per month, and then went to Delaware, where he obtained work at double the salary. A
Mr. Roos was born in Hesse-Darmstadt. Germany, September 22, 1816, a son of Henry and Margarette ( Hinkel) Roos, w ho spent their entire lives in that country. The year later he returned to Pennsylvania,
MARTIN ROOS.
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where he made his home until going to Chi- cago in 1843. Failing to find a situation in that city, he went into the country, where he worked two years in a grist and saw mill, and also hauled flour into the city, a distance of forty miles.
In the spring of 1845 Mr. Roos came to Henry county, and took up eighty acres of government land on sections 8 and 17, Lo- raine township, on which he erected a log house. He at once commenced to break and improve his land, and added to his original purchase until he had over four hundred acres of land, on which he successfully en- gaged in general farming and stock raising for forty years, but since 1885 has lived a retired life in Geneseo, having a comforta- ble home on Russell avenue. He still owns two hundred and forty acres of his farm, and from it derives a good income.
In 1845, in Loraine township, Mr. Roos was married to Miss Magdalena Lehmann, a native of Alsace, Germany, who died De- cember 7, 1855, and was buried in Loraine township. She was a devoted wife and a kind and loving mother. By that union there were five children, all born in Loraine township, namely : (1) Martin J. enlisted at the last call for troops during the Civil war, and served until hostilities ceased. He is now engaged in merchandising and farming in Bon Homme county, South Dakota. He married Tillie Voigt, and they have four children, Mary, Eddie, Rebecca and Blanche. (2) Philip, a farmer of Whiteside county, Illinois, married Eveline Sand, and they have four children, Lydia, Leonard, Wesley and Howard. (3) Ann Sarah is the wife of Lewis Arnett, a farmer of Portland town- ship, Whiteside county, and they have eight children, Clara, Stacey, Roy, Ida, Aggie, Winnie, Maude and Harley. (+) Rebecca
is the wife of Lavinus Heller, who was en- gaged in farming in Atkinson township for many years, but is now living a retired life in Geneseo, and they have four children, Albert, Frank, Clara and Inez. (5) Sa- lome is the wife of Julius Lemuel, who is employed in a factory in Kewanee, and they have four children, Frank, Grace, Edward and Mary.
On the 6th of March, 1856, Mr. Roos was united in marriage with Miss Eva Bar- bara Knapper, a native of Germany, and to them were born the following named chil- dren : ( I) William, a resident of Buffalo county, Nebraska, married Sarah E. Lodge, and they have four children, Edward MI., Blanche, Jennie and Frank. He owns 2nd operates a farm of four hundred and eighty acres. (2) Louisa is the wife of Solomon J. Heller, a farmer of Loraine township, whose sketch appears on another page of this vol- ume, and they have four children, Daniel, Nettie, Ralph and Harold. (3) Christina is the wife of John Butzer, a merchant and grain dealer of Hillsdale, Rock Island cour :- ty, Illinois, and their children are Ada, Clar- ence, Glenn, Frank, Birdie, Vernie, Goldl'e and Martin J. (4) David was shot aud killed by a tramp while in the exercise of his duty as city marshal of Tindall, Bon Homme county, South Dakota, and left a widow and three children, Harry, Clara M. and David. (5) George F., a farmer of Marshall, Minnesota, is married and has one child, Cecil. (6) Wesley died in infancy. (7) Samuel W., a resident of Luverne, Minne- sota, married Rachael Cripp. (8) Henri- etta M. is the wife of Frank Grant Hum- phreys, a farmer of Annawan township, this county, and they have four children, Cecil, Fay, Ada Verne and Eva M. (9) Lydia M. is the wife of Otis Hannah, a painter
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and paper hanger of Geneseo, and they have three children, Lester O., Gladys and Jessie M. (10) Benjamin H., a barber of Gene- seo, married Lillie Drain, and has one child, Cassie J. ( II) Marcella E. B. is the wife of W. M. Baker, of Muscatine, Iowa, and they have one child, Wilbur.
