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737
THE NATIONAL BANK OF MATTOON
The National Bank of Mattoon opened its
doors for business on July 1, 1911.
Its antecedents were the old First National
Bank and the old Mattoon National Bank and,
more remotely, a private bank known as Pil-
kington and Company. The National Bank of
Mattoon had, just before its 1911 opening-,
taken over the assets of the First National
and the Mattoon National. In February, 1865,
the First National was organized. It had pur-
chased the furniture and fixtures of Pilking-
ton and Company for one thousand dollars
and began business in that company's offices
at 1713 Broadway. This was just about two
months before the assassination of President
Lincoln.
During the same year, 1865, the new bank
purchased a lot at 1613 Broadway for $1800
and moved into its new quarters in 1866,
where it continued until 1911. The First Na-
tional was through the years the leading bank
of Mattoon. In 1874, however, it was forced
to share a portion of the banking business of
the community with a competitor, the Mat-
toon National, organized that year. The Mat-
toon National erected a building at 1704
Broadway and conducted business at that lo-
cation until 1911. In its first year in business,
the First National lent money to the individ-
ual directors of the West Side School (Haw-
thorne) rather than to the school district,
which was newly organized. Thus a way was
found to promote the growth of public insti-
tutions for the betterment of the community,
a policy still followed by its successor, the
National Bank of Mattoon.
With the merger, the new bank, the Na-
tional, opened for business in a new building
at 1632-34 Broadway. This location had been
purchased for the sum of $30,000 and a
building erected on it at an additional cost of
$60,000. L. L. Lehman was the bank's first
president, and he has had only four succes-
sors: G. S. Richmond, W. H. Ownby, Fred
Grant and J. Stanley Weis. The bank, at time
of organization, had capital and surplus to-
taling $300,000 and deposits of $1,200,000.
As of June 30, 1949, the capital and surplus
totaled $500,000 and the deposits $11,461,-
851.90. The undivided profits as of that date
stood at $86,548.86 and the reserve for con-
tingencies and taxes at $123,880.56. In 1949,
the bank paid its 76th consecutive semi-an-
nual dividend. This rapid and continued growth
is evidence of the capable management and
confidence cf the public, which this financial
institution has enjoyed down through the years.
The bank enlarged its quarters in 1924.
Continued growth and expansion soon made it
imperative for still morj space to be provided.
In consequence, in 1945 an extensive program
of remodeling and complete modernization
was undertaken. Completed in 1946, this re-
sulted in the present beautiful, spacious and
highly efficient quarters in which the bank
now operates. A complete new floor was ad-
ded to the premises by excavating a "down-
stairs banking room," in which all the book-
keeping is handled. New vaults were added to
handle increased demand for safe deposit
boxes, and new air conditioning and heating
units were installed for customer comfort the
year around. Accoustical treatment and new
fixtures added the final touches.
When the bank began business in 1911, it
had a staff of sixteen officers and employees.
Today the staff comprises thirty-seven. The
officers, besides President Weis, including
Edward W. Vollmer, vice-president; Francis
A. Hoag, vice-president and cashier; Martin
F. Behrend, vice-president and trust officer;
John W. Sheeks, assistant vice-president; Leo
Scofield, assistant cashier and assistant trust
officer; H. O. Phipps, assistant cashier and
assistant trust officer, and E. C. Bauer, as-
sistant cashier and assistant trust officer, all
of whom are represented biographically in
this edition. On the directorate are Mr. Weis,
Mr. Vollmer, Mr. Hoag, Mr. Behrend and
George W. Bock, Jewell I. Dilsaver, Fred
Grant, Fred Kuehne, W. H. Cwnby, and Fred
White.
The National Bank of Mattoon is a member
of the Federal Reserve System, Federal De-
posit Insurance Corporation, American Bank-
ers Association, Illinois Bankers Association,
Coles-Cumberland Federation of Bankers, Na-
tional Association of Bank Auditors and
Comptrollers, Financial Public Relations As-
sociation, United States Chamber of Com-
merce, Illinois Chamber of Commerce, Mat-
toon Association of Commerce, and Coles
County Farm Bureau.
The bank has been prominent in the agri-
cultural, industrial and oil development of the
community. It is and has been a firm believer
in the policy that whatever benefits the ter-
ritory it serves benefits the National Bank of
Mattoon.
ILLINOIS EDITION
493
The bank carries on a complete banking
service covering all functions of banking,
including complete trust powers.
With the exception of the panic years 1878-
1879, the National Bank of Mattoon and its
predecessors have never failed to declare divi-
dends since the First National's organization
in 1865. This is a record in the financial his-
tory of Illinois. As a result of sound business
practices, the National today enjoys a reputa-
tion second to none, not only in the communi-
ty but in the State. Ever mindful of duties
and obligations to depositors and customers,
the staff is dedicated to the preservation of
policies and practices which have built the
bank into the powerful financial institution
it is today.
JOSEPH STANLEY WEIS
Long identified in banking circles in Cen-
.tral Illinois, Joseph Stanley Weis of Mattoon
has spent a long lifetime in service to his
community and state. A banker since 1906,
he has risen to great prominence among mem-
bers of this great field of endeavor and has,
in addition, been a leading figure in civic and
public affairs, in industrial development and
in welfare and cultural works. In World Wars
I and II Mr. Weis gave vital service on the
homefront through the war-financing pro-
grams and in peacetime, principally in the
post-World War II period, he has served in
movements to ease the housing shortage. Mr.
Weis is president and a director of the Nation-
al Bank of Mattoon.
Mr. Weis' birth occurred on June 1, 1885,
in Mattoon Township, near Wabash Point,
Coles County. His parents were Dr. Joseph W.
Weis, a noted physician and surgeon, and
Elizabeth B. (Allison) Weis. Dr. Weis, born
in Springfield, Missouri, in 1850, moved to
Mattoon Township with his family in a cov-
ered wagon, making the trip directly from
Springfield in the coui'se of the War Between
the States. At the end of the conflict the
family returned to Springfield. Joseph Weis
studied medicine in New York and Chicago
and in 1872 took his medical degree. He prac-
ticed in the area southwest of Mattoon from
1875 to 1886 and then at Coles Station north-
west of Mattoon from 1886 to 1900. He ended
his career at Manchester, in Scott County,
where he practiced from 1900 to 1923. In
1927 he died. Elizabeth Allison Weis was also
a native of Mattoon and was the daughter of
Frank A. Allison, an attorney in that city,
and Zipora Allison. Her family pioneered in
Coles County.
Joseph Stanley WTeis, the banker, commonly
known as J. Stanley Weis, began his educa-
tion in the rural schools near Coles Station,
which is in Moultrie County. He attended
Eastern Illinois State Normal College at
Charleston for two semesters, 1899-1900, and
then went to the four-year high school at
Manchester, from which he was graduated in
1903. In 1905 he completed a commercial
course at the Gem City Business College In
Quincy.
Mr. Weis began his career as a clei'k in a
general store at Manchester, where he worked
from 1903 to 1904. In 1905 he became man-
ager of a grocery store at Virden. In 1906
he entered the banking business as assistant
cashier of the Farmers and Traders Bank at
Manchester. In 1910 he resigned this position
to accept appointment as assistant cashier of
the Mattoon National Bank in Mattoon and
continued in that position when this bank be-
came a party to the merger that formed the
National Bank of Mattoon. From 1918 to
1939 he was cashier of the National Bank of
Mattoon and in 1939 he became vice-presi-
dent. He was elevated to the presidency in
1945. He has been a director of the bank
since 1920.
Soon after he first established himself as a
banker in Mattoon, Mr. Weis returned briefly
to Manchester to marry Catherine Gale An-
dras, the daughter of John C. and Clara
Andras. The date of the ceremony was May 1,
1911. They now reside at 1121 Wabash Ave-
nue, Mattoon, and worship in the First Meth-
odist Church and the First Presbyterian
Church of that city.
Mr. Weis' experience and skill as a banker
have been invaluable in his organization and
civic work. He has been president, secretary
and treasurer of the Coles-Cumberland Fed-
eration of Bankers, been chairman of Group
Seven of the Illinois Bankers Association and
treasurer of the Illinois Bankers Association,
1931-1932, and has, in addition, served on
various committees of the State organization.
From 1917 to 1919 he was treasurer of the
City of Mattoon and from 1925 to 1927 he
served on the Board of Aldermen. From 1930
to 1932 he was treasurer of the school system
in Mattoon Township. From 1928 to 1934 he
was treasurer of the Dodge Grove Cemetery
of Mattoon and he is now a director of the
Illinois Good Roads Association. He served on
494
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
the board of the Coles County Tuberculosis
Sanitarium from 1937 to 1949 and was presi-
dent and a director of the Mattoon Develop-
ment Corporation, an organization to assist
in easing the critical housing situation, from
its inception in 1946 to its dissolution in 1949.
He was chairman of the Coles County for
War Stamps drives in World War I and co-
chairman of the Coles County War Savings
Bond Committee in World War II. Mr. Weis'
top associates in the National Bank of Mat-
toon are Edward William Vollmer, vice-presi-
dent; Francis August Hoag, vice-president and
cashier, and Martin F. Behrend, vice-president
and trust officer, all of whom are also sub-
jects of biographical studies in this Illinois
history.
Mr. Weis played a prominent role in secur-
ing for Mattoon most of its major industrial
plants, some of which are: Brown Shoe Com-
pany, Kuehne Manufacturing Company, Mat-
toon Lamp Works, division of General Elec-
tric Company, Gar-Wood Industries, and
Atlas Imperial Diesel Engine Company. This
latter company operated in Mattoon for a
number of years and the building that they
occupied is now owned and occupied by
Young Radiator Company. Mr. Weis also as-
sisted, civic-wise, in the establishment of Mat-
toon as a prominent center for oil develop-
ment in Illinois.
The great growth of Mattoon and Coles
County has paralleled the rise of Joseph Stan-
ley Weis and there is no doubt that his ac-
tivities have contributed to that growth.
EDWARD WILLIAM VOLLMER
From a humble start as a grocery clerk Ed-
ward Vollmer of Mattoon has risen to a po-
sition of great prominence in the banking
world and in the civic life of his community.
He has served the city as a Commissioner,
been an official of the American Red Cross
for a quarter of a century and been chairman
of War Bond drives in World War II. As a
banker, Mr. Vollmer is vice-president of the
National Bank of Mattoon.
Born at Mattoon on March 30, 1893, Mr.
Vollmer is the son of John Vollmer, a nativo
of Wisconsin and a carpenter, and Mary Fos-
bender, born at Oldenburg, Indiana, and the
daughter of William and Anna Fosbender. He
attended parochial and public schools in Mat-
toon.
For about six months in 1910 Mr. Vollmer
worked as a clerk in the John Martin grocery
store in Mattoon. Then, on January 16, 191 1,
he began as a clerk in the old First National
Bank of Mattoon which was merged with the
Mattoon National Bank on July 1, 1911 to
form The National Bank of Mattoon. In 1918
he was promoted to assistant cashier and in
1939 he was made cashier, being elected to
the board of directors in the following year.
Since January 9, 1945, he has been vice-pres-
ident. The other officers of this bank are
Joseph Stanley Weis, president; Francis
August Hoag, vice-president and cashier, and
Martin F. Behrend, vice-president and trust
officer, the stories of whose lives and careers
also appear in this Illinois edition of the Li-
brary of American Lives..
On June 20, 1914, at Mattoon, Mr. Vollmer
married Mabel Cordes, the daughter of Henry
and Audiver Cordes. They are the parents of
Donald E. Vollmer, who married Mary Wade
Parthemer in Oak Park, Illinois, on November
27, 1948. The Vollmers reside at 1416 La-
fayette Avenue, Mattoon. Mr. Vollmer is a
communicant of the Church of the Immaculate
Conception, Mattoon, and Mrs. Vollmer is a
member of the Methodist Church.
The tall figure of Mr. Vollmer — -he is five
feet eleven inches tall, weighs 160 pounds
and has brown hair and brown eyes — is a fa-
miliar one in the civic picture. He was Com-
missioner of the City of Mattoon from May 1,
1937, to April 30, 1949, and from 1922 to
1947 was treasurer and a director of the
Mattoon Chapter of the American Red Cross.
Aside from his leadership activities in the Red
Cross during the war, Mr. Vollmer headed all
the War Bond diives in the community. He is
a member of Coles County Lodge, No. 1057,
Knights of Columbus; the Mattoon Association
of Commerce, the Rotary Club of Mattoon,
the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce and
the Mattoon Country Club. He has served in
all the offices of the Coles-Cumberland Fed-
eration of Bankers.
The community is considerably indebted to
Edward William Vollmer for his contribution
to its development.
FRANCIS AUGUST HOAG
Back in 1915, a lad who was not yet nine-
teen went to work for a bank at Mattoon. His
superiors soon recognized his abilities and be-
gan advancing him. Today, that lad is vice-
president and cashier of the institution which
gave him his start — The National Bank of
ILLINOIS
EDITION
495
Mattoon. And he, Francis August Hoag, na-
tive of that community, is a well known
figure not only in the banking world but also
in agriculture, in civic affairs and among lay
Catholics. He is a veteran of World War I.
Francis August Hoag was born in Mattoon
on August 17, 1896, the son of the late Au-
gust Hoag, who was a native of Baden, Ger-
many, and of Rosa (Steidl) Hoag. His mother,
the daughter of John and Gabrella Steidl, was
herself born in Chicago.
The future banker began his education in
St. Joseph's Parochial School, Mattoon. He
spent three years as a student at St. Francis
College, Quincy, where he took both commer-
cial and academic courses. Upon leaving college
Mr. Hoag returned to Mattoon and on July 1,
1915, began his career with The National
Bank of Mattoon. He worked through transit
and bookeeping and as a teller. On January
13, 1920, he was appointed assistant cashier
and on January 9, 1945, advanced to cashier.
He assumed his present dual office of vice-
president and cashier on January 8, 1946. On
that same date he was elected to the board of
directors. Serving with Mr. Hoag on the board
and in the "front office" of the bank are Jo-
seph Stanley Weis, president; Edward William
Vollmer, vice-president, and Martin F. Beh-
rend, vice-president and trust officer, all three
of whom are also subjects for biographies
in this Illinois edition of the Library of Amer-
ican Lives.
Another interest of Mr. Hoag's is agricul-
ture. He is a partner in the Hoag Brothers
farm in Coles County. As a banker, he is ac-
tive in the Eastern Illinois Chapter, National
Association of Bank Auditors and Comptrol-
lers, of which he was vice-president in 1949;
the Coles-Cumberland Bankers Association,
of which he is former secretary and is now
(1949) vice-president; and the Association of
Commerce of Mattoon and the Illinois State
Chamber of Commerce. He is also a member
of the Kiwanis Club of Mattoon, in which he
has served on the board of directors; the Coles
County Farm Bureau, the Mattoon Golf and
Country Club, and the Mattoon Post of the
American Legion. A prominent lay Catholic,
Mr. Hoag is former trustee of the Mattoon
Council, Knights of Columbus. He served as
vice-president of Te Deum Forum and Inter-
national in 1948 and has been through the
chairs in the Holy Name Society of his church,
Immaculate Conception of Mattoon.
Mr. Hoag served with the United States
Navy in World War I, the period of his ser-
vice running from June 15, 1918, to June 17,
1919. He votes the Republican ticket in the
primaries. Golf, hunting and fishing are his
favorite recreations. He likes football as a
spectator and among his hobbies, in addition
to farming, are backlot beekeeping, reading
and shows. He is five feet eight and one-half
inches tall and weighs two hundred pounds.
He is a bachelor and resides at 1800 Moultrie
Avenue, Mattoon.
Mr. Hoag is an influential personality in
the banking and civic circles of his native re-
gion.
MARTIN F. BEHREND
Various fields of interest in Coles County
and the State at large have known the leader-
ship of Martin F. Behrend of Mattoon. A
banker^he has also become known for his ac-
tivities in the fields of taxation and of agri-
cultural and industrial pursuits and develop-
ment. He has done much to alleviate the
housing shortage in his area and has headed
various civic endeavors and groups. As banker,
Mr. Behrend is vice-president and trust officer
of The National Bank of Mattoon.
The son of Charles F. Behrend, who was a
prominent farmer in Coles County, and of
Alice (Sanders) Behrend, a native of Coles
County and daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. D.
Sanders, Martin F. Behrend was born in Hum-
boldt Township, Coles County, on January 9,
1899. His father, who was born in Germany,
came to the United States with his parents at
the age of four. After residing in New York
State a short time, Charles Behrend moved to
Illinois and as a young man located in Coles
County on a farm in Humboldt Township
where he made his home until his death.
Martin F. Behrend attended the rural
schools in Humboldt Township and at the age
of sixteen took a business course in Utter-
back's Business College at Mattoon. On June
28, 1916, Mr. Behrend entered the employ of
The National Bank of Mattoon. After working
in different positions he was elected assist-
ant cashier in 1924. Sixteen years later he
was made assistant trust officer and in 1941
was elected trust officer. On January 8, 1946,
Mr. Behrend was advanced to vice-president
and he has since held that office while also
discharging the duties of trust officer. He was
elected to the bank's board of directors in
January, 1947. Mr. Behrend's colleagues
496
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
among the bank's officers include Joseph
Stanley Weis, president; Edward William Voll-
mer, vice-president; and Francis A. Hoag,
vice-president and cashier, the stories of
whose lives and careers are chronicled on
other pages of this Illinois edition of the Li-
brary of American Lives.
Mr. Behrend married Florence Rankin,
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Rankin cf
Gays, Illinois, and they have one son, David
Behrend. Their home is at 1221 Wabash Av-
enue, Mattoon. Mr. Behrend is a member of
the Lutheran Church and Mrs. Behrend is a
member of the Christian Church.
Mr. Behrend, who is in good physical con-
dition, is described as five feet ten and one-
half inches tall, weighing two hundred pounds,
with blond hair and blue eye:;. Prominent in
the Illinois Bankers Association, he is now
a member of the agriculture committee. He
is also active in the Illinois State Chamber of
Commerce, serving on that organization's
federal tax committee. He served two terms
as president and two terms as a director of
the Association of Commerce of Mattoon and
two terms as a member of the All Coles Coun-
ty Agriculture-Industry Board. He is a direc-
tor of the Mattoon Homes Association. In
politics he is a Republican. He is interested
in all outdoor sports, especially hunting and
fishing.
Few men have devoted themselves co thor-
oughly to public service as Martin F. Behrend.
JOHN WILLIAM SHEEKS
A man who has taken advantage of every
opportunity to learn every facet of the bank-
ing business, John William Sheeks of Mattoon
is today one of the more prominent citizens
working in this field. From a beginning as
clerk in the National Bank of Mattoon, Mr.
Sheeks has risen to the responsible post of
assistant vice-president. He is also well known
as a lay Methodist, and is active in the city's
social and welfare programs.
Mr. Sheeks was born on a farm near Sulli-
van, seat of Moultrie County, on September
29, 1900. His father, a farmer, was John
David Sheeks and his mother Alice M. Tee-
ter, the daughter of Levi M. and Elizabeth
Teeter. The future banker went through the
eighth grade in country schools and then at-
tended Mattoon High School. After he began
his business career, he studied in the night
sessions of Utterback's Business College, Mat-
toon, and later gave himself additional prep-
aration for success in banking by taking two
summer courses of two weeks each at the
Chicago campus of Northwestern University,
under the sponsorship of the Financial Public
Relations Association.
Mr. Sheeks' banking career began in March,
1920, when he entered the employ of the Na-
tional Bank of Mattoon as a clerk. From this
post he went, successively, to savings teller,
note and exchange teller, commercial teller
and supervisor of the bookkeeping depart-
ment. In this last-named post he further im-
pressed his superiors to such extent that on
January 9, 1945, he was made assistant cash-
ier and on January 8, 1946, assistant trust of-
ficer as well. On October 11, 1949, Mr.
Sheeks was elevated to his present office of
assistant vice-president.
On July 2, 1927, Mr. Sheeks married Flo-
rence E. Walker, the ceremony being per-
formed in the First Methodist Church of Mat-
toon. His children are Barbara Ann, now Mrs.
William C. Freeland; Lois June, now Mrs.
James E. Ferguson, Jr. ; David Eugene Sheeks
and John Daniel Sheeks. His home is at 261G
Prairie Avenue, Mattoon.
Mr. Sheeks is an active member of the
Mattoon Lodge, Loyal Order of Moose, and
the First Methodist Church. He has served the
Epworth League as secretary and president
and been superintendent of the intermediate
department of the Sunday School. He is a
member of the Mattoon Baseball Fans Club
and is a director of the Mattoon Athletic As-
sociation, a local professional baseball club of
the Missouri-Ohio Valley League. He is a
member of the Coles County Tuberculosis
Sanitarium Board and the Association of Com-
merce. As citizen, churchman and banker, he
is giving service to the community, urban and
agricultural, to the utmost of his ability.
LEO SCOFIELD
Not only as a banker but as a public of-
ficial Leo Scofisld of Mattoon is serving his
community and region. In the business world
he is assistant cashier and assistant trust of-
ficer, in charge of commercial bookkeeping
and audit, of the National Bank of Mattoon.
In public office he is a member of the Mat-
toon City Commission, giving the municipali-
ty the benefit of his long banking experience
by serving as Commissioner of Accounts and
Finance; and also is treasurer of the Mattoon
Township Schools and of the Community Unit
School District No. 2, Coles and Cumberland
ILLINOIS EDITION
497
Counties. He is prominent in Mesonry and the
Methodist Church.
Born in Rose Hill, Jasper County, on May
31, 1904, Mr. Scofield is the son of Elza and
Pearlie (Chapman) Scofield. His father, a
laborer, was born in Bethany, Shelby County,
on March 11, 1880, but was reared from boy-
hood by an uncle, Ed Powell, at Rose Hill.
The mother's parents were Rebecca Ann and
Andrew Jackson Chapman. Leo Scofield was
graduated from the Mattoon High School in
1923. He was a four-letter man in football,
serving as captain of the team in 1922. He
was also a letterman in basktball. In his senior
year he ranked high as an orator.
Mr. Scofield went to work even before com-
pleting high school. Before and after school
hours he worked in the mill department of the
Andrews Planing Mill as a glazier and paint-
er. For one semester in 1924 he attended the
University of Illinois, leaving school because
the illness of his father made imperative his
returning to work. He then began his career
with the National Bank of Mattoon. In later
years he completed home study courses in
banking and commercial law with Columbia
University and in accounting with the Inter-
national Accountants Society. The actual
starting date of Mr. Scofield's employment at
the bank was December 26, 1924, and his first
position was that of clerk. The following No-
vember he was promoted to teller and assigned
to the receiving cages. In time he rose to head
paying teller and finally to head teller. On Jan-
uary 9, 1945, Mr. Scofield was appointed assist-
ant cashier and on January 8, 1946, the title of
assistant trust officer was also bestowed upon
him. He has been in charge of commercial
bookkeeping and audit since 1946. He served
on the board of directors of the National
Building and Loan Association from May 8,
1933, through January 11, 1939; from Febru-
ary 7, 1937, to January 19, 1938, he was pres-
ident of the board.
On February 1, 1927, at Charleston, Mr.
Scofield married Ellen Arlene Coyle, the
daughter of Zachariah King and Audrey A.
Coyle. Having brought up a daughter, Mrs.
Scofield now finds time to work, on a part-
time basis, as a jewelry saleslady. She is well
known in Mattoon for her Brownie Scout ac-
tivities. The daughter is Jean Alice Scofield,
now a student at Eastern Illinois State Col-
lege at Charleston. Mr. and Mrs. Scofield and
Miss Scofield reside at 1016 Wabash Avenue,
Mattoon.
The family attends the First Methodist
Church of Mattoon, in which Mr. Scofield
was Sunday School treasurer from 1925 to
1929 and superintendent of the intermediate
department from 1929 to 1931. Mr. Scofield'.?
civic activities have also embraced service to
the Mattoon Public Library. He was on the
library's board of trustees, and was treasurer
of the board, from 1934 to 1949. In June,
1948, he became treasurer of the Mattoon
Township Schools and on July 1, 1948, treas-
urer of the Community Unit School District
No. 2, Coles-Cumberland Counties. In April,
1949, he was elected a City Commission-
er for a four-year term, and since then has
been Commissioner of Accounts and Finance.
He is a past commander of the Knights Tem-
plar and active in the York Rite and Associa-
tion of Commerce. Public service is his hobby.
HARVEY OTIS PHIPPS
Farmer and farm manager of the National
Bank of Mattoon, Harvey Otis Phipps is mak-
ing an extraordinary contribution to the devel-
opment and prosperity of Coles and Cumber-
land Counties and is one of the better known
bankers of Eastern Illinois. He is also promi-
nent in the region for his leadership in fund-
raising drives and campaigns of the National
Foundation for Infantile Paralysis and othei
Health and welfare movements.
Mr. Phipps is a native of Coles County.
Born on August 6, 1911, he is the son of Wil-
liam E. and Neppie F. (Kinkade) Phipps. His
father, a native of Moultrie County, is a re-
tired farmer who owns several pieces of real
estate, consisting of both farm land and city
property. The mother, also born in Moultrie
County, comes of a family which pioneered in
agriculture there. Her parents were Richard S.
and Margaret Kinkade.
This banker began his education in the
Smysor grade school in Moultrie County. Af-
ter spending three years at the high school in
Gays, another Moultrie County community,
he attended and was graduated from Windsor
High School in 1929. Mr. Phipps further per-
fected himself for a career in banking by-
taking a course in accounting at the Utter-
back Business College, Mattoon, and in the ex-
tension division of the University of Illinois.
In 1929, he went to work in the Farmers
State Bank of Gays. On April 14, 1930, Mr.
Phipps was appointed to a p~sitijn in the Na-
tional Bank of Mattoon. By January, 1946,
he was holding the office of assistant cashier
and in October, 1949, he was named assist-
ant cashier and assistant trust officer. In
1949, too, he became farm manager of the
bank.
498
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
Twice married, Mr. Phipps first took as
his wife Edna J. Roberts, the daughter of
Charles and Emma Roberts. The ceremony
was solemnized in 1937. Mrs. Edna Phipps
died the following year. In 1939, Mr. Phipps
married Marguerite M. Myers, the daughter
of E. C. and Artie Myers. Mrs. Marguerite
Phipps is one of Mattoon's best known citi-
zens. A former teacher in the schools at Sul-
livan and Tuscola, she is now active in the
Parent-Teachers Association of Mattoon end
is a leader in the Girl Scout movement. To
Mr. Phipps' first marriage a son, Gary Wil-
liam Phipps, was born on August 21, 1938.
To the second marriage, a daughter, Mary
Margaret Phipps, was born on June 21,
1941.
Mr. Phipps serves as treasurer of the Coles
County Chapter, National Foundation for In-
fantile Paralysis. Another of his major inter-
ests is his farm, consisting of eighty acres,
wh'ch is located in Cumberland County. Also,
he likes hunting rnd gardening. His home is
at 1109 South Seventeenth Street, Mattoon.
His fellow citizens admire and frequently call
upon his leadership abilities.
EUGENE C. BAUER
Among the group of men giving leadership
to the development of the National Bank of
Mattoon and hence to the city and the region
is Eugene C. Bauer. Mr. Bauer's position with
this great financial institution is that of as-
sistant cashier and assistant trust officer. He
is also prominent in Lutheran Church work
and welfare and educational activities.
Mr. Bauer was born on the old Bauer home-
stead near Strasburg, Shelby County, on Sep-
tember 28, 1914. His father, Henry Andrew
Bauer, also a native of the Strasburg area, is
a prominent farmer there. He is the son of
John Bauer, Sr., born and reared in the hills
of Ohio, who moved in his youth to Illinois
and became one of the leading farmers and
landowners in Shelby County. The banker's
mother is Martha Dora Sophia (Schroeder)
Bauer, also a native of Strasburg. Her father,
Gu stave Schroeder, was born in Germany. He
emigrated to the United States when he was
twenty years old and became one of the pio-
neer settlers of the village of Strasburg. Eu-
gene Bauer attended St. Paul's Parochial
School (Lutheran) at Strasburg and then
Windsor Community High School, from which
he was graduated in 1932. At high school he
was active in track, class plays and in debat-
ing and oratorical societies and school publi-
cations. In the vear 1934-1935 he was a
student at Utterback's Business College of
Mattoon.
Until he entered the business college Mr.
Bauer lived and worked on the family farm.
Upon his graduation from the college in 1935
he accepted the post of assistant secretary of
the National Farm Loan Association in
Charleston, the Coles County seat. In May,
1936, he resigned this position to become
bookkeeper at the National Bank of Mattoon,
having recognized the opportunity offered
him. From bookkeeper he advanced through
the various departments of the bank — book-
keeping department, savings, collections, ex-
change, installment loans and commercial de-
partment. In 1949 he was promoted to his
present office of assistant cashier and assist-
ant trust officer. In World War II, he was
with the United States Maritime Service.
On September 5, 1936 Mr. Bauer married
Madge Lorene Armer, the daughter of Eu-
gene and Nelle (Vaughn) Armer. The cere-
mony was performed in Mattoon. Mr. and
Mrs. Bauer are the parents O- a son, Eugene
Andrew Bauer, who was born in Mattoon on
June 17, 1942. The family worships in St.
John's Lutheran Church of Mattoon. Both Mr.
and Mrs. Bauer are active in this church. Mrs.
Bauer belongs to various of its societies. She
is also well known for her work in the Par-
ent-Teachers Association.
At St. John's, Mr. Bauer is a past member of
the board of trustees and former treasurer. He
is also treasurer of the Mattoon Chapter,
American Red Cross, and secretary of the
board of education in the Community Unit
School District No. 2, Coles and Cumberland
Counties, and a member of the Mattoon As-
sociation of Commerce. Mr. Bauer has a va-
riety of hobbies. Among these are beekeeping,
metal turning (lathe work) and cooking. He is
also addicted to reading, music and hunting.
His home is at 2320 Richmond Avenue, Mat-
toon. Like his father and grandfathers before
him, Eugene C. Bauer is participating in the
program of building his region of Illinois.
HON. CARUS STANLEY ICENOGLE,
LL.B.
Since his youngest days the Honorable
Carus Stanley Icenogle has served his native
Coles County and his State to the utmost of
his unusual abilities, and today he is one of
the outstanding citizens. An attorney, he is
former Master in Chancery of the City Court
of Mattoon and former City Attorney of that
community. A veteran of the armed forces of
World War I. he served in various major
ILLINOIS EDITION
499
homefront capacities in World War II. He
has also given leadership in civic, church and
Little Theatre programs, and in the field of
music, and is well known as a writer on
legal and technical subjects.
Mr. Icenogle was born in Trilla, Coles
County, on June 15, 1898, the son of Joseph
Daniel and Anna L. (Thornton) Icenogle. His
father, a merchant, was a native of Cumber-
land County, and his mother, the daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. William Thornton, was also
born in Cumberland County, Illinois.
Carus Icenogle began his education in the
elementary schools of Mattoon and after his
graduation from high school entered the Uni-
versity of Illinois at Urbana. In 1923, he was
graduated from the university's College of
Law, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws.
He had had quite a distinguished career in
college. For five years he was a member of
the concert band, and even today he is asso-
ciated with the university in a musical capac-
ity, being a member of the advisory board
of the concert band. While at the university
he was elected to Theta Chi, the national
social fraternity, and Phi Alpha Delta, hon-
orary legal fraternity.
On June 23, 1924, Mr. Icenogle married
Lois Cromer, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
Frank Cromer, the ceremony taking place at
West Chicago. Like Mr. Icenogle, his wife
is interested in music, civic activities and wel-
fare. She is a member of the United Charities
of Mattoon and of Delta Theta Tau Sorority.
Mr. and Mrs. Icenogle are the parents of
two children — Joan Icenogle, born on January
2, 1926, and Stanley T. Icenogle, born on
January 1, 1928. The daughter, now the wife
of John Matherly, resides at 3312 Cham-
paign Avenue, Mattoon. She is a graduate of
Stephens College. She and Mr. Matherly are
the parents of John Carus Matherly and Julie
Matherly. Mr. Matherly is manager of the
J. and J. Shoe Store, Mattoon. Stanley T.
Icenogle is a member of the Class of Febru-
ary, 1950, of the College of Commerce of the
University of Illinois and a member of Theta
Chi fraternity. He married Carleen Bock, a
Stephens College graduate and daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. George Bock of Mattoon, and
they are making their home in Urbana. Mr.
and Mrs. Carus S. Icenogle reside at 115
South Twenty-sixth Street, Mattoon, and wor-
ship at the Central Community Church, in
which Mr. Icenogle serves on the board of
deacons.
Mr. Icenogle began his legal career in 1924,
in Mattoon. From that year to 1938 he was
associated in a general practice of the law
with Bryan H. Tivnen. Since March, 1938,
he has maintained his own offices and is now
located in the Icenogle Building, 1703 Broad-
way, Mattoon. He is the author of the "Hand-
book on Illinois Oil and Gas." From 1927 to
1930 Mr. Icenogle served as City Attorney
of the City of Mattoon and from 1938 to
1948 he was Master in Chancery of the City
Court of Mattoon. To his homefront service
in World War II he brought not only his long
legal and civic experience but also the expe-
rience of a soldier of World War I. He was
chairman of the Civilian Defense Coi-ps and
of Red Cross War Fund and March of Dimes
campaigns and was a member of the ad-
visory board for the Selective Service System
in Coles County. He has also served as presi-
dent of the Rotary Club and on Chamber of
Commerce committees, and is a director of the
Mattoon Little Theater. Other of his mem-
berships are in the American Bar Association,
the American Legion and Mattoon Country
Club. He has won a lasting place in the
history of Illinois.
RUSSELL W. ALFRED
When Russell W. Alfred of Mattoon, in
the transportation 'business since he left the
farm in 1917, took over a small transfer and
storage company in 1944, it had only two
trucks and was doing an annual business of
about $4,000. Today, as a result of Mr. Al-
fred's handling of the operations, that busi-
ness uses thirty pieces of equipment and
grosses more than $200,000 every year. He
has renamed the firm A and B Transfer, Inc.
He is one of the well known figures in his
industry in the Middle West.
Born in Coles County, not far from Mat-
toon, on September 15, 1896, Mr. Alfred is
the son of Edward C. and Emily (Borror)
Alfred. His father, born near Bristol, Vir-
ginia, in 1855, farmed near Mattoon in Coles
County until his retirement in 1931. He and
his family came to Illinois in a covered wagon
in 1876, taking six months to make the trip.
His mother, born at Heyworth, Illinois, is the
daughter of John and Susan Borror.
Russell Alfred left the farm on August
1, 1917, and went to work for the Hayes
Transfer and Storage Company in Mattoon.
This firm was later called the Hayes Freight
Lines. From 1917 to 1927 Mr. Alfred work-
ed for the firm as a truck driver in Mattoon.
Then he was promoted to agent of the termi-
nal at St. Louis, Missouri, where he remained
until April 1, 1940. At that time he was trans-
ferred to the main office in Mattoon as oper-
500
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
RUSSELL \V. ALFRED
ating manager, with responsibility over sixty-
two terminals and 1400 pieces of rolling1
stock.
On July 1, 1944, Mr. Alfred, who had also
served on the Hayes Freight Lines' board of
directors from 1929 to 1944, resigned from
that company to go into business for himself.
He bought out the Zurheide Transfer Com-
pany at Humboldt, Illinois, the aforemen-
tioned small line with the two trucks which
was then doing a business of $4,000 a year.
Mr. Alfred transferred the line's headquarters
to Mattoon and renamed it A and B Trans-
fer, Inc., and in the short time that has
elapsed has built the company into one with
thirty pieces of rolling stock and grossing in
excess of $200,000 annually. Mr. Alfred main-
tains a branch in Chicago, and offers over-
night service on the general moving of com-
modities between the metropolis and about
one hundred municipalities in Central Illi-
nois. He is president and general manager
of the firm.
On July 20, 1917, at Mattoon, Mr. Alfred
married Irene E. Wilson, the daughter of
Abraham and Martha Wilson. Mrs. Alfred
devotes herself to her responsibilities as a
wife and mother. The Alfreds have one
daughter, Angela J. Alfred, who was mar-
ried to Douglas D. Byars on August 21, 1946.
Mr. Byars is associated with Mr. Alfred in
the A and B Transfer, Inc., being assistant
general manager of the company and a mem-
ber of the board of directors. Mr. and Mrs.
Alfred reside at 1117 South Fourteenth
Street, Mattoon. They worship in the Pres-
byterian Church, which Mr. Alfred has been
attending since childhood.
. In the days Mr. Alfred was with the Hayes
Freight Lines he became a charter member
of the Missouri Trucking Association at St.
Louis. He was a director and treasurer of
that organization from 1935 to 1940. He is
now active in the Mattoon Association of
Commerce. He votes Democratic and his hob-
by is sports, especially hunting, fishing and
baseball. Through his activities he has been
one of the builders of Central Illinois and he
is a highly admired citizen of that region.
CHARLES J. COVINGTON
The Dowzer Electric Machinery Works, Inc.
of Mount Vernon is the largest company in
its field — the rebuilding of electric transform-
ers— in the United States. It has achieved this
position through the leadership of its presi-
dent, Charles J. Covington, a man whose
reputation in this technical field is widespread.
Mr. Covington, who just before and during
World War II built many of the major ad-
juncts to the military forces, thus aiding in the
on-to-victory program, enjoys leadership in
civic and welfare movements as well as in his
field of business.
Mr. Covington was born in Farmington,
Missouri, on January 8, 1914, and lived there
the first six years of his life. His parents,
Mabry J. and Ethel Ann Covington, then
moved to Ponca City, Oklahoma, with the
children. The father, an electrical engineer,
was a native of Joplin, Missouri, the mother
of Bonne Terre, Missouri. Both the paternal
grandparents were natives of Kentucky. Hav-
ing moved to Ponca City when he was six,
Charles Covington attended the schools there.
Throughout his scholastic life, which con-
tinued until he left Wichita University at
Wichita, Kansas, Mr. Covington displayed
extraordinary qualities as a leader. In high
school he was an outstanding athlete, and
also active in debating and Glee Club. He
won numerous oratorical contests in his sen-
ior year, and was president of his senior
class. In the same year, 1933, he was voted
the "best citizen" of the high school. At
Wichita University Mr. Covington studied his-
tory, social science and pre-law. Here again
he participated in debating and oratorical act-
ivities. He was president of the non-fraternity
groups on the campus and led them in many
programs. Upon completion of his education
Mr. Covington entered the employ of the Kan-
sas Gas and Electric Company, in Wichita,
working on the Ripley power plant near the
city. In 1939 he became second line foreman
for the Dowzer Construction Company at
Hutchinson, Kansas. In a few months he was
assistant foreman and in less than a year was
superintendent. In his time with the com-
pany Mr. Covington worked in many states.
Just prior to and in the course of World War
II he was engaged in the construction of
large industrial plants, including airfields,
ordnance depots, shipyards and oil refineries,
always specializing in the electrical phase of
the work. During this period he was general
superintendent of electrical construction. In
the building of a refinery at Lake Charles,
Louisiana, in 1940, Mr. Covington fell. His
left leg was broken in several places, and to
this day he must wear a strong brace on
the leg. But he has not allowed this to handi-
cap him. Later in the war period he was super-
intendent in the building of the shipbuilding
yards at Houston, Texas, and in February,
1943, he established himself at Mount Vernon
as manager of the Dowzer Electric and Ma-
ILLINOIS EDITION
503
chine Works. In 1944 he was made general
manager, but four years later he bought Mr.
Dowzer's holdings in the company and, after
reorganizing it, he became president. Mr.
Covington has extended the operations into
ten states.
Mr. Covington married Lois Ellen Combs of
Oklahoma City, who finished her education at
Wichita University. The ceremony took place
in Wichita in December, 1939. Mrs. Coving-
ton had taught art in several public schools
in Kansas. There are two children — Joe J.,
born in December, 1942, and Patricia Ann,
born in June, 1946.
Mr. Covington belongs to the American In-
stitute of Electrical Engineers, the Illinois
Society of Petroleum Engineers; is chairman
of the standards committee, transformer sec-
tion, National Industrial Service Association;
and former president of King Cole Chapter,
National Industrial Service Association. He
was president of the Lions Club 1948-49, is a
director of the Chamber of Commerce, presi-
dent of Ambrow-Wabash Area Council, Boy
Scouts of America 1950, a member of the Elks
and the Masonic Order, having attained the
thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and
becoming a Noble of Ainad Temple, A.A.O.N.-
M.S. He has made a tremendous industrial
and civic contribution.
HON. JOHN DAVID UPCHURCH
A veteran of World War II, the Honorable
John David Upchurch of Eldorado, Illinois,
has served his community, State and nation
with extraordinary pride and in an unselfish
fashion. Upchurch enlisted in World War II
in June 1942 and served till December 1943.
He was with the Office of Naval Intelligence.
He was an enlisted Aviation Cadet in World
War I serving only a short period before the
armistice. After serving sixteen months in
the Navy during World War II he was dis-
charged and transferred to be a civilian buyer
of supplies and expediter of materials in the
Navy Bureau of Supplies and Accounts. In
this capacity he saved the government mil-
lions of dollars in purchases through the ex-
perience gained in the Naval Intelligence con-
cerning needed materials in strategic places.
Upchurch is the present Mayor of Eldorado
and is a member of the Eldorado-Raleigh
Park Board. He has been City Clerk of his
city and was elected to the Illinois House of
Representatives at Springfield in 1932 from
the 51st Senatorial District. As a first termer
he gained state wide attention through his
introduction of legislation to prohibit and re-
strict investment of Insurance company
assets in certain kinds of securities. The
strong and protective insurance laws of Illi-
nois are the results of Upchurch's tough and
intensive investigations. He introduced and
had passed changes for the betterment in the
banking laws of Illinois. He was a student of
the State's financial problems and served as
chairman of several sub-committees studying
the revenue laws of the state. He was ap-
pointed during his first term as a member
of the Century of Progress (Chicago World's
Fair). He was the only first termer so hon-
ored by the Governor.
John David Upchurch was born in Spring-
field, Missouri on June 28th, 1897, the son
of William David Upchurch and Ellen Elder
Upchurch. His father, a native of Galatia,
Illinois, was cashier of the C. P. Burnett's
Bank of Eldorado for over fifty years until
his death in 1946. He was the son of Taylor
David Upchurch, cashier of the Webber Bank
at Galatia for over fifty years, whose father
was David Upchurch who was the first Judge
of Saline County serving by appointment in
his first term. Ellen Elder Upchurch was the
daughter of John Wesley Elder of Eldorado,
whose grandfather Samuel Elder was the first
elected Judge of Saline county. The family
on both sides have been life long Democrats.
Eldorado was first named ELDEREADO, get-
ting its name from Elder and Read. Samuel
Elder and Ed Read who laid the town out on
the old Goshen Road. Mayor Upchurch had
a sister Dorothy who died in 1927. She was
the wife of the late Dr. James Y. Welborn of
Evansville, Indiana. Mayor Upchurch's par-
ents moved back to Illinois from Missouri
when he was less than a year old. He went
through the grade schools of Eldorado and
was graduated from the Eldorado High School
in 1915, having been captain of the football,
basketball and baseball teams in his senior
year as well as president of his senior class.
Upchurch was an outstanding athlete in high
school and college. He made his freshman
numeral in football at Northwestern Univer-
sity in 1916 and the following year he was
varsity quarterback at McKendree College,
Lebanon, Illinois. In 1918 he was a student
at Washington University in St. Louis taking
a pre-medic course. He was married to Ruth
Chamberlain, daughter of Judge and Mrs. C.
E. Chamberlain of Lebanon, Illinois in 1917.
To them were born two daughters, Jane Eliz-
abeth on August 2nd, 1918 and Dorothy Ruth
on Sept. 6th, 1923. Both of the daughters are
now married and living in New York. This
504
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
HON. JOHN DAVID UPCHURCH
marriage was dissolved by divorce in 1927
and in August of 1944, Mayor Upehurch mar-
ried Mildred Ruth Gardner, daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. J. T. Gardner of Eldorado.
In his youth, between school terms, Up-
church worked in the C. P. Burnett and Sons
Company store for which his father was sec-
retary-treasurer. Here he gained experience
that started him in a merchandising career
that he has followed ever since. His first
job after World War I was as a traveling
salesman for a furniture manufacturer out
of Chicago. In 1922 Mr. Upehurch entered
the retail furniture business for himself at
Centralia, Illinois. This he sold out and short-
ly afterwards opened up another retail furni-
ture store in Benton, Illinois. He sold this
store in 1928 and returned to Eldorado to
join his father in the banking business. He
was connected with the bank for years and in
the meantime he was elected in 1932 to the
Illinois House of Representatives. In 1934
he was the downstate Supervisor of the Illi-
nois Occupational Tax Division and from
1936 to 1940 he was the personnel officer
for the Illinois State Department of High-
ways. After World War II Upehurch pur-
chased a wholesale Oil and Gas distributor-
ship in his home town and also founded the
same year the John David Inter City Transit
Co. Active for years in Eldorado's civic and
political life, Upehurch has been honored on
several occasions by his fellow townsmen. He
is known as a militant Democrat. He was the
Democratic candidate for Congress from the
24th District of Illinois in 1948, receiving 56,-
262 votes to his opponent's 57,732 in what is
considered a strong Republican district. In
1949 Upehurch was elected Senior Vice-Com-
mander of the American Legion in the Illi-
nois 24th District. He gives much time to
Veteran affairs and has been named numer-
ous times as delegate to conventions. Up-
church is again the Democratic candidate for
Congress having been nominated by his party
in the April primary of 1950. He is a former
president of the Southern Illinois Golf Asso-
ciation and a former member of Rotary. Other
organizations he now belongs to are the Loyal
Order of Moose, the Fraternal Order of Ea-
gles, the Benevolent and Protective Order of
Elks and the Masonic Fraternity. He is a
Methodist. Civic work is his hobby. He is
active in Democratic politics. Throughout
Southern Illinois it is well known that Mayor
Upehurch has devoted himself to community
and regional development. He gave his may-
or's salary of $600.00 to start a fund for the
erection of a Veteran's Memorial Library for
Eldorado.
MELBOURNE WILLIAM GRIMM, O.D.
The conservation of vision and the correc-
tion of the visual defects of adults and
children are not the only interests of Collins-
ville's prominent optometrist, Dr. Melbourne
William Grimm. Dr. Grimm is also interested
in movements aimed at making character-
building programs available to children, in the
Boy Scout movement, in work for underprivi-
leged children, in civic improvement projects
and in health and welfare programs for the
public at large. He is known throughout
Madison County and beyond.
Born in Collinsville on February 20, 1913,
Dr. Grimm is the son of William August and
Mary (Goetz) Grimm. His father is super-
intendent of the gas division of the Illinois
Light and Power Company. Both parents
were also born in Illinois. Dr. Grimm began
his education in the public schools of Collins-
ville, graduating from its high school in 1931.
He became famed locally as the member of
the high school track team who ran the
half mile.
Dr. Grimm's first ambition was to become
a civil engineer and to achieve his dream he
spent four years with the surveying depart-
ment of the Illinois Department of High-
ways, working on the construction of roads.
In his high school days he had worked spare
time as a delivery boy and clerk. When he
was with the road department, he began
courting the girl who later became his wife.
Her father was an optometrist and influenced
his decision to adopt the same profession. The
result was that Melbourne Grimm went to
the Northern Illinois College of Optometry in
Chicago, from which he received the degree
of Doctor of Optometry in 1938. He then
returned to Collinsville, where he has since
been practicing his profession. He now has
considerably larger quarters than when he
began. His patients come from as far as East
St. Louis and from many of the communities
outside Collinsville.
The girl Dr. Grimm courted was Cleora
Wedel, the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. P. J.
Wedel of Collinsville. They were married in
that city on October 23, 1939. Two children
have been born to them — Carole, on Novem-
ber 1, 1942, and Douglas, on February 12,
1946.
Dr. Grimm is a member of the Illinois State
Optometric Association and is active in the
Lions Club of Collinsville, the Boy Scout
movement (he is an Eagle Scout himself), the
ILLINOIS EDITION
507
Collinsville City Chapter of the American Red
Cross, the Collinsville Chamber of Commerce
and St. John's Evangelical Church of that city.
He was president of the Lions Club in the
year 1948-1949 and in that year furthered an
extensive program for underprivileged chil-
dren and physical improvements of the city.
In 1947, he was chairman in Collinsville for
the Red Cross. He votes independently in the
interest of good government. Motor boating
and fly fishing are his favorite outdoor sports.
Among his hobbies are color and black-and-
white photography, the collecting of stamps
and Indian relics of the immediate area and
woodworking. For the last-named hobby he
has modern power tools. Another hobby is his
family. He has done so much for others as
to have become, without realizing it, a be-
loved figure in the community.
ROLAND E. WINKELMANN, LL.B.
In practice since 1920, Roland E. Win-
kelmann of Urbana is today one of the out-
standing attorneys of Eastern Illinois — a man
who has served his city, region and State in
many important capacities, public, quasi-pub-
lic and private. He is a former Master in
Chancery of the Circuit Court in Champaign
County and former Corporation Counsel of
the City of Urbana. At present he is chair-
man of the board of trustees of the Police
Pension Fund of the City of Urbana. Mr.
Winkelmann is one of the leading figures in
fraternal work in his area and, a veteran of
World War I, a leader in the American Le-
gion's Department of Illinois.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, on January 5,
1893, Mr. Winkelmann is the son of Alex
and Lucy (Hoffman) Winkelmann. His fath-
er, a stove and range designer and pattern
maker, was a native of St. Louis, his mother
of Cincinnati, Ohio. The future lawyer be-
gan his education in the public schools of
Dexter, Missouri, continuing in those of Belle-
ville, Illinois. From 1912 through 1914 he
was at Western Military Academy, Alton, and
from 1914 to 1917 at the University of Illi-
nois. World War I interrupted his education.
He was with the 68th Coast Artillery from
April 1, 1918, to March 6, 1919, and in 1918,
when in France, attended the Saumur Artil-
lery School. Upon his discharge from the
service in 1919, Mr. Winkelmann returned to
the University of Illinois, where in 1920 he
was awarded the degree of Bachelor of Laws.
At the university he was elected to Pi Kap-
pa Alpha and Phi Alpha Delta fraternities.
In November, 1920, he was admitted to prac-
tice by the Supreme Court of Illinois and
since that time he has been established at
Urbana. From February 1, 1921, to April 27,
1943, he was in partnership with F. E. Wil-
liamson. Then, from April 1943, to Septem-
ber 1, 1949, he practiced alone. Since Sep-
tember 1, 1949, he has been the senior part-
ner of the law firm of R. E. Winkelmann
and Wendell G. Winkelmann. As might be
suspected, the latter is his son, who has al-
ready established a reputation as a member
of the bar. Among the elder Mr. Winkel-
mann's business connections are Frank A.
Somers, Inc., and the J. M. Bean Electric and
Hardware, Inc., of both of which he is secre-
tary.
Mr. Winkelmann's marriage occurred at
Mound City on March 27, 1919. His wife
is the former Gail Gaunt, the daughter of
Charles and Eleanor Gaunt. Mrs. Winkel-
mann was graduated from the University of
Illinois with the degree of Bachelor of Arts
in 1918 and was elected to Alpha Delta Pi
Sorority. Wendell G. Winkelmann is the old-
est child. He holds the degrees of Bachelor of
Science and Bachelor of Laws from the Uni-
versity of Illinois and is the husband of Mar-
garet Pierson Winkelmann. In World War
II, he served with the 75th Division, United
States Infantry. Mr. and Mrs. Winkelmann's
other children are Martha, now Mrs. Robert
N. Urash, and John, who in 1950 was a stu-
dent at the University of Illinois. The family
worships in the Presbyterian Church and re-
sides at 712 Indiana Avenue, Urbana.
Mr. Winkelmann served as Corporation
Counsel from May 1, 1925, to May 1, 1933.
His service as Master in Chancery ran for
two years. He became board chairman of the
Police Pension Fund in 1933. In the Ameri-
can Legion, he has served as commander of
Post No. 24, Champaign, as executive com-
mitteeman, Department of Illinois (1923-24);
as director of building committee, Post No.
71; and he is also active in Champaign County
Voiture, No. 238, La Societe des 40 Homines
et 8 Chevaux. He is past exalted ruler, Ur-
bana Lodge, No. 791, Benevolent and Protec-
tive Order of Elks; past president, Rotary
Club of Urbana; and in his profession is past
president of the Third District Bar Associa-
tion and also a member of the Champaign
County and Illinois State Bar Associations.
He is past worshipful master, Urbana Lodge,
No. 157, A. F. and A. M.; past high priest,
Urbana Chapter, No. 80, Royal Arch Masons,
and present district inspector, 15th District;
past commander, Urbana Commandery, No.
508
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
ROLAND E. WINKELMANN, LL.B.
16, Knights Templar, and present prelate; and
also a member of the Red Cross of Constan-
tine, Saxa Ruba Council; Urbana Council,
Royal and Select Masons; Ansar Temple, An-
cient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic-
Shrine, and Hope Chapter, Order of the East-
ern Star. In addition, he is a member of the
Urbana Golf and Country Club. Mr. Winkel-
mann's affiliations, like all his activities, have
made it possible for him to render extraor-
dinary service to his community.
MA J. GEN. HARRY LYNN BOLEN
One of the outstanding' personalities of
World War II — especially in the Pacific The-
ater of Operations and more particularly in
the Philippines — was a man who in 1920 had
joined the Illinois National Guard in Cairo as
a private and who in the middle of American
participation in World War II rose to the rank
of Colonel. This distinguished soldier of the
last great conflict is also a renowned citizen
of Southern Illinois — Harry Lynn Bolen. To-
day General Bolen devotes his talents to many
fields on the civilian front, but he has by no
means ceased serving the nation as a military
man, for he is a Major General in the National
Guard and division commander of the Forty-
fourth Infantry Division. In business, he is
the owner and operator of the Harry L. Bolen
Agency of Cairo, a large and active real estate
and insurance firm, and in civic affairs he is
one of the prime movers in the direction of
progress, health and welfare and industrial
development.
General Bolen was born on February 3,
1896, at Anna, in Union County, the son of
John M. and Etta (Farmer) Bolen. John M.
Bolen, a native of Tennessee, was twenty-one
years old when he established himself at Anna.
He entered the retail grocery business and
soon was an influential Republican, active on
the Anna School Board and in the Masonic
and Odd Fellows lodges.
The future Major General was graduated
from the Anna High School in 1914. He then
moved to Cairo, where in the Spring of 1915
he completed a course at Brown's Business
College. His first job was with the Cairo
Motor Company as bookkeeper, cashier and
salesman. In April, 1917, the United States
entered World War I and, in the following
August, Harry Bolen went into the infant air
force of the United States Army as a flying
cadet. He was given ground school training
at the University of Texas at Austin and
flight training at Kelly Field, San Antonio,
and Scott Field, Illinois. He was at Scott
Field when the war ended. Discharged from
there on November 30, 1918, he returned to
Cairo as salesman and manager for the Tri-
State Motor Company, with which he con-
tinued until 1919. In 1920 General Bolen join-
ed the Thistlewood Motor Company, Chrysler
distributors, as manager. This firm was dis-
solved in 1933, and General Bolen became di-
rector of the Cairo Transit Bureau, a relief
agency for transients, with thirty-six person;
under him.
General Bolen married Louise Broughton,
the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jesse B. Brough-
ton of New Madrid, Missouri, on November 8,
1924. Mrs. Bolen is today active in St.
Patrick's Church, in Girl Scout work and the
American Legion Auxiliary.
In 1936 General Bolen entered the insurance
field as a junior partner in the Dever-Bolen
Agency of Cairo. Before going on active duty
in World War II he sold his interest to his
partner, but upon returning to Cairo in April.
1946, after he had returned to inactive status,
he bought the Baur Agency, which he re-
named the Harry L. Bolen Agency. He is both
an insurance and real estate broker, and
writes all types of insurance. He is a director
of the Security National Bank of Cairo and
was a director of the Cairo Building and Loan
Association, which on liquidation paid its
stockholders $1.15 for each $1 of stock. Gen-
eral Bolen is a former president of the Cairo
Association of Commerce, and during his ad-
ministration brought to the city such in-
dustries as the Valley Steel Products Com-
pany, the Thomas A. Edison Company, and
also the new post office. In that period, too,
the Alexander County Housing Authority was
organized. General Bolen is a former director
of the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce
and is a charter member of the Cairo Post
of the American Legion, and active also in
the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Elks
Lodge. He is a Republican.
General Bolen's National Guard work is
his hobby. He joined the National Guard in
Cairo in 1920, as a private. By 1922 he had
advanced through non-commissioned ranks to
Second Lieutenant and in 1923 he was pro-
moted to First Lieutenant. Shortly afterward
he was made a Captain and placed in com-
mand of Company K, 130th Infantry. In
August, 1932, he rose to Major and in 1940
he was made Lieutenant Colonel. It was as
Lieutenant Colonel that he went into active
duty in World War II, in which he served five
years and four months. He was called to duty
on March 5, 1941, with the Thirty-third Di-
vision. In May, 1942, he was transferred to
the Sixth Division, and later served as Chief
ILLINOIS EDITION
511
of Staff and Deputy Base Commander in the
Philippine Islands. In August, 1945, he was
promoted to Colonel and on November 29,
1946, he became Brigadier General. On March
16, 1950, he was promoted to Major General
and command of the 44th Division. He holds
the combat infantryman's badge, the Bronze
Star with one oak leaf cluster and several
other decorations and ribbons. The contribu-
tion he is making to development in Southern
Illinois is widely acknowledged.
HENRY L. HEINEKE
Hand and power-operated lawn mowers and
lawn-and-leaf sweepers made by the Heineke
Manufacturing Corporation of Springfield are
known and used the country over. This is a
company headed by a Springfield citizen and
native, Henry L. Heineke, who has been an
outstanding figure in this field since his young
manhood and whose father entered the in-
dustry in 1883. Aside from his prominence
in the industrial world, Mr. Heineke has made
a reputation for his interest in the civic af-
fairs of the capital.
Born on April 1, 1905, Mr. Heineke is the
son of Martin L. Heineke, a native of Carlin-
ville, Illinois, who died in 1945 at the age of
eighty-three, and Anna Rescho, also born in
Illinois. There were also three girls in the
family. The father was an inventor as well
as industrial executive. Henry L. Heineke
was educated in the elementary and high
schools of Springfield.
After leaving school he joined his father
in the Heineke Manufacturing Corporation,
which the elder Mr. Heineke had founded in
1902. Martin Heineke had established him-
self in Springfield in 1883, at the request of
Sattley Brothers, who had taken over the
property of C. W. Post, later the head of the
Post cereal business. Sattley Brothers made
farm implements. Martin Heineke had in-
vented and patented a straw stacker used with
old-time grain-threshing machines and later a
self-feeding device for combines and grain-
weighing device. After considerable pressure
by his employers, the son recalls, he sold them
these patents for $15,000. Later they resold
them for more than $100,000, he relates.
Sattley Brother-s manufactured Mr. Heineke's
inventions, which eventually included a corn
planter. In 1895 they made him superintend-
ent of their plant. Soon afterward the firm
consolidated with the Racine Company of Wis-
consin, and the new name of the business was
Sattley-Racine Company. The World's Co-
lumbian Exposition, in 1895, awarded Mr.
Martin Heineke a certificate attesting to his
skill as an expert artisan. In 1902, Martin
Heineke established the Heineke Manufac-
turing Company, licensed by his old employers
to manufacture, the straw stacker he had pat-
ented. He also made the self-feeding device
for threshing machines and the grain-weigh-
ing device he had invented. In 1921, after
his combine had gone into general use, the
other items became obsolete. In 1922 Mr.
Heineke began making lawn mowers, and
shortly after he adopted this item his son
Henry joined him in the business. The firm
continued making lawn mowers until World
War II, when they switched to sub-contract
war work for Allis-Chalmers, General Motors
and other big corporations. In 1945 the Corps
of Engineers of the United States Army
awarded the company a contract for clam
shell buckets for earth moving and excavating
work. It was in this year that the elder Mr.
Heineke died and the son became president
and general manager. After the war Mr.
Heineke led the company back to popular-
priced hand and power-operated lawn mow-
ers and also to lawn-and-leaf sweepers. By
1949 Henry Heineke had made the company
the second largest producer of these items in
the nation and was employing 200 men.
In 1944 he married Henrietta Hofferkamp,
also a native of Illinois. They have two chil-
dren, Leslie Ann, born in 1945, and Roger,
born in 1948, and they worship in the. Luth-
eran Church. Mr. Heineke's plant is at 1900
South Eighth Street.
He is a member of the Sangamo Club and
the Springfield Lodge, Benevolent and Pro-
tective Order of Elks. His leadership is not
only furthering the fortunes of a company
founded by his famed inventor-father but
helping the continued development of one of
America's greatest state capitals.
KARL V. PFLANZ
A part-time job, taken in high school days
"to help out," has, in a sense, proved a life-
time job for Karl V. Pflanz of Belleville and
led him to his great success. As vice president
and general manager of the St. Clair Ice
Company at Belleville, Mr. Pflanz is still with
the concern with which he started, the Du-
Quoin Packing Company, the parent concern.
He is one of the leading citizens of St. Clair
County and, as the operator of a vitally needed
service, is one of those helping to build some
of the communities in the county.
Mr. Pflanz was born in 1910 at DuQuoin,
in Perry County, the son of Charles C. and
512
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
MARTIN LOUIS HEINEKE
Delia (Johnson) Pflanz. Both parents are also
natives of DuQuoin. They were married in
1906. The elder Mr. Pflanz is a retail mer-
chant. Another child of the family, Melita
Pflanz, makes her home in Chicago. Karl
Pflanz was educated in the elementary and
high schools of DuQuoin. It was when he was
attending the high school that he obtained the
part-time job with the DuQuoin Packing Com-
pany. When he was graduated, he was given
a full-time position with this company start-
ing in the sales department. He worked up to
the position of sales representative, but soon
afterward was transferred to Belleville to
work for the affiliated St. Clair Ice Company.
There, too, he was attached to the sales de-
partment, and little by little his ability brought
him greater responsibility until he was made
vice president and general manager. Under his
jurisdiction, the company has extended its
territory and increased its volume of business,
while Mr. Pflanz himself has achieved a posi-
tion of eminence in the county and surround-
ing region.
Mr. Pflanz married Elizabeth Corden, a
school teacher, in 1931, and is now the father
of two daughters — Karol Kay, born June 23,
1933, and Shelia Ann Pflanz, born July 14,
1936. The family worships in the First Chris-
tian Church of Belleville.
Active in community enterprises, Mr. Pflanz
serves on the board of directors of the Belle-
ville Chamber of Commerce and is also a mem-
ber of the Rotary Club of Belleville. Baseball
is his favorite sport, while woodcraft is his
hobby. Service to customers, Mr. Pflanz holds,
is the medium by which success is achieved
and the growth of a company is promoted. He
believes, too, that there is a great need for
training in business. He is one of St. Clair
County's most respected citizens.
H. EDWARD MEYER
A man who is making a contribution to
construction and home ownership at Alton,
H. Edward Meyer is secretary-manager and
a member of the board of directors of the
Home Building and Loan Association of that
city. He has a reputation throughout the
State's building and loan business for his skill
in problems relating to the business and in
the necessary public education work. In Alton,
too, he has been active in educational activities
and in work on behalf of young people,
especially boys.
Mr. Meyer was born in Alton on September
11, 1911, the son of Harry L. and Carolyn
(Kramer) Meyer, who are natives, respective-
ly, of Madison and Macoupin Counties. From
the time he was sixteen the father, born on
December 11, 1883, worked for the Alton Brick
Company and at the time he resigned was its
superintendent. Edward Meyer was graduated
from the Alton High School in 1928. He played
football and was on the track team, as well
as a clarinet player in the high school band.
In 1932, he was awarded the degree of Bache-
lor of Science at Shurtleff College, Alton. At
college Mr. Meyer was business manager for
the athletic group for four years, was a mem-
ber of the "S" tribe and of the track and
other athletic squads. He played in the college
band and was a member of the Glee Club.
Also, he was business manager of the yearbook
"Retrospect" and it was the first year the
venture did not go into the red. Without real-
izing it, Mr. Meyer was preparing himself for
his present field of business, for he studied
architectui-e and engineering. In 1933, he com-
pleted a one-year course at Rubicam Business
School of St. Louis. In his last year at Shurt-
leff Mr. Meyer painted houses and roofs to
earn money. In 1932, the year he obtained his
degree, his father became manager of the
Home Building and Loan Association and he
himself followed the older Mr. Meyer into that
organization, working at $60 a month as a
clerk. In 1939, Edward Meyer was elected sec-
retary-manager of the organization and a
member of its board of directors. His father
became executive vice president. The business
was organized in 1902 and because of good
management and its prestige in the community
has always paid dividends and served the area.
On November 17, 1937, H. Edward Meyer
and Dorothy Jenkins, daughter of William J.
and Louise K. Jenkins of Alton, were married
in that city. Their daughter is Carole Louise
Meyer, born December 9, 1940. The family
lives at 1612 Maple Street, Alton, and worships
in the Evangelical Church.
Mr. Meyer has been on the Alton Board
of Education as director of curriculum since
April, 1946, and Secretary since April, 1950.
He was president of the Rotary Club of Alton
in 1947-48 and for two years before then was
its secretary. He attended the International
Rotary convention in Atlantic City in 1946.
He is a director of the Junior Achievement
Organization of Alton and the Greater Alton
Association of Commerce. He is a member of
the Alton Board of Realtors, the United States
Savings and Loan League, the Federal Home
Loan Bank of Chicago, the education com-
mittee of the Illinois Savings and Loan
League, and the Masonic order, including the
Shrine. He is assistant secretary of the Alton
Locker Systems Co. of Alton, owned by the
ILLINOIS EDITION
515
Meyer family. He is a Republican. His hob-
bies are shopwork and his family, and Boy
Scout activities. Through all his activities he
has promoted the welfare of all Madison
County.
HON. HARRY LEE CRISP
The largest employer at Marion, William-
son County, is the Marion Pepsi-Cola Bottl-
ing Company, owned and operated by Harry
Lee Crisp. Aware of his responsibilities to
the community as employer, business man
and citizen, Mr. Crisp, unlike many others in
his position, has devoted himself to civic
improvement programs — and with such zeal
and earnestness as to be elected first a City
Commissioner and then Mayor, the only man
ever to hold this high office for three terms.
He has also been active in Red Cross and Boy
Scout work and in every type of health, wel-
fare and general betterment project. In ad-
dition to the bottling company, Mr. Crisp
heads the Goreville Box Company, Inc., at
Goreville, in nearby Johnson County, and the
Squirt Bottling Company at Paduach, Ken-
tucky. He is the founder and former owner
of the Marion Bowling Alley and former
owner and publisher of the Marion Evening
Post.
Mr. Crisp was born in Franklin County on
December 25, 1901, the son of Charles and
Laura (Burns) Crisp. His father, also a native
of Franklin County, is a retired merchant re-
siding in Marion. His mother is a native of
DuQuoin. Harry Crisp began his education
in the grade schools at Benton. Following
his graduation from the Benton High School
in 1921, he spent two years at Southern Illi-
nois University in Carbondale. For two years
he managed his father's grocery store at
Logan. In 192 6, he moved to Marion and
established the Marion Hatchery and Produce
Company. He bought poultry and eggs, which
he shipped east in carload lots and which he
sold in heavy concentrations in Southern Illi-
nois. In 1936, he sold this business to the
Ohio Valley Creamery Company and it was
at that time that he took over the Pepsi-
Cola franchise he now holds. Though he
started on a small basis, he undertook to
handle twenty-one Southern Illinois counties,
his present territory. There were five em-
ployees in the beginning. Today there are
seventy, the greatest number in any one in-
dustry in Marion. His capacity was less than
500 cases at the outset, but now in an eight-
hour shift he can produce 10,000 cases. His
thirty-three trucks go into every portion of
the twenty-one counties. The Marion plant
is valued at a half million dollars. He em-
ploys fourteen persons at the Squirt Bottling
Company in Paduach.
On October 2 5, 192 7, Mr. Crisp married
Violette Fairless, the daughter of Charles and
Nola Fairless of Marion. There are two
children — Carole, born September 3, 1933,
and Harry Lee, II, born November 21, 1935.
In 1941 Mr. Crisp built the Marion Bowl-
ing Alley, with twelve lanes. This he later
sold. From 1943 to 1948 he was owner and
publisher of the Marion Evening Post, oldest
paper in the county, with Associated Press
and United Press affiliations. The paper had
a circulation of 8 00 when Mr. Crisp bought
it. At the time he sold it, the circulation was
4400, a phenomenal growth in five years. He
is a director of the Williamson County Fair
Association. The Fair is staged in Marion.
Also, he helped organize Class D baseball for
Marion.
From 1931 to 1935 Mr. Crisp was a City
Commissioner and from 1935 to 1947 he was
Mayor. When he ran for his third and final
term, he was unopposed. When he was first
elected, the city was in debt, but he left it
debt-free. He was the first to order radios
installed in police cars in Southern Illinois and
he organized what is rated as one of the best
and most modern fire departments in that
region. During his administration, too, twenty
mil.es of street were paved; the city took over
the water works, which it is operating at a
profit, and he was instrumental in inducing
the Government to establish the Veterans Ad-
ministration Hospital in Marion. In the year
which was his last as the city's Mayor, he
accepted only one dollar as salary. As a spon-
sor of boys' work, he was active in setting up
the Boy Scout Cabin in the southeast end of
Marion, now used as a recreation center. He
has also been active in Red Cross, bond drives
and similar campaigns, and is a prominent
member of the Marion and Ilinois State Cham-
bers of Commerce, the Illinois Manufacturers
of Carbonated Beverages, the National As-
sociation of Bottlers, the Benevolent and Pro-
tective Order of Elks, the Rotary Club of
Marion and the Masonic order. He likes all
outdoor sports, especially boating. He owns
the cruiser Violette C, which he operates on
the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers. Also, he likes
gaited and harness and show horses. His is a
story of tremendous achievement and extra-
ordinary public service — all pressed into a
comparatively few years.
516
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
HON. HARRY LEE CRISP
MAXWELL RHOADES HOTT
In 1958 the Hott family will be able to cele-
brate a century and a half of residence in
Piatt County and a contribution of an out-
standing character to the development of the
entire State of Illinois and the Central States
in general. Maxwell Rhoades Hott, of Monti-
cello, the county seat, has made his name fa-
mous in the fields of pharmaceuticals, agri-
culture and banking and in 1950 was entering
still another field — that of the super-market.
Former vice-president of the Sterling Drug
Company, he is the owner of the Pinus Medi-
cine Company, with office and factory in
Monticello. A World War I veteran, Mr. Hott
has made reputations as a swimmer, as a
worker in the fields of education and health
and as a Naval officer procurement advisor in
World War II.
He was born in Monticello on January 16,
1897, the son of John F. and Nellie J.
(Rhoades) Hott. His father was the principal
builder of the Pepsin Syrup Company, later
absorbed by the Sterling Drug Company, and
founder of the National Bank of Monticello.
His family settled in Piatt County in 1808.
John Hott was a charter member of the Rotary
Club of Monticello and was also a leading
figure in the Knights Templar, the Shrine, the
Jesters and in the community at large. Nellie
Hott's family, the Rhoades, settled in Piatt
County about 1800. Later the family pioneered
in Kansas, joining with the Hutchinsons to
build the first homes in Hutchinson, Kansas.
As pioneers, they also settled in California.
Maxwell Hott was educated in the University
of Chicago and, while a member of the Amer-
ican Expeditionary Force in France, at the
University of Aix Marseilles, France. In that
period he won the A.E.F. 200-meter breast-
stroke swimming championship. He had gone
into World War I as a First Sergeant in the
Fifth Division. At the time of his discharge
he was a Second Lieutenant. He participated
in the Battle of Frapelle and other major
engagements.
Mr. Hott began his business career just be-
fore entering the armed forces. This was in
January, 1917, and he worked as a salesman
in his father's firm, the Pepsin Syrup Com-
pany, at Monticello. After the war he resumed
his place with the company, which in 1924 was
sold to the Sterling Drug Company. On No-
vember 1, 1946, Mr. Hott retired as vice presi-
dent of the Sterling Drug Company, in charge
of the Caldwell Company Division. The Pinus
Medicine Company, which he owns today,
manufactures Fritola, Traxo, Abbotto Brothers
Compound and Dieners. He also owns and
operates 1160 acres of farm land in eastern
Piatt County and a ranch in California. He
grows grain and breeds livestock. In 1950 he
began the erection of a super-market, Cali-
fornia style, in Monticello. He is a director of
the National Bank of Monticello.
On May 22, 1920, at Oak Park, Mr. Hott
married Alice Frances Dunn, daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. W. Frank Dunn. They have one
daughter, Frances Jeanne, now Mrs. Charles
W. Bennis and the mother of Charles Michael
and John Maxwell Bennis. Mr. and Mrs. Hott
reside at 810 North State Street, Monticello.
They worship in the Methodist Church. They
own Deer Lodge, Fifield, Wisconsin.
Outside the commercial world Mr. Hott gives
service to his fellow citizens as a member of
the executive committee of the advisory com-
mittee of the University of Illinois and as a
director and president of John and Mary E.
Kirby Hospital. In World War II he was
civilian representative for Naval Officer Pro-
curement in the Ninth Naval District. He is
active in the Masonic order and the Shrine
and Jesters, in the Monticello Golf Club and
the Champaign Country Club. Hunting and
fishing are his favorite recreations. Hr. Hott
is regarded by his neighbors as one of the
most important citizens in Illinois.
HIRAM C. POLLITZ
One of the proud and treasured possessions
of Hiram C. Pollitz of Watseka, seat of Iro-
quois County, is a letter from the United
States Government lauding him for the
distinguished work he did in that county to
further the sales of War Bonds and thus help
finance the American war effort in World War
II. Mr. Pollitz has been active in many other
forms of public service, and is one of the lead-
ing citizens of the county. His prominence ex-
tends into Indiana, where he operates a farm
and breeds prize hogs. At Watseka Mr. Pollitz
operates the Watseka Department Store, a lead-
ing business of the community. He has been
in this field of merchandising since the 1890's.
Mr. Pollitz was born at Havana, seat of
Mason County, in 1874, the son of Frederick
and Henrietta Pollitz. His father, born in
St. Louis, Missouri, came to Illinois when he
was eighteen years old and lived there the
rest of his life. He was a dry goods merchant
at Havana, and taught his son the business.
Henrietta Pollitz was, like her son, a native
of Illinois. Hiram Pollitz went to school at
Havana until he was sixteen. His father's ill
health forced him to leave school. When his
father recovered, he went to work for him at
ILLINOIS EDITION
519
Havana. Four years later, when he was
twenty, Mr. Pollitz entered the employ of J. V.
Farwell at Chicago, Illinois, and there he re-
mained three years. When he left Farwell's,
Mr. Pollitz returned to Havana and his
father's store. In 1917, he bought a half in-
terest in a dry goods store at Kewanee, in
Henry County. Thirteen years later he sold out
his interest and in 1932 bought his Watseka
store.
In 1912, Mr. Pollitz married Marion Gray,
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Gray. A
son and daughter have been born to Mr. and
Mrs. Pollitz — Edwin Brown Pollitz, who serv-
ed in the United States Coast Guard in World
War II and who is married and the father of
Patricia and Catherine Pollitz; and Fay, who
is now Mrs. Hamilton and the mother of Mrs.
Mary Jane Olson. Mrs. Pollitz celebrated her
sixty-eighth birthday in 1949, Mr. Pollitz his
seventy-fifth.
Mr. Pollitz's pure-bred Hampshire hogs,
which he raises on his 240-acre farm near
Purdue, Indiana, have attracted much atten-
tion from experts. He is a former member of
the Kiwanis Club of Watseka and is active
in Masonic circles. Baseball and boxing are
his favorite sports, and he has refereed fights.
In addition to a letter, written him by the Fed-
eral Reserve Bank at Chicago, Mr. Pollitz
holds a medal awarded him for his outstand-
ing War Bond sales record and leadership.
He is a popular citizen of Iroquois County.
WILLIAM FREDERICK KULL
Since the days in 18 90 when he entered
the brewing business William Frederick Kull
of Mattoon has had a hand in developing the
beverage industry in Illinois. He has long
since ceased making beer and for more than
a half century has been an influential figure
in the soft drinks world. He now operates the
Mattoon Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Mat-
toon and the Freeport Coca-Cola Company of
Freeport. Also, among his other business in-
terests, he operates the Kull Lumber Com-
pany and the Kull Oil Company of Mattoon.
In these enterprises he has the administra-
tive assistance of his six sons and one of his
two daughters. The entire family has, of
course, become prominent throughout Central
and Southeastern Illinois.
William Frederick Kull was born in Stutt-
gart, Germany, on February 4, 1873, the son
of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Kull. He came to the
United States in 1890 and in January of that
year he went to work for the Fairbanks Soap
Factory in St. Louis, Missouri, where he re-
mained until August, 1890. He then went to
Murphysboro, Illinois, to enter the employ of
the Rudolph Stecher Brewing Company. He
bottled the first bottle of Red Seal beer at
the Stecher plant on February 1, 1891. In
April, 1892, Mr. Kull started to work for his
brother-in-law, Joseph Steinle, in the Steinle
Soda Water Company. On September 1, 1898,
the company was merged with the Egyptian
Bottling Works, of which Ruben Hayes was
the owner, and the new concern was in-
corporated as the Murphysboro Bottling Com-
pany. Joseph Steinle, Ruben Hayes, A. .1.
Will, and Mr. Kull were the stockholders.
On March 1, 19 05, Messrs. Steinle, Will
and Kull bought the Hayes interest in both
plants and in June, 192 7, Mr. Will acquired
the Herrin plant for himself and Mr. Kull
the Murphysboro plant. In the same month
Mr. Kull sold the Murphysboro plant to Wil-
liam R. Hayes of DuQuoin. Then Mr. Kull
purchased the Coca-Cola Bottling Company in
Columbia, Missouri, where he remained six
months. He then sold the Columbia plant
and bought the Mattoon Coca-Cola Bottling
Company. He has since expanded all his busi-
ness interests, including the Kull Lumber
Company, Freeport Coca-Cola Bottling Com-
pany and the Kull Oil Company of Mattoon.
Mr. Kull, married Elizabeth Steinle, daugh-
ter of Mr. and Mrs. John Steinle, at New Ulm,
Minnesota, on September 15, 1898. Mrs. Kull
was born at New Ulm on February 16, 187 7.
She has devoted her life to her eight child-
ren, but has also been active in Home Bureau
and other organizational work. She is a col-
lector of antique glassware and is a member
of the Church of the Immaculate Conception
of Mattoon. The six sons are William C,
Joseph A., Adolph F., Rudolph C. and Robert
C. Kull of Mattoon and Fred J. Kull of Free-
port; the two daughters are Miss Pauline
Kull and Mrs. W. E. Darnell of Mattoon.
There are six grandchildren.
Fred J. Kull was born in Murphysboro on
November 2, 18 99, and was educated in that
city's grade and high schools. He worked
for his father in Murphysboro and Mattoon,
and is now manager of the Freeport Coca-
Cola Bottling Company at Freeport. He mar-
ried Helen Owens, daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
James Owens of Mattoon, at Freeport on April
1, 1935. He is a member of the Elks and the
Germania Clubs and is well known in both
Mattoon and Freeport.
William C Kull was born in Murphysboro
on November 14, 1901, and he, too, was edu-
cated in that community's grade and high
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LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
WILLIAM FREDERICK KULL
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schools. He is now plant manager for the
Mattoon Coca-Cola Bottling Company. He is
unmarried.
Joseph A. Kull, born in Murphysboro on
January 30, 1910, is another graduate of its
grade and high schools. He is the manager of
the Kull Lumber Company and the Kull Oil
Company in Mattoon. He also is unmarried.
