USA > Ohio > Memoirs of the lower Ohio valley, personal and genealogical : with portraits, Volume II > Part 22
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1859, he married Miss Fannie E. Ward, a native of Ireland, who came to America and settled at Cairo, Ill., in 1851. Her father died while crossing the ocean and was buried at sea. Her mother died in Cairo. They had six children, two of whom are living. After the death of her mother the wife of Captain Willis removed to Union county, Ky., where they were married in 1859. Five children have blessed the marriage: Richard W., a river man; Thomas E., cashier of the First National bank of Metropolis; John G., a stock farmer; Jay Clay, a partner of his father in the coal business and steamboat agent, and Fannie E., wife of Fred P. Davenport, D.D., of Memphis, Tenn., a distinguished minister of the Episcopal church. In 1859 Captain Willis came to Metropolis, where he has since resided. Here he engaged in the wharfboat and commission business until 1890. Since 1873 he has also been engaged in flour milling, but for the last two years has given his attention principally to the coal business. During the Civil war he served for a short time as quartermaster of the Forty-eighth Illinois regiment, but by being thrown from a horse was disabled for service. In 1868 he was elected to the Illinois legislature and served one session. In 1869 he was appointed collector of in- ternal revenue for the thirteenth district of Illinois, which position he held for thirteen years. During this time he served one term as mayor of Metropolis. In 1886 he was elected county judge and served one term. He also served one term as railroad and ware- house commissioner and two terms as a member of the county board. Although admitted to the bar in 1856 he has never followed the prac- tice of law. In Masonry he has taken an active part, being both a Royal Arch Mason and a Knight Templar. Captain Willis is not iden- tified with any church, but is quite liberal in his religious views. His father was a Baptist and his mother a Presbyterian.
JUDGE WILLIAM S. DEWEY, county judge of Alexander county, Ill., and eldest son of Capt. E. S. Dewey, was born in Irving- ton, Ill., on Aug. 25, 1869. He was but three years old when his father removed to Cairo. After completing his public school educa- tion in the Cairo city schools he entered the Sioux Falls university, at Sioux Falls, S. D., from which he graduated in the classical course with high rank in June, 1889. Returning to Cairo he began the study of law in the office of the Hon. Walter Warder, and was ad- mitted to the bar June 20, 1892. He soon won a good practice. However, in 1894 he was elected to the office of county judge, as a Republican. He received a majority of over six hundred, something
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unusual in his county. In 1898 he was re-elected to the office at a time when all of the Republican candidates on the county ticket ex- cept himself and the clerk were defeated. In 1902 he was elected to the office for the third time without opposition, receiving every vote that was cast for county judge. When first elected judge he was but twenty-five years old, which gives him the record of being one of the youngest county judges in the United States. At the expiration of his present term he will have served twelve years, each term being four years. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias and Masonic fraternities, in both of which he takes a very active part. At present he is secretary of the Republican county central committee and a member of the Republican committee of the Fiftieth Illinois senatorial district. On June 14, 1904, he married Miss Katherine Klier of Cairo.
MILES FREDERICK GILBERT, a prominent lawyer of Cairo, Ill., was born in Alton, Madison county, of that state, Sept. II, 1849. The genealogy of the family can be traced back to some of the most distinguished characters in English history, whose names have been conspic- uous in literature, science and art. The family was first represented in America by five brothers, who emigrated from Norfolk county, England, at an early date, and settled, one in Virginia, one in Massachusetts and three in Connecticut, near the present cities of Hartford and New Haven. It is to this branch of the family that the father of the subject of this sketch, Judge Miles A. Gilbert, born in Hartford, belongs. He was long a resident of Kaskaskia, the first capital of Illinois, and also one of the pioneers of Cairo, entering from the government land on which that city now stands. Subsequently he removed to Ste. Genevieve county, Mo., where for sixteen years he served as judge of the county court. He was a man of superior ability and on the bench discharged his duties with marked impartiality. He died at his home in St. Mary's, Mo., June 21, 1901, aged ninety-one years. His wife, Mrs. Ann E. Gilbert, died July 14, 1893. Miles Frederick Gilbert, the subject of this sketch, was educated in the public schools of Alton, Ill. After- ward he entered Washington university, St. Louis, Mo., but on account of ill health was forced to leave that institution before grad-