Mr. Roos is a prominent and influential member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church ·of Geneseo, to which he is a liberal contrib- utor, and in which he has served both as treasurer and deacon, filling the latter office for over thirty years. He also officiated as steward and exhorter for many years, and has taken an active part in all church work. His fellow citizens recognizing his worth and ability, have called upon him to fill public offices of honor and trust, and he has most capably served as school trustee and road commissioner, serving three terms in the lat- ter office. He has voted the Republican ticket ever since the party was organized.
LEONARD SIEBEN.
Through many years of active labor, mainly devoted to stock raising and agricul- tural pursuits, Leonard Sieben acquired a comfortable competence which now enables him to lay aside all business cares in ease and retirement at his pleasant home in Gen- eseo. A native of Germany, he was born on the 15th of February, 1844. in Hesse Darm- stadt, of which province his parents. Joseph and Aboline Sieben, were also natives. In 1852 the family emigrated to the new world, thirty-five days being spent on the water. The mother was taken ill during the long voyage, and died in Chicago at the age of forty-five years, the family having re- mained in that city during the winter of
1852-53. The following spring they moved to Whiteside county, Illinois, where the father worked at anything which he could find to do in order to support his large fam- ily of seven children, five sons and two daughters. In 1857 he married again, his second wife being a Miss Fisk, by whom he had one child. He died in Whiteside county, January 1, 1859, at the age of forty-nine years. In religious belief hte parents of our subect were Catholics. Their children were as follows: John, a resident of Lorain township, this county; Teresa, wife of Henry H. Hammann, of Osco township; Valentine, who was instantly killed by a horse in 1886, at the age of forty-four years; Margaret, wife of George Arnett, of Geneseo; Leonard, of this review; and Henry and Jacob, both of Montana.
By the death of his father, Leonard Sie- ben was thrown upon his own resources at the tender age of thirteen, years, and has since made his own way in the world unaided. For a short time he was employed by neighbor- ing farmers, but in 1864 went west to that part of Idaho which has since become Mon- tana. In company with three others he crosed the plains, and after traveling three months and seven days landed in Virginia City, where he was first employed as team- ster and continued to follow that occupation until the spring of 1866, when he bought a team and engaged in freighting between Fort Benton and Virginia City to Helena and other towns in the interior, which were then the sites of mining camps. To that business he devoted his attention until the spring of 1870, when he went to Utah and bought a herd of young cattle which he drove to Montana to sell, being engaged in that en- terprise for three years, at the end of which time he located on a stock ranch in Meagher,
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now Cascade county, Montana, and made his home there until the fall of 1879. Sell- ing his interests in the west, he returned to Illinois, in January, 1880, and purchased a farm on section 28, Phenix township, Henry county, where he successfully followed ag- ricultural pursuits for several years, but is now living a retired life in Geneseo. He still owns a fine farm of three hundred and thirty-one acres of rich and arable land in Cornwall township, this county, which he rents, and also has twenty and a half acres of timber land in Phenix township. In addition he also has two hundred and forty acres of improved land in the same township which was the old homestead.
On the 9th of April, 1878, Mr. Sieben married Miss Sarah J. Hines, a native of Illi- nois. Her father, Henry Hines, was born in Germany, February 19, 1819, but was only three years old when brought by his parents to America, the voyage being made in a sail- ing vessel and lasting many weeks. The family landed in Baltimore, Maryland, and proceeded to Wayne county, Ohio, where Mr. Hines grew to manhood and married Miss Susan Henney, a native of that county, and a daughter of Peter and Christina (Strayer) Henney, who were both born in Pennsylvania. Mr. Henney died in 1873, at the age of eighty-three and a half years, his wife in 1870 at the age of seventy-four. In 1850 Mr. and Mrs. Hines removed from the Buckeye state to Illinois, and took up their residence in Phenix township, this county, where he followed farming throughout his life, his death occurring March 18, 1870. Religiously he was connected with the Evan- gelical Association. His wife, who still survives him, is an honored resident of Gene- seo, and an active member of the United Evangelical Church of that place. She is
now seventy-five years of age. To this worthy couple were born the following chil- dren : John H., a farmer of Kansas; Lucy A., wife of George W. Rowe, a retired farmer of Geneseo; Christina S., wife of Aaron Rapp, of Geneseo; Mary E., wife of Abner Offerley, of Edwards county, Kan- sas; Sarah, wife of our subject; Hattie A .. wife of Jolin Goembel, of Geneseo; Peter H., a resident of Geneva, Nebraska; and Frederick A., a farmer of Phenix township. Besides their own children Mr. and Mrs. Hines reared Emma Weeks, now the wife of Charles W. Young, of Geneseo.