Rudolph C. Kull and Adolph F. Kull are
twins. They were born in Murphysboro on
July 3, 1914. Rudolph Kull, after completing
his education in that city, joined his father
in business and is now advertising manager
for the Mattoon Coca-Cola Bottling Company.
He married Anona Wheeler, daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. Claude Wheeler, in Terre Haute,
Indiana, on July 17, 1939. They have a
daughter, Karen Ann, who was born on Feb-
ruary 2, 1942.
Adolph F. Kull was also educated in the
schools of his native area. After completing
elementary school at Murphysboro, he went
to the Mattoon High School. His position is
that of sales manager for the Mattoon Coca-
Cola Bottling Company. He married Victoria
Chernisky, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joe
Chernisky, in Quincy on April 21, 1939. They
have two daughters — Linda Lee, born July
23, 1941, and Anita Kay Kull, born August
2, 1943.
Robert C. Kull was born in Murphysboro
on December 8, 1917, and received his edu-
cation in Murphysboro's grade schools and
the Mattoon High School. He is the secretary
of the Kull Lumber Company in Mattoon.
He married Jean Redman, daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. Glenn Redman, in Marshall, Illinois,
on July 3, 1946. They have a son, William
Frederick Kull, born October 8, 1947.
Of the two daughters, Pauline M. Kull was
born in Murphysboro on January 8, 1904, and
was educated in the elementary and high
schools at Murphysboro. She is bookkeeper
for the Mattoon Coca-Cola Bottling Company.
The other daughter is Elizabeth A., born in
Murphysboro on August 17, 1912. She went
to the elementary schools in Murphysboro
and high school in Mattoon. On August 16,
1942. she was married to William E. Darnell
at Farmington, Missouri. He is the son of
Mr. and Mrs. William E. Darnell of Bismark,
Missouri. They have a daughter, Elizabeth
Ann, born April 9, 1944, and a son, William
E., born November 16, 1945.
The father of these eight children, William
Frederick Kull, is a member of the Elks and
St. Peter's Reformed Church in Murphysboro.
His hobby is horses and harnesses. He is an
extensive traveler, having been to Europe and
other foreign lands. The Kull mansion on
Western Avenue, Mattoon, is one of the show
places of the area. Mr. Kull's vigorous
personality has been an influence for progress
in that area for years.
CLARENCE B. KROEHLER
A name prominent in the history of the
furniture manufacturing industry is that of
Clarence B. Kroehler of Kankakee. In this
industry since 1910, Mr. Kroehler is now
general manager of the two plants of the
Kroehler Furniture Manufacturing Company
at Kankakee. His home is at 841 Cobb Boule-
vard, in that city. Mr. Kroehler and the two
plants have behind them a record for a tremen-
dous contribution to the American war effort
in World War II, having produced vitally
needed items. Mr. Kroehler is a familiar figure
in the civic life of Kankakee as he is in the
trade life of his industry.
He was born in Houston County, Minnesota,
on March 13, 1892, the son of William and
Louisa (Ziegler) Kroehler, both of whom were
also natives of that state. The father's death
in a hunting accident in 1898 caused the
mother and her six half-orphaned children to
move to Naperville, DuPage County, Illinois,
the home of Clarence Kroehler's uncle, P. E.
Kroehler, founder of the Kroehler Furniture
Manufacturing Company. There Clarence
Kroehler was educated in the grade and high
schools and there he learned the furniture
business as an employee of the Kroehler
Furniture Manufacturing Company, Naperville,
Illinois, now the No. 1 Kroehler plant. Later, Mr.
Kroehler was placed in charge of the manu-
facturing cost department and in 1922 he was
elevated to the post of works manager at Naper-
ville. In 1926 he was transferred to Kankakee
as general manager in charge of the Kroehler
Furniture Manufacturing Company's two
large plants there — one manufacturing bed-
room furniture, the other manufacturing up-
holstered living room furniture. More than
1,000 persons are employed under Mr. Kroeh-
ler's jurisdiction. In World War II Mr. Kroeh-
ler supervised operations on Government con-
tracts under which the two plants made fur-
nishings for Liberty Ships and aircraft car-
riers, including desks, chairs, bunks and other
items, as well as ailerons and flaps for
planes and numerous other needed material.
On August 14, 1914, at Naperville, Mr.
Kroehler married Patra Sieber, who was born
in that community on April 18, 1892. Mr. and
Mrs. Kroehler are the parents of one daugh-
ter, Marjorie, who was born in Naperville on
ILLINOIS
EDITION
523
May 5, 1919. She is now Mrs. James P. Reed
and living at Madison, Wisconsin. Mr. and
Mrs. Reed have three children who are as
dear to Mi'. Kroehler as his own life — Barbara,
born on June 7, 1938; Leslie, born on March
12, 1941, and James, born on August 20,
1945.
Mr. and Mrs. Kroehler worship in the Con-
gregational Church in Kankakee. Mr. Kroeh-
ler is active in the Kankakee Chamber of
Commerce and the Kankakee Lodge, Bene-
volent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a
popular citizen of the community and an
influential member of the furniture industry.
JOHN WALKER RUSSELL
For years John Walker Russell of Mattoon
has enjoyed a national reputation as an inde-
pendent oil man. He is not only a leading
figure in that industry, but is also an out-
standing worker in the Mattoon Chamber of
Commerce and in Coles County's aviation de-
velopment movement.
Mr. Russell was born on March 17, 1884,
near Easley, South Carolina. His father was
Edward A. Russell, a farmer also born near
Easley and a veteran of the War Between the
States. In 1891, with his wife, Nancy Eliza-
beth (Rosamond) Russell, and his ten chil-
dren, he moved from South Carolina to Tex-
as. John Walker Russell was educated in one
of the oldtime "little school houses" on the
prairie of Texas near the City of Paris, La-
mar County. Meantime he helped his father
on the farm. In 1914, when he was thirty
years old, he left the farm to enter the oil
business. This was in Texas, but he hardly
had gone into the business when he was sent
to Tampico, Mexico. From late 1914 to 1922
he lived in Mexico, working as a toolpusher
for Ernest J. Nicklos, a contractor. He re-
signed that position in 1922 and went to La-
redo, Texas, where for some time he was an
independent operator in the oil fields. From
Laredo he went to Mexia, Texas, also as an
independent. Subsequently, he became Dis-
trict Land Man for the Texas Company in
1928 at Wichita, Kansas. In 1936 he came
to Illinois as The Texas Company's District
Land Man. This post he resigned in March,
1939, to return to independent operations in
the oil business. This he has continued to
this day, with constantly increasing reputa-
tion.
On August 7, 1919, at Little Rock, Arkan-
sas, Mr. Russell married Leona Johnston, the
daughter of J. O. and Mary Johnston, de-
ceased. Mr. and Mrs. Russell reside at 3100
Western Avenue, Mattoon. Mr. and Mrs. Rus-
sell are the parents of two sons and two
daughters — John Walker Russell,' Jr. ; Mary
Ellen Mirza, the wife of John Mirza and the
mother of Nancy Ann Mirza; Rosamond Rus-
sell; and Robert A. Russell. The family wor-
ships in the Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Russell's prominent position in his field
of business is attested, partly, by the fact
that since 1939 he has been a member of the
board of directors of the Independent Petro-
leum Association of America. Evidence of his
leadership in Coles County lies in his service,
from 1938 to 1946, on the board of directors
of the Mattoon Chamber of Commerce and
his present service as chairman of the Coles
County Airport Authority. He continues ac-
tive in the Chamber of Commerce, and also
in the Mattoon Country Club. He is inde-
pendent in politics and golf is his favorite
sport. Mr. Russell is five feet ten inches
tall, weighs 155 pounds, has brown hair and
blue eyes. Of excellent health, he is the pos-
sessor of an affable disposition and a host
of friends. His contribution to the develop-
ment of the Illinois oil fields and to the wel-
fare of Mattoon and Coles County is widely
recognized.
GILBERT REINHARDT VAUGHT,
D.D.S.
A former dental college faculty member and
a writer on dentistry who has gained wide ac-
ceptance in the dental education and profes-
sional fields, Dr. Gilbert Reinhardt Vaught is
now practicing dentistry in Mount Vernon,
seat of Jefferson County, with a reputation
that has spread throughout Central and South-
ern Illinois. He is also vice president of the
Vaught Oil Company and is prominent in the
Baptist Church and civic and welfare pro-
grams.
Born at Eldorado, Saline County, on De-
cember 24, 1915, Dr. Vaught is the son of
John Russell and Hattie (Watson) Vaught.
His father, born at Stonefort, also in Saline
County, on March 29, 1892, was a grocer and .
president of the Vaught Oil Company. He was
the son of John Wesley Vaught of Burnt
Prairie, White County, who came to Illinois
from Pennsylvania with his parents by way
of Tennessee and Kentucky. Hattie Watson
Vaught was born in Eldorado, the daughter
of Alfred Penny and Malinda (Dooley) Wat-
son. Her father was born near Eldorado and
was a farmer and manufacturer of concrete
building blocks. Her mother was of Indian-
Irish blood. On his father's side Dr. Vaught
is a distant relative of Daniel Boone.
524
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
JOHN WALKER RUSSELL
FRED HAROLD VVASSON
Dr. Vaught began his education in the pub-
lic schools of Eldorado. In high school he
played in the school band and orchestra and
was a member of the dramatic club. After
high school he attended Southern Illinois Uni-
versity at Carbondale and then spent two
years at the University of Illinois at Urbana.
For his professional training he went to the
St. Louis University School of Dentistry in
St. Louis, where he received the degree of
Doctor of Dental Surgery. He was elected to
Delta Sigma Delta, the dental fraternity, and
Omicron Kappa Upsilon, the honorary dental
society. Graduated in 1946, he started teach-
ing in the Fall of the same year and con-
tinued until 1946, attaining the rank of As-
sistant Professor of Crown and Bridge Work
on the St. Louis University School of Den-
tistry faculty. Throughout this four years of
teaching he operated a part-time dental office
in St. Louis. While in that city, also, Dr.
Vaught, active in Boy Scouting, became a
member of Alpha Phi Omega, the Scout serv-
ice fraternity. Late in 1945 he opened a dental
office in Mount Vernon; in that year he built
himself a new ultra-modern dental office build-
ing at 1404 Broadway, designed by himself.
He now has one of the heaviest practices in
his pi-ofession in the Mount Vernon area. He
is also vice president of the Vaught Oil Com-
pany, a chain of oil and gasoline filling sta-
tions in Central and Southern Illinois. In his
teaching days, Dr. Vaught wrote a manual on
"Operative Dentistry," which is used in dental
schools and by dentists.
Dr. Vaught married Lillian Gholson, born
at Eldorado on August 27, 1916, the daughter
of Ely Gholson, a grain and stock farmer at
Saline County, and Malinda Alice (Reasons)
Gholson. Mrs. Vaught is a graduate of the
Eldorado High School and Lockyear Business
College, Evansville, Indiana. She is active in
the First Baptist Church of Mount Vernon and
is chairman of one of its mission's circles and
also of the church's Mission Board. In this
church Dr. Vaught is superintendent of the
Sunday School and a member of the Board of
Christian Education. Mrs. Vaught is prominent
in sorority work and in Mount Vernon's P.-T.A.
circles. There are two children — Karen Sue
Vaught, born August 14, 1943, and John
Daniel Vaught, born September 13, 1946.
Dr. Vaught was president of the Kiwanis
Club of Mount Vernon in 1950. He is also a
Shriner. Photography, china painting and the
growing of flowers are his hobbies. He is wide-
ly recognized for his contribution to the ad-
vancement of dental science and for his gen-
eral citizenship.
FRED HAROLD WASSON
A family famed in Southern Illinois is the
Wasson family, for which the community of
Wasson, in Saline County, is named. The
family has numbered among its members
farmers, timber dealers, mine operators, min-
isters, school teachers, a medical practitioner
and merchants. Outstanding in this family is
Fred Harold Wasson, the operator of the
Wasson Department Store in Carrier Mills,
Saline County. Aside from the contribution
he has made through this store and through
military service in World War I, Mr. Wasson
is furthering the progress and welfare and
growth of his community, county and region
through activities channeled through a multi-
tude of organizations. He is a civic and re-
ligious leader of tremendous influence.
Mr. Wasson was born in Pope County on
January 31, 1894, the oldest of five chil-
dren, the others being Chester P., Carrie
Belle, Dewey L., and Mabel, who is now Mrs.
Orval J. Dean. His father was Val Wasson,
also a native of Pope County, the founder of
the Wasson Department Store. He was a
farmer, timber contractor and merchant. In
1908 Val Wasson traded his farm for a small
stock of merchandise at Raleigh, Illinois, and
this was his start in the mercantile business.
At one time he operated as many as four
stores. His first bi'anch store was at Was-
son, where a large coal mine owned by a
member of the family was located. Later he
opened a store at the Wasson No. 2 Mine, and
still another, the surviving one, in Carrier
Mills. Fred Wasson's mother was Mellie
(Parker) Wasson, the daughter of Nathaniel
and Nancy Parker of Calloway County, Ken-
tucky. The Wasson family came to Illinois
from Rhea County, Tennessee. Each year a
family reunion is held on the old home place
in Pope County, near the family burial
ground. This is sponsored by Fred Wasson
and has an extensive program. About three
hundred members of the family attend.
Mr. Wasson was educated in the public-
schools of Pope and Saline Counties and in
two select summer schools. The recipient of
a teacher's certificate, he taught in Saline
County at Rudement in the year 1912-1913
and at the Mount Pleasant School in 1913-14.
To go to his teaching job, he walked from
home about three and one-half miles each
way. He boarded at home. In the spring of
1914 he took charge of his father's store at
Wasson. In the Fall of 1916 he took over
a branch of the Carrier Mills store. The
ILLINOIS
EDITION
529
First World War intervened in his career, and
in the spring of 1918 he went into the Army,
with which he served in France. He was a
Private First Class in the 138th Field Artil-
lery. Upon his discharge from the service he
returned to Carrier Mills and worked with
his father. In 1925 his father made him man-
ager of the Carrier Mills Store. The elder Mr.
Wasson died in 1931 and Fred Wasson and a
brother took over the business as managers
and trustees for the family. It sells every-
thing from groceries to hardware, all types of
dry goods, electrical supplies, furniture and
floor coverings. It occupies several store
buildings on both sides of the main street.
Mr. Wasson is also interested in rental prop-
erties in Carrier Mills.
On May 20, 1919, Mr. Wasson married
Katie Cable, the daughter of George and
Elizabeth Cable of Raleigh. They have three
children — Fred Harold; Doi*is Colleen, now
Mrs. Waldo Killman, and Martha Katherine.
The family worships in the Baptist Church,
a church which for years has known and prof-
ited from the leadership of Mr. Wasson. Mr.
Wasson is a deacon, serves as chairman of
the local mission board and member of the
State executive board, and is a past president
of the Baptist State Brotherhood. He is a
charter member of the Illinois Brotherhood,
and has twice headed it. Among Mr. Was-
son's other organizations are the Lions Club;
the Masonic fraternity,, in which he has ad-
vanced to the 32nd degree of the Scottish
Rite; the Gideons; the American Bible So-
ciety; the Egyptian Retailers' Association, the
Illinois Federation of Retailers, the American
Retailers Association, the Illinois Hardware
Retailers Association, the American Legion
and its Past Commanders Club, the Greater
Egyptian Association, of which he is now
(1949) treasurer; Ozark Tours, Boy Scouts of
America, the American Red Cross, Illinois
Public Aid Commission, Illinois Temperance
League, the AAA Auto Club of Egypt, Saline
County Historical Society, Illinois State His-
torical Society, Illinois Archeological Society,
Saline County Executives Club, National Geo-
graphic Society and Agriculture and Indus-
trial Committee of Saline County. He is past
president of the Lions Club and of the Egyp-
tian Retailers' Association. He is now execu-
tive secretary and a director of the latter
organization. As is evident from this list of
organizations and bodies, Mr. Wasson, like his
father, who was a civic leader and served as
the Raleigh Township representative on the
Saline county board of supervisors, and his
grandfather, Dr. John A. Wasson, who trav-
eled to Southern Illinois from Rhea County,
Tennessee in the early 1840's in a covered
wagon and served for years as a physician,
gives much time to major welfare, civic and
religious problems. As a result he has become
a leading and popular citizen of the entire
state, but he is held in special affection in
Southern Illinois and the Greater Egyptian
area.
WALLACE LONG
The name of Wallace Long of Champaign
is known in the lumber business throughout
the United States, for Mr. Long is not only
president of the Long Lumber Company, Inc.,
of Champaign but also president of the Skagit
Valley Lumber Mills at Rockport, Washing-
ton, and the North Idaho Shingle Mills, Inc.,
of Priest River, Idaho, and vice-president of
the Illini Lumber Distributors of Champaign.
He is also an active and outstanding citizen
of Champaign County and is a veteran of
World War I.
Born at Litchfield, in Montgomery County,
on February 2 7, 18 95, Mr. Long is the son
of Charles F. and Sarah (McCullough) Long.
His father, a farmer, was born in a log house
in Pike County on April 9, 1866. His parents
were Robert M. Long, born in Kentucky in
November, 1837, and Ann G. (Slight) Long,
born in England in 18 33; they were married
in Pike County in 1859. Sarah McCullough
Long was born in Litchfield on March 9.
1870, and was the daughter of Robert Y. Mc-
Cullough, born November, 18 40, in Carlin-
ville, Macoupin County, and Josephine (Fog-
land) McCullough, born November, 1850, in
Sweden; her parents were married in Illi-
nois in 1869.
Wallace Long was educated in the Burnett
Grade School near Waggoner, Montgomery
County. He worked on his father's farm un-
til he enlisted in the United States Air Corps
in 1917. After sixteen months in the Army
(November 15, 1916, to April 20, 1918), he.
returned to the farm. Two years later his
father retired and, leaving the farm, the son
worked as an automobile salesman in Litch-
field until 1930. At that time he moved to
Champaign. In 1934 Mr. Long entered the
real estate business and in 1942 he purchased
the Leavitt Manufacturing Company in Urb-
ana. This he sold in 1943, when he bought
a farm at Urbana which he later subdivided
and sold in city lots. In 1946 Mr. Long, in
partnership with his son-in-law, Edward E.
Armstrong, Jr., opened up a retail and whole-
530
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
WALLACE LONG
sale lumber business. The following year,
however, they split this retail and wholesale
yard into separate businesses, and the retail
yard is now Long Lumber Company, Inc. with
Mr. Long as president. Mr. Armstrong is
treasurer and manager and Mrs. Betty Lou
Armstrong, Mr. Long's stepdaughter, is the
other stockholder. As president or vice-presi-
dent of four firms in this general field, Mr.
Long has made a reputation for leadership
in an important business. The headquarters
of the Long Lumber Company is at 1300
South Neil Street, Champaign.
Mr. Long's stepdaughter was born on
August 14, 1921, her husband on August 2,
1922. They were married in 1942 and their
children are Kande Armstrong, born on
December 14, 1945, and Dan E. Armstrong,
born on April 14, 1943. Mr. Long makes his
home in the Hamilton Hotel, Champaign.
He worships in the Christian Church of Wag-
goner. Fishing is his favorite sport. Describ-
ed as in very good health and with a good,
even disposition, he has become a popular fig-
ure in the business and social life of Cham-
paign and is known for the leadership he has
given toward the development of the lumber
business.
EUGENE AUGUST COMTE
A man of many interests and activities —
all of which have resulted in immeasurable
benefit to Murphysboro and all Jackson Coun-
ty— Engene August Comte is an outstanding
citizen of Southern Illinois. An insurance and
real estate man, Mr. Comte has served his
community as Alderman and Mayor and is at
present furthering its growth and prosperity
through the operation of the Jackson County
Resource Development Commission, which he
organized and which makes extensive studies
of natural resources, conducts an intensive
educational program among the people and
recommends programs for economic welfare.
He is a veteran of World War II and a
leader in veterans affairs in Downstate
Illinois.
Mr. Comte was born in Murphysboro on
November 27, 1906, the son of August and
Josephine Comte. His father, a coal miner
born in France, came to the United States in
his youth. Both he and the mother are de-
ceased, the latter having passed away when
Eugene Comte was three months old. Mr.
Comte, an only child, went through the eighth
grade in Murphysboro and then went to work.
His first job was that of logger in the timber-
land. Later he worked in the production de-
partment of the Brown Shoe Company, St.
Louis, where he remained from 1921 to 1943.
In the latter part of this period he took a
correspondence course with LaSalle Extension
University of Chicago and in 1943 he entered
the real estate and insurance business in
Murphysboro.
On January 31, 1929, Mr. Comte married
Lillian Mileur, daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
J. A. Mileur of a rural district near Murphys-
boro. They have three children — William Earl,
Eugene David and August Francis Comte.
When in World War II Mr. Comte served
with the armed forces, Mrs. Comte operated
his insurance and real estate business. Mr.
Comte was with the 1263rd Combat Engineers
in the European Theater of Operations from
1943 to 1945. In 1948 he organized a combat
engineers unit for the Illinois National Guard
organization in Murphysboro. He is the first
veteran of World War II to have served as
commander of the Fifth Division of the Illi-
nois Department of the Legion. He is at pres-
ent service officer for both the American
Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars Posts
in Murphysboro.
Mr. Comte began the study of natural re-
sources of a community when he was in Eu-
rope, especially in Western Germany. Since
his return home he has pursued this study as
applied to his native area, and he has since
done considerable work toward community de-
velopment through his Jackson County Re-
source Development Commission. He is a
recognized authority on local natural re-
sources and conservation work. He is also
well known as a labor leader and when he
was with the Brown Shoe Company he helped
organize the first union in the shoe industry
in Murphysboro. He is a former president,
now serving as secretary, of the Rotary Club
of Murphysboro and he has twice served as
president of the Murphysboro Sportsman's
Club. He helped organize the Crab Orchard
Sportsman's Club, but is no longer a member
of that organization. He has been through the
chairs in the Murphysboro Lodge of the In-
dependent Order of Odd Fellows, and is also
a member of the Murphysboro Chamber of
Commerce, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, the
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and
such Masonic bodies as the Blue Lodge and
the Murphysboro Chapter, Royal Arch Masons.
A man who stands six feet two inches in
height and weighs 220 pounds, Eugene August
Comte is an impressive figure in more ways
than one in Downstate Illinois.
ILLINOIS EDITION
533
ROBERT DuFAY MONTGOMERY
Since 1869 two generations of the Mont-
gomery family have occupied the same office
room in Decatur, and from that center have
made a tremendous contribution to the de-
velopment and welfare of Macon County and
the surrounding territory. Robert DuFay
Montgomery is the second generation of this
family, and in the years he has been active
in the family business, insurance, real estate
and management, has become an outstanding-
citizen of the downstate area.
Mr. Montgomery was born in Decatur on
February 19, 1881, the son of Robert Richard
and Clara (King) Montgomery. His father,
who was born in 1843 and died in 1930, went
into the insurance and real estate business at
an early age. It was he who opened the
family office in the room which the son oc-
cupies today. This is at 141 East Main Street,
Decatur. Clara King Montgomery, the daugh-
ter of Dr. Joseph and Maryette (Packard)
King, was born in 1849 and died in 1908. The
children of the family included Iola A. Perry
and Lida M. Stafford, half sisters of Robert
DuFay Montgomery, and Cora Mae Black and
R. Jay Montgomery, his sister and brother.
The half-sisters are deceased and they, along
with others of the family, including R. R.
and Clara Montgomery and Dr. and Mrs. Jo-
seph King, are buried in Greenwood Ceme-
tery, Decatur.
Robert DuFay Montgomery went to a busi-
ness college after completing his academic
education, which was obtained in the elemen-
tary and high schools of Decatur. In his
youth he joined his father in the real estate
and insurance business, and today he and a
nephew, F. DuFay Montgomery, operate what
is called the DuFay Montgomery Agency.
Robert DuFay Montgomery married Amelia
Mustin George, the daughter of Emerson H.
and Amelia (Mustin) George, in Decatur on
June 12, 1923. Mrs. Montgomery, who was
born in 1887, died in 1949. She, too, lies in
Greenwood Cemetery. She was active in the
Episcopal Church throughout her lifetime.
Mr. Montgomery has two stepchildren — Dr.
William H. Requarth, whose wife is Nancy C.
Requarth, and Pauline R. Smith, whose hus-
band is Elbert S. Smith and who is the mother
of Mary Jane Smith. Mr. Montgomery's home
is at 423 Ewing Avenue, Decatui*.
Mr. Montgomery, who is described as five
feet five and one-half inches tall, blond and
blue-eyed, weighing 140 pounds, has a great
liking for trapshooting and hunting. He is
active in the Decatur Lodge, No. 401, Benev-
olent and Protective Order of Elks; the De-
catur Club and the Decatur Gun Club. In
politics he is a Republican. Having dedicated
his life to the development of his region, he
has won widespread popularity and great
stature as a citizen.
ARMIN C. KURZ
The Illinois Democrat, published at Carlin-
ville, seat of Macoupin County, is one of the
state's best known publications. It has achiev-
ed its position of prestige and influence
through such men as Armin C. Kurz, its pres-
ent publisher and editor, and Jim McClure,
its previous owner. Mr. Kurz, who has been
active in journalism since he was sixteen years
old in 1907, has been identified with both
German - language and English - language
papers, and he has practiced his profession
in various communities of his native state.
He is known in Illinois not only for his pub-
lishing and editing activities but for his in-
terest in community progress and in fraternal
and civic organizations.
Mr. Kurz is a native of Maine, in Madison
County. Born on August 9, 1891, he is the
son of the late Reverend Carl Theodore Kurz
and Emma (Thurnau) Kurz. His father, an
Evangelical minister, was born in Germany,
but came to the United States at a compara-
tively early age. The mother was a native of
the United States.
The future editor began his education in
Madison County schools, and was graduated
from the Highland High School. He then at-
tended Barnes Business College at St. Louis,
and in 1907 entered the employ of the High-
land Leader, an English-language paper, and
the Highland Union, a German-language paper
owned by his father, who in 1913 sold them
to purchase a paper at Jerseyville, in Jersey
County. Three years later he went to work for
the Star-Times at Staunton, in Macoupin
County. When in 1918 the editor of the Star-
Times retired, Mr. Kurz, with a partner, W. C.
Moser, purchased this publication. In 1922
Mr. Kurz bought his partner's interest in the
enterprise and until March 1, 1933, operated
the paper as sole owner, publisher and editor.
When he left Staunton, Mr. Kurz went to St.
Louis to operate a job printing plant. There
he remained until on January 1, 1934, he re-
turned to Macoupin County and purchased the
Carlinville Democrat from Jim McClure. He
has been operating in Carlinville since that
time, and has extended the fame and circula-
tion of the newspaper far beyond the dimen-
534
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
ROBERT DuFAY MONTGOMERY
sions achieved under previous sponsorship.
He is himself widely known as a progressive
and aggressive editor.
Mr. Kurz married Iva L. Hagnauer on June
8, 1910. Mrs. Kurz is also active in Carlin-
ville's community life. Mr. Kurz is a mem-
ber of the Rotary Club of Carlinville and of
such Masonic bodies as the Blue Lodge, the
Royal Arch Masons, the Knights Templar and
the Order of the Eastern Star. His newspaper
is a member of various organizations of the
publishing trade, including the Illinois Press
Association. The citizens of Macoupin County
have come to regard Mr. Kurz as a leader in
all projects seeking the prosperity and welfare
of the entire region.
HON. FRANK E. BLAKE
From his position of eminence in North-
eastern Illinois the Honorable Frank E. Blake
of Watseka, seat of Iroquois County, has risen
to a national reputation. Mr. Blake is not only
president of the farspread Peoples Coal and
Lumber Company and a former mayor of the
county seat, but he is the donor of Blake Field
to the Watseka High School and a leader in
educational, health, welfare, religious and
general public affairs.
Born in Wellington, Iroquois County, on
January 19, 1882, Mr. Blake is the son of
Edmund James and Rebecca Margaret Blake.
He was graduated from the Watseka High
School in 1900 and spent two years in aca-
demic courses at the University of Illinois,
following up with study in the university's
College of Pharmacy, from which he received
the degree of Graduate in Pharmacy in 1907.
From 1907 to 1909 Mr. Blake worked in drug-
stores in Chicago, chiefly to get the expe-
rience and the "big city" point of view. He
is president of the Peoples Coal and Lumber
Company at Watseka. He is also a director of
the First Trust and Savings Bank of Wat-
seka. His office is at 115 East Walnut Street,
Watseka, his home at 328 East Mulberry
Street.
On January 1, 1913, Mr. Blake married
Helen Harrown. They have one daughter,
Mary Margaret, who is the wife of John W.
Duff, a Watseka insurance man, the marriage
having taken place in 1942. Mrs. Duff spent a
year at Lake Forest Girls School and three
years at the University of Illinois, and holds
a degree from the College of Liberal Arts. Her
husband is also a graduate of the university.
They have three daughters, Mary K. Duff,
who was born in 1944, Martha Jo Duff, born
in 194G and Elizabeth Ann born in 1950. The
family worships in the Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Blake gave the City of Watseka a long-
progressive administration, for he was Mayor
from 1935 to 1941. He served for sixteen
years on the Watseka Board of Education and
in that period donated the athletic field to the
high school which bears his name. In grati-
tude for the donation, the pupils took up a
collection and presented Mr. Blake with a
Silver Loving Cup. This is one of his treasured
possessions. He is also a former member of
the Board of Tax Review and in World War
II was on the Iroquois County Rationing
Board. He is now president of the Iroquois
Hospital in Watseka and a member of the
Board of the Iroquois County Tuberculosis
Sanatorium. Besides his coal and lumber busi-
ness, Mr. Blake is active in farming and is
president of the Goodwine Grain Company. In
his past, in addition to his professional career
as pharmacist, was a year of school teaching.
He is a member of the Iroquois Club, a char-
ter member of the Kiwanis Club of Watseka,
various Masonic bodies, including Mohammed
Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the
Mystic Shrine, and the B.P.O. Elks. He is
influential in virtually every activity aimed at
the general welfare in Iroquois County.
CHARLES LINCOLN WILKINS
The Wilkins Pipe and Supply Company of
Peoria is one of the outstanding firms in its
field in Central Illinois, and its founder,
Charles Lincoln Wilkins — known affectionately
to many as "Todd" — holds a position of equal
popularity among the citizenry. Mr. Wilkins
has given the community leadership in many
improvement projects and is especially well
known in the Chamber of Commerce move-
ment.
He was born in Columbus, Ohio, on April
26, 1895, and is the son of Charles Law-
rence Wilkins, a native of Erie, Pennsylvania,
who died in 1926, and Elinore (Mitchell) Wil-
kins, also a native of the Ohio capital, who
survives her husband.
"Todd" Wilkins, a graduate of Peoria's
elementary and high schools, spent a year
at Bradley Polytechnic Institute, Peoria. In
1915, he joined his father in business. The
father then was the owner of the Illinois
Pump and Brass Company. Two years later,
"Todd" Wilkins entered the United States
Army Air Corps for World War I service.
Ordered to duty as flight instructor, he was
stationed at Lake Charles, Louisiana, through-
out most of his period of service. In 1918, after
the Armistice, he was discharged at Dorr
Field, Arcadia, Florida, at which time he
was holding the rank of Second Lieutenant. To
ILLINOIS EDITION
537
this day Mr. Wilkins maintains his interest
in flying and in the nation's hopes of sustain-
ing its supremacy in the air.
In 1919, after his return to civilian life,
Mr. Wilkins entered the employ of the Wal-
worth Co. of Chicago, Illinois through 193.'}.
In the latter year he established the Wilkins
Pipe and Supply Company, which today from
its headquarters at 1008 South Adams Street,
Peoria, distributes pipe, valve fittings, plumb-
ing and heating supplies in an area with a
radius of about seventy miles of Peoria, em-
ploying fifty persons.
On August 30, 1927, at Peoria, Mr. Wilkins
married Edythe Lowe of that city. Mrs. Wil-
kins is a member of the First Church of
Christ, Scientist, of Peoria. She and Mr. Wil-
kins make their home at 203 Holly Ridge
Circle, Peoria. Mrs. Wilkins is the daughter
of Frank H. Lowe, of Lacon, Illinois, an adver-
tising man who died in 1939, and Emma C.
Lowe, of Peoria, who died in 1935.
Mr. Wilkins, besides operating the Wilkins
Pipe and Supply Company, runs a dairy farm
of two hundred acres. He is president of the
Robein Water Works and a former director of
the Peoria Association of Commerce. He is
also active in the Peoria Chamber of Com-
merce, the Illinois State Chamber of Com-
merce and the Chamber of Commerce of the
United States; in the Mount Holly Country
Club, the Peoria Country Club and in various
Masonic bodies, including the Shrine. He is
one of the small group of citizens who are
promoting the progress of Peoria and the
surrounding area.
HON. HENRY BRUCE BURNETT
Still a young man, Henry Bruce Burnett
has served Eldorado in his native Saline
County as business man and public official
for years. He was Mayor of the city when
only thirty-one years old. In the business
world, Mr. Burnett, with his wife as partner,
operates the Burnett Motor Company of El-
dorado, the Chevrolet agency which also
handles truck and automobile parts on a re-
tail and wholesale basis. He is a veteran of
World War II.
Mr. Burnett was born at Raleigh on May
25, 1912, and is the son of Rex C. and Fay-
ette (Wesley) Burnett. His father, also a
native of Saline County, was one of Southern
Illinois' outstanding citizens. He was a bank-
er at Raleigh and a leading civic worker. He
served as president of the Rotary Club in El-
dorado and in other civic offices. His death
occured on July 29, 1943. He was the son of
Dr. Henry L. Burnett, physician and surgeon
of Raleigh who was also prominent in civic
life.
Henry Bruce Burnett began his education
in the elementary schools at Raleigh. In 1930
he was graduated from the Eldorado High
School, where he had served on the debating
team for three years. After high school, he
spent two semesters at the University of Illi-
nois. Among Rex Burnett's activities was
the operation of a Chevrolet agency in El-
dorado. H. Bruce Burnett entered this busi-
ness in 19 32, as a worker in the body and
paint shop. He then became service manager,
parts manager and finally, in 1937, sales
manager. In 19 41, he was taken into partner-
ship with the elder Mr. Burnett. At about
this time he attended a post-graduate school
in Michigan for the sons of Chevrolet dealers,
and this fitted him further for operation as
a dealer. When his father died in 1943, Mr.
Burnett and his wife bought the business as
a partnership, continuing the name of Burnett
Motor Company. Only a few months later,
however — in December, 1943 — Bruce Burnett
went into the United States Army. He served
until January 2 7, 19 4 8. In this period he
spent ten months in the European Theater of
Operations, two of them in combat in medium
tanks. He is the recipient of two Battle Stars
and of a Battalion Citation. Since his return
to civilian life he has operated the Burnett
Motor Company, which now employs seven-
teen persons. Mr. Burnett owns the building
housing the business. The firm goes back to
November 1, 1923, the date when it was
founded by Rex Burnett. On January 1, 1950
Mr. Burnett acquired an interest in the Family
Bank of C. P. Burnett & Sons and was elected
a director.
Bruce Burnett married Virginia Stinson,
the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Oscar N. Stinson
of Eldorado, in that community on June H,
1931. A son, Hal Bruce Burnett, was born
to them on August 2 7, 1934. Mrs. Burnett
is also well known in Eldorado's business,
social and civic life. The entire family wor-
ships at Calvary Baptist Church, where Mr.
Burnett is a trustee and deacon.
Mr. Burnett's civic leadership, which took
him into many fields of interest and continues
to do so today, culminated in his election to
the office of Mayor of Eldorado in 1943. He
also serves on the board of trustees of Shurt-
leff College, at Alton. In 1949 he was elected
president of the Rotary Club of Eldorado and
he is currently serving on the board of di-
rectors of the Eldorado Chamber of Com-
538
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
HON. HENRY BRUCE BURNETT
merce. He was president of the Lions Club of
Eldorado in the year 1939-1940. In addition,
he is a member of the American Legion and
the Veterans of Foreign Wars. He is a Re-
publican and his favorite sports are fishing,
hunting and «olf. Mr. Burnett has establish-
ed himself among the group doing their ut-
most for the welfare and prosperity of South-
ern Illinois.
AUSTIN COLE
Famed throughout the United States is
Omega and FFFG flour, the major product of
a plant operated by five generations of the
Cole family. Head of the business today is
Austin Cole, who, in association with his son,
Austin Cole, Jr., manages the great H. C. Cole
Milling Company at Chester, in Randolph
County. The Coles have been prominent in
Southern Illinois since 1837, when the founder
of the business, Nathan Cole, first moved into
that section of the State, one of the earlier
pioneers. He had come from New York. From
the early efforts of Nathan Cole, expanded by
his son, Herman Camp Cole — after whom the
H. C. Cole Company is named — has arisen the
present enterprise, with its great plant on
the Mississippi at Chester.
Austin Cole, was born in Chester on Janu-
ary 27, 1876. His father took the family to
Chicago when the son, Austin, was six years
old. There the father operated a flour mill,
in accordance with what has become a family
tradition, and there the son attended the pub-
lic schools. Later, he traveled through Europe
with his mother, the former Martha Kennedy
of St. Louis, for two years. Then he attended
St. Luke's School in Philadelphia and after
that Trinity College at Hartford, Connecticut.
Here he took his Bachelor of Science degree in
1898.
Before Austin Cole returned to the family
business, he worked in many fields and tra-
veled some more. He was employed by an
irrigation company in California, operated as
a tool dresser in the oil fields of that State,
worked as a chemist in a gold mine in Mexico,
later assuming complete charge of the mine,
and then held various jobs in sugar beet fac-
tories in California, Canada and Colorado. Re-
turning to Chicago, he became associated with
the Bates Valve Bag Company of that city
and, later, founded and was president of the
Western Valve Bag Company. This concern
made special bags to package cement. Event-
ually, Mr. Cole was called back to Chester to
head the H. C. Cole Milling Company, and
this is the post he fills today.
Mr. Cole married Ivy Ingraham, the daugh-
ter of Colonel and Mrs. Prentice Ingraham of
Mississippi, on October 14, 1902. Two sons
were born to the marriage — Austin Cole, Jr.,
now active in the making of Omega and
FFFG flour, and Prentice Ingraham Cole, who
now resides at Palo Alto, California. Austin
Cole, Jr. married Lois Anne Roper of Mem-
phis and is the father of Austin Cole, III, and
Lois Anne Cole. Prentice Cole, married, is the
father of Prentice Ingraham Cole, Jr., and
Sally Cole. Ivy Ingraham Cole died in 1928.
Austin Cole married, in 1929, Mrs. Margaret
Brown of New York State. The Austin Cole,
Jr. family occupies the famed original H. C.
Cole home, which stands high on a wooded
bluff overlooking the Cole mill and the river.
Austin Cole maintains a Cape Cod home on
a modern farm at the southeastern edge of
Chester. It too commands a view of great
majesty, the Southern Illinois hills. Mr. Cole's
hobby is a herd of registered Jerseys.
The Coles have contributed greatly to the
progress and culture of Chester. Aside from
providing employment to many — there are
sixty in the plant, seventeen salesmen on the
road — they have aided local improvements
and erected the Chester Public Library and
Cole Memorial Park. The entire ai-ea looks to
the Coles and will continue to look to the
family for leadership in the development of
an area in which five generations of Coles
have already done so much.
MRS. EILEEN ALDERMAN
A long career of public service behind her —
in war time as well as peace — Mrs. Eileen
Alderman is now secretary of the Illinois
Real Estate Board at Springfield. As such
she handles the executive work at the state
capital for an organization which, through
its great membership of individuals and city
boards and its tremendous legislative program,
has brought about amendment of state laws
to protect public and home buyers. Mrs. Alder-
man is known throughout the state among
real estate men and is one of Springfield's
best known women.
Born in Hillview, Greene County, on Aug-
ust 24, 1912, Mrs. Alderman is the daughter
of Charles Roper and Nora Claire (Crabtree)
Roper. Her father, a native of Kansas, is a
farmer. Her mother, born at Winchester, Illi-
nois, died in 1948. Mrs. Alderman was edu-
cated in the high school at Winchester, Scott
County, and in the Gem City Business Col-
lege, Quincy. In 1931, she was married to
Clarence G. Alderman, a clei'k for the San-
ILLINOIS EDITION
541
gamon Dairy Company, and on March 20,
1933, she became the mother of Sharon Lou
Alderman.
Mrs. Alderman began her career as cash-
ier's clerk in the Abraham Lincoln Life In-
surance Company of Springfield. She was
with this concern for two years, and then
became secretary to the executive in charge
of Rural Electrification in Adams, Pike, Scott,
Greene and Calhoun Counties in Illinois. Sub-
sequently, she was secretary to the purchasing
agent of the Warner Aircraft Corporation in
Detroit, Michigan. In the World War II pe-
riod, she was secretary to the special assign-
ments engineer in the general manager's de-
partment at the Midland Ordnance Depot at
Illiopolis, Illinois. Also, Mrs. Alderman served
as adjutant and secretary to the commander
of the Illinois Wing of the Civil Air Patrol.
Following World War II, Mrs. Alderman
became assistant editor of the Illinois Inspec-
tor, a trade publication. From this post she
went to the Illinois Association of Real Estate
Boards in Springfield. She began as secretary
to C. J. Kellum, who was then executive vice
president of the state real estate organization.
When Mr. Kellum resigned this office on June
30, 1949, the board of directors asked Mrs.
Alderman to remain as secretary of the organ-
ization, a top executive office. The organization
has 2,355 members and is the coordinating
agency for 46 local real estate boards of the
state. In addition, it coordinates the work of
the local boards with the National Associa-
tion of Real Estate Boards. Its main office is
in Springfield, Illinois. Mrs. Alderman has
had a hand in shaping legislative and mem-
bership programs of the organization, and
in extending its prestige and influence. She
is a member of the Creative Arts, Springfield
Branch, American Association of University
Women and is an art enthusiast. She has won
a high place in the community and state
through her activities.
EDWARD XAVIER LINK, M.D.
For nearly three decades Dr. Edward
Xavier Link of Mattoon has contributed to
the maintenance of the health of the Central
States. He is not only one of the partners
operating the famed Link Clinic in Mattoon
but he is also Health Commissioner of the
City of Mattoon and an official in varous
other agencies devoted to the public health.
Dr. Link was born in Litchfield on Febru-
ary 1, 18 89, the oldest of the seven children
of Adam and Ellen (Lynch) Link. Born in
Carlinville, Adam Link was the son of Joseph
J. and Katherine Link who came to Illinois
form Heidelberg, Germany. Adam Link be-
gan his career as a farmer but was later a
boilermaker for the New York Central Rail-
road at Mattoon. He died in 1941 at the age
of 81. Born in Irving. Ellen Link was the
daughter of Martin and Honara Lynch, who
came to Illinois from County Clare, Ireland.
Ellen Link died in 1938 at the age of 83.
After attending the elementary and high
schools of Mattoon, the future Dr. Link served
as machinist apprentice for four years in the
NYC shops in Mattoon. In 1910 he went to
the National University of Arts and Sciences,
St. Louis, from which he received the degree
of Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Medicine
in June, 1916. He was licensed in Missouri
that month and in Illinois in 1940. From July
1, 1916, to July 1, 1917, Dr. Link served as
interne and house physician at St. Anthony's
Hospital, St. Louis. In April, 1917, he was
commissioned a First Lieutenant in the
United States Army Medical Corps and wound
up as camp surgeon, with the rank of Captain,
at Camp Orono, Maine. Honorably discharged
on December 28, 1918, Dr. Lirk returned to
St. Louis, where until December, 1921, he
served as receiving physician at St. Louis
City Hospital. Then he joined his uncle, Dr.
J. J. Link, a prominent surgeon, in private
practice. Both were on the staffs of St. An-
thony's Hospital, Lutheran Hospital, Jose-
phine Heitkamp Hospital, St. Louis City Hos-
pital and St. Louis Isolation Hospital. In 1926
Dr. Link was appointed assistant epidemi-
ologist on the St. Louis Board of Health. He
resigned in June, 1940, to move to Mattoon,
where he was in general practice until 1947.
At that time he formed a partnership with
his brother, Dr. J. J. Link, and with Dr. E. N.
Zinchlag, and the Link Clinic was esablish-
ed. The clinic building at 213 South 17th
Street was purchased and remodeled. Since
then each year the partners have added a new
specialist, with plans to add up to twenty
members, including all specialists. X-ray lab-
oratory and complete laboratory service are
already available.
On May 1, 1938, Dr. Link married Ruth
Fisher at St. Louis. Mrs. Link, a daughter of
James and Emma Fisher, is active in the
American Legion and Elks Auxiliaries. Their
home is in the Manor Apartments, Mattoon,
and they worship in Immaculate Conception
Church of Mattoon.
Aside form serving as Mattoon's Health
Commissioner, Dr. Link is chief examiner of
the Coles County West Side Draft Board. He
542
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
EDWARD XAVIER LINK, M.D.
is also medical director of the State Veneral
Disease Clinic and of the Coles County Polio
Chapter, medical advisor to the Community
Health Council and vice-president of the Mat-
toon Methodist Hospital staff. His organiza-
tions include Coles-Cumberland Medical Soc-
iety. Illinois Valley Medical Association, Aes-
culpean Medical Association, St. Louis Medi-
cal Society, American Public Health Associa-
tion, St. Louis .Medical Society, American
Public Health Association, Illinois Public
Health Association, American Legion, 40 and
8 Society, Te Deum Society, Kiwanis Club,
Elks, Knights of Columbus (4th degree) and
Mattoon Association of Commerce. Say some
of the associates of this slender white-haired
medical leader: "Pleasant . . . courteous . . .
kind and generous. Sympathetic and gentle.
Truly a meat citizen!"
HUGH T. WRIGHT
When you want to go somewhere in Mur-
physboro and do not have a car of your own,
you usually go by a vehicle operated by Hugh
T. Wright. For Mr. Wright is the owner of
the Yellow Cab Service Company and the
Murphysboro Bus Company, Inc., operating
cabs and busses throughout the Jackson
County seat, with its population of nearly
nine thousand. Mr. Wright is a noted figure
among Illinois' taxicab owners and a leader
in Murphysboro's civic affairs.
He was born in Murphysboro on June 8,
1900, the son of James H. and Anna (Dallas)
Wright. Both parents were also natives of
Illinois. The father, a prominent Democrat,
was superintendent of the City Street Depart-
ment. Hugh Wright has a brother, Freeman
D. Wright, vice president of the Murphys-
boro Bus Company, and a sister, Mrs. Edith
Blocklock. Hugh Wright attended grade school
in Murphysboro and then went to work.
His first job was in the cutting room of a
shoe factory in his native city, where he
worked from 1918 to 1921. From 1921 to
1925, he was employed by the Railway Ex-
press Agency and then, until 1929, he was
traveling field auditor for the Diamond Oil
Company, now the Mid-Continent Oil Com-
pany, with headquarters in Louisville, Ken-
tucky. For a year after leaving the oil con-
cern he remained in Louisville, selling insur-
ance for the Western Life Insurance Com-
pany. He then returned to Murphysboro, where
until 1933 he operated a service station for
the Shell Oil Company. In 1936, he bought the
Yellow Cab Service Company of Murphysboro
from the estate of his brother, James H.
Wright, Jr., who died in Murphysboro on
March 29, 1936. It was then operating four
cabs, but Mr. Wright so developed the busi-
ness that today his fleet consists of six cabs.
In 1936, he organized the Murphysboro Bus
Company, Inc., of which he has since been
president, treasurer and general manager. This
concern operates four buses within the city
limits of Murphysboro. Altogether, Mr. Wright
employs twenty-three persons.
On June 9, 1928, in Murphysboro, Mr.
Wright married Ina May Sauerhage, the
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Sauerhage of
that city. They have two sons — James H.
Wright, who was born on January 29, 1935,
and Hugh T. Wright, Jr., better known as
"Tom," who was born on September 24, 1939.
In 1950 both sons were attending the public
schools of Murphysboro, their birthplace. The
family church is the First Methodist of Mur-
physboro.
Mr. Wright, a member of the Illinois Asso-
ciation of Taxi Cab Owners since 1937, was
elected president of that organization in 1948.
He is also active in the American Taxi Asso-
ciation. In 1945, he served as president of
the Lions Club of Murphysboro, and he has
taken leading roles in the fund drives of the
American Red Cross and the Community
Chest and in the War Bond campaigns. He is
also a member of Boys' Town, the Fraternal
Order of Eagles, the Benevolent and Protec-
tive Order of Elks and such Masonic Bodies
as the Blue Lodge; Ainad Temple, Ancient
Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine,
at East St. Louis, and the Carbondale Com-
mandery, Knights Templar. He is a former
member of the Jackson Country Club, where
he played golf. He is a popular figure in the
community.
CHESTER EVERT WALKER
The man who has made the Peoria Cas-
ket Company of Peoria a leader throughout the
undertaking and casket industries of the Middle
West is Chester Evert Walker, president of
the concern. In the casket-making field since
1910, he is the second generation of his
family in this business. He is prominent in
Peoria's civic life and is a veteran of World
War I.
Mr. Walker was born on March 6, 1892, at
Erie, Pennsylvania, the son of Thomas W. and
Echo E. (Ewing) Walker. Both parents were
also natives of Erie. The father was in the
casket business at both Erie and Peoria. He
died in 1926, and is survived by the mother.
Chester Walker was educated in Erie's ele-
mentary and high schools. In 1910 he began
working with his father in the casket business
ILLINOIS EDITION
545
at Erie. In 1912, he and his father learned of
a defunct casket company in Peoria and Ches-
ter Walker was sent to that community to
revive and reorganize it. This became the
Peoria Casket Company. Chester Walker was
forced to leave the business temporarily when
the United States entered World War I. From
early 1918 until June 15, 1919, he was with
Company B, 32nd Battalion, United States
Army Tank Corps. He was overseas with this
outfit for a long period and rose to the non-
commissioned rank of sergeant. After his dis-
charge he returned to the Peoria Casket Com-
pany. Since then (1919) he has been its presi-
dent and guiding spirit. The company, located
at 408 North Jefferson Avenue, Peoria, not
only manufactures caskets but also under-
takers' supplies. The entire Middle West is
its trading territory and it employs forty-five
persons.
In 1914 Mr. Walker married Jane R. Row-
land of Chicago and on January 28, 1916, a
son, Chester Evert Walker, Jr., was born to
them. Mrs. Jane Walker died on March 10,
1922. On October 14, 1924, Mr. Walker mar-
ried Vivian Cochran of Wyoming, Illinois. Two
sons have been born to this marriage — Wal-
lace Niel Walker on May 22, 1928, and Jos-
seph S. Walker on November 13, 1941. Mr.
Walker has two grandchildren, Cheryl Ann
Walker and Curtis Niel Walker. The fam-
ily resides at 830 Moss Avenue, Peoria, and
worships in the First Methodist Church of
Peoria.
Mr. Walker is a member of the Peoria Asso-
ciation of Commerce, the Casket Manufactur-
ers Association, the Masonic Order and the
Creve Coeur Club. Flying is his hobby, and
he is the holder of a private flying license and
the owner of a private plane. His leadership
has helped stimulate industrial growth in the
North Central States.
ERNIE L. GARRISON
A frequent and familiar spectacle on the
highways of the Middle West is one of the
numerous vans of the Melvin Trucking Com-
pany of Peoria — enroute with goods moving in
the great flow of commerce of the region. The
head of this common carrier is Ernie L.
Garrison, a Peorian with extensive experience
in this field since he left his native farm back
in 1918, when he was less than eighteen years
old. Mr. Garrison has held offices of vast
leadership in the organizations of his trade
and he is also an influential figure in Peoria's
civic life. Another world in which he is well
known is the harness horse racing, for har-
ness horses are his hobby.
Mr. Garrison was born at Wayne City,
Wayne County, on October 21, 1900, the son
of James S. and Alzetta (Saxton) Garrison.
His father, a farmer, died in 1932. His mother
died in 1936. Both were also natives of Wayne
City. Ernie Garrison was educated in a prim-
ary school at Wayne City. He worked as a
farmer with his father until he was sixteen
and for two more years on a farm at Loda,
in Iroquois County. In 1918 he moved to
Peoria and entered the employ of the Avery
Farm Implement Company. Two years later he
established a trucking business of his own in
that city, and this enterprise he operated for six
years, or until 1926. In that year he became as-
sociated with the Peoria Cartage Company, of
which he was a director for two years. From
1928 to 1936 he was in charge of this concern's
shop and equipment and from 1936 he was
its secretary and treasurer and manager. In
1943, he sold out his interest in this concern
and bought an interest in the Melvin Truck-
ing Company. Later that same year he ac-
quired control of the company and since then
has been its president. The company does a
general trucking business as a common car-
rier, employing 290 persons. It maintains
branches at Chicago, Streator, Lincoln, Spring-
field, St. Louis and Fort Madison, Iowa. He
is secretary and treasurer of Transport De-
velopment Co. and also a partner in Garrison
and Associates.
On April 12, 1921, Mr. Garrison married
Ruth M. Rowe of Matherville, Mercer County,
the daughter of Joseph Rowe, a coal miner
in that community, and Adelaide (Worley)
Rowe, a native of Coal Valley, Rock Island
County, who died in 1935. Mr. and Mrs. Gar-
rison became the parents of three children.
Their first son was Leroy Dale Garrison, who
was born on December 30, 1922, and who
married Edith Stanley of Peoria. He was the
father of two children, Larry Leroy Garrison,
born in 1945, and Jeannette Lea Garrison,
born in 1942. He was in the service in World
War II and was with the 32nd Airborne Divi-
sion at Guam when he was killed on April 12,
1945. There are two other children of Mr.
and Mrs. Garrison — Eugene Kenneth Garrison,
born on August 28, 1924, who married Edith
Stanley Garrison, and became the father of
Terry Eugene Garrison, born in 1947; and
Ernest Melvin Garrison, born on September
28, 1926, who married Mary Friedinger and
is the father of Allen Ross Garrison, also
born in 1947. Mr. and Mrs. Ernie Garrison
546
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
ERNIE L. GARRISON AND RICHARD DANIELS OF THE MELVIN
TRUCKING COMPANY
reside at 82 Southgate Road, Peoria. Mr. Gar-
rison's office is at 1818 South Washington
Street, Peoria.
In his business activities Mr. Garrison is a
former president and director of the Central
Motor Freight Association; a member of the
Advertising and Selling Club of Peoria, the
Peoria Association of Commerce, the Peoria
Transportation Club and active in committee
work in the American Trucking Association,
headquartered at Washington, I). C. In his
avocational life he is president of the Illinois
Colt Association. He is a popular citizen of
Peoria.
HON. VIRGIL HARVEY CENTER
Benton, the seat of Franklin County, has
long known and profited under the leadership
of the Honorable Virgil Harvey Center. Now
Mayor of the community, he has participated
in all major civic programs for years and is
a business as well as political leader. A spe-
cialist in piece goods, he is known as The
Fabric King. His place of business is Virgil
Center, The Fabric King. At one time Mr.
Center owned a small chain of stores. He now
gives more time to public affairs, such as
building Benton and aiding the growth of
Southern Illinois and the so-called Greater
Egypt region, than he does to business.
Mayor Center was born in Pulaski County,
near the village of Pulaski, on February 4,
1888, the son of George Halleck and Mary
Josephine (Eubanks) Center. His father, a
native of Ohio, was a coal miner, the son of
Jackson Center, also of Ohio. The mother was
born in Franklin County, Illinois. The fourth
of eleven children, Mayor Center completed
elementary school and one year of high school
at DuQuoin. His first job was in a coal mine
near his birthplace. Over a twelve-months'
period in 1906-1907, he worked for a clothing
firm at DuQuoin, handling the duties of both
clerk and janitor. Afterward he was in the
employ of the Pope Dry Goods Company of
DuQuoin. In 1911, Mr. Pope made him man-
ager of a Pope store at Benton. In the follow-
ing year he resigned from the Pope organiza-
tion to become associated with the Nolen Mer-
cantile Company of Benton as buyer of piece
goods and kindred merchandise. He remained
with the Nolen organization until 1915, when
he opened his first business in Benton. This
was known as the Center Dry Goods Com-
pany, Inc., and he was its president and
general manager. He has since specialized in
piece goods and earned his title of The Fabric
King. In 1926, having dissolved the original
corporation, he organized the Virgil Center
Stores, a sole ownership, and by 1930 had
six stores. One by one he sold these out, so
that none were left in his possession by 1944.
He then established Virgil Center, The Fabric
King, in Benton, and his specialization in
piece goods has continued to make him suc-
cessful as a business man.
Mayor Center was still working for Nolen 's
when, on October 19, 1914, he married Lura
Marie Casey, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
Ephraim Casey of Ewing. The wedding took
place in Benton. One daughter, Laura Joseph-
ine, now Mrs. Robert L. Strauss, was born
to the marriage.
Active in all phases of civic life for years,
Mr. Center was elected Mayor of Benton in
1947 and continues to hold this high office.
He is also president of the Greater Egypt
Association (for the year 1949-1950) and has
served on its board of directors for several
years. He is a charter member of the Rotary
Club of Benton, an organization which held
its first meeting in his store. He was presi-
dent of the Benton Chamber of Commerce in
1944 and has been on its directorate for
years. Other of his organizations include the
Masonic fraternity; he belongs to both the
Blue Lodge in Benton and the Benton Chapter
of the Royal Arch Masons. Another field in
which Mayor Center is a leader is the Chris-
tian Science Church of Benton. He was its
first reader — 1932 to 1934 — and has served on
its board several times. Though a Republi-
can, Mayor Center introduced President Harry
Truman when the latter visited Benton in
1948. Fishing is Mayor Center's favorite re-
creation. His five feet six and 170 pounds
makes him a familiar figure in the region,
and there is barely a corner of the entire
territory in which he is not a popular figure.
HARRY JOSEPH MACKEY
As president of the Decatur Brass Works,
Decatur, Harry Joseph Mackey has achieved
a position of prominence in the industrial
world and a reputation for the contribution
he has made to the general economic advance-
ment of Central Illinois.
Mr. Mackey was born in Syracuse, New
York, the son of John J. and Johanna
(Mautz) Mackey. His father was a native of
Ireland. Mr. Mackey went through the eight
elementary grades and three years of high
school, and then spent a year at business
college. At the outset of his career, he entered
the employ of the Chicago, Burlington and
ILLINOIS EDITION
549
Quincy Railroad at Chicago and his three
years with that line were in the office of sup-
erintendent of transportation. For another
four years he was with the Illinois Central
Railroad, as auditor. He then spent seven
years with the Liquid Carbonic Company,
also at Chicago, becoming manager of the
Federal Brass Works, the wholesale branch
of the company, and later of the bottlers'
machinery department. He has been with the
Decatur Brass Works in Decatur for thirty-
three years (as of 1950). Hi his first five
years he was vice president. Since 1922 he has
been president.
On May 3, 1906, Mr. Mackey married Hazel
E. Watson in Chicago. She is the daughter of
Robert Sleight and Emma Watson. A son
and daughter have been born to Mr. and
Mrs. Mackey — Floyd Harris Mackey, a gradu-
ate of the University of Illinois, married
Dorothea Daniels also a graduate of that
same institution, and is the father of Gloria
C. Mackey. Lois Constance Mackey, a gradu-
ate of Northwestern University, is now the
wife of Jack C. Flora, who graduated from
the University of Illinois. Mr. and Mrs.
Harry J. Mackey make their home at 1527
West Macon Street, Decatur, and worship in
the First Presbyterian Church of that city.
Mr. Mackey is a member of the Decatur
Association of Commerce; the Decatur Lodge,
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks;
Decatur Chapter, No. 21, Royal Arch Masons;
the Country Club of Decatur and the Decatur
Club. His recreational interests include fish-
ing, golf, hunting and travel. A man of great
business and executive ability, Mr. Mackey
has given leadership to an enterprise which
has aided in the growth and prosperity of
Central Illinois.
ROBERT GORDON COURTNEY
Son of a man who pioneered in the mov-
ing and storage business in Southern Illinois,
Robert Gordon Courtney of Marion is him-
self one of the leading figures in this industry
not only in Illinois but in a good deal of the
rest of the nation. He owns and operates the
Courtney Moving and Storage Company of
Marion. A former grade school principal, he
is considerably interested in education and
is active in promoting better schooling and
in civic affairs in general.
Mr. Courtney was born at Marion on April
22, 1912. His father, William Thomas Court-
ney, son of Thomas Courtney, farmer and
native of Tennessee, was one of Williamson
County's foremost citizens. He not only
550
founded the Courtney Moving and Storage
Company, in 1919, but served on the board
of directors of the Williamson County Fair
Association, helping to stage the Fair in Ma-
rion, and was a leader in the Lions Club. He
owned harness race horses. The mother of
Robert G. Courtney was Annetta Mae (Cocke)
Courtney, also a native of Williamson Coun-
ty.
Mr. Courtney began his education in the
elementary schools of Marion. He was grad-
uated from high school in 1932 and in 1938
took the degree of Bachelor of Education at
Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.
Active in athletic affairs at the university
as he had been in high school, he was busi-
ness manager of the athletic association. Also,
he was an occasional physical education in-
structor. He was elected to Chi Delta Chi
and Kappa Phi Kappa Fraternities. Upon
leaving the university, Mr. Courtney went to
work as a clerk in his father's moving and
storage business. Then, in 1939, he accepted
the office of principal of the Jefferson grade
school in Marion. This post he held until
1946. He then returned to the Courtney Mov-
ing and Storage Company. In 1948 he bought
the business, and he has since specialized in
household goods and the moving of heavy ma-
chinery equipment. The possessor of inter-
state rights, Mr. Courtney operates in twenty-
eight states and maintains a branch in Mount
Vernon. The firm is not only a pioneer in
the transfer business as a whole, but also in
some of its outstanding features. His father
designed, built and owned the first enclosed
furniture van in Southern Illinois, for exam-
ple.
On August 15, 1938, Mr. Courtney married
Vivian V. Buford, the daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. A. H. Buford of Bluford, in Jefferson
County. Mrs. Courtney, also college-educated,
is a member of Delta Sigma Epsilon Sorority
and of the Woman's Club of Marion. She is
well known in civic and welfare activities.
Both she and Mr. Courtney are interested in
harness horses, and Mr. Courtney owns such .
a horse. Mr. Courtney is a member of the
National Education Association, the Illinois
Education Association; the Lions Club of
Marion, of which he was president in 1947;
Southern Illinois, Inc., the Williamson County
Sportsman's Club and the Marion Boat and
Yacht Club. Fishing and hunting are among
his favorite sports. He is active in Red Cross
work in Marion and otherwise participates
in movements aimed at the general commu-
nity welfare.
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
ROBERT GORDON COURTNEY
UHMLkmiY OF hi i
HAROLD W. REED, A.B., M.S., Th.D.
HAROLD W. REED, A.B., M.S., Th.D.
As Dr. Harold W. Reed puts it himself,
Olivet Nazarene College at Kankakee, of
which he is president, "is a college with a
purpose. The deep and ever-abiding motive
of Olivet is the development of Christian
character." As president of this institution,
which in 1959 will celebrate a half century
of service to youth, the Nazarene Church and
the nation. Dr. Reed has dedicated himself,
with effectiveness, to the "purpose and mo-
tive." In the process he has justly earned a
reputation in the religious and secular world
as an educator and builder of youth.
Dr. Reed was born in Dundy County, Ne-
braska, the son of Edwin W. and Cleo P.
(Randall) Reed. His father, a native of South
Bend, Indiana, became a large scale rancher
in Nebraska. The mother was born in Illi-
nois. Dr. Reed is the oldest of three children,
the others being Edwin P., George J. and
John Wesley Reed. He went through grade
school and one year of high school in his na-
tive state, then spent three years at the Colo-
rado Springs Bible Training Academy in Col-
orado. He earned his Bachelor of Arts de-
gree at Colorado College in Colorado Springs,
his Master of Science degree at Colorado
State College, Fort Collins, and his Doctor
of Theology degree at the University of South-
ern California in Los Angeles.
"Not only well trained, Dr. Reed has had
a wealth and variety of experience which ad-
mirably fits him for his task as president
of Olivet Nazarene College," says a state-
ment issued by the college. Ordained to the
ministry in the Nazarene Church in August,
1935, Dr. Reed has been a successful pas-
tor, having served churches at Loveland, Col-
orado; Junction City and Newton, Kansas,
and Huntington, Indiana. He has been pro-
fessor of sociology at Pasadena College, Pasa-
dena, California; dean of religion and vice-
president at Bethany-Peniel College, Bethany,
Oklahoma, and president of Bresee College
at Hutchinson, Kansas. Dr. Reed was a mem-
ber of the important editing committee which
prepared the 1948 Nazarene Manual. He is
a member of the educational committtee ap-
pointed at the 1949 General Assembly of the
Nazarene Church to define the educational
philosophy of the church. Ha is a member
of Phi Delta Lambda and three other national
honor societies.
Founded in 1909, Olivet Nazarene College
had an enrollment of 1277 in 1950. Recently
completed is a women's dormitory, costing
$350,000. It will house 225 girls. Plans were
under way soon after this dormitory was
completed to spend $30,000 to install new
furniture and otherwise equip the building.
Another recent addition to the college was
a heating plant costing $105,000. Among
those functioning at the college under Dr.
Reed is Carl S. McLean, professor of English
since 1923 and dean since 1929.
Dr. Reed married Maybelle E. Ripper in
Colorado on June 19, 1933. Mrs. Reed, who
was born at Armel, Colorado on October 6,
1911, and educated in her native state, is
active in the various college programs. She
and Dr. Reed are the parents of Holdor Wil-
liam Reed, who was born on November 19,
1936.
For the record he has made at Olivet Naz-
arene College in expanding the size of the
student body, in adding to the physical plant
and improving housing conditions, in elevating
the teaching standards and perpetuating
Christian character, Dr. Reed has become
a figure of renown in the Nazarene Church
and in the world at large.
BRUNO WILLIAM KOENEMAN
It is perhaps as insurance man that Bruno
William Koeneman of Chester is best known,
though his reputation in the real estate and
financial field is far from limited. As an
insurance man, he is general agent for the
Illinois Bankers Life Assurance Company of
Monmouth, with branches in five Southern
Illinois communities. His headquarters are
in the Royal Hotel at Chester, which he owns.
He is also president of the Chester Coach
Lines, Inc., and of the Continental Home
Construction, Inc., and owner of citrus groves
in Texas.
One of the best known natives of Southern
Illinois, Mr. Koeneman was born on a farm
in Welge, Randolph County, on December 5,
1908, the second of the seven children of Ed-
ward J. Koeneman, farmer and building con-
tractor of Steeleville, and Martha (Bram-
mer) Koeneman. Bruno Koeneman was edu-
cated in Randolph County, completing his
schooling at the high school in Steeleville.
In 1926, he went to work for the Interna-
tional Shoe Company at Steeleville and by
1937 was assistant foreman of the plant.
Sometime before this he had begun working
in the insurance business, finding "leads" for
other insurance agents. Also, he had made
an affiliation with the Abraham Lincoln Life
Insurance Company. This was merged with
ILLINOIS EDITION
.,. .)
the Illinois Bankers Life Assurance Company.
When he left the shoe company in 1937, Mr.
Koeneman began giving full time to insurance
and has been in this field ever since, except
for three months when he was too ill to work.
At first Mr. Koeneman maintained offices in
Steeleville, but in 1948 moved to Chester. He
opened an officie in Marion in 1941, Belle-
ville in 1945, McLeansboro in 1946. He. also
continues the Steeleville office. He entered
the real esate business in 1938 and the fi-
nanc business somewhat later. He now serv-
ices more than a million dollars in loans.
As hotel, coach lines and home construction
company operator, he is further serving
Southern Illinois. His citrus land in Texas
consists of forty-two acres. Mr. Koeneman
is one of the highly honored members of
the Illinois Bankers Life organization. On
December 5, 1947, his friends and officials of
the company gave him a birthday party at
Chester in recognition of his high standing
in the field, and he is a former vice-president
of the company's Leader Club. Also, he ber
longs to its App-A-Week Club, having writ-
ten at least one life insurance policy a week
for fifteen years. Both he and his wife have
also for years qualified to attend company
conventions.
Mrs. Koeneman, who has assisted Mr. Koe-
neman in his business, is the former Margue-
rite Finley, daughter of William and Mary E.
Finley of Belleville. They were married on
April 16, 1930, and have three children — -
Billy Edward, born on April 6, 1931; Don
Paul, born on March 24, 1934, and Kay,
born on March 18, 1937. The Koenemans
have a beautiful home in Chester. They at-
tend the Methodist Church, and Mr. Koene-
man is president of the church's official
board.
Mr. Koeneman is active in many organiza-
tions and is past master of the Masonic Lodge
at Steeleville and past patron of the Steele-
ville Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star. His
other organizations include the Steeleville and
Chester Chambers of Commerce, the Amer-
ican Hotel Assosiation, the National Associa-
tion of Life Underwriters, the National Asso-
ciation of Insurance Agents, Ainad Temple,
Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic
Shrine, and the Mississippi Valley Consistory,
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. He is a
charter member of Elks Club and Optimist
Club of Chester, and the Lions Club of Steele-
ville, of which he is also a past secretary.
Bird hunting, horseback riding, fishing and
tennis are his favorite sports. He is one
of the most popular figures in Southern Illi-
nois and is counted among those doing their
utmost for the development of that region.
STEVE L. BENNIS
In Lincoln and Logan County in general
people look to Steve L. Bennis for leader-
ship whenever a problem arises. For Mr.
Bennis has proved through the years that he
can guide his fellow citizen to the solution
of such problems as financial stabilization,
unemployment, business development and gen-
eral civic and cultural improvement. He is
always the one to redeem lost causes. Mr.
Bennis is credited with restoring normal bank-
ing operations to Lincoln, and thus accelerat-
ing the business and agricultural growth of
the city and surrounding territory, and with
opening a new mine, thus giving employment
to many. He is the owner of the Deer Creek
Mine, outside Lincoln, and of three theaters
in the city, among them the big Lincoln The-
ater.
Mr. Bennis was born in Sanga, Greece, on
May 22, 1882. He came to the United States
at the age of seventeen, still a young boy,
first settling in Chicago, where he attended
grade school. After Chicago he lived in Jack-
son, Michigan, where he worked in a confec-
tionery store after school hours. He then
went to St. Louis, Missouri, where for a time
he was employed at the World's Fair. This
was in 1904. After a short time, Mr. Bennis
purchased the candy concession at the fair and
remained until the fair closed. Later in 1904
he established himself in Lincoln. Here he
also opened a confectionery store. In 1909,
he founded a "nickelodeon," exhibiting the
the somewhat primitive motion pictures of the
time for a "nickel." This was the start of
what has proved to be an illustrious career as
a film exhibitor. In 1911 Mr. Bennis also
opened an open air movie business. This was,
of course, an outdoor project, and after
two years Mr. Bennis was forced to close it
down because of so much bad weather. In
1915 he installed free motion pictures in the
confectionery store, which he had kept going
all through his early film-exhibiting days.
This business — candy and free pictures and
all — he later sold to his brother.
In 1922, Mr. Bennis "sold" the people of
Lincoln on his plan to open a new and mod-
ern motion picture house. To help him es-
tablish it the citizens purchased a bond issue
he floated. This first modern theater in the
city was named the Lincoln Theater. And
Mr. Bennis, who has paid back all the money
:,:,-;
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
BRUNO WILLIAM KOENEMAN
STEVE L. BENMS
invested in the bonds, remains its owner. He
has since purchased two other motion picture
houses in the community. The year 1933,
when the depression hit one of its worst
stretches, found Mr. Bennis ready again to
give leadership. He was made president of
the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce then and,
because the local bank had closed, he ar-
ranged for the chamber to issue script money
to the local business men so that business
could continue. While this temporary expe-
dient was resorted to, Mr. Bennis thought of
a better and more permanent solution to the
money problem. He therefore led in the
movement that succeeded in raising the nec-
essary capital, more than one million dollars,
to open another bank in Lincoln. This was
all done on Mr. Bennis' part in true civic
spirit without a self-profit motive. When the
bank — called the Bank of Lincoln — was
opened, Mr. Bennis even refused any office
in it or a membership on the board of direc-
tors. He was merely happy the city had a
bank. In 1936 he started the Deer Creek
Mine., which produced 40 to 50 tons a day.
Now, under his leadership, the mine has de-
veloped to a production point of 400 tons a
day. The mine, which is 100 per cent mechan-
ical, employs 68 miners. By 1950 Mr. Bennis
had retired 13 miners on an income of $100
a month each.
On June 5, 1907, in Lincoln, Mr. Bennis
married Anna P. Eckert. They had six chil-
dren, one, Stephen, having died. The five
children are Leo, Joseph, Charles, William
and Mary Bennis. The family, which is Cath-
olic, worships in St. Mary's Church, Lincoln.
Mr. Bennis is himself somewhat retired
these days, but he is still "always doing some-
thing," as his fellow townsmen say. Civic af-
fairs and work in general are his hobbies,
and, besides, he feels it is his duty to help
his city grow. Besides the Chamber of Com-
merce, he is a member of the Knights of Co-
lumbus, the Red Men and the Elks. He is
one of the beloved citizens of Logan County
— a man long to be remembered and hon-
ored there.
NEWTON CAMP FARR
Though he began his career as a civil engi-
neer, Newton Camp Farr has made his name
in other fields of endeavor, chiefly real es-
tate. As a real estate man he has a national
reputation. He is also well known in the edu-
cational world, in welfare work and in gen-
eral civic programs. He is a former senior
partner in the real estate firm of Farr and
Company, founded by his father in 1872, but
is now retired. He is a veteran of World War
I who was active in home front projects in
World War II.
Member of a family which made early
American history, Newton Camp Farr was
born in Chicago on December 25, 1887, the
son of Marvin Andrus and Charlotte (Camp)
Farr. His father was one of the men who
helped rebuild Chicago after the great fire.
Newton Farr obtained his preparatory educa-
tion in the Harvard School in Chicago and
the Lawrenceville School for Boys in New
Jersey. In 1909, he won the degree of Civil
Engineer at Cornell University. From 1909
to 1912 he was with the Raymond Concrete
Pile Company, Chicago. In 1912 he joined
his father's real estate firm, then already
forty years old, and climbed steadily in im-
portance until he achieved senior partnership
status.
His interests in other fields are numerous
and variegated. He was president of the Chi-
cago Railways Company, vice-president of
the Sovereign Hotel, chairman of the board
of directors of the Flamingo Hotel, and vice-
president and treasurer of the Fairfax Ho-
tel. He is a director of the Columbus, Vene-
tian, Stevens Building, Inc., the Chicago Title
and Trust Company, and a trustee of the
Edith Rockefeller McCormick Trust. In World
War I he held the rank of Second Lieutenant
in the United States Army and for a time
served as assistant resident engineer at Win-
chester, England. He was in the armed forces
from 1917 to 1919. Among his activities in
World War II was his service as chairman for
the State of Illinois in the United Service
Organizations (U.S.O.). He is a trustee of
the Illinois Institute of Technology, the Faulk-
ner School, Lincoln Memorial University, Ur-
ban Land Institute, Kenwood Church and the
Chicago Sunday Evening Club. In 1930 he
was president of the Chicago Real Estate
Board; in 1938 and 1939 he was vice-presi-
dent and in 1940 president of the National
Association of Real Estate Boards; in 1936,
he was president of the Illinois Chapter,
American Institute of Real Estate Appraisers;
in 1932 he was president of the Chicago Bet-
ter Business Bureau and in 1938-39 president
of the Chicago Young Men's Christian Asso-
ciation. He was president of the Civic Fed-
eration of Chicago, 1941-44, and president of
the Urban Land Institute, 1943-47. He is
also a member of the Cornell Alumni Associa-
tion, Delta Phi Fraternity, the Cornell Club
of New York City, and the Chicago Univer-
ILLINOIS
EDITION
561
sity, Tavern, Commercial and Indian Hill
Country Clubs of Chicago. In 1939, he served
as Governor of the Society of Colonial Wars.
Lincoln Memorial University conferred the
honorary degree of Doctor of Law on him
in recognition of his service to that institu-
tion. He is a contributor of articles to jour-
nals in the real estate world. Mr. Farr's
office is at 111 West Washington Street,
Chicago, his home at 4737 Woodlawn Ave-
nue. The record makes evident that he has
been giving his native city and the nation
extraordinary service for more than four
decades.
JAY BORRIES CASE
In the pharmaceutical world an outstanding
firm is Sutliff and Case Company, Inc., ox
Peoria. This is not only a manufacturing
house, which does a wholesale and surgical
supply business, but is also a company oper-
ating eight retail drug stores in Peoria. Of
this great concern Jay Borries Case is presi-
dent. His reputation in the field is nationwide.
Jay Borries Case was born in Peoria on
June 25, 1906, the son of George Willard and
Irma (Borries) Case. His father, a native of
Peoria, Illinois, is chairman of the board of
directors of Sutliff and Case; he is the son
of Ansley Jay Case, who in 1883 established
the business and who died in 1924. Mrs.
Emma Case, a native of Peoria, died in 1916.
Jay B. Case first attended the grade and
high schools of Peoria. For two years he was
a student at the University of Illinois, Ur-
bana, and for another two years at the
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. In 1930,
he was graduated from the St. Louis College
of Pharmacy, with the degree of Graduate
in Pharmacy.
In 1931 Mr. Case started with his father's
and grandfather's company as purchasing
agent, but from time to time thereafter he
transferred from one department to the other,
the plan being that he learn the business
thoroughly. By 1938, when he was ready for
the presidency, he was elected to that office.
Sutliff and Case employs 275 persons. Its
manufacturing, wholesale and other opera-
tions— except, of course, for the eight Peoria
retail drug stores — covers the entire Middle
West. The pharmaceuticals it manufactures
are both for human and animal therapy and
the concern is equally well known to physi-
cians and veterinarians. The Case name has
kept pace with the reputation of the com-
pany.
Jay B. Case married Charlotte Nelson of
Peoria on October 6, 1942. They have an
adopted child, Robert Nelson Case, who was
born on July 13, 1934. Mrs. Case is the daugh-
ter of Sam L. Nelson, a native of Indiana.
He was associated with a street railway com-
pany in that state, and died in 1924. The
Cases live at 103 Holly Ridge Circle, Peoria.
Mr. Case's offices are at 201 Spring Street,
Peoria.
Mr. Case is a member of the Peoria Asso-
ciation of Commerce, the Illinois State Cham-
ber of Commerce, the American Surgical
Trade Association, the American Pharma-
ceutical Manufacturers Association, the Alum-
ni Association of Culver Military Academy
(which he attended from 1922 to 1924), the
Masonic order, the Peoria Country Club, the
Creve Coeur Club and Alpha Delta Phi Frat-
ernity. Hunting and golf are his favorite
sports. The third generation in the pharma-
ceutical business, Mr. Case is giving leader-
ship to this field and thereby contributing to
the promotion of standards in the medico-
veterinary world and to the health of the
nation.
RALPH EUGENE WILTON
A statewide reputation as mortician and
civic leader is the possession of Ralph Eugene
Wilton of Peoria. In the mortuary busi-
ness since he was fifteen years old, Mr. Wil-
ton is now vice-president of the Wilton Mor-
tuary of Peoria, an institution in which he
is associated with his father. He is a former
head of the Illinois Funeral Directors Asso-
ciation and is a leading figure in community
enterprises in Peoria County.
Mr. Wilton was born on January 10, 1911,
at Peoria. His father, Richard S. Wilton, a
native of Bushville, Ontario, Canada, has been
in the mortuary business since 1890 and is
a renowned practitioner in this field. The
mother, who was the former Sarah E. Milli-
son, born, like her son, in Peoria, died in 1948.