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uation. Subsequently he was enrolled among the students of the Pennsylvania military college at Chester. On the completion of his literary education in that institution he entered the law department of Harvard university, from which he graduated with the degree of LL.B., June 29, 1869. Prior to entering Harvard he had read law in the office of Haynie, Marshall & Gilbert, well-known attorneys of Cairo, and had been admitted to the bar in 1868. Jan. 1, 1870, he began the practice of his chosen profession as a member of the firm of Green & Gilbert. In 1875 he was licensed to practice law in the various federal courts, and in 1892 before the supreme court of the United States. He is now district attorney for the St. Louis & South- western railway. In addition to the practice of law Mr. Gilbert is now administering successfully the interests of the Loan and Improvement association, being president of that corporation. He is a prominent and influential member of the Episcopal church, in which he is serv- ing as warden and vestryman. For many years he has annually rep- resented his parish in the diocesan synod and for nineteen years the diocese at the general convention of the American church, serving on the committee on constitutional amendments. For ten years he has been chancellor of the diocese, the bishop's legal adviser, and was in October, 1904, elected one of the judges of the court of review of the Fifth judicial department of the American church, including five states. While a strong advocate of the principles of the Democratic party, he has never been an aspirant for official honors. For twelve years he served as a member of the board of education of the Cairo public schools, before elevation to its presidency, during which time he did much to elevate their standard and to increase their efficiency. Fully appreciating the great work that Mr. Gilbert has done for the schools, the people have re-elected him president of the board for nine successive terms, being twenty-one years in the cause of education. On Oct. 18, 1871, Mr. Gilbert married Miss Addie Louise Barry, of Alton, youngest daughter of the late Amasa S. Barry, formerly of Alton and later of Chicago. They have two living children: Mrs. Nellie Gilbert-Halliday and Edward Leigh Gilbert, the latter now a well-known business man of Cairo. Strong in his individuality, Mr. Gilbert never lacks the courage of his convictions. There are, how- ever, as dominating elements in this individuality, a lively human sympathy and an abiding charity, which, taken in connection with the sterling integrity and honor of his character, have naturally gained for him the respect and confidence of his fellow-men.
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CAPT. EDMUND SABIN DEWEY, an old and prominent citizen of Cairo, Ill., and an ex-clerk of the circuit court of Alexander county, was born in Berkshire county, Mass., Nov. 10, 1836. He is the son of Oliver Dewey, who was born July 24, 1805, in Massachusetts, and died in Bond county, Ill., March 14, -1901. He was a farmer by occupation. Oliver Dewey was the son of Edmund Dewey, who died Nov. 9, 1842, aged seventy-four years. He too was a farmer. The latter was the son of Paul Dewey, who was born in 1739 and died in 1827. Paul Dewey was the son of Israel Dewey, who was born March 3, 1712, and died May 23, 1773. Israel Dewey was the son of Thomas Dewey who was born June 29, 1662, and died March 15, 1758. He in turn was the son of Jedediah Dewey who died Jan. 26, 1727. Jedediah Dewey was the son of Thomas Dewey, who emigrated from Sandwich, county of Kent, England, to Plymouth, Mass., in 1632. Thomas was of sturdy English Puritan stock. In 1638 he removed to Windsor, Conn., where he died April 27, 1648. His son, Jedediah, returned to Massachusetts, where for the most part the succeeding members of the family resided. Oliver Dewey, the father of Edmund S., who belonged to the seventh generation removed from Thomas Dewey, the emigrant, removed from Massachusetts to Aurora, Ill., in 1853. Later he removed to DeKalb county, Ill. On April 14, 1829, Oliver Dewey married Eliza Sabin, who died in DeKalb county, Ill., Dec. 10, 1893. She was born in Massachusetts June 17, 1807, being eighty-six years of age at her death. She and her husband lived together as man and wife for more than sixty-four years. Their marriage was blessed with six children whose names were as follows: Robert King, born Aug. 25, 1830, a resident of Greenville, Bond county, Ill .; Edmund Sabin, whose name heads this memoir ; Hannah Josephine, born April 8, 1838, now Mrs. Charles H. Sabin, of Lee, Berkshire county, Mass .; Oliver Burdette, born July 12, 1840, who served as a private in an Illinois cavalry regiment in the Civil war and who died May 24, 1895; Charles Ansel, born Sept. 17, 1842, now living in DeKalb county, Ill. ; Mira Eliza, now Mrs. Andrew Beveridge of South Dakota, who was born April 6, 1849. Eliza Sabin, the mother of this subject, was the daughter of Origen Sabin, who was born Dec. 20,