Mr. and Mrs. Sieben are the parents of five children, namely : Olive S. has success- fully taught school for several terms in this county, and is now a student at Oberlin Col- lege, Oberlin, Ohio, where she will graduate in 1903; Sylvia B. is also a student at Ober- lin College and is giving special attention to music, in which she takes great delight and in which she is quite proficient; Ira L. is at- tending the Geneseo high school; Ward H. is a pupil in the eighth grade of the public schools of Geneseo; and Ruth E. is also at- tending the public schools. Mr. and Mrs. Sieben are prominent members of the Evan- gelical Church of Geneseo, in which he has served as steward and trustee for some years. Politically he is identified with the Republican party, and gives a liberal sup- port to all enterprises which he believes cal- culated to advance the moral and material welfare of town and county.
OLIVER W. BROWN.
Since 1839 this gentleman has been an honored resident of Henry county, and has therefore witnessed almost its entire growth
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and development. As an agriculturist he materially aided in transforming the wild land into highly cultivated fields, and in other ways has advanced the interests of the county. After a long and useful career lie has now laid aside all business cares, and is living a retired life in Wethersfield.
Mr. Brown was born in the town of North Coventry, Tolland county, Connecti- cut, on the 20th of June, 1820, and is a son of Selah Brown, whose birth occurred at the same place December 11, 1783. His pa- ternal grandfather was Josiah Brown, one of the early settlers of Connecticut. There Selah Brown grew to manhood, and mar- ried Miss Betsy Dunham, who was born in the same state in 1786, and was a danghter of Stephen Dunham, a Revolutionary sol- dier, who lived to the advanced age of nine- ty-nine years, and died in North Coventry. There the parents of our subject spent their entire lives as farming people.
During his boyhood Oliver W. Brown attended the common schools near his home and remained under the parental roof inn- til eighteen years of age. On leaving home in 1838 he came west with four families from Connecticut, and after eight weeks spent upon the road landed in MeDonough county, Illinois. In the fall of 1839 he came to Henry county, where he worked by the day and month for a year, receiving ten dol- lars per month. In 1841 he purchased one hundred acres of unbroken prairie land in Kewanee township, and at once commenced to improve the same and place it under cul- tivation. Subsequently he purchased more land and had a fine farm of two hundred acres, which he improved in an excellent manner, receiving one year the second pre- mium offered for the best farms in the county. He continued to actively engage
in agricultural pursuits until 1875, when he sold his place and bought a home in Wethers- field, where he still resides. Being a natural mechanic he has worked at the carpenter's trade to some extent during his residence here, but is now living a retired life, having laid aside all business cares. At one time he owned a well improved farm of two hun- dred and forty aeres in Otter county, Ne- braska, but has since disposed of that.
In Henry county, September 6, 1846, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Brown and Miss Elizabeth Maria Kent, a native of Wyoming county, New York, and a daugh- ter of Ebenezer Kent, who was born in Ver- mont and when a young man removed to the Empire state. The Kent family is of Eng- lish origin and the first to come to America was Richard Kent, who crossed the Atlantic in 1634, and settled in Newbury, Massa- chusetts. Ebenezer Kent was twice mar- ried, his second wife being Polly Bolt, the mother of Mrs. Brown. In 1844 he came to Illinois, and after two years spent in Bureau county, took up his residence in Henry county. He lived to be over ninety- one years of age. Of the ten children born to Mr. and Mrs. Brown seven are still living, namely : Clark K., who is married and lives in Nebraska; George Oliver, who is also married and resides in that state; Frank G., who is married and makes his home in Cali- fornia; Eben S., also a resident of Califor- nia; Milton H., who is married and lives in Nebraska; Cyrus A., who is married and lives in Kewanee; and Mary O., wife of James Van Eman of Dwight, Illinois. Those of the family now deceased were Charles H., who died at the age of eighteen months; Laura P., who died at the age of thirteen months; and Emily M., the first born, who married Stephen Hurd and died
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