Ralph E. Wilton obtained his early education
in the elementary and high schools of Peo-
ria and in 1932 was graduated from the Cin-
cinnati College of Embalming. He had gone
into the business in 1926, when his father was
operating in a partnership with his uncle.
In 1927, Richard and Ralph Wilton bought
out the uncle and since then the Wilton Mor-
tuary has been under their sole ownership.
When the business was incorporated Ralph
Wilton became vice-president.
On April 5, 1936, Ralph Wilton married
Lillian Schad of Mansfield, Ohio, the daugh-
ter of Adam E. and Elizabeth (Kittleberger)
Schad. Both Mrs. Wilton's parents were born
r,62
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
NEWTON CAMP FARR
RALPH EUGENE WILTON
in Austria. Her father is a carpenter. Mr.
and Mrs. Wilton have four children — Richard
S. Wilton, who was born on December 20,
1938, Robert C. Wilton, who was born on
April 2.'!, 1948, and twins, Lynn Elizabeth
and Ralph Eugene, who were born on Octo-
ber 17, 1950. The family lives at 729 Ayres
Avenue, Peoria, and worships in the Presby-
terian Church. Mr. Wilton's business address
is 1212 South Adams Avenue, Peoria.
Mr. Wilton's mortuary, employing four-
teen persons, covers Peoria and Tazewell
Counties, and Mr. Wilton is well known in
both these counties. A former president of
the Illinois Funeral Directors Association, he
is now a member of its board of directors.
He is also a member of the Peoria Associa-
tion of Commerce and of the Girls' All-Amer-
ican Baseball Club, a character-building pro-
gram, and is secretary of the West Peoria
Fire Protection District. He is a member of
the Peoria Advertising and Selling Club, the
Transportation Club of Peoria, the Peoria
Lodge No. 20, Benevolent and Protective Or--
der of Elks, the Bradley Boosters Club and
the Creve Coeur Club. He is very active in
Masonry, being a member of the Peoria Lodge,
No. 15, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons,
Peoria Chapter No. 7, Royal Arch Masons,
Mohammed Temple, A. A. O.N. M.S., Peoria, a
Sir Knight in Peoria Commandery No. 3, and
one of the electing orders of St. Helena Con-
clave No. 3, Royal Order of Jesters of Peoria.
Bowling, boating and baseball are his favorite
recreations. His leadership has helped to ele-
vate standards in many fields, including the
mortuary.
DOMINICK SHALLA
A successful and well known Illinoisan,
Dominick Shalla is the founder and presi-
dent of The Continental Fireworks Manu-
facturing and Display Company, Inc., of
Jacksonville, seat of Morgan County. Through
his company Mr. Shalla has contributed to
the success of numerous public events and
celebrations and to the pleasure of hundreds
of thousands of persons. A veteran of World
War I, he is active in programs conducted by
or in behalf of ex-service men and is also a
participant in other civic enterprises.
Mr. Shalla was born on June 13, 1895, at
Marcianise, twelve miles from Naples, Italy,
one of the six children of Pasquale and Ma-
ria (Sciarra) Shalla. The father, likewise
a native of Italy, was also in the fireworks
business most of his life. His entire family,
including Dominick, were associated with him
in that business. Educated in grade school
in Italy, Dominick Shalla came to the United
States in 1913, establishing himself for a
time in Pennsylvania, where for two years
he worked in a coal mine. When the United
States entered World War I, Mr. Shalla joined
the United States Army and was sent over-
seas, where he saw action on several fronts.
After the war, he returned to Pennsylvania
and for two years was employed by the
New Castle Fireworks Company. Then he
went to St. Louis, Missouri, where he worked
for the United Fireworks Company.
On December 15, 1925, at St. Louis, Mr.
Shalla married Josephine Pagano, also a na-
tive of Italy. To them have been born a
daughter and a son — Maria A., in 1926, now
Mrs. J. O. Hocking and residing in Jackson-
ville; and Pasquale Shalla, in 1927, who mar-
ried Evelyn Frye of Jacksonville and is the
father of Dominick Jo Shalla, born in 1949.
The family worships in the Pentecostal
Church.
When he married, Mr. Shalla took his bride
to Pennsylvania for a honeymoon. But in-
stead of returning to St. Louis, they came
to Illinois and for two years Mr. Shalla
worked for the Illinois Fireworks Company.
Then he did go back to St. Louis, where he
established his own business, the Eagle Fire-
works Company. This he operated from 1932
to 1942. Soon after the United States was
propelled into World War II, Mr. Shalla was
given a big war contract. This came from the
National Enameling and Stamping Company
of Jacksonville. The Jacksonville firm was
itself under contract to the United States
Government to build shell casings in several
sizes and also to make flares and hand gre-
nades. Mr. Shallla was placed in charge of
the flare-manufacturing work. After the war
Mr. Shalla decided to remain in Jacksonville.
He dissolved his Eagle Fireworks Company
in St. Louis and in the Morgan County seat
launched the Continental Fireworks Manu-
facturing and Display Company, Inc., of which
he has since been president and which he has
guided to great success. Mr. Shalla makes
fireworks for display purposes only, no small
items such as firecrackers and the like used
by boys or families in personal celebrations
of July Fourth. Mr. Challa not only fur-
nishes the fireworks for displays, but sets
up, organizes and fires the displays. He has
built and supervised the firing of pyrotech-
nics for many July Fourth, homecoming and
county fair celebrations in virtually all parts
of the United States. He is a member of
ILLINOIS EDITION
567
the American Legion and its 40 and 8, of
the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Loyal Or-
der of Moose and the Benevolent and Pro-
tective Order of Elks. His home is at 1538
South Main Street, Jacksonville. Mr. Shalla
not only enjoys leadership in his field of busi-
ness but personal popularity.
ERNEST S. KLEIN, M.D.
A noted psychiatrist who has given dis-
tinguished service in the public mental hy-
giene program and in the armed forces in
World War II, Dr. Ernest S. Klein is now
superintendent of the Kankakee State Hos-
pital at Kankakee. He is prominent not only
in medicine and psychiatry, but also in state
employee's work, in Welfare and Veteran's
programs and in civic activities.
Dr. Klein was born in Chicago on January
7, 1911, the son of Edward and Anna Klein.
The future psychiatrist and institutional ad-
ministrator began his education in Chicago's
schools. In 1936 he was graduated from the
University of Illinois College of Medicine,
with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. After
completing his rotating internship at St.
Elizabeth Hospital, Chicago, in 1937, he ac-
cepted appointment as junior physician at
Dixon State Hospital. Ten months later he
transferred to Chicago State Hospital in the
same capacity. Soon afterward, he was pro-
moted to senior staff physician.
While on the Chicago Hospital staff Dr.
Klein took postgraduate work in clinical psy-
chiatry at the Illinois Neuropsychiatry Insti-
tute, receiving a certificate. In 1940, he be-
came a member of the faculty of the Nervous
and Mental Diseases Department of the Uni-
versity of Chicago College of Medicine. In
1941 and 1942 he was on the medical faculty
of the University of Illinois. Meantime, he
was continuing as senior staff physician at
Chicago. On November 4, 1942, Dr. Klein
resigned this post to enter the armed forces.
He served as Assistant Chief or Chief of Psy-
chiatry at various Army installations, finish-
ing up as a Major serving as Chief of Psy-
chiatry and Commanding Officer of the Dis-
ciplinary Barracks hospital at Fort Leaven-
worth, Kansas. Separated from the service
in July, 1946, Dr. Klein returned to Chicago
State Hospital as psychiatrist. On November
15, 1947, Dr. Klein was promoted to assist-
ant superintendent of Kankakee State Hos-
pital, where he served under Dr. George W.
Morrow (q.v.), superintendent now retired.
When Dr. Morrow retired, Dr. Klein was made
acting superintendent on December 1, 1949,
and was appointed superintendent April 1,
1950.
Dr. Klein married Helen Blumenfeid,
daughter of Max and Sophie Blumenfeid, on
September 5, 1936. They have two daugh-
ters— Nancy, born on March 19, 1939, and
Maxine, born on May 1, 1940. Mrs. Klein,
prominent in Kankakee, is a former Girl
Scout leader and is on the Parent-Teacher
Association program committee. She is second
vice president and hospital chairman of
Temple B'nai Israel.
Dr. Klein has a reputation as practicing
psychiatrist and institutional administrator.
He is the co-author of articles on the shock
treatment in mental cases. He is a member of
the Kankakee County Medical Society, the
Illinois Psychiatric Society, the Illinois Medi-
cal Society, the American Psychiatric Asso-
ciation, the Chicago Society for Personality
Study, the Illinois Mental Hygiene Society,
the Physicians Association of the Illinois
State Department of Welfare and the Kan-
kakee Post of the American Legion. He is
former president of Chapter Ten of the Illi-
nois State Employees Association. His medi-
cal fraternity is Phi Lambda Kappa. Work,
he says, is his hobby and recreation. By work
he has made himself a figure of national im-
portance in the medical field.
GLYNN WILLIAM WHITE
Glynn W. White, Painting and Decorating,
is a business name well known at Champaign
and the surrounding region. Now owned and
operated solely by Glynn William White, the
firm traces its beginnings to the activities of
his father, whom he joined in the enterprise
in 1914. Mr. White, who was in the United
States Army on Mexican border patrol in
1916 and later in World War I, is active in
veterans' and public affairs at Champaign
and in labor circles. He is known for his
work on behalf of city beautification and
recreation, and vocational apprenticeships
and his numerous other activities.
Mr. White was born at Bement, Piatt Coun-
ty, on April 5, 1896, the son of William C.
and Margaret (Glynn) White. His father
founded the painting contracting firm, which
he conducted until his death on March 1,
1936. He was a native of Illinois. Margaret
Glynn White was born in Scotland. She came
to the United States with her parents when
she was still a young girl.
Glynn W. White was educated in Cham-
paign's public schools, being graduated from
Champaign High School in 1914. Upon leaving
568
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
DOMINICK SHALLA
GLYNN WILLIAM WHITE
school, he began serving his apprenticeship
in the painting and decorating trade under his
father. When the elder Mr. White died, the
son took over the business, giving it its present
name.
Mr. White married Dorothy Price of Cham-
paign in that city on December 25, 1922, and
they have become the parents of three chil-
dren: Francis Robert White, William Arthur
White and Marilyn Ruth White. Francis Rob-
ert White, born September 22, 1923, is a
graduate of Davis and Elkins College, class
of 1949. He married Mary Lou Laing of
Beckley, West Virginia, September 17, 1949.
William Arthur White, born March 22, 1925,
is a student at Davis and Elkins College of
Elkins, West Virginia. Marilyn Ruth White,
born April 12, 1930, is a student at the
University of Illinois. Both Mr. and Mrs.
White are active in the affairs of the First
Presbyterian Church of Champaign. Mrs.
White teaches the Bible in the Sunday School.
She is a past president of the American Le-
gion Auxiliary, Post No. 24, and is a past
Chief of Harmony Temple, Pythian Sisters,
No. 323, and the Champaign County Falon
No. 231. She is a volunteer hospital worker
at the Veterans Hospital at Danville, Illinois.
The Whites reside at 311 Stanage Avenue,
Champaign.
Mr. White has achieved such prominence
in the community as to be elected to the
Champaign Park Board. Also he was appoint-
ed Supervisor of the Town of Champaign, on
August 22, 1949. He has served on the board
of the Family Service Agency in Champaign
and during World War II he was a member
of the Champaign County Home and War
Chevst Board. He has also been appointed a
director of the Champaign Health District. A
member of the Painters Local No. 363, he is
prominent in the Twin City Federation of La-
bor and serves on the joint advisory council
for the Champaign Apprenticeship School. In
addition, he is a member of the Knights of
Pythias and Champaign Post No. 24, Ameri-
can Legion and the Forty and Eight. He is a
life member of the D.A.V. and member of
the Army-Community Relations Committee.
In 1916 he went to the Mexican Border with
the 1st Illinois Field Artillery and in World
War I he was with the 124th Field Artillery,
United States Army, serving overseas, in
which he became a Sergeant. Politically, he
is a Republican.
Mr. White's efforts on behalf of his city
and county have been widely recognized.
HENRY JOSEPH MACKIN
In the Venetian blind business since 1923
and inventor of the Mackin Premier Blind,
Henry Joseph Mackin of Momence, in Kan-
kakee County, is now one of the prominent
manufacturers of these household items in the
United States, with a trading territory that
covers most of the nation. His company, with
plant in Momence, is the Mackin Venetian
Blind Company. He is president of the en-
terprise and his son, Robert J. Mackin, is
both treasurer and general manager. Another
son, Henry J. Mackin, Jr., is sales manager
and secretary, while a third son, James F.
Mackin, also in the sales end of the business,
is assistant secretary and treasurer. The sen-
ior Mr. Mackin has led his family into a posi-
tion of prominence in the industrial, civic
and social life of the community and county.
Mr. Mackin was born in Lockport, Illinois,
on November 13, 1889. He completed his
education at the Creighton High School, Oma-
ha, Nebraska, whither the family had moved
when he was a young boy. He was first
employed in home furnishings stores, chiefly
in drapery departments, in Omaha. In 1919,
he went to Kansas City, Missouri, where he
worked for Robert Keith and Company, an-
other such store. In 1923 Mr. Mackin re-
turned to his native state and became a Vene-
tian blind salesman for the Western Venetian
Blind Company of Chicago. He was with this
concern several years. In the course of that
period he came to recognize the need of
something other than the conventional type of
Venetian blind. He proceeded to develop a
substitute, and in 1927 patented it. The
Mackin Premier Blind has no cords running
through the slots but works by a chain ar-
rangement. In 1927, Mr. Mackin opened a
small plant at 1302 North Halsted Street,
Chicago, and began manufacturing his blind.
In the Fall of 1928 he moved the factory to
Kankakee, though he continued maintaining
the Chicago office. The family moved to
Kankakee in 1929. Four years later Mr.
Mackin transferred factory operations to
Bradley, in Kankakee County. In 1935 Mr.
Mackin added a second floor to this con-
verted plant, and there he developed the busi-
ness into a nationwide enterprise, which in
the World War II period worked on war
contracts. After the war, in 1946, Mr. Mackin
erected a modern brick building in Momence,
where he has since centered all his manufac-
turing activities. Though he ships his blinds
into all parts of the United State, Mr. Mackin,
who was representatives everywhere, concen-
ILLINOIS EDITION
573
trates on the North Central and Northeast-
ern States.
Mr. Mackin married Elizabeth A. Roller of
Des Moines. They have three sons, Robert
J. Mackin, born on April 19, 1915, completed
his education at St. Viator Collge, where he
took the degree of Bachelor of Science in
Accountancy in 1937. For a time he worked
with an uncle in the floor covering jobbing
business in Omaha, but in 1942 returned to
Rankakee to operate 640 acres of farm land.
In 1945 he joined his father in the Mackin
Venetian Blind Company. He married Monica
Cotter of Rankakee on November 26, 1937,
and is the father of Robert J. Mackin, Jr.,
born in 1942, Cynthia Ann Mackin, born in
1948, and Larry born in 1950. He is active
in the Elks and St. Patrick's Holy Name So-
ciety. Henry Mackin, born in 1916, married
Florence Frechett and is the father of Ter-
ence, Michael Mackin and twin girls, Pamela
and Patricia. He belongs to the Elks, Lions
and Rnights of Columbus. James F. Mackin,
the third son, married Jermaine LaMarr and
is the father of Jeffrey Mackin, born in
1949. He was with the Navy Air Corps in
World War II. Henry J. Mackin, Sr., a mem-
ber of the Chamber of Commerce, the Elks
and the Rnights of Columbus and various
organizations of his trade, is known through-
out the industry and is a highly respected
citizen of Eastern Illinois.
GEORGE CLYDE HEBERLING
At one time a leading figure in the indus-
trial and business world, as well as in civic
affairs, George Clyde Heberling of Blooming-
ton is today, in retirement, still one of the
outstanding and active figures of his city,
McLean County and the state. One of the
founders of the great G. C. Heberling Com-
pany of Bloomington, Mr. Heberling sold that
organization in 1938, remaining as manager
until 1943. Since then he has been retired.
He is one of the best known Masons in
Illinois.
George Clyde Heberling was born on a
farm March 12, 1875, near Cadiz, Ohio, in
Harrison County. He was the son of Warner
Spurrier Heberling and Rosanna Hagan He-
berling of the same location. Mr. Heberling
lived on the farm in Ohio until 1895, when
he moved to Iowa, and worked on a farm, by
the month, for two years, in order to save
sufficient money to enable him to take a
business course in Valparaiso, Indiana. He
had placed his savings in a bank at West
Liberty, Iowa, and just before the time to
leave for school the bank broke up, and he
lost his savings. Not to be thwarted in his
plans to get a business education, in the fall
of 1897 he arranged with the officers of the
Browns Business College in Valparaiso, to
work for his board, providing he could pay
his tuition.
After completing his business course in
Valparaiso he moved to Chicago in 1898 and
obtained a position with the Griffin Car
Wheel Company as stenographer and account-
ant, where he remained for a period of four
years.
On September 20, 1900, Mr. Heberling was
married to Miss Mertle A. Dickerson of West
Liberty, Iowa; the daughter of John C. and
Sarah A. Dickerson. To this union was born
one daughter, Mrs. Lucile Barnes, now living
in Chicago.
In the Spring of 1902 Mr. Heberling re-
signed his position with the Griffin Company
and moved to Bloomington, Illinois, where he
and his brother, John C. Heberling, of Wi-
nona, Minnesota, organized the G. C. Heber-
ling Company for the manufacture and sale
of a line of household remedies, flavoring ex-
tracts, spices, toilet articles, perfumes, etc.
Bloomington and McLean County, Illinois,
were selected as the best location to start
a business of this kind on account of being
almost in the central part of the state and
because of the splendid railroad facilities.
Mr. C. W. Webb from New Athens, Ohio,
a brother-in-law of Mr. Heberling, came to
Bloomington in 1905, and bought an interest
in the Company and was made Secretary —
which position he held until his death in June,
1939.
The business was conducted jointly by G. C.
and J. G. Heberling until 1911 when G. C.
Heberling bought his brother's interest and
became the President and General Manager.
The business prospered and grew until the
Company had 500 salesmen on the road and
was doing business in 28 states. The Company
occupied the entire floor space of a five-story
brick building, 70x120, located at the corner
of Prairie and Douglas Streets.
In 1938 Mr. Heberling sold the business
to Mr. E. L. Ring, of Winona, Minnesota,
which business is still being conducted under
the name of G. C. Heberling Company,
Bloomington, Illinois. At this time Mr. He-
berling remained with the new owners, as
manager, until August 1943, at which time
he retired from business.
Mr. Eberling took a very active part in
local and community affairs and occupied
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LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
HENRY JOSEPH MACKIN
GEORGE CLYDE HEBERLING
many positions of honor and trust. He served
twelve years as a Director of the Bloom-
ington Association of Commerce, and in 1916
was elected its president. During his many
years of activity in Bloomington he was at
one time president of the Interestate Manu-
facturers Association with headquarters at
Winona, Minnesota — a Director for four years
of the Illinois Manufacturing Association of
Chicago — a State Director of the Traveler's
Protective Association and President of the
Bloomington Club.
Mr. Heberling was very active in the Ma-
sonic Organization and was a member of the
Shrine. He joined the Masonic Order in 1914.
He was made Chairman of the Consistory Pe-
tition Committee, which position he held for
ten years. In September 1944 he was ad-
vanced to the 33rd degree in Masonry and
was formerly president of the Delmar D. Dar-
rah 33rd Degree Club, in Bloomington, Illi-
nois. Mr. Heberling is a member of the Sec-
ond Christian Church of Bloomington Coun-
try Club and the Bloomington Club.
THOMAS P. HOUDE
The Tom Houde Dairy in Kankakee, one
of the largest in its field in Eastern Illinois,
has grown from a business which bottled a
few quarts of milk a day and gave most of
it away to build a delivery route, to an
organization not only serving numerous fam-
ilies but most of the schools and institutions
in the area. It has pioneered in many respects
and has built tremendous prestige among the
public. Founded by Thomas P. Houde, one
of Kankakee's outstanding citizens, it is oper-
ated by him and his son, Thomas R. Houde,
a disabled veteran of the United States Army
Air Forces of World War II, also a prominent
Kankakeean.
Thomas P. Houde was born at Bourbon-
nais, near Kankakee, on January 24, 1904,
and was educated in the schools of Kankakee
County. In his youth he worked as a clerk
in an ice cream parlor. He made candy that
was sold in this store. Later he operated a
candy business of his own. Then he learned
the furniture upholstery business and worked
at this a short time. Subsequently, he and his
brother operated a grocery store. After this
was sold, Thomas Houde worked as a butcher.
In June, 1931, he founded the Tom Houde
Dairy, and began business operations in a
small concrete building about the size of a
garage. The first output was fifteen quarts
of milk a day, most of which was given away
to build a milk route. Business increased
quickly, and has continued to grow. Today the
Tom Houde Dairy bottles more than six hun-
dred fifty gallons of milk a day. Mr. Houde
was the first to introduce the half-gallon
bottle of milk to Kankakee and also the first
in the Kankakee area to streamline delivery
schedules in the World War II period be-
cause of war shortages. The Tom Houde Dairy
is the only one in the city producing butter.
This is sold exclusively to Houde customers.
Ninety percent of the schools and hospitals in
the area are serviced by the Houde enterprise.
Thomas P. Houde married Lillian Gladys
Fortier, a native of Kankakee, on November
5, 1924, and three children were born to them
—Thomas R. Houde, on November 28, 1925;
James P. Houde, on January 7, 1944, and
Madonna Joan Houde, on February 3, 1942.
In recent years pictures of the Houde chil-
dren have adorned the dairy's calendars, and
thus the faces of the trio have become known
throughout the Kankakee territory.
Thomas R. Houde, the son, first attended
the elementary schools in Kankakee. For a
time he was a student at the Kankakee High
School, but transferred to St. Patrick's High
School. In 1943 he enlisted in the. United
States Army Air Forces and became a tail-
gunner and radio operator in a B-24 bomber.
He served in the South Pacific Theater of
Operations. Badly wounded in action, he re-
mains on the disabled list. After returning
to civilian life, he studied at St. Bede Col-
lege, Peru, Illinois. In his sophomore year,
however, he was forced to drop out and to
enter a Veterans' Hospital for treatment. He
remained there a year and then went to Chi-
cago, where he continued his studies at De-
Paul University and, most of that time, was
confined to a nearby Veterans' Hospital. In
January, 1949, when his father became ill,
Mr. Houde returned to Kankakee and as-
sumed management of the dairy. He married
Mary Jean Mailloux in Kankakee on August
13, 1949. They are the parents of a daugh-
ter, Linda Jean Houde, born on June 27,
1950. One of Thomas R. Houde's contributions
to the dairy business has been to introduce
in Kankakee the plastic bottle for milk.
Thomas P. Houde is a member of the
Knights of Columbus, Elks, Moose, St. Jude,
St. Rose Holy Name Society, St. Rose DePaul,
the Kankakee Chamber of Commerce, the Kan-
kakee County Credit Bureau, the United Com-
mercial Travelers Association and is a direc-
tor of the Knights of Columbus Memorial
Building and the Catholic Charities of the
ILLINOIS
EDITION
579
Kankakee Archdiocese. He and his son are
making an unusual contribution to the growth
and welfare of the area.
HONORABLE GOTTLIB JAMES FRICK
The name of the Honorable Gottlib James
Frick, with its associations of distinguished
and selfless public service, is known through-
out Illinois. Mr. Frick is the owner not only
of the Frick Funeral Home and the G. J.
Frick Plumbing and Heating Company at
Marion, but also the owner of the Marion Air-
port and considerable developed and unde-
veloped real estate. He is former Sheriff of
Williamson County and a former Commis-
sioner of the City of Marion and in addition
has served on the Illinois State Board of Em-
balming Examiners. He is one of the Demo-
cratic leaders of Williamson County.
Born on a farm in Franklin County on
April 18, 1881, Mr. Frick is the son of George
A. and Anna (Sippee) Frick. His father was
a cooper, carpenter and baker, as well as
farmer. While he worked on the family farm,
Gottlib Frick went to elementary school in
Marion. He completed the seventh grade.
When he was fourteen, he left the farm to
become a clerk in his uncle's store at Belle-
ville, in St. Clair County, where he remained
two years. Then he was a clerk and wagon
driver for a Granite City grocery for two
more years, after which he worked as street-
car conductor and motorman for eighteen
months. In 1902 Mr. Frick entered the gro-
cery business for himself at Venice, in Madi-
son County, but his store burned down the
following year. In the ensuing period he
washed boilers, worked in blacksmith shops
and in the coal mines at Marion. Later, he
homesteaded land in New Mexico and for
a time also lived in El Paso, Texas. Then he
returned to Marion and the coal mines.
Meantime, on March 17, 1903, Mr. Frick
had married Pearl Wilbanks, the daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. William Wilbanks of Venice.
Mrs. Frick had been her husband's book-
keeper in the grocery business at Venice.
Five children were born to this marriage —
Irene Pearl, Howard W., Mabel, who died in
1926, James A. Frick, who is in business with
his father, and William Douglas Frick, who
was killed in an automobile wreck on Septem-
ber 6, 1942.
Upon his return to Marion, Mr. Frick, with
a growing family, began to act on a decision
to cuter the undertaking business. While he
worked in the coal mines, he took a corres-
pondence course in embalming with the
Worsham School of Embalming of Chicago.
Later, he went to Chicago and took a grad-
uate course with the same institution. When
he finished the correspondence course he
went into the funeral business with two part-
ners. And as he built a name for himself as
funeral director his wife operated a grocery
store. Since 1918 Mr. Frick has been sole
owner of the Frick Funeral Home of Marion
and since 1924 he has owned the G. J. Frick
Plumbing Company, having also become a
master plumber. His son James owns half the
business and operates the funeral home.
Though he owns Marion Airport, Mr. Frick
does not operate it himself. It is leased to
others. He is a member of the board of di-
rectors of the Bank of Marion. As early as
1919 the electorate recognized Mr. Frick's
civic interest by making him a City Commis-
sioner. He served that first time until. 1921.
Again, from 1926 to 1930. In 1929 he was
elected Sheriff of Williamson County on the
Democratic ticket and served until 1934. He
was on the State Embalming Board for seven
years. Through his business Mr. Frick is a
member of the National Funeral Directors As-
sociation, the Illinois Funeral Directors Asso-
ciation, the National Plumbing Association,
Also, he belongs to the Masonic order, the Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, the Benevolent
and Protective Order of Elks, the Fraternal
Order of Eagles, the Modern Woodmen of
America, the Loyal Order of Moose and the
Rotary Club of Marion. Farming is his hobby
and, with his family, he worships in the
Evangelical Reformed Church of Marion. Mrs.
Frick is a member of the First Presbyterian
Church of Marion in which she takes an
active part. He is one of Southern Illinois'
major citizens.
WILLARD PAUL ENGELHARD
At 175 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago,
are the offices of the well known insurance
firm of Engelhard and Co. In this firm Wil-
lard Paul Engelhard, a distinguished citizen
of both the Windy City and the attractive
suburb, Oak Park, where he makes his home,
is a partner. Mr. Engelhard is known for his
contributions to education and Boy Scouting
as well as to the development of the insurance
business.
Mr. Engelhard was born in Hollywood, Illi-
nois, on March 29, 1898, the son of Paul R.
Engelhard, a native of Germany who came to
the United States when he was two years old,
and Hulda (Dalmar) Engelhard. In 1916,
!)8<)
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
4^
HONORABLE GOTTLIB JAMES FRICK
PAUL R. ENGELHARD
Mr. Engelhard was graduated from the River-
side-Brookfield Hi^h School, where lie had
been on the varsity basketball and football
teams, an outstanding debater and partici-
pant in dramatics. At the University of Illi-
nois, which he attended from September,
1916, to June, 1918, being a student in the
College of Commerce, he was secretary of the
Sophomore Class. World War I intervened
to interrupt his education. He enlisted in the
Naval. Reserve Force in June, 1918, and was
almost immediately sent to the Officers Train-
ing School at the University of Chicago. Then
he went on a coastwise training ship as a
cadet, finally to Pelham Bay, New York,
where he was commissioned an Ensign. He
received his honorable discharge in June,
1919. For a time after returning to civilian
life Mr. Engelhard continued his studies at
Northwestern University.
In June, 1919, also, he began his insur-
ance career. This beginning with H. Daimar
and Company, Chicago, and his first position
was that of endorsement clerk. Later he
was bookkeeper, special agent and office
manager. In September, 1930, Mr. Engelhard,
with his father and brother, E. F. Engel-
hard, formed the partnership still called
Engelhard and Co. Since the death of Paul
R. Englehard the brothers own and operate
the business. The company began as a small
agency, with only one employee and hand-
ling only brokerage. It now does a premium
volume of more than $1,500,000 annually, in-
cluding both brokerage and direct business.
It has developed interesting and helpful rate
and form manuals and analysis surveys and is
one of the most active general agencies in
the latter field.
Willard Paul Englehard and Grace Ander-
son, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert R.
Anderson, were married in Oak Park on May
23, 1925. She is now deceased. On June
26, 1948, also at Oak Park, Mr. Engelhard
married Mrs. Louise L. Klein. She is a
member of the Nineteenth Century Woman's
Club at Oak Park, the Ladies Society of Grace
Lutheran Church, Oak Park, and is active
in a variety of Parent-Teacher Association
programs in that community. Mr. and Mrs.
Engelhard reside at 1201 North Kenilworth
Avenue, Oak Park. The children of the family
are Willard P. Engelhard, Jr., Robert R.
Engelhard, Donald G. Engelhard, Suzanne
Engelhard and Kenneth H. Klein and Barbara
L. Klein. Mr. Engelhard's step-children.
In the insurance world, Mr. Engelhard is
currently a director of the Chicago Board of
Underwriters. He is also a director of the St.
Paul Federal Savings and Loan Association
of Chicago. In his other activities, he serves
on the Oak Park School Board and formerly
was chairman of cubbing for the Thatcher
Woods Area Council, Boy Scouts of America.
Mr. Engelhard has a reputation for helping
young men start their careers. He is actively
interested in schools and school organizations
and has helped organize several cub packs
in scouting and other scouting activities. He
is now giving time to his school board work.
These activities and his leadership in the in-
surance world have made him one of Cook
County's outstanding citizens.
EUGENE FIELD ENGELHARD
A citizen of Cook and Lake Counties who
has made his name known throughout the
state, Eugene Field Engelhard is an outstand-
ing insurance agent. A partner in the insur-
ance agency of Engelhard and Co., 175 West
Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Mr. Engelhard
has held important executive offices in the
Illinois Association of Insurance Agents. Al-
so, he holds public office in the Lake County
community in which he lives- — Deerfield.
Mr. Engelhard was born in Hollywood,
Illinois, on November 7, 1901, the son of
Paul R. and Hulda (Daimar) Engelhard. His
father was a native of Germany. Mr. Engel-
hard began his education in the Riverside
Grammar School, continuing at the Riverside-
Brookfield High School. He spent two years
at the University of Illinois, Urbana, and then
prepared for the legal profession at the Chi-
cago Kent College of Law. Awarded his de-
gree of Bachelor of Laws in 1926, he was ad-
mitted to the Illinois Bar in 1927. At college
Mr. Engelhard was elected to Delta Chi Fra-
ternity. Long before he had finished his edu-
cation Mr. Engelhard began his business
career. From 192 0 to 1921 he was a book-
keeper for H. Daimar Company, Chicago. The
following two years he was at the University
of Illinois in Urbana and in 1923 was made
abstract examiner for the Chicago Title and
Trust Company. The following year he re-
turned to the employ of the H. Daimar &
Company. He remained with this firm from
1924 to 1930, rising to the office of secretary in
the final five years and also assuming the
post of manager of the casualty department.
On September 15, 1930, he became a partner,
with his father, P. R. Engelhard, and his bro-
ther, W. I'. Engelhard, in the insurance firm of
ILLINOIS EDITION
58;
Engelhard and Company, Chicago. Mr. P. R.
Engelhard is now deceased.
On October 1, 1927, at the Orrington Hotel,
Evanston, Mr. Engelhard married Miriam
Snyder, the daughter of Harry and Jennie
Snyder. Mrs. Engelhard, well known as a
cellist, is a member of the Mellodists. The
Engelhard home is on Wilmot Road, Deer-
field. Mr. and Mrs. Engelhard have a son
and daughter — Eugene Field Engelhard, Jr.,
born in 1929, a student (in 1950) at Palos
Verdes College, Rolling Hills, California, and
Adrienne Engelhard, born in 1934, who in
1950 was at Highland Park High School.
The Engelhard family is one of the out-
standing families of Lake County. Mr. Engel-
hard serves on the leading public and private
boards interested in community welfare and
progress and is chairman of the Deerfield
Zoning Board of Appeals. In his business
career, he served as executive vice-president
of the Illinois Association of Insurance
Agents in the year 1941-42 and as treasurer
and chairman of the budget and finance com-
miller of that organization in the years 1943
to 1949. He has been a member of the Ex-
moor Country Club since 19 40. His recrea-
tional interests include hunting, fishing,
horseback riding and gardening. In politics
he is a Republican. Mr. Engelhard has made
a reputation through his civic service as
well as through his leadership in the insur-
ance world.
COLONEL J. H. KIRKPATRICK
Jonathan H. Kirkpatrick who became
known as the "Grand Old Man of Auctioneer-
ing" was born in North Liberty, Adams
County, December 2 3, 18 44, being a son of
John and Mary (Postlewait) Kirkpatrick.
The father was married in Old Dominion and
died when the subject of this sketch was
about eight years of age, leaving a widow and
eight children, of which Colonel Kirkpatrick
was the youngest. The mother came to Bloom-
ington, Illinois, in 1852, in company with an
Ohio colony and settled in Oak Grove Town-
ship. It was here that Colonel Kirkpatrick
assumed the responsibility of supporting the
family. With a team which the family owned
he assisted with the construction of the Illi-
nois Central Railroad when it was built
through this section of the state. He then en-
dured the hardships incident to pioneer life
on i lie Illinois prairies.
Colonel Kirkpatrick acquired a good prac-
tical education in the common schools and fol-
lowed farming until 1861 when he removed
to Washington county, Iowa, with his mother
whose death there occurred. Here he pur-
chased a farm near Brighton and successful-
ly carried on agricultural pursuits for a
number of years. In August, 18 73, he dis-
posed of his interests in the Hawkeye State,
and returned to Bloomington, Illinois, where
he took up auctioneering as a profession. It
was from practical knowledge gained during
his agricultural career, that he later became
known as an authority on values, especially
as pertains to land and live stock.
The record of sales as kept by Colonel Kirk-
patrick, covering a period of nearly fifty
years, shows that he has cried approximately
six thousand land and stock sales. He has
auctioned over one hundred and fifty thousand
head of horses, two hundred thousand head
of cattle, two hundred and forty thousand
head of hogs and in round number sixty-
five thousand head of sheep. His live stock
and general farm sales of personal property,
from a conservative estimate, total over six-
teen million dollars.
In addition to this he had conducted sales
of residences, business properties and farm
lands, having made this branch of the pro-
fession a speciality. Hundreds of these sales
were made under court decrees and in
the settlement of estates. During the last
decade he had been extremely active in this
branch of work and had auctioned property
of this kind of an aggregate value of many
millions of dollars.
He traveled to and from sales over one
hundred and sixty thousand miles and
sold a string of farm machinery over sixty
miles in Length. Away back in 18 73 when
Colonel Kirkpatrick launched out as an auc-
tioneer, there were no automobiles or inter-
urban lines. Transportation was by railroad
or horse and buggy. He traveled almost ex-
clusively, back in the '80's in a vehicle then
known as a "gig." About this time there was
a spirited exodus to the western states, espec-
ially to Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri.
People emigrated in colonies as a result it was
not uncommon for almost an entire communi-
ty to sell all of their surplus stock. Colonel
Kirkpatrick as the result of this condition
often spent a week or two in a community
crying sales. Later, it was common for him
to go to one of the above mentioned states
and sell out some of these colonies who had
moved westward and were ready to start back
to Illinois.
The largest sale Colonel Kirkpatrick ever
cried was for Dillon Brothers at Normal,
:,m\
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
COLONEL J. H. KIRKPATRICK
Illinois, in 1899 or thereabout. Over three
hundred head of pure bred draft horses, im-
ported from Fiance, were auctioned. It was
the largest sale of this character ever held in
the United States. Colonel Edmonson of Ken-
tuck assisted. Since then he had wide
experience in the sale of graded stock of every
description. In the early days live stock was
not graded but was sold in rather a haphazard
fashion.
Colonel Kirk patrick was possessed with an
intimate knowledge and a keen appreciation
of values. The moment stock was brought
into the sale ring, he was able to judge their
worth. Human nature was to him as an open
book and he knew at a glance whether a bid-
der had gone his limit. He was a past
master in the subtle art of creating a desire,
which is one of the salient features in expert
salesmanship. He had a keen sense of humor;
was convincing in his arguments and his elo-
quence gained for him a state-wide repu-
tation. He was a man of magnetic personality
and was born a leader. He was honest in his
dealings and often generous to a fault.
Colonel Kirkpatrick was as a father to young
auctioneers. He befriended, advised and in-
structed them and in many instances assisted
them in listing sales. This was done out of
the kindness of his heart and without thought
of compensation or reward.
Other enterprises also claimed the attention
of Colonel Kirkpatrick who was a man of re-
sourceful ability, keen discrimination and re-
liable judgement.
Colonel Kirkpatrick was active in the politi-
cal interests of the county, state and union.
He became Alderman of the Second Ward in
Bloomington upon its organization and after-
wards held many positions of political prefer-
ment in connection with the city administra-
tion. He was always a staunch Republican.
Colonel Kirkpatrick, by reason of his portly
build, his attire and his personality, rarely
failed to attract attention, especially among
strangers. He invariably wore a cap and leg-
gings and carried a cane. During the winter
season he was always incased in a huge fur
overcoat, which added to his already generous
dimensions. His ruddy face was always
wreathed with a smile and his genial disposi-
tion and his happy mood are a few of the
many things which characterized him from
other men.
He was active in religious and fraternal
circles, being a member of the Second Pres-
byterian Church, of the Odd Fellows and
Knights of Pythias and other organizations,
social, commercial and religious.
As a citizen, Colonel Kirkpatrick was a
public-spirited man, giving aid and coopera-
tion to every movement calculated to advance
the educational, social, moral and material
welfare of the community.
As an auctioneer he was without a peer.
Perhaps no other man of the profession en-
joyed a wider acquaintance in this and ad-
joining states. It has been said of him that
every man, woman, child and dog in Central
Illinois knew the Colonel and he knew the
same people personally. There may be other
auctioneers whose record may equal or even
surpass his in point of continued service, but
his eventful and eminently successful record
as a farm and stock auctioneer is perhaps
without an equal.
Down in the 500 block across Main Street
from the East, a creek ran and people had to
cross a bridge connected with the side-walk
to get over it. This was in the 1870's and
'80's. It was near this stream on the West
side of the then dirt road, Main Street, that
Colonel J. H. Kirkpatrick opened up his un-
pretentious second hand furniture store in
1881. Just North and down many feet in
vacant lots in a small shanty building, one
of the City's early Italian families — the
Costa's — carried on a fruit vending business,
the customers having to go down a flight of
steps to make a purchase. The stock of furni-
ture was then small but it grew with the yea;-s
and increasing trade.
HOWARD AND KIRKPATRICK
On June 10, 1888, Mr. Kirkpatrick took
in as a partner, an aggressive and enterpris-
ing young business man, who later became
his son-in-law, Mr. L. W. Howard, the firm
known as Howard and Kirkpatrick.
Occupying the single floor of the old frame
structure, their business grew so rapidly that
in 1804, the old building was demolished and
the first modern building of brick of three
stories on Main Street, North of Market
Street was erected by Mr. Kirkpatrick on
these lots at 52 2 and 524 North Main Street.
With the new building the trading so grew
that each year marked an expansion. It is
said that in some of the busy weeks of 1907,
the firm had more volume in sales in a single
week than in a whole year when the business
was young. It was Mr. Howard who first in-
troduced the system of installment furniture
buying in any city in the state, outside of
Chicago, at the store here in Bloomington.
ILLINOIS EDITION
589
It became popular and ever-expanding, enabl-
ing young couples to start up housekeeping
much earlier than they would have otherwise
done and inviting customers to buy pieces for
their home on deferred payments.
Mr. Howard served as General Supervisor
over the business and adopted many of the
then most modern methods. He was a great
believer in and advocate of advertising in the
retailing game and this attribute of faith was
in no small measure the reason of this suc-
cess, as well as the high standards of princi-
ples he always adhered to. Twenty-five
people were then working for the firm.
In January, 1908, the firm announced that
it would dissolve on account of Mr. Howard's
health and Col. Kirkpatrick's desire to devote
his time exclusively to the profession of auc-
tioneering. This ended the very satisfactory
and ennobling association of these two part-
ners. Mr. Howard retired to his farm near
Twin Grove, West of the City, but he was al-
ways referred to later as one of Blooming-
ton's leading merchants.
HOWARD-KIRKPATRICK HOUSE
FURNISHING COMPANY
On July 1, 1908, a Corporation was formed
to take over the business formerly carried on
under the firm name of Howard and Kirk-
patrick. The stockholders were Edward R.
Kirkpatirck, Charles S. Kirkpatrick and Col.
J. H. Kirkpatrick. The latter, while he re-
tained his interest as stockholder and di-
rector, was not active in the establishment,
as his profession occupied his time.
In their main street store they had the
first system of indirect lighting every installed
in any city in Illinois, outside of Chicago.
The trade mark of the store was a large
red chair which every day could be seen in
the entrance way of the store, it having been
made by one of its craftsmen — Mr. James
Hughes. The chair was equally well known,
not only to the people of Central Illinois but
also to the representatives of furniture fac-
tories and carpet and rug mills throughout
the United States. Parents would bring their
children and lift them into the chair list so
they could say that "They had sat in it."
Later when they grew up and were married,
they insisted upon buying their house furnish-
ings from the store where as children they
had sat in "Kirk's Red Chair." The heaviest
man and the tallest man in this country had
sat in it. It was borrowed for city parades
and weddings.
This store had the distinction of being the
first purchaser of any goods of any kind out
of the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, which
is the world's largest display building.
EDWARD R. KIRKPATRICK
At the age of eighteen, Edward R. Kirk-
patrick took a position with the firm of
Howard & Kirkpatrick. He studied and
mastered various angles connected with the
different departments of the house furnish-
ing business. He became in turn the head of
the carpet department and assistant general
manager to Mr. L. W. Howard. No young
man ever worked harder or longer at a busi-
ness than did both Edward Kirkpatrick or
Louis Howard.
It was a natural sequence that when the
corporation of the Howard-Kirkpatrick House
Furnishing Company was formed, he was
chosen as its president and general manager,
becoming one of the youngest business ex-
ecutives in the city. He was well known in
the furniture markets at Grand Rapids, Mich-
igan, Rockford and Chicago, Illinois, and
Jamestown, New York.
By his inherent aggressiveness and the
adoption of high standards of business ethics,
he saw the business each year have an ex-
panded growth from its humble start in 1908
to the sale of the store in 1937.
The success of the establishment was due
largely to the qualities of his personal manage-
ment.
Mr. Kirkpatrick is an enthusiastic sports-
man, choosing golf and duck hunting. The
many duck dinners he has given through
the years have become a tradition.
Mr. Kirkpatrick is a director in the Na-
tional Bank of Bloomington and the First
Federal Savings & Loan Association.
CHARLES S. KIRKPATRICK
After graduation from the Bloomington
High School in 19 00 and the following year
from Eastman College, Poughkeepsie, New
York, the oldest business and banking school p
in the country, he accepted the position
formerly held by Thomas W. Stevenson. Mr.
Stevenson was a brother of the former vice-
president of the United States, Adlai E. Stev-
enson, and great uncle of the present Gov-
ernor of Illinois, Adlai E. Stevenson tin-
second. For two years Charles Kirkpatrick
attended Wesleyan Law School while he was
in the store, performing his duties there also.
He served as Director of the Association of
Commerce and was chosen as President of the
500 & 600 blocks of North Main Street Mer-
190
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
chant Booster's Association. Some of the
largest and most original promotions ever at-
tempted in one section of the. city were exe-
cuted there with marked success. These mer-
chants cooperated 100$ in any and all plan-
ned event?. He was asked to manage parades,
drives, balls, club attractions and many civic
fund raising drives and other activities. Mr.
Kirkpatrick without solicitation was selected
to serve as public interest director for a three
year term by the Federal Home Loan Bank
Board in Washington, D.C., in the Federal
Home Loan Bank of Chicago, largest of the
twelve that are operating in this country. Mr.
Kirtpatrick was the first buyer for any firm
of any goods of any kind out of the Mer-
chandise Mart in Chicago. Mr. Kirkpatrick
is serving as one of the three liquidating
trustees of the First National Bank and Trust
Company. He is a Director in the Blue Cross
Plan for Hospital Care of Chicago. He is also
acting as Chairman of the McLean County
Chapter for Infantile Paralysis.
LOSSIE E. MORRIS, A.B., B.D.
In Southwest Illinois the name of Lossie E.
Morris of Collinsville has become synonymous
with the program for alleviating the great
housing shortage, for Mr. Morris, in the real
estate and insurance business as well as in
the financing world, has built more than a
thousand homes in the region. He is known
also for his development of subdivisions at
Collinsville, one of them bearing his name.
Mr. Morris is entitled to be called the Rev-
erend Mr. Morris, for he served in the minis-
try for many years. In addition, he is a
former teacher and athletic coach. As is na-
tural for a man of his background and na-
tural inclinations, he has a great concern for
civic welfare and improvement. Among other
things, he is a farmer.
Mr. Morris was born in a log cabin five
miles south of Xenia, in Clay County, on Oc-
tober 13, 1903, the son of Charles C. Morris,
a farmer at that time in his native Clay
County but now associated with his son in the
insurance business, and of Lilly Mae (Brown)
Morris, also a native of Clay County. A
brother of the real estate and insurance man
is Dr. I). W. Morris, president of Southern
Illinois University at Carbondale, and his sis-
ter is Mrs. Zella Mae Jane.
Mr. Morris was graduated from the Flora
High School in 1921, and then entered Park
College at Parkville, Missouri, where he re-
mained until the end of the Fall term of
1922. He played on the basketball team as a
freshman — he had been quite an athlete in
high school — and was also on the debating
team, winning a speech contest. Later, he
attended Carbondale Teachers College and in
the Fall of 1923 received his teaching certifi-
cate. He then became principal and coach at
Luka, in Marion County, where he remained
two years, after which he returned to South-
ern Illinois University to continue his stu-
dies. In 1925 he became coach at St. Elmo
High School and at the same time entered
the Methodist ministry. He was pastor of
churches at O'Fallon and Shilo, while serving
as coach at O'Fallon Township High School,
until 1930. In 1927 Mr. Morris had enrolled
at McKendree College, in Lebanon, and in 1928
received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In
1930, he moved to Ellwood, where he was
pastor of the Methodist Church. In the Fall
of the same year he enrolled in Garrett Bibli-
cal Institute, Evanston, receiving his degree of
Bachelor of Divinity in the Spring of 1934.
It was at this time that he resigned from
the ministry and came to Collinsville. There
he bought the Reinsch Insurance Agency. In
1949 he added to it the Schurman Insurance
Agency, which he also acquired by purchase,
and today he calls his real estate and insur-
ance business The Morris Agency, being lo-
cated at 123 West Main Street, Collinsville.
In 1948 Mr. Morris was elected secretary of
the Union Savings and Loan Association of
Collinsville. He has developed Meadow Heights
Addition and Morris Heights and Morris Hills
at Collinsville, as well as built more than one
thousand homes. In agriculture he operates
Morris Farm, consisting of 380 acres, breed-
ing white-faced cattle. He has taught real
estate in the extension classes of East St.
Louis High School for the University of Illi-
nois, and is in great demand as a public
speaker.
Mr. Morris married Pauline Jean McCaully,
daughter of Calvin and Louella McCaully of
Flora, in 1923. The McCaullys, now residents
of Sapulpa, Okla, are close friends of the
parents of Mrs. Thomas E. Dewey, wife of the
Republican leader and Governor of New York.
Mrs. McCaully is a member of the Archibald
family, prominent pioneer family of Illinois. Mr.
and Mrs. Morris became the parents of six
children — Betty Lou, now Mrs. E. E. Jukes,
born October 26, 1925, educated at William-
Woods College, Fulton, Missouri, the mother
of Cynthia M. Jukes; Lossie Jean, born Oc-
tober 9, 1928, also a graduate of the college
at Fulton and now (1949) attending Chicago
Ait Institute; Lilly, born February 11, 1930,
who died in 1931 ; Charles Calvin, born July 8,
ILLINOIS
EDITION
591
1932, now a tackle on the Collinsville football
team; Pamela Gay, born May 20, 1940; Leigh-
ton Eric, born June 23, 1945. Mr. Morris has
a private clubhouse and lake, and fishes with
his family, which attends the Methodist
Church. He is a member of the board of
stewards of the church.
Mr. Morris, active in the Collinsville Cham-
ber of Commerce, is a former secretary of
that organization and currently serving as
President. Prominent in Lions International,
he was district governor for Southern Illinois
in the year 1938-1939, after which he was
for two years on the International board of
directors, representing Illinois. He is also a
Mason and a Noble of Ainad Temple, Ancient
Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, at
East St. Louis. He belongs to a group of real
estate and insurance organizations and boards,
including the national, and also to the St. Louis
and national branches of the Mortgage Bank-
ers of America, the National Home Builders
Association, the Illinois Savings and Loan
League and the United States Chamber of
Commerce. Active in the Red Cross, he has
donated not only time and money but also
office space and equipment for Collinsville
headquarters. Few men have done so much
for their native States as Lossie E. Morris.
HARRY FREDERICK KENDALL
One of the most widely known newspaper
publishers in Illinois, the late Harry Fred-
erick Kendall of Mattoon was also renowned
for the aid he gave all organizations and
individuals dedicated to improving his city
and State. He was publisher of the Journal-
Gazette of Mattoon and recognized throughout
the newspaper and printing industries for
his rare ability. As his own newspaper said
at the time of his death, "He was known for
his vigorous and almost insatiable interest,
an ever-burning desire to know all the facts
of every important news event, and to pass
them on to the readers of his newspaper. This
rharacteristic, plus his business acumen, is
credited with making him so successful in
his chosen field." His contributions to civic
progress and to the development of health and
welfare organizations are also well remem-
bered.
Harry Frederick Kendall was born on Aug-
ust 17, 1865, at Flora, Illinois, a son of Cap-
tain Cyrus D. and Catherine Rovilla (Miller)
Kendall. His father served as a captain in
the Union Army in the Civil War. He was
born in Erie County, Pennsylvania, in 1835,
and was a merchant. The publisher's mother
was the daughter of Thompson and Abbie
(Sparks) Miller of Bellefontaine, Ohio. Harry
Kendall spent the early years of his childhood
at Louisville, Illinois, the family home. Later,
with his parents, he moved to Newton, where
he was graduated from high school in 1884.
He then studied at the University of Illinois,
from which he received the degree of Bachelor
of Arts in 1889. During most of the time he
was a student at the university, Mr. Kendall
served as correspondent in Champaign and
Urbana for several metropolitan newspapers,
gaining experience in the field which was to
become his life work. Following his gradua-
tion, he re^d law in the office of the late
Captain T. J. Smith, noted Champaign attor-
ney, and in 1891 he passed the Illinois Su-
preme Court examination and was admitted
to the bar.
Shortly afterward, however, his love for the
newspaper business caused him to enter the
field and in October, 1895, he became owner
and publisher of The Mattoon Gazette. On
January 2, 1905, he effected the consolidation
of The Gazette and The Mattoon Journal,
forming The Journal-Gazette. Firmly estab-
lished as one of the State's most successful
small city publishers, he purchased The Mat-
toon Commercial-Star in 1919 and combined
it with The Journal-Gazette to produce the
newspaper as it is published today. This he
published until his death, which occurred in
1939 when he was seventy-three. For many
years his business associate was E. B. Tucker,
who died in 1927.
Mr. Kendall married Jessie B. Johnson,
daughter of Hale and Mary Loofbourrow
Johnson, at Newton on March 2, 1898. Mrs.
Kendall, who survives her husband, has long
been one of Mattoon's well known women. She
is a graduate of the Newton High School, the
Kirkwood (Missouri) Seminary and the New
England Conservatory of Music at Boston. A
talented pianist and organist, she has for
years been active in Mattoon's civic music en-
terprise. She is also known for her work with
cultural clubs and the Mattoon Community
Church to which Mr. Kendall also belonged.
Mr. Kendall's activities outside newspaper
and printing were extensive. For fifteen years
he was a director of the National Bank of
Mattoon and was a leader in the Mattoon
Association of Commerce, through which he
helped bring many industries to Mattoon and
assisted in promoting the paving of State
highways in the Mattoon area. He was one
of the organizers of the Mattoon Community
Chest and the Mattoon Country Club and
592
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
LOSSIE E. MORRIS, A.B., B.D.
HARRY FREDERICK KENDALL
served both in many capacities from the presi-
dency down. At Miami Beach, Florida, he was
a member of the Committee of One Hundred
which includes in its membership some of
the nation's foremost citizens. From the time
of his graduation to the time of his death
he was president and secretary of his gradu-
ating class of the University of Illinois,
exactly a half century. The fiftieth anniver-
sary observance of the class was held in Cham-
paign on June 10, but Mr. Kendall, who had
arranged to participate, had already suffered
from the sti-oke which about two weeks later
was to prove fatal. He died at Methodist
Memorial Hospital on the board of which he
had served for many years. Aside from the
Community Chest, which he helped to develop,
Mr. Kendall was interested in the United
Charities and was one of the founders of the
Mattoon Emergency Relief Committee, which
provided aid to indigent persons before the
advent of State and Federal relief agencies.
He was a charter member of the Rotary Club
of Mattoon and also was a member of the
Masonic order, the Egyptian Daily Newspaper
League of Southern Illinois, the Country Pub-
lishers Association, the Inland Daily Press
Association, the Illinois Daily Newspaper
Markets and the Illinois Press Association.
In the Masonic order, he belonged not only
to the Blue Lodge but also to the Knights
Templar and the Shrine. He was a Republi-
can, and his sports were golf and fishing with
travel a hobby. He passed from the earthly
life on June 28, 1939, and was laid to rest
at Riverside Cemetery, Newton.
With his wife, Mr. Kendall was interested
in buying good pictures, early American glass
and Oriental rugs— and these today adorn his
home at 1309 Lafayette Avenue, Mattoon,
where Mrs. Kendall still lives. He was home-
loving and a man of warm personality who,
as a civic leader, drew many followers and
through them made his extraordinary con-
tribution to civic progress and newspaper
history.
HON. ISAAC N. COOLLEY, SR.
One-time railroad president, real estate op-
erator, farmer, livestock breeder and grain
merchant, the late Isaac N. Coolley, Sr., of
Brocton, Edgar County, was one of Illinois'
outstanding citizens. A leader in the Repub-
lican Party, he was a former County Treas-
urer and a State Senator.
Mr. Coolley was born at Newman, Douglas
County, on November 1, 1866, the son of
James Maxwell and Sarah (Wyckoff ) Coolley.
His father, a farmer, was the son of the
Reverend Jonathan and Malinda (Maxwell)
Coolley. The Coolleys and Wyckoffs were
among the prominent citizens in the ear-
ly days of the region. The Reverend Jona-
than Coolley arrived in 1854, organized the
Fairfield Cumberland Christian Church in
1855 and continued as pastor until 1872,
when his son, the Reverend C. P. Coolley,
later financial agent of Lincoln University,
succeeded him. Isaac Wyckoff, grand father
of Isaac N. Coolley, Sr., was a hotelman and
postmaster.
Isaac Coolley, Sr., had a limited grammar
school education. When he was twenty-one,
he and a cousin, Will Coolley, bought a farm
near Brocton. Three years later they sold
this with great profit and separated. I. N.
Coolley then purchased a 280-acre farm and
within a few years became established as a
livestock dealer and trader. In 1903 Mr.
Coolley gave up agricultural activity, moved
into town and started in the real estate busi-
ness. By 1920 he had accumulated 1400
acres. This land was operated under the ten-
ants' share system, customary in the locality,
until 1936. In 1912, Mr. Coolley and Will A.
Price began doing business as the Brocton El-
evator Company. In 1937 Mr. Coolley
bought out Mr. Price's interest. Later, he
sold the properties, which had become exten-
sive under his guidance. From 1918 to 1938
he was president of the old Kansas and Si-
dell Railroad, operated in conjunction with
the elevator business until supplanted by a
trucking system. In this period Mr. Coolley
became a stockholder of the First National
Bank of Paris, the county seat, and served
as a director until its liquidation.
On December 3, 1908, Mr. Coolley mar-
ried Elizabeth Watkins, daughter of Ida K.
and Overton Beachamp Watkins. Mrs. Cool-
ley was active in the woman suffrage move-
ment, is former chairman of the 18th Dis-
trict Republican Women and is on the boards
of the Edgar County Chapter, American Red
Cross, and the Illinois Republican Women's
Club. Three children were born to the mar-
riage— Carolyn, now Mrs. Joseph E. Thomp-
son, Jr., living at Phoenix, Arizona, and
mother of J. E. Thompson, III, Isaac Newton
Coolley, Jr., of Brocton, who married Ber-
nice Popp and is father of I. N. Coolley, III,
and Paul Popp Coolley; and James M. Cool-
ley, also of Brocton, who married Pauline
Williams and is father of Carol Lynn and
Helen Elizabeth Coolley. The family wor-
ships in the Fairfield Church of Newman.
ILLINOIS
EDITION
597
I. N. Coolley, Sr., organizer of the Fairfield
Memorial Cemetery Association, was its pres-
ident from 1918 to 1942.
In 1906 Mr. Coolley was elected County
Treasurer of Edgar County, leading the Re-
publican ticket. The County Treasury had a
deficit of $60,000 when he entered office.
By fighting corruption and effecting cooper-
ation among the better elements in the coun-
ty, he was able to leave a surplus of $20,000
when he retired from this office. From 1910
to 1912 he was in the General Assembly
from the 22nd District. From 1912 to 1938
he was chairman of the Edgar County Re-
publican Central Committee.
At the age of 81, Mr. Coolley, who loved
travel, started on a visit to his daughter in
Phoenix. Enroute, he was stricken ill. On De-
cember 12, 1947, in Texas, he died. He lies
buried at Fairfield Memorial Cemetery, with
his parents. "He was held in high esteem
by everyone," said the Brocton Weekly Re-
view. "A kind neighbor, consideiate of his
family. . . ."
JOHN A. LUTZ, SR.
For more than seventy-five years an insti-
tution of tremendous prestige and influence
flourished in Central Illinois — the John A.
Lutz Dry Goods Company of Lincoln. Founded
by the late John A. Lutz, Sr., this establish-
ment served thousands of Illinoisans, the great
and the humble, and it was in the record of
its founder that in his early days he had him-
self in Springfield served Abraham Lincoln
and the Lincoln family many times. Mr. Lutz
became one of the great citizens of Logan
County, a man who was a leader in civic, wel-
fare and religious affairs — a man whose "ster-
ling character was esteemed by all who knew
him," as the Lincoln Evening Courier said of
him.
Mr. Lutz was born in Goldkronach, Bavaria,
on March 19, 1838, and died in Lincoln on
December 8, 1924, at the age of eighty-six.
He came to this country when a small lad,
accompanied by his parents. The trip was
made in a sail boat, the entire journey re-
quiring six weeks, during which time the fam-
ily encountered many hardships. The family,
landing in New Orleans, first went to St.
Louis, then to Springfied. At the age of
twelve, John A. Lutz, Sr., entered the employ
of Smith, Wickersham and Company in the
capitol. Subsequently, he was with John T.
Stewart. It was in Springfield that Mr. Lutz
sold Abraham Lincoln a brown-brocaded dress
which Mrs. Lincoln wore on her way to Wash-
;>98
ington to the inauguration of her husband at
the White House. Though still young, Mr. Lutz
was soon given such important responsibilities
as going to New York for his firm and buying
merchandise for it. On his return trip the
train on which he was a passenger broke
down in the Village of Lincoln. This gave
Mr. Lutz an opportunity to get a glimpse of
the community, the result of which was that
he persuaded his employer, Mr. Stewart, to
join him in a partnership in a business there.
On March 23, 1866, a dry goods store known
as Lutz and Stewart was opened on Pulaski
Street, in Lincoln. Soon Mr. Lutz was the sole
owner and "through his great ability as a
business man and his shrewd purchasing,"
combined with hard work and his many other
great qualities, was able to build one of the
largest and most attractive business houses
in Lincoln. A few years before his death, he
was invited to attend the National Dry Goods
Association in New York, and was one of the
oldest men in the United States to be so
invited.
On October 26, 1867, in St. Louis, Mr. Lutz
married Caroline Chamberlin, and to them
were born John A. Lutz, Jr., (q.v.), who be-
came one of Central Illinois' most prominent
citizens; Mrs. Marian Gordon; Mrs. Caroline
Bramwell and Edward C. Lutz, who also
achieved great prominence in the area.
John A. Lutz, Sr., was for years active in
the First Baptist Church of Lincoln and was
interred in Union Cemetery at Lincoln, with
many friends, associates and acquaintances at-
tending. Every business house in Lincoln
closed during funeral services. Said the Lin-
coln Evening Courier, "Always a patron of
letters and of art, foremost in promoting
religious welfare movements of every name
and order, alert and progressive in business,
generous in support of every civic activity
whose purpose aimed at better homes and
better society, Mr. Lutz has left a place in
Lincoln that cannot soon be filled. Those who
enjoyed his friendship and thousands of oth-
ers who knew him only casually will unite in
characterizing him as a useful citizen in the
best and fullest sense."
JOHN A. LUTZ, JR.
A distinguished bearer of a distinguished
name, the late John A. Lutz, Jr., of Lincoln
made a lasting contribution to life and devel-
opment in Central Illinois. He not only man-
aged the once-famous John A. Lutz Dry
Goods Company store through the final years
before it was sold, but he also served as
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
HON. ISAAC N. COOLLEY, SR.
JOHN A. LUTZ, JR.
secretary of the Lincoln Chamber of Com-
merce, gave leadership to the Boy Scout move-
ment and served as a member of the staff
of the Motor Refund Division of the Illinois
State Revenue Department in Springfield. He
was noted for his interest in civic and welfare
programs and in industrial and commercial
development.
John A. Lutz, Jr., was born in Lincoln on
October 1. 1868, the son of the John A. Lutz
(q.v.) who founded the John A. Lutz Dry
Goods Company in Lincoln and made the
family name famous throughout Central Illi-
nois, and of Caroline C. (Chamberlin) Lutz.
The younger Mr. Lutz was educated in the
Lincoln public schools and in Lincoln College
as well as St. Johnsbury Academy in Saint
Johnsbury, Vermont. When a young man he
lived in Portland, Oregon, and then in St.
Louis. In St. Louis he was a traveling rep-
resentative for Bromley Quaker Lace Curtain
Company of Philadelphia. From the Missouri
metropolis he went to Springfield, in the same
state, to operate a fruit farm, on which he
remained five or six years. Upon returning
to Lincoln, he took over from his retired
father the management of the John A. Lutz
Dry Goods Company on Broadway. This store
was operated for more than seventy-five years.
When the Lutz store was sold, Mr. Lutz
became secretary of the Lincoln Chamber of
Commerce, and in this post was responsible
for considerable growth of the community.
One of his achievements was the bringing of
several industries to the city. When he re-
signed the Chamber of Commerce post, Mr.
Lutz became a member of the staff of the
State Revenue Department's Motor Refund
Division at the capital. In December, 1948,
Mr. Lutz retired and from then on devoted
himself to his home and family and to the
civic and social affairs of Lincoln and Logan
County.
On January 17, 1917, in Lincoln, Mr. Lutz
married Irma Jacobs, and they established the
home at 315 North Logan Street, Lincoln,
which Mrs. Lutz still maintains. On Septem-
ber 19, 1949, at Deaconess Hospital, Lincoln,
Mr. Lutz died of a heart attack. He was then
eleven days from his eighty-first birthday.
Funeral services were held on September 22,
1949, with the Reverend O. B. Enselman, pas-
tor of the Charleston Methodist Church and
former pastor of the First Methodist Church
of Lincoln, officiating. Interment was in Union
Cemetery, Lincoln. The survivors included
Mrs. Lutz and Mrs. Caroline L. Bramwell,
sister of Mr. Lutz. Another sister, Mrs. Ma-
ILLINOIS EDITION
rion L. Gordon, and a brother, Edward C.
Lutz, had preceded him in death.
Mr. Lutz was a charter member and past
exalted ruler of Lincoln Lodge, No. 914, Bene-
volent and Protective Order of Elks, and he
was one of those active in organizing the first
service club, Kiwanis, in the city. He served
that club as one of its early presidents.
Through his work with the Chamber of Com-
merce and the Boy Scouts of America he
made a further contribution to civic de-
velopment.
The Lutz family has made a tremendous
mark upon the life of Lincoln and Logan
County. The share of John A. Lutz, Jr., in
this impression upon the growth and develop-
ment of a great area cannot be measured,
but throughout his lifetime it was greatly
recognized, and in many tangible and intan-
gible ways there are monuments in the com-
munity to his memory and to the extraor-
dinary service he rendered his fellow citi-
zens.
FRANK J. IMPEY
Pana, in Christian County, is the home of a
concern which has promoted the growth of
the floral and nursery business in the nation
through manufacturing the materials for and
erecting thousands of greenhouses. This con-
cern is National Greenhouses Co., of which
Frank J. Impey is vice-president and gen-
eral manager. The firm not only has a
large plant in Pana but also a warehouse at
Naugatuck, Connecticut, near Near York City,
which serves as the base for Eastern opera-
tions. Mr. Impey, a veteran of World War 1,
is one of Christian County's leading citizens
and a prominent figure among greenhouse
operators.
Born in Iowa City, Iowa, on December 1),
1895, Mr. Impey is the son of Charles F.
Impey, banker, and Louise Impey. He was
educated in Chicago's schools and upon gradu-
ating from high school began learning the
greenhouse, and flower-growing business as
an employee of the John C. Moninger Green-
house Company, Chicago. In 1923 he went to
the American Greenhouse Company, also of
Chicago, as manager, holding this position
until 1930. In the meantime, the Moninger
Company and the American Greenhouse Com-
pany merged, and Mr. Impey was sent in
1930 to Brooklyn, New York, where he was
general manager of the combined operations.
In 1934 he resigned and moved to Pana to
become manager of the National Greenhouse
Manufacturing Company, whose president at
603
that time was P. L. McKee. In 1948 the
business was sold to Mr. Impey, Robert Wit-
temore and David L. Williams. Mr. Witte-
more, who furnished most of the capital and
who resides in Naugatuck, is president of
the present company, National Greenhouse
Company. The plant in Pana has 42,000
square feet of floor space and is equipped
with large steel presses, drilling machines
and other apparatus necessary to manufacture
and form the many steel parts of a green-
house. It also has a large wood planing mill
where the wooden parts of a greenhouse are
constructed. The firm either manufactures
or supplies the complete materials for erect-
ing greenhouses of any size, including the
heating plant. In the past the firm also erect-
ed greenhouses, but labor conditions forced
abandonment of this phase of the business.
Its materials are sold in all 48 states and
some are exported. Replacement parts are sold
to approximately 10,000 customers. The firm
employs 30 to 35 persons in the fabrication of
the materials. All the wood used in the opera-
tions is cypress and many thousands of board
feet are kept in stock so that the wood may age
a year or more. Many tons of steel are also kept
in stock. The warehouse at Naugatuck was
completed late in 1949. It will contain a com-
plete stock of materials necessary to build
greenhouses in the East. Mr. Impey directs all
operations.
In 1940, he married Marian L. Prosser of
Pana, and they make their home in that city.
Mr. Impey is active in the civic affairs of
Pana and achieved such prominence as to
have been called on by a delegation which
requested that he be a candidate for Mayor.
He declined because of the pressure of his
business duties. In World War I, Mr. Impey
served with the 108th Engineers, 33rd Di-
vision, as a Sergeant First Class. He partici-
pated in the action at Amiens and the Argon-
ne front. He is a Republican and is a member
of the Rotary Club of Pana and the Pana
Country Club. Fishing and golf are his fa-
vorite sports. He is one of Pana's popular
figures, and a leading figure in his field of
business.
GWAIN R. ZARBUCK, D.C.
Having since boyhood addressed himself to
a life in the healing arts, Dr. Gwain R. Zar-
buck of Urbana is today realizing his dream
of service to the health and well-being of
his fellow citizens, for he is rapidly becoming
one of the more successful chiropractors not
only in the campus city but in all Champaign
County.
Dr. Zarbuck was born in Gilman, Illinois,
on June 28, 1926. He is the son of Gus R.
Zarbuck and Bertha (Hethkle) Zarbuck. His
father, who was an automobile dealer in
Bloomington, Illinois, died on March 23, 1946,
and is survived by the mother.
When Dr. Zarbuck was quite young the
family moved to Bloomington where he re-
ceived his elementary education and entered
high school.
Early in his junior year his sight began
to fail and became rapidly worse until he
was forced to leave school. He entered the
Mayo Clinic at Rochester, Minnesota, where
within a short time he was pronounced totally
blind.
Young Zarbuck returned to Bloomington
and immediately took up the study of Braille,
seeking comfort in his new world. Also, upon
professional advice, he was placed under the
care of that well-known Chiropractor, Dr. Al-
fred Homer at Morton, where he received
regular nerve reading and adjustment.
He entered the Jacksonville school for the
blind, continuing his chiropractic care, and
embarked on intensive study of Braille. In a
year and a half he was graduated with hon-
ors, being awarded a 4-year scholarship to
the University of Illinois.
During those dark days he had absolute
confidence in the professional skill of Dr.
Homer and Chiropractic, praying that he
would be helped; and after a long period he
found his sight was returning and he was
able to see large objects at close range, and
improvement was constant from that time.
This remarkable recovery from blindness
brought about in him a burning desire to
help others as he had been helped, and he
decided to dedicate his life to the greatest
of healing arts, Chiropractic.
In order to improve his educational backr
ground in preparation for his chosen pro-
fession, he enrolled at the University of Illi-
nois where he remained for a year, employing
student readers to assist him during this pe-
riod of returning vision.
After a year at the University he enrolled
at Palmer School of Chiropractic at Daven-
port, Iowa and completed his course, graduat-
ing with the D. C. degree, a Doctor of Chiro-
practic. He remained at Palmer School for
3-months on post-graduate work.
604
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
FRANK J. IMPEY
GWAIN R. ZARBl Ck, D.C.
He is a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fra-
ternity, the International Chiropractic Asso-
ciation and the United Chiropractors Asso-
ciation of Illinois.
In his school days, he was active in ath-
letics. At both high school and college, he
played football, baseball and basketball. His
interest in all outdoor sports continues to-
day. However, his major non-professional in-
terest now is music, in which he has excep-
tional talent. He plays the piano and the
trombone. He studied music privately. In pol-
itics and in thinking, he is an independent.
He is a bachelor and his home is at 608
West Elm Street, Urbana.
Located in the business section of Urbana
at 113 West Main Street is the three-room
suite where Dr. Gwain R. Zarbuck maintains
his office for the practice of Chiropractic.
This well-appointed modern suite is fully
equipped for the very finest of dignified
Specific Chiropractic service, with the X-Ray,
Neurocalometer and Neurocalograph. Dr.
Zarbuck has as his receptionist and office
assistant his mother, Bertha M. Zarbuck
Through skill and personality Dr. Zarbuck
is constantly winning more and more the
affections of his fellow Urbana citizens.
JULIUS JAMES HIRSCHFELD, LL.3.
An attorney in practice at Champaign with
associate relations with law firms in LaSalle
and Chicago, Julius James Hirschfeld is widely
known not only in the legal profession but also
in the agricultural world and in Catholic lay
circles. Farms in which he has large interests
are located in Jackson County, Illinois, and
in Missouri. Once a delegate to the Supreme
Convention of the Knights of Columbus, he
has a national reputation in this Catholic
fraternal order, and he holds or has held
various important posts in its Central Illinois
district and in the state.
Born in Champaign on August 19, 1904,
Julius James Hirschfeld is the son of John
and Emma Helen (Keller) Hirschfteld. His
father, who was born in East St. Louis on
September 13, 1874, is a wholesaler who in
1948 celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of
the location of his business in one place and
who soon after the celebration constructed
two new buildings there and remodeled one
in accordance with modern trends. The at-
torney's paternal grandfather, Daniel Hirsch-
feld, a native of Germany, came to the United
States in his youth. He became a naturalized
citizen and was a merchant in the retail variety
goods field. Emma Keller Hirschfeld was born
in Baker, Kansas, on September 20, 187ti.
She was a young girl when her family moved
to Champaign, where her marriage took place.
Her father was also a native of Germany. A
farmer in Kansas after coming to the United
Siates. he, too, was naturalized.
Julius J. Hirschfeld was a pupil in the first
to the seventh grades in the Colonel Wolfe
Grade School, Champaign. For the eighth
grade he went to Central Grade School. Fol-
lowing his graduation from the Champaign
High School, he did his prelegal and legal
work at the University of Illinois which in
1928 awarded him the degree of Bachelor of
Laws. From April, 1928, to October, 1928,
Mr. Hirschfeld was associated with the law
firm of Kixmiller, Barr and Hoffman and with
the Commerce Clearing House in Chicago. He
then returned to Champaign, and on October
12, 1928, began his practice in Champaign,
where his office is in the First National Bank
Building, His associate relations are with the
firm of Hirschfeld, Hirschfeld and Clinch at.
LaSalle, Illinois, where the associates are his
brother, John C. Hirschfeld and John J.
Clinch, Jr. The brother's main office is in
Chicago, and Julius Hirschfeld maintains as-
sociate relations with the Chicago office. The
brothers are also associated in a farm of 550
acres at New Madrid, Missouri. Julius Hirsh-
feld has another farm, consisting of 52 0 acres,
in Jackson County, Illinois.
Mr. Hirschfeld married Mary Catherine
Hannagan, the daughter of Arthur J. and
Elizabeth A. (Gordon) Hannagan in Penfield,
I'linois. They are the parents of three child-
ren— John C. Hirschfeld, born on August 5,
1936; A. James Hirschfeld, born on August.
10, 1938, and Jerome A. Hirschfeld, born on
July 22, 1944. Mrs. Hirschfeld is active in
youth programs and in the societies of the
Holy Cross Catholic Church where the entire
family worships. The family home is at 1114
West Park Avenue, Champaign.
Mr. Hirschfeld's leadership in Catholic lay
circles has been mentioned. He is not only a
member of the Holy Name Society of his
church, but also one of the outstanding mem-
bers of the Knights of Columbus. At present
he is a master of the Fourth Degree of the
Knights of Columbus for Central Illinois. He
is past grand knight of the Twin City Council,
past district deputy of the Danville, Cham-
paign, Tuscola, Illini and Hoopeston Councils;
past state advocate of the Illinois State Coun-
cil, past delegate to the Supreme Convention
in Houston, Texas, and immediate past finan-
ILLINOIS EDITION
609
cial secretary of the Illini Council. He is also
prominent in the Republican Party, being a
past precinct committraen and a speaker in
great demand.
HONORABLE BENJAMIN F.
ANDERSON
After practicing as an attorney at Charles-
ton for twenty-four years and gaining great
prominence, the Honorable Benjamin F. An-
derson was elected Judge of the Circuit Court
of the Fifth Judicial Circuit of Illinois, with
headquarters at Charleston, seat of Coles
County, and he has sat on the bench, with
growing reputation for his able interpreta-
tion of the law and sense of justice, since
that time. He is a former City Attorney of
Charleston and former Judge of the Charles-
ton City Court and is also a noteworthy figure
in civic, professional and organization af-
fairs.
Judge Anderson was born in Charleston
on July 3, 1893, the son of Albert C. and
Nellie T. (Wright) Anderson. His father, a
native of Meadville, Pennsylvania, practiced
law in Charleston from 1893 to the time
of his death on February 26, 1938. He was
twelve years old when he came to Illinois
with his parents, and resided in Charleston
until his death.
Judge Anderson was educated in the ele-
mentary and high schools of Charleston ; at
Eastern Illinois State College, Charleston,
and at the University of Illinois, Urbana. He
was awarded the degree of Bachelor of Laws
by the University of Illinois in 1915. At the
university he was elected to Phi Delta Phi
Fraternity. When he was at Eastern State
College he won letters in basketball and
track. Admitted to the Illinois State Bar
in 1915, he entered into a law partnership
with his father in Charleston, the firm being
called A. C. and Ben F. Anderson. The part-
nership was dissolved by the death of A. C.
Anderson in 1938. The future judge con-
tinued to practice, alone, until 1939, when
he was elected to his present office of Judge
of the Circuit Court of the Fifth Judicial
Circuit. From 1917 to 1921, Judge Ander-
son had served as Charleston's City Attorney
and from 1922 to 1930 he was Judge of the
Charleston City Court.
On April 17, 1917, at Charleston, he mar-
ried Lena McNeel, the daughter of W. S.
and Laura A. McNeel. Mr. McNeel died in
1918 and is survived by his widow. Mrs. An-
derson is active in such organizations as the
Charleston City Women's Club, the Pan-
Hellenic Society and the Charleston Country
Club. She and the Judge are the parents of
two daughters — Martha Leonas, the wife of
Andrew L. Leonas and mother of Mark and
Anne Leonas; and Barbara Hayes, the wife
of Harold L. Hayes. Judge and Mrs. Ander-
son make their home at 1435 Seventh Street,
Charleston.
Judge Anderson is a member of the Ro-
tary Club of Charleston; the Charleston
Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; the
Modern Woodmen of America, Charleston;
the Charleston Country Club; the Charleston
Lodge, Benevolent and Protective Order of
Elks; the Circuit Judges Association; the Illi-
nois State Bar Association; the Coles County
and Vermilion County Bar Associations and
the American Judicature Society. He is a
Republican. Golf is his favorite game. An
outstanding citizen of his native Coles Coun-
ty, he is known and respected throughout the
state.
SIDNEY VINCENT CAIN
A paper packaging and janitors supplies
distributor, Sidney Vincent Cain of Peoria is
known not only in Illinois but in Iowa, so
far-reaching has become his business, S. V.
Cain, Inc. In addition to this firm, Mr. Cain
has interests in two other Peoria businesses,
William Mottsett, Inc., and Central Indem-
nity Corporation. He is one of the more
active members of the community.
Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on March
16, 1909, Mr. Cain is the son of John Henry
Cain, a native of Union City, Ohio, and an
optometrist who died in 1936, and Alice Mary
(Clasgens) Cain, also a native of Union City,
who is still living. S. V. Cain first attended
his native city's elementary schools. Follow-
ing graduation from high school, he spent
two years at Butler University, also in In-
dianapolis. From 1929 to 1938 Mr. Cain was
a salesman for the Capital Paper Company
of Indianapolis. In 1938 he established S. V.
Cain, Inc., and has built it into one of the
more prosperous concerns in its field in the
Illinois-Iowa region. He covers all of Illinois
and part of Iowa, maintaining headquarters
at 322 South Washington Street, Peoria, and
branches at Danville, Illinois, and Davenport,
Iowa. He is vice-president of William Mott-
sett, Inc.
Mr. Cain married Josephine P. Biggins of
Belfast, Ireland, on October 20, 1932. Mrs.
Cain is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Michael
Biggins, both of whom were also natives of
Ireland. Her father, a constable on the Bel-
610
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
HONORABLE BENJAMIN F. ANDERSON
SIDNEY VINCENT CAIN
fast police force, died in 1946. Mr. and Mrs.