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1771, and died Jan. 18, 1857. Origen was the son of Ziba Sabin, who was born in August, 1749, and died in 1825. Ziba was the son of Israel Sabin who died at Norwich, Conn., in 1782. Admiral George Dewey of the United States Navy and the hero of Manila is a mem- ber of the same family, having descended from Josiah Dewey, the sec- ond son of Thomas Dewey, while Edmund S. Dewey is a descendant of Jedediah Dewey, the fourth son of the same Thomas Dewey. In England the Dewey family was of good rank and standing, possessing a coat of arms. Edmund S. Dewey, the subject of this sketch, came to Illinois from Massachusetts in 1853. He was then a lad of seventeen years. He received a liberal education and in early manhood taught school for several years both before and after the Civil war. In 1860 he left home and after teaching a term in St. Clair county, Ill., went to Greenville, Ill., where he clerked in a store until July, 1862. This position he resigned to enlist in the Union army. In 1862 he enlisted as a private in company F, One Hundred and Thirtieth Illinois in- fantry. Almost immediately, however, he was made sergeant-major of his regiment and very soon thereafter was promoted to the position of adjutant with the rank of first lieutenant. Toward the close of the war, after his regiment had suffered disaster on the Red River cam- paign under General Banks, the remnant was consolidated with the Seventy-seventh Illinois infantry, when he was made captain of Com- pany C of this regiment. He served with this rank until after the surrender at Appomattox. However, before he was finally mustered out, the old One Hundred and Thirtieth Illinois was reorganized, and he resumed his old position as its adjutant. He was mustered out of service at Springfield, Ill., August, 1865. Captain Dewey received his first wound at Vicksburg, May 19, 1863. He was wounded the second time at Jackson, Miss., shortly after the surrender of Vicks- burg. After the war he returned to Greenville, Ill., where for three years he served as deputy circuit clerk of the county. He was then four years instructor in mathematics in the Illinois Agricultural col- lege at Irvington. In 1872 he came to Cairo where he has since resided. Since coming here he has served as circuit clerk of Alex- ander county for fourteen years, retiring in 1900. Captain Dewey is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, of the Royal Arch Masons and of the Knights Templars. On June 14, 1868, Capt. Dewey married Maria Jane French, daughter of David Patten and Mehitable (Foster) French, of Greenville, Ill. She was born at Goffstown, N. H., July 12, 1847, and died at Cairo, Ill., Jan. 29, 1889. She came to Illinois with her parents in 1853, her father becoming
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pastor of the Baptist church at Jerseyville, Ill. Here the family re- sided until 1862, when they removed to Greenville, Ill. From 1864 to 1866 her father was president of Almira college, a female seminary located at Greenville. Here the wife of Captain Dewey completed her education, giving especial attention to music, for which she had marked ability. After her marriage she moved to Irvington, Ill., where her husband was a teacher and her father president of the Illinois Agricultural college. She was a lineal descendant of William French, who came to this country from the town of Billericay, Essex county, England, in 1635 and settled in Massachusetts. She belonged to the eighth generation of French settlers, all of her ancestors in this country being residents of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. She was a member of the Baptist church, the Women's Relief Corps, the Women's Club and the Library Association. Her death occurred on Jan. 29, 1889, at Cairo. To Captain Dewey and wife were born seven children, viz .: William Sabin, Aug. 25, 1869; George French, Nov. 19, 1870; Charles Beveridge, Nov. 27, 1872; Jennie Elizabeth, Dec. 22, 1874; John Myron, Nov. 2, 1877; Mira Josephine, Nov. 2, 1877 ; Robert Edmund, Nov. 25, 1879. Edmund S. Dewey was mar- ried the second time on Nov. 25, 1890, at Lebanon, Ill., to Mary Agnes Lytle, daughter of Francis W. and Florida Martin (Routte) Lytle. Captain Dewey is an elder in the Presbyterian church of Cairo and in political matters is a Republican.