Cain have seven children, one of whom they
adopted. The adopted child is Teresa Morris
Cain, who was born in May, 1932. The other
children are Richard Michael Cain, born in
February, 1934; Maureen Mary Cain, born in
March, 1935; Daniel Patrick Cain, born in Feb-
ruary, 1939; Sheila Josephene Cain, born in
June, 1942; Sidney Vincent Cain, Jr., born in
January, 1943; and Kathleen Patricia Cain,
born in May, 1945. Mr. and Mrs. Cain and
their family reside at 362 Moss Avenue, Peoria,
and worship in the Roman Catholic Church.
Mr. Cain's activities have made him a prom-
inent figure in many organizations, among
them the Creve Country Club, of which he is
a director; the National Paper Trade Asso-
ciation, the Sanitary Supply Association, the
Rotary Club of Peoria, the Knights of Co-
lumbus, the Association of Commerce and the
Illinois State Chamber of Commerce, vice-
chairman of the board of commissioners of
the Greater Paris Airport Authority and is
active in Democratic politics. An employer of
thirty persons, a leader in his business and
community, Mr. Cain ranks among those who
are contemporary builders of Illinois.
WALTER JOHN BECKER
A company of international ramifications,
Little Giant Products, Inc., of Peoria, manu-
factures truck equipment which has done
much to keep the wheels of progress going
not only in the United States but in many
other parts of the world. Of this concern
Walter John Becker is former president and
current chairman of the board. He is also
one of Peoria's more active citizens, vitally
interested in the general welfare of the city.
Mr. Becker was born on February 17,
1889, across the river at Pekin. His parents
were Herman J. and Lena (Ubben) Becker,
both also natives of the Tazewell County seat.
His father, who was secretary of the board
of education there, died in 1926; the mother
had died in 1902. The manufacturer was edu-
cated in the elementary and high schools of
Pekin. For two years he worked as a reporter
on a Pekin newspaper and then, in 1912, he
entered the employ of the American Distilling
Company in his native city. This employment
he continued until 1917, when he went into
the advertising business for himself in Peoria.
In 1926, he left advertising to assume the
vice presidency and secretaryship of Little
Giant Products, Inc. He became president in
1936 and chairman of the board of direc-
tors in 1948. The company, with home office
and plant at 1530 North Adams Street,
Peoria, distributes its truck equipment in all
parts of the United States and many foreign
countries. It employs 150 persons.
Mr. Becker married Edna Bardwell of
Pekin on June 18, 1909. She died in 1930.
Mrs. Becker was the daughter of Fred and
Cora (Gundy) Bardwell, natives of Indiana.
Her father, who was a roadmaster in the
Hoosier State, died in 1948. He is survived
by Mrs. Bardwell. Mr. and Mrs. Becker be-
came the parents of one son, Jay Becker,
who was born on November 10, 1918.
Walter J. Becker is active in the Peoria
Better Business Bureau, the Illinois Manu-
facturers Association, the Peoria Association
of Commerce, the Benevolent and Protective
Order of Elks, the Masonic fraternity, the
University Club of Peoria and the Creve
Coeur Club. Boats are his hobby. His indus-
trial leadership is highly valued in Peoria.
CLAUS ROHWEDER
Assumption is a little city in Christian
County, but the Rohweder Drug Store, owned
by Claus Rohweder, is operated on big city
lines. It has become an important business
and social center in Christian County, and
a point of reliance in the medical profes-
sion. Mr. Rohweder, a progressive business
man, has served Assumption in many ways
and is one of its popular citizens.
He was born in Erfde, Germany, on No-
vember 14, 1891, the son of John and Wil-
helmina (Thomson) Rohweder. His father, a
cabinet maker, brought the family to the Unit-
ed States in 1893. For a time the Rohweders
lived at Thomasboro, in Champaign County;
then in Tuscola, Douglas County. Claus Roh-
weder began his education in Tuscola, and
in 1910 was graduated from its high school.
He was still in high school when he began
his pharmaceutical studies and working in a
drug store. Out of the $1.75 a week he
earned in the Tuscola drug store, he saved
$388 by the time he was graduated. This en-
abled him to start at Northwestern Uni-
versity. He worked his way through the uni-
versity, and in June of 1913 received his
degree of Ph.G. Graduate in Pharmacy.
In 1916 Mr. Rohweder married Leota F.
Parker, who died in July, 1938. In April,
1939, Mr. Rohweder married Opal Hays Chap-
man in Assumption. Mrs. Rohweder's daugh-
ter, Grace, is now Mrs. Howard W. Davis,
Jr. By his first marriage Mr. Rohweder be-
came the father of two sons and a daughter
— Wilhelmina Elizabether, born on October
ILLINOIS EDITION
615
26, 1916, now the wife of Harry Seeforth,
supeiintendent of the Wabash Railroad yards;
Claus Rohweder, Jr., born on August 19,
1918, who married Jane Givens of Kirksville,
Missouri, and is now a Doctor of Osteopathy,
a member of the International Council of
Cancer Research, a teacher of osteopathy and
a cancer researchist; and William John Roh-
weder, born on December 26, 1921, who was
a tailgunner in the United States Army Air
Forces in World War II and was killed in
action. The present Mrs. Rohweder is active
in the Order of the Eastern Star in Christian
County, in the programs of the Christian
Church of Assumption and in Assumption's
civic affairs. Mr. Rohweder is also active in
the Christian Church.
After taking his pharmaceutical degree Mr.
Rohweder remained in Chicago, working in a
drug store there until June, 1915. He then
went to work in a drug store in Urbana.
After three years in that store, he entered
the employ of the Oldham Brothers Drug
Store, Urbana, and subsequently spent a year
with the Becker Drug Store in the same city.
For ten and one-half years Mr. Rohweder
was a road salesman for the H. K. Mulford
Company, a manufacturing drug firm. In
1931, he returned to Danville and bought his
first drug store. Later, he managed two
stores for the Ford Hopkins chain in as many
Illinois communities. In February, 1939, he
opened his present business, the Rohweder
Drug Store, in Assumption. He has made a
big enterprise of this most modern establish-
ment. He was a member of the Kiwanis Clubs
of Streator and LaSalle and in 1941-42 he
was president of the Rotary Club of Assump-
tion. He has been a Mason since he joined
the Urbana Lodge in May, 1920. Woodwork-
ing and photography and his hobbies. He is
considered as one of those who in recent
years have done the most for Assumption and
is well known among drug store operators
in Illinois.
HOMER JOHN BUCKLEY
After establishing and operating for years
the famous advertising firm of Buckley, De-
ment and Company in Chicago, Homer John
Buckley decided he would retire. This was
in 1944. Today this "retired" citizen, who in
1950 celebrated his seventy-first birthday,
actively heads the firm of Homer J. Buckley
and Associates, Inc., with offices at 57 East
Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, advertising and
public relations counselors. He has devoted
his advertising and public relations talents to
many commercial projects — and also to civic
and welfare organizations.
Mr. Buckley was born in Rock Island
County on March 16, 1879, the son of John A.
and Mary J. (Sullivan) Buckley, and was edu-
cated at St. Ignatius High School and Col-
lege, Bryant and Stratton Business College,
Kent College of Law. At college he was elect-
ed to Alpha Delta Sigma Fraternity. Mr.
Buckley began his career as a messegner for
Marshall Field and Company, Chicago. His
abilities soon won him a place in the office
of H. Gordon Selfridge, now operating the
famous American-type department store in
London, with whom he worked several, years
creating Marshall Field's direct mail depart-
ment.
For a time Mr. Buckley was manager of
the store's advertising and sales promotion.
In 19 05, he organized Buckley, Dement and
Company and guided it to the point where it
had a staff of 450 persons, specializing in
direct mail, using thirty trucks to carry the
outgoing mail to the Post Office. He became
noted as the man who, as a specialist in direct
mail, worked "behind the scenes" of many of
America's great sales campaigns. He was
founder and first president of the Internation-
al Direct Mail Advertising Association, Presi-
dent of the National Council of Business Mail
Users and of the Advertising Council of Chi-
cago, and is the author of "The Science of
Marketing by Mail."
In 1933 at the Chicago World's Fair he was
chairman of the Committee on Public Rela-
tions. He served on the lecture staff of North-
western University, Notre Dame, University
of Illinois School of Commerce and other in-
stitutions. In 1944, Mr. Buckley turned his
big advertising agency over to a group of
long service employees. It was his intention
to retire, but he soon called Homer J. Buck-
ley and Associates into being and now directs
another type of advertising, sales promotion
and public relations operation, and this too-
has become a big firm in its field.
In 1907 Mr. Buckley married Lucile Kath-
leen Wallace, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Wil-
lard F. Wallace of New York City. The Buck-
leys live at 915 Bonnie Brae, River Forest,
and both are active in that community. Mrs.
Buckley is president of the Women's Guild
of St. Luke's Church there. Mr. Buckley is
also a communicant of that church. Mr. and
Mrs. Buckley have one daughter, Marihelyn
Patricia, who in November, 1947, was mar-
ried to Vincent Lee Murphy of Chicago.
616
ILLINOIS
EDITION
CLAUS ROHWEDER
HOMER JOHN BUCKLEY
Mr. Buckley made a reputation for work on
behalf of public welfare, and he continues
active in this field. He was not only a trustee
of the Century of Progress World's Fair in
1933, but has served on the Zoning Com-
mission of River Forest and been a director
of the Civic Federation of Chicago and the
Catholic Charities of Chicago. He was at one
time president of the Tuberculosis Institute
of Chicago for a period of five years and
also of the Travelers Aid Society of Chicago.
In the World War II period and the preced-
ing "national emergency," he was a major
specialist in the United States Army (Selec-
tive Service 1938 to 1945). He is a member
of the Chicago Athletic Association, the But-
terfield Country Club and the Knights of
Columbus, and is independent in politics.
He is a lay trustee of Loyola University in
Chicago. Coif and fishing are his favorite
recreations. He is widely recognized for the
great contribution he has made to business
and civic development.
RUEL ELDEN HALL, M.A.
An educator whose career has taken him
into various parts of Illinois, Ruel Elden Hall
is now superintendent of schools of Kankakee
County, with headquarters at the county seat,
Kankakee. He is known throughout the state
and among educators in the rest of the nation.
Outside the field of education, Mr. Hall takes
an active interest in civic and fraternal affairs.
He was born on August 13, 1905, at Tahoe
Ridge, near Grangeville, Idaho County, Idaho,
the son of Gregg and Effie Hall, both of whom
were natives of Coles County, Illinois. Gregg
Hall was a farmer. The educator is the older
of two children. He has a sister, Clothilde.
To prepare himself for his profession, Ruel
Hall came to the county seat of his parents'
native county— Charleston. There he studied at
Eastern State Teachers College, from which
he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts in
1929. He received his Master of Arts degree
in Chicago in 1939. In 1924 he began his career
as a teacher in the public schools of Patoka,
in Marion County, where he served until 1926.
From 1929 to 1937 he was on the faculty of
the Kankakee High School and from 1937 to
1941 he was superintendent of schools at Brad-
ley, Kankakee County. Since 1941 he has been
superintendent of schools of the entire county,
with a reputation that is spreading to distant
places, for he is an exponent of progressive
methods and is an able administrator.
In 1930 Mr. Hall married Frances Craig,
who was born in Charleston on June 11, 1907.
They have become the parents of a son and
daughter — Stuart Craig Hall, born in 1938,
and Susan Hall, born in 1944.
Mr. Hall is active in the Kiwanis Club of
Kankakee, the Kankakee Lodge of the Benevo-
lent and Protective Order of Elks and the
Masonic Lodge, Charleston. Kankakee County's
citizens have been conscious of a great rise
in the standards of the teaching personnel
and in the educational attainments of their
children since Mr. Hall's assumption of the
school superintendency.
LOUIS HYLAND ERICKSON
The industrial world has long known the
leadership of Louis Hyland Erickson of Chi-
cago. As president of the Borg Erickson Cor-
poration, he is one of the outstanding scale
manufacturers of the nation. He is a leading
figure in state and national trade organiza-
tions and is noted in Wisconsin and in Cook
County for his active interest in develop-
ment and improvement projects.
Mr. Erickson was born in Chicago on Sep-
tember 27, 1905, the son of Louis Eric and
Anna Maud (Booth) Erickson. His father,
born in Peotone, Will County, on September
26, 1873, was a dress manufacturer in the
Windy City. The mother, a native of Rock
Falls, Whiteside County, was the daughter of
Dr. A. J. Booth, who served with the rank of
Captain in the Confederate Army and was a
cousin of Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth.
Louis H. Erickson was graduated from the
Oak Park High School and went on to the
University of Illinois, where he took his de-
gree in 1926. On the football team of the
Oak Park High School from 1918 to 1922,
he was on the university's varsity team in
the season of 1922-'23. At the university he
was elected to Delta Tau Delta Fraternity.
Even before he finished his education Mr.
Erickson began his career. In 1924, he be-
came assistant purchasing agent for the Pub-
lic Service Company of Northern Illinois, a
post he held until 1928. From 1928 to 1931 he
was vice president of the law printing firm
of Hawkins and Loomis, Chicago, and from
1931 to 1934 was vice president of the Brooks
Contracting Corporation, World's Fair con-
tractors. In 1934 Mr. Erickson became a part-
ner in the Art Lamp Corporation in Chicago,
remaining until 1937, when he became vice
president and sales manager of the Borg
Scale Division of the George W. Borg Corpo-
ration. In 1941, when the Borg Erickson Cor-
poration was formed as successor to the Borg
Scale Division, Mr. Erickson assumed the
ILLINOIS EDITION
621
presidency of the new corporation, and he
has since consolidated the high position pre-
viously won in the scale manufacturing busi-
ness.
On December 2, 1933, in Chicago, Mr. Erick-
son married Charlotte Eleanore Borg, the
daughter of George W. and Florence W. Borg.
Mr. and Mrs. Erickson, who maintain their
home at 3200 Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, have
a son and daughter — Hyland Borg Erickson,
who was born in 1939, and Melinda Ann
Erickson, who was born in 1944. Mrs. Erick-
son is, like her husband, active in civic work
in Chicago. She is a member of the Chicago
Service Club, the Margaret Etter Creche, the
American Women's Volunteer Society and the
Women's Athletic Club.
Mr. Erickson's business interests outside
his corporation include the Michigan Avenue
National Bank of Chicago, in which he is a
director. In 1947, 1948 and 1949 he was pres-
ident of the National Association of Scale
Manufacturers and since 1945 he has been a
director of that organization. He is vice chair-
man of the Government Spending Committee
of the National Association of Manufacturers
and a member of various committees of the
Illinois State Chamber of Commerce. In his
civic work, he is vice president of the Delavan
Lake Improvement Association at Delavan
Lake, Wisconsin, and a director of the North
Central Improvement Association of Chicago.
He is also a member of the Chicago Athletic
Association, the Lake Shore Club, the Lake
Geneva Country Club, the Chicago Yacht
Club and the Delavan Lake Yacht Club. He
was a charter member of the Chicago Black
Horse Troop, 106th Cavalry, Illinois National
Guard, and from 1931 to 1934 was a Lieuten-
ant in that body. Fishing, hunting and boat-
ing are his favorite sports. Mr. Erickson's
leadership in his field of business and in
civic work has made him a noted citizen.
GREAT CENTRAL INSURANCE CO.,
PEORIA, ILL.
The history of Great Central began with the
birth of the Great Central Protective Associa-
tion in Peoria, 111., during April 1934. This
organization was organized by a group of re-
tail businessmen, who felt the great need of
Crime Protection that would reimburse mem-
bers of the Association for money or merchan-
dise as the result of a crime loss. Protection
within the reach of their pocketbooks and
prompt payment when they suffered a crime
loss, without red tape, was the salient purpose
of the organization. The plan was successful
and now every kind and type of small retail
businessman can have this original plan of
crime protection by making a small monthly
payment he can afford.
Management of the Great Central Protective
Asociation, the same that later also served
Great Central Mutual Insurance Company,
had vision and fortitude. The Association grew
and so did the need for broader crime cover-
age. The acceptance by small businessmen of
this novel plan and service, and their con-
tinued patronage was the cornerstone of the
Great Central Mutual Insurance Company. On
April 11, 1938 the company was issued a
Charter by the Insurance Department of the
State of Illinois. The company was headed by
men who had faith and determination to be
successful with a plan that never had been
thought of or tried before in the history of
insurance. James S. Flanigon served as presi-
dent, Elmo G. Kuecks as secretary and treas-
urer, Claude E. Kitchell as general counsel,
and as directors who served with wise counsel,
Lester F. Carson and Carl E. Phillips.
The operation of the Company and its
agency force was as unusual as the company's
broad comprehensive Crime Insurance policies.
As Specialists in their field, the need was also
apparent for men to sell their policies who
were trained as Crime Insurance Specialists.
The company again diverted from usual in-
surance customs and hired men to be trained
as specialists in this field to sell their policy
on a full time basis. The monthly premium
payment originated by the company, "or pay
as you use it" and the unusual "package
policy" covering the retail merchant's business .
met with immediate success.
The company in keeping with its original
plan, put no restrictions on the location or
the physical properties of the building the
merchant occupied. Stress was placed upon the
honesty of the applicant for Crime Insurance
Protection.
The first policy offered provided Business
coverage of $250.00. In 1941 Great Central
management took another important step and
authorized the sales of $500 business cover-
age, and also issued an endorsement giving
policyholders Crime protection for their homes
without having to obtain another policy.
In December of 1941, with the world at war,
Great Central realized the merchant would
now need even more protection than ever be-
fore as Crime increased to an all-time high in
country history. This unusual need caused the
022
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
LOUIS IIYLAND ERICKSON
JAMES STEVEN FLANIGON
company to again make Crime Insurance
history and another "first" by announcing
their now popular combination .Business and
Home policy. The news was a sensation in
Insurance circles. This was the first time the
merchant could buy a "package" Crime In-
surance policy covering both his business and
home for one low-cost premium payable on
the popular monthly payment plan.
In 1943 the limits were increased to four
$250,000 units or $1,000.00 of Crime Insurance
protection. The crime condition in the country
and the apparent need for larger amounts
of insurance created another historical step,
and the company increased the limits to $3,000.
Merchants could now buy any number of $250
Units of Crime coverage up to the new limits
of crime insurance.
At no time in its past or present operation
did the company and management stand still.
The goal of the company is to be first with the
best in Crime Insurance coverage, and they
continued to revise and streamline their poli-
cies and service. The company continued to
expand and its reputation grew and recogni-
tion as the leader in their field was definitely
an established and accepted fact.
In February 1948 another important step in
its history was accomplished. A stock company
was founded under the insurance laws of the
State of Illinois. As of March 30, 1948 the
entire business, including the assets and liabil-
ities of the Great Central Mutual Insurance
Company, a Mutual company, was reinsured
by the stock company. The Board of Directors
of Great Central Mutual Insurance Company
became the directorship of the Great Central
Insurance Company. The company continued
under the leadership of James S. Flanigon,
President; Elmo G. Kuecks, Vice President and
Secretary-Treasurer; Lester F. Carson, Vice
President; and Matthew W. Powers, Vice
President and Comptroller. The membership
of the Board of Directors is composed of lead-
ing business and professional men; Sylvan
Olson, Vice President, Commercial National
Bank; Rex G. Howard, President, Howard
Company; William Krieger, Certified Public
Accountant; W. James Patton, President, Jef-
ferson Trust & Savings Bank; Edward J.
Fahey, Vice President, Thomas T. North, Inc.;
G. Chapman Caldwell, Penn Mutual Insurance
Company; and Dr. A. J. Cichoke.
In addition to its home state of Illinois, the
company is also licensed to do business in
Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa,
Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Mis-
souri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma,
Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and
West Virginia.
Great Central's growth has been amazing
since its inception. The first year, 1938, Great
Central wrote Burglary and Hold-Up Crime
Insurance premiums of $32,068.00. In the
course of twelve years, premiums written in-
creased to $2,547,675.00 written during 1949.
In the twenty states in which great Central is
licensed to sell Crime Insurance protection,
they are usually the leaders in burglary and
hold-up premiums written compared to the
many other insurance companies writing a
similar line of insurance coverage. In its home
state, Illinois, Great Central has led all other
companies since 1945, and a similar pattern is
reflected in other states after the company has
been operating for a period of several years.
Since their modest beginning, leadership and
service to policyholders, ever-broadening Crime
Insurance policies, and most important, prompt
payment of claims, have been the foundation
and force that created Great Central's distinc-
tive recognition as America's leading and ex-
clusive Crime Insurance Specialists.
JAMES STEVEN FLANIGON
The only insurance company in the United
States which does an exclusive business in
the writing of holdup and burglary crime in-
surance is the Great Central Insurance Com-
pany with Home Offices at Peoria, of which
James Steven Flanigon is president. This com-
pany, with its extensive operations and rami-
fications in twenty states, has won a com-
manding position in the insurance world under
Mr. Flanigon's leadership. Mr. Flanigon, well
known not only in the insurance business, is
also prominent in civic circles, in the national
Chamber of Commerce movement and in
Catholic lay circles.
He was born at Urbana on May 28, 1905,
the son of James M. and Eva A. (Gallaher)
Flanigon. His father, a native of Cleveland,
Ohio, is a retired machinist. His mother is a
native of Montezuma, Indiana. The insurance
executive was educated in the elementary and
high schools of Peoria and for four years after
finishing his education worked for the Stand-
ard Oil Company in that city. In 1934 he went
into the protection insurance business, under
his own name. In 1937 he adopted as the name
of his present business Great Central Insur-
ance Company and he has since built it into
the great organization it is. He maintains
headquarters in the First National Bank
Building in Peoria and employs four hundred
ILLINOIS EDITION
627
eighty persons in an organization operating
in twenty states. His is absolutely the only
company in the nation which does an exclusive
business in holdup and burglary Crime Insur-
ance. He has himself become a leader in this
kind of insurance in the United States.
Mr. Flanigon married Beatrice S. Tinen,
daughter of James E. Tinen, who died in 1915,
and Jennie (Hogan) Tinen, who died in 1933,
the marriage taking place in Chicago on May
14, 1930. Mr. and Mrs. Flanigon are the par-
ents of three children all born in Peoria, 111.:
Nancy Jane, who was born on February 22,
1936; Kathleen Ann, Born on August 10, 1938,
and James Tinen Flanigon, born on August 17,
1941. The family home is at 208 Crestwood
Drive, Peoria, and the entire family worships
in the Catholic Church.
Mr. Flanigon is prominent at the St. Philo-
mena Church and served as the first president
of its Men's Club. He is a Fourth Degree mem-
ber of The Knights of Columbus and was for-
merly the Grand Knight of this organization.
He is also a member of the Alhambra Club,
the Peoria Advertising and Selling Club, the
Peoria Association of Commerce, the Illinois
Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber of Com-
merce of the United States, the Bradley
Booster Club, the Mount Hawley Country Club
and the Creve Coeur Club. Mr. Flanigon also
holds two honorary appointments. He was
made an honorary citizen of the City of New
Orleans by Mayor de Lesseps S. Morrison,
and was appointed an Admiral of the Great
Navy of the State of Nebraska by Governor
Val Peterson. Bowling and golf are his favor-
ite sports, while railroad trains are his hobby.
That he has aided the growth of business by
removing the great specter of fear from the
minds of innumerable business executives
must be easily recognized.
ALFRED EUGENE HUDSON
At Morton, Illinois, a major wholesale
market and retail shopping center for the
state's prosperous farm belt, a leading dis-
tributor of road building machinery is Alfred
Eugene Hudson. Mr. Hudson's company is A.
E. Hudson Company, Inc., with headquarters
Route 150, Morton, Illinois. The firm covers
fitly Illinois counties and maintains branches
at Rock Island and Springfield. Through his
business Mr. Hudson is one of those stimu-
lating the growth and continued success of
the state's road program.
Mr. Hudson was born at Saginaw, Michi-
gan, on June 10, 1895, the son of Alfred and
Mary Kli/.abeth (Doyle) Hudson. His father,
a native of Canada, was in the lumber busi-
ness at Saginaw. He died in 1939. The
mother, who was born in Saginaw, died in
1905. After completing his early education
in the Saginaw High School, A. E. Hudson
spent three semesters at Vanderbilt Universi-
ty, Nashville, Tennessee. He was in the rail-
road business one year and then for a year
and one-half was with the Rumley Company,
a machinery business, at Nashville. He moved
to Peoria in 1916 to become associated with
the Hart-Parr Company of Charles City, Iowa.
He remained with this company until 1920.
In 1921, he became a salesman for the Holt
Manufacturing Company in Peoria. Two
years later he resigned this position to be-
come first distributor in Illinois for Holt
Mfg. Company, operating under the name of
Blythe-Hudson Company, with Peoria as head-
quarters. In 1927, he took over the distributor-
ship for the Allis-Chalmers Company at
Peoria, and this activity he continued until
1934. In that year he organized the Illinois
Corrugated Culvert Company, and was its
president until 1941, when he became dis-
tributor for, among other companies, the
International Harvestor Company. He calls
his distributorship A. E. Hudson Company,
Inc., and he represents, besides International,
the Buckyrus Erie Company, Jaeger Machine
Company, J. D. Adams Company, Herd Com-
pany and Frank G. Hough Co. In the East
Peoria headquarters and in the Rock Island
and Springfield branches he employs an ag-
gregate of fifty-five persons.
Mr. Hudson married Mabel L. Bohanan of
Peoria on September 3, 1916. Mrs. Hudson
is the daughter of Dr. William E. Bohanan,
who was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, and prac-
ticed medicine in Peoria until his death, and
Lillian E. (Tobin ) Bohanan, a native of Chica-
go who survives her husband. Mr. and Mrs.
Hudson became the parents of Alfred W. Hud-
son, who was born on November 18, 1917, and
Betty Jean, who was born on May 20, 1920.
The son, who was with the United States
Army Air Force in World War II, was killed
in action on October 23, 1943. The daughter
is the wife of Warren J. Smith and the
mother of Susan Smith, born in 1947, and
Steven Smith, born in 1949. Mr. and Mrs.
Hudson reside at 301 N. Glenwood Avenue,
Peoria, Illinois.
Active in community life, Mr. Hudson is a
member of the Peoria Association of Com-
merce, the Illinois State Chamber of Com-
merce, the Knights of Columbus and the
Creve Coeur Club. He is also a member of
(528
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
ALFRED EUGENE HUDSON
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the American Equipment Distributors. For
sport he likes fishing. He is one of the modern
builders of Illinois.
REV. MARION W. ARTERBURN
Virtually all his life the Reverend Marion
W. Arterburn of Mattoon has devoted himself
to evangelistic work and though now engaged
principally in farming — he is one of the big
melon growers of Central Illinois — he is still
active in the religious world along with his
wife, the former Blanche Wanda Winn, who
has been his partner in the work for God all
through the years. Mr. Arterburn, who has
won a place of preeminence in the Christian
Church, is also interested in oil and mining
and in industrial enterprises, and to pro-
grams to stimulate musical and cultural in-
terest he has made a substantial contribution.
Mr. Arterburn was born at Grant, Ne-
braska, on December 1, 1887, the son of Edwin
and Lucy Ellen (Pinnell) Arterburn. His
father, a farmer in Western Nebraska and in
Illinois, was in his younger days an outstand-
ing athlete. He was an earnest Christian
throughout his seventy-two years. The Rev-
erend Mr. Arterburn had an older sister,
Lillie, and a younger brother, John, both of
whom died in early youth.
He was graduated from the Mattoon High
School and spent two years at the University
of Illinois. At high school and college he was
active in track and field athletics. He took a
Bible-music course in the Moody Bible Insti-
tute, Chicago. When he left Moody Institute
Mr. Arterburn went into religious work as a
Y. M. C. A. secretary in Army camps— Mac-
Arthur, near Waco, Texas, and Fort Bliss,
near El Paso.
After World War I, he and Mrs. Arter-
burn entered evangelistic work as song lead-
ers. They had been married at Grant, Ne-
braska, Mr. Arterburn's birthplace, on Aug-
ust 30, 1911. For eighteen years after the
war they were active in evangelism, spending
short summers on their present farm outside
Mattoon, where Mr. Arterburn's parents lived.
Since leaving the road, they have engaged in
general farming, but specializing in melon-
growing. Mr. Arterburn started this activity
as a hobby, but it grew into a business. Some
years he raises as many as 200 acres of
melons. The home place, consisting of eighty
acres, is located two miles south of Mattoon
on Lake Mattoon Road. It has been the Arter-
burn's headquarters and permanent home for
more than a half century. While Mr. Arter-
burn engages in his agricultural work, Mrs.
Arterburn is active as president of the Wom-
en's Christian Temperance Union of Mattoon,
as chairman of the deaconnesses of the First
Christian Church of Mattoon, teacher of the
Truth Seekers Bible Class and as pianist at
evangelistic evening services.
Meantime, in addition to his agricultural
pursuits Mr. Arterburn has worked on oil
and mining development projects, served a
year as director of the Clark Foundry of
Mattoon and is at present a director in the
Bryan Steam Corporation, builders of high
and low pressure boilers. Also, he is chairman
of the board of elders of the First Christian
Church, in which he is an ordained minister.
He is also vice president of the Civic Music
Association of Mattoon and a member of the
Optimist Club and the Chamber of Commerce.
In politics he is a Republican. Music remains
Mr. Arterburn's hobby. He still loves to lead
song services and to do some singing him-
self. Also, he is an enthusiast for "good clean
sports." With his wife Mr. Arterburn has
given distinguished service to mankind and
to God.
HON. CLYDE A. CARTER
In Southern Illinois and in five Southern
States the name of The Randolph Milling
Company of Ava, in Jackson County, and
Baldwin, in Randolph County, is associated
with exceptional service in the grain and
feed market. Since 1924 the Honorable Clyde
A. Carter of Ava has been president of this
concern, and he has seen it through periods of
great prosperity and through adversity, and
is currently guiding it through one of the
greatest periods of prosperity in its history.
He is nationally known in the milling business
and in Ava, where he has been a leading-
citizen most of his life, he has achieved such
standing as to be elected Mayor.
Mayor Carter was born at Baldwin on May
4, 1884, the son of George E. and Belle
(Holden) Carter. His father, also a miller,
was a native of New York State, his mother
of Illinois. After his graduation from the
Baldwin High School in 1901, Mr. Carter
spent a year each at two different business
schools in St. Louis. Then he worked a year
for a wholesale grocery concern in that city
and for another year in the sales office of
the American Radiator Company there.
In 1905 his father gave him some stock
and made him secretary of the Randolph Mill-
ing Company, Inc., the plant and home office
of which was then in Baldwin. In 1915, Clyde
Carter became secretary and treasurer of the
ILLINOIS EDITION
i;:;:;
company and in 1924, following his father's
death, president. In 1931 the mill at Baldwin
burned down, and the company's operations
were moved to Ava. For a year' Mr. Carter
and his associates leased a mill in that city,
then bought it. Ava continues the seat of the
company's main operations, but an elevator
and feed mill have replaced the old original
plant at Baldwin. The company manufactures
soft and hard wheat flour and commercial
feeds, and buys grain. Its trade area com-
prises Southern Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee,
Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. A total of
thirty persons is employed at Ava and Bald-
win.
Mayor Carter married Cordia Linders, the
daughter of Ernest and Dora Linders of
Baldwin, in that village on November 30,
1906. They have a daughter and son — Mrs.
Melba Dean, the mother of Shirley, now Mrs.
Paul Guider, and C. Arlin Carter, now
treasurer of the Randolph Milling Company,
who is also married and is the father of
Carol, James and Thomas Carter. The family
worships in the Centenary Methodist Church
of Murphysboro, in which Mr. Carter is presi-
dent of the official board.
A Republican who throughout his adult
life has been active in political and public
affairs, Mr. Carter was elected Mayor of
Ava in 1937 and repeatedly re-elected. In
this period he has installed a water works,
improved the street system and in other
ways furthered the development of this city
of 300. In his business field he has twice
been president of the Southern Illinois Millers
Association and is also a director of the
Millers National Federation, headquartered
in Chicago. He is a Mason. His public office,
his business and his church and other activ-
ities have been the means through which he
has given extraordinary public service.
ROGER Q. KIMMEL
"I like the insurance and real estate busi-
ness— I like the contacts that it permits me
to make, and I like the protection and service
that it permits me to give to my friends . . ."
So Roger Q. Kimmel of Murphysboro wrote
in an article in a national trade magazine,
The Local Agent. The point of view expressed
in these words suggests why Mr. Kimmel's
one man agency, "built from the ground up
without absorbing other agencies," has been
so successful. Another explanation lies in
his civic service that carried him "from three
years as president of the Murphysboro Cham-
ber of Commerce to frying pancakes at a
Lion's Club pancake fry."
Mr. Kimmel was born at Elkville, Jackson
County, Illinois, on March 27, 1890, the son
of Edward E. and Susan R. Kimmel. His
father, who was also a native of Elkville, was
a farmer and president of the Elkville State
Bank. Roger Q. Kimmel was educated in the
public schools of Elkville and at Brown's Busi-
ness College of Centralia, Illinois, which he
attended one year. In 1910 he became cashier
of the Elkville State Bank, and this post he
held for sixteen years. In that period he was
active and prominent in bankers association
work. In January 1926 he assumed the office
of executive vice president of both the First
National Bank of Murphysboro and the Mur-
physboro Savings Bank, later assuming the
duties of cashier, too. These he resigned on
March 1, 1930 — "just before the biggest mess
of 'busting' that the country had ever known"
— and two months later entered the real
estate and insurance business at his present
address, 1325 Walnut Street, Murphysboro.
Mr. Kimmel was very active in real estate
circles for several years thereafter, serving
as secretary of the Jackson County Real
Estate Board 1937-38, president of Egyptian
Real Estate Board 1941-42, member of Ethics
Committee of the Illinois Association of Real
Estate Boards 1938-39, secretary of the asso-
ciation 1942-43, and vice president in 1944-45.
On October 25, 1911, Mr. Kimmel married
Meta B., thp daughter of Frank G. and Kate
B. Procunier of the Desoto area. A daughter.
Ellouise Kate was born to the marriage or.
January 1, 1913. She married Theodore C.
Saylor of Joliet, is the mother of Teddy Kimmel
and Susan Kate Saylor, and resides in Murphys-
boro.
When Mr. Kimmel served as president of
the Chamber of Commerce in the years 1935
to 1938, an industrial agent for the GMO Rail-
road said he was the most active chamber
president along the line, and this his fellow
citizens at Murphysboro echoed. He continued-
his community and regional promotion not
only through the chamber but through South-
ern Illinois Incorporated, a regional civic
organization, which he helped to organize in
1940 and on whose charter his name appears.
He served this organization as director for
several years and as its treasurer for three
years. In both World Wars I and II he headed
bond and other war-related drives. He was
the first drive chairman of the Jackson County
USO in World War II and he was also chair-
man of the Murphysboro Township Red Cross
634
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
HON. CLYDE A. CARTER
ROGER Q. KIMMEL
War Drives the following three years. Mr.
Kimmel has been a member of the Jackson
County Public Aid Advisory Committee since
it was organized in 1942 and has been its
chairman for the past six years, and has
been chairman of the local Salvation Army
Advisory Board for nearly twenty years. Be-
sides his pancake frying he has otherwise
been active in the Lion's Club. He is a mem-
ber of the Fraternal Order of Eagles and of
the masonic bodies, including the Mississippi
Valley Consistory of the Scottish Rite and
Ainad Temple Shrine, both in East St. Louis.
He is an authority on local early history of
Jackson County, especially of Brownsville, the
first county seat of the county. Mr. Kimmel
is a member of the Southern Illinois Historical
Society and the Illinois Historical Society. "I
like to think that men can be big enough
to serve their communities without selfish and
personal motives — without expecting reward
at the expense of their communities," he says.
And he has himself been "big enough."
Mr. Kimmel's hobby besides "just people"
is the gathering of old documents, papers and
historical items, and he has more than five
hundred of them — one of the largest and most
interesting private collections in Southern
Illinois. The collection consists of more than
150 newspapers published from 1813 to 1865,
an English parchment deed made in 1597 and
one in 1629 are among the older documents,
a highly illustrated German school book pub-
lished in 1618, a bill of sale for three slaves
sold in New Orleans for $2700.00 in 1851, an
old letter from a captain to a major telling
about an indian battle in the Blackhawk War,
these with several letters telling about the
hardships of the Pikes Peak Gold Rush of
1859, and many other papers make up a col-
lection that telling in their own words of the
life of some forgotten person or persons who
trod this life in the days now gone. "To me
possession of rare, old and interesting items
bring a lot of enjoyment — and I like to display
them to my friends and to the many others
who are interested in such things — it makes
life just a little more worthwhile — and that is
what all of us should be striving for."
The Kimmel family was among the earliest
settlers in Jackson County and was a very
large one.
HON. KARL R. OHAIR
A pioneer in the automobile business, tha
Honorable Karl R. O'Hair of Paris, seat of
Edgar County, is today the owner of that
city's largest automobile business — a com-
bined Chevrolet and Cadillac sales and serv-
ice agency. He is also the owner of a Canada
Dry bottling business which, with headquarters
at Terre Haute, Indiana, serves ten Illinois
Counties. Mr. O'Hair has served his native
state not only as a business man but as a
legislator, board of education official and
civic and welfare leader.
Born in Paris on January 9, 1887, he is
the son of Herschel B. and Lizzie L. (Mires)
O'Hair. His father, born on a farm seven miles
north of Charleston on September 11, 1862,
was the operator of a chain of oil products
bulk plants and of gasoline filling stations,
with Paris as his headquarters. He donated
the funds with which the Paris Park Board
developed Sunrise Park, a playground for
children, and he built and leased to the State
of Illinois the structure used as a State Arm-
ory in Paris and was a member of the building
and finance committees which built the Hotel
France and the Elks Club building in Paris.
Karl O'Hair's mother was born at Danville on
May 7, 1860, the daughter of John W. and
Sarah E. Mires, early settlers of that city.
Her father was one of a group that organized
the Republican Party in Vermillion and was
a close friend of Abraham Lincoln. He was
one of the organizers of the first Masonic
lodge in Danville and served as a supervisor
and in other public offices.
Educated in Paris public schools, Morgan
Park Academy and the Bryant and Stratton
School of Commerce of Chicago, Karl R.
O'Hair entered the automobile business in
Chicago. He worked for a sales and service
agency there. At the age of twenty-four he
was back in Paris and starting an automobile
business of his own. He established a Stude-
baker agency at that time. Three years later
he took the agency for the Dodge automobile,
which had just been introduced. The business
grew, and his sales in Edgar County were sec-
ond only to the Ford sales. In 1924, Mr.
O'Hair sold his automobile business and
opened an automobile sales finance company.
In 1931, he purchased the Chevrolet agency
and made it the largest business in its field
at Paris. The Cadillac agency was added in
1949. The business is managed today by Rob-
ei*t L. Gumm, Mr. O'Hair's son-in-law. In
1948, Mr. O'Hair and his son, Richard C.
O'Hair, obtained the franchise to bottle Can-
ada Dry carbonated beverages for ten Indi-
ana and Illinois counties. They built a modern
bottling plant at Terre Haute, now managed
by the son. Karl O'Hair is also a director of
ILLINOIS EDITION
639
the First Federal Savings and Loan Associa-
tion of Paris.
On June 18, 1912, at Danville, Mr. O'Hair
married Myrle L. Lycan, daughter of J. V.
and Ella Lycan, two of whose great-grand-
fathers fought in the Revolutionary War and
both of whose grandfathers were among early
settlers in Edgar County. Mrs. O'Hair is a
member of the Daughters of the American
Revolution and of the First Methodist Church
of Paris, a church of which Mr. O'Hair is a
former board member. There are two children
— Richard C. O'Hair and Martha R. now Mrs.
Robert L. Gumm. Both children are graduates
of the University of Illinois. The son served
as a first lieutenant in World War II, re-
ceiving the Purple Heart for wounds received
in combat. He married Ruth E. Larson and is
the father of Richard F. and Stephen K.
O'Hair. Mrs. Gumm also has two children,
Richard Z. and Nancy Jane Gumm.
Mr. O'Hair, the progenitor of whose family
in America, Michael O'Hair, came to America
in 1775 from Ireland and also served in the
Continental Army, has served the nation in
many ways of his own. He is a former mem-
ber of the board of education of the Paris
Union School District having served since 1924.
He was secretary of this board nineteen years
and president three years. He is also on the Paris
Park Board. He; served twelve terms as a direc-
tor of the Paris Chamber of Commerce and three
terms as its president. Active in Boy Scout
work for several years, he was chairman of
the Boy Scout Council. Also he was exalted
ruler of the Elks Lodge and a trustee for two
terms. Other of his organizations are the
Paris Community Chest, where he is also a
former board member; the Masonic Blue
Lodge and Danville Consistory of the Scottish
Rite, the Rotary Club of Paris. In World War
II, he was chairman of War Bond Sales Drives
in Paris and was also active in drives for
Army Service Funds. He holds the U. S.
Treasury Department Silver Award. His lead-
ership extends also to the Edgar County Re-
publican Central Committee, of which he was
chairman two terms. He was a delegate to the
Republican National Convention at Philadel-
phia in 1940. As can be seen, Mr. O'Hair has
served his neighbors in Paris and Edgar Coun-
ty in virtually every conceivable fashion.
WADE FETZER
The story of Wade Fetzer of Chicago and
Hinsdale is the story of a Middle Westerner
who began his career in a humble fashion, lost
his health and fought a battle against extreme
odds to win not only a long life, which con-
tinues, but also tremendous success in the in-
surance world. Not only has this outstanding
citizen made a contribution to the business
and industrial world and to the protection of
employed men and women against the eco-
nomic hazards of accidents but he has given
leadership to the development of higher edu-
cation and to banking. His name is indelibly
associated with the growth and prestige of
what is known as the America Fore group of
fire insurance companies.
Mr. Fetzer was born in Ottumwa, Iowa, on
November 22, 18 79, the son of William Henry
Harrison and Henrietta (Clark) Fetzer. His
father, a native of Clarion, Pennsylvania, was
a soldier in the Civil War, in which he was
wounded. After the war he married and
moved to Ottumwa. Wade Fetzer attended
the elementary and high schools of Ottumwa,
but left high school after three years to go
to Chicago to fill a job obtained for him by
his older brother. This was as bookkeeper
and general clerk in the small insurance of-
fice of W. A. Alexander. Subsequently, he ad-
ded to his education by night school attend-
ance and home study. In time he became
cashier for Mr. Alexander, but his health col-
lapsed as a result of overwork and he con-
tracted a slight case of tuberculosis. To re-
cover his health, he went to Colorado, taking
a leave cf absence from his job. In less than
a year he was back with W. A. Alexander
and Company. Desiring less confining em-
ployment, he asked to be assigned to the task
of developing business for the Fidelity and
Casualty Company, for which the Alexander
firm was agent, in the downstate parts of the
State of Illinois. Within two years Mr. Fetzer
had achieved extraordinary success in that ef-
fort. He was recalled to Chicago to become
managing partner — this when he was only
2 4 years old! As chief executive of the com-
pany, either as managing partner or later as
president, he continued to build one of the
country's great insurance agencies. In 19 40
he chose to relinquish active management re-
sponsibilities and became chairman of the
board of W. A. Alexander and Company. In
1930, shortly after Fidelity and Casualty
Company had been bought by the America
Fore group, he was drafted by that organiza-
tion to assume the presidency and to carry
out a program of revitalizing Fidelity and
Casualty Company. After two years, he re-
linquished the presidency and became Vice
chairman and a director. Three years after
that, Mr. Fetzer relinquished the vice chair-
640
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
HON. KARL R. O'HAIR
WADE FETZER, JR.
manship, out he has since continued as a di-
rector of Fidelity and Casualty and its parent
company, Continental Insurance Company of
New York. His has become a renowned name
in the insurance world.
On June 11, 1901, at Ottumwa, Mr. Fetzer
married Margaret Spilman, the daughter of
Major Thomas Percival and Amanda (Ran-
dall) Spilman. They are the parents of four
children - John Clark Fetzer, born May 2 0,
1902, who married Dorothy Suddard and is
the father of Dorothy Patricia and Thomas
Wade Fetzer; Wade Fetzer, Jr., born Decem-
ber 3, 1903, who married Florence Otis and
is the father of Nancy, Wade, III, and Peter
Otis Fetzer; Margaret, born November «,
1906, now the wife of John H. Sherman and
mother cf Margaret, John H., Jr., and Mary
Virginia Sherman; and Mary Jane Fetzer,
born July 20, 1929, now the wife of Calvin
Bryant. The senior Mr. and Mrs. Wade Fetzer
reside at 737 South Elm Street, Hinsdale in
summer, and 634 7 North Bay Rd., Miami
Beech, Florida in wintertime.
Mr. Fetzer holds or has held various honors
in the insurance business and in other fields
of interest. In the early days of Workmen's
compensation laws, he founded and was for
several years president of the National As-
sociation of Casualty and Surety Agents. He
serves as a member of the boards of trustees
of Norrhwestern University and Beloit Col-
lege and :s a trustee of the Union Church of
Hinsdale, in which his wife is also active. In
addition, Mr. Fetzer is a director of the La-
Salle National Bank of Chicago and the Hins-
dale Trust and Savings Bank of Hinsdale. He
is a member of the Chicago Club, Chicago
Athletic Association, Union League Club, At-
tic Club, all of Chicago; the Bankers' Club
of New York, and the Hinsdale Golf Club. He
votes Republican and golf is his favorite game.
Now in tae eighth decade of his life, Wade
Fetzer continues to aid in every way he can,
and with great skill and wisdom, all the
movements, business, cultural and otherwise,
which he believes will forward the general
welfare.
WADE FETZER, JR.
W. A. Alexander and Company of Chicago
is one of the nation's largest and best known
general insurance agencies and Wade Fetzer,
Jr., its president, is one of the men who has
guided it to that foremost position. Mr. Fet-
zer, who is a Chartered Life Underwriter,
himself has a national reputation among in-
surance men and has held offices of great
importance in their organizations. In addi-
tion, he is well known in philanthropic organ-
izations in Chicago and in the educational
world.
Mr. Fetzer was born at Hinsdale on De-
cember 3, 1903, the son of Wade and Mar-
garet (Spilman) Fetzer, both natives of Ot-
tumwa, Iowa. His father was also in the in-
surance business. Wade Fetzer, Jr., received
his early education in the public schools of
Hinsdale and at the Asheville School, Ashe-
ville, North Carolina. He spent one year at
Haverford College and then completed his
education at Northwestern University, where
he took the degree of Bachelor of Science in
Commerce in 1925. He was prominent in
campus activities, such as the dance orchestra
and fraternity affairs. He was president of
Phi Kappa Psi (Northwestern chapter) and
of the Interfraternity Council. In September,
1925, he began as a life insm-ance salesman.
He became supervisor, then associate man-
ager of the life insurance department, then
office manager, then assistant to the presi-
dent, then vice-president and finally, on Jan-
uary 1, 1944, president of W. A. Alexander
and Company. In 1930, the year he was pro-
moted to associate manager of the life in-
surance department, he was made a Chartered
Life Underwriter. In the years Mr. Fetzer has
held executive positions the business of his
firm has quadrupled and since he became
president it has doubled and become nation-
ally known.
On February 3, 1934, in Chicago, Mr. Fet-
zer married Florence Otis, daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. Ralph C. Otis, members of an old
pioneer Chicago family. Mrs. Fetzer is prom-
inent in the Junior League of Chicago, and
has served on the Junior Board of the Infant
Welfare Society of Winnetka. She is a for-
mer member of the Chicago Service Club.
There are three children — Nancy Seeley Fet-
zer, Wade Fetzer, III, and Peter Otis Fetzer.
The family home is at 687 Blackthorn Road,
Winnetka, and the family church is the Win-
netka Congregational.
Mr. Fetzer is a trustee of the American
Institute for Property and Liability Insurance
and the Insurance Institute of America and a
leader in the National Association of In-
surance Agents. In 1939-41 he was on the
executive committee of the national associa-
tion; in 1942-43 he was chairman of public
relations. In 1943 he was the recipient of
the Woodworth Memorial Award of the Na-
tional Association. This is awarded to the
insurance agent deemed to have contributed
ILLINOIS
EDITION
G45
most to the business, and Mr. Fetzer received
it for leadership in public relations and edu-
cational movements in insurance. He is chair-
man of the Chicago Chapter, American Red
Cross, and in 1947 was chairman of its fund
campaign. He has also held various high posts
in the Chicago Community Fund and is a di-
rector of Junior Achievement of Chicago and
a former trustee of the Asheville School. In
1940, Mr. Fetzer was a co-founder of the
Chicago Business Men's Committee — of which
he was first vice-chairman and then chairman
— a movement to interest young business men
in Government through active precinct work
aimed at reducing vote fraud in congested
"river wai'ds." He is a member of the Chi-
cago, Commercial, Economic, Commonwealth,
Attic and Racquet Clubs of Chicago; the
Glenview Golf Club; Chicago Curling Club;
and the Biltmore Forrest Club of Asheville.
Curling, golf, and music are his major en-
thusiasms. As the record shows, he has made
a tremendous contribution to American life.
LOUIS EDWARD WOLLRAB
For more than four decades Louis Edward
Wollrab of Bloomington has been active in
and given leadership to the profession of fu-
neral director. Associated with the firm of
John A. Beck Company, funeral directors
and opei'ators of the Beck Memorial Home
in Bloomington, since 1908, Mr. Wollrab is
at present president of that organization. He
has helped build it into an institution known
throughout Central Illinois, with affiliations
extending over the entire United States. A
man of tremendous energy and community
interest, Mr. Wollrab has been active in civic
affairs throughout his business and profes-
sional career in his native city.
He was born on September 12, 1890, in
Bloomington, the son of Louis and Emma
(Schmidt) Wollrab. His father, a native of
Germany who came to the United States at
a young age and was associated with the
Atlas Company of Bloomington for many
years, died in 1935. His mother, a native
of Bloomington also, died on April 6, 1941.
The funeral director was educated in elemen-
tary and high schools at Bloomington and in
an embalming school in Chicago. For two
years he worked for Frederick and Mason,
the Bloomington abstract firm. Then, in 1908,
when he was eighteen years old, he joined the
staff of the John A. Beck Company. Within
four years he was elected secretary and treas-
urer of the firm and in 1928 assumed the
presidency The John A. Beck Company is
one of the oldest funeral homes in Bloom-
ington. In its operations it employs fifteen
persons and is called on by individuals and
organizations for its services in all parts of
the nation. Along with the reputation of the
firm has gone the name of Mr. Wollrab.
On May 31, 1919, at Bloomington, Mr.
Wollrab married Mabel R. Beeler, also born
in that community and the daughter of War-
ren Beeler, a millwright, and Mary (Scheron)
Beeler. Both of Mrs. Wollrab's parents, who
were natives of Twin Grove, Illinois, are now
deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Wollrab are the par-
ents of two sons — Warren Louis Wollrab, who
was born on October 14, 1927, and Dale Edi-
son Wollrab, who was born on March 25,
1929. The family worships in the First Chris-
tian Church of Bloomington. Mr. Wollrab's
address is 104 West Division Street, Bloom-
ington.
Mr. Wollrab is a member of the National
Selected Morticians, whose headquarters are
in Chicago; of the Bloomington Association
of Commerce, the Kiwanis Club of Blooming-
ton; the Bloomington Post of the American
Legion (he served in World War I) ; and the
Bloomington Lodges, Ancient Free and Ac-
cepted Masons, Loyal Order of Moose, Knights
of Pythias and Independent Order of Odd
Fellows. All forms of athletics, including
golf, are his means of relaxation. He is an
outstanding citizen of Bloomington and the
entire Central Illinois region
KENT H. MORGAN
Today a successful business man and farm-
er and a civic leader, Kent H. Moi'gan of
Casey, in Clark County, may look back at
an adventurous life which included such ac-
tivities as working as a railroad telegraph
operator and an engine airbrake inspector
for the Pennsylvania Railroad in Indianapolis,
Indiana. Founder of the Morgan Self-Serve
Market at 20 South Central Street, Casey, he
is today half owner of that enterprise, as
well as the operator of a 250-acre farm on
which he specializes in livestock. He is a
church leader and an ardent worker on be-
half of the schools in Clark County.
Mr. Morgan was born at Greenup, in ad-
joining Cumberland County, on July 8, 1893,
the son of Park C. and Allie (Money) Mor-
gan. His father, a native of Toledo, the
seat of Cumberland County, was a harness
maker who was active in civic and Masonic
projects. Mr. Morgan was educated in Green-
up's grade and high schools, then under the
superintendency of Dean Thompson, a close
646
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
LOUIS EDWARD WOLLRAH
i
KENT H. MORGAN
friend of his father's and later dean of men
at the University of Illinois. After completing
his education, Kent Morgan worked as a tel-
egraph operator in Casey for the Pennsyl-
vania Railroad.
On September 14, 1916, in Casey, he mar-
ried Carrie Myrna Moore, the daughter of
Sarah Catherine and Joseph Barker Moore.
After the marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Morgan
moved to Indianapolis, where they made their
home for five years and where Mr. Morgan
worked as airbrake inspector for the Penn-
sylvania Railroad. Mi\ and Mrs. Morgan have
one son, Joseph Kent Morgan, who was born
in Casey on February 2, 1927. He spent two
years in the Navy in World War II and then
studied at the University of Illinois, where
he took a degree in petroleum geology and
then went on as a candidate for the mas-
ter's degree in the Wyoming University at
Laramie, Wyoming. Young Mr. Morgan mar-
ried Madge Berkey of Belleville, Illinois, on
June 5, 1949. Mrs. Kent H. Morgan is one
of Casey's most active women. She is a
member of the Casey Methodist Church choir,
the Order of the Eastern Star, the White
Shrine, the Nierht Owl Club, the Casey Infor-
mal Club, the Women's Federated Club, the
I. F. F. Club and the Friday Afternoon Club.
The Morgans returned to Casey in 1920 so
that Mr. Morgan could go into business with
Mrs. Morgan's brother, C. L. Moore. This was
a retail grocery and meat business. In 1929,
Mr. Morgan became sole owner of the busi-
ness, but the following year Mr. Moore re-
turned to the partnership. In 1933, the part-
nership was again dissolved. Eight years later
Mr. Morgan added to the enterprise by build-
ing a frozen food locker plant with 400 lock-
ers. In 1944, he sold out the store and locker
plant to Ira Brosman, but in 1945 he bought
the building at 20 South Central and reestab-
lished himself in business. This was the self-
serve store. In 1947, he sold half interest
in the store to Richard Lacey, but continues
active in its operation. His farm also holds his
attention.
Mr. Morgan is on the official board of the
Methodist Church. He has also served on its
finance and building committees. He is on
the boards of education for both the grade
school and high school systems and is a direc-
tor of the Casey Chamber of Commerce. He
is, in addition, a Mason and Rotarian. He is
a Republican. His hobbies and recreations
include agriculture, stock raising, travel and
hunting. At Casey he is hailed as a progres-
sive citizen actively interested in the growth
of the community and surrounding agricul-
tural area.
FRED REIFSTECK
Famed brands of beers and other beverages
stream in large quantities daily from the
Champaign plant of Fred Reifsteck, one of
the largest distributors of such drinks in Cen-
tral Illinois. He is also a farmer and live-
stock breeder and a prominent figure in the
Democratic organization of Champaign County.
Mr. Reifsteck was born on the family /arm
in Champaign county on September 27, 1895.
His father is Louis Reifsteck and his mother
was the late Louise (Zollin) Reifsteck. His
father, a native of Berlin, Germany, migrated
to the United States in his early youth and
settled in Champaign county, where he was
a farmer for many years, finally moving to
Shelby county. In 1949 he celebrated his
eighty-sixth birthday, and his ability to con-
tinue looking after his large farming property
is notable. Louise Zollin Reifsteck, also a
native of Germany, died in Shelby county,
Illinois, in 1946.
Fred Reifsteck was educated in the public
schools of Champaign and Shelby counties.
He left school at an early age to work on his
father's farm, but he has never found the
meagerness of his formal education a handi-
cap to his business success. In any event he
has learned so much in various ways as to be
deserving of the description, "educated man."
He has never given up farming, but has
tried and succeeded at various urban business
activities.
For sixteen years Mr. Reifsteck was en-
gaged in the oil business as a representative
of the Mid-Continent Oil Company. Also, he
was a salesman and agent for the Deep Rock
Oil Company for eight years. In 1936, he be-
came a distributor for beers and other bever-
ages in Champaign and Champaign County,
and he now has a large and buzzing plant at
116-118 North Oak Street, in Champaign. He
does business under the name of Fred Reif-
steck, Distributor, and he handles such popu-
lar brands as Miller's High Life, Famous
Berghoff, Fox de Luxe, Schmidt's City Club
and others. He also distributes Canada Dry
beverages.
Mr. Reifsteck's first wife was the former
Saide Hemmeberger and to this marriage
three children, Louis, Catherine Lucile, and
Grace Irene Reifsteck were born. Louis Reif-
steck is in the distributing business in Dan-
ville. Catherine Lucile Reifsteck married Earl
ILLINOIS EDITION
651
Fielder and they are the parents of Marcella
Kay, Marvin Richard and James Francis
Fielder. Grace Irene Reifsteck married Walter
Kepner and they are the parents of Ronald,
Sharon Jean, Claudia Rose and Andrew Kep-
ner. Sharon Jean and Claudia Rose are twins.
Mr. Fred Reifsteck's second marriage was to
Hilda Marie Gerth, and they have become
the parents of two sons — Fred J., and Wal-
lace William Reifsteck. Mr. and Mrs. Reif-
steck reside at 503 Elm Street, Champaign.
Mr. Reifsteck is a member of the St. Peter's
Reformed Church of Champaign, the Cham-
paign Chamber of Commerce, the Champaign
Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order
of Elks and the Loyal Order of Moose and
the Democratic Party. Prominent in politics
and public affairs, he was a candidate for
Sheriff of Champaign county in 1946. As a
further contribution to development and gene-
ral economy, Mr. Reifsteck breeds Hampshire
hogs on his farm. He is a popular citizen of
his county.
CARL H. BAUMGART
The Baumgart Lumber and Coal Company
of Bloomington, born in World War II, has
served the community, and state effectively
and with mounting success since that time,
under the leadership of Carl Herman Baum-
gart, one of its founders and partners. Be-
sides his prominence in the lumber, building
materials and fuel industry, Mr. Baumgart
has achieved a reputation in civic and agri-
cultural affairs.
He was born in Bloomington on April 18,
1890, and is the son of the late William C. H.
and Amelia (Brohm) Baumgart. His father,
also a native of Bloomington, was a crane
operator in the shops of The Alton Railroad
in that city. Amelia Baumgart, born in Ger-
many, died in Bloomington in 1942. Carl
Baumgart, educated in Bloomington's ele-
mentary and high schools, served as a book-
keeper for a Decatur concern for five years.
In 1915 he returned to Bloomington to be-
come associated with the West Side Coal and
Lumber Company. Five years later he was
promoted to manager of this business, and
this office he held until in 194 2 he resigned
to participate in the organization of his own
enterprise. The Baumgart Lumber and Coal
Company was established then, as a partner-
ship. Since that time their two sons, William
K. and Phillip E. Baumgart and Lester W.
Donnon have been taken into the partner-
ship. This retail business in lumber, building
materials and coal operates in the Blooming-
ton trade area and employs fifteen persons.
On April 15, 1920, at Decatur, Mr. Baum-
gart married Ruth L. Burk, a native of that
city who is the daughter of Karl and Kath-
erine Burk, both of whom were born in Ger-
many. Mrs. Baumgart's father, who was a
butcher, died in 1944. Mrs. Burk is also de-
ceased. Mr. and Mrs. Baumgart have two
children — William K. Baumgart, who was
born on April 4, 192 5, and who married
Susan Stafford. They have two children:
Thomas and Jacqueline, and Phillip E. Baum-
gart, who was born on April 17, 1929, and
who married Nancy Izatt. They have one
child: Rebecca Sue, born November 2 9, 1949.
Mr. and Mrs. Carl H. Baumgart maintain their
residence at 200^ East Jackson Avenue,
Bloomington. Both worship in the Methodist
Church.
Mr. Baumgart is a member of the Bloom-
ington Association of Commerce, Arts and
Crafts Lodge, A.F.&A.M. and Bloomington
Consistory, the Kiwanis Club of Bloomington,
the American Legion (he served with the
armed forces in World War I) and the Mc-
Lean County Farm Bureau. Fishing is his
favorite recreation. Mr. Baumgart is counted
among McLean County's outstanding citizens.
OTTO WILLIAM HENRY WAHLFELD
In the wholesale millwork and building
supply and retail lumber business in central
Illinois, few names are better known than
that of Otto Wahlfeld of Peoria. In that field
of business since 1906, Mr. Wahlfeld is presi-
dent of the Wahlfeld Manufacturing Com-
pany, with headquarters, plant and yards at
1101 South Washington Street, Peoria. He is
one of the leaders in the state in lumber and
allied industries.
Mr. Wahlfeld was born in Peoria on De-
cember 11th, 1887. His father August H.
Wahlfeld, a native of Germany established
the Wahlfeld Manufacturing Company in
18 91. He died in 1935. The mother, Anna
Wahlfeld also a native of Germany, died in
1901. Both parents took an active part in the
community and social life of Peoria.
Otto Wahlfeld was educated in the ele-
mentary and high schools of Peoria, at the
University of Illinois, where he spent six
months and at Brown's Business College in
Peoria. At the age of nineteen, in 1906, he
was taken into the Wahlfeld Manufacturing
Company and learned the business under his
father's direction. In 1919 he became vice
president of the company, and in 1935, after
652
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
FRED REIFSTECK
OTTO WILLIAM HENRY WAHLFELD
his father's death, he assumed his present
duties as president. The company does a
large business in wholesale mill work, sash
and doors. They are also jobbers of building
supplies. All Illinois is its territory. They em-
ploy 170 people.
Mr. Wah It eld married Frieda Wallner, of
Peoria, Illinois, Sept. 25, 1909. They became
the parents of two children: James A. Wahl-
feld, who was born November 9, 1910, and is
the present vice president of the company and
married to Dorothy Parker of Peoria, and
they are the parents of Teddy Wahlfeld. The
next son, Willis O. Wahlfeld, was born on
March 15, 1915, and is Secretary and treas-
urer of the company. He married Virginia
Mitchner of Burlingame California, and they
are the parents of John Wahlfeld. The mother
of James and Willis Wahlfeld died in 1922.
Mr. Wahlfeld later married Elizabeth Meek
of I'eoria on Feb. 26, 1926. She is the daugh-
ter of the late Louis F. Meek, who was an at-
torney and former Postmaster of Peoria, and
Ethel (Perry) Meek, a native of Columbus,
Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Wahlfeld reside at
High Point, Peoria, Illinois.
Known in the lumber industry throughout
the state, Mr. Wahlfeld has served as presi-
dent of the Illinois Retail Lumber Dealers
Association, and is a former president of the
Peoria Manufacturers Association, and office
he held in 1948-50. He is a member of the
Peoria Association of Commerce, the Rotary
Club of Peoria, The Masonic Order, the Creve
Coeur Club, the Peoria Country Club. His
activities have done much to promote pros-
perity in Illinois.
CLARENCE EASTLAKE SNELL
"The close friends and hundreds of busi-
ness associates of Clarence Eastlake Snell af-
fectionately call him 'Hap', but in his case this
nickname refers not merely to his sunny dis-
position but also to his optimistic outlook on
life and on work. He works with a sense of
purpose and with a sense of devotion to a
cause seldom seen these days and derives
from his work more genuine pleasure than
most people who seek happiness directly ever
find." So a friend has written of this prom-
inent Chicago and Glencoe citizen who is vice
president in charge of sales of F. E. Compton
and Company.
Mr. Snell was born in Chicago on April 2 6,
1897. His parents are William George and
Margaret J. (McElroy) Snell. His father, who
was born in England in 1870 and who came
to the United States at an early age, has been
with the Springfield Fire and Marine Com-
pany sine*- 1885 and is still working. Clar-
ence SneU attended Oak Park High School
from 1910 to 1914. In 1918 he took the de-
gree of Eachelor of Arts in Business Admin-
istration at the University of Illinois. Promi-
nent as a student at the university, he was
business manager of the Glee Club and was
elected to Chi Phi and Scabbard and Blade,
social and military fraternities, respectively.
Mr. Snell began his career in the sales pro-
motion department of the Advance-Rumley
Company at LaPorte, Indiana. From this
organization he went to Hobart M. Cable
Company, also at LaPorte, as sales manager.
In 192 8 he was made sales promotion man-
ager of F. E. Compton and Company, with
headquarters at 1000 North Dearborn Street,
Chicago. In 1936 he was promoted to his
present office, that of vice president in charge
of sales, and he has risen in importance in
this field of business throughout the nation,
making the hundreds of friends mentioned by
(he Chicagoan quoted at the beginning of this
biography.
On February 11, 1908, at Joplin, Missouri,
Mr. Snell married Ruth Meloy, daughter of
Ozra P. and Edith Meloy. They reside at 661
Bluff Street, Glencoe, where both have be-
come prominent and popular. Mrs. Snell is
especially active in school programs. Mr. and
Mrs. Snell have two daughters and two sons
—Helen Wight Snell, Natalie Ruth Snell,
John Eastlake Snell and Thomas Andrew
Snell. The family worships in the Glencoe
Union Church.
Mr. Snell, who has always taken a great
deal of interest in problems relating to school-
ing, served for six years as president of the
Board of Education, Glencoe Public Schools.
He is a member of the Skokie Country Club.
He is independent in politics and fishing is
his favorite sport. In World War I, he served
with the rank of Second Lieutenant in the
803rd Pioneer Infantry, and saw action in
France, especially in the Meuse-Argonne.
Said his friend of him further: "it is quite
literally true that his work is a source of
great joy to him and that he is never so truly
happy as when he has done any part of that
work well. In fact, so big was the task which
Mr. Snell set for himself in his company that
he has deliberately shunned the usual, type
of participation in club and community af-
fairs. The one exception he has allowed him-
self has been his work as president of the
board oil education in Glencoe. Here was a
big job which needed to be done and a chance
ILLINOIS
EDITION
657
to work out some of the ideas about educa-
tion which had come to him in the course of
his work with the Compton Company. He un-
dertook this school board task with the same
sense of devotion and the same sense of joy
in doing bard things well that has found ex-
pression in his vocation, and he has won wide
attention for raising teacher salaries, select-
ing and training high-type teachers and for
getting the entire community solidly back of
the work of the schools." Such is the caliber
of Clarence Eastlake Snell.
VICTOR JAMES MUELLER
Peoria County is the home and center of
activities of Victor James Mueller, fabricator
of wire products, a well-known figure in his
section of Illinois. Mr. Mueller is president of
the W. A. Laidlaw Wire Company, Inc., of
Bartonville, making his home at 2503 Knox-
ville Avenue, Peoria. He is also president of
the Pittsburgh Hanger Company, the Mem-
phis Hanger Company at Monaca, Pennsyl-
vania, and the W. A. Laidlaw Wire Co. of
Pennsylvania at Monaca, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Mueller was born in Switzerland on
February 25, 1898, the son of Adolf and Marie
(Laubli) Mueller, both also natives of that
country. His father, a farmer, died in 1928;
the mother died in 1908. The manufacturer
was educated in Switzerland schools equivalent
to the American elementary and high schools.
For four years he worked in a shoe store in
his native country and then, in 1921, he came
to the United States. For three months he
was employed in a shoe store in Ohio. Later,
he was with the Prosperity Company at Syra-
cuse, New York, beginning as a clerk and
rising to purchasing agent by 1928. In 1928
he came to Illinois and bought an interest in
the W. Laidlaw Wire Company of Bartonville.
In 1932, he bought the entire assets of the
concern, which he has since incorporated and
of which he is president. The wire products
produced by this concern are distributed in
all parts of the United States. Nine persons
are employed.
On August 5, 1925, Mr. Mueller married
Louisa Sommer, a native of Peoria, the mar-
riage taking place in that city. Mrs. Mueller
is the daughter of John Sommer, born at Tre-
mont, Illinois, who was in the iron and steel
business in Peoria until his death in 1928, and
Lizzie (Schmutz) Sommer, also a native of
Tremont, who survives her husband. Mr. and
Mrs. Mueller are the parents of three chil-
dren— Marylyn Louise, born May 27, 1926,
now the wife of Victor V. Prince and mother
of Douglas Mueller Prince; John Sommer
Mueller, born May 14, 1930, a graduate of
the University of Arizona at Tucson; and
Patricia Louise Mueller, born October 27,
1931. Mr. and Mrs. Mueller worship in the
Christian Church.
Mr. Mueller is a member of the Peoria
Association of Commerce and the Rotary Club
of Peoria. His other organizations include the
Mt. Hawley Country Club and the Creve
Coeur Club.
WINTON EMMETT WALKUP
As District Traffic Agent for the St. Louis
District of the Illinois Central Railroad, with
headquarters at Carbondale, Winton Emmett
Walkup has taken advantage of an unusual
opportunity to serve his native Illinois and in
the process he has become one of its most
valuable and prominent citizens. He has served
the City of Carbondale and its private and
quasi-public organizations in many official
capacities, helping to "get the city out of the
red," and is one of the leaders in the move-
ment known as Southern Illinois, Incorporated,
not to mention many humanitarian programs.
Mr. Walkup was born in Pinckneyville,
Perry County, on November 15, 1898, the son
of Harry T. and Emma (Craig) Walkup. Both
his father and paternal grandfather were
railroadmen. After attending Carbondale's ele-
mentary and high schools, Winton Walkup
studied at Brown's Business College, Centralia,
and on September 24, 1917, began work as
clerk to the general foreman of the Illinois
Central Railroad at Carbondale. In October
of the following year Mr. Walkup entered the
United States Army, but the Armistice, signed
the next month, cut his service to two months.
On December 28, 1918, he was back at work
for the railroad in Carbondale. Later he was
transferred to the office of the general super-
intendent of transportation, at Chicago, and
still later to the engineering auditor's office.
In 1922, he was a suburban flagman briefly
and in April, 1922, he was transferred to
traffic duty in the office of the vice president
and general ti-affic manager. Again, he was
transferred to the commercial office in Chi-
cago and on July 1, 1925, he was made City
Freight Agent at Chicago. In 1926, he was
returned to Carbondale as traveling agent in
both the freight and passenger divisions. Six
years later he was promoted to Division
Freight and Passenger Agent and on June 6,
1942, was made District Service Agent in
charge of all traffic solicitations. In June,
1942, he was elevated to his present office
658
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
VICTOR JAMES MUELLER
WINTON EMMETT WALKUP
of District Traffic Agent for the St. Louis
District, a territory covering Centralia to
Cairo, in which he has three assistants.
On August 21, 1921, Mr. Walkup married
Helen Foley, the daughter of Louis F. Foley,
of Carbondale, also an Illinois Central man.
Mr. Walkup worships in the First Methodist
Church, Carbondale and Mrs. Walkup wor-
ships at the Catholic Church.
Mr. Walkup is a director of Southern Illi-
nois, Inc., and is on the executive committee of
the Southern Illinois University Foundation.
From 1939 to 1943 he served as City Finance
Commissioner of Carbondale, rescuing the
community from a debt of several thousand
dollars and giving it a safe surplus. He was
president of the Carbondale Business Men's
Association in 1946 and was exalted ruler of
the Elks Lodge in 1942 and is a former chair-
man of the Elks' board of trustees. He served
one year as Commander of the American Le-
gion post in the city. He has been active in
Red Cross, Community Chest and March of
Dimes fund-raising campaigns, serving once
as chairman of the last-named. He is active
in many bodies of the Masonic order, including
the Shrine, the Knights Templar and the
Royal Arch Masons, and has done much work
on behalf of crippled children through these
bodies and other organizations. His first job
was in a grocery store at two dollars a week
— another job, in boyhood, was with his
grandfather's horse-drawn transfer business —
and today he considers his main job service
to the public through his railroad position and
his many positions in community programs.
NORMAN GEORGE BITTERMANN
The leadership qualities of Norman George
Bittermann of Carterville, Williamson County,
which he exhibited prominently even in his
schooldays, are today being turned upon the
great effort to assure the future development
and welfare of Southern Illinois. Mr. Bitter-
mann has this opportunity through his office
as executive director of Southern Illinois,
Inc., headquartered at Carterville. He is also
Lecturer and Field Representative at South-
ern Illinois University at Carbondale.
Mr. Bittermann was born in Joliet on May
12, 1917, the son of George Phillip Bitter-
mann, a carpenter at Joliet, and Minnie (Ber-
lin) Bittermann, who, like the father and tlie
son, was also born in Illinois. Norman Bit-
termann was graduated from the Joliet High
School in 1935. Here he had distinguished
himself in student government activities, in
dramatics and in class programs. Again, at
Joliet Junior College, he was active in stu-
dent government and dramatics. Graduated
from Jol^t J.C. in 1937, he spent a year
working as a junior engineer and in 1938 en-
tered the University of Illinois, from which
he received the degree of Bachelor of Science
in Engineering in 1940. At the university he
was president of the Independent Men's As-
sociation, vice president of the Student Senate
and a member of the University YMCA board
of directors, the Illini Union board and the
Student Affairs Committee. He was also a
member of the Alumni Association board and
the Independent newspaper board. Each sum-
mer in his school years Mr. Bittermann work-
ed with the Public Service Company of North-
ern Illinois, on a training schedule, serving as
sales engineer, sales manager and in other
capacities. In September, 1940, he enrolled
in the university's graduate school and in
1942 received the degree of Master of Science
in Industrial Management. In this period he
was assistant secretary of the University YM
CA, in charge of public relations. For six
months in 1942 he served as technical engi-
neer for Southern Illinois, Inc., aiding in the
establishment of the Illinois Ordnance Plant
in Southern Illinois. In June, 19 42, he left
for service with the United States Army Air
Forces. He served with the Air Materiel Com-
mand in production flight tests and proving
research at Wright Field. Separated from the
service in 1945 as a Captain, he retains that
commission in the Reserve.
In 1946 Mr. Bittermann joined the Uni-
versity of Illinois faculty as a research as-
sociate in the Bureau of Economic and Busi-
ness Research. Also, he taught a course in
industrial management until September, 1948.
Since that time, he has been executive di-
rector of Southern Illinois, Inc., an area eco-
nomic development agency which is planning
and acting to the future of Southern Illinois.
Mr. Bittermann married Annette Louise
Krumsiek, the daughter of Wesley Walter
Krumsiek of Champaign, on April 19, 1944.
They have two children — Kim Allan, born on
January 16, 1946, and Karen Sue, born on
November 28, 1947.
Mr. Bittermann maintains his relationship
with the University YMCA. He was on its
board of directors from 1946 to 1948 and is
now on the advisory board. He is a member
of the American Society of Industrial Engi-
neers and Sigma Tau, national honorary en-
gineering society, and Sigma Iota Epsilon, in-
dustrial management fraternity. Tennis and
swimming are his favorite sports and photo-
ILLINOIS EDITION
663
graphy is his hobby. His reputation as a
builder of the State has extended throughout
the Middle West.
ADOLF E. KLEIN
One of those Americans who, as in the
Horatio Alger stories, rose to success from a
humble beginning as messenger boy, Adolf
E. Klein of Peoria is today president of Faber
and Musser, Inc., wholesale and retail dis-
tributors of building supplies. He is well
known in the civic and religious life of the
community.
Born in Peoria on January 26, 1904, Mr.
Klein is the son of Gustav H. and Marie W.
(Helmerick) Klein, both of whom were na-
tives of Germany. His father, who became
chef of the University Club of Peoria, died
in 1945; the mother died in 1933. Adolf Klein
was educated in one of Peoria's primary
schools and at the age of fourteen — in 1918—
went to work as a messenger for the Central
National Bank of Peoria. Five years later,
when he resigned to follow more promising
opportunities, he was holding the position of
receiving teller. In 1923 he became a book-
keeper for Faber and Musser, Inc., and rose
step by step in the business until in 1942 he
was elected president. The company, with
plant and office at 100 Edmond Street, Peoria,
handles every type of building supply except
lumber and millwork. Employing seven per-
sons, it covers the entire Peoria trade area.
Mr. Klein married Florence B. Doering of
Peoria on November 29, 1928, and they have
one child, Barbara Ann Klein, who was born
on December 6, 1938. Mrs. Klein's parents
were Henry F. and Anna (Lange) Doering,
both of whom were born in East Peoria. Her
father, a farmer, died in 1946, two years after
the mother. Mr. and Mrs. Klein reside on
Mount Holly Road, Peoria. They worship in
the Arcadian Presbyterian Church, where Mr.
Klein is a member of the board of trustees.
Mr. Klein is also active in the Masonic frater-
nity, in the Peoria Association of Commerce
and the Illinois Lumber and Material Dealers
Association. Fishing is his major recreation.
Mr. Klein has impressed himself upon the
community as an able business man and
sincerely interested citizen.
FRANCIS RAYMOND BLADES
Immediately recognizable to baseball fans
is the name of Francis Raymond Blades,
famed player, coach, manager and scout.
Known to all as Ray Blades, he has made a
career which is part of the great history of
baseball. Formerly manager of the St. Louis
Cardinals and coach of the Brooklyn Dodgers,
Mr. Blades is now "trouble shooter" for the
Dodgers' farm system and their scout — the
finder of new talent.
On August 6, 18 9 6, Mr. Blades was born
in the community which is still his home,
Mount Vernon, the seat of Jefferson County.
The house in which he was born was at Fif-
teenth Street and Broadway. Today he lives
at 203 North Ninth Street. His parents were
Francis Marion and Mary Magdalene (Donald-
son) Blades. His father was a railroadman
and hotel owner who in the latter years of
his life alternated between farming and hotel
operating. He was active in many Illinois
cities, chiefly at McLeansboro, in Hamilton
County, where he operated the Commercial
Hotel and where he died in 192 8.
The father made many moves and, natural-
ly, the family made them with him. Ray
Blades attended the public schools at Mc-
Leansboro and in St. Louis. When he left
high school in 1916, he went to work on the
farm at McLeansboro. In 1918 he returned
to St. Louis to work for the Emerson Elec-
tric Company, but later the same year he en-
listed in the United States Army and was as-
signed to the 119th Field Artillery, with
which he served a year overseas. He partici-
pated in ihe Argonne offensive, and rose to a
sergeancy.
Mr. Blades' base ball career, however, goes
back to his grade school days. He was one of
the pitchers for his team in a St. Louis ele-
mentary school. This team, through his pitch-
ing won the city grade school championship
under the sponsorship of the St. Louis Post-
Dispatch. Branch Rickey, then with the St.
Louis Browns, umpired the deciding game,
in which Ray Blades pitched. This was the
first time Mr. Blades met Mr. Rickey. He was
to see him again — in church. At that time
Mr. Rickey held a Sunday School class spell-
bound as a speaker. At high school Ray
Blades was not only shortstop on the base- '
ball team but also played football and went
out for track. In the summers he played as
shortstop on the Alphenbrau team and the
Hawke and Smith team. In 1914 and 1915 he
played on the McLeansboro High School team
and in the summer of 1915 he was shortstop
and second baseman on the semi-pro Fairfield
( Illinois 1 team. In 1916 he played with a
semi-pro club, managed by a cousin, at Web-
ster City, Iowa. He was a second baseman.
After this he was with a semi-pro club at
Stratford, Iowa, and then went back to the
664
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
ADOLF E. KLEIN
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farm ;il McLeansboro. Alter World War 1,
Mr. Blades worked for a time with the Mount
Vernon Car and Manufacturing Company,
playing on the company team called the Car-
builders. In the year Mr. Blades was with this
team Branch Rickey, manager by then of the
Cardinals, broughi them out to play the Car-
builders. The Cardinals lost, 3 to 2. After the
game Mr. Rickey signed up Ray Blades as
second baseman and two other Carbuilders,
Walter Schultz and Jimmy McLaughlin. These
three reported at Brownsville, Texas, for
spring training and tryouts in the Spring of
1920. After their return to St. Louis, Mr.
Blades and Mr. McLaughlin were sent to
Memphis, and in the next year Mr. Blades was
with the .Memphis Club of the Southern Lea-
gue. The following year he was with the
Houston Club of the Texas League and in
August, 192 6, he was recalled to play out-
field with the Cardinals. At that time he ran
into the wall and injured his knee, so that lie
did not get to play in the 192 6 World Series.
The knee cartilage was removed by the Cards'
physician, Dr. Robert Hyland. Ray Blades
continued with the Cards until 1933, partici-
pating in the games which won the team the
National League championship in 1928, 1930
and 1931. In 1932 he began his managerial
career as manager of the Columbus (Ohio)
team, in the American Association. In 1933
and 1934 his team won the championship.
From 1936 through 1938 Mr. Blades managed
the Rochester, New York, team, in the Inter-
national League, and again produced cham-
pionships. In 1939 he became manager of the
Cardinals. He remained with the Cards until
June, 1940, and was succeeded by Billy South-
worth. In 1941 Mr. Blades became manager
of the New Orleans Club, in the Southern As-
sociation, and in 1942 went to the Cincinnati
Club as coach under Manager McKechnie. In
1943 he returned to New Orleans as manager
and in lf>44. 1945 and 1946 was manager of
the St. Paul Club in the American Associa-
tion. Since 194 7 he has been with the Dodg-
ers, helping them win the pennant in 1947 as
coach. In 1949, the Dodgers lost to the New
York Yankees in the World Series, but is still
one of the Nation's top teams. In 1949, too,
Mr. Blades became farm trouble shooter and
scout for the Dodgers.
Mr. Blades married Golda Bennett, who was
born in McLeansboro, in 1900, the daughter
of L. B. and Bessie E. (Mellon) Bennett.
Mrs. Blades is active in the Methodist Church
the Order of the Eastern Star, American Leg-
ion Auxiliary and the Federated Woman's
Club. Mr. Blades is also active in the church,
and belongs to the Masonic order and the
American Legion. His most distasteful task,
he says, is to tell a young baseball player he
is not quite good enough for the major
leagues. His motto, "If the desire to win
dominates you, you are bound to win," has
brought him success and been behind the
great contribution he has made to baseball.
GRIFFITH I. DAVIS
Once a farmer, Griffith I. Davis of Decatur
is one of the important figures in Downstate
Illinois' dairy products industry today. He is
president of the Kentland Dairy Products
Company, headquartered at Decatur. His busi-
ness interests serve not only Decatur and its
area but also Gibson City and Farmer City.
Mr. Davis is also prominent in church and
civic affairs.
Born in Wolcott, Indiana, on June 7, 1904,
Mr. Davis is the son of Harry and Lena (Re-
progle) Davis. His father was a farmer in
Indiana. Through the years he was growing
up and helping on the family farm, Mr. Davis
went to grade school in his native state. For
a time after leaving school he farmed. Then
he became a lineman for the United Telephone
Company. In 1933, he entered his present field
as a dairy helper. In 1934, he moved to
Decatur to manage a cheese factory for the
Kentland Dairy Products Company, founded
in 1933 by Harold Foulkes. On September 13,
Mr. Davis, with a partner, James Fruin, pur-
chased this business. He has been president
of the Kentland Dairy Products Company of
Decatur and Gibson City, and the Farmers
City Cheese Company of Farmer City since
that time and has guided expansion of opera-
tions into all sections of Macon, DeWitt and
Ford Counties and far beyond. He employs
thirty persons.
Mr. Davis married Lucille Miller on Febru-
ary 12, 1924. Their children are Warren Davis,
who married Betty Fear, and Sheila. They
worship in the Methodist Church. Mr. Davis
is a highly respected business man and citizen
in Downstate Illinois.
LEWEN RUSSELL NELSON
An industrialist of international reputation,
Lewen Russell Nelson of Peoria is also known
as an inventor and as a citizen interested in
the promotion of a better life for humanity.
He is an influential figure in trade organiza-
tions and a leader in health and welfare and
lay Methodist circles. In the business world
he is president of the L. R. Nelson Mfg. Co.,
ILLINOIS
EDITION
669
Inc., with plant and office at 1725 South Wash-
ington Street, Peoria — a firm manufacturing
garden and lawn accessories, golf sprinkling
equipment and fireplace equipment.
Mr. Nelson was born on April 28, 1879, at
Princeville, a village in Peoria County. His
parents were Philip M. and Clara (Russell)
Nelson. Both the Nelson and Russell families
have been in Peoria County since the early
part of the nineteenth century. John Nelson,
the industrialist's great-grandfather, estab-
lished himself in the county in 1849, while
Ebenezer Russell, the grandfather on the
maternal side, moved there in 1840. His fath-
er, born in Peoria, died in 1932. He was a
farmer and real estate man. Clara Russell
Nelson was also a native of Peoria County.
She died in 1888. L. R. Russell went to ele-
mentary school at Princeville and high school
at Boulder, Colorado. For a year after finish-
ing his schooling he clerked in a general store
at Boulder. Then he and his father became
partners in the operation of a retail grocery
business. This lasted two or three years and
was followed by a five-year period in farming.
Meantime Mr. Nelson was inventing various
items and in 1907 he moved into Peoria, where
until 1911 he was engaged in selling his inven-
tions. In 1911, he founded his present busi-
ness, called in the beginning the Central Brass
and Stamping Company. He has been presi-
dent of the concern since its inception. In
1921, the firm name was changed to L. R.
Nelson Manufacturing Company. The entire
United States and a good many foreign coun-
tries constitute the company's trading terri-
tory. It has two hundred employees.
On September 17, 1902, Mr. Nelson married
Inez Baldwin of Boulder. Mrs. Nelson's par-
ents were John and Rachel Baldwin. Her
father, a native of Centralia, Illinois, was a
hauling contractor who died in 1900. Her
mother, born in Georgia, died in 1878. Mr.
and Mrs. Nelson have two children — Ruth
Alma, born on April 4, 1908, now the wife of
Leonard Bradbury and the mother of Sarah
and Anne Bradbury; and Russell Baldwin
Nelson, born on July 15, 1911, who married
Betty Bartholomew and is the father of
Barton and Barbara Nelson. Mr. and Mrs.
L. R. Nelson reside at 333 Parkside Drive,
Peoria, and worship in the Methodist Church.
Mr. Nelson, prominent in that church, is
a former director of the Methodist Hospital
of Peoria. He is also a former director of the
Peoria Association of Manufacturers and of
the Rotary Club of Peoria. In addition, he is
affiliated with the National Manufacturers As-
sociation, the Peoria Association of Com-
merce, the Illinois State Chamber of Com-
merce, the Peoria Country Club, the Creve
Coeur Club and the Masonic fraternity. His
activities have contributed much to the state's
growth.
WILLIAM BRYAN HAMEL
The friends and associates of William Bryan
Hamel, publisher and managing editor of The
Daily Journal-Gazette at Mattoon, say- — and
he admits it — his disposition is governed large-
ly by reactions to his daily editorial column in
that paper, and swings from good to bad. Be
that as it may, that column, hammered out at
home on a Royal portable with the "look-and-
punch system," a one-finger formula, has made
Mr. Hamel one of the best known and most
liked individuals in Central, Illinois. He has
helped in maintaining the reputation estab-
lished for him by his column and other ac-
tivities by appearing as guest speaker, toast-
master or master of ceremonies at numerous
functions, meetings, conventions and football
banquets. Besides publishing and editing a
newspaper, he likes to participate in the com-
munity's health and welfare activities, in or-
ganizational affairs and in civic and church
work.
He was born in Christian County on October
27, 1898, the son of Marion and Viola Virginia
(Berry) Hamel. His father, a farmer and car-
penter contractor, was also born in Christian
County, his mother at Rochester, in Sangamon
County. The future journalist was educated in
high schools at Palmer, Taylorville and As-
sumption; at Milliken University in Decatur
where he finished his high school credits. He
was elected to to Sigma Delta Chi, the Na-
tional journalism fraternity, University of
Illinois Chapter.
Mr. Hamel began his career as a farmer, in
association with his father in Christian County
for seven years. For a time he was a hotel
and restaurant owner in Assumption, then
successively, the owner and manager of a drug
store in Decatur and a partner in a book and
stationery store and office supply house in
Mattoon.
In 1928 Mr. Hamel entered the publishing
business as advertising manager of the Jour-
nal-Gazette. He rose to business manager in
1933, then to general manager in 1936, and
finally to publisher in 1939. He is president
and treasurer of the Mattoon Journal Com-
pany, operating the Gazette Printing Com-
pany and publishing the Daily J oumal-Gazette,
as well as publisher and managing editor of
G70
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
LEWEN RUSSELL NELSON
WILLIAM BRYAN HAMEL
the paper. In the first decade of Mr. Hamel's
administration as president and publisher, the
paper showed an increase of 41 percent in the
circulation and 147 percent increase in the
gross business. Mr. Hamel's column, his ac-
tivities in the community and his other work
have helped to further the influence of the
paper.
Mi\ Hamel married Katherine Virginia An-
drews on May 2, 1925. They were divorced on
December 24, 1942. On March 4, 194G, he mar-
ried Jennie Elizabeth Day. To the first mar-
riage was born a son, William Bryan Hamel,
Jr., now (1949) a junior at the University of
Illinois. A daughter, Susan Elizabeth, was
born to the second marriage on March 7, 1948.
The family home is at 30 Lakeshore Drive,
Lake Mattoon, Mattoon.
Mr. Hamel is a former director of the Meth-
odist Memorial Hospital and a former mem-
ber of the board of trustees of the Central
Community Church. He is now on the board of
directors of the Illinois Daily Newspaper
Markets, of which he has also served on the
advisory board since 1939, and is a former di-
rector and secretary of the Mattoon Com-
munity Chest and former president of the
Rotary Club of Mattoon. He is a director of
the Coles County Fair Association. He was
once a member of Company E, 130th Infantry,
Illinois Reserve Militia. Other organizations
to which he now belongs include the Chicago
Key Club, Chicago International Club, St.
Louis Victoria Club, the Benevolent and Pro-
tective Order of Elks, the Loyal Order of
Moose and the Mattoon Golf and Country
Club. He has been listed in "Who's Who in
Chicago and Vicinity" for several years. He
is also listed in the Decatur-Central Illinois
Program Talent Bulletin as an after dinner
speaker. He is a member of the Legislative
Committee of the Illinois State Chamber of
Commerce and the Chicago Press Club. He is
a Republican who insists on strict political
impartiality in the news columns of his paper.
Newspapermen throughout the State have
long recognized Mr. Hamel as one of the few
members of their craft who are wholly dedi-
cated to public service.
HAMILTON MORITZ LOEB
The prominence of Hamilton Moritz Loeb
as an insurance man in Chicago is exceeded
only by his great renown as a civic leader
working on behalf of philanthropic enter-
prises, non-sectarian and Jewish, education
of the American born and of naturalized citi-
zens and the general welfare. An insurance
operator Mr. Loeb is president of the agency
firm of Eliel and Loeb Company, 175 West
Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, and has served
or is serving in important capacities in insur-
ance trade organizations.
Mr. Loeb, the son of Jacob Moritz and Rose
(Stein) Loeb, was born in Chicago on Sep-
tember 16, 1900. His father, who was one of
Chicago's famous citizens, founded the firm
of Eliel and Loeb, as a partnership in 1900,
the firm was incorporated as Eliel and Loeb
Company in 1916. Jacob Moritz Loeb served
on the Chicago Board of Education from 1913
to 1922, and from 1914 to 1917 was its presi-
dent. He was a native of Chicago. The
mother's parents were Adolph and Emma
Stein.
Hamilton M. Loeb first attended grade
school in the Windy City. This was in the
years 1906 and 1907. From 1908 to 1914 he
was a pupil at the University of Chicago Lab-
oratory School. Then he attended the Har-
vard School of Chicago from 1914 to 1917 and
in the school year 1917-18 he was at the
University of Illinois, Urbana, where he was
elected to Zeta Tau Fraternity. In 1918, the
final year of World War I, he was a cadet at
the United States Military Academy at West
Point, New York. Mr. Loeb began his career
with the insurance firm of Crum and Forster
in New York City, in 1919. The following
year he joined the staff of Eliel and Loeb
Company in New York. In 1921 he returned
to Chicago and joined Eliel and Loeb's office
in that city. In 1922 he was elected vice
president of the firm, which had been in-
corporated in 1916, and in 1941 he was ele-
vated to his present office of president. In
the years of his association with the firm his
reputation has spread in an everwidening cir-
cle, so that he is well known both to the lay
public and the insurance trade.
On June 3, 1922, in New York, Mr. Loeb
married Ruth A. Enrich, the daughter of
Jesse and Alice (Morgenthau) Enrich. Mrs.
Loeb is a leading figure in the welfare world,
and is known for her work in the field of the
family and the child. She is past president
and administrative director of The Associa-
tion for Family Living, Chicago, and a di-
rector of the Child Study Association of
America. Mr. and Mrs. Loeb are the parents
of three children, two sons and a daughter.
The eldest is Jacob Moritz Loeb, II, who mar-
ried Dorothy Maranes and is the father of
Robert Eric Loeb and Patricia Ann Loeb.
The second son is Hamilton Moritz Loeb, Jr.,
ILLINOIS
EDITION
675
who married Elsa Jane Levit and is the father
of Judith Ann Loeb and Sandra Jean Loeb.
The daughter, Alice Ruth, is the wife of
Charles R. Grailcourt of London, England.
They were married June 16th, 1950 and re-
side in Oxford, Ohio where Mr. Grailcourt is
a teacher in economics at Western College
for Women. Alice received an M.A. Degree
from the above College. The Loeb home is at'
3260 Lake Shore Drive, Chicago.
Mr. Loeb's figure — five feet eleven inches
tall, weight 190 pounds, bald and brown-eyed
—is a familiar one throughout Chicago, and
his good disposition and manners, and general
distinguished appearance, are coupled with
his enlightened leadership in many spheres.
He was the first vice chairman, and later
chairman, of the Chicago Insurance Agents
Association and is a former director of the
Chicago Board of Underwriters. In his wider
civic activities, he is a director of the Jewish
Federation of Chicago, the Jewish Welfare
Fund, the Community Fund of Chicago, the
Welfare Council of Metropolitan Chicago, the
Chicago Medical School, United Service for
New Americans and the Association for Fam-
ily Living. He is a member of the Chicago
Lodge, No. 43 7, Ancient Free and Accepted
Masons; the Standard and Lake Shore
Country Clubs of Chicago and the Lambs and
Drug and Chemical Club of New York. He is
truly a noted citizen.
LEONARD EUGENE DUNLAP
Known for his tremendous contribution to
the field of office building and plant construc-
tion, Leonard Eugene Dunlap is now president
of Carr and Wright, Inc., an architectural
and engineering firm. A veteran of World War
I, Mr. Duncap gave the Federal Government
vital aid in his construction specialty in World
War II.
Mr. Dunlap was born at Savoy, Illinois, on
April 15, 1893, the son of Robert Livingston
and Charlotte (Jutkins) Dunlap. His father,
also a native of Savoy, was a graduate of the
University of Illinois of the Class of 1885,
who afterward made a reputation as a chem-
ist. After attending the elementary and high
schools of Urbana, Leonard E. Dunlap himself
became a student at the University of Illinois.
There he prepared for the business world in
the School of Engineering, Department of
Architecture. His first position after leaving
school was that of structural designer for
Swift and Company, in its building depart-
ment. From there he went, successively, to the
building departments of the Illinois Central
Railroad and the Sinclair Oil Company. An
association with the architectural firm of
Nimmons, Carr and Wright followed, and then
Mr. Dunlap became district engineer for the
Kalman Steel Company. From 1926 to 1942
Mr. Dunlap was chief engineer for Nimmons,
Car and Wright, in charge of structural design
and field supervision. From 1942 to 1944, he
supervised design and construction of large
building projects for the War Department as
an executive of Charles T. Main, Inc., Boston
firm of architects and engineers. Since 1944, he
has been with Carr and Wright, Inc., with
offices at 333 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago,
in charge of structural design, field supervi-
sion, contracts and business administration.
The firm has been architects for Sears, Roe-
buch and Company plants in all important
cities in twenty-seven states, and also design-
ed and constructed the American Furniture
Mart; Olympia Fields, Ravisloe and Flossmoor
Country Clubs; the Chicago Beach Hotel; All-
State Insurance Company office building; Port-
land Cement Association on Research and De-
velopment Laboratory and a score of other
major structures. His work in the develop-
ment of these construction projects has made
Mr. Dunlap a prominent and important figure
in this field.
Mr. Dunlap married Louise Parker of Ur-
bana. Mrs. Dunlap, an artist and pianist, has
been a designer of residences, interiors and
gardens and has thus shared her husband's
professional interests. In common, too, is their
love of gardening. Their home is at 683 Marion
Court, Highland Park.
Mr. Dunlap is a member of the American
Institute of Architects, the American Society
of Civil Engineers, the American Concrete
Institute and the Cliff Dwellers. In World
War I, he served as regimental sergeant-
major in the Field Artillery Corps. He is a
Republican and, for recreations, likes fishing
as well as gardening. A leading personality in
pre-war and wartime construction, Leonard
Eugene Dunlap is outstanding in the postwar
construction program.
HARRY WARREN DAY
A former executive of the Illinois State
Department of Agriculture and of the Illinois
Fruit Growers Exchange, Harry Warren Day
of Carbondale is today one of the leaders in
the fruit and vegetable world, being president
and manager of the Growers Sales Service,
Inc., of Carbondale. He has a national reputa-
tion especially among peach growers and is
676
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
LEONARD EUGENE DUNLAP
HARRY WARREN DAY
also known in the horticultural and building
supplies field. He is a veteran of World War I.
Mr. Day was born in Shelbyville on June 15,
1894, the son of John W. Day, a native of
Michigan who first moved to Indiana and
eventually to Illinois, and Elizabeth (Lumpp)
Day, a native of Illinois. Harry Day spent his
boyhood in Shelbyville, where he attended the
elementary and high schools. In 1917, he re-
ceived the degree of Bachelor of Science at the
University of Illinois College of Agriculture
and, the United States having entered World
War I, then entered the Navy at Great Lakes.
Later he was transferred to Cambridge, Mass-
achusetts, and then to the Submarine School
at New London, Connecticut, and finally to
Puget Sound, Washington. He was discharged
in 1919, by which time he had risen to the
rating of Radio Electrician First Class.
Returning to the University of Illinois, Mr
Day became an assistant in the department of
horticulture. After a year, he accepted an ap-
pointment as associate farm advisor in Cook
County, and spent the years 1920 through
1923 at Blue Island. In 1923 he was appointed
superintendent of the Division of Markets of
the State Department of Agriculture, at
Springfield, serving under Governor Len Small
until 1926. He then went to Centralia to serve
as a fieldman for the Illinois Fruit Growers
Exchange, of which he later became manager.
He held the managerial post from 1932 to
1941, and in this period, in 1935, supervised
the moving of the organization's headquarters
to Carbondale. In 1941 Mr. Day was one of
the three organizers of the Growers Sales
Service, Inc., and he is now president and
manager. The organization acts as sales agents
for growers in Louisiana, Arkansas, Illinois,
Indiana, Kentucky and Missouri, handling
strawberries, apples and peaches as well as
assorted vegetables. The major portion of the
business is from Illinois orchards.
Mr. Day married Harriet Lillian James of
Amboy in June, 1920. Mrs. Day is a graduate
of the University of Illinois, having taken her
degree of Bachelor of Science in 1917. Four
children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Day. The
first died in infancy. The others are Ruth
Elizabeth, who graduated from the University
of Illinois in 1947, and married Wayne A.
Smutz of Rock Island, Illinois; Warren James
Day, who holds a Civil Engineering degree
from the University, served in a Navy V-12
unit in World War II and is now (1949) at-
tending Union Theological Seminary in New
York, with plans to combine his engineering
knowledge with missionary work, and Mary
Louise Day, a piano and pipe orgen major in
the University of Illinois College of Music.
Mr. Day, whose organization ships by truck
or rail from 1500 to 2000 carloads every year,
is an authority on growing and marketing
fruits and vegetables. He was secretary of the
Illinois State Horticultural Society from 1924
to 1932 and is a director of the Illinois Fruit
Council, an organization of orchardists design-
ed to promote education and research and
sales. He is also a director of the National
Peach Council and the Colp Wholesale Com-
pany of Carbondale, a building supply firm.
He has been a member of the Carbondale
High School Board since 1944. He also be-
longs to the Lions Club of Carbondale, the
Carbondale Business Men's Association, the
Elks Club, and the American Legion. He wor-
ships in the First Presbyterian Church of
Carbondale and is a Republican. Golf is his
favorite sport. Mr. Day's extraordinary con-
tribution to the agriculture of his State is
widely recognized.
HON. WILLIAM MARTIN LAUGHLIN
Four generations of the Laughlin family,
descended from Irish stock, have made them-
selves an important place in the life of Illinois.
The Honorable William Martin Laughlin, of
the second generation, and his grandson, Rob-
ert Neil Laughlin of the fourth generation,
together carry on the traditions today, with
the younger man managing a business found-
ed by the older at Mattoon in Coles County.
This business is known as W. M. Laughlin and
Son, handling coal and grain and related mer-
chandise, with warehouse, yards and sales-
rooms at 1813 Broadway, Mattoon. At one
time, William Martin Laughlin's son, William
Neil Laughlin, father of the present executive
head of the business, was its leading figure,
for William Martin Laughlin, who in 1950 was
approaching his ninety-second birthday, has
been retired since 1933. He is a former public
official of Vandalia, where he lived a good
many years of his life.
William Martin Laughlin was born in Chi-
cago on November 20, 1858, the oldest of the
three sons and one daughter of Michael and
Ellen (Carey) Laughlin. His father, born in
Ireland, migrated in his youth in a sailing
vessel, settling in Cook County. His wife was
also of Irish birth. Michael Laughlin died
when he was still a young man. The family
moved from Chicago to St. Louis, Missouri,
when the first child was still an infant. When
he was six, William Martin Laughlin and his
family settled in Vandalia, the seat of Fayette
ILLINOIS EDITION
681
County. There he attended the public schools,
later transferring to those of Weldon in De-
Witt County. At a young age Mr. Laughlin
became a telegraph operator for the Illinois
Central Railroad at Weldon, working nights
and receiving $36 a month as pay. Later he
worked as trainsmaster's clerk for the rail-
road at Mattoon. In 1903, Mr. Laughlin, with
a partner, organized a coal, flour and feed
business known as the Farmers Milling and
Grain Company. In this business Mr. Laughlin
owned a third interest. Two years after it was
established, however, he bought out his partner
and changed the name to W. M. Laughlin,
dealer in Coal, Flour and Feed, heating fuels,
farm supplies, garden supplies and wholesale
groceries. When, in 1911, he took his son Wil-
liam Neil Laughlin into the enterprise, the
name was changed to the present one: W. M.
Laughlin and Son. The original site of the
business at 320 South Twenty-first Street,
Mattoon, is still used as the firms coal and
fuel oil storage yard ; the present headquarters
on Broadway were taken over in 1920 alon":
with the warehouses at 113 So. 18th Street
and 320 So. 21st Street. The business has a
trading area embracing not only Coles County
but a radius of forty miles beyond.
On October 3, 1886, Mr. Laughlin married
Mary Elizabeth Neil of Vandalia, the daugh-
ter of Robert Neil, a prominent farmer of
Fayette County, and Ann Neil. William Neil
Laughlin was the first of four children born
to Mr. and Mrs. W. M. Laughlin. His birth
occurred on August 4, 1887. He was in busi-
ness with his father, managing the enterprise
in his later years, until his death on February
11, 1946. The other children were Nellie Mar-
garet, who was born in 1889 and died in in-
fancy, and Regina Mary, born on July 17,
1900, and Anne Catherine, born on February
8, 1903. Regina Mary is now the wife of
Joseph J. Schneider and the mother of Joseph
Neil Schneider. Anne Catherine is the wife
of Barnard E. Smith of Rochester, New York,
and the mother of Donna Jean, Kathleen and
Neil Kingston Smith. The family is Catholic.
Mr. Laughlin, prominent in lay Catholic
circles, is a past grand knight of the Knights
of Columbus. He is also a past president of
his church's Holy Name Society. A Democrat,
he served one term as an Alderman in Van-
dalia and was also Tax Collector of the City
of Vandalia in the period before he moved to
Mattoon in December, 1900. In 1933, he re-
tired from business, leaving the management
to his son, who was, in turn, succeeded by his
own son. Mr. Laughlin's favorite games are
billiards, five hundred, and he still furnishes
the younger ones with stiff competition. He is
also quite a baseball fan. His home is at 504
North Nineteenth Street, Mattoon. He is a
popular and venerable old figure in Coles
County — a business and civic leader who has
done much to promote the prosperity of the
entire region.
ROBERT NEIL LAUGHLIN
In 1903, William M. Laughlin established a
firm now famed throughout Central Illinois —
W. M. Laughlin and Son of Mattoon. Today
that concern is headed by his grandson, Robert
Neil Laughlin, who has added to its three
other divisions a fourth, wholesale groceries.
The other divisions handle coal, farm supply
and garden and pet supply products. Robert N.
Laughlin, who was in the publication circula-
tion and insurance business and an officer in
the United States Army in World War II be-
fore entering his grandfather's firm, is one of
the prominent young business men of Coles
County.
Born in Mattoon on March 22, 1917, Mr.
Laughlin is the son of William Neil and Ruth
(Gray) Laughlin. His father, born at Vandalia
on August 4, 1887, moved with his parents,
William M. and Mary Laughlin, to Mattoon at
the turn of the century. After completing his
elementary school education in that community
he went to work. His father had meantime
established the now renowned business house
at Mattoon. After several years with the New
York Central Railroad, the Washburn-Crosby
Company and other concerns in Illinois, W.
Neil Laughlin became associated in 1913 in his
father's feed and grain business. Their part-
nership became known as W. M. Laughlin and
Son and though W. M. Laughlin did not re-
tire until 1935 his son took over active man-
agement early in their association, and the
firm prospered and became one of the best
known in the wholesale and retail merchandis-
ing of coal, farm and garden and pet supplies.
After his father's retirement, W. Neil Laugh-
lin continued the business until his sudden
death on February 11, 1946, and it was then
his son, Robert Neil Laughlin, took over.
The latter was graduated from St. Patrick's
Parochial School in Mattoon in 1930. Four
years later he was graduated from the Mat-
toon High School and in June, 1938, he took
the degree of Bachelor of Commercial Science
in Acccounting at the University of Notre
Dame in Indiana. From 1932 to 1934 Mr.
Laughlin was district agent for the Curtis
Publishing Company in the Mattoon territory.
682
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
HON. WILLIAM MARTLN LAUGHLIN
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In 1938 he became a special agent for the
Southeastern Illinois District of the Massa-
chusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company in
Mattoon. On April 21, 1941, Mr. Laughlin was
inducted into the United States Army. He
was a private in, the 129th Infantry, 33rd Di-
vision, until November, 1941, then rose to
Master Sergeant in the Division Finance Of-
fice, 33rd Division, with which he remained
until March, 1943. Afterward, until February,
1944, he was Warrant Officer Junior Grade
and Assistant Finance Officer of the division
and on June 22, 1944, after attending Officer
Candidate School, was commissioned a Second
Lieutenant. In the Army Finance School from
that time until January, 1946, he rose to First
Lieutenant, and he now holds that rank in the
Officers Reserve Corps. He was separated from
the active service in January, 1946. His
father's death occurred less than a month
later, and Mr. Laughlin assumed the manage-
ment of the business. In 1948 he added the
wholesale grocery division, making his firm
the distributor for many nationally advertised
brands of fine foods and food products.
He married Marjorie Ann Fitzgerald,
daughter of Joseph L. and Irma J. Fitzgerald,
in Mattoon on November 1, 1941, and their
children are Carol Ann, born October 2, 1944,
Michael Joseph, Born January 1, 1947, John
Neil, born March 31, 1948, and Bernard
James, born February 26, 1949. The family
resides at 204 North 22nd Street, Mattoon,
and worships in the Immaculate Conception
Catholic Church.
Mr. Laughlin, prominent in civic affairs,
served one term as president and one term
as board member in the Young Business Men's
Club of Mattoon and is currently vice-president
of the retail division of the Chamber of Com-
merce. He is an outstanding citizen of Mattoon.
HARRISON E. COLP
One of those who made history in the mo-
tion picture business — and in the United
States Army — is Harrison E. Colp of Carbon-
date, for he was among the brave few who
stood unmoved as battle raged about them
and took motion pictures of the most violent
combat scenes in World War I, films which
are shown again and again in cavalcades of
war and American and world history. Today
Mr. Colp is vice president of the wholesale
phase of the Colp Lumber Company and presi-
dent of the retail organization and is, in ad-
dition, a Carbondale citizen who is working
assiduously on behalf of development of Sou-
thern Illinois and the contiguous regions.
Born in this State on January 1, 1889, Mr.
Colp is the son of John and Dora (North)
Colp, both of whom, together with their
parents, were also natives of the State. John
Colp was a coal operator who established a
lumber business. His children, aside from
Harrison, who was born fourth, were Mary;
Leon A., a lawyer; Loran R., a hotel opera-
tor; Logan N. ; M. D., who was in the lumber
business but is now deceased; P. R., who was
in both the lumber and coal business and is
now deceased, and Effie, who died in 1931.
Harrison E. Colp was educated in the public
schools of Carterville, St. John's Military
Academy in Wisconsin and the Lewis Insti-
tute of Chicago. In 1912 he went to work in
the production department of the Western
Electric Company. Alter two years, ne took
to the road as a motion picture cameraman.
When the United States entered World War
I, he went into the Corps of Engineers and
served as cameraman with the rank of Master
Engineer, shooting battle pictures in all major
engagements — a pioneer in this type of mili-
tary activity. He received the Verdun Award
from the French Government for distinguish-
ed service, and after the Armistice served
with the Army of Occupation in Germany. He
was discharged in the States in June, 1919,
and then returned to Carterville, to join the.
family milling business located there. The
firm's first lumber yard was in Centerville
and the dcwntown office was opened in Car-
bondale in 1923. There is also a wholesale
business of building supplies and related ma-
terials and, in addition to Carbondale, the
firm operates in Fulton, Kentucky; Sikeston,
Missouri; and Goreville, Illinois.
Mr. Colp married Martha Morrison at Ful-
ton, Missouri, on October 19, 1919, and they
have one daughter, Mrs. Mildred Jones, who
lives in Fulton.
Mr. Colp was chairman of the Williamson
County Draft Board No. 2 for six years. He
is active in the American Legion, the Illinois
Retail Material Dealers Association, the Car-
bondale Business Men's Association, the Ma-
sonic Blue Lodge at Carterville and the Car-
bondale Lodge, Benvolent and Protective
Order of Elks. He is a former member of
the Lions Club of Carterville. He and his
family worship in the Presbyterian Church.
Wholly civic-minded, Mr. Colp has served his
community to the utmost of his ability.
BENNIE FRANK McCLERREN
Among the younger business men who are
giving considerable leadership in activities in
Southern Illinois is Bennie Frank McClerren
ILLINOIS EDITION
687
of Benton. A Naval veteran of World War II
who saw considerable action in the Pacific
area, Mr. McClerren is now operating the
McClerren Motor Company at Benton and is
leading automobile dealer in Franklin County.
He has the DeSoto-Plymouth franchise.
Mr. McClerren was born in Franklin County
on October 3, 1917, the son of Harry and Elsie
(Jent) McClerren. Both parents are als*) na-
tives of Franklin County. The father, a coal
miner, is the son of the late Mat McClerren,
another who was born in that county.
Bennie McClerren was educated in the pub-
lic schools of Weavertown. From 1933 to 1936
he worked on a farm. When he left the farm
he went to Chicago, where he entered the em-
ploy of Johnson and Johnson, the surgical
dressing concern. He remained with this or-
ganization until in 1944 he was called into the
United States Navy, in which he became a
Seaman First Class. He served in the Pacific
Theater of Operations and received eight
Battle Stars, one of them for action at Iwo
Jima. Separated from the service in 1946, Mr.
McClerren returned to his position with John-
son and Johnson in Chicago. In the next two
years, without giving up his post with the
surgical dressing firm, he bought and sold
automobiles for various Chicago dealers, and
thus not only learned the business but de-
veloped a keen interest in it. This interest
developed to the point where in 1948 he re-
signed from Johnson and Johnson and, re-
turning to his native county, entered the
automobile business in Benton, the county seat.
He now has the franchise as DeSoto-Plymouth
dealer for one-half of Franklin County. He
has attractive show rooms and complete shop
facilities, owning all his equipment. Six per-
sons are employed in the business, which has
grown rapidly in volume and prestige. Mr.
McClerren is active in the Illinois Automobile
Dealers Association and the National Auto-
mobile Dealers Association. Saddle horses are
his hobby.
On August 27, 1936, in Franklin County,
Mr. McClerren married Juanita Melvin, the
daughter of Carrie Melvin of West Frankfort.
Mr. and Mrs. McClerren are the parents of
three children — Deon and Leon McClerren,
who are twins, and Gary McClerren. The fam-
ily worships in the Pentecostal Church. Stand-
ing five feet nine inches tall and weighing
160 pounds, the automobile dealer is a man
of great health and strength. His energy,
which helped make him a business success, is
contributing to his popularity among his
neighbors and customers.
GEORGE H. LECAS
Once a poor immigrant boy, George H.
Lecas is today one of the more successful of
American citizens — an outstanding Illinoisan
and a leading figure in Pana and Christian
County. He is the owner and operator of the
Lecas Candy Company of Pana, which sup-
plies a large variety of confections to big five-
and-ten chains and to small jobbing firms
throughout the United States. He gives much
time to community enterprises in Christian
County and also money.
Mr. Lecas was born in Greece on August
10, 1899, and came to the United States in
1914. He was still only fourteen years old
when he went to work in a confectionery
store in Peoria. It was there he learned the
candy-making business, under the tutelage
of an uncle, Christ Lecas, the owner of the
store. In 1920 Mr. Lecas left his uncle's
employ and moved to Joplin, Missouri, where
he again worked in a confectionery store.
Then he came back to Illinois and worked in
another such establishment in Champaign for
a year. In 192 3, he established himself at
Pana. At first Mr. Lecas ran a combination
restaurant and candy store in this commun-
ity. Then, in 1929, he began manufacturing
candy. His start in this field was indeed
humble, but -vith characteristic energy and
ability he was able to expand rapidly. By
1943 he had his present plant in Pana going.
Since then the expansion has been phenome-
nal. His first building was 18 by 30 in di-
mensions. The second building, new, modern
and constructed of brick, was many times
larger and the third, an addition to the
second, has multiplied the space for office
and factory and shipping operations many
times more. In 1949, Mr. Lecas also erected
a separate warehouse. He has had a contract
with the S. S. Kresge Company for years. He
now also nas a contract with the F. W. Wool-
worth Company and with small jobbing firms
which distributed his candy to thousands of
retail outlets. Mr. Lecas makes all kinds of
suckers, peanut brittle and specialty items.
In 1949, he produced more than 200,000
pounds of peanut brittle alone. In that year,
he used about 2500 100-pound bags of sugar
and 200,000 pounds of corn syrup. He em-
ploys thirty girls and five or six men.
In 192 0 Mr. Lecas married Edith Banks, a
native of Germany who has been a resident of
Pana since childhood. They have two chil-
dren— Diane Lycas, born in 1936, and Vallas
Lecas, born in 1939.
688
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
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GEORGE ROBERT KENNEDY
In the community, Mr. Lecas is active
in the Pana Chamber of Commerce and in
American Red Cross and Community Fund
money-raising campaigns. Through this work,
he not only helps the city expand its com-
mercial and industrial facilities but also to
support important health and welfare and
youth-serving programs. He is himself one of
Pana's big employers and is one of those who
has done much to promote civic progress and
well-being.
GEORGE ROBERT KENNEDY
In the laundry business his entire working
life, George Robert Kennedy is now owner
and operator of one of Springfield's and Sang-
amon County's largest establishments in its
field — the Kennedy Laundry and Dry Cleaners.
Mr. Kennedy, whose reputation extends
throughout the laundry world, is also one of
the state capitol's leading citizens.
Born in Peoria, on July 8, 1899, he is the
son of the late George Thomas and Ella
(Roth) Kennedy. The father, a bank teller in
his early days, entered the laundry business
at the beginning of the century, with a partner
named William Bourke. They operated the
Bourke and Kennedy Laundry at Peoria.
George T. Kennedy retired in the 1920's, and
died in 1925. His wife is also deceased. Their
other children were William, deceased; Mrs.
Margaret Kennedy Conrad; Walter T., oper-
ates the Kennedy Laundry and Dry Cleaners
of Peoria; Ralph J., deceased; Edward; and
Mrs. Catherine Kennedy Abbey. After com-
pleting his education, George Robert Kennedy
worked in his father's laundry in Peoria for
a year or two, and then became a salesman for
the American Tobacco Company. His next em-
ployment was with the Willy Laundry Machin-
ery Company of Philadelphia. He spent ten
years demonstrating and selling laundry equip-
ment for this concern ; this machinery was
known as the Nu Way Laundry Systems. In
the period that Mr. Kennedy did this work his
company merged with Ellis Brothers of Chi-
cago and for a time operated under the name
of Willy-Ellis Laundry Machinery Company.
Then there was another merger with the Tol-
hurst Machine Works at Troy, New York, and
the operation was conducted under the name
of the General Laundry Machinery Company.
In 1930 this corporation sold out to the Ameri-
can Laundry Machinery Company.
In 1930, Mr. Kennedy left the General Laun-
dry Machinery Company and established him-
self in Springfield. For less than a year he
was an employee of the Mahon Laundry.
On January 1, 1931, he purchased the entire
business from Mr. Mahon and for the next
three years continued operating under the
Mahon name. In 1934, however, he changed the
name to the Kennedy Laundry. At that time
he operated two trucks and employed fifteen
persons. He has since so developed the business
that today it operates seven trucks and em-
ploys forty-four persons. The addition of a dry
cleaning department in 1934 has helped the de-
velopment of the business. Today dry cleaning
constitutes about fifty percent of Mr. Ken-
nedy's annual volume. He maintains a "pick-
up" office in downtown Springfield, and is
himself frequently seen in the central area of
the city, being active in civic enterprises.
On June 14, 1928, Mr. Kennedy married
Helen I. Rittenhouse, and they have three
children — George Robert Kennedy, Jr., born
on August 23, 1930; Eugene David Kennedy,
born on August 26, 1934, and Mary Ellen Ken-
nedy, born in February 12, 1938. The family
worships in the Roman Catholic Church.
Mr. Kennedy belongs not only to such or-
ganizations as the Knights of Columbus and
Te Deum International, but also to the Spring-
field Lodge, Benevolent and Protective Order
of Elks; the Springfield Manufacturers and
Employers Association, the American Institute
of Laundering, the National Institute of
Cleaners and Dyers and the Springfield Cham-
ber of Commerce. His favorite sports are golf
and bowling.
RICHARD KARL GEBHARDT
Few men are better known in the paint and
decorating field than Richard Karl Gebhardt
of Peoria. President of the Born Paint and
Wallpaper Company, with headquarters at
536 Fulton Street, Peoria, Mr. Gebhardt holds
honorary memberships and offices in various
organizations of the trade and is a member of
the board of directors of the Marquette Paint
and Wallpaper Company. He is one of Peoria's
civic leaders and is especially well-known
among Illinois' great population of citizens of
German descent.
Mr. Gebhardt is a native of Germany. Born
on August 11, 1900, he is the son of Karl
Gebhardt, also born in Germany, now retii'ed
and living in Peoria, and Anna (Starke) Geb-
hardt, another native of that country, who
naturally also makes her home in Peoria. Rich-
ard K. Gebhardt obtained his entire education
in his native land. After attending the ele-
mentary and high schools of that country, he
attended the Mannheim Commercial College
until 1923. For a short time he worked in the
ILLINOIS EDITION
693
exporting department of a machinery manu-
facturing concern in Germany, but it was still
1923 when he came to the United States and
settled in Peoria. Until 1925 Mr. Gebhardt was
employed by the Keystone Steel and Wire
Company of Peoria. Then he went to Syracuse,
New York, to work for the Prosperity Com-
pany. In 1929 he was back in Peoria and as-
sociating himself with his father-in-law in the
operation of the Standard Decorating Co. In
1945, he became president of the Born Paint
and Wallpaper Co. and has been since that
time. The company does a retail and whole-
sale business in paints, wallpaper and sundries.
Its trading territory is the Peoria area and
it employs twenty-five persons.
Mr. Gebhardt married Adele Stemfle of
Germany in May, 1926, and two children were
born to the marriage — Richard Lawrence Geb-
hardt on December 31, 1929, and Wilma Ella
on October 18, 1928, now Mrs. Gilbert Spur-
geon. Adele Gebhardt died in 1939. On July 3,
1940, Mr. Gebhardt married Margaret Lauk-
itis, a native of Pennsylvania, and daughter
of Michael Adam Laukitis, a miner born in
Lithuania who died in 1929, and Margaret
Mary (Kevege) Laukitis, also a native of
Lithuania, who died in 1949. The Gebhardts
reside at 1617 West Glen Avenue, Peoria.
Some of the indications of Mr. Gebhardt's
standing in his field of business are the fact
that he has served as vice president of the
Illinois State Council of the Painting and
Decorating Contractors of America and is an
honorary member of both the state and na-
tional organizations as well as the Peoria
chapter. He was also active in the Wisconsin
State Council. His other organizations include
the Rotary Club of Peoria, the Steuben Club,
the German Central Society, the Peoria As-
sociation of Commerce, the Peoria Better Busi-
ness Bureau, the Creve Coeur Club and the
Masonic fraternity, including the Shrine. He
has made a widely recognized contribution to
the progress and welfare of Illinois.
EUGENE DUNCAN FUNK, JR.
In association with twenty-one other pro-
ducers, the Funk Brothers Seed Company of
Bloomington originated their famed Hybrid
Seed Corn which is serving the entire corn
growing region of the United States. The com-
pany is also one of the pioneers in soy bean
processing and does a heavy business in soy
bean meal and oil as well as in seed corn and
many varieties of other seeds and in grasses.
Of this concern Eugene Duncan Funk, Jr., is
president. He is also prominent in the cham-
ber of commerce movcrr-ut and in educational
work.
Mr. Funk was born at Shirley, McLean
County, on August 25, 1900, the son of Eugene
Duncan and Mary E. (Anderson) Funk. His
father, also born at Shirley, founded the Funk
Brothers Seed Company in 1901. He died in
1944, and is survived by his wife, who is a
native of Portland, Oregon. E. D. Funk, Jr.,
received his early education in the elementary
and high schools of Shirley and Normal, and
then spent three and one-half years at the
University of Illinois. He joined the Funk
Brothers Seed Company in 1922 and was
made secretary of the corporation in 1932.
In 1944, after the death of his father, he
succeeded him in the presidency. He partici-
pated in the establishment of the company's
soy bean oil mill in 1924. This mill is one
of the oldest in continuous operation in the
United States. The company's products are
sold in virtually every corner of the nation.
It employs about two hundred and fifty per-
sons. The Funk name has been associated
for a half century with corn, grass and other
seeds throughout the agricultural world, a
world in which Eugene D. Funk, Jr., is an
outstanding figure.
Mr. Funk married Malotta Divelbiss of
Lawrenceville, Illinois, daughter of Otto and
Mae (Stevenson) Divelbiss, on July 15, 1925.
Mrs. Funk's father, a native of Farmer City,
Illinois, was farming at the time of his death
in 1905. Her mother, a native of St. Joseph,
Illinois, survives him. Mr. and Mrs. Funk are
the parents of two children — Sara Funk, who
was born on March 14, 1930, and Eugene
Duncan Funk, III, who was born on December
17, 1935. Mr. and Mrs. Funk and their chil-
dren reside at 1318 East Grove Street, Bloom-
ington.
Mr. Funk has enjoyed considerable leader-
ship in his native area and in the state at
large. He is a former president and member
of the board of directors of the Bloomington
Chamber of Commerce and a former director
and member of the agriculture-industry com-
mittee of the Illinois State Chamber of Com-
merce. He is also a member of the Univer-
sity of Illinois Foundation, and of the Amer-
ican Seed Trade Association, the Rotary Club
of Bloomington and various Masonic bodies,
including the Shrine. He is foremost among
those who are guiding Bloomington to greater
prosperity and to cultural heights.
«94
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
RICHARD KARL CKBHARDT
ORVILLE F. WAREHAM
DARRELL E. WAREHAM
The Wareham Dairy at Taylorville, seat of
Christian County, is one of the outstanding
business enterprises in that region. Founded
by Darrell E. Wareham, a farmer all his life,
the business has grown rapidly and steadily
until it has become an important factor in
the area. Mr. Wareham is himself well known
in business circles and in the affairs of his
city and county.
Born in Clarksdale, on November 21, 1913,
Mr. Wareham is the son of Orville F. and
Flossie S. (Payne) Wareham, both of whom
are also natives of downstate Illinois, the
former a farmer and livestock breeder. Others
in the family are Frederick H. Wareham, a
partner of his brother Darrell in the dairy
business; Donald 0. Wareham, who is also
associated with the dairy; their sister, Irma,
who is now Mrs. John Kevie, and younger
sister, Marcella, who is now Mrs. Ivan Pit-
tinger.
Darrell E. Wareham began his education
in the grade schools of Christian County. He
continued at Hedge College grade school and
then spent a year each at Washington School
and Brush College grade school. He completed
his education at Taylorville High School. Until
1930, Mr. Wareham farmed part time. In that
year he started a dairy route with his father
and he gave it such ability and energy as to
build it into a successful venture, despite the
depression. In 1940, Mr. Wareham and his
brother purchased their present dairy farm
and started pasteurizing raw products. The
enterprise, named the Wareham Dairy, soon
prospered and has grown to a point where the
partners employ twenty persons, operating
twelve trucks. All varieties of milk products
are marketed, and the dairy produces about
300,000 units a month.
Darrell Wareham married Louise Gilpin of
Taylorville in that city on February 24, 1934.
They have three sons — Rodger Wareham, born
in 1937; Duane Wareham, born in 1941; and
David Wareham, born in 1948.
Mr. Wareham is active in the Taylorville
Association of Commerce and in the Illinois
Dairymen's Association. As a dairy operator
he is giving vital service to his fellow citi-
zens, and he has won great prestige among
them thereby.
JAMES ALBERT CHERRY
In the insurance and real estate business
since March. 1939, whe he was nineteen years
old, James Albert Cherry has become well
known throughout Jackson County. His firm,
known as the Cherry Insurance Agency of
Carbondale, was founded by his father. It was
operated by the father until his death in 1928
and then by the mother before the son took
over. Mr. Cherry attributes much of his suc-
cess to the traditions established by his par-
ents as a pattern for him to follow.
Mr. Cherry was born in Carbondale on De-
cember 1, 1919, the son of Thomas L. and Alice
Sarah (Vanden) Cherry. His father, a native
of Kentucky, lived most of his adult life in
Carbondale.. A civic-minded citizen who did
much for Cardondale, he served on the board
of trustees of Holden Hospital and on the of-
ficial board of the Methodist Church. Alice
Sarah Cherry was a native of Illinois. She died
in April, 1947. Mr. Cherry has three broth-
ers and a sister — Richai-d V. Cherry; George
T. Cherry, an insurance man in Omaha ; Luth-
er A. Cherry, and Alice S. Cherry. Richard
V. Cherry is now associated with his brother
in the insurance and real estate business. He
was formerly an executive with the Western
Adjustment and Inspection Company of Chi-
cago.
James A. Cherry attended the grade and
high schools of Carbondale, graduating from
high school in 1938. He played football, bas-
ketball, track and tennis at high school. For
four months he was a student at Southern
Illinois University in Carbondale, but dropped
out to take over the business his widowed
mother had been operating from 1938 on. Mr.
Cherry became head of this insurance and real
estate firm in March, 1939, eight months be-
fore his twentieth birthday. Since that time
the business has multiplied in volume. He now
employs four persons and in the latter part
of 1948 he had completed six residences and
was planning the development of a new sub-
division for Carbondale.
Mr. Cherry married Mary Coletta Taylor,
the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. T. L. Taylor of
Carbondale in that city on August 30, 1940.
They are the parents of two children — Coletta
Sue born May 17, 1943, and Lucinda Jane
Cherry born Dec. 9, 1947. The family wor-
ships in the First Methodist Church of Car-
bondale.
Mr. Cherry is a member of the Rotary Club
of Carbondale, the Carbondale Business Men's
Association ; the Carbondale Lodge, Benevo-
lent and Protective Order of Elks; the Car-
bondale Lodge, Loyal Order of Moose; Sheki-
nah Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Ma-
sons, and the Jackson Country Club. His fa-
vorite recreations are golf and hunting. He
also likes most other outdoor sports, chiefly
ILLINOIS EDITION
699
as spectator, though he is himself of the ath-
letic type, six feet one inch tall and weighing
two hundred pounds. He has contributed to
the reputation of the Cherry family, first es-
tablished by his parents, and to the develop-
ment of the community.
FREDERICK E. BLOOM
At 201 Adams Street, in Peoria, stands an
institution which has been serving that com-
munity and a region far beyond it since 1890.
This is the renowned B. and M. Department
Store, of which Frederick E. Bloom is presi-
dent. Mr. Bloom not only heads this great busi-
ness but gives leadership to the community
in its business, civic and fraternal life and
is a man who enjoys a reputation for mer-
chandising skill among the merchants of the
nation.
Mr. Bloom was born in Peoria on March
27, 1894, the son of Jacques and Marie
(Asher) Bloom. His father, a native of Alsace-
Lorraine who came to America in his youth
and established himself as a leading citizen of
Illinois, founded The B. and M. Department
Store in 1890. He was president of the com-
pany until his death in 1938. The mother, a
native of Jackson, Mississippi, survives her
husband and continues to make her home in
Peoria.
Frederick Bloom received his early educa-
tion in the elementary and high schools of
Peoria and then studied at Princeton Uni-
versity in New Jersey, emerging with the
Bachelor of Literature degree in 1917. By the
time he took this degree the United States
had entered World War I, and before enter-
ing the business world Mr. Bloom went into
military service. He was overseas first with
the Ambulance Field Service, then with the
Army Motor Transport Corps. He was hon-
orably discharged in August, 1919, with the
rank of Second Lieutenant. The following
month he joined his father in the department
store and has devoted himself to the work
since that time. Founded in 1890, the store
was first known as Bloom and Mayer, but in
1892 took its present name, The B. and M.
Frederick Bloom worked in the store in vari-
ous positions, learning the business, until in
1923 he was made secretary of the corpora-
tion. In 1938, upon the death of his father, he
assumed the presidency. Under his leadership
the store has continued to gain in prestige
and volume of business, and he himself has
made a nationwide reputation as a merchan-
diser and business executive.
On May 8, 1943 at Springfield, Mr. Bloom
married Frances Houy of that city. Mrs.
Bloom's parents are Philip and May (McCor-
mick) Houy. Her father, who is in the jewelry
business, was born in Germany, her mother in
Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. Bloom reside at 120
Kickapoo Street, Peoria, and worship in the
First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Peoria.
Mr. Bloom is not only active in that church
but in various community organizations. He
is a member of the Peoria Association of
Commerce of the United States, the Ivy Club,
the Creve Coeur Club and several masonic
bodies, including the Shrine. An employer of
128 persons, he is the head of one of the few
home-owned businesses in Peoria. He is rated
highly among those who are devoting them-
selves to the building of Peoria and the state.
RAY H. NEISEWANDER
The woodworking shops owned and operated
by Ray H. Neisewander of Springfield are
known throughout a wide section of the state.
Located at Springfield and Dixon, seat of Lee
County, these shops make home kitchen cabi-
nets, overhead garage doors and other items. A
leading member of the woodworking industry
Mr. Neisewander was born in Gibson City,
Ford County, on March 19, 1906, the son of
W. J. and Margaret (Houston) Neisewander,
the former a building contractor and farmer.
Ray Neisewander spent two years at high
school after completing grade school. He
worked on his father's farm and occasionally
in the father's building contracting business
in his school days and for a time afterward.
He left Gibson City and his father's farm
when he was sixteen years old, moving to
Springfield. There he took a job as a drafts-
man in a patent office. This job he gave up
in order to embark on an apprenticeship in
the woodworking trade at the P. A. Wetzel
Company plant in Springfield.
After mastering this trade, Mr. Neisewander
worked not only in Springfield, but also in
Decatur, St. Louis, Chicago and Detroit, as
well as in several other cities. In 1928 he
returned to Springfield and for one year
more worked as an employee. In 1929, he chan-
neled his woodworking skill into a business of
his own, The Capitol Wood Works. He started
his first shop with a capital of $661 saved
after years of work. Renting space in the
rear of a grocery store, he began making
home kitchen cabinets. From there he moved
to larger quarters, where he employed twenty
men. In 1940 Mr. Neisewander built his
present Springfield plant at 1010 East Ed-
700
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
FREDERICK E. BLOOM
RAY H. NEISEWANDER
wards St. He has since added to this structure
several times. In 1944, he and a partner
opened a plant in Quincy. Two years later Mr.
Neisewander, alone, purchased a plant at
Dixon. In 1948, he bought out his partner and
now owns the controlling' stock in his business.
He has consolidated the Quincy plant with the
Dixon plant known as the Raynor Mfg. Co.
and in the latter now employs 200 men. At
Dixon Mr. Neisewander specializes in over-
head garage doors, while at Springfield he
does a general woodworking business which
includes among other things garage doors.
Each plant has about 55,000 square feet of
floor space.
On April 15, 1925, at Springfield, Mr. Neise-
wander married Adrienne Murphy, a native of
that city. Mr. and Mrs. Neisewander, both
of whom worship in the Catholic Church, are
the parents of six children— Margaret, now
Mrs. William Bradley and the mother of Susan
and William Bradley, Jr.; Catherine, now Mrs.
Eddie Vespa and the mother of Eddie Ray
and David Joe Vespa; Ray H. Neisewander,
Jr., born in 1932; Patsy Ann, born in 1933;
Eleanor Mae, born in 1937, and John William,
born in 1938.
Mr. Neisewander is active in the Knights of
Columbus, the Cosmopolitan Club, the Spring-
field Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective
Order of Elks; the Springfield Chamber of
Commerce and the Illinois Manufacturers As-
sociation. Hunting and fishing are his fa-
vorite recreations. One of the best known
men in the Springfield area, Mr. Neisewander
has done much as employer and maker of
vital items to add to the area's wealth and
well-being.
HON. HENRY C. G. SCHRADER
Probably the most widely known abstract
and title man in Illinois, is Henry C. G. Schra-
der of Belleville, Illinois. He is president and
general manager of the St. Clair Guaranty
and Title Company and president of the Sav-
ings and Loan Association of Belleville and
former treasurer of the Belleville Security
Building and Loan Association. He is a man
who throughout his long life has served his
community, county and state in every conceiv-
able capacity, forwarding the cause of educa-
tion, culture, welfare, business and civic de-
velopment and good government. His reputa-
tion as a citizen is national in scope and non-
partisan in character, for he has been called
to the attention of two Democratic Presidents:
Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roo-evelt
and Republican Herbert Hoover.
Mr. Schrader was born October 31, 1868,
in Belleville, the eldest son of Henry E. and
Louise E. (Winter) Schrader. His maternal
grandfather, John Winter, was the proprietor
of the Belleville House, a popular hostelry of
that era. Educated in the public schools, he
went to work in a grocery store in Belleville
in 1884. A few months later he entered the
employ of the former Belleville Stove Works,
however, at the request of his father, who was
then manager of the St. Clair Title Office, he
went to work for that concern on December
1, 1884. His salary was eight dollars a month.
In October, 1886, Mr. Schrader left Belleville,
Illinois to work for Haddock, Vallette and
Rickords, a title company in Chicago. In his
time with this firm, the name was changed
to Security Title and Trust Company, and
thus Mr. Schrader was gaining experience in
the field in which he is so renowned.
In April, 1898, Mr. Schrader returned to
Belleville and the St. Clair Title Office, still
under his father's management. In 1903 when
the Mississippi flood drove out the inhabitants
of East St. Louis and adjoining lowlands Mr.
Schrader was made Special Chief of Belleville's
Police to care for the housing and feeding of
the homeless numbering in the hundreds. In
1907 he was elected vice-president of the Good
Government and Improvement Association, in
recognition of his leadership in civic and public
affairs. In 1909, he became a member of the
Library Board and was instrumental in start-
ing a movement to obtain a Carnegie gift re-
sulting in the present library building. He
served on the Board till 1913. In 1909, too,
he became assistant manager of the St. Clair
Title Office and later as manager, succeeded
his father who retired at the age of seventy.
In 1910 Mr. Schrader, with other citizens,
organized the Memorial Day Association, of
which he was elected and has been president
ever since. Since his election to the presiden-
cy, Mr. Schrader, at the request of the G.A.R.
has exemplified the ritual of that organiza-
tion at the graves of its members, acting for
the enfeebled members still living, until the
last survivor was laid to rest in 1943. On
May 30, 1944, at the Memorial Day Exercises
he was presented with an Army Distinguished
Service Medal by the Veterans of Foreign
Wars in recognition of his services on Memo-
rial Day for over thirty-four years.
In 1913 he was made president of the Belle-
ville Commercial Club, and in his three term
administration the International Shoe Com-
pany plant was brought to Belleville. In 1913,
also, Mr. Schrader became treasurer of the
ILLINOIS EDITION
705
Belleville Security Building and Loan Associa-
tion and of the Illinois Abstractors' Associa-
tion. In 1917 he was elected Exalted Ruler
of the Belleville Lodge, No. 481, B.P.O.E., and
represented the Lodge at the Atlantic City
convention two years later. He has been a
trustee of the lodge for over forty years and
was a member of the building committee that
erected the lodge building on West Lincoln
Street. He was chairman of entertainment
programs for men leaving for the armed forces
and served on the Draft Board by appoint-
ment of President Wilson. In 1917 he was
made vice-president of the Illinois Abstrac-
tor's Association and in 1918 president. In
1918 he was elected president of the War
Camp Community Service.
Mr. Schrader's present company, the St.
Clair Guaranty and Title Company, was
formed in 1919. He joined with others in or-
ganizing this firm which was an amalgama-
tion of the St. Clair Title Office; Donovan-
Guignon Title Company and Wolleson-Wolf
Abstract Company. He was elected the first
president, and has been president ever since.
In November, 1920, Mr. Schrader was made
secretary of the Citizen's Building and Loan
Association and, being a recognized authority
on loan matters throughout Illinois, he is now
president of that organization under the name
of the Citizens Savings and Loan Associa-
tion. In June 1932, Mr. Schrader was elected
vice-president of the Title Examiner's Section
of the Illinois Title Association and in July,
1933, was elected president of the section. He
considers this the highest honor that can come
to anyone in his profession.
In his continued service to the community,
Mr. Schrader served on the Committee of the
Greater Belleville Board of Trade, through
which he participated and led in civic group
amalgamations into what is today known as
the Belleville Chamber of Commerce. In 1923
he became a member and president of the
Belleville Park Board and in 1925 of the Ro-
tary Club. In May 1950, Mr. Schrader was
presented with a gold pin in recognition of his
thirty years-100% attendance as a member of
the Belleville Rotary Club. In 1930 he became
vice-president and in 1931 president of the
Belleville Area Boy Scouts of America, and
in 1950 he was presented with a thirty-five
year service pin, prior to which he had been
honored with the Silver Beaver Award by the
National Council of the Boy Scouts of Amer-
ica.
On January 31, 1933 Mr. Schrader was
named personal ambassador by President
Hoover to make the President's Award to the
Belleville Area Council. In 1930 he became a
member of the Zoning Commission, in 1931
president of the Builders club and in 1931 he
was elected to the office of president of the
Board of Education, a position his father had
also held, and served as such for ten consecu-
tive years until 1941.
Mr. Schrader was one of the donors of the
26-acre site known as Belleville Park to the
city in 1922. In 1933 he became a member of
the Mediation Board for the city under the
National Recovery Act and in 1934 he was
President Roosevelt's personal ambassador in
the making of the Boy Scout Award. In De-
cember 1934, Mr. Schrader celebrated the 50th
anniversary of his entrance into the title busi-
ness. In 1949 he had been in the title business
65 years.
Mr. Schrader is the oldest active ex-presi-
dent of the Illinois Title Association, and with
the exception of the noon hour and other meal
times he spends eight hours daily at his of-
fice excepting Saturdays and Sundays. He is
probably the most widely known abstract and
title man in Illinois and his reputation for
painstaking and accuracy extends to the bor-
ders of the nation and the services rendered
by his company are recognized by all financial
institutions as beyond criticism. His opinion
in title matters is sought by lawyers and lay-
men alike. He has never aspired to public
office with remuneration, although having
been approached many times. He preferred
to give his services to his community without
compensation. He has received the highest type
of recognition not only in his title field but
in the great general field of citizenship.
RAYMOND W. FRANK
A noted insurance man who is a Life Mem-
ber of the Million Dollar Round Table, Ray-
mond W. Frank is General Agent for the
State Mutual Life Assurance Company of
Worcester, Massachusetts, at Chicago. He is
well known in the business life of Chicago
and at Wilmette, where he makes his home.
Mr. Frank, born at Freeport, Illinois, on
June 29, 1903, is the son of William Albert and
Dora (Wachlin) Frank. His father, a native
of Stephenson County, was a mason contrac-
tor. In the Spanish-American War he served
with Company L, Illinois Militia. He was
prominent in Masonic and Elks circles in
Northern Illinois. The insurance executive at-
tended Freeport High School and the Univer-
sity of Illinois School of Commerce, graduat-
ing from the latter in 1925 with the degree of
70f.
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
RAYMOND W. FRANK
JACOB HENRY IRIONS
Bachelor of Science. He was elected to Theta
Xi and Delta Sigma Pi Fraternities at the
university.
In 1925 Mr. Frank entered the life insur-
ance business as an agent at Champaign. On
January 1, 1927, he was made district agent
of the Equitable Life Insurance Company of
Iowa at Freeport. On July 1, 1929, he became
associated with the Chicago agency of the
State Mutual Life Assurance Company of
Worcester. He was promoted to supervisor of
agents on June 1, 1936, and to General Agent
on October 2, 1944.
Only two years or so after beginning his
career, Mr. Frank married Leone A. Donner,
daughter of Edward and Alvina Donner. The
wedding took place in Geneva, Illinois, on
July 5, 1927. Mrs. Frank, also a University
of Illinois graduate, is active in sorority work
and is a writer of verse and a book reviewer.
Mi-. Frank is a member of the Methodist
Church, Mrs. P>ank of the Catholic. Their
home is at 1315 Richmond Lane, Wilmette.
In the course of his insurance career, Mr.
Frank constantly aimed at the coveted goal
of all insurance men, membership in the Mil-
lion Dollar Round Table. In 1941 he quali-
fied for such membership and in 1944 he was
made a Life Member. In 1944, too, he served
as president of the Life Agency Supervisors
of Chicago. In the year 1949-'50 he was presi-
dent of the Life Agency Managers Association
of Chicago. He is also a former director of
the Chicago Life Underwriters Association.
He holds the thirty-second degree in Masonry
and is a member of the North Shore Country
Club at Glenview. Mr. Frank usually votes
Republican. Golf is his favorite game. His
garden and photography are his hobbies, but
perhaps the form of relaxation he likes most
is travel. A builder of the insurance business,
he is a builder of the nation — and outstanding
citizen among Illinoisans of note.
JACOB HENRY IRIONS
Holder of a position of great influence in the
construction industry in the Illinois Valley,
Jacob Henry Irions of Chillicothe and Peoria
is the owner of three companies operating in
this vital field, one of which he founded him-
self. The firm he purchased is now called the
Irions Concrete Block Company and is lo-
cated at Chillicothe, the other is the Irions
Quality Concrete Company at Peoria and the
third is also in Chillicothe. All three of these
concerns are contributing to the development
of the Peoria trading territory, which covers
an extensive area of the state. Mr. Irions is
a leading participant in civic affairs in both
the communities in which he maintains busi-
nesses.
Born at nearby Congerville on July 2, 1911,
Mr. Irions is the son of Albert J. and Lillie
(Evelsizer) Irions. Both parents are still
living at Congerville, where Albert Irions is
a farmer. Albert Irions is a native of Con-
gerville, Lillie Irions of Woodford County,
Illinois. Jacob Henry Irions was educated in
a primary school at his birthplace and until
he was nineteen years of age worked with his
father on the family farm. In 1931 he entered
the employ of the enterprise then known as
the East Peoria Sand and Gravel Company,
and by 1935 had learned the business to such
an extent that he was made superintendent.
In that same year he established the Irions
Concrete Block Company in Chillicothe and
operated this without relinquishing his super-
vision over the East Peoria Sand and Gravel
Company. In 1948 he purchased the latter con-
cern and a year later changed its name to
Irions Quality Concrete Company. Mr. Irions
maintains a headquarters for his three busi-
nesses at 418 First National Bank Building
in Peoria, continuing to operate plants and
branch offices in Chillicothe. The Irions Quality
Concrete Company handles ready-mixed con-
crete, employing twenty-two persons. The
Chillicothe firms produce concrete blocks now
so popular in construction; it employs thirty
persons. Mr. Irions is president of all three
corporations.
On July 30, 1930, Mr. Irions married Luella
Gibbons, a native of Hanna City, Peoria
County, and the daughter of John and Fern
(McAlister) Gibbons. Mrs. Irions' father, who
was born in England, established the East
Peoria Sand and Gravel Company in 1920.
He died in 1946, and is survived by his widow,
a native of Hanna City now making her home
in Morton. Mr. and Mrs. Irions are the parents
of two sons — Donald Lee Irions, born on April
3, 1931, and Gerald Richard Irions, born on
December 27, 1933. The family worships in
the Methodist Church.
Mr. Irions is active in the Chillicothe Cham-
ber of Commerce, the Peoria Association of
Commerce, the Illinois State Chamber of
Commerce and other organizations. Fishing
is his favorite sport. His home is at 918
North Fourth Street, Chillicothe. He main-
tains a splendid record of business and civic
achievement and is a highly respected citi-
zen of his region.
ILLINOIS EDITION
711
HON. WILLIAM PAUL BUCHANAN,
A.B., LL.B.
An attorney, insurance man and public
official, the Honorable William Paul Buc-
hanan of Peoria has served his community and
state in a manner which has brought him con-
siderable prestige. He is a former Alderman
of the City of Peoria and a former member
of the Illinois State Liquor Control Commis-
sion. He is one of the leading figures at the
bar in Peoria County and as founder and
operator of Buchanan and Company has equal
rank in the insurance world. Buchanan and
Company specialize in insurance coverages on
financial institutions in the Middle West.
Born at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on Janu-
ary 31, 1913, William Paul Buchanan is the
son of William C. and Pansy B. (Blough)
Buchanan, both of whom were also born in
that Keystone State community. His father is
president of the Globe Steel Tube Company
of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Mr. Buchanan and
his family moved about a great deal in his
early years, with the result that he went
to elementary school at Warren, Ohio, and
high school at Peoria. He attended Culver
Military Academy in 1926. For his pre-legal
studies he attended the University of Illinois,
which in 1934 awarded him the degree of
Bachelor of Arts, and for his professional
work he matriculated at the University of
South Dakota, Vermillion, taking the degree
of Bachelor of Laws in 1936. Returning to
Peoria and obtaining admission to the Illinois
State Bar that same year, Mr. Buchanan be-
gan his practice of law then and has con-
tinued to the present time, with ever-increas-
ing success and prestige. In 1938, he estab-
lished Buchanan and Company, now one of
the area's most successful insurance firms. His
office is in the Jefferson Building, Peoria.
On December 30, 1939, at Peoria, Mr. Buch-
anan married Imogene L. Squire of that city
and they have become the parents of two
children — William Paul Buchanan, Jr., who
was born on April 14, 1941, and Mary Irene
Buchanan, who was born on February 1,
1946. The family resides at 419 Columbia
Terrace, Peoria, and worships in the Presby-
terian Church.
Though he began the practice of law only
in 1936 Mr. Buchanan rose to prominence and
community leadership so rapidly that within
three years he was elected to the Peoria City
Board of Aldermen. He served on that body
from 1939 to 1943. In 1942 the Governor ap-
pointed him to the Illinois State Liquor Con-
trol Commission and he held office until 1946.
He is active in the Peoria Bar Association, the
Illinois State Bar Association, the Ivy Club,
the University Club of Peoria and various
Masonic bodies, among them the Shrine. Also,
he is a member of the Peoria Association of
Commerce and Phi Delta Phi Fraternity.
Among his favorite recreations are fishing,
hunting and boating. His activities have en-
abled him to promote, in most effective and
concrete fashion, the public good in his adopted
state.
IRVIN J. BOWER
Many names are outstanding in Central
Illinois but none is better known than Irvin
J. Bower's. For Mr. Bower, who is in the
automotive parts and equipment business in
conjunction with which he operates an auto-
motive machine shop, has served a large area
through that business, while also giving serv-
ice in civic fields, in his church and in his
municipality. He is president of the Bower
Automotive Company at Bloomington, the seat
of his native McLean County.
Mr. Bower was born on a farm in that
county on March 7, 1898, the son of Charles
and Mollie (Allison) Bower. Both his parents
were also natives of McLean County. His
father, who died in 1937, was not only a
farmer but also a grain dealer and the
operator of a general store. The mother died
on August 23, 1943. Irvin J. Bower began
his education in a country school in McLean
County, some distance from his native farm.
Later, he attended and was graduated from
the high school at Stanford, one of the com-
munities in the county, and he finished his
education at Illinois Wesleyan University at
Bloomington, where he spent two semesters.
When the United States entered World War
I, Mr. Bower joined the armed forces and
after the war worked as a mechanic for
an automobile dealer.
In 1920 he started to work for the E. B.
Collins Company of Blooming-ton as salesman,
followed by seventeen years as manager. In
1938 he bought out the company, which he
operated for a decade as the Bower-Collins
Company. In 1948 he moved the business to
a new building which he had constructed for
it at 305 South Center Street, Bloomington,
and renamed it the Bower Automotive Com-
pany. The concern, in addition to operating
its automotive machine shop, is wholesale
distributor in the Bloomington trade terri-
tory of automotive parts, garage and service
station supplies, tools, machinery and equip-
ment. It employs seventeen persons. On
712
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
HON. WILLIAM PAUL BUCHANAN, A.B., LL.B.
IRVIN J. BOWER
October 23, 1920, at Bloomington Mr. Bower
married Pearl Mitchell, a native of the
community. Mrs. Bower is the daughter of
Isaac Johnson and Emma Jeanette (Rogers)
Mitchell. Both her parents were born in Mc-
Lean County, as she was herself. Mr. Mitchell,
a farmer and general store operator, died in
1929 ; Mrs. Mitchell died in 1937. Mr. and Mrs.
Bower are the parents of three children —
Laurel Bee Bower, who was born on July 5,
1930; Emily Sue Bower, who was born on
September 7, 1933, and Alice Ann Bower, born
on November 20, 1934. The Bovvers, who live
at 33 Country Club Place, Bloomington, wor-
ship in the Methodist Church.
Mr. Bower is a member of the Board of
trustees of the Church. Also, he has served
on the Building Committee of the Wesley
Methodist Church. He is a former president
of the Rotary Club of Bloomington, and is
active also in the Bloomington Association of
Commerce, the Illinois State Chamber of
Commerce, the American Legion, the Bloom-
ington Country Club, and the Masonic order
in which he has attained the thirty-second de-
gree. His hobby is stamp collecting and his
favorite outdoor activities are golf and fish-
ing. Mr. Bower has won an outstanding
place in the contemporary history of Central
Illinois.
ALBERT CHARLES BECKEN, JR.
Renowned in the business world, Albert
Charles Becken, Jr., of Chicago, is especially
well known in the wholesale jewelry business
across the nation. He is managing partner
of A. C. Becken, Jr., Wholesale Jewelers, 35
East Wacker Drive, Chicago. A leading stu-
dent at the University of Illinois in his col-
lege days, Mr. Becken continues interested
in education, in college athletics and in fra-
ternity activities. He has headed fraternity
units and various jewelry trade organizations.
Chicago is Mr. Becken 's native city. Born
on November 10, 1898, he is the son of Albert
Charles and Grace R. (Huntley) Becken. His
father, born in Buffalo, New York, was also
a wholesale jeweler. The mother, a native of
Pennsylvania, was the daughter of George
William and Luzerne Huntley. After attend-
ing Park Ridge, Illinois elementary and high
schools, Mr Becken studied for the Bachelor
of Science degree at the University of Illinois,
winning the degree in 1920. He also did post-
graduate work at Northwestern University.
At Urbana, he was senior baseball manager
and secretary of the Athletic Board of Con-
trol and was elected to Chi Psi Fraternity.
He has made his entire career in the whole-
sale jewelry business and as managing part-
ner of A. C. Becken, Jr., Wholesale Jewelers,
has become known in the trade in every cor-
ner of the United States.
On March 26, 1923, in Chicago, Illinois,
Mr. Becken married Mary Louise Webb, the
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Leslie Webb.
The Beckens make their home at 353 Green-
wood Avenue, Glencoe. Both Mr. and Mrs.
Becken are prominent in the civic and social
life of that community, and they worship in
the North Shore Methodist Church there. Of
this church Mr. Becken is a trustee. Mrs.
Becken is past president of the Woman's So-
ciety of the church and is past treasurer of the
Glencoe Thrift Shop, an enterprise of the
Women's Library Club of Glencoe. Mr. and
Mrs. Becken are the parents of two sons —
Charles Webb Becken, who married Ruth
Halls and is the father of Christine Louise
Becken, and Leslie Webb Becken; and Albert
Charles Becken, III, who is unmarried.
Albert Charles Becken, Jr., is one of the
most influential men in the National Whole-
sale Jewelers' Association. Former president
of that organization, he is currently on its
Advisory Board. He is also a former presi-
dent of the Chicago Jewelers' Association and
the Golden Roostei's of the jewelry trade.
Another organization of which he is former
president is the Chi Psi Corporation of the
University of Illinois. At one time he served
on the Glencoe Caucus Committee and is cur-
rently on the Glencoe Caucus Advisory Coun-
cil. In addition to the organizations men-
tioned, he is a member of the Skokie Country
Club at Glencoe and of various Masonic bod-
ies. Holder of the thirty-second Masonic de-
gree, he is a Noble of Medinah Temple, An-
cient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic
Shrine, in Chicago. In World War I, Mr. Beck-
en reached the point where he was preparing
for a commission at the Central Infantry Offi-
cers' Training School, Camp MacArthur, Wa-
co, Texas, when the Armistice ended the war
and his military career. He is a Republican.
Golf and fishing and travel are his main recre-
ational interests. Mr. Becken occupies as high
a place in Chicago's community development
as in the jewelry business.
JOHN FRANK HANFT
One of the business leaders of Coles County,
John Frank Hanft is the operator of a large
jewelry business in Charleston, the county
seat. He is one of Charleston's most active
citizens and is noted for his active interest
ILLINOIS EDITION
717
in health and welfare work and in other
civic programs.
Mr. Hanft was born in Iowa on Novem-
ber 12, 1898, the son of J. T. Hanft, a con-
tractor, and Mae (Stevens ) Hanft. He went
through elementary and high school, and in
his latter years at school played football and
baseball and was a track man. Mr. Hanft
went into the jewelry business when he was
still in high school. Today he has the large
and successful business bearing his name,
with both his sons, F. Keith Hanft and Roddy
E. Hanft, as partners. At one time, J. Frank
Hanft was in business with his brother, E. H.
Hanft, at Warsaw, Indiana.
On June 8, 1920, Mr. Hanft married Besse
Mae Leffler, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George
Leffler. Mrs. Hanft is active in the Methodist
Church in Charleston. Their home is at 1513
Eleventh Street, in that city. Of their two
sons, F. Keith Hanft is the older. He married
Bargara Schneider of Devils Lake, North
Dakota and is the father of Everett Byron
Hanft, born in 1948. The younger son, Roddy
E. Hanft, married Harriet Brooks of Ingle-
wood, California and is the father of Michael
K. Hanft.
J. Frank Hanft is as well known among
jewelers as he is in the civic life of Coles
County, and is a prominent member of the
American Diamond Guild. In 1950-1951 he
was president of the Charleston Chamber of
Commerce. He had previously served on its
board of directors. In the 1949 fund-raising
campaign of the Coles County Chapter, Amer-
ican Red Cross, he was the chairman who
successfully led the volunteer workers "over
the top." He is a former governor of the
Charleston Lodge, Loyal Order of Moose, and
is also active in the Charleston Country
Club. At one time he was a member of the
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Mr.
Hanft has two favorite sports, hunting and
fishing, and he indulges in both as often
as possible in Minnesota and South Dakota.
He is recognized as a hard-working citizen
who has made an outstanding contribution
toward the development of Downstate Illinois.
HENRY GETZ SOMMER
The products of the Keystone Steel and
Wire Company of Bartonville are known
throughout the United States and in many
foreign countries. Interwoven with the repu-
tation of the company is the name of Som-
mer, for the father of Henry Getz Sommer
718
was one of the founders. Today, Mr. Som-
mer is chairman of the board of directors
and one of the eminent figures in the indus-
try.
Mr. Sommer was born at Peoria on August
22, 1897, the son of Peter W. and Elizabeth
(Getz) Sommer. His father, who was a native
of Fairbury, in Livingston County, partici-
pated in the founding of the company in 1889
and was its first secretary and treasurer.
Later he was president. He died in April,
1924. Tne mother, who was born at Tremont,
Tazewell County, died in 1941. Henry Getz
Sommer's great-grandfather, whose home was
in Tremont, was one of the first men in the
United States to make wire fence. Mr. Som-
mer is a graduate of Peoria's elementary and
high schools. Also, he spent three years at
Bradley College in Peoria. In 1917, when he
was twenty years old, he went to work for
the Keystone Steel and Wire Company, Inc.,
at Bartonville. He was employed in various
departments until his election as treasurer
in 1928. In 1946, he was made chairman of
the board. Mr. Sommer's leadership has
helped to extend the prestige and operations
of this great company, which operates not
only in the American but also in the foreign
trade and which employs twenty-two hundred
persons. The company has such subsidiaries
as National Locker Company at Rockford, Illi-
nois, and Mid States Steel and Wire Company
at Crawfordsville, Indiana.
On November 20, 1917, Mr. Sommer mar-
ried Dorothy Wilson of Terre Haute, Indiana,
the daughter of William E. Wilson, a native
of Mattoon, Illinois, who was in the paper
business until his death in 1906, and Mary
Ann (Hudson) Wilson, a native of Worces-
ter, England, who died in October, 1907. Mr.
and Mrs. Sommer became the parents of three
children — Paul Wilson Sommer, born on No-
vember 15, 1920, who married Anne Nugent;
Peter William Sommer, born on September
4, 1924, who married Mary Lou Frederick
and was killed while on duty with the United
States military forces in England on January
20, 1945; and Marjorie Jane Sommer, who
was born on October 16, 1927. The Sommer
home is at 130 Edgehill Court, Peoria.
Mr. Sommer is a member of the Peoria
Association of Commerce, the Illinois State
Chamber of Commerce, the American Iron
and Steel Institute, the Peoria Country Club
and the Creve Coeur Club. Science and math-
ematics are his hobbies. He ranks among the
nation's leading manufacturers.