ERNEST H. RIGGLE, of Cairo, Ill., county jailer of Alexander county, was born on a farm in that county, about six- teen miles north of the city, March 22, 1876. He is a son of Jacob and Jennie (Atherton) Riggle, the former a native of Franklin county, Pa., and the latter of Alexander county, Ill. The father was born Dec. 22, 1833, and died July 26, 1895. . For many years prior to his death he was a farmer in Alexander county. The mother was born Oct. 12, 1843, and is still living on the old Riggle homestead. They had a family of ten children, seven of whom, five sons and two daughters, are still living. Ernest H. Riggle grew to manhood on the farm where he was born. He received his education in the coun- try schools. After the death of his father he aided in the manage-
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ment of the farm, until appointed to his present position by Sheriff James S. Roche in December, 1902. On Jan. 4, 1900, he was mar- ried to a first cousin, Ettie May Riggle, a daughter of Joseph and Susannah (Garman) Riggle and a native of Henry county, Ind., where she was born Feb. 7, 1868. To this marriage there have been born three children, viz .: Ethel Marguerite, born Sept. 28, 1900; Homer Garman and Herbert Atherton, twins, born April 25, 1903. Politically Mr. Riggle is a Republican. He is a modest, unassuming gentleman, who goes about his business with a determination to suc- ceed, and possesses all the essential qualifications of the successful turnkey.
CAPT. JOHN HODGES, of Cairo, Ill., familiarly known to his friends as Capt. "Jack" Hodges, was born in that county, Aug. 19, 1836. He is the son of John Hodges, a native of Tennessee, who died in 1862. The paternal grandfather, Edmond Hodges, a Tennesseean, removed to Alexander county, Ill., in an early day and located at Unity. The mother, now deceased, of Captain Hodges was Marga- ret Hunsaker before her marriage. Eleven children were born to this union, of whom the captain is the oldest, seven yet living. In his youth and early manhood he was employed in his father's store. In 1860 he was elected to the office of sheriff of Alexander county ; was repeatedly re-elected to this office and in all held it for more than twenty years. He enjoys the distinction of having served as sheriff longer than any other one who ever held that office in this county. He was first elected county treasurer in 1859, but resigned this office to run for sheriff. After serving one term in this office he was then elected city marshal, a much more lucrative office in those days, and held it for two terms. For ten years he was engaged in mercantile pursuits. In 1876, at the request of the sheriff, Captain Hodges became his deputy, serving two years. In 1878 he was again elected sheriff and held the office for eight consecutive years. In 1890 he was again elected sheriff and served four years. In 1898 he was once more elected to the office, serving four more years. He might in all probability have held the office continuously but for the fact that the law now makes the sheriff ineligible to succeed himself.
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Captain Hodges is an Elk and a Democrat. July 25, 1858 he mar- ried Josephine I. Wicker, who died Nov. 7, 1902, leaving five children -three sons and two daughters. June 1, 1903, he married Miss Capitola Nelson, of Caseyville, Ky., and to this union one son, Her- bert Nelson Hodges, aged about six months, has been born.
CHARLES FEUCHTER, JR., vice- president of the Alexander County Na- tional bank of Cairo, Ill., and senior mem- ber of the firm of Feuchter Bros., whole- sale liquor dealers, was born in Cairo, Nov. 2, 1863. He is the elder son of Charles Feuchter, Sr., a prominent and well known citizen of Cairo; was reared and educated in Cairo, supplementing his public school training by a course in the Eastman Business college of Pough- keepsie, N. Y., from which institution he graduated in 1881. Returning to Cairo he was variously employed for a short time when he entered the em- ploy of the Illinois Central Railroad Company in its local freight office. He held a position with this road for ten years, passing through many promotions. He was finally made cashier, which posi- tion he resigned in 1890 to accept the position of cashier and chief clerk in the local freight office of the Iron Mountain railroad. Hold- ing this position until Feb. 1, 1891, he resigned to embark in business for himself. He formed a partnership with his younger brother, William Feuchter, and under the firm name of Feuchter Bros., pur- chased the wholesale liquor business formerly conducted and owned by the late Judge F. Bross. Feuchter Bros. have prospered, making their business one of the leading wholesale industries of Cairo. A few years ago the firm purchased the extensive two-story and base- ment brick business block, corner Sixth and Ohio streets, all of which is occupied by their business. Mr. Chas. Feuchter, Jr., is president of the Cuban Cigar company ; is a director of the St. Louis & Cairo Railroad Company; the Citizens' Building and Loan association; a member of the Alexander club ; of Safford Lodge 67 Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he is a past noble grand ; is a past exalted ruler of Cairo Lodge No. 651 Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is a member of the Knights of the Mystic Krew of Comus, a local order of Cairo. He is also a member of the commercial club
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of Cairo. William Feuchter, junior member of the firm of Feuchter Bros., was born at Cairo, Sept. 11, 1866. He is the younger son of Charles Feuchter, Sr., of that city. William Feuchter received his education in the Cairo schools. For several years in early life he was employed by the Andrew Lohr Bottling Works of Cairo. In 1888 he became the manager of the wholesale whisky house of Judge F. Bross. In 1891 he formed a partnership with his brother Charles, purchasing the business of Judge Bross, which business they have largely extended. Mr. William Feuchter is secretary and treasurer of the Cuban Cigar Company. He is a member of the Cairo Lodge 651 Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of the Mystic Krew of Comus, and is a charter member of the Alexander club. The parents of the Messrs. Feuchter are still residing in Cairo and the two sons, both single, make their home with them.