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
■■■■
JOHN FRANK HANFT
ORVILLE JOSEPH HAYES
ORVILLE JOSEPH HAYES
The Hayes name is one of the best known
in the poultry world today. Orville Joseph
Hayes, the oldest of five brothers in this indus-
try, took the family into a hatchery business
a few years after World War I and from that
time has been a leader among poultry men.
The business, called the Hayes Brothers
Hatchery, has its headquarters at 405 South
Water Street, Decatur ,and from there are
shipped by rail, truck, parcel post and air
millions of chicks annually, some of them
going1 not only into distant parts of the
United States but even into foreign lands.
O. J. Hayes is prominent not only in this
industry but in the community at large. He
is a veteran of World War I.
Mr. Hayes was born in Morrisonville, Chris-
tian County, on August 10, 1893, the son of
Arthur Gilmore and Stella Arilla (Williams)
Hayes. His father was born March 21, 1868,
the son of Calvin Hayes, and his mother was
born July 15, 1872, the daughter of Joseph
and Emily (Hall) Williams. After going
through the country grade schools, Butler
High School and Brown's Business College,
0. J. Hayes became an office worker for the
Standard Oil Company in Decatur. He was
there when the United States entered World
War I and, taking a military leave of ab-
sence, he went into the 30th Infantry, with
which he served from August 1, 1918, to
October 6, 1919. After the war, Mr. Hayes
continued on his job with Standard Oil, but,
dissatisfied with office work, left in 1921 to go
into the hatchery business. Within a few ye^irs
all five of the Hayes brothers were in busi-
ness together, M. C. Hayes, S. R. Hayes, D.
A. Hayes, J. R. Hayes, with 0. J. Hayes head-
ing the organization they called Hayes Broth-
ers Hatchery. Mr. Hayes began with two
small incubators, one holding 130 eggs, the
other 240 eggs. The present capacity of the
Hayes Brothers Hatcheries is 5,316,000 eggs
at one setting, with 15,000,000 to 20,000,000
chicks hatched annually. Their plants are lo-
cated at Decatur, Springfield, Champaign,
Pana, Centralia, Bloomington, Vandalia, all
in Illinois and Portland, Indiana. Shipping
is done chiefly by parcel post, with selling
by mail, but other forms of transportation are
also used, the entire United States being
covered. Those foreign countries which can
be reached by air are also in the trading
territory of Hayes Brothers Hatchery, which
is one of the best known in its field in
America.
O. J. Hayes married Agnes B. Costello, the
daughter of Michael and Wilhelmina Costello,
in Decatur on March 16, 1918. Mrs. Hayes
was born on March 14, 1896. Three daughters
have been born to the marriage. They are
Gwendolyn, born November 8, 1922, now the
wife of Edwin Cummings and to whom a son,
William Wingate, was born on October 29,
1942, and a daughter, Annette Sue, on July 10,
1948; Nancy, born on October 23, 1928, now
the wife of James Duncan ; and Dolores, born
on April 21, 1931. Mr. and Mrs. Hayes reside
at 1516 West Macon Street, Decatur. They
worship in Grace Methodist Church. Mr.
Hayes and brothers have been recognized as
foremost among those who are making an
important contribution to the American poul-
try industry and the American food supply.
JAMES WALTER WARD
It took a loan of one hundred dollars, back
in 1917, to put James Walter Ward in the
transportation business at Murphysboro. To-
day he is one of the oldest and best known
truckers in Southern Illinois. With his two
sons, Lavern, and Elmer Ward, as partners, he
operates under the name of J. W. Ward Trans-
fer and is himself general manager of the
enterprise. He is one of Murphysboro's civic
leaders, and is a member of the City Council:
Born at Ava, Jackson County, on October
26, 1886, Mr. Ward is the son of Ellis M. and
Mary (Lindsey) Ward. His father, also a
native of Illinois, was a farmer prominent
in the Baptist Church. The mother's family
came from Kentucky. Mr. Ward was the
second born among six children, the others
having been, in the order of their birth, Cenie;
Homer, now deceased; Myrtle, Maymie and
Clarence. Educated in the public schools of
Ava, Mr. Ward went to work at an early
age in a flour mill there. After three years,
he left to become a brakeman for the Mobile
and Ohio Railroad. This job he held for four
years, and then for three years he was ship-
ping clerk in a wholesale house in Murphys-
boro. On August 10, 1917, having box-rowed
that hundred dollars, he purchased a wagon
and team of horses and went into his present
field of business. He did so well so quickly
that in 1918 he was able to motorize his
equipment. Today he operates seven trucks and
maintains a modern warehouse with fourteen
thousand square feet of floor space. In addi-
tion to his two sons, who went into the busi-
ness as partners after twenty-nine years of
successful operation, Mr. Ward employs seven
men and two women. He has made the name
ILLINOIS
EDITION
723
J. W. Ward and Sons known throughout
Southern Illinois, and even in more distant
regions.
Mr. Ward married Dora E. Carter, daugh-
ter of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Carter of Ava.
The four sons are his oldest children, in this
order: Leslie, Raymond, Elmer and Lavern.
There are also three daughters — Nadine,
Chresta and Neona Ward. Mr. Ward has
fourteen grandchildren of which he is very
proud. Like his father before him, Mr. Ward
is prominent in the Baptist Church, and he
is secretary of his Sunday School class. The
entire Ward family worships in this church.
Mr. Ward, always active in civic affairs
and a Democrat, was elected to the Murphys-
boro City Council in 1943, and has been re-
elected. He is constantly seeking to improve
the city and is noted among his fellow citi-
zens for his sincere public interest. He is
active in the Motor Carriers Service Associa-
tion, the Jackson County Farm Bureau, the
National Truckers Association, the Murphys-
boro Chamber of Commerce and the Masonic
Blue Lodge. He is a great baseball enthusiast.
In his quiet way, Mr. Ward gets things done —
in his own business and in the community at
large — and hence is a respected, popular citi-
zen.
HON. GEORGE ERNEST LUEHRS
A coal dealer with a tremendous sense of
civic duty, George Ernest Luehrs has for
years given extraordinary service to his na-
tive city and county — Kankakee and Kanka-
kee County. He is the operator of the Luehrs
Coal Company in Kankakee and holds such
important public offices as the presidency of
the Kankakee County School District and the
chairmanship of the Kankakee County Board
of Supervisors. He has headed all the major
civic groups in the city and has been a leader
in civic, welfare and recreational endeavors.
Mr. Luehrs was born in Kankakee on Feb-
ruary 14, 1887, the son of the late Henry C.
Luehrs. He was educated in the city's public
schools, graduating from the Kankakee High
School. After completing his education, Mr.
Luehrs became assistant cashier of the Legris
Brothers Bank, a private bank in Kankakee.
He remained with this business until in 1921
when the new Illinois state laws prohibited
the operation of private banks. Back in 1910
Mr. Luehrs, in association with his father and
his late brother, Harry C. Luehrs, established
the Luehrs Coal Company in Kankakee, and
since 1921 he has devoted himself to this en-
terprise.
In May, 1910, he married Josephine E.
Kramer, a native of Illinois. They have four
daughters — Eleanor, the wife of Charles E.
Marson and mother of Alice, Susan and Rob-
ert Marson; Edna Mae, the wife of Norman
Roski and mother of Jeffrey and Pamela Ros-
ki; Katherine, the wife of Gerhard J. Paulis-
sen and mother of George Paulissen; and
Helen, the wife of Hamilton K. Wheeler and
mother of Hamilton and Sally Wheeler. The
family worships in the First Baptist Church.
One of the most active and civic-minded
men in Kankakee, Mr. Luehrs served as chair-
man of the Kankakee County Rationing
Board in World War II, and since 1938 has
been chairman of the Kankakee County
Board of Supervisors and is now president
of the Kankakee County School District. He
is a former president of the Rotary Club of
Kankakee, the Kankakee Chamber of Com-
merce and the Kankakee Young Men's Chris-
tian Association. There has hardly been one
important civic movement that has not had
his participation or leadership, and there are
few men in the entire county who are more
popular or influential than he.
HON. VERNON L. NICKELL, Ed.D.
From the modest post of rural school teacher
the Honorable Vernon L. Nickell has risen to
the high office of Superintendent of Public In-
struction of the State of Illinois, with head-
quarters at Springfield. In addition to giving
leadership to the cause of education in the
state, he is prominently active in civic, reli-
gious and fraternal organizations in both the
capitol and his home city, Champaign.
Born at Bellflower on March 2, 1891, Mr.
Nickell is the son of Elias D. and Ida Mae
(Lewis) Nickell. He began his education in
rural schools, continued at Farmer City and
Wesleyan Academy in Bloomington. He grew
up on his father's farm and in early youth
began earning his livelihood by doing farm
chores. These helped to pay for his education.
After three years at Illinois Wesleyan Univer-
sity, Mr. Nickell went to Illinois State Nor-
mal University, where he took the Bachelor
of Education degree. Later he was awarded
the Master of Arts degree at the University
of Illinois and in 1944 he received the hon-
orary degree of Doctor of Education at Illi-
nois Wesleyan.
As a rural teacher for eight years, and later
superintendent of village schools, Mr. Nickell
acquired a pi'actical knowledge of rural educa-
tional needs and problems. His executive abil-
ity and success as a teacher were recognized
724
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
JAMES WALTER WARD
HON. VERNON L. NICKELL, Ed.D.
in Eastern Illinois and subsequently he was
called to a broader field, Champaign, where
he was principal of the city elementary and
special schools and later principal of the
Junior High School. In 1930, he was appointed
superintendent of schools of Champaign, an
office he held twelve years. On January 1,
1943, he assumed the office of Superintendent
of Public Instruction, and he has since cap-
tured national attention through his able
administration of the post.
In 1916 Mr. Nickell married Leta 0. Nof-
zigger of Bloomington. They have two daugh-
ters— Geraldine Nickell and Maxine, who is
now Mrs. Thomas Riggs. The family worships
in the Methodist Church.
Mr. Nickell is active in many spheres. He
is chairman of the State Teachers Examining
Board and ex-officio member of the board of
trustees of the University of Illinois. He has
served on many important committees of the
Illinois Educational Association and was its
president in 1942-43. He was a state delegate
to the National Education Association for
many years, and also served on various com-
mittees of that group. He is a former presi-
dent of the City Superintendents Association
of Illinois and a prominent member of the
Illinois School Masters Club. In his civic
work he has also held impoi-tant offices. He
is past president of the Champaign County
Tuberculosis Association and past president of
the Arrowhead Council, Boy Scouts of Amer-
ica, and was a director of Burnham City Hos-
pital Nursing School. He is a member of Phi
Delta Kappa, Kappa Delta Pi and Kappa
Phi Kappa. He is a Republican, Mason and
an Elk. That he has been re-elected to the
office of State Superintendent of Public In-
struction is but one indication of the popularity
and success of Mr. Nickell in that office. He
has done much to expand the state's program
to increase transportation for pupils and
thus expand educational opportunities, to de-
velop the school lunch programs and the edu-
cation of exceptional children and to further
develop the tremendous vocational education
system, agricultural, business and otherwise,
and the work of training veterans of World
War II.
ALBERT GRAVES STORME
A leading figure among the funeral di-
rectors of Illinois, Albert Graves Storme, own-
er and operator of the Albert G. Storme Fun-
eral Home at Herrin, seat of Williamson
County, is also an outstanding figure in his
community. He is active in banking, in edu-
cational and welfare work, and in the rent
control program. He is a former member of
i he Illinois State Board of Examiners of Em-
balmers and a former president of the Illinois
State Funeral Directors Association, and
through both these organizations contributed
to the elevation of standards in his profession.
He continues to give leadership to his work
as a member of the association's advisory
board.
Mr. Storme was born in Trigg County, Ken-
tucky, on September 10, 1882 the seventh of
the eight children of William Albert and Sere-
tha (Sizemore) Storme. He was a twin, his
twin brother being Elbert Storme. The other
children of the family, both heads of which
were also natives of Kentucky, were: Charity,
Cordus, Lee; Luther, now deceased; Elbert,
who has been County Clerk of Williamson
County since 1927; Clyde now deceased, and
Wylie. Albert Storme was educated in the
public schools of Williamson County, where
his father was a farmer.
He worked on the family farm until he was
twenty years old and then for a coal mine
for six years. For five years more he served
as manager of the dry goods department of
the Elles Store Company in Herrin. In 1912
he attended the Worsham School of Embalm-
ing in Chicago and the following year entered
his present field of business, establishing the
Albert G. Storme Funeral Home in Herrin.
Mr. Storme married Hallie Crowell, a
native of Williamson County, early in his
career. Two daughters were born to them —
Eva Marie and Ruth Wilma, both now mar-
ried. In 1928, Mr. Storme married Lila Van
Natta. Mr. Storme's grandchildren are; Jacky
Saylor, daughter of Eva Marie Saylor; Thomas
Albert and Frank Elbert Colombo.
Mr. Storme has been on the advisory board
of the State funeral directors organization
since 192 1. He is also active in the National
Funeral Directors Association. He served for
seven years on the State examining board.
He is a charter member and past president
of the Herrin Rotary Club, and has not mis-
sed a meeting of this organization in a quar-
ter century. He is on the board of directors
of the Herrin Chamber of Commerce and the
board of deacons of the First Christian
Church of Herrin, and has participated in Red
Cross campaigns and other civic activities.
He was president of the Herrin Board of Edu-
cation at the time the Lincoln School was
built. In World War II, he worked on Bond
Drives ar-.d served on the OPA rationing panel.
Currently, he is on the rent control board for
ILLINOIS EDITION
729
Williamson County. Also, he is a director of
the Bank of Herrin. Mr. Storme is vice-presi-
dent of the Federal Home Loan Association
and a member of the Williamson County Hous-
ing Authority — vice president of same. He be-
longs to the Masonic Blue Lodge and the
Royal Arch Masons, and is a Republican. He
is a man who believes in service and through
his devotion to it has become an important
citizen in his area.
EARL M. SCHWEMM
A famous name in the life insurance field is
that of Earl M. Schwemm of Chicago. He
is Agency Manager for the Great-West Life
Assurance Company's Chicago Agency. He is
one of the most influential members of insur-
ance men's organizations in the Chicago terri-
tory and in the State as a whole and is very
well known in insurance circles throughout
the United States and Canada. He is a promi-
nent citizen of both Chicago and his home
community, Barrington, Illinois.
Mr. Schwemm, the son of John L. and Ger-
trude (Meyer) Schwemm is a native of Bar-
rington and was born in that community on
June 23, 1901.
At the University of Illinois, Urbana, where
he completed his education with the Bachelor
of Science degree in 1924, Earl Schwemm had
a most distinguished career. He was President
of the Student Council from 1923-1924 and
of the Athletic Board of Control in the same
period, as well as manager of the varsity
track team. His social fraternity was Sigma
Nu, his professional fraternities were Beta
Gamma Sigma and Alpha Kappa Psi and his
honorary fraternities were Sachem and Ma-
Wan-Da.
On February 1, 1928, in Barrington, Mr.
Schwemm married Eunice Butler, the daugh-
ter of George O. and Carrie Butler. They
have three sons — John B. Schwemm born May
18, 1934, Richard E. Schwemm born July 25,
1937 and Robert G. Schwemm born May 18,
1945. Their home is at 240 Elm Road, Bar-
rington. The family attends the Barrington
Methodist Church and Mr. Schwemm is cur-
rently Chairman of the Official Board.
For the first three years after graduation
from the University, Mr. Schwemm worked
as an accountant for the Illinois Power and
Light Corporation. He entered the Life Insur-
ance business with the Equitable Life Assur-
ance Society of New York on March 1st, 1927.
After establishing himself as a successful pro-
ducer, he was appointed Assistant Manager
in 1930 for the Equitable. In January, 1934,
he was appointed Agency Supervisor in Chi-
cago for the Connecticut General Life Insur-
ance Company.
In 1932 Mr. Schwemm received his degree
of Chartered Life Underwriter which is so
coveted by life insurance men.
On May 1st, 1936 he accepted a position as
Agency Manager for the Chicago office of the
Great-West Life Assurance Company. At that
time the Chicago Agency was in eleventh
place among all the Company's agencies. By
the end of 1938 the Agency was in first place
and has remained in first place since that date.
Since 1944 the annual business placed by this
Agency has been in excess of twenty million
dollars each year and the Agency is continu-
ing at this pace currently. Another outstand-
ing record of the Agency is that it has estab-
lished up to the present time, a record of 76
consecutive months of over a million dollars
or more of monthly production. This and Mr.
Schwemm's leadership activities among his
colleagues have made his name an outstand-
ing one in the insurance world. He is a fre-
quent speaker before Life Insurance Sales
Congresses and Life Association meetings all
over the United States and Canada and is
also an extensive writer of insurance sub-
jects.
Mr. Schwemm's business address is 135 S.
LaSalle Street, Chicago. He is Past President
of the Life Underwriters Association of Illi-
nois, The Chicago Agency Managers Associa-
tion, Chicago Life Insurance and Trust Coun-
cil, and the Chicago Chapter of the Chartered
Life Underwriters. For the year 1950-51 he
is serving as President of the Chicago Asso-
ciation of Life Underwriters. He is a member
of the Board of Directors of the National Bank
of Commerce of Chicago. His club affiliations
include the Union League of Chicago, the
Executive Club of Chicago and the Masonic
Order.
HAROLD EUGENE WAGNER
Like many another American of unusual
achievements, especially in the industrial
world, Harold Eugene Wagner of Urbana be-
gan his career as a machinist. Today he is a
partner in the well-known and successful H.-
W. Manufacturing Company of Urbana. He
was one of those who helped build the first
twenty- five motors for the Allen automobile
of a former day and has since participated in
the development of many other and more
endurable items known to Americans. He is
active in the fraternal world.
730
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
EARL M. SCHWEMM
HAROLD EUGENE WAGNER
Born in Van Wert, Ohio, on May 5, 1899,
Harold Eugene Wagner is the son of Ernest
J. and Alma (Jenkins) Wagner, both also
natives of the Buckeye State and still making
their home there. The father is a stationary
engineer. After attending the elementary
schools of Van Wert, the manufacturer com-
pleted his education in the Van Wert High
School in 1917.
From high school he went to the trade of
machinist and this started him up the proverb-
ial American ladder of success. For a time
he worked for the Ohio Power Company. Sub-
sequently, he was also a machinist for the
Lakewood Engineering Company at Cleveland
and then with the Ohio Steel Company of Bu-
cyrus, Ohio. It was when he worked for the
latter concern that he participated in the
building of the first twenty-five motors for
the Allen motor car which was manufactured
by the Allen Motor Car Company of Bucyrus.
It was popular in the nation for several
years. He later became directly associated
with the Allen Motor Car Company. For seven
years he was with the William A. Rogers
Silverware Company, of Niagara Falls, as a
tool and die maker.
In 1927 Mr. Wagner established himself in
Urbana. At first he was associated with the
firm of J. B. Hays, Machinist and for ten
years he was shop foreman. In 1937 he went
into business for himself, forming with E. W.
Harriman, the firm of H.-W. Manufacturing
Company, with plant and office at 121 West
Water Street, Urbana. This has become a
highly successful and prominent institution in
the Champaign-Urbana area.
On June 23, 1923, Mr. Wagner married
Grace Colvin of Champaign, the ceremony
being performed at Niagara Falls, New York.
They are the parents of a son and a daugh-
ter— Meldon E. Wagner, who was born Aug-
ust 4, 1924, and who attended the University
of Illinois, and Merlee N. Wagner, who was
born November 23, 1928, and attended Illinois
State Normal University at Bloomington. The
family resides at 601 East Clark Street,
Champaign, and worships in the Christian
Church of Champaign.
Mr. Wagner is active in the community,
chiefly through his organizations. Among
these are the Masonic order, in which he
holds the thirty-second degree and in which
he is a Noble of Ansar Temple, Ancient
Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, at
Springfield; and the Champaign Lodge, Loyal
Order of Moose. Hunting and fishing are his
favorite sports. As a voter he is an inde-
pendent, casting his ballot for the candidate
he considers best qualified. His activities as a
machinist and manufacturer have contributed
to industrial and business progress of the
State.
WILLIAM JAMES PATTON
Among individuals to whom the City of
Peoria owes a great debt — because of the
contribution they have made to the commu-
nity's welfare and progress — is. the noted
banker, William James Patton. Identified with
the Jefferson Trust and Savings Bank and
one of its predecessors, the State Trust and
Savings Bank of Peoria, since 1923, Mr. Pat-
ton is today president of this strong and
stable institution which is exercising so great
an influence on the entire region's growth.
Also, he participates in most of the worth-
while community activities and is well known
in fraternal and civic as well as banking
organizations.
Mr. Patton was born in Peoria County, on
his father's farm, on January 21, 1900. His
parents were Robert Patton, a farmer who
came to Illinois from Ireland and who died in
1938, and Belle (Anderson) Patton, a native
of Peoria, now making her home there. The
banker, after attending Peoria's elementary
and high schools, spent two years at Bradley
Polytechnic Institute there. In the first two
years of his business career Mr. Patton worked
in the accounting department of a Peoria
wholesale grocery concern. In January, 1923,
he became a bookkeeper for the old State
Trust and Savings Bank, rising in responsi-
bility through the ensuing years until in 1929
he was made assistant cashier. Less than
two years later, amid the depression, the
State Bank was closed and the Jefferson
Trust and Savings Bank was organized. The
Jefferson Trust took over the assets and lia-
bilities of the defunct State Bank, and has in
the years since then grown into one of the
great financial institutions of Illinois. Among
the "assets" taken over from the State Bank
in 1931 was Mr. Patton, and he was assistant
cashier of the new institution until January,
1937, when he was promoted to cashier. An-
other promotion came on January 9, 1945,
with his election to the vice presidency and
the final promotion on February 19, 1947,
with his elevation to his present office, the
presidency. Among Peorians there is no doubt
of the effective part he has played in the
activities which have established the Jefferson
Trust among the leading banks in the state.
Mr. Patton is also a member of the board of
ILLINOIS EDITION
735
directors of the Great Central Insurance Com-
pany of Peoria, the only company in the
United States selling nothing but holdup and
burglary insurance.
'On June 2, 1927, Mr. Patton married Mar-
garet Aileen Cleveland of Tulsa, Oklahoma,
the daughter of H. C. Cleveland, a native of
Whitehall, Illinois, and a contractor who died
in 1945. Mr. and Mrs. Patton have an adopted
son, William James Patton, Jr., who was born
on April 18, 1946. They make their home at
526 West Richwood Boulevard, Peoria.
Mr. Patton has held positions of leadership
in various community groups. He is now pres-
ident of the Peoria Clearing House Associa-
tion and is also active in the Illinois Bankers
Association and the American Bankers Asso-
ciation. He is treasurer of the Peoria Asso-
ciation of Commerce and is past district de-
puty of the Benevolent and Protective Order
of Elks, being past exalted ruler of the Peoria
Lodge. He is also a member of the Kiwanis
Club of Peoria, the Illinois State Chamber
of Commerce, the Chamber of Commerce of
the United States, the Peoria Advertising and
Selling Club, the Mount Hawley Country
Club and the Creve Coeur Club. Golf is his
favorite sport. At one time it was football; he
was captain of the football team at Bradley
Polytechnic in 1920. An outstanding Peorian,
he is giving rare service to his neighbors and
is popular among them.
ROBERT CURTIS PREBLE, SR.
Engaged in reference book publishing con-
tinously since 1921, Robert Curtis Preble, Sr.,
is now executive vice president and treasurer
of the Encylopaedia Britannica, Inc., with
headquaners in Chicago. Long before he be-
came associated with this most celebrated of
reference works Mr. Preble was one of the
leading figures in this field. He is known also
for his civic activities in Cook County.
Born in Chicago on August 3, 18 97, Mr.
Preble is the son of Andrew Curtis and Jes-
sie Grace (Work) Preble and a member of
one of the nation's oldest families, tracing
his ancestry to forebears who on his father's
side emigrated to the New World from Eng-
land about 1630. His father, who was born
at Boston, Massachusetts, in April, 18 70, was
brought to Chicago in 18 72 by his parents.
In the Windy City Andrew Preble became
a successful industrial building contractor.
He has been retired since 1937. The mother
was born in Scotland, daughter of Lawrence
and Laura Work, of the famed Bruce clan of
.Scotland.
Robert Curtis Preble, Sr., grew up in Oak
Park. He was graduated from the University
of Illinois, Urbana, in 1921, with the degree
of Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineer-
ing. From 1923 to 1925 he attended the Kent
College of Law, Chicago. He was well known
in his university days, and is remembered as
the organizer of the first "Dads' Day" at any
American college. He was elected to Chi Psi
and Delta Phi Fraternities and various col-
lege societies. He was a college journalist,
president of the Student Chamber of Com-
merce and of the Interfraternity Council and
a member of the Student Council and the
Honor Commission. In 1921, as previously
noted, Mr. Preble went into the reference
book publishing business. At first he was a
salesman for the Midland Press, Chicago. By
the time he resigned from this firm in 1925,
he was a vice president. That year he joined
Quarrie Corporation, now the Field Enter-
prise, Inc., also in Chicago, as advertising
manager. He served variously as sales pro-
motion manager, credit manager, treasurer
and sales manager and when he resigned in
1949 he was holding the posts of vice presi-
dent and general manager. It was in 1949
that he became executive vice president of
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. Formerly of
the boards of directors of Midland Press, Rus-
sell Hampton Company, Carter-Adams Com-
pany and the Quarrie Corporation, Mr. Preble
is now on the boards of Encyclopaedia Britan-
nica, Inc., and Encyclopaedia Britannica
Films, Inc.
He married (first) Dorothy Katherine Sidel
of Kansas City, Missouri, 1918; they were
divorced in 1934. He married (second) Madge
Jean Collar of Chicago in 1939. Mrs. Madge
Jean Preble was a professional librarian until
1942. She has been active in various health
and welfare organizations in Chicago and is
a member of the Board of Directors of the
Chicago Chapter of the American Red Cross.
By his first marriage Mr. Preble is the father
of two sons and a daughter — Robert Curtis
Preble, Jr., born in December, 1922; William
Work Preble, born in May, 1925, and Patte
Ann Preble, born in December, 1930. The
Prebles reside at 2256 Lincoln Park West,
Chicago.
Mr. Preble has, like his wife, been active
in Chicago projects relating to the public wel-
fare and he has served on various commit-
tees of public and semi-public character. Hav-
ing in World War I served as pilot with the
736
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
WILLIAM JAMES PATTON
MR. AND MRS. EDMOND FRANK LITOBORSKI
United States Army Air Service, thus pioneer-
ing military aviation, he is a member of the
American Legion. Also he belongs to trade
associaiions, the Chicago Club and the Lake
Shore Club of Chicago. Reading, travel and
sailing are his recreations. Mr. Preble,
through his work, is performing yeoman serv-
ice on behalf of culture and knowledge.
EDMOND FRANK LITOBORSKI
Known throughout Eastern Illinois, Ed-
mond Frank Litoborski is the owner and op-
erator of Conrad's Bakery at Momence in
Kankakee County. A leader in that industry
in the region, Mr. Litoborski is also an out-
standing personality in civic affairs and in
civic and trade organizations.
He was born in Chicago on November 24,
1916, the son of Edward and Sarah Barbara
Litoborski. His father, a native of Poland
who came to the United States at the age of
twelve, was also a baker. He was associated
with his brother, Frank Litoborski who on
coming to America from Poland had opened a
bakery in the Windy City. Edward Litoborski
died on November 16, 1945. His widow who
survives him, is a native of the United States.
Edmond Litoborski has four sisters, all mar-
ried— Mrs. Genevieve Sikorski, born May 18,
1913; Mrs. Bernice Rose Stamborski, born
January 26, 1915; Mrs. Eleanor Childs, born
July 27, 1920, and Mrs. Rose Madeline Simek,
born February 4, 1906.
The Momence bakery executive began his
education in the grade schools of Chicago.
Then he attended St. Peter's and Paul's Grade
School and finally Tilden Technical High
School, graduating from the latter in 1932.
He was about twelve when he went to work
in his father's bakery, a wholesale and retail
enterprise, in Chicago. The family moved to
Momence, Kankakee County, in 1933, and pur-
chased Conrad's Bakery, then owned by H. W.
Conrad. Since the death of his father, Ed-
mond Litoborski has been president. When the
Litoborskis took the bakery over, it operated
six trucks and employed twenty-three persons.
Today the bakery has a fleet of twenty-four
trucks and employs seventy-eight persons. Its
payroll is the largest in Momence. The trad-
ing territory of the business is a radius of
sixty-five miles of Momence. The trucks carry
bread, pies and all other bake goods to whole-
sale dealers in this territory. Mr. Litoborski
buys his flour in carload lots, as he uses at
least a carload of flour a week most of the
year. In the summer months his consumption
goes up to one and one-half cars a week, Al-
together, he averages a production of 259,122
units each week. This production and the wide
sale of these products have made him one of the
influential men of the community and the in-
dustry.
Mr. Litoborski married Dolores Marie Stear-
man, born on May 28, 1918, the daughter of
Elmer and Marie Stearman, also natives of
Illinois. The marriage took place in Novem-
ber, 1936, at Momence. Mr. and Mrs. Lito-
borski have two children — Diane Marie, born
on March 12, 1940, and Susan Jane, born on
January 18, 1946. Mrs. Litoborski is active in
women's circles.
Active in the community, Mr. Litoborski is
a member of the local and state Chamber of
Commerce, the Lions Club, the Benevolent and
Protective Order of Elks and the Chicago
Bakers Club. The Litoborski family are mem-
bers of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Mo-
mence. Few men are doing as much as he to
build their communities and their sections of
the state as Edmond Frank Litoborski.
GEORGE RUSSELL CARR
A national figure in railway supply circles,
general engineering work and industry as a
whole, George Russell Carr is chairman of the
boards of directors of the Dearborn Chemical
Company and the Locomotive Firebox Com-
pany of Chicago. He is one of Chicago's lead-
ing citizens, with a reputation for work done
on behalf of good government and in the field
of welfare. He is a Chevalier in the French
National Order of the Legion of Honor.
Mr. Carr was born at Argenta, Macon Coun-
ty, on January 23, 1877, son of Dr. Robert
Ferrier and Emily Ann (Smick) Carr. His
father, a physician and surgeon and operator
of a drug store at Argenta, was born in Sus-
sex County, New Jersey, May 13, 1832, the
son of David and Elizabeth (Ferrier) Carr,
and died on March 13, 1893. He was a gradu-
ate of the State Medical College at Albany,
New York, and helped work his way through
college by teaching school. He first practiced
in Decatur. Emily Ann Smick Carr, the daugh-
ter of David and Eliza Ann (Ferris) Smick,
was born on April 10, 1839 and died July 2,
1937. She and Dr. Carr were married on April
28, 1859. George Russell Carr began his school-
ing at Argenta. He was graduated from Aus-
tin High School, Chicago, and in 1901 took the
degree of Bachelor of Science at the Uni-
versity of Illinois, where he had majored in
chemistry. He was manager of the football
team in the Fall of 1900 and served as a mem-
ILLINOIS EDITION
741
ber of the Athletic Advisory Board after
graduation.
In 1901 Mr. Carr joined the staff of the
Dearborn Drug and Chemical Works, Chicago,
as a salesman. In 1907 he was advanced to as-
sistant general manager. Five years later the
business name was changed to Dearborn
Chemical Company) In 1922 Mr. Carr was
made general manager and vice president and
in 1944 he was elected chairman of the execu-
tive committee. In 1945 he was elected chair-
man of the board. He became chairman of the
board of the Locomotive Firebox Company in
1921. He is a member of the American Chem-
ical Society, the American Railway Engineer-
ing Association, the Railway Business As-
sociation, the Western Railway Club, the Na-
tional Association of Power Engineers and is
on the board of governors of the Transporta-
tion Association of America. He was nomi-
nated a Chevalier in the French National Or-
der of the Legion of Honor at a dinner of the
Society of the National Railways of France in
Paris, July 19, 1948, in recognition of assis-
tance in repairing the damage that occurred
in France during the war and especially for
the cooperation given the French Railway
Mission in Washington.
On July 15, 1913, at San Francisco, Mr.
Carr married Katherine Mortenson (de-
ceased), daughter of Jacob and Ida Mortenson.
Two children were born to them — Katherine,
now Mrs. Robert Henze, living in Pasadena,
California, the mother of Peter, Christopher
and Claire Henze; and Martha, the wife of
Dr. Omar John Fareed, living in Beverly Hills,
California, the mother of Diana Moon, Donald,
George, Shireen and Martha Fareed. Mr. Carr
himself makes his home at 209 East Lake
Shore Drive, Chicago. He worships in the
Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago.
In his civic work Mr. Carr is a director of
the Citizens' Association of Chicago, of which
he was president from 1945 through 1948. He
is also on the boards of the Chicago Nursery
and Half Orphan Asylum and the Chicago
Home for the Friendless. His other organiza-
tions include the Art Institute of Chicago
(life member), Chicago Historical Society,
Illinois Historical Society, Chicago Academy
of Sciences and Chicago Museum of Natural
History, Chicago Club, Commercial Club, Uni-
versity Club, Old Elm, The Casino, Chicago
Athletic Association, Traffic Club, South
Shore Country Club, Newcomen Society of
England, Annandale Country Club off Pasa-
dena, and the Masonic fraternity.
HON. FRED BROSS HERBERT, LL.B.
Born on June 29, 1895, in the same room
and bed in which he now sleeps in his old
home at 1829 Walnut Street, Murphysboro,
Fred Bross Herbert has devoted his entire life
and career to that Jackson County seat, except
for the period in World War I when he served
the nation at large as a soldier. A lawyer, he
was County Judge in Jackson County for
twenty years and at present is active as presi-
dent of the First National Bank of Murphys-
boro. He is one of the notable citizens of
Southern Illinois.
Mr. Herbert comes of a distinguished fami-
ly. His father, John M. Herbert, was a lawyer
and banker and a trustee of the University of
Illinois, as well as State's Attorney for Jack-
son County for eight years. Born in Wales,
John Herbert came to the United States with
his father when he was six years old, his
family settling first in Pennsylvania, but later
moving to Jackson County. Mr. Herbert's
mother was Matilda (Bross) Herbert, the
daughter of Judge Fred Bross of Cairo, Illi-
nois, the first man to serve on the Alexander
County bench under the Constitution of 1857.
He was a native of Germany who came to the
United States in his youth, married in New
Orleans and traveled up the Mississippi to
Cairo.
Fred Bross Herbert was graduated from
the Murphysboro High School in 1911. He
then attended Taft Preparatory School in
Watertown, Connecticut, and later Northwest-
ern University at Evanston, where he took his
Bachelor of Arts degree in 1917. Next, he
entered Harvard University School of Law in
Massachusetts, but the United States having
entered World War I he left Harvard after
eight months and went into the Army as a
private, declining and opportunity to receive a
commission. He served fourteen months over-
seas, and was discharged in 1919. He then re-
turned to Harvard, and in 1921 was awarded
the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Returning
home, he passed the Illinois State Bar exami-
nation and after a brief period of practice be-
came County Judge in 1924. He served on the
bench until 1944. In 1929 Mr. Herbert had
been elected president of the First National
Bank of Murphysboro, but he has been active
in that office only since March, 1948. He still
engages, intermittently, in the practice of law.
On May 10, 1947, Mr. Herbert married
Mrs. Ruby Hadfield, the daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. William Fraley. Mr. Herbert married
late in life, he says, because he kept a promise
742
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
GEORGE RUSSELL CARR
HON. FRED BROSS IIFRBKRT, I.I..B.
to his father that he would care for his mother
and aunt.
When asked about his organization mem-
berships Mr. Herbert replies he is a "banquet
member" of the Illinois, and American and
other Bankers Associations. This applies, too,
apparently, to the Jackson County Bar As-
sociation and the Illinois Bar Association. In
the past he was also active in the American
Legion. He continues active in the Lions Club
of Murphysboro, in which he is a member of
the board of directors, and in the Republican
Party. For eight years he was chairman of the
Republican State Central Committee and dur-
ing World War II he was chairman of the
draft board advisory committee in Murphys-
boro. He is also a member of the Elks, the
Masonic Order, the Fraternal Order of Eagles
and the Murphysboro Chamber of Commerce.
He owns and operates six farms. Horses, dogs
and guns are his hobby. He likes to hunt birds
and to ride. All of Jackson County and the
State of Illinois know him for his active inter-
est in the general welfare and in progress.
EDMUND WILLIAM TWENHOEFEL
An insurance man with interests in other
fields and a most unusual avocation, Edmund
William Twenhoefel of Belleville, has made
an outstanding contribution to home building
and home ownership and has founded one of
the largest insurance agencies in southern
Illinois.
Born in Belleville on August 11, 1884,
Mr. Twenhoefel is the son of William Au-
gust and Lena (Ehrhardt) Twenhoefel. His
grandfather Johan Twenhoefel was a rope
maker who had learned his trade in Germany.
He came to America with John A. Roebling
and Henry Leschen, who were also rope mak-
ers. Mr. Roebling and Mr. Leschen entered
the wire rope business and they and their suc-
cessors have since become world leaders in
this field. Johan Twenhoefel continued in the
hemp rope business in his yard at Belleville.
Mr. Tvvenhoefel's father, August, was a native
of Cincinnati, Ohio, and his active business
life was spent as a groceryman in Belleville.
He was a public spirited man and was known
as the father of the white way in Belleville.
Lena Ehrhardt Twenhoefel was a native of
Belleville. Her father was a Captain in the
United States Army and saw service in the
nation's eai-ly wars.
Mr. Twenhoefel attended the public schools
of Belleville and went ahead to study book-
keeping and stenography. He was employed
by the Belleville Deep Well Water Company,
which was largely owned by the Roebling and
Leschen interests, and was later employed in
the light office in East St. Louis. The turn-
ing point in his life occurred in 1905 when
he entered the insurance business. Beginning
with nothing but the will to do, he secured
the agency of several outstanding companies
and started to build his agency. He still rep-
resents some of these original companies.
Since that humble beginning he has built his
agency to where it is recognized as one of the
largest in southern Illinois. During these for-
ty-five years he has acquired twenty-two oth-
er insurance agencies and merged them with
his own. The Twenhoefel Insurance Center
now represents twenty-nine of the oldest and
strongest companies in the nation. No com-
pany that they have represented has ever
failed. With this record of reliability, Mr.
Twenhoefel, together with his twelve asso-
ciates and employees, has earned the confi-
dence of his community.
Mr. Twenhoefel married Martha B. Mc-
Quilkin on March 19, 1906, and they have
two children, William James and Ruth. Wil-
liam James Twenhoefel is associated with the
Twenhoefel Insurance Center. He married
Helen Mayer and they have two children,
William C. and Helen Laurine. Ruth Twen-
hoefel married R. L. Johnson and they reside
in Baltimore where Mr. Johnson is vice-pres-
ident of the Glen L. Martin Company, one
of the nation's largest aircraft manufacturers.
Years ago Mr. Twenhoefel became inter-
ested in sea shells. He acquired a large col-
lection of them, many of which are very rare
specimens. He was, at the same time, acquir-
ing a most unusual knowledge of them, and
he is now recognized as an authority on sea
shells and semi-precious stones. He is one of
the few members of the Malacological Society
of London in the United States, and he is
also a member of The American Malacologi-
cal Union and the American Association for
the Advancement of Science. He is a guaran-
tor of the St. Louis Municipal Opera, and is
one of a few non-resident members of the
Chamber of Commerce of the State of New
York. His list of memberships in insurance
societies and associations is long and impres-
sive. He is a Mason, having advanced through
the York Rite to Knight Templar, becoming
a Noble of Ainad Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S.,
in East St. Louis.
Mr. Twenhoefel has achieved leadership in
the region of his birth. A recent article said
of him "He has built a remarkable business
in his community, under many many difficul-
ILLINOIS EDITION
747
ties, which made him misunderstood by some,
but his institution appreciated by many."
CLARENCE A. PATTISON
Outstanding in its field of operations, the
Peoria Malleable Castings Company of Peoria
does an international business in iron castings,
chain and marine hardware. Of this concern
Clarence A. Pattison is president. He is also
active in Peoria's financial affairs and in its
civic life, and is one of the eminent citizens
of that section of the state.
Mr. Pattison was born at Dowagiac, Mich-
igan, on March 12, 1868, the son of Edwin and
Mary (Daly) Pattison, both now deceased. His
father, a dealer in horses, was a native of
New York. His mother was born in Ireland.
The manufacturer was educated in Dowagiac's
elementary and high schools. He began his
career, as have many other successful business
men, as a newsboy. After two years at this
work, he became a clerk in a Dowagiac shoe
store. Subsequently, he held several public
positions — he was assistant postmaster of
Dowagiac for two years, a page in the Mich-
igan legislature at Lansing and secretary to
the speaker of the Michigan House of Repre-
sentatives during a session of the Legislature.
Back in his native city he worked for the Do-
wagiac Drill Company from 1887 to 1899 and
from 1899 to 1902 Mr. Pattison was manager of
the Haworth Corn Planter Company of Decatur.
Illinois. In 1902 Mr. Pattison came to Illinois
as manager of the Selby- Starr Co., a post he
held three years. He then organized and served
as president of the Peoria Drill and Seeder
Company, which purchased the Selby-Starr
Company. Mr. Pattison headed the new concern
from 1905 to 1923, when it was sold to the
Vulcan Plow Company of Evansville. In 1917
he became vice president and secretary of the
Peoria Malleable Castings Company and in
1947 succeeded to the presidency of this firm.
The company, employing more than three hun-
dred fifty persons, operates in all sections of
the United States and in the foreign trade.
Mr. Pattison married Theopheli Rudolphi,
daughter of the late Dr. Theodore Rudolphi, a
native of Czecho-Slovakia, and Anna (Win-
ters) Rudolphi, a native of Germany, in Do-
wagiac on January 30, 1889. Mrs. Pattison,
who was herself born in Dowagiac, died in
November, 1944, at Peoria. There is one daugh-
ter, Kathryn, who was born on September 8,
1902. She is the wife of Earl N. Batchelor,
of Peoria who was president of the Jefferson
Trust and Savings Bank. Mr. and Mrs. Bat-
chelor have two adopted children, Betsy and
Pat Batchelor.
Mr. Pattison is a member of the board of
directors of the Jefferson Trust and Savings
Bank of Peoria, an institution which he helped
organize. He was also one of the organizers
of the Peoria Association of Commerce and is
a former director of the Creve Coeur Club.
Among his other organizations are the Na-
tional Malleable Castings Association, the Illi-
nois Manufacturers Association, the Peoria
Country Club and the Masonic order. His of-
fice is at the foot of Alexander Street, his
home at 214 Barker Avenue, Peoria. Through
the half century he has been active at Peoria,
Mr. Pattison has proved himself a valuable
citizen to that community and to Illinois at
large.
HON. HARROLD PIERSON RARDIN
Rardin has long been a familiar name
in Edgar and Clark Counties and one of the
holders of this name, the Honorable Harrold
Pierson Rardin, is a leading citizen of Edgar
County. Aside from being Mayor of the City
of Kansas, he is the operator of the Rardin
Grain Company.
Mayor Rardin was born at Dolson, Clark
County, on September 1, 1910, the son of
Clarence and Odettie (Edwards) Rardin. His
father, born in the same community on April
6, 1885, is a prominent farmer. His own father,
a coal miner, came to Illinois from Indiana and
started the Rardin farm in Clark County. The
mother was born at Hutton, Coles County, on
March 22, 1887, the daughteer of Will and
Hannah Edwards.
Mayor Rardin was educated in the public
schools of Pleasant Hill, Edgar County, and
West Liberty, Clark County. When he was
fifteen years old he began working a farm.
Then, for two years, he was employed by
George Von Lanken at a wage of fifty cents
a day. Subsequently, he spent three years in
the employ of Paul Behner, a farmer, and
afterward he was with G. R. Acord. From
1932 to 1940 Mayor Rardin was in the truck-
ing business on his own and from 1942 to
1945 he operated the Sinclair Service Station
in Kansas. In 1946, he founded the Rardin
Grain Company there, and he has since de-
veloped it into an important enterprise.
On June 7, 1930, at Terre Haute, Indiana,
Mayor Rardin married Freda Marie Baker,
the daughter of Willis and Sylvia Baker. Mrs.
Rardin is active in the Kansas Chapter, Order
of the Eastern Star, and is well known
throughout the community. The Mayor and
748
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
CLARENCE A. PATTISON
HON. HARROLD PIERSON RARDIN
his wife are the parents of five children —
Pierce Eugene Rardin, born on January 12,
1931; Harrold Dean Rardin, born on Decem-
ber 2, 1932; Norman Russell Rardin, born on
April 25, 1936; Max Ray Rardin, born on
July 6, 1938, and Gerrald Leon Rardin, born
on May 19, 1941.
Harrold Pierson Rardin's activities in Kan-
sas, his pleasant disposition, kindness toward
others, sense of humor and interest in fair
play, made him a popular figure in Kansas,
with the result that in 1945 he was elected
Mayor. He has continued to hold the office,
giving the community an exceptional admin-
istration and constantly increasing his popu-
larity. In the same year Mr. Rardin was in-
ducted into Masonry and today he is a holder
of its thirty-second degree, and is a Noble of
Anzar Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles
of the Mystic Shrine, at Springfield. He also
belongs to the Kansas Lodge, Independent Or-
der of Odd Fellows.
His political affiliation is with the Republi-
can Party. As business man and public offi-
cial, Mayor Rardin is rendering service of
the highest value to his fellow citizens and is
receiving recognition from them for this
service.
JO VINCENT WALKER
To hundreds of thousands of Americans
the Walker name has come to represent lead-
ership not only in the retail clothing world
but in banking, community and regional de-
velopment, Boy Scouting, disaster and flood
relief and in a myriad other fields of interest.
One of the bearers of this illustrious name,
Jo Vincent Walker of Herrin, seat of Wil-
liamson County, is secretary and treasurer
and general manager of the J. V. Walker and
Sons Clothing Stores, with branches in various
Illinois communities, and of a related concern
operating in three large Ohio cities. He is
also a leader in the multitude of activities
which may be gi-ouped as civic affairs.
Mr. Walker was born in Carterville, Wil-
liamson County, on March 22, 1891. His
father, James Vincent Walker, founded the
J. V. Walker and Sons Clothing Stores in
1884. His mother, Nellie (Spiller) Walker,
born in 1864, was the daughter of William
J. and Susan Goodlow Spiller both of whom
were pioneers of Williamson County. She
lives in Carterville, 111. Born in the same
county, James V. was the son of Benjamin
Walker, al^o a native, and was active in
church and school board work. He died in
1913, and in the twenty-nine years he had
given to the business had established stores
not only in Carterville, where he began his
career, but also in Herrin and Chi'istopher.
Since his death, his sons, who took over the
business, have established stores in West
Frankfort, Benton, Mount Vernon, DuQuoin,
Carbondale and Marion. Under a separate
company, they have also opened stores in Co-
lumbus, Dayton and Canton, Ohio.
Jo Vincent Walker was born third among
four children. The others are Fred S., Carl
S. and Nell Walker. Jo Vincent Walker was
educated in grade school in Carterville, high
school in Marion and at the Gem City Busi-
ness College, Quincy. In 1911 he went into
the family business as manager of the Herrin
store. Later, he was placed in charge of all
the accounting and advertising for the firm.
In 1928, he was made general manager of
all the stores and elected secretary and treas-
urer of the corporation. About sixty persons
are employed in the business.
On April 17, 1919, Mr. Walker married
Jane Elizabeth Mitchell, the daughter of E. E.
Mitchell of Carbondale, one-time State Treas-
urer of Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Walker's first
child, Suzanne, died when she was six. The
other children are: Jo Mitchell Walker, man-
ager of the Mount Vernon store, who mar-
ried Dorothy Shaeffer of Fairfield and is the
father of John Vincent Walker; James Carl,
advertising manager for all the stores, who
married Helen Stotlar and is the father of
James Warren Walker; and Sally Jane Wal-
ker, attending Northwestern University. The
family worships in the First Clu-istian Church
of Herrin, in which Jo Vincent Walker is an
elder.
Mr. Walker in 1938 participated in the
organization of the Bank of Herrin, the only
bank in Herrin, and is chairman of the board.
He was president of the Herrin Chamber of
Commerce in 1948-49 and is on the board
of Southern Illinois, Inc., a sort of regional
chamber of commerce, to which he has de-
voted much time. A charter member of the
Rotary Club of Herrin, Mr. Walker was its
second president in 1922-1923. He was pres-
ident of the high school board from 1932 to
1946. In World War II, he was county bond
chairman and U.S.O. chairman. He has served
as disaster relief chairman of the Red Cross
in the county since 1929, and he has directed
relief work in cyclones and floods. He is
treasurer of the Egyptian Council, Boy Scouts
of America. He is an Elk and holds the thir-
ty-second degree in Masonry. Music is one of
his hobbies. In World War I, he played the
ILLINOIS EDITION
753
trombone in the Navy Band at the Great
Lakes Naval Training Station. His fellow cit-
izens say that much of the improvement of
Herrin and Southern Illinois is due to his
efforts.
FRED ARTHUR POOR
An industrialist of international reputation,
Fred Arthur Poor of Chicago is now chairman
of the board of directors of Poor and Com-
pany. He is also director of four other cor-
porations and of four organizations in the field
of health, welfare and youth protection and
development. A man who celebrated his
eightieth birthday in 1950, Mr. Poor remains
one of the Windy City's most active citizens.
Born in Andover, Maine, on April 16, 1870,
Mr. Poor is the son of William C. and Hattie
A. (Smith) Poor. His father, who was an
officer of the Adams Express Company, was
also a native of Andover; his mother was born
in Skowhegan, Maine. In 1887 Fred Poor was
graduated from high school. This was the
Union Free School No. 4 at Port Chester,
New York. He began his career at an early
age with the old Adams Express Company,
and held various positions until 1892. In that
year he joined the engineering department of
the Hall Signal Company, remaining until
1893, when he was taken into the engineering
department of the Illinois Central Railroad.
Mr. Poor remained with the railroad until
1900 and then accepted appointment as West-
ern representative of the Weber Rail Joint
Manufacturing Company. In 1907 the com-
pany made him its European representative
and from 1909 to 1914 he was back at his
post as Western representative. In 1914 Mr.
Poor was elected president of the P. M. Com-
pany, an office he held until 1929. In 1928 he
became president of Poor and Company.
Twenty years later he was advanced to chair-
man of the board of directors. He is also on
the boards of directors of the J. I. Case Com-
pany of Racine, Wisconsin; Combustion Engi-
neering-Superheater, Inc., New York City; Ken-
sington Steel Company, Chicago, and Peerless
Equipment Company, Chicago.
On August 4, 1944, in Chicago, Mr. Poor
married Martha Buehring, the daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. E. C. Buehring. One of Chi-
cago's well known women, Mrs. Poor is on
the women's boards of Chicago Presbyterian
Hospital and the Children's Home and Aid
Society. Both she and Mr. Poor are active in
the Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago.
Mr. Poor is a member of the church's board
of trustees. Mr. and Mrs. Poor reside at 1448
Lake Shore Drive, Chicago. Mr. Poor has a
daughter, Elizabeth, now Mrs. C. Winn Can-
field and mother of Patricia and Virginia Can-
field.
In his civic and welfai'e activities Mr. Poor
is a director of the Presbyterian Hospital, In-
fant Welfare Society and Boys' Clubs of Chi-
cago. He is a Republican, and also belongs to
the Chicago Club, Chicago Athletic Club, Tav-
ern, Electric, Racquet, Knollwood, Old Elm
and Onwentsia (Chicago) Cloud Clubs, the
Metropolitan and River Clubs of New York,
and the Bath Club, Indian Creek Country Club,
Everglades Club of Miami Beach, Florida, and
the Bohemian Club of San Francisco. One of
the noteworthy Illinoisans, he has long taken
a leading part in the building of America
through industrial and social programs.
HAROLD H. CHAPMAN
At 101 West Cook Street, Springfield, San-
gamon County residents find their largest
laundry. This is the Chapman Laundry and
Dry Cleaners. Of this large organization,
founded in 1904, Harold H. Chapman is the
controlling partner and general manager. Mr.
Chapman is not only the operator of Spring-
field's largest laundry but is also one of the
most active citizens of the city, and is as
well known in the Masonic world as he is in
the business and social world.
Born in Springfield on June 9, 1900, Mr.
Chapman is the son of Alvin W. and Nora
(Drury) Chapman. His father was also born
in Springfield and the mother is another native
of the state. In 1904 Alvin Chapman, with a
partner, H. C. Edwards, launched the business
known today as Chapman Laundry and Dry
Cleaners. Operations, headquartered at 514
East Monroe Street, Springfield, were begun
with a minimum of machinery and a delivery
service consisting of one horse and wagon.
By 1909 the founders were able to move into
a new brick building at 101 West Cook Street
which they had built themselves. Since that
time three additions, with an aggregate front-
age of 168 by 172 feet, have been consti'ucted.'
Also there are now a large garage and a
fur storage building with dimensions of 160
by 120 feet. There are three offices and new
and modern equipment throughout the plant.
The man who was eventually to head this
enterprise, Harold H. Chapman, was educated
in the elementary and high schools of Spring-
field and at the University of Illinois, where
he spent two years. He was at the university
in the World War I period and for four
months was in the United States Army. In
1920, when he left college, Mr. Chapman
joined his father in the laundry business, and
754
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
FRED ARTHUR POOR
This Space Reserved for the Portrait
of Harold H. Chapman
as he learned the business earned ten cents
an hour. His brother, Robert R. Chapman, also
came into the business. In 1927 the father pur-
chased his partner's shares of stock and in
1942 Harold and Robert Chapman bought
ninety percent of the business from their
father. Robert Chapman died in June, 1948,
and at that time Harold Chapman acquired
control of the Chapman Laundry and Dry
Cleaners. He owns ninety percent of the stock.
The father still retains ten percent. In addi-
tion, Harold Chapman has sole responsibility
for the management of the enterprise. He
employs one hundred persons and operates
nine routes, giving a complete laundry, dry
cleaning and dyeing and fur storage service.
Mr. Chapman married Frances Easley,
daughter of James A. and Minnie A. Easley,
in Springfield in October, 1922. They have one
son. James Harold Chapman, born on Janu-
ary 19, 1927, in Springfield. Now in charge of
the laundry's cleaning department, the son
married Dorothy M. Mountz and is the father
of Melissa Ann Chapman, born on November
24, 1949. The family worships in the First
Methodist Church of Springfield.
Harold H. Chapman is a member of the
American Institute of Laundering; the Spring-
field and Illinois State Chambers of Commerce;
the Springfield Lodges of the Benevolent and
Protective Order of Elks and the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows; the Rotary Club of
Springfield; the Masonic order, in which he
holds the thirty-second degree and belongs to
the Shrine; the Sangamo Club; the Illini
Country Club; Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity.
He is also active in the American Legion. As
a business man and active citizen, Mr. Chap-
man has done more than his share toward
the contemporary development of Springfield.
CHARLES VINCENT O'HERN, SR.,
LL.B.
Conducting a general practice of law and
giving leadership to numerous civic, welfare
I and organizational movements, Charles Vin-
cent O'Hern, Sr., of Peoria, has become one
of the noteworthy citizens of Central Illinois.
He has long been a leader of the bar on the
| local and State level and has interested him-
self in all civic projects devoted to the pub-
I lie welfare.
Born at Vermont, in Fulton County, on Oc-
I tober 1, 1883, Mr. O'Hern is the son of John
O'Hern, a farmer at Vermont, who died on
f October 23, 1928, and Maria (Green) O'Hern,
a native of Canton, another Fulton County
community, who died on March 12, 1923.
Mr. O'Hern began his education in the pub-
lic schools of Vermont. He attended the Ver-
mont High School, and was a student for a
year at Western Illinois State College, Ma-
comb, and then went to the Illinois State Nor-
mal University at Normal, Illinois, from
which he was graduated in 1908. For three
years Mr. O'Hern taught in the public schools
of Fulton County, but the law kept attracting
him as a profession. Accordingly, he con-
tinued his education, taking the degree of
Bachelor of Arts at the University of Illinois
in 1910, and the degree of Bachelor of Laws
at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut,
in 1912. Admitted to the Illinois State Bar
in 1912, Mr. O'Hern established himself in
general practice in Peoria in that same year,
in association with his brother, Thomas L.
O'Hern, now deceased. He later became asso-
ciated in the practice of law with the late
Frank J. Quinn, of Peoria. Later the firm of
O'Hern, Alloy and O'Hern was formed and it
has been continuous since that time. It is
composed of Mr. O'Hern, Mr. Jay Alloy and
Mr. O'Hern's son, Charles Vincent O'Hern,
Jr. The senior Mr. O'Hern is counsel for the
Central Illinois Light Company, among other
corporations.
On June 26, 1913, Mr. O'Hern married
Tressa Smith of Normal, the daughter of John
F. Smith, a DeWitt county farmer, who died
in 1948, and Viola (Silvers) Smith, native
of Webster City, Iowa, who died in 1926.
Charles V. O'Hern, Jr., is the older of two
children born to this marriage. He was born
on January 9, 1915. Betty, now Mrs. Betty
O'Hern Muhlke, was born on February 9,
1918. Mrs. Tressa O'Hern died on October 25,
1940. Mr. O'Hern married Margaret Mary
O'Reilly of Peoria on August 30, 1947.
The extent of Mr. O'Hern's leadership in
legal circles is indicated by the fact that he
has been on the board of governors of the
Illinois State Bar Association and served the
Peoria County Bar Association as president.
He is also a former board member of the
F'eoria School Board and of the Peoria Asso-
ciation of Commerce, and is active, in addi-
tion, in the Knights of Columbus, the Union
League Club of Chicago and the American
Bar Association. He is a member of the legal
fraternity, the Order of the Coif, and the
Creve Coeur Club. Both he and his wife are
communicants of the Roman Catholic Church.
Mr. O'Hern is recognized as having made a
major contribution to progress and welfare at
Peoria.
ILLINOIS EDITION
759
HON. CHARLES LESTER SWORDS
Nearly five thousand miles of road linking
important communities and promoting pro-
gress, trade and the gaiety of life are to the
credit of the Honorable Charles Lester Swords,
contractor, hotel owner, real estate man,
farmer, orchardist and former Sheriff of
Peoria County. Mr. Swords, who has made
this outstanding contribution to his native
Illinois is founder of and a partner in the
construction firm of C. L. Swords and Son
and is president of the Pere Marquette Hotel,
both in Peoria.
Born in Limestone, in Peoria County, on
December 31, 1890, Mr. Swords is the son of
William A. and Clara (Stevens) Swords. The
father, also a native of Limestone, who died
in 1914, was a contractor and farmer. The
mother, born at Canton, also in Fulton County,
died in 1948. C. L. Swords was educated in
the public schools of Limestone and at Brown's
Business College in Peoria. For five or six
years after completing his education he was
in the trucking business in his native com-
munity. In 1920 he went into the contracting
business there. After about eight years, he
moved this business to Peoria, where he has
since made his headquarters at 107 South
Jefferson Avenue. In 1937, his son, Earle I.
Swords, joined him in the contracting busi-
ness and since that time the firm has been
called C. L. Swords and Son. In 1943 Mr.
Swords bought the Pere Marquette Hotel, one
of the finest in the state, and since that time
has been president of the company operating
this five-hundred-room hostelry. They also
operate the New National Hotel at 200 North
Jefferson Street, Peoria.
Mr. Swords married Edna M. McCartney of
Limestone on September 12, 1911. Mrs. Swords
is the daughter of William I. McCartney, a
native of Ohio who was long a farmer at
Limestone and who died in 1942, and Syrena
(Smith) McCartney, born at Gridley, McLean
County, who died in 1924. The son, Earle,
born on June 9, 1914, is Mr. and Mrs. Swords'
only child. The family lives at 226 North
Orange Avenue, Peoria.
Charles L. Swords has accepted every oppor-
tunity to grow with Illinois and to help Illi-
nois grow. Active in the real estate business,
he has opened El Vista subdivision of six hun-
dred lots at Peoria and also Fernwood No. 2.
He operates an apple orchard of 125 acres in
Macoupin County — an orchard rated among
the best in the state. Also, he has 100 acres
devoted to general farming. As a contractor
he has not only built roads but handled num-
erous other projects of immense value to
the state. His popularity reached such a point
in 1942 that he was elected Sheriff of Peoria
County, and this office he held until 1946. He
is active in the Peoria Association of Com-
merce, the Peoria Ad Club, the Illinois Con-
tractors Association and the Black Top Con-
tractors Association. The name of Swords
has come to stand for progress and initiative
in Illinois.
ROBERT BRENT AYRES
In three ways Robert Brent Ayres of Chi-
cago has made his impression upon the Illi-
nois and American scenes — as insurance agent
and broker, as a teacher of insurance and
as a writer on insurance. From this it must
justifiably be surmised that he is an impor-
tant figure in the insurance world. The record
shows that, in addition, he has attained great
stature in other spheres.
Mr. Ayres was born in Hinsdale, DuPage
County, on August 18, 1901, the son of Frank
E. and Frances J. (Brent) Ayres. His father,
an electrical goods manufacturer, was a county
supervisor. After he was graduated from the
Hinsdale Township High School, Robert Brent
Ayres attended the University of Illinois, and
in 1924 took his Bachelor of Science degree.
He was a trackman in 1922, 1923 and 1924
and was elected to the Delta Kappa Epsilon
Fraternity. In his business career, Mr. Ayres
has become a graduate of the Aetna Home
Office School and he is a Chartered Property
Casualty Underwriter. In the insurance busi-
ness since 1924 — his office is at 120 South La-
Salle Street, Chicago — Mr. Ayres became visit-
ing lecturer in insurance in the University of
Illinois Department of Economics in 1947. He
is also vice president of the Kelly Metal Pro-
cessing Company.
On February 12, 1927, at Hinsdale (which
continues to be the Ayres home), Mr. Ayres
married Helen Joan Meyer, daughter of Julia
(Holzgrafe) and William R. Meyer. Their
children are: David B., born May 9, 1930.,
Peter B., born Aug 11, 1931 and John -M.
Ayres, born Feb. 14, 1937. One of the out-
standing women of Hinsdale, Mrs. Ayres is
past president of the Hinsdale Garden Club,
treasurer of Friends- of the Library, past vice
president of the Hinsdale Women's Club, mem-
ber of the boards of the P.-T.A. and Garden
Club of Illinois and vice president of the In-
fant Welfare Society. She is also president
of the Women's Guild of the Hinsdale Epis-
copal Church. Mr. Ayres is a former member
of the vestry.
760
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
HON. CHARLES LESTER SWORDS
ROBERT BRENT AYRES
His activities cover many areas of service.
He is a past member of the Hinsdale Plan
Commission and past president of the Hinsdale
Community House and in 1940 was acting-
treasurer of the DuPage County Republican
Committee. He is also a former member of
the board of directors of the Hinsdale Club
and a former president, secretary and treas-
urer of the Junto of Chicago, in which he con-
tinues an influential member. He also belongs
to the Press Club of Chicago and the Adven-
turers Club of Chicago. He was in the tem-
porary Reserve of the United States Coast
Guard in the World War II period. Fishing
is his favorite recreation, but sharing his in-
terest with it are such other pastimes or hob-
bies as camping, travel and woodworking. He
is five feet ten inches tall, weighs 150 pounds
and has brown eyes and brown hair. He has
high rank among Illinois' leading citizens.
LEROY BARHAM
Once a zone official for the Ford Motor
Company out of St. Louis, LeRoy Barham of
Harrisburg is today one of the leading Ford
automobile and tractor dealers in Southern
Illinois. He is the supervising partner in the
firms of Barham-Green, Inc., automobiles,
and Barham-Green Tractor Division, agricul-
tural equipment and implements, both at Har-
risburg. Also, he is president of the Keith
Builders Supply, Inc., a development corpora-
tion. An ex-prize fighter, Mr. Barham is still
well known to ring followers, especially those
interested in middleweights. His sporting in-
terests today are in gaited horses and the
outdoors. Mr. Barham is also known for the
work he has done on behalf of Southern Illi-
nois and as a public speaker.
Born in Williamson County, Mr. Barham is
the son of William W. and Adeline (Williams)
Barham. His father was a native of Williamson
County, his mother of Johnson County, and the
former was a son of William R. Barham, who
was born in Clark County. William W. Barham
was the first Postmaster and set the corner-
stone of Johnson City Post Office.
LeRoy Barham, the oldest of three children,
first went to school in Johnson City. In 1913,
he entered the employ of a man who gave
him no salary but plenty of experience. The
choice of the field in which the young man
was to make his career was made by his fath-
er, and LeRoy Barham has always thought
the choice was a wise one. But in any event,
on that first job, which paid him no salary,
he worked from six in the morning to eight
or ten at night. However, he did not com-
plain, for he was gaining valuable experience.
He spent two years without pay, as a me-
chanic's helper. Then for three years he
worked at the rate of fifty cents a day and
for five years he was paid $1 a day. Alto-
gether, he was with the firm, Davis Brothers
Motor Company, from 1913 to 1926. At the
time he left the firm, he was sales manager —
and he had learned the business well. His
salary by that time was $65 a week. From
1926 to 1928, Mr. Barham was manager of
the Ford agency at Mount Vernon. It was
in 1928 that he went to work directly for the
Ford Motor Company at St. Louis. He re-
mained until 1936, and during the eight years
was commercial manager, zone manager, serv-
ice manager and wholesale manager of sales.
In 1936 Mr. Barham established himself
at Harrisburg, buying, with his partner, the
Ford agency there. Mr. Barham is secretary
and treasurer and general manager. In 1937
he and his partner established the Barham-
Green Tractor Division, selling Ford equip-
ment. Keith Builders Supply, Inc., was es-
tablished in 1947. It handles steel buildings,
air conditioners, oil furnaces and tile floors.
On April 5, 1924, Mr. Barham married
Hope E. Kelley, the daughter of Patrick Hen-
ry Kelley of Marion.
Five feet eight and three-quarters inches
tall and weighing 208 pounds today, Mr. Bar-
ham was once a leader in the welterweight
division in the pugilistic world. He had nine-
ty-one fights from Chicago to Cuba and had
sixty-four wins. He was, however, never
knocked out. To overcome his original stage-
fright, he announced fights without pay. To-
day he is an accomplished public speaker, in
great demand. A Democratic leader in Saline
County, he was the party's candidate for Con-
gress from the Twenty-fourth Illinois District
in 1942. He carried Saline County by 367
votes, but lost by a small margin in the other
counties. Mr. Barham is active in Masonry,
being a member of Ainad Temple, Ancient
Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine,
at East St. Louis, and the Mississippi Valley
Consistory, Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite. He always owns from one to five gaited
horses. A lover of birds, trees and nature in
general, he is a fisherman and hunter and
owns a cabin on his own sixty-acre lake.
He is widely recognized as one of the most
ardent and effective workers on behalf of
conservation, welfare and progress.
ILLINOIS
EDITION
765
CARL AMRHEIN
Baking and bakery operation have been
the preoccupations of Carl Amrhein of
Springfield since his youngest days. Even when
he was in the United States Navy in World
War I, he was a baker. Today he is presi-
dent of Amrhein Bakery, Inc., one of the
largest businesses in its field in the Spring-
field area, and is one of the better known citi-
zens of the region.
Mr. Amrhein was born in Springfield on
December 25, 1893, the son of Christopher
Amrhein, who was born in Germany and who
founded the Amrhein Bakery. The father,
whose people were in the baking business in
his native Germany, was sent to America at
the age of sixteen to learn New World meth-
ods in the industry. He learned, and remained.
After traveling through various parts of the
United States, Christopher Amrhein settled in
Springfield. There he worked in a bakery for
a year. In 1889, he purchased a small bakery
business. A year or so later he bought another
small bakery and consolidated the two. In
1895 he erected a new building, into which he
moved his business and in which he remained
until he sold the entire business to his sons
Carl and Nicholas.
Carl Amrhein, educated in Springfield, had
served his baking apprenticeship under his
father and become active in the business.
When the United States entered World War
I, he went into the Navy as a baker and was
in the service for a year. His brother Nicholas
had also entered the family bakery's employ
as a boy, but in young manhood went into
the banking business. When Carl Amrhein
was called into the Naval service, Nicholas
Amrhein resigned his banking position and
returned to the bakery to take over its man-
agement from the aging father. Upon the
return of Carl Amrhein in 1919, the two
brothers bought the business from their father.
The firm has since been incorporated, with
Carl Amrhein as president and Nicholas
Amrhein as secretary and treasurer.
Nicholas Amrhein, who is also a prominent
citizen of Springfield, is the father of Ni-
cholas Amrhein, Jr., sales manager of Amr-
hein Bakery, Inc.
Carl Amrhein married Clare Werth of
Springfield in 1924. They have one son, John,
better known to all as Jack Amrhein, who
was born in 1930. In 1950, he was a student
at Notre Dame University, South Bend, In-
diana.
Carl and Nicholas Amrhein so built the bak-
ery founded by their father that a new
building became imperative. In 1929 they
completed this modern structure and in the
following year occupied it. They have in-
stalled all new and modern equipment in this
structure and in 1947 built an addition cost-
ing more than the original complete plant.
Christopher Amrhein operated the business
with two horses and wagons. His sons find at
least twenty-five delivery trucks necessary.
They employ eighty persons and have a trad-
ing territory with a radius of sixty miles of
Springfield. Amrhein Bakery, Inc., makes only
bread and buns. One of its ovens has a capac-
ity of 4,500 loaves of bread an hour. The
bun oven's capacity is 12,000 buns an hour.
The firm uses from 800 to 1,000 bags of flour
weekly.
Carl Amrhein is active in the community
life of Springfield. He is a member of the
Springfield Lodge, Benevolent and Protective
Order of Elks; the Springfield Aerie, Frater-
nal order of Eagles ; the American Legion ; the
Springfield Chamber of Commerce and the
Illinois State Chamber of Commerce and the
Illinois Manufacturers Association. He is a
popular figure in his industry as well as in
the civic life of his city.
LEROY LOUIS BENOIST
Since the days when what is known today
as the Benoist oil sand formation was dis-
covered on the Benoist farm near Sandoval,
the name of Benoist has been famed in the
oil industry not only of Illinois but of the
nation. One of the family who is a leading
figure in this and other fields is Leroy Louis
Benoist of Mount Vernon. Mr. Benoist is not
only an outstanding business man and orchard-
ist but a citizen who has more than proved
his public interest to his neighbors.
The son of Albert E. and Flora (Dill) Ben-
oist, Mr. Benoist was born at Bunker Hill,
Illinois, on October 23, 1891. His father, born
on April 23, 1857, in St. Louis, was a farmer
and oil man who also operated a chain of
meat markets. The famed oil sand formation
named after him was found on his farm.
This was the first oil discovered in Illinois
west of Robinson, and oil is still being pro-
duced there. A. E. Benoist was also one of
the big developers of Harlingen, Texas. He
died in 1938. Flora Dill Benoist was a native
of St. Louis, where her father edited the first
newspaper published in that city.
Educated at Sandoval and Centralia, Illi-
nois, Leroy L. Benoist joined his brother
Charles in establishing the Benoist Hardware
Store at 117 South Tenth Street. This suc-
766
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
CARL AMRHEIN
LKROV LOCIS BENOIST
cessful enterprise is today the oldest in its
field in Jefferson County. In 1927 the three
brothers, Leroy L., Charles G. and Raymond
E., launched a wholesale heating equipment
business known as the Benoist Brothers Sup-
ply Company, with 200 dealers in Southern
Illinois. In 1937 the firm won a Silver Cup
for the sale of the greatest number of coal
stokers in the nation.
The Benoists are still active in the oil pro-
ducing and prospecting business, operating in
seven states, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Miss-
issippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida. They
also operate an orchard of 20 acres of apples
and 70 of peaches, and are the originators of
the "pick-your-own" system. Their orchard
attracts individuals and whole families from
Indiana, Missouri and other states as well as
Illinois to pick peaches for their canning and
tables. Leroy Benoist is manager of the
R. E. and L. L. Benoist Company, the Benoist
Brothers Oil Company, L. L. Benoist, Trustee,
Oil Producers, and Coast Producers, Inc., an
oil drilling company, with offices in Mount
Vernon.
He married Edna J. Humes, a native of
Patoka, in Marion County, in 191G. Mr. and
Mrs. Benoist have three children, all gradu-
ates of the University of Illinois — Virginia
Marie, born in 1918, now Mrs. L. W. Davis
and mother of Jenna and Steven Davis; Aline
Flora, born in 1922, now Mrs. Robert E.
Douglas; and Donald Leroy Benoist, born in
1928, holder of the degree of Bachelor of
Science in General Engineering, who is asso-
ciated with his father in business.
Leroy L. Benoist is president and manager
of the Illinois-National Oil and Gas Company,
a former director of the Mount Vernon Cham-
ber of Commerce and a trustee of the First
Methodist Church of Mount Vernon. He is a
former member of the Lions Club of Mount
Vernon, and belongs to the Masonic order,
the Knights of Pythias and the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows. His home is at 1500
Main Street, Mount Vernon. As the record
shows, Leroy L. Benoist has done much to
develop several fields of great importance,
thus contributing to the prosperity and wel-
fare of his native state and a large portion of
other states.
HON. R. E. DUVALL
Saint Clair County, named tor General
Arthur St. Clair, first Governor of the terri-
tory which embraced what is now Illinois, is
the oldest county in the state, having been
organized by proclamation in 1790. And the
oldest of ihe living citizens who have done the
most for this county is the leading citizen of
the county seat, Belleville — the Honorable R.
E. Duvh'1. Three times mayor of Belleville
and also former member of the Illinois State
Department of Conservation of which he was
assistant director, Mr. Duvall continues active
in development activities, being a real estate
operator specializing in land for industry. As
Belleville's Mayor, he made a national reputa-
tion for the outstanding fashion in which he
directed handling of the pavement of Main
Street, which is still a model for municipal
officials and engineers.
R. E. Duvall was horn in Todd County,
Kentucky on June 2 4. 18 79, and was edu-
cated in his native state, where tor a time he
was a farmer. He arrived in Belleville on
July 1, 1900, in a year when the entire nation
was in the throes of a political campaign:
William Jennings Bryan, the silver-tongued
Democratic orator, was running against Wil-
liam McKinley, who, aided by Theodore Roose-
velt as the vice-presidential candidate on the
Republic;'!) ticket, swept into office only to
be assassinated the following year and suc-
ceeded by the famous "Rough Rider." For
two years Mr. Duvall farmed in Saint Clair
County Mid for I wo more years he was a
railroadman. In 1904 he went into the real
estate business as an associate of Frank Bud-
erer, and in a comparatively short time was
himself a big and important land developer
and a builder of the county seat and the
county itself, a citizen whom a grateful citi-
zenry were to elect to high municipal and
state offices.
In the ear'y days of his Illinois career Mr.
Duvall married Luetta Miller of Belleville.
Mrs. Duvall is the daughter of the late Joseph
Miller, outstanding farmer and cattle breeder
of Saint Clair County and one-time member
of the State Legislature.
In 1911, only eleven years after he had, a
youth of twenty-one, entered the City of Belle-
ville, Mr. Duvall was elected Mayor. In 1913,
he was re-elected, and so favorably did he im-
press the citizens that he was elected twice
more, in 1915 and 1917. The five-and-one-
half-mile-long Main Street, which he built
with twin roads each nineteen and one-half
feet wide, has made him famous among
municipal administrators. He had the street
laid with nine and one-half inches of con-
crete and a steel binder and topped with two
and one-half inches of wearing surface. After
three decades the street is still in perfect con-
dition. It cost $284,000 and has returned
ILLINOIS EDITION
771
nine percent to the taxpayers. Engineers still
visit Belleville to study the paving and the
University of Illinois highway and street ex-
perts awarded Mayor Duvall first prize for the
best highway in the United States. In Jan-
uary. 1919, Mr. Duvall was elected to the
State Senate, where he served eight years.
Governor Emerson appointed him to the De-
partment of Conservation because of his in-
terest in fish and game protection and propa-
gation. Mr. Duvall is an expert in clay bird
shooting, and is a follower of all sports. He
is an expert pistol and rifle shot and has com-
peted in various tournaments. He has a score
of 94 cloy pigeons. Mr. Duvall is engaged to-
day in activities which are benefiting his com-
munity and state, and he is one of the most
honored men in the region.
SAMUEL L. MARTIN
A native of Watseka, Samuel L. Martin is
now one of that city's and Eastern Illinois'
most prominent citizens. A leader in the lum-
ber business, he makes packing boxes for big
home appliance and other manufacturing con-
cerns and, in addition, operates a retail and
wholesale lumber yard. He owns yards at
Piper City, in Ford County, and in Watseka.
In World War II Mr. Martin made boxes di-
rectly* connected with the war effort.
Born on May 27, 1900, Mr. Martin is the
son of A. W. and Jessie (Loveridge) Martin,
both also natives of Iroquois County. The
father was in the lumber business. Samuel
Martin was educated in elementary and high
schools at Watseka, at Lake Forest College
and the University of Illinois. He joined his
father in the lumber business in 1922 and
has been in that industry since then. In 1942,
to make his contribution to the all-out war
effort, Mr. Martin founded the Hemb and
Martin Box Factory at Watseka, and through-
out the war devoted himself exclusively to
war contracts, making gun mounts, radio
boxes and food boxes and employing seventy-
eight persons. He now employs eighty in mak-
ing boxes for washing machine and other
home appliance manufacturers such as Bendix
and Hurley. In his retail and wholesale lum-
ber operations, both at Watseka and Piper
City, he employs twenty-four people. He also
operates a ready-mix concrete plant at Wat-
seka. In addition, he is a member of the
board of directors of the First Trust and
Savings Bank of Watseka and vice-president
of the Concrete Products Corporation of Sko-
kie, Illinois, and operates several farms. Not
far from Watseka is the little community of
Martinton. This was named after Mr. Mar-
tin's paternal grandfather, James C. Martin,
who had been Sheriff of Iroquois County.
On December 26, 1927, at Watseka, Mr.
Martin married Nadean Meents, the daughter
of State Senator and Mrs. Richard R. Meents
and born in Iroquois County on January 12,
1908. They have one son, Richard Alfred
Martin, who was born on July 12, 1932, and
who was a member of the Class of 1950 at the
Watseka High School.
One of the county seat's most civic-mind-
ed citizens. Mr. Martin has been active in
all community enterprises. He is a member
of the board of directors of the Watseka
Chamber of Commerce and is active also in
the Lions Club of Watseka, the Watseka
Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Or-
der of Elks and many Masonic bodies, in-
cluding both the York and Scottish Rite and
the Shrine. He worships in the Presbyterian
Church. As a lumber dealer and box maker
he has aided in the development of his city,
county and the entire Eastern Illinois region.
LESLIE FRANK FULLERTON
Until ill health forced him into retirement,
Leslie Frank Fullerton of Lincoln was one of
the most active men in the dairy business in
Downstate Illinois. His name is still known
throughout the industry and he is still the
owner of the popular Fullerton Dairy at Lin-
coln.
Mr. Fullerton was born in the Logan County
seat on September 5, 1883, the son of Benja-
min Scott and Mary Ann (Layton) Fullerton.
His father, a native of New York, was in the
dairy business before him. In boyhood Benja-
min Scott Fullerton was brought to Illinois
from his native state by his parents, the
family settling in Atlanta, Logan County.
When he reached young manhood he opened
up a dairy at Atlanta. In the early 1900s he
moved to Lincoln, where he established the
dairy business later taken over by his son
Leslie. He died in 192 4. There were two so;is
in the family, the younger Leslie F. Fullerton
and Ray A. Fullerton.
Leslie Fullerton was educated in the ele-
mentary rchools of Lincoln. He left when he
was in the eighth grade and joined his father
in the dairy business. After the elder Mr.
Fullerton died, the son took over the active
management of the enterprise. Until 1930
he sold raw milk. Then he purchased pasteur-
izing equipment and since then he has sold
pasteurized milk. In 1947, with the installa-
tion of homogenizing equipment in his plant,
772
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
HON. R. E. DUVALL
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he added homogenized milk to his products
and at the present time is distributing milk-
in paper cartons. He employs eight persons
and operates eight trucks, selling an average
of one thousand gallons of milk a day. The
dairy is under the management of Mr. Fuller-
ton's son-in-law, Warren Gallagher, who took
over when Mr. Fullerton retired.
Mr. Fullerton married Emma Pedigo of
Lincoln on April 18, 1913. She died on July
17, 11)45. One daughter, Dorothy May, was
born to the marriage. She is Warren Gal-
lagher's wife and is the mother of Sharon Lee
Gallagher, who was born in 1940, and Les-
lie Ann Gallagher, who was born in 19 48.
Mr. Fullerton was active in Lincoln's civic
affairs and in social circles. He is a member
of the Lincoln Lodge, Independent Order of
Odd Fellows, and of the Methodist Church.
He is one of the best known and most highly
respected citizens of Logan County.
ROBERT WILLIAMS GIPSON
Few men have served their communities with
the sincerity, ability and effectiveness of the
late Robert Williams Gipson of Bloomington.
Mr. Gipson, who established and headed the
R. W. Gipson Agency, at Bloomington, was
one of the noted figures in this field of en-
deavor in Central Illinois, and was a man who
had behind him many years of experience in
the insurance field in Indiana and Florida be-
fore establishing himself at Bloomington. He
was one of those who, as a member of the
Bloomington-Normal Sanitary District, helped
these communities with many of their munici-
pal problems and who also worked to develop
Illinois Wesleyan University at Bloomington,
the Bloomington Young Men's Christian As-
sociation and the Bloomington Country Club.
He died an untimely death at the age of forty-
eight but lives on in the hearts of all those who
knew him — anc they were legion. His widow,
the former Naomi Huli. who was his partner for
years and who is now president of his busi-
ness, carries on with his traditions and poli-
cies and has herself become an outstanding
figure in the insurance world and in civic,
business and educational circles.
Robert Williams Gipson was born at Con-
verse, Indiana, on February 25, 1900, the son
of Robert William and Pearl (Williams) Gip-
son. His father, also a native of Converse,
was the operator of a general store. He died
in 1930. His widow, who was born at Red
Key, Indiana, died in 1943. The younger
Robert Williams Gipson received his elemen-
tary education at Thorntown, Indiana and his
high school education at Kendallville, Indi-
ana. In 1922, he was graduated from DePauw
University, Greencastle, Indiana, with the de-
gree of Bachelor of Arts, and for three years
thereafter he was Freshman Coach and Secre-
tary of the Alumni Association at DePauw
University. From 1924 to 1927 Mr. Gipson
was in the insurance business at Miami, Flori-
da, and fiom 192 7 to 192 8 he followed the
same business at Elkhart, Indiana. In 1928
he established himself in Bloomington. In
the first four years there he worked, for other
agencies, but in Sept. 1932, he established his
own agency. This he operated until his death
in September, 19 48.
Mr. Gipson married Naomi Hull, a native of
Alvordton, Ohio, on October 20, 1926. She
is the daughter of Burton and Lillian (Elder)
Hull. Her father, born in Ohio, is in the
lumber and real estate business. Her mother
is a native of Iowa. Three children were born
to Mr. and Mrs. Gipson — Robert Hull Gipson,
on September 18, 1927; David Williams Gip-
son, on January 9, 1932, and Sarah Gipson,
on March 2, 1936. After graduation from
Bloomington High School in 1945, Robert
Hull Gipson served in the U.S. Navy for one
year. He attended DePauw University, Green-
castle, Indiana for three years and will be
graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University,
Bloomington, Illinois in 1950 with Bachelor
of Arts Degree.
In February 1950 the entire community
of Bloomington was shocked to learn of the
accidental death of David Williams Gipson.
At the age of 18 he had become a community
minded citizen and had learned to grapple
with the problems of mankind to an extent
sometime never reached by adults. "Dave"
Gipson was a straight "A" student, an athlete,
a natural leader, good orator, good musician,
and had a charming personality. He gave
promise of becoming one of the region's out-
standing civic leaders. A memorial idea initi-
ated by his fellow students has done much
to encourage the kind of all 'round ability he
demonstrated so well.
Mrs. Gipson, always an active woman in
civic and club affairs and always interested
in business, assisted her husband in the opera-
tion of the Gipson Insurance Agency. In Jan-
uary, 194 6, about three years before his
death, she was taken into the business as a
partner. In 1949, soon after his death, the
business was incorporated, and since then
Mrs. Gipson hp.s been president, with Robert
H. Gipson as vice president. She is a former
president of the McLean Co. Chapter of the
ILLINOIS EDITION
777
League of Women Voters. In the World War
II period Mrs. Gipson was chairman of volun-
teer services for the McLean County Chapter,
American Red Cross. Her "game" continues
to be golf. She was Indiana State Golf Cham-
pion in 192 5 and has been Bloomington cham-
pion four times and the Bloomington Country
Club champion eight times. She has given
considerable leadership to health, welfare and
better government programs in McLean
County.
Mr. Gipson, who served with the armed
forces from 1918 to 1919, was a member of
the American Legion. He also served on the
boards of trustees of the Illinois Wesleyan
University and the Bloomington Young Men's
Christian Association and on the board of
directors of the Bloomington Country Club.
During World War II Mr. Gipson, Sr. served
continuously on the Ration Boards of McLean
County. From 1945 to 1948 Mr. Gipson was
a member of the Bloomington-Normal Sani-
tary District; for two years he was that body's
treasurer. He also belonged to the Blooming-
ton Association of Commerce, the Normal
Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary Club of
Bloomington, the Bloomington Club, the Ma-
sonic order and Phi Delta Theta Fraternity.
He and Mrs. Gipson maintained a home at
601 North Main Street, Normal, and this con-
tinues Mrs. Gipson's home. Mr. Gipson was
fond of gardening, fishing and golf. He was
considered one of McLean County's great citi-
zens and Mrs. Gipson, walking in his foot-
steps, is herself achieving similar status.
HENRY PETER OSCAR SCHAFALE
Marion, the seat of Williamson County and
a city of nearly 10,000 population, had no
banking institution until, in association with
other forward-looking business and profes-
sional men, Henry Peter Oscar Schafale in
1937 became one of the organizers of the
Bank of Marion. Today, Mr. Schafale, form-
erly in the farm machinery business, is presi-
dent of the bank. He has been a director since
193 7. He is known throughout Illinois for the
banking work he has done in a region pre-
dominantly agricultural, and he has worked
in the cause of civic improvement and educa-
tion in his county.
Mr. Schafale was born on a farm in Wil-
liamson County on September 11, 1897, the
son of Michael and Mary ( Wielmuenster)
Schafale. His father, a farmer and black-
smith, moved to Marion in 1906. Oscar Scha-
fale was graduated from grade school in 1914
and in the same year joined his father in the
farm machinery business in the county seat.
He was in this business for thirty years, sell-
ing out to assume the presidency of the Bank
of Marion in 19*4. He had been elected vice
president in 1941. His former business was
known as M. Schafale and Son, carrying the
International Harvester line from 1902 to
1944. There were eleven employees and the
firm served most of Williamson County.
Michael Schafale at one time built wagons
and truck bodies. The farm implement busi-
ness was the outgrowth of his blacksmith's
shop.
On July 12, 1921, Oscar Schafale married
Marie Mysch, the daughter of the Reverend
and Mrs. Theodore Mysch of Marion. There
are five children — David, Lloyd, Dorris, Her-
bert and Ann Schafale. The family worships
in the Evangelical Reformed Church, in which
Mr. Schafale has taught in the Sunday School
since he was fourteen years old and in which
he is now on the official board. Influential
in the Il'inois Bankers Association, Mr. Scha-
fale was chairman of the agriculture commit-
tee for Group 10 in 1946. He is also a mem-
ber of the American Bankers Association and
the Independent Bankers Association. A mem-
ber of the Rotary Club of Marion since 1926,
he was its president in 1933-34. From 1930
to 1944 Mr. Schafale served on the Marion
High School Board and in the year 1943-44
was its president. He is a charter member
and a director, and past treasurer, of the
Greater Egyptian Association and is a char-
ter member and a director of the Southern
Illinois, Inc. He is past president and a mem-
ber of the board of directors of the Marion
Chamber of Commerce, and he is active in the
Williamson County Farm Bureau. Trees and
flowers must be included among his hobbies.
He is also interested in education, and has
himself completed a course in banking at the
University of Wisconsin. He is especially in-
terested in economics and professional publi-
cations. Through his variegated activities
Oscar Schafale has stimulated the growth and
prosperity of the entire urban-rural area in'
which he lives.
WALKER SCHWARTZ
An important figure in the financial world,
Walker Schwartz is chairman of the board of
directors ol the First National Bank of Car-
bondale and secretary of the First Building
and Loan Association of that city. A military
veteran or World War I who also was active
in Illinois Militia programs in World War 11,
Mr. Schwartz is prominent in veterans' af-
778
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
ROBERT WILLIAMS GIPSON
WALKER SCHWARTZ
fairs in Jackson County, as well as in fra-
ternal, educational and civic work. He is a
former president of the Carbondale Board of
Education.
Mr. Schwartz was born at Elkville, Jackson
County, on August 18, 1895. His father,
George Schwartz, also a native of that county.
was one ol the founders of Carbondale Loan
& Improvement Association of Carbondale.
He was the grandson of William A. Schwartz,
a native of Pennsylvania who became a promi-
nent farmer in Illinois and served in the
State Legislature at Springfield. Walker
Schwartz's mother was Lora A. Walker, also
born in Illinois. He has one sister, Mrs. Irene
Patterson, who is his senior in age. Mr.
Schwartz is a cousin of Chester Ray Schwartz
ol Elkville, lumberman and paint manufac-
turer ; nd on., lime postmaster of that city,
whose life story is told elsewhere in this Illi-
nois edition of the Library of American Lives.
Walker Schwartz received his early edu-
cation in the elementary schools of Carbon-
dale and University High School, being gradu-
ated from the latter in 1913. He then spent
iwo years at Southern Illinois University, in
Carbondale. In 1917, he entered the United
States Army. He went overseas with the
American Expeditionary Force and partici-
pated in rive major battles with the 130th In-
fantry, attaining the rank of Sergeant. Dis-
charged in May, 1919, he worked the next
twelve months or so in the production depart-
ment of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Com-
pany of Akron. He returned to Carbondale
in 1921 and joined his brother-in-law, Sam
Patterson, in the clothing business. Two
years later, however, he sold out to Mr. Pat-
terson and joined his father in the building
and loan association. This had been founded
by George Schwartz in 1905. Walker Schwartz
became assistant secretary of the building-
loan organization and at the same time took
over an insurance agency his father had been
operating. In 1934, on the death of his father,
he became secretary of the building and loan
organization, the office he holds today. In
1935, he was elected to the board of the First
National Bank of Carbondale and in 1946 was
made chairman. He is active in the Illinois
Savings and Loan League and the United
States Savings and Loan League.
On September 2 5, 1925, Mr. Schwartz mar-
ried Mabe! Smith, the daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. George Smith of Omaha, Illinois. They
have three children — Barbara Jane, who in
'1949 was at Northwestern University; Thomas
D., and Sara Marie. The family worships m
the Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Schwartz was president of the Carbon-
dale school board in 1930. He is also past
commander of the Carbondale Post of the
American Legion and past exalted ruler of the
Carbondale Lodge of the Benevolent and Pro-
tective Order of Elks. He has also served as
commander of the Beauseant Coinmandery,
Knights Templar, and is a member of Ainad
Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the
Mystic Slnine, in East St. Louis. He belongs
to the Rotary Club and the Jackson Country
Club, anicng other organizations. In World
War II he helped organize the local company
of Illinois Militia and served as its captain.
He has made an outstanding contribution to
the welfare of Carbondale and Jackson County.
PALL ROWATT
The largest seller of high-priced perfumes
in the world is Dana Perfumes, Inc., 430
North Michigan Avenue, Chicago. This firm
does business throughout the United Slates
and its possessions and in Canada. Chairman
of the Board is Paul Rowatt, one of the out-
standing men in this field internationally.
He was born in Carterville, Williamson
County, on January 19, 1901, the second of
lour children of Walter and Ellender Jane
(Lipsy) Rowatt. His father, also born in
Carterville, was the son of Waller Stewart
Rowatt of Scotland and Mary Ann Jackson of
Williamson County. The members of the fam-
ily were the oldest settlers of Carterville.
Walter Rowatt was a celebrated merchant in
Southern Illinois who after retiring in 1930
assumed his present office of president of the
Carterville State Savings Bank. The mother,
daughter of Michael Snyder and Janie
(Hayes) Lipsy, died in May, 1945. Her
parents and grandparents were pioneer set-
tlers at West Frankfort and most of the land
there was once owned by them. The world's
largest bituminous coal mine, Orient No. 2,
is located on land formerly in the family. The
other children of Walter and Ellender Rowatt
are Mrs. John Henry Craig of Herrin, Mrs.
Charles Hudgens of Carbondale and Howard
Edward Rowatt. Howard Rowatt studied at
the University of Southern Illinois, where he
was active in football and basketball. Later,
in World War II, he was a member of the
best teams in the armed forces- — at Camp
Gruber. An M.P. in the Rainbow Division, he
was one of four members of that division who
through a "bluff" brought about the sur-
render to them of a garrison of 130 German
ILLINOIS
EDITION
783
soldiers, one of the celebrated incidents of
the war.
Paul Rowatt attended grammar school at
Carterville. He won the competitive scholar-
ship for the University of Illinois, from which
he was graduated in 192 2, receiving his Certi-
fied Public Accountant Certificate at the age
of twenty-one. He taught accounting at the
university the following year, and practiced
accounting until 1941. In this period he was
in charge of the office of Angus Steven for
eleven and one-half years and head of the
tax department of Alexander Grant Company
three and one-half years. In 1941 he became
engaged in the cosmetics business with J. Les-
lie Younghusband. In June, 1944, their Chen
Yu nail polish and lipstick line was sold for
$2,000,000, after which their attention was
given to developing Dana Perfumes, Inc. The
entire stock of this company was acquired by
Paul Rowatt in September, 1947. Dana Per-
fumes, Inc., operates under a license from
Javier Serra and has the distribution rights
in the United States, its possessions and
Canada. Now the largest seller of high-priced
perfumes in the world, it retails its products
at $17.50 to $40.00 an ounce, and its volume
has grown to several million dollars a year.
Mr. Rowatt, who is unmarried, still makes
his home in Carterville. He is a Republican
and a Protestant. Flying and golfing are his
major interests outside the perfume business.
He maintains a Seabee and two land planes
and spends as much time as possible flying
and golfing. Standing six feet one and weigh-
ing 240 pounds, with dark hair and dark eyes,
he has made himself a familiar figure in
many corners of the world. He is a popular
man of business and an outstanding citizen of
both Chicago and Carterville.
OSCAR F. MAYER
Oscar Mayer and Co., is, of course, the
celebrated meat packing concern with head-
quarters in Chicago and branches in many
other major cities of the United States. Its
founder is the venerable and popular Oscar F.
Mayer, now chairman of the company's board
of directors, a nonagenarian still alertly in-
terested in the business and in the world in
general. More actively engaged in guiding
the company's interests today is his son, Oscar
G. Mayer (q.v.), celebrated Chicagoan who is
president of Oscar Mayer and Co.
Oscar F. Mayer born in Bavaria, Germany,
on March 29, 1859. His parents were Ferdi-
nand Mayer, also a native of that province and
a forester, and Wilhelmina Mayer. The future
meat packer was educated in the grammar
schools of Germany. In 1873, when he was
fourteen, Mr. Mayer emigrated to the United
States and in the same year went to work
for George Weber in Detroit, Michigan. He
remained with him three years. After further
varied experience in the meat business Mr.
Mayer started the small meat processing con-
cern of Oscar F. Mayer & Bro. in Chicago in
1883. Out of this firm arose the present
great house, Oscar Mayer and Co., of which
Mr. Mayer was president until 1931, when lie
became chairman of the board of directors,
leaving the presidency to his son. Besides big
plants in Chicago, the company now has pack-
ing houses in Madison and Prairie du Chien,
Wisconsin; and in Davenport, Iowa, and a
processing plant in Philadelphia.
Mr. Mayer married Louise Greiner, who
died in 1931, in Chicago on May 12, 1887.
They have five children and sixteen grand-
children. Their only son, Oscar G. Mayer,
president of the company, is the oldest of the
five children. He was born in Chicago on
March 10, 18 88. He married Elsa Stieglitz
and is the father of four children. His story
is told in detail in another section of this
Illinois Edition of Library of American Lives.
The daughters are, in the order of their birth:
Frieda Mayer Collins, wife of Edward J. Col-
lins, pianist and composer, and the mother of
four children; Louise Mayer Schein, who died
in 1927, being survived by her three children;
Elsie Mayer Steuer, widow of the late Joseph
T. Steuer and the mother of two children;
and Eugenie Mayer Bolz, wife of Adolph C.
Bolz and mother of three children. Mr. Oscar
F. Mayer resides at 572 7 Sheridian Road, Chi-
cago. He is a member of St. Paul's Evangelical
Lutheran Church, Chicago. Mr. Mayer is a
Democrat. Deer hunting is his favorite pas-
time. He has made a distinct contribution to
the nation's welfare and progress in develop-
ing and making meat food products of the
highest quality for almost seven decades.
OSCAR G. MAYER
In all parts of the nation the name of May-
er has become synonymous with progress in
the meat packing industry. Oscar G. Mayer,
of Chicago, bearer of this name, is president
of the great house of Oscar Mayer and Co. He
has held some of the highest posts in his
industry and has given considerable leader-
ship to educational activities, having at one
time been president of the board of trustees
of the University of Illinois and serving at
784
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
OSCAR F. MAYER
OSCAR G. MAYER
present on the board of Beloit College in Wis-
consin.
Oscar G. Mayer was born in Chicago on
March 10, 1888. His father is Oscar F. Mayer,
founder of Oscar Mayer and Company, former
president of that concern and at present the
chairman of its board of directors. (The story
of his life and career is fully told on other
pages of this volume.) The mother of Oscar
G. Mayer is Louise (Greiner) Mayer. Mr.
Mayer completed his education at Harvard
University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, where
he took the degree of Bachelor of Arts. His
scholarship was of such caliber as to win him
election to Phi Beta Kappa. The year he took
his degree Mr. Mayer went to work for Oscar
Mayer and Company, assuming the duties of
assistant superintendent. In 1912, he was
elected secretary and member of the board of
directors and general manager and since 1931
he has been president.
Mr. Mayer married Elsa Stieglitz in Chi-
cago on May 10, 1913. They have four chil-
dren and seven grandchildren — Oscar G. May-
er., Jr., who married Rosalie Harrison and is
the father of Oscar H. Mayer, Donald Mayer
and William Mayer; Harold M. Mayer who
married Jane Leathers and is the father of
Harold Mayer and Richard Mayer; Allan C.
Mayer, who married Lois Kurtz and is the
father of Allan C. Mayer, Jr.; and Elinor
Mayer Russell, the wife of Robert S. Russell
and mother of Robert S. Russell, Jr. Mr. and
Mrs. Oscar G. Mayer, Sr., reside at 1030
Forest Avenue, Evanston, and worship in St.
Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Chicago.
Mr. Mayer is prominent in the civic life of
Chicago. A leading personality in the meat
packing industry, he was president of the
American Meat Institute from 1924 to 1928
and his civic leadership was recognized in
Chicago when he was made president of the
Chicago Association of Commerce in 1938, an
office he held through 1940. He began his
service on the board of trustees of the Uni-
versity of Illinois in 1934, remaining on that
body until 1940; in the years 1938 and 1939
he was its president. He has been on the
board of Beloit College since 1944. Active
throughout World War II in home-front pro-
grams of a highly essential character, he was
chairman of the Chicago and Cook County
War Savings Committee in 1942 and 1943.
In World War I he was a Lieutenant in the
Illinois National Guard. Mr. Mayer is a mem-
ber of the Chicago, University, Commercial,
Senachwme Gun, Glen View Golf and Lake
Geneva Country Clubs. He votes Democratic.
Hunting and fishing are his main outdoor
recreations; sometimes he plays golf.
EDWIN PHILIP BERGERON
It was onlv in 1934 that Edwin Philip Berge-
ron began an automobile dealership — with
one car — at Kankakee. That one vehicle was,
of course, a used car, but it established Mr.
Bergeron in the field, and today he is one of
the leading automobile dealers in the North-
eastern Illinois region outside Chicago. At
one time he bought used cars in a widespread
Eastern territory and shipped them by car-
loads in various directions, chiefly the West.
As the Uptown Sales, Inc., Mr. Bergeron today
operates the Chrysler-Plymouth agency in
Kankakee. The Bergeron Motor Co., Inc., at
Elkhart, Indiana, the Bergeron Acceptance
Corporation, which carries the automobile
loans for his business, and the Kankakee Leas-
ing Company, which leases cars to large fleet
owners in all sections of the country are all
under his management. He is president of all
these companies and is also a director of the
Air-Auto Insurance Company of Kankakee, of
which he was one of the founders. He has
headed fund-raising campaigns of all kinds,
including the National War Fund in Kanka-
kee County in the World War II period and is
a leader in all health, welfare and youth-
serving movements. He is one of the leading
lay Catholics of Northeastern Illinois.
Mr. Bergeron was born on a farm on Jan-
uary 5, 1906, the son of Francis Xavier and
Regina (LaRoque) Bergeron. He is one of
five children, the others being, in the order
of their birth, Herve, Lionel, Lorraine, Clar-
ence. His father, who was a bank director
as well as prominent farmer, retired in 1930
and died in 1940. The mother, who survives
her husband, is a native of Illinois and the
daughter of Canadians. Edwin Bergeron was
educated in grade schools and in the Brown
Business College of Kankakee. He first work-
ed on his father's farm. In 1926, Mr. Berge-
ron entered the employ of the Pope Machine
Shop, where he remained until May, 192 7. On
June 1, 1927, he began his career in the auto-
mobile business. He became the dealer for
Peerless automobiles, operating a business he
called Bergeron Auto Sales. This business he
discontinued late in 1930, when he went to
work for the P. and G. Motor Company of
Kankakee. The depression was in full sway
then, and Mr. Bergeron's pay was $7.50 a
week, plus three percent commission on every
car he sold. Nevertheless, he remained with
P. and G. until September, 1934.
ILLINOIS
EDITION
TS-J
At that time he leased a Kankakee build-
ing and with one used car resumed business
for himself. It was only two years later that
he was able to take over the- Chrysler-Ply-
mouth dealership which he operates today.
He built himself a modern building in 1937,
and since then has averaged about six hun-
dred cars a year. He has continued his suc-
cess, even expanding greatly, despite handi-
caps. One of the worst of these was an auto-
mobile accident which forced him to undergo
nine operations and to spend a year in the
hospital. The accident occured in 1940. A
year before he had opened a used car store in
Joliet, but this he closed out in 1942. In his
used car operations, he established a head-
quarters in St. Louis, Missouri, and bought
cars in various Eastern cities, with outlets in
such Western centers as St. Louis, Kansas
City and Los Angeles, among others. He ship-
ped about two thousand used cars a year, in
carloads. In 19 40 Mr. Bergeron formed the
Bergeron Acceptance Corporation to finance
his sales, and in 1946 he obtained the Chry-
sler-Plymouth franchise at Elkhart and
launched the Kankakee Leasing Company,
Inc., at Kankakee. In this period too he
helped organize Air-Auto Insurance Company,
the name of which suggests its business, and
has since been on its directorate. Altogether,
today, he employs 132 persons. He is the
owner of considerable real estate.
In 19 30 he married Alice Guimond, who
was born in Illinois on February 28, 1909.
They have two children — Kenneth F. Berge-
ron, born on September 25, 1934, and Joyce
Ann Bergeron, born on May 11, 194 5. The
entire family worships in the Catholic Church.
Mr. Bergeron serves his community as a
Catholic and as a citizen at large. He is presi-
dent of the Catholic Charities of the Kanka-
kee Diocese and chairman of the board of di-
rectors of the Catholic Youth Organization,
of which he is former chairman. He is also
on the board of the American Cancer Society
chapter and is former chairman of fund-rais-
ing drives for this organization in the Kan-
kakee area. In 194 5, he was general chair-
man for the National War Fund for Kankakee
County, and he continues active in the Kan-
kakee Community Chest, which was part of
the National War Fund organization in the
war period. Another of the most recent ac-
tivities of Mr. Bergeron was the assuming of
the responsibility as General Lay Chairman
of the Southern Section of the Joliet Diocese
and through his leadership $670,000.00 of the
two million five hundred thousand was raised.
This campaign was conducted during the
month of June, 1950. He is also vice presi-
dent of the Kankakee Chamber of Commerce
and in 19 50 was elevated from the vice presi-
dency to the presidency of the Kiwanis Club
of Kankakee. Other organizations to which
he belongs are the Loyal Order of Moose, the
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the
Knights of Columbus, the Holy Name Society,
and the Kankakee Valley Country Club and
the Kankakee Country Club.
Outstanding among automobile dealers, Mr.
Bergeron is a diretcor of the Illinois Automo-
tive Trade Association and the organization's
chairman in the Kankakee area. Mr. Berge-
ron has a formula for successs which he of-
fers to all car dealers. When he went into
the new car business, he established a policy
of giving prolonged free service to customers,
regardless of time limits on warranties. For
example, he would replace a battery if it be-
came exhausted even after a year of purchase.
The resultant goodwill helped to pyramid the
business rapidly into its present great success.
Mr. Bergeron is known for service not only
in his business, but in the welfare field and
in the community in general, and he is among
the very few who are devoting themselves
wholeheartedly to building Kankakee and its
section of the State.
SOL VAN PRAAG, SR.
A one-time associate of the famed aviation
pioneer, Eddie Stinson, and himself a pioneer
in that field, Solomon Van Praag, Sr., of De-
catur is one of a celebrated family which has
been serving the state and country for many
years in many fields. A military veteran of
World War I, he was active on the homefront
in World War II and afterward in the Korean
War. He is now president and chairman of
the board of the Van Praag Equipment and
Manufacturing Company, Inc., of Decatur.
Mr. Van Praag, born on November 5, 1890,
at Fergus Falls, Minnesota, is the son of the
late Alex Van Praag, Sr., an illustrious De-
catur citizen, and Rachel (Davis) Van Praag.
Both his parents were born in Holland, his
father in Utretcht, his mother in Rotterdam.
Alex Van Praag, Sr., who was in the tobacco
and milling business in Decatur, served that
city for twelve years as Commissioner of Pub-
lic Health and Safety. His hobby of playing
Santa Claus at Christmas time furthered his
local fame; for twenty-one years he gave
Christmas parties, at his own expense, for the
children of Decatur, and in later years 4,000
youngsters attended. Solomon Van Praag, Sr.,
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was educated at James Millikin University,
Decatur, the University of Illinois College of
Engineering at Urbana and the University of
Minnesota at Minneapolis.
When he left the University of Illinois, Mr.
Van Praag joined Eddie Stinson at San An-
tonio, Texas, and participated in the design,
building and flying of early aircraft. On July
13, 1917, Mr. Van Praag was commissioned a
First Lieutenant in the United States Army
and was attached to the Transportation Corps
of Engineers and the Transportation Corps,
with which he was stationed at Brest, France.
Honorably discharged on October 31, 1919, he
was with the Engineers Reserve until 1931.
Mr. Van Praag had barely been inducted
into the military service when, on August 4,
1917, at San Antonio, he married Theodora
Farque, the daughter of Joseph and Docia
Farque, Three children have been born to
this marriage: Alex Van Praag, III, whose
biography appears elsewhere in this publica-
tion; Sol Van Praag, Jr., and Gloria Ann, now
the wife of Arthur C. McConnell. Mr. and
Mrs. Van Pragg, Sr., reside at 1401 East Clay
Street, Decatur.
When Mr. Van Praag left the active mili-
tary service in 1919, he joined the Leader Iron
Works in Decatur as engineer. Later he be-
came field erection engineer and then, until
1947, he was sales engineer. Concurrently,
beginning in 1932, he also represented Erie
Meter Systems, Brodie Meter Company and
the Heil Company in like capacities. In the
World War II period he also supervised pe-
troleum bulk storage installations at large
Air Bases in a civilian engineering capacity.
In January, 1946, upon the return of his two
sons from the Army, he formed a partnership
with them, known as the Van Praag Equip-
ment Company, dealing in petroleum handling
equipment. Two buildings were constructed.
In 1947 the partnership was succeeded by a
corporation, now called Van Praag Equipment
and Manufacturing Company, Inc., of which he
has since been president and board chairman.
In June, 1947, Mr. Van Praag resigned his po-
sition with Leader Iron Works to devote more
time to the newly-formed corporation.
Mr. Van Praag, active in civic works, is
a member of the outlying areas committee of
the Decatur Association of Commerce, as well
as in such other organizations as the Veterans
of Foreign Wars, United Commercial Trav-
elers, Travelers Protective Association; Steph-
en Decatur Lodge, No. 979, Ancient Free and
Accepted Masons; Springfield Consistory, An-
cient Accepted Scottish Rite, and Ansar Tem-
ple of the Shrine. He is one of the great citi-
zens of Decatur and Illinois.
ALEX VAN PRAAG, III
Generation after generation the Van Praag
family has served . Decatur, Illinois and the
nation, and in the process established itself
among the leaders in industrial, civic and so-
cial life. One of the present generation of
the family is Alex Van Praag, III, vice-pres-
ident in charge of sales and advertising of
the Van Praag Equipment and Manufactur-
ing Company of Decatur, World War II vet-
eran and active civic worker.
Alex Van Praag, III, was born in San An-
tonio, Texas, on June 2, 1918, the son of Solo-
mon Van Praag, Sr., one of Decatur's out-
standing citizens whose story is told on other
pages of this history, and Theodora (Farque)
Van Prxag. After attending the public schools
in Decatur, Alex Van Praag, III, went to the
University of Illinois at Urbana. There he
became a member of the university band and
orchestra, of the fencing team and the Wal-
dron Club, which he served as president. Upon
leaving the university Mr. Van Praag joined
the United States Army and in March, 1941,
went on active duty. From June, 1940, to
June, 1942, he was with the Infantry, Illinois
National Guard. Until June, 1943, he was at
the staff and faculty engineer school, Fort
Belvoir, Virginia, and until June, 1944, he
was with the Engineer School "Flying Cir-
cus," in the course of which period he helped
establish the Minefield Technique for the
Army. From December, 1944, to January,
1945, Mr. Van Praag was Bomb Disposal Offi-
cer at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Mary-
land and from July, 1945, to the time of his
separation from the service in April, 1946, he
was Captain in the Engineers and Engineer
School. Since his separation from active duty
he has remained in reserve work, commanding
the 300th Engineer Technical Intelligence Unit,
and as Assistant S-2, 334th Engineer Group
Headquarters (c).
Immediately upon leaving the active service
Mr. Van Praag joined his father and brother,
Solomon Van Praag, Jr., in a partnership
known as Van Praag Equipment Company.
In January, 1947, the corporation succeeded
the partnership, with Alex Van Praag, III, as
vice-president in charge of sales and advertis-
ing. The corporation, which later assumed its
present name, deals in petroleum equipment
and fabrication of steel products, such as
tanks, loading docks and ornamental posts.
ILLINOIS
EDITION
795
Alex Van Praag, III, married Missie Anne
Jones, the daughter of Milton Edward and
Mary Olive Jones, in St. Charles, Missouri, on
October 5, 1940. Two children have been born
to Mr. and Mrs. Van Praag — Lynne Carole
Van Praag, on September 11, 1942, and Bruce
Alexander, on September 19, 1948. The Van
Praags reside at 148 Melrose Court, Decatur,
and worship in the Central Christian Church
of that City. Mr. Van Praag was baptized
in the First Baptist Church of San Antonio,
his birthplace.
Active in aviation, Mr. Van Praag is Air
Inspector of the Illinois Wing, Civil Air pa-
trol, and a member of the aviation committee
of the Decatur Association of Commerce. He
is also on the Oil Industry Information Com-
mittee. His other organizations include the
American Legion, the Reserve Officers Asso-
ciation, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Asso-
ciation, the American Society of Military En-
gineers, the United Commercial Travelers, the
Travelers Protective Association, and such Ma-
sonic bodies as the Stephen Decatur Lodge,
No. 979, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons;
the Springfield Consistory, Ancient and Ac-
cepted Scottish Rite; Ansar Temple, Ancient
Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine,
and the Decatur Shrine Club. His recrea-
tional interests include flying, precision demo-
lition and explosive weapons. He is consid-
ered one of the more valuable of Decatur's
younger citizens, a leader in many walks of
life there.
RUDOLPH O. AHLENIUS
There was consternation in the home of
Adam O. Ahlenius and Anna Gibson Ahlenius
the wintry morning of February 7th, 1872, in
Galesburg, Illinois, all because an expectant
mother slipped and fell on the icy walk the
previous day. The tiny pre-maturely born in-
fant was bathed in olive oil, swathed in cot-
ton and placed in a basket behind the base
burner. He soon developed a will to live and
thus began the life of an average American
boy in an average American home. He was
given the name of Rudolph Otto, family names
in the paternal line. Adam O. Ahlenius, born
in Sweden to a patrician family, early in life
developed a wanderlust and immigrated to
America, locating in Springfield, Illinois. In
response to Lincoln's call for volunteers he
enlisted in the Illinois 'thirty-third', serving
through the war. He was unofficially the regi-
mental butcher. Out of service he tried farm-
ing, running a meat market, and cattle buying,
but eventually took up the practice of his
profession, that of veterinary surgeon.
The mother, also born in Sweden, was the
daughter of a farmer in moderate circum-
stances. Intrigued by the tales of the new coun-
try she embarked for America only to be
shipwrecked and to spend three months on
Anticosta Isle. Her destination was Gales-
burg, Illinois, where resided a brother who
had preceded her. i
Rudolph O. Ahlenius lived the normal life
of boys of that time. A better than average
student his interests ran to sports, debate and
manual arts. In high school his leadership
began to unfold to give promise of real ability
in that line Measured by the standards of
today, life was rugged. The wood-pile, saw
and saw-buck was the gymnasium. Caring for
the cow, horse and chickens, left little free
time for "Shinnie-on-the-ice" or other sport.
That type of life developed self-reliance, ini-
tiative, and restraint.
During his high school days Mr. Ahlenius
worked part time in a local meat market, keep-
ing the books, delivering meat and doing other
chores. Upon graduation he was offered a po-
sition by the leading grocer of the city. He
there received a thorough training in the fun-
damentals of business. This was supplemented
by courses in business management, salesman-
ship, and allied subjects and an occasional
enrollment in some extension course. This
period was uneventful except there was no
hour and wage law to shorten the ten to twelve
hours at the store. After this internship of
six years there came to him an opportunity
to purchase a half interest in a small grocery
business. The business prospered. After two
years of close application he purchased his
partner's interest. The business continued to
grow and expand to where it was recognized
as one of the city's best food stores. In spite
of long hours and hard work Mr. Ahlenius
entered into the civic life of the community.
Both father and mother, especially the mother,
being religiously inclined, he was indoctrinated
in the tenets of the Christian Religion. This
may explain his interest in the Church,
Y.M.CA., and kindred organizations. He served
his church in official capacities, earlier having
been very active in the young peoples work
on the regional and state levels as well as in
the local society. He is still remembered as
having been Superintendent of the Sunday
School for a long period terminated by his re-
moval from the city.
He was asked to become a candidate for
school director because of his personal knowl-
796
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
RUDOLPH O. AHLENIUS
GEORGE NELSON ALBON, JR.
edge of the school system as a former student.
He was elected and re-elected for four terms
to bring to that board leadership, training and
interest, which is a brief statement of a work
well and ably done. In spite of these duties
he found time for more strictly community
service in which he likewise was a leader. As
an indication of a popular recognition of his
services he was elected President of the Gales-
burg Chamber of Commerce in 1914 and re-
elected in 1915.
On October 2, 1902, Mr. Ahlenius was united
in marriage to Mabel Holliday, the daughter
of Dr. W. S. Holliday, in Monmouth, Illinois.
To this union was born four children: The
eldest, Marion, graduated at Wesleyan Uni-
versity and did post-graduate work in New
York in dietetics. Two sons, twins, Edward
It., and William H., also graduated from Wes-
leyan University and did post-graduate work
in the Commerce School of Northwestern Uni-
versity. The youngest, Ruth E., was the fourth
to graduate from Wesleyan University and
she did her graduate work at Ann Arbor after
securing a B. of Ed. degree from I.S.N. U.
In World War I our government was con-
cerned about saving man power and the con-
servation of food. To implement this concern
the State Food Administrator called upon the
grocers to organize so as to better lend their
help to the end that more men and more food
would be available. Mr. Howard Humphreys,
then assistant Food Administrator for Illinois,
called the meeting and explained the purpose
of such organization and asked compliance
with the plan. At this meeting of the grocers
of the city Mr. Ahlenius was elected president.
In the following months Mr. Humphreys ap-
parently was impressed with the ability he saw
in Mr. Ahlenius, for even before the armistice
he offered him the executive vice-presidency
of the J. F. Humphreys Co., of Bloomington,
the second largest wholesale grocery in down-
state Illinois. It was accepted. Then began
ten years of interesting, even if challenging,
service, for this v/as the period of wholesale
grocers vs. chain store system of merchandis-
ing.
In 1927 Mr. Ahlenius was elected president
of the Bloomington Association of Commerce
and then re-elected in 1928 for a second term-
In the meantime he was active in Y.M.C.A.
work, scouting, and the church which he served
in official capacity. In 1928 he was offered
and accepted the position of General Manager
of the Williams Oilomatic Heating Corpora-
tion to contribute to the development and
growth of this company in marketing an ad-
vance step in home comfort, the oil burner in
which this company was a pioneer.
This new position offered increased opportu-
nity for service with increasing responsibility
and wide business acquaintanceship. In 1939,
after eleven years service, Mr. Ahlenius re-
signed to organize a local savings and Thrift
Bank. The Bloomington Federal Savings and
Loan Association was chartered by the Federal
Home Loan Bank on May 23, 1941. His past
experience peculiarly fitted Mr. Ahlenius for
a successful administration of this business
built around human interest and service. That
this Association has succeeded beyond expec-
tation is evidenced by its acceptance as a
leading institution of the city by investors as
well as borrowers. It is said that each insti-
tution is the "lengthened shadow of some
man". Mr. Ahlenius' shadow has continued
to lengthen through each succeeding change.
Through all these years of close application
to business, Mr. Ahlenius has maintained an
active and vital interest in his church and its
several organizations. In 1936 he was chair-
man of a committee for the reorganization of
the Illinois Baptist State Convention. In 1937
he was elected president, and since that pe-
riod of service he has been chairman of several
important committees and usually is included
in counseling on important matters on the
state level.
Mr. Ahlenius was modest when interviewed
and even reluctant to concede that what he
had done was worthy of comment. His asso-
ciates however esteem his achievements worthy
of this recognition. It is a simple story of
devotion to duty, and intensive work and an
abiding faith.
GEORGE NELSON ALBON, JR.
Possessor of a national reputation in the
banking industry, George Nelson Albon, Jr.,
is president of the First National Bank of
Carbondale, vice-president of the Bank of De-
Soto and a director of the Carbondale Build-
ing and Loan Association. He is also active
in educational and religious work at Carbon-
dale and is an outstanding citizen of Southern
Illinois.
Born at DeSoto on May 1, 1891, Mr. Albon
is the son of George N. Albon, Sr., a famous
figure in Jackson County, and Abbie Mae
(Walker) Albon, who died in 1936. The senior
Mr. Albon, born in 1858, has been Mayor of
DeSoto six times and superintendent of the
Lutheran Sunday School there since the early
part of this century. He is both merchant
ILLINOIS EDITION
801
FRED MITCHELL JONES, M.S., Ph.D.
and banker, and the story is told how he went
into the banking business. A partner in a
mercantile enterprise at DeSoto for many
years, he became sole owner in 1915, chang-
ing its name to George Albon and Sons. Dur-
ing the early years of his operation of the
store, customers had asked him to hold mon-
ey for them. After a time Mr. Albon had
bank books and checks printed. When Illinois
passed a law requiring all banks to be incor-
porated, he incorporated as the Bank of De-
Soto, with himself as president and son,
George, Jr., as vice-president, and this ar-
rangement has continued. The bank was in-
corporated in 1920, at a $15,000 capitaliza-
tion. Today the assets are more than $300,-
000.
George Albon, Jr., was ill in childhood
and did not start to school until he was
eight. He attended DeSoto's public schools
for three years and then Western Military
Academy at Alton. He was graduated in 1910,
as a First Lieutenant. He then entered his
father's mercantile business at DeSoto, work-
ing as a clerk for two years. In 1912 he
went to Carbondale as an employee of the
First National Bank. He was then twenty
years old and his salary was $40 a month.
E. E. Mitchell was president of the bank
at the time and because Mr. Albon was not
old enough to be bonded Mr. Mitchell acted
as his "surety." Mr. Albon's father is the
bank's oldest depositor — both in age and in
years of association with the First National.
He made a deposit in 1893, when the bank
was opened, and his account has been active
since that first day. The son became assist-
ant cashier of the First National in 1928 and
in 1936 was elected cashier. He served under
J. E. Mitchell, president, a nephew of E. E.
Mitchell. In 1946, when J. E. Mitchell died,
Mr. Albon succeeded him in the presidency.
He had then been with the bank thirty-four
years, and his reputation was almost as wide-
spread among bankers and the general public
as it is today.
On October 11, 1914, Mr. Albon married
Beatrice Elliott, daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
Michael Elliott of Decatur. Mr. and Mrs. Al-
bon became the parents of four children —
James, born in 1916 and killed by an auto-
mobile when he was three; Dean Elliott, born
in 1919, a First Lieutenant in the Army in
World War II, serving nineteen months over-
seas, now a chemical engineer at DuQuoin
and who married Joan Smith of Carbondale
and became the father of Jean and Dean Albon ;
George Nelson, III, born in 1921, who died
at the age of eighteen months; and Alice
Mae, born in 1923, now Mrs. A. N. Griffith
and the mother of Ann and Jack Griffith.
Mr. Albon is vice-chairman of Group 10,
American Bankers Association, and is also ac-
tive in the Illinois Bankers Association. He
has been a director of Carbondale Building
and Loan Association since 1903. He has
served as secretary of both the high school
and grade school boards and served six years
as trustee of the First Presbyterian Church.
He is also active in Rotary, Masonry, the
Modern Woodmen and the Elks. He has made
a noteworthy contribution to his native South-
ern Illinois.
FRED MITCHELL JONES, M.S., Ph.D.
Dr. Fred Mitchell Jones is the well known
author of various books on marketing, retail-
ing and general economics and is an associate
professor at the University of Illinois.
Dr. Jones, born in Pearl, Illinois, on Sep-
tember 24, 1905, is the son of Joel Nicholas
and Sarah Jane (Schmoll) Jones. His father,
born near Sturgeon, Missouri, is a building
contractor. Fred Jones was graduated from
Illinois College in 1925 and then studied at
the Univeisity of Illinois where he took the
degree of Bachelor of Science in 1927. In
1930 the University awarded him the degree
of Master of Science and in 19 35 he was
awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
in Economics. He was employed as a cost ac-
countant by the Federal Electric Company,
Chicago, Irom 1927 to 1929. In 1930 he be-
gan his professional career as a graduate as-
sistant in the College of Commerce and Busi-
ness Administration, University of Illinois,
and by 194 7 had advanced to the rank of
associate professor. He has taught market-
ing, retailing, industrial management, sales-
manship, economic geography, principles of
economics, accounting and airline manage-
ment. His specialities are marketing and re-
tailing.
Dr. Jones' books are "Economic Develop-
ment of the United States" with C. M. Thomp-
son, 1939; "Introduction to Marketing" with
P. D. Converse, 1948; "Principles of Retail-
ing", 1949, and "Middlemen in the Domestic
Trade of the United States, 1800-1860", 1937.
On June 16, 1932, Ruth Berneice Smith
and Fred Mitchell Jones were married in Ur-
bana, and on October 6, 1941, a daughter,
Ruth Ellen Jones, was born to them. Their
home is at 202 East Washington Street,
Urbana.
ILLINOIS EDITION
805
Dr. Jones is a member of the Kiwanis Club
of Champaign-Urbana, Kappa Delta and
Alpha Kaopa Psi, and is a Republican. Fish-
ing and hunting are his favorite sports while
gardening is his hobby.
RUTH BERNEICE SMITH JONES
Prominent among the citizens of Cham-
paign and Urbana, Mrs. Ruth Berneice Smith
Jones may point with pride to an extraordi-
nary record. She began her career as a win-
dow decorator for a department store,
switched to a job — after taking special
courses — as a bookkeeper for a savings and
loan organization and today she is the manag-
ing executive of that organization, the Citi-
zens Building Association of Urbana, with
the title of executive secretary. She also
serves on the asociation's board of directors.
Mrs. Jones began life as Ruth Berneice
Smith. She was born at Urbana on January
22, 1910, the daughter of Rodney R. Smith,
a farmer born near Lexington, Kentucky, on
June 1, 1884, and Cora Belle (Johnson)
Smith, whose parents were John Wesley and
Anna Pearl (Garrison) Johnson.
Mrs. Jones was graduated from the Urbana
High School. She attended the University of
Illinois for one semester and since then has
completed five courses on savings and loan.
She was a member of the Bethany Circle, a
church-sponsored sorority on the campus, and
after she left school she became president of
the organization's corporation board.
Mrs. Jones' first job after leaving school
was show card drawing and window decorat-
ing for an Urbana store. In 192 9 she became
bookkeeper for the Citizens Building Associa-
tion of Urbana and in 193 7 she was elected
secretary and member of the board of direc-
tors. She also owns and operates a general
insurance agency in Urbana. Her business
address in that city is 107 South Race Street.
On June 16, 1932 Ruth Berneice Smith and
Fred Mitchell Jones were married in Urbana,
and on October 6, 1941, a daughter, Ruth Ellen
Jones, was born to them. Their home is at
202 East Washington Street, Urbana.
Mrs. Jones, prominent in her field, has
served on various committees of the Illinois
Savings and Loan League and at present is a
member of its education committee. She has
also served on the housing and youth commit-
tees of the Urbana Chamber of Commerce.
She has held the office of president and other
chairs, including committee chairmanships,
in the Business and Professional Women's
Club of Champaign-Urbana and has been on
8()(!
the board of directors of the State organiza-
tion since 1937 as editor of the State publica-
tion. In 1949 she was elected president of the
Illinois Federation of Business Women's
Clubs. Mrs. Jones is a member of the Uni-B
versity Place Christian Church in Champaign.
It was she who organized the Junior Chris-M
tian Endeavor of the church. She taught in
the primary classes of the Sunday School for
seven years and at present herself attends
the adult classes. For more than seven years
she was president of the Missionary Guildfl
for working girls. She is a Republican and
crocheting is her hobby.
She is certainly one of Illinois' outstanding
women and with her husband makes one of
the truly notable couples in the nation.
ANDY HALL, M.D.
Andy Hall, the son of Colonel Hiron W. and
Mrs. Julia McLean Hall, was born on a farm
in Hamilton County, Illinois, January 8, 1865M
His father served in the Mexican War, and
commanded an Illinois Regiment during the
Civil War. His mother's family gave to Illi-
nois a United States Senator after whom Mc-
Lean county was named. He was the eighth
child in a family of nine. His early education
was obtained in a one room, log school house,
later in the McLeansboro public schools andB
the Northern Illinois Normal and Dixon Busi-B
ness College from which he entered the medi-B
cal department of Northwestern University, I
graduating from that institution in 18 90.
Following graduation, he located in Mt
Vernon, Illinois where he has been a resident
ever since. Mt. Vernon, at that time, had a
population of less than 4,000 people, which
now has 20,000; neither the city streets or
the country roads were graveled or hard sur-
faced, hence, during the winter time they
were almost impassable by horse and buggy.
By close application to business, rendering
efficient service to patients, regardless of .
their financial ability to pay, and regardless
of weather and road conditions when called,
he soon built up a very extensive practice fn
both the city and surrounding country. Dur-
ing the winter season when the roads were*
almost impassable, he often made country
calls ten or fifteen miles distance horseback.
Occasionally when the roads were almost im-
passable for a horse and buggy, lie went on
foot. On one occasion he walked more than
thirty miles in one day making country ami
city calls.
January 1. 1892, Dr. Hall was united in
marriage to Miss Anna Laura Glazebrook,
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
:
RUTH BERNEICE SMITH JONES
who was then a teacher in the Mt. Vernon
public schools, From this union three sons
were born.
In 18 9 7, he was elected Mayor of the city
of Mt. Vernon, but when the Spanish Ameri-
can War was declared in 18 98, he resigned
as Mayor and entered the Medical Corp of
the United States Army serving as major and
surgeon in the 9th Illinois, accompanying
that Regiment to Cuba. Following muster
out, he again opened his office in Mt. Vernon,
but at the end of five weeks received a tele-
gram from the Surgeon General of the United
States Army requesting him to accompany the
volunteer army to the Philippine Islands dur-
ing the insurrection. He immediately closed
his office, kissed his wife and two little boys,
one three years and one eleven monts old,
goodbye and started for Manila. Arriving
there in October 18 99, he was assigned to a
field hosnital at San Isidro, and later as sur-
geon of an expedition under General Funsten.
He accompanied Infantry troops afoot chas-
ing the insurrectoes throughout the jungles
of Luzon for more than one year.
Returning to Mt. Vernon, he opened an of-
fice in 1901, and soon built up a very ex-
tensive practice. Two years later his nephew,
Dr. Charles W. Hall, formed a partnership
with him which continued for thirty-six years.
Dr. Hall v as one of the early physicians in
Southern Illinois to attempt major surgery.
Before any hospital was ever made available,
he did laparotomies, mastoid operations, and
other major surgery in the country homes on
the dining-room and kitchen tables. His skill
and success brought patients from all sur-
rounding counties.
Notwithstanding, he and his nephew had a
large lucrative practice, when the first World
War was declared, they both volunteered and
closed their office and entered the Medical
Corp of the United States Volunteer Army.
Dr. Hall was assigned to duty on the surgical
staff at the Base Hospial at Camp Upton
where he remained until the armistice was
signed. '
Returning to Mt. Vernon, he again opened
his office, and was soon busily engaged in
taking care of his old clientele until his
nephew, Major Charles W. Hall, returned
from Europe one year later. They soon had
more business than they could well care for,
and later, the doctor's son, Marshall W. Hall,
joined in the firm. The firm, Drs. Hall, Hall,
and Hall built up a splendid lucrative busi-
ness, general practice, obstetrical and surgi-
cal.
ILLINOIS EDITION
In recognition of his ability as a progres-
sive outstanding physician, he was appointed
Director of Public Health for the State of Illi-
nois in 1929, being the first down-state physi-
cian who had ever held that position. To the
office of State Director of Public Health, Dr.
Hall brought the same restless vigor and en-
thusiasm, which had characterized his entire
life. During the four years that Dr. Hall be-
came the head of the Department of Health,
it enjoyed the most favorable health condi-
tions ever recorded up to that time. Within
that period, the general death rate of the
state fell to an all time low point, while the
mortality from such specific and controllable
diseases as typhoid fever, tuberculosis, dip-
theria, and diarrhea reached levels substanti-
ally below any previous experience.
Under Dr. Hall's administration the State
Sanitary Water Board, the functions of which
are to abate and prevent the pollution of
streams and other waters, came into existence
through legislative action and operated under
his chairmanship. Another law gave the State
Department of Public Health "Supervisory"
instead of "advisory" powers over public
water supply and sewerage disposal systems,
a statue which is already resulting in far
reaching beneficial effects. Other laws clari-
fied the duties of coroners in respect to sign-
ing death certificates and raised the standard
of public health nurses.
Two new projects of important significance
which were initated by Dr. Hall were those
related to trachoma and undulant fever. In
respect to trachoma, a disease confined to
southern Illinois, a searching survey brought
to light more than 4 00 active cases, over 2 00
of which were hospitalized in an effort to save
their vision and restore their health. To com-
bat the threatening rise of undulant fever, a
state committee, representing all the cattle,
milk producing, packing, veterinarian, medi-
cal, public health, and other interests in-
volved, was organized and put to work on a
program based upon a detailed epidemiologi-
cal study of the disease in Illinois.
In addition to his other duties, Dr. Hail
found time to deliver between four and five
hundred public addresses during his term as
Director of Public Health. His audiences
ranged from school children and parent-teach-
er associations to graduating classes of nurses
and universities and from county medical
societies to the Conference of State and
Provincial Health Authorities.
In 1933, Dr. Hall resigned his position as
Director of Public Health and returned to Mt.
809
Vernon and joined the firm of Drs. Hall, Hall
and Hall, which included his nephew and his
son. In 1937, Dr. Charles W. Hall's health
became impaired, and he withdrew from the
firm. When the second World War came, Dr.
Marshall Hall, the doctor's son, volunteered
and entered the Medical Corps of the United
States Navy, and seived 3% years in the
Mediterranean, African Campaign, and in the
Pacific; being discharged at the end of the
war with the rank of Commander.
Practically all the young active physicians
in Mt. Vernon were engaged with the Armed
Services, leaving a few older ones to look
after the sick and infirm. Dr. Hall, by work-
ing early and late, not only carried his own
burdens, but those of many other physicians
who were away with the armed forces. In
addition io this, he was chairman of the
Medical Board of Appeals for the 29th Dis-
trict, comprised of some eight or ten sur-
rounding counties. In 1946, Dr. Andy Hall
was given the Mt. Vernon Civic Award for
"Outstanding and Distinguished Community
Service." Dr. Hall received the Alumni Medal
in 1950, the highest distinction that is grant-
ed or which may be granted by the Alumni
Association of Northwestern University.
Dr. Hall, has always taken an active in-
terest in medical organizations, and has mis-
sed only two district and state medical meet-
ings in the past forty years. These absences
were due to his serving in the armed forces
outside of the state. He served as Secretary
of his local county society for more than fif-
teen years. He has also been President of
his local and southern Illinois Medical Socie-
ties. He served for a number of years on the
Medical Legal Committee of his State Society
and was Councillor from the 9th Illinois Dis-
trict in the state's society for nineteen years.
He was chairman of the committee that orga-
nized the Fifty-Year Club, and each year Dr.
Hall, sends an invitation to each and every
one inviting them to attend a noon day lunch-
eon during the Illinois State Medical meet-
ings. Usually, ninety or more of the "Old
Docs" attend the banquet, at which time, Dr.
Hall has always presided.
Dr. Hail served as President of the Mt.
Vernon Township High School Board for eignt
years and was Chairman of the Jefferson
County Republican Committee for ten years.
He is a member of the American Medical As-
sociation, charter member of the American
Legion, Veteran of Foreign Wars, and is now
the Illinois Department Surgeon of the United
American Wars Veterans. Dr. Andy is a Bap-
tist and a Knight Templar.
Dr. Hall gave his three sons a medical edu-
cation, all of whom are now eminent physi-
cians: Dr. Marshall Hall, the eldest, after his
discharge from the Navy after three and one-
half years service, is associated with his
father. Dr. Andy, Jr., is an Urologist in St.
Louis, Missouri; and Dr. Wilfred F., is a
Colonel in the regular army, and is a Flight
Surgeon in the United States Air Corps.
Dr. Hall received the Illinois State award
for the outstanding practitioner of the year in
Illinois, in 1949, and in December was given
the American Medical Association gold medal
award as "outstanding practitioner of the
United States for the year 1950".
At an age at which most business and pro-
fessional men have long ago retired, Dr. Hall
now more than eighty-five years of age, is
actively engaged in his profession doing a
large general practice and industrial surgery.
He drives his own car, often making night
and day calls, twenty or thirty miles distant.
He never takes a vacation except when at-
tending medical meetings or going quail hunt-
OTTO A. KIELSMEIER
In 1920 Otto A. Kielsmeier of Watseka
won a national award for his work in the
cheese industry and was compared favorably
with the work of Dr. S. M. Babcock, Madison,
Wis., Prof. E. H. Farrington, Madison, Wis.,
and Prof. G. H. Benkendorf, Modesto, Calif.,
who all received national recognition. Since
then this noted Illinois citizen, who has been
in the dairy products business since he was
a boy back in the last century, has continued
making cheese and other dairy products of
the highest quality and greatest prestige. He
has four plants — the Watseka Dairy Products
Company, in the Iroquois County seat; Crystal
Dairy Products, Crystal Falls, Michigan; Crys-
tal Dairy Products, Remington, Indiana, arid
Thorntown Dairy Products, Thomtown, In-
diana. He is known throughout the nation's
cheese industry.
Mr. Kielsmeier was born at Centerville,
Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, on April 3,
1880, the son of Fred A. and Meta (Bahr)
Kielsmeier. His father, born in Germany, was
brought to the United States when he was a
year old. He was in the milk and dairy prod-
ucts business, operated a grocery store and a
lumber yard. The mother was a native of
Wisconsin. Mr. Kielsmeier's schooling includ-
ed attendance at Oshkosh Normal College, the
810
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
ANDY HALL, M.D.
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University of Wisconsin and a Minnesota dairy
school. For four years in between he taught
school. Then he went into the dairy products
business with his father, teaching- school in
the winter time and making cheese in his
father's plant in the summer time. He taught
in the dairy department of Ohio State Univer-
sity for one year. Then, in 1904, he bought
his own cheese factory at Newton, Wisconsin,
and this he operated until 1918. At that time
he went into the creamery and milk business
at Manitowoc, seat of his native county,
where he also made cheese. In 1935 Mr.
Kielsmeier moved to Watseka, where he estab-
lished another cheese factory and where he
has expanded steadily including house to
house distribution of milk and butter. His
dairy products include condensed milk, cheese
and milk powder. In his Watseka, Reming-
ton, Thorntown and Crystal Falls plants he
now does an annual business of about three
million dollars. In addition, he operates a
400-acre farm.
Mr. Kielsmeier married Clara Toepel on
February 22. 1904. She was born on Septem-
ber 25, 1881, in Centerville, the place of his
birth. They have two children — Meta, born
on October 17, 1906, and Karl, born on Au-
gust 30, 1908. To his wife and children Mr.
Kielsmeier gives much credit for the develop-
ment of his business, for all three have long
been active in it. Meta Kielsmeier is now
in charge of all the offices, while Karl Kiels-
meier is general manager in charge of all the
plants. He married Evelyn Johnson of Cum-
berland, Wisconsin, and is the father of Karl
Frederick Kielsmeier, born on March 16, 1946.
Both Meta Kielsmeier and Karl Kielsmeier are
officers in each business. They also take an
active part in all community affairs.
Otto Kielsmeier is active in the Illinois
Dairy Association, the Kiwanis Club of Wat-
seka and the Watseka Chamber of Commerce.
He worships in the Lutheran Church. One of
the builders of the nation's great milk, cheese
and butter industry, he is also one of those
contributing to the development of Illinois.
CARL HENRY HORSTMAN, D.V.M.
When Carl Hortsman was in high school,
the love of animals which had been with him
from his earliest days persuaded him to adopt
ihe profession of a second cousin — that of
veterinarian. Today Dr. Horstman, whose
headquarters are Collinsville, is one of the
best known figures in this professional field
not only in Southwest Illinois but in the
entiic Greater St. Louis region — a man who is
making his reputation not only through his
therapeutic and surgical skill but also through
his battles to strengthen enforcement of the
State iairy laws, to control Bangs' Disease
and otherwise to elevate the profession.
Dr. Horstman was born at Round Lake,
Minnesota, on October 28, 1906, the son of
Philip Charles and Louise (Antritter) Horst-
man. His father anu his grandfather, Henry
Horstman, were farmers. After attending a
country school at Shadyrock, Minnesota, the
future veterinarian went to high school at
Hound Lake, graduating in 1914. He spent
the school year 192 4-25 at the State Univers-
ity of Iowa, Iowa City, and then worked on
the family farm for two years. In 192 7 he
resumed his education at the University of
Illinois, which in 1930 awarded him the de-
gree of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. In his
college days Dr. Horstman earned his way by
waiting on tables and working in a private
dairy.
Following his graduation, Dr. Horstman
went to Iowa, where he practiced for eighteen
months. On February 12, 1932, he reported
for duty in St. Louis as an inspector for the
Board of Health, for which he worked seven
years. In his first five years he was a meat
inspector, in the last two milk inspector. In
those two final years, 1937 to 1939, he was a
resident of Collinsville. In July, 1939, Dr.
Horstman discovered he was ill of tubercu-
losis— so ill that he was not expected to live.
But by 1941 treatment, including the removal
of 6 ribs, made it possible for him to return
to work, and for the next three years and
two months he was associated with Dr. C. S.
Watt of Collinsville. In August, 1945, Dr.
Horstman went into practice independently,
and since that time has cared for both large
and small animals. He serves in a radius of
thirty miles of Collinsville, and has never
been known to refuse or delay a call regard-
less of time of night or weather. He enjoys
especially his work with harness horses and
has a big practice at the Fairmont Track out-
side of Collinsville. He finds surgery the most
interesting phase of his profession, and also
he is constantly studying the use of new drugs
and new techniques, as well as working in
i he general interest. He is a member of the
Greater St. Louis Veterinary Medicine Associ-
ation and the Illinois State Veterinary Medi-
cine Association. He is nationally accredited,
having taken a Federal examination.
Dr. Horstman, a leader in his field, helped
organize the Southern Illinois Veterinary
Medicine Association and was its first presi-
ILLINOIS
EDITION
815
dent. In 1949 he served his second con-
secutive term in that office. He is also a
member of the American Veterinary Associa-
tion, the Collinsville Chamber of Commerce,
the Lions Club of Collinsville, in which he has
served as vice president, and is a sponsor of
4-H Club work, in which he was active in his
younger days. He worships in the Presby-
terian Church.
Dr. Horstman married Eugenia Salel,
daughter of Charles and Mary Salel of Collins-
ville, on June 6, 1936. Mrs. Horstman, a
graduate of the University of Illinois, taught
school for ten years. She is president of the
Women's Auxiliary of the Illinois State Vet-
erinary Medicine Association. Thus she
shares in her husband's great contribution to
his profession.
VICTOR CULLIN
Victor Cullin is not only a leading figure
in the banking world but he is one of those
who is making that world a better place for
those engaged in the business and for those
who are their customers — which means every-
body. He is vice-president of the Chicago Ti-
tle and Trust Company, a specialist in public
relations and a leader in numerous commer-
cial, educational, religious and welfare pro-
grams.
He was born oh May 14, 1896, at Taylor-
ville, the son of William Thomas and Leonora
Bess Cullin, the former a native of Wheeling,
West Virginia, the latter of Rosemond, Illi-
nois. Victor Cullin, after attending the Tay-
lorville Township High School, went to and
in 1920 was graduated from the University of
Illinois School of Commerce. Prominent at the
University, which awarded him the Bachelor
of Science degree, he was business manager
of the Illinois Union, 1918-19; chairman, Sen-
ior Memorial Committee; and member of Chi
Phi and Alpha Kappa Psi. In 1918, as the
first World War neared its end, he was com-
missioned a Second Lieutenant, Field Artil-
lery, at the Officers' Training School, Camp
Zachary Taylor, Kentucky. From 1921 to
1923 Mr. Cullin was with the Federal Reserve
Bank at St. Louis. From 1923 to 1928 he was
with Halsey-Stuart and Company, Chicago,
and from 1928 to 1943 with the Mississippi
Valley Trust Company, St. Louis. Since 1943
he has been vice-president of the Chicago
Title and Trust Company.
On April 19, 1924, in Centralia, Mr. Cullin
married Rowena Agnes Kohl, daughter of Fer-
dinand and Cora (Row) Kohl of that city.
Also the holder of a Bachelor's degree from
the university, Mrs. Cullin is a member of
the Women's Club of Winnetka, where she
and Mr. Cullin and their family make their
home; the Winnetka Women's Guild of Christ
Church; Kappa Gamma, Mortar Board, and
is a former president of Hill Road Circle.
Mr. and Mrs. Cullin have a daughter, Jean
Kathryn, born October 6, 1929, and educated
at North Shore Country Day School, Winnet-
ka, Frances Shimer College, Mt. Carroll, and
Holton Arms Junior College, Washington, D.
C. She married Charles Mertz III, a graduate
of the United States Naval Academy, class of
1948, who now holds the rank of ensign in the
Navy. The Cullin family worships in Christ
Church (Episcopal), Winnetka.
Mr. Cullin, prominent as a speaker and
writer in the banking industry, is affiliated
with many organizations, holding high office
in nearly a dozen. He is a director and pres-
ently president of the Chicago Life Insurance
and Trust Council; member, Illinois Commit-
tee, Public Affairs Reception Committee and
Committee on Committee Personnel, Chicago
Association of Commerce and Industry; sen-
ior advisory counsel, Financial Public Rela-
tions Association. He is past president of the
last named and also of the General Alumni
Association of the University of Illinois. He is a
member and former director of the University
of Illinois Foundation and former director of
the Metropolitan Young Men's Christian Asso-
ciation of St. Louis; past genei"al chairman of
both the Y.M.C.A. and U.S.O. fund-raising cam-
paigns in St. Louis; past member of the board
of governors of the Missouri Athletic Club of
St. Louis; and former member of the Univer-
sity Club of St. Louis. Also, he is affiliated with
the Illinois Bankers Association, the Illinois
State Chamber of Commerce, and the United
States Chamber of Commerce. Among his
other organizations are Mound Lodge, No.
122, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Tay-
lorville; Chicago Consistory, Ancient and Ac-
cepted Scottish Rite; Medinah Temple, Ancient
Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine;
Winnetka Post, No. 10, American Legion; Chi-
cago Athletic Club and Executives Club. The
leadership he is giving to many movements
inside and outside banking has made him a
national figure.
JOHN H. SCHMALE
Known throughout Illinois for his leader-
ship in the savings and loan field, and in the
related insurance and real estate and gen-
eral banking businesses, John H. Schmale of
Belleville has won a position of eminence
816
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
VICTOR Ct'LLIN
m
JOHN H. SCHMAL]
among his fellow citizens in Saint Clair Coun-
ty. Mr. Schmale is the organizer and presi-
dent of the Greater Belleville Savings and
Loan Association and is former vice-president
of the Belleville National Bank. He is an im-
portant figure in the Federal Home Loan
Bank of Chicago and in Savings and Loan
League activities. Another sphere in which
he gives leadership is the Lutheran Church.
Mr. Schmale was born in Belleville in 1896,
the son of John H. and Mary Louise (Glueck)
Schmale. His father, also a native of Belle-
ville, was a grocer there for thirty years. He
and the mother were married in 1894. She
was the daughter of William Glueck, a Ger-
man steelworker. The present John H.
Schmale went through grammar school and a
Belleville commercial college and studied law
at home. In 1911 he entered the employ of
the Wolleson Wolf Abstract Company, and
became a title examiner. It was Mr. Wolleson
who encouraged him to start the Greater
Belleville Savings and Loan Association, and
this he did in 1919. In the first twenty-three
years Mr. Schmale was secretary-manager of
the organization. His first annual salary was
$200. In 1942 he became president, retaining
the title of manager. Through the years he
has been active in banking, real estate, in-
surance and civic affairs.
In 1917 Mr. Schmale married Marie Lorenz,
also a native of Saint Clair County. They
have one son, John W. H. Schmale, who is
manager of the Schmale Realty Company and
the Schmale Insurance Company. The son,
who was educated at the University of Illi-
nois, was also president of the Belleville Real
Estate Board and active in the Belleville
Chamber of Commerce. In 1917, too, Mr.
Schmale, Sr., went off to war. He served in
United States Army Intelligence, mapping
enemy machine gun positions.
Mr. Schmale's family worships in the Luth-
eran Church of Belleville, in which he is an
outstanding communicant. He is chairman
of the building committee, which in 1950 was
completing plans for a group of buildings to
include the church edifice, a parish hall and
a parochial school. Mr. Schmale is president
of the Belleville Savings Loan League. He
formerly served on the executive board of the
Illinois Savings and Loan League and is ac-
tive also in the United States Savings and
Loan League and the National Savings Loan
League. His association became a member of
the Federal Savings and Loan Corporation in
1935 and he is a charter member and former
director of the Home Loan Bank of Chicago.
He was chairman of the bank's review com-
mittee, and he was the first G.I. appraiser in
Belleville. He is the only living charter mem-
ber of the Belleville Real Estate Board, which
he served years ago as president, the posi-
tion recently occupied by his son. He is also
past president of the Belleville Credit Bureau
and served for years as vice-president of the
Belleville National Bank. He was active in
the Optimist Club, of which he is former pres-
ident, and in the Belleville Chamber of Com-
merce. He is also a member of the Belle-
ville Insurance Agents Association.
Mr. Schmale attributes the fact that the
Greater Belleville Savings and Loan Associa-
tion is the largest insured organization of its
type in Saint Clair County to the aggressive
advertising he developed. During the "bank
holiday" of 1933, the firm remained open,
obtaining funds from the Federal Home Loan
Bank of Chicago. In the depression period
Mr. Schmale aided his clients by obtaining
funds for them so that they would not lose
their homes. He has reaped the rewards of
this activity, in popularity and in financial
success.
GEORGE WILLIAM PEERS
Born on a farm near Baraboo, Wisconsin,
on November 29, 18 79, the late George Wil-
liam Peers gave the final thirty years of his
life to the undertaking profession and to the
development of Central Illinois. His estab-
lishment, located in Mattoon, was known in
his lifetime as Peers Funeral Chapel, but
since 194 2, the year of his death, it has been
called Peers Memorial Chapel — and it is a
memorial in every sense of the word to a man
who left the impress of his leadership and
personality on every phase of life in that
region.
Mr. Peers' parents were Reuben H. and
Ada (Wilcox) Peers. His father, a farmer
born October 15, 1850, in Hudson Township,
Walworth County, Wisconsin, was the son
of William Peers, a native of Surrey, England.
Reuben Peers farmed in the Dakotas, Wis-
consin and Tennessee before settling in Mat-
toon, where he entered the Livery business.
He retired in March, 1917, and died in May,
192 4. George Peers' mother, born in St. Louis
County, New York, on January 7, 1857, died
in Mattoon on November 1, 192 3.
George Peers was given his academic edu-
cation in the Baraboo schools. He was grad-
uated from the Barnes School just as it was be-
ing consolidated with the Worsham School of
Mortuary Science and Funeral Directing of
ILLINOIS
EDITION
821
Chicago in March, 1912. He helped on his
father's farms and in the livery business until
he went into the undertaking profession. He
served apprenticeships with the late E. P.
Thomas in Mattoon and with the M. J. Walz
Funeral Home in Danville. On September 1,
1912, he opened Peers Funeral Chapel, now
the Peers Memorial Chapel, and in a short
time was a leading figure in the region.
On July 17, 1912, at Baraboo, Mr. Peers
married Leora Adrian, daughter of Mordicai
Melville and Mary (Hughart) Adrian. Mrs.
Peers, a graduate of the Worsham School of
Mortuary Science and the Burnham School of
Hair Dressing, the only licensed woman em-
balmer and funeral director in Coles County,
was actively engaged with him in the funeral
profession. She carries on the business today,
with the assistance of Ray H. Shadwick, Mr.
Peers' nephew, also a graduate of the Wor-
sham School and a licensed embalmer and
funeral director. Mrs. Peers is famed for the
artistry of her floral arrangements at funer-
als. Mr. and Mrs. Peers had one son, George
Adrian Peers, who was born March 29, 1917,
and died March 31, 1917. They reared the
nephew, Kay Shadwick, and a niece, the for-
mer Eileen May Shadwick, now Mrs. Michael
Middlesworth of Wichita Falls, Texas, and the
mother of Michael Peers and Patrick Lamson
Middlesworth. Ray Shadwick married Fern
Giberson and they have one son, Larry Mac
Peers Shadwick.
George Peers became so influential in Mat-
toon that he was elected to 'numerous civic
organization offices as well as to offices in
the Methodist Episcopal Church. He sang in
the choir at various times and was a deacon
at the time of his death. He was a member
of the Mattoon Country Club.
In th3 Masonic bodies he advanced from
the Blue Lodge through the thirty-second de-
gree to membership in Ansar Temple, Ancient
Arabic Order nobles of the Mystic Shrine,
and he was also a member of the Eastern
Star and the D.O.K.K He had been the pre-
siding officer in most of these Masonic bodies.
He also held membership in the Elks, Moose,
Odd Fellows, and Knights of Pythias lodges.
His philanthropy and kindness are part of
the history of Mattoon, and the stories of the
instances of his kindness are legion. After
World "War I, he refused to charge for under-
taking services to families whose sons or
husbands were returned from overseas for
internment. This was out of respect to his
brother-in-law, Sergeant-Major John Willard
Adrian, who passed away at Camp Pike,
Arkansas, on December 17, 1918.
Mr. Peers himself passed away on October
4, 1942, in the Methodist Memorial Hospital.
On October 6, he was interred in Dodge Grove
Cemetery. Mattoon remembers him as one of
its great citizens — and his family continues
his traditions.
JOHN WILLIAM CORRINGTON
One of the well known members of the in-
vestment banking and stock and bond brok-
erage business is John William Corrington,
a general partner in the firm of Paine, Web-
ber, Jackson and Curtis, with offices at 209
South LaSalle Street, Chicago. Mr. Corring-
ton is known to investors and brokers in
many other parts of the nation and is an ac-
tive citizen of both Chicago and Evanston,
where he makes his home.
Born at Alexander, Illinois, on September
3, 1898, Mr. Corrington is the son of Clifton
and Pauline B. (Kaiser) Corrington. His fa-
ther, also a native of Alexander and a farmer,
was the son of John William Corrington, an
early settler in Illinois who moved in from
Kentucky with others from that state. The
mother, a native of Alexander, was the daugh-
ter of Joseph and Mary Kaiser. The invest-
ment banker and broker was graduated from
the Jacksonville High School in Morgan
County and then went on to the University of
Illinois, where he was awarded the degree of
Bachelor of Science. He completed his edu-
cation with postgraduate work at the Harvard
Graduate School of Business Administration,
where he took the degree of Master of Busi-
ness Administration. He was elected to Sigma
Phi Epsilon and Delta Sigma Pi Fraternities.
In 1924 Mr. Corrington entered the invest-
ment banking business with Lee Higginson
and Company, in Chicago. From 1930 to 1932
he was a broker associated with David A.
Noyes and Company, also in Chicago, and in
1932 he entered the firm of Jackson and Cur-
tis as a salesman. This firm later became
Paine, Webber, Jackson and Curtis, the of-
ficial date being 1942. In April, 1944, Mr.
Corrington was admitted as a general partner
of the firm, and he has continued as such
since that time, constantly enlarging his ac-
quaintanceship among investors and col-
leagues and extending his reputation as in-
vestment banker and broker.
Mr. Corrington returned to Morgan County
to marry, on February 7, 192 3, Aileen B.
Fitch, daughter of Maurice K. and Clara B.
Fitch. The ceremony was performed at Jack-
822
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
GEORGE WILLIAM PEERS
This Space Reserved for the Portrait
of Gene Tumbleson
sonville. Mr. and Mrs. Corrington have be-
come the parents of tvo sons — John William
Corrington, Jr., and Richard F. Corrington.
They make their home at 425 Grove Street,
Evanston, and worship in the First Methodist
Church of Evanston. Mr. Corrington is a
member of the church's official, board and is
chief usher. Mrs. Corrington is also active in
the church and, in addition, in philanthropic
projects in Evanston. The family is socially
prominent in that community.
Mr. Corrington is a member of the Union
League Club of Chicago, The Attic Club and
the Knollwood Club. In politics he is a Re-
publican. A World War I veteran, Mr. Cor-
rington enlisted in the aviation section of the
United States Signal Corps on October 17,
1917, and served in France from March, 1918,
to March, 1919. He was honorably discharg-
ed on March 19, 1919. Golf is his favorite
amusement. His work in stimulating private
investment and hence private enterprise is
in the best American tradition, and hence has
had much to do with his repuatation among
the investing public.
GENE TUMBLESON
A flyer who served the United States in
World War II as a civilian flight instructor
for Army cadets and who later was a pilot
for Transcontinental-Western Airlines, Gene
Tumbleson is today one of the outstanding
operators in the field of aviation in the State
of Illinois. With a partner, M. D. Walston,
Mr. Tumbleson operates four fixed base opera-
tions in the mid-west. One in Springfield,
111., Alton, 111., East St. Louis, 111., and Kansas
City, Mo. The Walston Aviation enterprises
handle Cessna aircraft, new and used, and
also service planes and provide flying in-
struction. Mr. Tumbleson is known to avi-
ators and airline developers across the nation.
He was born at Worden, Madison County,
on May 9, 1914, and, after attending the
grammar school there, went to high school at
Wood River in the same county. For nine
years after leaving high school Mr. Tumble-
son was in the grocery business with his step-
father. They operated three retail stores.
Aviation has always interested Mr. Tumble-
son. In 1937 he took flying lessons, and in
the same year soloed. By 1940 he was able
to become a flying instructor and charter
pilot. It was then he became associated with
Mr. Walston. Together, they operated an air-
port at Granite City, Madison County. From
1941 to 1944 Mr. Tumbleson served as a
civilian flight instructor for the United States
Army Air Forces at Cuero, Texas, and then
for a year and one-half he was a pilot for
Transcontinental-Western Airlines (T.W.A.).
In 19 4 5 Mr. Tumbleson and Mr. Walston
opened their airport at Alton. There and at
Kansas City they are distributors for the
entire Cessna aircraft line. In the years 1948-
1950, they were among the top four in sales
of this make of aircraft, and had every pros-
pect of continuing to do so. In 1947 the part-
ners leased all the facilities at the new Capi-
tal Airport in Springfield, where they are
dealers for Cessna aircraft and have all the
rights for the sorvicing of all aircraft at the
field. They also carry on full-scale flight in-
struction, arrange charter flights and engage
in all other types of flying activities. Mean-
time they continue to build their business at
the Alton airport. Mr. Tumbleson himself has
11,000 flying hours to his credit, as of April,
1950.
On March 11, 1933, Mr. Tumbleson mar-
ried Eileen Crouch, who was born in 1917.
They have one son, Billy Jean Tumbleson,
who was born in 1935. Mr. Tumbleson belongs
to the Quiet Birdmen, the Airport Operators
Association, the United States and the Spring-
field Chamber of Commerce. Aviation men
attribute to him a large share of the recent
development of flying in the United States,
especially among enthusiasts who are in avia-
tion for personal pleasure and small business
ventures.
ORLA VIVIAN LASHBROOK
Noted for the fine canvas goods in his
products, Orla Vivian Lashbrook of Mount
Vernon sells tents throughout the United
States and awnings in all sections of Southern
Illinois. His company, the Mount Vernon Tent
and Awning Company, is one of the best
known in its field in the nation. Mr. Lash-
brook is also known for the high quality of
the cattle he breeds as a hobby.
He was born on a farm near Charleston,
Coles County, on August 2 6, 1884, the son of
Jarrett and Lucy (Case) Lashbrook. His fa-
ther, a native of Bowling Green, Kentucy, was
a teamster and railroadman. The mother,
born at Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was
well educated and for some years taught at
the Fowler School in Coles County, outside
Charleston. Her father, the Reverend Pascal
Case, also a native of North Carolina, was a
Baptist minister who served" with the Con-
federate forces in the War Between the States.
He was taken prisoner and held at the Ander-
ILLINOIS EDITION
827
sonville Prison. He was finally pardoned by
President Abraham Lincoln, whom he knew
personally. After the war the Reverend Mr.
Case settled in Coles County, where he was
pastor of a Baptist Church three miles east
of Charleston.