JOHN M. LANSDEN, a member of the legal profession, of Cairo, Ill., was born in Sangamon county in that state, Feb. 12, 1836. His parents, Rev. A. W. and Mary M. Lansden, came to that county in 1835, from Wilson county, Tenn. He worked on the farm, attended the vil- lage and district schools during the fall and winter, prepared for college at Virginia, Cass county, Ill., and on Sept. 15, 1858, entered the freshman class of Cumberland university at Lebanon, Wilson county, Tenn. Being somewhat in advance of his class in most of their studies, he was able to prepare and recite the lessons in both the freshman and sophomore classes, and at the beginning of his second year was admitted to the junior class. In the junior and senior classes, of about forty members, he stood third in mathematics and second in all other branches. Owing to the dis- turbed condition of the country following the election of Mr. Lin- coln to the presidency and the probable early suspension of college work, he left Lebanon, in January, 1861, and went to Jacksonville, Ill., where he entered the senior class of Illinois college, and there graduated June 20, of the same year. His studies in the institutions mentioned were those usually prescribed for the classical course in most colleges. After leaving college, he engaged in teaching in Menard and Sangamon counties, and subsequently took the superin-
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tendency of the public schools at Centralia. In 1864, he entered the Albany law school, of Albany university, New York, from which he graduated May 25, 1865. While there he was chosen president of the class which embraced all of the one hundred and twenty members of the law school. Judge Thomas A. Moran, of Chicago; Judge Irving G. Vann, of the court of appeals of New York; Judge Samuel D. Hastings, of Wisconsin, and many others who have become prominent in the profession, were members of his class. After being admitted to the bar in both New York and Illinois, in the year of his graduation, he went to Cairo in 1866, where he began the practice he has continued uninterruptedly to the present time. He was a member first of the firm of Olney, McKeaig & Lansden, and afterward of the firm of Omelveny & Lansden, the senior partner of which was the Hon. Harvey K. S. Omelveny, who subsequently removed to Los Angeles. In 1874, he formed a partnership with the Hon. David T. Linegar, which continued nearly to the time of the latter's death in 1885. The Hon. John H. Mulkey, prior to his election to the supreme bench, was associated with them for a time under the firm name of Mulkey, Linegar & Lansden. In 1887 Judge Lansden and Angus Leek formed the present firm of Lansden and Leek. Mr. Lansden's practice has been chiefly of a general nature, in the State and Federal courts in Illinois, and for some years past in Missouri and Kentucky. He and the firm of Lansden & Leek, for twenty years, have been district counsel for the Mobile & Ohio Railroad Company, for the States of Illinois, Missouri and Kentucky. For many years he has been the attorney and counselor of the Alexander County National bank and the Alexander County Savings bank, of Cairo. He was admitted to practice in the United States supreme court some years ago; has confined himself very closely to his profession; has taken little part in politics; has held no offices except those of city attorney, mayor and treasurer of schools, and has acted for the most part with the Democratic party. He was married Sept. 25, 1867, to Effie Wyeth Smith, a daughter of the late David A. Smith, of Jacksonville. They have six children : David Smith, Mary Gallaher, Effie Allan, Emma Louise, John Mc- Murray and Margaret Lansden, all of them, except John, graduates of the Cairo high school. David is also a graduate of Princeton, class of 1891 ; Mary of the Southern Illinois normal, class of 1890, and John of Rose Polytechnic institute, Terre Haute, Ind., class of 1898. David has been with his father in the practice of law since 1894. The family's church relations have always been with the
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Presbyterian church, as have been the ancestors of Mr. and Mrs. Lansden for a very long time. He has belonged to no secret society except the college Greek letter society of Alpha Delta Phi, Cumber- land Chapter, 1861.
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