Orla Vivian Lashbrook was educated in
Charleston's public schools. While still at
school he worked part time in Mike Miller's
Furniture and Undertaking Store in the county
seat. He continued, full time, when he left
school. After ten years with Mr. Miller, he re-
signed in 1911, when he went to Indianapolis
and entered his present field as an employee of
the Indianapolis Tent and Awning Company.
After one year in Indiana, Mr. Lashbrook be-
came an employee of the Danville Tent and
Awning Company at Danville, Illinois. There
he remained until in 1918 he established him-
self in Mount Vernon, founding the Mount
Vernon Tent and Awning Company. With the
motto, "If its made of canvas, we make it,"
Mr. Lashbrook has built a nationwide busi-
ness. He is a large rentor of tents, chairs,
bleacher seats, and portable grandstands,
serving county and state fairs throughout
fourteen states. He serves the Indianapolis
Speedway with 20,000 chairs for the annual
race and the Chicago Air Fair 15,000 chairs
as well as some of the largest horse and cat-
tle shows in the United States. In his far-
flung operations he uses a fleet of eight trail-
ers and five small, trucks. General Motors
Company thought enough of his fine equip-
ment to have pictures taken of his fleet of
trucks to be used in their national advertis-
ing. He is currently producting some of the
largest tents ever made in the United States.
There is hardly a circus that does not use
Lashbrook tents. To mention a few, they in-
clude the John Robinson Shows, Hagenback-
Wallace Shows and numerous carnivals and
fairs. And wherever Mr. Lashbrook's tents or
awnings are sold, Mr. Lashbrook's is a famil-
iar name.
On October 2 6, 1922, in Mount Vernon, Mr.
Lashbrook married Sybil Boston, who was
born in Ironton, Missouri, on January 8, 1908,
and is the daughter of Wood and Mattie
(Flanigan) Boston. Mrs. Lashbrook's father,
a native of Bowling Green, Kentucky, was a
stove repair man. Mrs. Boston was also a
native of that Kentucky community. Mrs.
Lashbrook's parents took her to Mount
Vernon in 1910. After attending that city's
public schools, she worked for a time in the
shoe factory there. She is a member of the
Missouri Showwoman's Club of St. Louis. On
April. 13, 1924, at Ina, Illinois, a son, Wallace
Ray Lashbrook, was born to Mr. and Mrs.
Lashbrook. He attended Mount Vernon's
schools, then the Missouri Military Academy
at Mexico, Missouri. From 1943 to 1946
he was with the United States Army Air
Forces. Since his return home, Wallace
Lashbrook has been associated with his fa-
ther in business and is now general manager
of the company. He is a Shriner and a mem-
ber of the Methodist Church. He married
Evangeline Tamez of San Antonio in June,
1945, and is the father of Orla Ray, born in
1946, and Stella Christine, born in 1947.
Orla V. Lashbrook, friend of such men as
William Jennings Bryan and Billy Sunday,
worships in the Presbyterian Church. He is a
member of the Elks, Moose, Odd Fellows and
the Mount Vernon Chamber of Commerce —
a popular and valuable citizen.
PETE GAERDNER, JR.
There have been two Pete Gaerdners, both
prominent citizens of Saint Clair County. The
present Pete Gaerdner, son of the first, is,
like his late father, an outstanding mortician
of Western Illinois. He operates the Pete
Gaerdner Funeral Home in Belleville, sup-
ports movements for welfare and education
and the development of the city and county
and encourages young men seeking to make
their way in the world.
The present Pete Gaerdner was born in
Belleville in 1910. His father, who was the
founder of the Pete Gaerdner Funeral. Home,
was born in the same city — seat of Saint
Clair County — on December 16, 18 75, and
died there on March 15, 1934. He was edu-
cated in the public and parochial schools of
the county seat and remained interested in
education all his life. He was active in many
civic groups and served on the St. Clair
County Board of Supervisors for twenty-seven
years; part of that period he was board chair-
man. He was one of the county's staunche'st
and outstanding Republicans. He married
Jennie Stewart in Belleville in 1900. The
daughter of a prospector, Mrs. Gaerdner was
born in Cripple Creek, Colorado, in 18 8 0. She
died in 1929, neariy five years before her
husband.
Pete Gaerdner, their son, also was edu-
cated in Belleville, completing his academic
schooling at the Cathedral High School there.
This he supplemented with a course in under-
lain ing and embalming. Already well trained
in mortuary work by the time his father died
in 1934, Mr. Gaerdner was prepared for the
X2K
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
MR. AND MRS. ORLA VIVIAN LASHBROOK
VERNER WALLACE KURTH
responsibility of taking charge of the Fete
Gaerdner Funeral Home, and he has demon-
strated his ability to the entire community,
for the institution has grown in prestige and
in volume of business through the services he
offers. R. P. Ackerman, the husband of one
of Mr. Gaerdner's sisters, is associated with
him in the operation of the home. Mr. Gaerd-
ner is a member of the Fraternal Order of
Eagles and the B. P. O. Elks. He is active
in the Kiwanis Club of Belleville and the
Illinois Funeral Directors Association. He
is a communicant of St. Luke's (RC) Church.
Mr. Gaerdner married Leona Dittle, also a
native of Belleville and well known in the
community through her activities in many civic
organizations.
Mr. Gaerdner stresses higher education as
a means for achieving success and making
one's greatest contribution, and believes that
business has many rewards for those willing
to put forth the required effort. He is prov-
ing this every day, and has come to hold a
position of great public confidence.
VERNER WALLACE KURTH
At 1104 North Main Street, Bloomington,
stands an institution which through the ex-
traordinary service it has rendered the com-
munity has developed tremendous prestige
and won great public confidence — the Flin-
spach and Kurth Memorial Home. In this en-
terprise Verner Wallace Kurth is a partner.
Mr. Kurth, aside from the reputation he has
built in the region as a funeral director, a
reputation which has extended into other cor-
ners of the state, is prominent in civic affairs.
Born at Bloomington on November 5, 1905,
Mr. Kurth is the son of August R. and Anna
(Reichardt) Kurth, both of whom were born
in Germany. His father, a shoemaker, was
for many years engaged in business in Bloom-
ington, where he died in 1938, seven years
after the mother. The funeral director ob-
tained his academic education in Blooming-
ton's elementary and high schools and his
professional training at the Worsham College
of Embalming in Chicago, from which he
was graduated in 1930. For three years he
worked in the advertising department of the
Eureka-Williams Corporation of Blooming-
ton. Since 1930 he has been associated with
his father-in-law in the Flinspach and Kurth
Memorial Home, and in January, 1946, he be-
came a partner. This institution employs three
persons in addition to the owners.
Mr. Kurth married Caroline Flinspach, a
native of Bloomington, on May 12, 1925. Mrs.
Kurth's lather is Ferdinand H. Flinspach, also
born in Bloomington. He organized what was
originally the Flinspach Funeral Home in
Bloomington. Mrs. Kurth's mother is the for-
mer Marie Froelich, also a native of Bloom-
ington. Mr. and Mrs. Kurth are the parents
of two children — Verner Warren Kurth, who
was born on April 5. 1933, and Christine Marie
Kurth, who was born on January 30, 1938.
The Kurth's home is at 20 Norbloom Avenue,
Bloomington. Mr. Kurth worships in the First
Baptist Church of Bloomington. His wife is
a Lutheran.
Mr. Kurth has achieved such leadership in
his professional activities as to have been
elected vice president of the Illinois State Fu-
neral Directors Association. He continues an
influential figure in that association and is
also active in the National Funeral Directors
Association. He is a former president of the
Bloomington Junior Chamber of Commerce
and is at present active in the senior chamber.
Also, he belongs to the Exchange Club of
Bloomington, the Young Men's Club, the Lake
Side Club and the Masonic fraternity. Wood-
working is his hobby. The community accepts
him as one of its leading figures.
HONORABLE PARK LIVINGSTON
For the work he has done in the develop-
ment of -he University of Illinois and for the
veterans who have been students there since
the end of World War II, Park Livingston has
won the highest praise from citizens, news-
papers and other sources. A lawyer and busi-
ness man with a "weakness" for helping oth-
ers, Mr. Livingston holds many volunteer
positions, among them the presidency of the
university's board of trustees. In the business
world, he is vice-president and general coun-
sel of the Dean Milk Company of Chicago, and
president of the board of trustees of Ameri-
can Television, Inc.
Born in Phillip, South Dakota (in a "rude,
sod-banked cabin on a treeless prairie," as
one newspaper described it), on December 9,
1906, Mr. Livingston is the son of George H.
and Grace Genevra (Sheehan) Livingston.
His father, born at Midway, Wisconsin, June
11, 1872, died September 11, 1940. The moth-
er, born at Black River Falls, Wisconsin, Oc-
tober 14, 1878, died February 2, 1921. His
mother had died when he was in the seventh
grade, and when he went back to High School
he had to make his own way. This he did by
working as the school's janitor, each night
sweeping rooms at ten cents a room, and pick-
ing up odd jobs such as grocery clerk, auto
ILLINOIS
EDITION
833
washer, and pan scraper in a bakery. Park Liv-
ingston took the Bachelor of Arts Degree at
the University of Illinois in 1930. In 1938, he
was awarded the degree of Juris Doctor at
John Marshall Law School and in 1943 that
of Master of Laws at John Marshall. He was
elected to Theta Chi, Ma Wan Da and Sachem,
and at the University was president of the
senior class. By the time he took his bachelor's
degree Mr. Livingston had made so impres-
sive a record that he was one of twenty
young men selected in 1930 by the National
City Bank of New York for its training pro-
gram. From 1930 to 1932 Mr. Livingston
was assistant dean of men of the University
of Illinois under the late Thomas Arkle
Clark, and then under Dean Fred H. Turner.
Since 1933 he has been vice-president and
general counsel of the Dean Milk Company.
Other positions he has held with this con-
cern include those of sales and advertising
manager.
On December 19, 1936, at LaGrange, Mr.
Livingston married Elizabeth Murdock, daugh-
ter of L. O. and Ruby V. Murdock. Mr. and
Mrs. Livingston are the parents of four chil-
dren— Barry, born in 1938; David Otis, born
in 1941; Park Thomas, born in 1945, and
Linda Elizabeth, born in 1947. The family re-
sides at 202 South Kensington Avenue, La
Grange, while Mr. Livingston's office is at
20 North Wacker Drive, Chicago. The family
worships in the Episcopal Church.
Mr. Livingston, whose fame has taken his
name into "Who's Who in America" and
"World Biography," has interested himself in
education since his own school days, and he is
today one of the big proponents of advanced
education and educational opportunities. He
is president of the board of trustees of John
Marshall Law School and in 1940 was first
elected to the board of the University of Il-
linois. When he was re-elected in 1946, with
tremendous support, it was on the Republican
ticket. He was the only Republican to carry
the City of Chicago on the State Ticket since
1928. In supporting him for re-election, the
Chicago Herald-American summed it up, "Mr.
Livingston already has a degree, his B.A.,
which he obtained from the school years back.
Perhaps the state should give him another,
an M.A. — Master of Achievement." He is a
member of the Economic, Legal and Electric
Clubs of Chicago. For his contribution to ed-
ucation and to the welfare of veterans and
others, Park Livingston will take his place
among the immortal figures in Illinois his-
tory.
TRUMAN JAMES POCKLINGTON
Pocklington is a name renowned in Macou-
pin County and in Western Illinois, and has
been associated for decades with the growth
of agriculture in the county. Truman James
Pocklington, in association with his father-in-
law, Alfred G. Schoeneman, operates a dairy
business which has become one of the largest
in the region, and is a leading figure in rural
life.
Born on the Pocklington family farm in
Macoupin County, east of Carlinville, the
county seat, Truman J. Pocklington is the son
of the late Frank W. and Emma Pocklington.
His birth occurred on October 28, 1911,
and he obtained his education in the public
schools cf his native county. He was first as-
sociated with his father and six brothers in
the hybrid seed corn business in the Town of
Nilwood, Macoupin County. But in 1940 he
entered the dairy business with Mr. Schoene-
man. In 1950, he and his father-in-law had
240 acres of land, with 30 cows and 10 young
calves, and were producing 120 gallons of
milk daily.
On June 22, 1940, Truman J. Pocklington
married Allene Schoeneman, who was born in
Macoupin County on October 26, 1911. Her
parents, Alfred G. and Hallie (Baxter)
Schoeneman, are leading figures in the coun-
ty. Mr. and Mrs. Pocklington have three
adopted children: Roy, born in 1938; Ruth,
born in 1940; and Wilma, born in 1942. Mr.
Pocklington, active in all important rural pro-
jects, is popular among the farmers of his
native county.
FRANCIS MARION HEWITT, JR.
The Hewitt Drug Store in Carbondale is
one of the institutions of that university town
which dates back to the last century and is a
center of activity for students and those far
beyond school age. Founded by the father of
Francis Marion Hewitt, Jr., who is well known
among pharmacists throughout the State of
Illinois, the drug store is now wholly owned
by the son.
Francis Marion Hewitt, Jr., was born in
Carbondale on July 28, 1908. Both his father
and his mother, Winifred (Harker) Hewitt,
were also natives of Illinois. The father, a
registered pharmacist who established a drug
store in Carbondale in 1898, became one of Il-
linois' outstanding figures. He was a graduate
of the old Northwestern School of Pharmacy
which was taken over by the University of
Illinois. In the term 1916-1918 he was a State
834
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
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FRANCIS MARION HEWITT, JR.
Senator and also served on the governing-
board for the five Illinois normal colleges.
He was a City Commissioner of Carbondale
and City Treasurer and was vice-president
and a director of the Carbondale National
Bank and a director of the Carbondale Build-
ing and Loan Association. He served as presi-
dent of the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce
and was active in the Lions Club, the Elks
and Masonic lodges.
The younger Mr. Hewitt was graduated
from the Carbondale High School in 1926 and
then spent one year at Southern Illinois Uni-
versity in Carbondale and three years at the
University of Illinois, where he took his pre-
professional degree. In 1933 he won his de-
gree in pharmacy at the St. Louis College of
Pharmacy. He was co-editor of the college's
yearbook, Mortar and Pestle. Upon his grad-
uation, he returned to Carbondale as mana-
ger of his father's drug store and the two
operated it, with the aid of two employees,
until the elder Mr. Hewitt's death on May 1,
1947. In 1936 father and son had remodeled
the store, but in October, 1947, it was com-
pletely redone, so that today it is modern
in every respect. Ten persons are now em-
ployed in it, and it serves the people living
within a radius of twelve miles of Cai'bondale.
Mr. Hewitt has been the sole owner of the
business since his father's death.
On August 9, 1933, Mr. Hewitt married
Frances Hill, the daughter of Samuel G. and
Ethel Hill of Carbondale. Mrs. Hewitt is a
graduate of the University of Illinois and is
active in Pi Beta Phi Sorority, church work
and is secretary-treasurer of the Teen Town
Youth Club, an organization for young peo-
ple. Mr. and Mrs. Hewitt have two children —
Anne, born May 18, 1934, and Francis Ma-
rion, III, born September 28, 1937.
Mr. Hewitt, a registered pharmacist in Illi-
nois, is on the legislative committee of the
Illinois Pharmacy Association and serves as
district representative of the organization in
the 25th Illinois District. He is a second vice-
president of the Illinois Rexall Association
and also belongs to the International Associa-
tion of Rexall Clubs, as well as to the Carbon-
dale Chamber of Commerce, of which he is
past president; the Elks Lodge, in which he
has been through all the chairs; the Lions
Club and the First Methodist Church of Car-
bondale, in which he is a steward. He is a
director of the Carbondale National Bank and
is Commander of Donald Forsythe Post, No.
514, American Legion, and a member of the
Veterans of Foreign Wars. He is chairman
of the Executive Committee, Official Board
of Holden Hospital, serving in this capacity
since 1948. In World War II Mr. Hewitt
served in the Navy from March 10, 1943, to
December 10, 1945. He was a gunnery offi-
cer who saw action in the Atlantic and Pa-
cific. He went in a Lieutenant Junior Grade
and came out a Lieutenant Senior Grade.
Like his father he is giving extraordinary
service to the people of his community.
FREDERICK MUELLER
The Mueller name has been known in the
wholesale liquor business in Illinois since
1870, and three members of the family are
still active in that field, as well as in the
wholesale candy business — Frederick Mueller,
known to friends, family, customers and ac-
quaintances as merely "Fred" Mueller, his
sister, Eda Mueller, and his son, Grant F.
Mueller. All the Muellers are not only prom-
inent in the liquor and candy worlds, but in
civic activities. Frederick Mueller has won a
reputation not only in Springfield, the head-
quarters of his businesses and his home, but
also in Decatur, Bloomington and Mattoon,
where the Mueller enterprises maintain branch
firms.
Fred Mueller was born in Springfield in
1890, the son of Gerhardt A. and Regina
(Huber) Mueller. His father, born in Ger-
many in 1849, came to the United States in
1867. The mother was born in Osage, Missou-
ri. Gerhardt Mueller worked as a bookkeeper
until he and his brother founded the Mueller
business in 1870. The business was called
H. E. Mueller and Brother, Gerhardt Mueller
being the "Brother" in the firm name. The
establishment burned down a few years after
it was opened, and the brothers' partnership
was dissolved. In 1879, Gerhardt Mueller re-
turned to the wholesale liquor business on his
own. He operated his firm until National Pro-
hibition was adopted in 1919, and then he
retired. His oldest son, George, and his
daughter, Eda, took over the business and
changed the firm name to George A. Mueller
and Company. They engaged exclusively in
the wholesale candy business until in 1933,
with repeal of Prohibition, they added a
wholesale liquor department. At that time
Fred Mueller entered the business, taking
charge of the liquor end of the operations.
In 1936 George Mueller died, and Fred and
Eda Mueller bought the entire business. They
have since added the three branches. The
Springfield establishment and home office
is at 511 E. Jefferson Street. The branches
ILLINOIS EDITION
839
are in Decatur, opened in 1936 and known as
George A. Mueller Co., Inc. ; in Bloomington,
opened in 1939 and known as Mueller Dis-
tributing Company; and in Mattoon, opened
in 1946 and known as Mueller Disti'ibuting
Company. All four units of the business
cover about one-third of the State of Illinois,
or thirty-two counties. Fifteen trucks are op-
erated and seventy-eight persons employed.
Eda Mueller, who has done so much to
build the enterprises into their present great
size and prosperous condition, was born in
Springfield in 1886 and was graduated from
the Springfield High School. She joined her
father in business in 1918. She is a former
Secretary of the Illinois Wholesale Confec-
tioners Association and is one of the out-
standing women citizens of Springfield and
Sangamon County and, is known throughout
downstate Illinois.
Fred Mueller married Margery Scales, a
native of Iowa and a graduate of Cornell
University at Ithaca, New York, in 1919. The
son who is now associated with his father in
business, Grant F. Mueller, is also a graduate
of Cornell University. He served four years
in the U. S. Naval Air Forces, two and one
half years of which was in the Pacific Theatre
of War. Among other medals and decorations
he was awarded the Distinguished Flying
Cross. He married Nell Hawkins of Hamilton,
Illinois. Grant Mueller, the older of two chil-
dren, is well known in Springfield civic life.
Fred Mueller's other child is Regina Mueller,
another Cornell graduate who in 1950 was
working toward a Master's degree in Social
Science.
Fred Mueller spent thirteen months in the
armed forces in World War I. He has been
active in every worthwhile program offered
for the public good in Springfield. He likes
golf and people, and is known for his interest
in participating in all efforts to develop the
city, county and state.
LYLE VINSON DEWITT, A.I.A.
The name of Lyle Vinson DeWitt, Archi-
tect, has come to be associated with every
type of construction — educational, religious,
commercial, industrial and residential — in
Downstate Illinois. Mr. DeWitt is well known
among fellow architects in the central part
of the state and in civic and welfare activi-
ties.
Born in Green City, Missouri, on June 28,
1915, Mr. DeWitt is the son of Shirley P. and
Mary Elizabeth (Caldwell) DeWitt, both also
natives of Missouri. His father, born at Milan,
is a farmer. The mother is the daughter of
John and Catherine Ann Caldwell. Lyle De-
Witt spent three yearsi at the Community
High School, Green City, being graduated in
1931. In June, 1936, he was graduated from
the University of Illinois, where he had studied
five years, with the degree of Bachelor of
Science in Architecture. The following year
he was granted the degree of Master of Sci-
ence in Architecture.
From August, 1934, to August, 1937, Mr.
DeWitt served successively as draftsman, en-
gineer and field superintendent (part time
only in the schooling period) for Berger and
Kelley of Champaign. From June, 1937, to
February, 1938, he was engineer draftsman
with Swift and Company in Chicago. Then he
returned lo Berger and Kelley in Champaign,
working as architectural engineer from Feb-
ruary, 1938, to August, 1938. From the lat-
ter time to March, 1943, he was with Allen
and Kelley-V. Jobst and Sons, Decatur, and
during part of this period he was assistant
chief engineer at the Victory Ordnance Plant
in that city. From March, 1943, to November,
1945, Mr. DeWitt served as project engineer
for the A. E. Staley Manufacturing Com-
pany, also in Decatur. Then, in November,
1945, he established his own practice as ar-
chitect. At first he occupied a small office
and employed only one engineer and a secre-
tary. Since then he has built his own office
building at 263 South Park Street, Decatur.
He moved into this structure in December,
1949, and now employs there ten men (archi-
tects, engineers and draftsmen) and a secre-
tary and receptionist. His work consists of
designing schools, churches, residences, in-
dustrial and commercial buildings and all
other types of structures.
Mr. DeWitt married Kathryn E. Johnson,
the daughter of Frank and Norma Johnson,
in Trenton, Missouri, on May 4. 1940. Mrs.
DeWitt, who is active in Decatur's civic and
social life, is former secretary of the Girls'
Welfare Home board of directors. The DeWitts
reside at 1420 West Riverside Avenue, De-
catur.
Mr. DeWitt, a Methodist, is active aiso in
the community affairs of Decatur. He is a
director of the Association of Commerce and
a member of the advisory board of the Sal-
vation Army. Influential in the Central Illi-
nois Chapter of the American Institute of
Architects, he serves that body as a director
also. In addition, he is a director of the Trail
Riders Association of Decatur and secretary-
treasurer and a director of the Decatur Rid-
840
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
EDA MUELLER
CHARLES THOMAS HOUGHTEN
ing Club. He is independent in politics. The
riding and training of horses is his favorite
avocational activity. Mr. DeWitt's associates
and friends describe him as a man of "won-
derful personality, pleasant, even tempered,
very likeable and very capable," and his repu-
tation in the world at large more than bears
out this estimate.
CHARLES THOMAS HOUGHTEN
If the Southern Illinois cities of Carbon-
dale and Metropolis were known for nothing
else, they would be known for the manufac-
ture of gloves — and Charles Thomas Hough-
ten would be the man who made them thus
famed. For Mr. Houghten, who makes cot-
ton work gloves at Carbondale and leather-
reinforced work gloves at Metropolis, employs
nearly seven hundred persons in the two com-
munities and has a national sale of his prod-
ucts bearing the Carbondale and Metropolis
mark upon them. He is president and treas-
urer of the Good Luck Glove Company and
makes his headquarters in Carbondale. He
is also known for his civic work and his ac-
tivities on behalf of health and welfare, and
religion.
Born at Redford, Michigan, on November
3, 1874, Mr. Houghten is the son of Thomas
Charles Houghten, also a native of the Wol-
verine State who was mainly a farmer but
in later life organized and operated a small
town bank, and Eliza (Besancon) Houghten,
a native of France. The glove manufacturer
learned his three "R's" in a rural school in
Michigan and worked on the farm with his
father until he was twenty-six years old. Farm
work was not to his liking, but he remained
on the farm because his father needed his
help. When he left home, finally, Mr. Hough-
ten had sixty-five dollars, his total savings.
He went to Detroit, and there found a job
with a creamery paying eight dollars a week.
Later he worked in a wholesale hardware
house and other concerns. When he quit
working for others at the age of thirty-four
he was making seventy-five dollars a month.
Convinced he wasn't "cut out" for a career
in retail store work, and owning $1,800 he
had saved, he decided to look around for a
business he could enjoy. This was decided
for him when he saw an advertisement read-
ing "Get Rich Quick in the Glove Business."
Interested, he rode over to nearby Toledo,
Ohio, and there went through a glove factory
— unauthorized — to see what kind of machin-
ery was needed. Mechanically inclined to be-
gin with, and full of knowledge, gained in the
wholesale hardware business, of machinery
sources and merchandising methods, he was
able to get the equipment he needed at low
prices.
With four machines he purchased at the
time, Mr. Houghten began his glove-making
career in Detroit in 1909. Only five girls
worked for him. They cut their own gloves
by hand — out of canvas. Then Mr. Houghten
himself peddled them to retail stores, making
deliveries by street car. When he left Detroit
in 1916, Mr. Houghten was employing thirty
persons. He then opened up a plant at Me-
tropolis, where at first he employed one hun-
dred persons and now employs 450, making
leather-reinforced work gloves. In 1929 he
established his Carbondale plant, where 225
men and women produce cotton work gloves
for him. In 1931 Mr. Houghten consolidated
his business with the Good Luck Glove Com-
pany, Marissa, Illinois, of which he is now
president and treasurer. His products are
sold by commission men to distributors
throughout the United States. He is one of
the best known individuals in his field.
Mr. Houghten is a member of the Illinois
Manufacturers Association, the Illinois State
Chamber of Commerce, the Associated Em-
ployers of Illinois, the Conference of Small
Business Organizations and the Carbondale
Business Men's Association. In his voluntary
activities, he is on the board of the Holden
Hospital of Caibondale, as well as on the
official board of the First Methodist Church
of Carbondale. He is a Mason and Shriner,
and an Elk. His contribution to business prog-
ress and to the general welfare has been of
extraordinary character.
HAROLD WILLIAM GROB
Much of the industrial and other develop-
ment at Murphysboro is attributed by his
fellow citizens to Harold William Grob. A
civic leader for years, Mr. Grob is a dealer in
Chevrolet and Buick automobiles, in J. I.
Case farm machinery and is an insurance
man. Among the companies in which he is
interested are the Harold W. Grob Motor
Sales, Inc., the Reliance Sales, Inc., and Grob
Agency, Inc., a corporation for insuring and
financing of cars and trucks. This corporation
also is a Hertz Licensee handling the renting
and leasing of cars and trucks. He has held
numerous important offices in civic, educa-
tional, religious and other organizations, anil
is especially well known among Baptists of
Illinois.
ILLINOIS
EDITION
845
Born in Evansville on September 12, 1908,
Mr. Grob is the son of Henry and Charlotte
(Schmellmyer) Grob. Both his father, who
was in the transfer business, and his mother
were also born in Illinois. Harold Grob was
educated in the elementary and high schools
of Murphysboro. At the age of fourteen he
went to work in a Murphysboro grocery
store. Later, he was employed in highway
construction in Missouri. But finally he re-
turned to Murphysboro and joined his father
in the operation of Nehi bottling plant. The
elder Mr. Grob sold the business, but the son
continued to work under the new owner.
Subsequently, however, he resigned and en-
tered the employ of the Dr. Pepper bottling
works, doing sales and service work.
In 1933 Mr. Grob obtained the Chevrolet
franchise and became president of the Wright
Motor Sales, Inc., the name of which he
changed to Reliance Chevrolet Sales, Inc.,
of which he was also president. This latter
corporation was dissolved in 19 40, but Mr.
Grob continued as sole owner of the business
until 1947. He then reincorporated as the
Harold W. Grob Motor Sales, Inc., and has
since been president and general manager. In
1934 he had added the Buick franchise, and
today he handles both this and the Chevrolet
automobile. In 19 33, when he began, Mr.
Grob employed eight persons. Today he em-
ploys thirty-seven. He has a completely mod-
ern show room, offices and full shop facilities.
In 194 7, a peak year, he had a payroll of
$88,000. He is also president of Reliance
Sales, Inc., the dealership for J. I. Case farm
machinery. His insurance agency is a separ-
ate business.
On September 16, 1928, in Murphysboro,
Mr. Grob married Vivian L. Tuthill, the
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Tuthill of
that city. They are the parents of three sons
—Harold Eugene, born May 11, 19 30; Henry
Charles, born March 2 0, 1932, and Robert
Allen, born December 2 7, 19 43. The family
worships in the First Baptist Church of
Murphysboro. Mr. Grob is president of the
church's Agoga Class and former superin-
tendent of its Sunday School, for the years
1943-44-45. He is also a member of the Illi-
nois Baptist State Convention. He serves on
the executive committee of the board of direc-
tors of Shurtleff College at Alton. Is a former
president, now serving on the board, of the
Murphysboro Chamber of Commerce. As
president of the chamber he traveled 30,000
miles, with the result that he brought three
new industries to the community and also
promoted its products throughout the nation.
In World War II Mr. Grob was chairman of
the OPA price panel and director of the Of-
fice of Defense Transportation for Murphys-
boro. He has also been active in the Red
Cross and Community Chest campaigns and
in 1947, as Chest chairman, made 110 percent
of quota. He is also active in Masonic bodies,
including the Shrine; in the Fraternal Order
of Eagles, the Elks Club and White Shrine of
Jerusalem, and the Jackson Country Club.
Member of the Board of Directors and Secre-
tary-Treasurer of Lake Benton Northern Bap-
tist Camp, a summer camp for Baptist Youth.
Active in the promotion of the camp and donor
of the 41 acres and a building for the camp site.
Also, he is working for the further develop-
ment of the entire region through his active
membership in Southern Illinois, Inc. Growth
has been greatly accelerated in the area
through Mr. Grob's leadership.
GEORGE WALLACE CARR, A.I.A.
Architecture, a field in which he has spent
nearly six decades, has been the channel
through which George Wallace Carr has made
a valuable contribution to progress and the
general welfare. He has served the public
by artistic design and practical supervision
in public and private housing and in all other
fields of construction. He was a member of
the architectural firm of Nimmons, Carr and
Wright, 333 North Michigan Avenue, and now
senior partner in present firm, Carr & Wright,
in Chicago.
Mr. Carr was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
on March 19, 1879, the son of Henry Moore and
Sarah (Burke) Carr. For his early education
he was sent to both public and private schools
in his native city. In 1899-1900 he was a
special student in architecture at the Art
Institute of Chicago and in 1903-1904 he
studied architecture abroad. In 1893 Mr. Carr
went to work as a draftsman in the office of
Crane and Barkhausen, Architects, in Mil-'
waukee, where he remained until 189 9. From
1901 to 1913 he was in the office of Pond
and Pond CIrcago architectural firm, and in
1913 he became associated with what is his
present firm. His first position in this orga-
nization was a chief of staff in the office of
George C. Nimmons. After four years he be-
came a member of the firm of George C.
Nimmons and Company. In 1927, the firm be-
came Nimmons, Carr and Wright, later Carr
& Wright. Mr. Carr has been in the public
service in both Chicago and Highland Park
(he makes bis home at 614 Woodpath Avenue
846
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
HAROLD WILLIAM GROB
HON. VIRGIL TRAMMELI. BAILEY
in the latter community). In Chicago, he has
served as chairman of the planning commit-
tee for South Park Gardens, a Federal hous-
ing project. In Highland Park, he served on
the Building Code Committee and Zoning
Board and as chairman of Buildings and
Grounds, School District 108.
Mr. Carr married Helen Demarest Taylor
on May 3, 1905. She died on November 26,
1940. To this marriage two children were
born — Janet Carr and Wallace T. Carr. Mr.
Carr married (second) Caryl Cody Pfanstiehl
on March 18, 1943.
Mr. Carr is a member of the American
Institute of \rchitects, the Cliff Dwellers
and the Sunset Valley Golf Club. In his long
career he has done much to forward accept-
ance of utilitarian designs which have also
adhered to the highest artistic standards.
HON. VIRGIL TRAMMELL BAILEY
Born in Hamilton County and a resident of
Mount Vernon, seat of Jefferson County, since
childhood, Virgil Trammell Bailey has render-
ed signal service to Southern Illinois and the
entire "Egyptian" region through activities
in public affairs, the automobile, electrical
appliance and real estate business and radio
and television broadcasting. He was one of
the founders of Radio Station WMIX, the
first FM broadcasting station in Illinois. He
has given leadership to religious and health
and welfare programs, to the Republican
Party and other organizations in the county.
Mr. Bailey was born in Dahlgren on May
29, 1906, the son of Edward S. and Flora
(Crisel) Bailey. His father, a native of Ohio,
was for many years in the real estate busi-
ness in Mount Vernon. He died in 1947. The
mother was born in Hamilton County, the
daughter of Edward and Alice (Hullit) Crisel.
The Baileys came to America from England.
For years Edward Bailey lived in Hamilton
County. When his son Virgil, was a child he
moved the family to Mount Vernon (about
1910) and it was there that the future lead-
ing citizen was educated. In high school he
played basketball and was in the debating
club and in the Glee Club. For a time he at-
tended Mount Vernon Business College and
then completed an engineering course with
the International Correspondence Schools. His
first employment was with the Illinois Central
Railroad at East Saint Louis. In his two
years there, Mr. Bailey helped construct the
railroad yards with their automatic scales,
automatic retarders and floodlight towers, all
initiated by the IC. When this engineering
project was completed, Mr. Bailey returned
to Mount Vernon, and since 192 5 has been in
the real estate business. Later, he organized
an electrical appliance center, in which he has
since done both a wholesale and retail busi-
ness. Still later, he acquired the Packard and
Hudson automobile franchises. He is presi-
dent of the Virgil T. Bailey Motors, Inc.,
Virgil T. Bailey Electrical Appliances, Inc.,
and Virgil. T. Bailey, Inc., Real Estate. Also,
in the broadcasting field, he is secretary-treas-
urer of the Mount Vernon Radio- and Tele-
vision Company, and Loan Correspondent of
the Prudential Insurance Co.
Mr. Bailey married Thelma Arline Black-
ledge in the Presbyterian Church Manse,
Mount Vernon, on December 31, 1935. Mrs.
Bailey, born in Jefferson County and educated
in Mount Vernon, Decatur and St. Louis, is
the daughter of William O. Blackledge, an
iron molder of Hamilton County, and Ollie
G. (Bumpes) Blackledge of Jefferson County.
Her grandfather was Theodore Blackledge, a
hosteler and Justice of the Peace in Hamil-
ton County who fought in the Civil War. Mr.
and Mrs Bailey had one son, John David,
who died in infancy. They adopted four chil-
dren— Beverly Jean, born in 1936; Judith
Ann, born in 1940, Jarvis Paul, born in 1942,
and Daniel Golf Bailey, born in 1943. Mrs.
Bailey is a fervent church worker.
With the motto, "One percent of success
is intelligence, ninety-nine percent is work,"
Virgil T. Bailey has made a renowned figure
of himself. He was president of the New Jef-
ferson Memorial Hospital at the time it
opened and, as a member of the board of trus-
tees of the Presbyterian Church, was largely
responsible for the magnificent new $300-
000.00 church edifice by purchasing the old
church property, making a substantial per-
sonal contribution to the new building fund
and purchasing 75% of their bonded indebted-
ness. He was on the advisory board of the
Good Samaritan Hospital and has served as
a Republican committeeman and as Alderman
from the Third Ward of Mount Vernon. He has
been a member of the Mt. Vernon Lions Club
for 13 years, also member of the Mt. Vernon
Chamber of Commerce. He has given extra-
ordinary service in Southern Illinois and in
consequence is a popular citizen.
REV. JAMES MARION LIVELY,
M.A., B.D., D.D.
When in 1943, as a Mother's Day Memorial,
the Reverend James Marion Lively, M.A.,
B.D. (Chicago), published a little pamphlet
ILLINOIS EDITION
851
entitled "Meet My Mother" — the story of his
mother and his own life — the writing was
immediately acclaimed for its tender and rev-
erend quality and for its understanding of the
great debt mankind owes to its womankind,
who, as Dr. Lively might himself say, "leads
us all to the throne of God in prayer." Pastor
of the Mattoon Baptist Church in Mattoon,
Coles County, Dr. Lively led in the develop-
ment of that great institution and the erec-
tion of a new church edifice, with full time
pastorate, and has for years been an outstand-
ing figure in the Illinois Baptist Pastors'
Union and the Illinois Baptist State Conven-
tion. He is also outstanding in the lay com-
munity and its organizations and in World
Wars I and II was active in Red Cross work.
The Reverend Dr. Lively was born near
Louisville, Clay County, on October 31, 1882,
the son of Elder William Benton Lively and
Mary Ann (Faverty) Lively. His father, born
in Jasper County, Missouri, en July 9, 1840,
became a "boy preacher" in Eastern Ohio,
and in his later life was both preacher and
farmer. He was the father of sixteen chil-
dren, among whom the Mattoon minister was
born ninth. He recruited Company D, 117th
Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was wounded at
Kenesaw Mountain. After the war, he moved
to Southern Illinois. Space does not permit, a
full account of Dr. Lively's writings of his
mother, but he does say of her, "Family tra-
dition has it that Mother's grandfather came
from France to America with General. La-
fayette. After the Revolution, he settled in
Pennsylvania and reared a family. Mother's
father came to Southeastern Ohio, Sciota
County, where his children were born and
reared — Mother being the youngest." She
was born on January 13, 1847, married Wil-
liam Benton Lively when she was fifteen, be-
came the mother of ten children and died on
November 6, 188 6, at the age of forty. She
was the first convert of Elder Lively's minis-
try. Without repeating every one of Dr.
Lively's words in "Meet My Mother", it is im-
possible to project the great spiritual quality
:-nd other traits of this wonderful woman, for
the minister has imbued his words with the
passion of his conviction and tied them togeth-
er in the bond of God.
The future Baptist leader received some of
his education at Blue Mound and Illinois
State Normal. College at Normal. Then he
taught in a rural school for two years. A
year at Shurtleff College Academy followd
and then a year at James Millikin University
Academy. After four years at the university
itself, he received the degree of Bachelor of
Arts. Then he spent three years at the Uni-
versity of Chicago, where he was awarded the
degrees of Master of Arts and Bachelor of
Divinity. Later, the James Millikin University
conferred on him the degree of Doctor of
Divinity. At Millikin, he was one of the
twelve founders of Beta Chapter of Tau Kappa
Epsilon Fraternity. Also, he won a number of
gold medals for debating and oratory. Besides
teaching school, Dr. Lively worked as a farm
hand and sold Bibles. He began his clerical
career as a student pastor near Monticello.
He was the first pastor of the new Riverside
Baptist Church in Decatur and after three
years there did evangelistic work for one year.
During his tii^e at the University of Chicago,
he was student pastor of the Baptist Church
at Dundee. In 1914, he was called to the
Tuscola and Bourbon Baptist Churches. He
led in the remodeling of the Bourbon Church
building. In May, 1916, he took over the pul-
pit of the Mattoon Baptist Church. At the
time, this church had 22 9 members; its prop-
erty was valued at $5,000; its expenditures
totaled $981.74 and it spent $198 on missions.
After Dr. Lively had given thirty-one years of
service, by 1947, there were 581 members;
the property was valued at $100,000, and was
debt-free; the operating expenses totaled
$7,8 33 and $1,2 6 6 was spent on missionary
work. Dr. Lively led in the organization and
erection of a new church building on the east
side of Mattoon, known as the East Side Bap-
tist Church, with a full-time pastorate, and he
himself had become one of the noteworthy
clerical leaders in the Illinois Baptist world.
On June 23, 1908, Dr. Lively married
Edna O. Furstenberg of Blue Mound, the
daughter of Christolph H. and Mary (Ellrich)
Furstenberg. Mrs. Lively has participated in
the work of organizing the church. She is a
pianist and she has, of course, devoted her-
self to her home and her children and five
grandchildren. The children are: 1. Edna
Doris, who holds the degree of Bachelor of
Science from the University of Illinois and is
also a graduate of the West Surburban Hos-
pital School of Nursing, Oak Park. She served
with the rank of First Lieutenant in the Army
Nurse Corps in World War II. On June 14,
1938, she was married to Dr. Kenneth Hughes,
who three months later was killed in an auto-
mobile accident. On December 22, 1945, she
married Professor Harold Christensen. She
has one daughter, Carol Ann. 2. James K.
Lively, A.B., A.M., University of Chicago. He
is making a career in the United States Army,
852
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
REV. JAMES MARION LIVELY, M.A., B.D., D.D.
EDWARD HENRY JOSHUA MEEK, JR.
in which lie holds the rank of Captain. He
is unmarried. 3. Gerald M. Lively, A.B.,
Washington and Lee University; J.D., Uni-
versity 01 Michigan. He was a Lieutenant
Senior Grade in the Navy in World War II.
He married Selma Hensler and is the father
of Karen Sue and Kristen Gay. 4. Mary
Margaret Lively, junior degree from Stephens
College and A.B., Millikin University. She
was married on January 14, 1946, to Lieu-
tenant Frank Winninger, nephew of famed
actor Charles Winninger, and is the mother of
Nancy Allyn and Judith Jane Winninger.
Dr. Lively is now pastor of the Tuscola
Baptist Church, is the director of church
pages in three newspapers, a political leader
rind a writer of religious songs. In 1941, his
address to the Illinois Baptist State Conven-
tion received wide publicity and was read be-
fore the United States Senate by Senator Scott
Lucas of Illinois. Prominent in the Derao-
cractic Party, he was called to deliver the
memorial address on President Franklin De-
lano Roosevelt in Mattoon. In 1950, he filed
for the Democratic nomination for member of
the House of Representatives from his Con-
gressional district. He was president of the
Illinois Baptist Pastors Union, 1926-27; presi-
dent of the Illinois Baptist State Convention,
1940-41, and entertained this organization in
1926 and 1940; president of the Mattoon Pas-
tors Union two years; moderator of the
Champaign-Urbana Baptist Association, 1924-
2 7. Dr. Lively has been secretary-treasurer of
the national association of the Lively Family
every since its organization. Gardening is his
hobby. He also likes hunting and fishing.
The "grand old man" of the Baptist clergy
of Illinois, Dr. Lively — described by the un-
witting as "retired" — goes on and on, fight-
ing for God and his church and for humanity.
EDWARD HENRY JOSHUA MEEK, JR.
With the whimsical slogan, "If your clothes
are not becoming to you, they should be
"coming to us,"' Edward Henry Joshua Meek,
Jr., of Mount Vernon, has developed a tre-
mendous cleaning and dyeing business in Jef-
ferson County and nearby points. His firm
was formerly the Kurley Dry Cleaners at
909 South Tenth Street, Mount Vernon. Mr.
Meek is noted in the area for his work in
church, civic, and fraternal organizations and
on behalf of youth and other worthwhile
causes. He now operates the Meek's Dry
Cleaners in Mt. Vernon, 111.
He was born at Normal, 111., near Bloom-
ington, on April 24, 1917, the son of Edward
Vinson and Tillie (Schilling) Meek. His father,
who was born in Kentucky has long made his
home at Centralia, and is with the Illinois
Central Railroad. The mother was born in
the vicinity of Centralia. Both of Edward
Meek, Jr.'s, paternal grandparents, Joshua
and Annie Meek, were also natives of Ken-
tucky and of Irish descent. Joshua Meek was
a farmer in Kentucky. Mr. Meek's maternal
grandparents, the Schillings, came to Illinois
from Germany, where the grandfather began
as a farmer. He continued in Illinois as a
farmer.
When Edward H. J. Meek, Jr., was a year
old his parents moved the family from Normal
to Centralia. Mr. Meek received his first-to-
seventh grade education in the parochial
school of Trinity Lutheran Church of Cen-
tralia. He then entered the eighth grade in
the public school system of Wamac, outside
Centraiia. On being graduated from elemen-
tary school, he went to work in the Johanson
Brothers shoe factory at Centralia, Illinois.
There he remained two and one-half years.
Subsequently, he was salesman, working as
such until he was twenty years old. At that
time he established a route for a dry cleaning
company at Centralia, 111. which he operated
.for three years. At the end of this period Mr.
Meek started his own dry cleaning shop on
Apple Street in Centralia. In 1942, when the
American war effort was getting into full
swing, he sold this shop and went to Evans-
ville, Indiana, where he entered the employ
of the Evansville Ship Yards. He worked
there until 194 4. In November, 1945, Mr.
Meek bought the Kurley Cleaning plant in
Mount Vernon, and has since operated this
with increasing success until May 2 5th, 19 50,
when he sold the business and started anew
at 912 South 10th St., under the name of
Meek's Quality Service Cleaners.
Mr. Meek has been active in virtually all
major movements in Mount Vernon. A mem-
ber of the Mount Vernon Junior Chamber of
Commerce, he is chairman of all its money-
making projects, which he has guided to great
success. He was the first to serve as presi-
dent of the Mount Vernon Aerie, Fraternal
Order of Eagles . For two years he was chair-
man of the canister collections for the March
of Dimes, so important in research and thera-
peutic work for infantile paralysis. At the
Faith Lutheran Church, Mount Vernon, Mr.
Meek is a member of the board of trustees
and president of the Men's Club. He was ac-
tive in the Optimist Club of Mount Vernon.
Bowling and motor travel are his only di-
ILLINOIS EDITION
857
versions. Mr. Meek married Ruth Marie
Braden, December 10th, 1938, at a Lutheran
Church in St. Louis, Mo. They have no chil-
dren of their own. However, on their eleventh
anniversary, December 10th, 1950, they took
three children into their home to raise as
their own. They are brothers and sisters and
their names are; Lynden, age 7; Norman, age
9; and Lovane Sarver. As the record shows
he is one of Mount Vernon's outstanding and
valuable citizens — a progressive business man
and civic leader.
JOHN JOSEPH SPRINGMAN
A family that has been prominently active
in the development of Alton and much of
the surrounding area in Madison County is
that of John Joseph Springman of the Spring-
man Lumber Company. This family, with Mr.
Springman latterly its most active represen-
tative, has been responsible for the develop-
ment of subdivisions in many parts of the
area and city, among them the famed Spring-
man Addition. He is also well known in wel-
fare and civic activities.
Mr. Springman was born in Fayette County,
Illinois, on March 26, 1900, the son of George
Springman, a farmer and lumberman, and
Elizabeth (Stieren) Springman, both also na-
tives of Illinois. George Springman entered
the manufacturing lumber business in Texas
in 1907 and the following year opened a re-
tail yard in Alton. Since July, 1916, the Alton
business has been known as the Springman
Lumber Company.
Under his father's influence John Joseph
Springman developed a childhood ambitiou
to win success in the lumber business and
aimed in that direction as he went through
school. From his earliest manhood he has
been in the business, and has found that the
selling end is its most fascinating facet. It
has been through his help that the enterprise
has grown to the point where it employs forty
persons. It carries a complete line of build-
ing materials. The employes receive up to
fifteen percent of the company's earnings as
bonus through a profit-sharing plan. The
firm has developed fourteen subdivisions, in-
cluding Springman Addition, and built five
hundred homes. This is a contribution of
which the Springmans are justly proud.
John Joseph Springman married Marie
Wood, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Louis F.
Wood of Alton. The children born to this
marriage are Bernard W. Springman, route
clerk in the business, who married Harriet
Meyers and is the father of John Henry
Springman; Virginia M. ; Angela E.; John J.
Springman, Jr., also associated with the fa-
ther in the business, and Thomas E., who in
1949 was in high school in Alton. The family
worships in the Cathedral of Saints Peter and
Paul, Alton. Mr. Springman's business ad-
dress is East Broadway, Alton. He is a mem-
ber of the Illinois Retail Lumber Dealers As-
sociation, the National Retail Lumber Deal-
ers Association, the Illinois State Chamber of
Commerce; the Kiwanis Club of Alton, of
which he is former treasurer; the Alton
Lodge, Benevolent and Protective Order of
Elks, the Knights of Columbus and of the
board of directors of the Alton Catholic Chari-
ties Association. As president of the Spring-
man Lumber Company and the Springman
Realty Development Company and as a citizen
vitally interested in the welfare of his fellow
citizens, he has earned a position of leader-
ship in the community.
WILLIAM THOMAS MACKAY
Back in 1875 in a small plant in Florence,
Massachusetts, the first Florence Oil Stove
made its appearance. This was the beginning
of the Florence Stove Company, whose steady
growth and progress has resulted in today's
large three-plant industry. At Kankakee,
where one of the three plants is located, is
also the company's western sales office. The
vice-president and general manager of opera-
tions at Kankakee is William Thomas MacKay,
who has been a figure of importance in the
industrial world for many years. He is also
prominent in Kankakee's community affairs.
Mr. MacKay was born on June 3, 1900, at
Rhodesport, South Africa, the son of Robert
and Mary (Wagstaff) MacKay. His father,
a mechanical and civil engineer, was a native
of Philadelphia, his mother of Scranton, Penn-
sylvania. Brought back to the United States
when he was still a young boy, William Mac-
Kay received his formal education in the'
grade and high schools of Schenectady, New
York. Then he became an apprentice tool and
machine designer at the General Electric Com-
pany there. He supplemented his training with
business courses at Columbia University in
New York and designing courses at Purdue
University in Indiana. In time Mr. MacKay
was transferred to the Radio Corporation of
America radio division at Camden, New Jer-
sey, and in 1928 he was made works manager
for RCA at Montreal, Canada. There he re-
mained five years. In 1933 he became an ex-
ecutive of the Addressograph and Mimeograph
K.-.K
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
This Space Reserved for the Portrait
of John Joseph Springman
WAYNE ANDREW JOHNSTON
Corporation at Euclid, Ohio. Three years later
he resigned to become works manager for the
National Metals Corporation of Chicago. This
post he held until 1942, when the company
went into war production. Throughout World
War II Mr. MacKay was in charge of the con-
cern's radar manufacturing. In 1945, he was
transferred to Kankakee. Elected as vice-pres-
ident and director of the Florence Stove Com-
pany, he was made general manager of oper-
ations at Kankakee, where 1485 persons are
employed. The company has plants also at
Gardner, Massachusetts, and Lewisburg, Ten-
nessee. The Kankakee factory was built in the
1920s. Florence products, which include near-
ly every type of modern cooking and heating-
appliance, are marketed directly to dealers
and sold in more than 10,000 furniture, hard-
ware and department stores throughout the
nation.
Mr. MacKay married Janet Marshall Wan-
nan, a native of Dundee, Scotland, on April
17, 1934. By a previous marriage Mr. Mac-
Kay is the father of Muriel and Ruth Mac-
Kay. Muriel MacKay is now Mrs. Richard
Nye, of Ashland, Kentucky, and the mother
of David and Clinton Nye. Ruth MacKay is
now Mrs. Thomas Ambrose of Schenectady,
New York. A stepson, William Carson, is mar-
ried and has two children — Brooke and Ian.
Mrs. Janet MacKay is active in the women's,
art and book clubs of Kankakee.
Mr. MacKay is chairman of the manufac-
turing division of the Kankakee Chamber of
Commerce. He is also active in Community
Chest work and in the Masonic order. His fa-
vorite sports are golf and fishing and his hob-
by is the collecting of antique ink wells.
Through all his activities he has become one
of Illinois' most valuable citizens.
WAYNE ANDREW JOHNSTON
The name of Wayne Andrew Johnston is
immediately recognized as that of one of the
nation's outstanding railroad men. For Mr.
Johnston is president not only of the Illi-
nois Central Railroad but also an officer of
various other railroads and related enterpris-
es. In the civic life of Chicago, Mr. Johnston
is usually found participating on the leader-
ship level in all worthwhile programs. He has
a reputation for his interest in education, wel-
fare and boys' work.
Mr. Johnston was born at Urbana on No-
vember 19, 1897, the son of Harry W. John-
ston, a native of South Point, Ohio, and De-
Etta Bird (Boomer) Johnston, a native of
Philo, Illinois and daughter of Andrew Bur-
ton and Pamela (Seymour) Boomer. In 1919,
Mr. Johnston was awarded the degree of
Bachelor of Science at the University of Il-
linois, where he became a member of Phi
Gamma Delta, social fraternity, and the two
honor societies, Beta Gamma Sigma and Al-
pha Phi Omega.
Mr. Johnston's entire career has been with
the Illinois Central Railroad, and his is a typ-
ical American success story, for he rose from
a modest beginning to his present high place
in the railroad world. His first position was
that of accountant in the office of the divi-
sion superintendent at Champaign, to which
he was appointed on October 1, 1919. The
record then reads: chief clerk to superinten-
dent, September, 1920; chief clerk to super-
intendent, northern lines, Chicago, October,
1921; correspondence clerk, office of vice-
president and general manager, September,
1925; general agent, traffic department,
April, 1934; office manager, vice-president,
traffic department, February, 1935; general
traffic agent in charge of mail, baggage, ex-
press and merchandise traffic, September,
1937; assistant to vice-president and general
manager, operating department, January,
1938; acting superintendent, Kentucky Divi-
sion, Paducah, November, 1940; assistant to
vice-president and general manager, opera-
ting department, Chicago, June, 1941; assist-
ant general manager, March, 1942; assistant
vice-president, April, 1944; general manager,
September, 1944. On February 23, 1945, Mr.
Johnston was advanced to president and in
March, 1945, he was elected to the board of
directors. He is also chairman of the board
and director of the Madison Coal Corpora-
tion, and the Peoria and Pekin Union Rail-
way; president and a director of the Chicago
and Illinois Western Railroad and the Padu-
cah and Illinois Railroad; and a director of
the Terminal Railroad Association of St.
Louis, the Railway Express Agency and the
Harris Trust and Savings Bank, Chicago.
On June 17, 1922, in Chicago, he married
Blanche Lawson of that city. Mrs. Johnston
is active in the American Red Cross, Old Peo-
ple's Home of Chicago, and the P.E.O. Sister-
hood. There are two children — Wayne An-
drew Johnston, Jr., who married Cynthia Ann
Hillman and is the father of Wayne Andrew
Johnston, III; and Bette Jane, the wife of
Bryce C. Boothby, and mother of Bryce, III.
The Johnstons, whose home is on Braeburn
Road, Flossmoor, are Protestants.
In his community work Mr. Johnston is
vice-president and a member of the executive
ILLINOIS EDITION
863
board of the Chicago Council, member of the
executive committee of Region Seven and the
National Council, Boy Scouts of America, and
is a member of the board of managers,
YMCA of Chicago, and stabilization commit-
tee, University of Illinois YMCA; board of
trustees, Illinois Conference, Congregational
Church; University of Illinois Foundation and
Advisory Council, past president of the Dad's
Association and trustee, DePauw University;
trustee , University of Illinois; trustee, Chi-
cago Sunday Evening Club; director, Travel-
ers Aid Society of Chicago; president Old
Peoples Home. He is a member of Beta Gam-
ma Sigma, Alpha Phi Omega and Phi Gamma
Delta, the Masonic order and a variety of
clubs. He is an outstanding American.
VICTOR CHARLES DEWEIN
The Dewein Grain Company is an Illinois
corporation which under the leadership of
Victor Charles Dewein of Decatur has grown
to tremendous proportions and is serving the
state in distinguished fashion. With head-
quarters at 244 North State Street, Decatur,
Mr. Dewein does custom milling at his Emery
grain elevator. He is a prominent figure in
civic affairs, in the field of feed and grain
and general agriculture and organizational,
activities.
Born on August 10, 19 04, at Warrensburg,
Mr. Dewein is the son of Victor Dewein, a
native of Peoria who was also in the grain
and feed business and who died on March 8,
192 6, and Grace Temple Faith Dewein, the
daughter of Charles H. Faith. Mr. Faith was
born on May 21, 1857 and died on January
11, 1925. He was also in the grain business
having started in 1881. Victor C. Dewein was
educated in grade school at Warrensburg, at
St. John's Military Academy in Delafield, Wis-
consin, and at James Millikin University, De-
catur. From the time he left college until
May 1, 192 7, he served as clerk at the De-
catur Milling Company. Then he took over
the operation of grain elevators at Forsyth
and Emery, inherited by the family at the
lather's death. In September, 1933, without
discontinuing operation of the elevators, he
took a position in the grain department of
the A. E. Staley Manufacturing Company,
Decatur. In 1940 he installed machinery at
the Forsyth elevator for the manufacture of
commercial feeds and in November, 1942, he
left the Staley concern to give full time to
his elevators and to expand his feed mill
operations. The business grew tremendously,
but fire destroyed the mill and elevator on
December 17, 19 45. Mr. Dewein then leased
a warehouse in Decatur and in a month's time
was again manufacturing feed. At the same
time he moved his office to Decatur and he
gradually started merchandising cash grain
until now he is president of the Dewein Grain
Company. At the expiration of his lease on
the Decatur warehouse, Mr. Dewein on De-
cember 31, 1948, discontinued manufacturing
feed in volume and moved his machinery and
equipment to the Emery elevator, where he ;s
now doing custom milling.
On June 2 4, 1944, at Grace Methodist
Church, Decatur, Mr. Dewein married Eve
Welch, daughter of Robert and Margaret
Welch. Mrs. Dewein was house mother of the
railroad canteen in Decatur during World
War II. In 1948-4 9 she was co-chairman of
the residential division of the Decatur and
Macon County Community Chest, and in 1949-
50 was president of the Decatur and Macon
County Welfare Home for Girls. From 1948
to 1950 she was on the house committee of
the Young Women's Christian Association.
Mr. and Mrs. Dewein reside at 2 05 North
Taylor Avenue, Decatur.
Mr. Dewein is a former president, treas-
urer and director of the Illinois Feed Associa-
tion. He is also a member of the Illinois
Farmers and Grain Dealers Association, the
Illinois Grain Dealers Association, the Ameri-
can Feed Manufacturers, Inc., the Grain and
Feed Dealers National Association; the Junior
Association of Commerce of Illinois; the De-
catur Club; the Decatur Association of Com-
merce, and the Decatur Country Club. He is
a trustee and former deacon, and Moderator
in 194 9, of the First Presbyterian Church
of Decatur. A Republican, he was asked
by the Democratic Party to run for Mayor of
Decatur in 1936, but declined. He is a boat-
ing enthusiast, owning a 2 2-foot Chris Craft
on Lake Decatur. Also, he likes golf and
photography and travel. HTs travels have
been throughout the United States, in South
America as far south as Buenos Aires and in
Hawaii. This has been written of him: "Keen
mind, keen sense of humor and most under-
standing of others' problems . . . kind and
generous almost to a fault.'"
HON. RICHARD PETTIS ROTH
First to use the paper container, to pas-
teurize and then to homogenize milk in the
Little Egyptian area, Richard Pettis Roth of
Mount Vernon is known throughout the dairy
industry. He is president of the Roth Dairy
Company, with headquarters and a plant in
804
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
VICTOR CHARLES DEWEIN
Mount Vernon and other plants at Centralia
and New Baden. He has served the people of
Jefferson County not only as a dairyman but
as a public official, being a County Super-
visor.
Mr. Roth was born at Ina, in the same coun-
ty, on July 4, 1901, the son of Pettis and
Clara E. (Logan) Roth. His father, born at
Spring Garden, was a carpenter and grocer
first at Ina and then, from 1912 on, at Mount
Vernon; he died in 1937, aged seventy-four.
He worshiped in the Central Church of Christ
and served on the Ina Village Board of Trus-
tees. The mother, a native of Richview, Wash-
ington County, was outstanding in church
work and as a singer. The supervisor's pater-
nal grandfather came to America from Ger-
many in 1819 and was a merchant at Burnt
Prairie. The maternal grandfather, Captain
James Benson Logan, served with the Union
Army in the Civil War. He was a famed pub-
lic speaker and writer of popular songs as
well as an inventor with several patents.
Richard P. Roth was educated in Mount
Vernon. He has been in his present field of
business since leaving school. For a year he
worked for Staar Brothers Creamery Com-
pany, Mount Vernon, and then was a butter-
maker for the United Dairy at Salem and as-
sistant buttermaker for Swift and Company
at Mount Vernon. In 1922 he became a part-
ner in the Mount Vernon Pure Milk Company
by buying a half interest. The following year
the concern's name was changed to the Roth
Dairy Company and was established at its
present address, 820 Harrison Street, Mount
Vernon. At the beginning Mr. Roth did all
the delivery work, while his partner took
charge of plant operations. They produced the
only pasteurized milk in their territory for a
quarter of a century. Then they pioneered in
Southeim Illinois as homogenizers of milk and
cream, without discontinuing pasteurization.
They now operate three plants, employ forty-
eight persons, and sell most of their milk
through stores.
Mr. Roth married Flossy Reece of Mount
Vernon, the daughter of William Reece, one
time police chief of Mount Vernon, deputy
sheriff of Jefferson County and head watch-
man at the car shops, and Mary (Thomas)
Reece. There are two children — Nadine, born
in 1924, and Richard Pettis Roth, Jr., born
in 1927, both of whom are associated with
their father in the dairy business. The son,
who is manager of the Centralia plant, served
with the United States Navy in World War
II. He was educated at Mount Vernon High
School, where he was active in athletics, at
Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, Long
Beach City College, Long Beach, Cali-
fornia, and Culver-Stockton College, Canton,
Missouri. He majored in business administra-
tion. The entire family worships in the Cen-
tral Church of Christ.
The senior Mr. Roth, active in the Repub-
lican Party, has given public service in the
county and county seat for many years. In
1931 he was elected to the Mount Vernon
City Council and later to the Jefferson Coun-
ty Board of Supervisors. He is now chairman
of the finance committee of the county board.
He is a member of the Modern Woodmen and
of the .Masonic order, being a Noble of the
Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic
Shrine. He served three years as a director of
the Mount Vernon Chamber of Commerce and
in World War II was on the District Dairy
Advisory Committee. His favorite sport is
fishing. He is recognized as one of the Jeffer-
son County natives who have done the most
for their county.
ELWYN LEROY SIMMONS
A construction engineer for more than
three decades, Elwyn LeRoy Simmons of De-
catur has made, a reputation not only in Illi-
nois but most of the other North Central
States in the general contracting field. His
firms have offices in Decatur, Rantoul and
Detroit, Michigan.
Mr. Simmons, born in Chicago on August
24, 1898, is the son of John Lavelle and Har-
riet Luella (Thompkins) Simmons. After at-
tending Chicago's public schools, he completed
his education and training at the University
of Illinois, which awarded him the degree of
Bachelor of Science in Architectural Engi-
neering in 1920. He has been active in con-
struction ever since, and is now president
and treasurer of the J. L. Simmons Company,
general contractors, with headquarters in the
Citizens' Building, Decatur, having been elect-
ed to these offices in 1936. Also, he is vicfr-
president of Kuehne-Simmons Construction
Associates, of Rantoul and Detroit.
Mr. Simmons married Elizabeth Snider on
April 21, 1923, and they have a daughter and
son, Susan Simmons and John LeRoy Sim-
mons. The family worships in the Methodist
Church. The Simmons residence is on South-
moreland Place, Decatur.
In World War I and afterward, 1918-1919,
Mr. Simmons served as a Lieutenant in the
United States Army Coast Artillery Corps.
ILLINOIS
EDITION
867
He is a member of the Illinois Society of En-
gineers, the University Club of Chicago, the
Decatur Club and Decatur Country Club. His
contribution to development as a contractor
is widely recognized in private and public
circles.
HON. CHARLES C. DOERR
As former Fire Chief of Pinckneyville and
former Coroner of Perry County, the Honor-
able Charles C. Doerr is well known for the
service he renders the public. He has given
service in yet another way — as operator of
the Doerr Funeral Home of Pinckneyville, an
institution founded by his father in 1898, and
now owned and operated by the son.
Mr. Doerr was born on the family farm in
Perry County on March 8, 1882, the third of
the four children of Jacob and Louisa (Heg-
gemeyer) Doerr. His father, a native of
Waterloo, seat of Monroe County, farmed in
that county until a month or so before his
third child was born, and then moved to Per-
ry County. He was a farmer in the latter
county until 1898, when he established a fur-
niture and undertaking business in Pinckney-
ville, the county seat. Charles C. Doerr has a
brother, William P. Doerr, and two sisters,
Christina and Bertha.
After he had finished his schooling, Mr.
Doerr worked for a time in his father's fu-
neral home. Then he took employment in the
mines, but after a short period became a
brakeman on the Illinois Central Railroad.
When he left the railroad, he returned to the
Doerr Funeral Home.
On October 16, 1904, Mr. Doerr married
Dorothea Clark, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
John Clark of Perry County. One son was
born to this marriage- — Karl Doerr ,who oper-
ates a photographic shop in Pinckneyville and
also assists his father in the operation of the
Doerr Funeral Home. Karl Doerr is married
and has two daughters, Corla Marie and Eliz-
abeth Doerr.
In 1904, too, Charles C. Doerr went to
work as a fireman and engineer in the Wink-
ler Mines in Perry County. In 1906 he moved
to Murphysboro, where he worked as an en-
gineer in the mines until 1910. Returning
to Pinckneyville, he operated a livery busi-
ness. Also in 1910, he became a partner of his
father's in the funeral business. In 1922 he
bought out Jacob Doerr's interest, and has
since been the owner of the Doerr Funeral
Home. He is active and well known in the Il-
linois Funeral Directors Association and the
National Funeral Directors Association. He
served as Fire Chief in Pinckneyville for a
short time, but was County Coroner for six-
teen years. He is a leading Republican of the
county. Farming as a hobby, he belongs to
the Perry County Farm Bureau. Also, he is a
member of the Rotary Club of Pinckneyville,
the Pinckneyville Chamber of Commerce, the
Odd Fellows Lodge and various Masonic bod-
ies, including the Shrine. Golf is his favorite
sport. He won the Class B. tournament at the
Elks Country Club in DuQuoin in 1946. He
has also won the admiration of his fellow cit-
izens for the extent and variety of his public
services.
HARRY ALLEN WHITTENBERG
As a banker and citizen interested in the
growth of his community, Harry Allen Whit-
tenberg of Herrin has made an outstanding
contribution. He is cashier and trust officer
of the Bank of Herrin, which he helped to
organize, and is a leader in banking organi-
zations on the regional and State level. He
is also the half owner of an insurance busi-
ness he founded. He is also prominent in the
Baptist Church.
Mr. Whittenberg was born in Murphysboro
in November, 1891, the son of John and Lo-
retta (Ellis) Whittenberg. After attending
the grade schools of Murphysboro, he went to
Herrin High School, from which he was grad-
uated in 1912. This he followed up with a
course in Brown's Business College, at Ma-
rion. Mr. Whittenberg's first job was that of
payroll clerk for the Big Muddy Coal and
Iron Company at Herrin. At the time he
severed his association with this concern, he
was assistant cashier. In 1917, after five
years with the coal and iron company, he be-
came assistant cashier of the First National
Bank of Herrin. Two years later, without
leaving the bank, he founded the insurance
business then called The Whittenberg Agen-
cy. In 1932, he left the First National Bank
and began devoting himself entirely to his in-,
surance business. When the Bank of Herrin
was organized, he became cashier and trust
officer. Today he is half owner of the insur-
ance agency, which operates under the name
of the Whittenberg and Adams Insurance
Agency.
On April 4, 1921, Mr. Whittenberg married
Mildred Flanigan, the daughter of Charles and
May Flanigan of Cobden, in Union County.
Their son, Charles, a musician and composer,
now a teacher of music, resides in New York.
One of his compositions has been played by
the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
868
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
IIOX. CHARLES C. DOERR
CLARENCE PAUL McCLELLAND, D.D., LL.D., Litt.D.
Mr. Whittenberg is a member of the exec-
utive committee of Group 10 of the Illinois
Bankers Association and is also active in the
American Bankers Association and the Egyp-
tian Conference of the National Association
of Bank Auditors and Comptrollers. He is a
former president of the Conference. He has
also served as president of the Lions Club of
Herrin and the Herrin Chamber of Commerce.
Also a former secretary of the chamber, he is
now on its board of directors. Another or-
ganization in which he is serving as a direc-
tor is the Herrin Community Council, which he
helped organize. A teacher and deacon in the
First Baptist Church of Herrin, Mr. Whitten-
berg is on the board of trustees of Southern
Baptist Theological Seminary at Louisville,
Kentucky. His wife is the pianist of the First
Baptist Church. Mr. Whittenberg was a mem-
ber of the high school board of Herrin for
twenty-one years, serving through part of this
time as secretary. He holds the third degree
in Masonry. He has achieved considerable
leadership in all phases of community life.
CLARENCE PAUL McCLELLAND,
D.D., LL.D., Litt.D.
When Dr. Clarence Paul McClelland, pres-
ident of MacMurray College at Jacksonville,
Morgan County, delivered the centennial ad-
dress at the centennial convocation, October
10, 1946, reviewing the hundred-year history
of the institution, he said: "MacMurray Col-
lege faces the future with confidence and
hope . . . The College is well endowed . . . The
physical plant seems adequate . . . The faculty
deserve the highest praise . . . And if there is
a more conscientious, competent or happier
community of scholars anywhere, I cannot
imagine it." The happy state of the college,
as thus summed up by Dr. McClelland, is, all
agree, due to its president himself. Dr. Mc-
Clelland, an educator with a nationwide repu-
tation, ranks high in the Methodist Church
and in community affairs as well as in liter-
ary circles.
He was born on January 18, 1883, at Dobbs
Ferry, New York, the son of Charles P. and
Meta J. (Babcock) McClelland. In 1907 he
took the degree of Bachelor of Arts at Wes-
leyan University, Middletown, Connecticut,
and in 1910 that of Bachelor of Divinity at
Drew Theological Seminary, Madison, New
Jersey. He began his career as a Methodist
minister in 1910, continuing until 191(5. In
1917 he was called to Drew Seminary for
Young Women as president and this office he
held until 1925. In 1921 he received the de-
gree of Doctor of Sacred Theology from
Syracuse University and the degree of Doc-
tor of Divinity from Wesleyan University in
1925. That was the year he was made presi-
dent of MacMurray College, the post he con-
tinues to occupy with such distinction. In
1942, Illinois Wesleyan University conferred
upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of
Laws and in 1946 MacMurray College that
of Doctor of Letters.
On April 26, 1910, Dr. McClelland married
Mary E. Adams. They have five children —
Janet Meta, Charles Paul, David Clarence,
Betty Belle and Mary Carol McClelland. They
also have eleven grandchildren.
In 1950, the enrollment of MacMurray Col-
lege had risen to 774, and there was every in-
dication it would continue to grow under Dr.
McClelland's leadership. Founded in 1846 with
the aid of the Methodist Church and especial-
ly in its Illinois Annual Conference, MacMux1-
ray College — named for its greatest benefac-
tor, James E. MacMurray, whose gifts totaled
about four and one-half million dollars — has
had the following presidents, in addition to
the incumbent; James Frazier Jaquess, Charles
Adams, William H. DeMotte, William H.
Short and Joseph R. Harker, all of whom
made their impression on the entire field of
education and certainly forwarded higher ed-
ucation for women in America. It was Dr.
Harker, the immediate predecessor of Dr. Mc-
Clelland, who enabled the college to receive
full recognition from all the accrediting agen-
cies as a standard college and, as Dr. McClel-
land puts it, "laid a sure foundation for all
that has been achieved" since then.
Dr McClelland has been president of the
National Association of Schools and Colleges
of the Methodist Church and a director of the
Association of American Colleges. He is a
trustee of the Illinois State Historical Libra-
ry; and former president of the Board of Pas-
savant Hospital, Jacksonville, a member of
the Illinois State Commission of the Young
Men's Christian Association and of the Na-
tional Council of the Y.M.C.A. ; a member of
the Governor's Advisory Commission on Vet-
erans Education in Illinois; a director of the
Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce; a former
president of the Rotary Club of Jacksonville,
and a Mason. His fraternity is Alpha Delta
Phi. He is the author of "Question Marks and
Examination Points," published in 1935, and
of numerous articles that have appeared in
various educational journals. He has made
MacMurray College a liberal institution and
ILLINOIS
EDITION
873
in doing so has established himself among out-
standing contemporary educators and reli-
gious leaders.
HERBERT WILLIAM WARD
Though his home and office are in St. Lou-
is, Herbert William Ward must be counted
among those who are doing their utmost to
build the State of Illinois, for he is president
of a public service corporation which has been
serving what might be called the Greater St.
Louis Area of Illinois since 1895 — the Illinois
Terminal Railroad Company. Like this line,
Mr. Ward has a foremost position in the
railroad industry.
Mr. Ward was born in Spooner, Wisconsin,
on April 24, 1894, the son of William G. and
Marion R. (Church) Ward, and was educated
in the public schools and at the Minnesota
College of Law, where he received the degree
of Bachelor of Laws in 1934. For many years
he has combined a practice of law, chiefly in
the transportation field, with his career as
railroad administrator. He began his railroad
career in 1908, as clerk in the tariff de-
partment of the Minneapolis and St. Louis
Railway Company, with which he remained
until 1909. In 1910, he became a clerk in
the local freight office of the Chicago, St.
Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Ry., in which
he rose to brakeman in 1911, conductor in
1918, traveling and freight and passenger
agent in 1924, at Duluth, Minnesota; and
city freight agent, at Minneapolis, in 1930.
In 1935 he returned to the M. & St. L., as
traffic manager and in 1938 he was made
general traffic manager of that line. From
1943 to April, 1948, he was vice-president
of the M. & St. L. and the Railway Transfer
Company of Minneapolis. On May 1, 1948,
he took over as president of the Illinois Ter-
minal Railroad Company, with offices at 710
North Twelfth Boulevard, St. Louis. The
railroad, incorporated in 1895, began doing
business in 1896. It was built primarily to
supply terminal facilities to the railroads en-
tering the Alton district and to develop the
manufacturing interests of the Alton indus-
trial area. It has since considerably expanded
its purposes, and has become in addition both
a diesel and an electric lines operator. The
electric lines were born in 1899, with a mod-
est six-mile run called the Danville, Faxton
and Northern Railroad Company. The first
section of what is now called the "main line"
was started in 1902 from Champaign, and was
built to St. Joseph. Other developments, in-
cluding the erection of the McKinley Bridge
across the Mississippi to extend the lines into
St. Louis, followed. In 1928 the Illinois Ter-
minal Railroad leased and consolidated into
one railroad system the Illinois Traction Sys-
tem, the St. Louis, Troy and Eastern Rail-
road, the St. Louis and Illinois Belt Railway
and the St. Louis Electric Terminal Railway
Company. On June 30, 1930, the Alton and
Eastern Railroad and the St. Louis and Alton
and "O'Fallon Freight" of the East St. Louis
and Suburban Railway Company were absorbed
by the lessee. As the line developed, it ran into
downtown St. Louis and erected stations at Pe-
oria, Decatur and Springfield, with such points
also connected as Champaign, Urbana, Bloom-
ington and Danville. All the most modern im-
provements, both in track and signal systems
and in rolling stock, have been adopted. Consid-
erable additional progress is planned by Mr.
Ward.
Mr. Ward married Lillian E. McCrudden on
December 18, 1912. They have three children
— Donald W. Ward; Lois, now Mrs. A. C.
Schendel; and Joyce, now Mrs. G. D. Larra-
bee.
Mr. Ward, who has been admitted, as a
lawyer, to practice in the State of Minnesota,
the United States Courts and before the Inter-
state Commerce Commission, is a member of
the American and Minnesota State Bar As-
sociations. He is a former president of the
Minneapolis Traffic Club, and is also a mem-
ber of the Minneapolis Club, the Minnesota
Club of St. Paul, the Union League Club of
Chicago, the Chicago Club, the Metropolitan
and Bankers of New York, and others. He is a
leading figure among railroad men.
RICHARD WENDELL WARD
Prominent in the industrial and civic life
of Peoria and central Illinois, Richard Wen-
dell Ward was president and founder of the
Ward Plywood Company, with plant and of-
fice at 2700 South Washington Street, in the
state's second city, until his death.
Mr. Ward was a native of Chicago. Born on
July 2, 1910, he was the son of William Mul-
len Ward, a native of Maryland who was a
livestock broker in the Windy City's famed
stockyards and who died in 1926, and of Cora
Olive (Morgan) Ward, a native of Belle
Plaine, Iowa, now living in Peoria.
Educated in the elementary and high
schools of his native Chicago, Mr. Ward first
went to work for the Coca-Cola Company at
Sioux City, Iowa. After seven years with that
concern, he returned to Chicago, where he
entered the employ of the Michael Leonard
874
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
HERBERT WILLIAM WARD
HON. GEORGE WILLIAM SMITH
Company. He was a salesman for this organi-
zation for a year and a half. His next posi-
tion, again as salesman, was with the Aetna
Plywood Company of Chicago, with which he
worked seven years. In August, 1946, Mr.
Ward established the Ward Plywood Company
in Peoria and since that time had been its
president. The company distributes plywood
and doors in Illinois and Iowa and employs
ten persons.
Mr. Ward married Julia Judnick of Joliet
on November 30, 1939. Mrs. Ward's parents
were the late John and Josephine Judnick,
natives of Czecho-Slovakia. Her father was
a millwright at Joliet. Mr. and Mrs. Ward,
who made their home at 2112 Peoria Avenue,
Peoria, became the parents of two children
— Susan Ann Ward, born on June 19, 1941,
and Richard William Ward, born on March 17,
1946. Mr. Ward worshiped in the Episcopal
Church, his wife in the Roman Catholic.
Mr. Ward was active in the Peoria Associa-
tion of Commerce, the Peoria Better Business
Bureau, the Peoria Lodge of the Benevolent
and Protective Order of Elks, the Creve Coeur
Club and the Mount Holly Country Club. In
1949-50 he was president of the Country
Club. His favorite recreations were golf, fish-
ing and hunting. He was one of the leading
citizens of Central Illinois, and will be sorely
missed by a large circle of friends.
HON. GEORGE WILLIAM SMITH
The Honorable George William Smith of
Mattoon, Coles County's biggest municipality,
calls himself retired, but, always responsive
to the call of his neighbors and fellow citi-
zens, he works day and night on their behalf
as Mayor. Mayor Smith has been active in
public affairs since the day in 1928 when he
took office as a member of the Mattoon
Board of Aldermen and he has been Mayor
since 1945. Before "retiring," Mayor Smith
was a machinist and railroad man, and at
one time he played baseball. He is active
in many organizations.
Mayor Smith was born at Rockport, Indi-
ana, on August 10, 1881. He is the son of the
late Lincoln and Ella (Morris) Smith. His fath-
er, "Line" Smith, who was born at Madison, In-
diana, on October 6, 1860, was a machinist and
railroad engineer and was the son of Benja-
min W. Smith, who was the first master me-
chanic on the first railroad, the old Madison
& Jefferson, laid in the State of Indiana and
who died at the age of ninety-three, the oldest
member of the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows. Mayor Smith was educated in grade
schools at Rockport, Huntingburg and Prince-
ton, Indiana. The third generation of his
family to enter the railroading field, he be-
came an apprentice machinist on the Louis-
ville and Nashville Railroad at Evansville, In-
diana, in 1898. Later, for two years, he was
a fireman on the Chicago and Eastern Illinois
Railroad, out of Danville, Illinois. Then he
served eighteen months as an engineer at the
electrical plant of the Atlas Engine Works
in Indianapolis. In 1908 he came to the Mat-
toon Big Four shops and remained there un-
til on April 25, 1949, when he retired from
vocational activities.
On July 14, 1912, at Shelbyville, Shelby
County, Mayor Smith married Nellie Pearl
Miller, the daughter of John and Lottie A.
Miller. Mrs. Smith is active in the Central
Community Church of Mattoon, the church
at which the entire family worships and in
which Mayor Smith is also a well known fig-
ure. Mayor and Mrs. Smith have one daugh-
ter, Dorothy, now the wife of Floyd C. Hegg.
She was first married to Harold M. Tracy,
on August 31, 1932, but he died in 1945.
She has two children by the first marriage,
Jack W. and David H. Tracy. A third child,
Janet Lee Tracy, died at the age of two
months. Mayor and Mrs. Smith reside at
920 Marshall Avenue, Mattoon.
A resident of Mattoon since 1908, Mayor
Smith has always intex-ested himself in its
welfare, and he has always been active in
the Republican organization of Coles County.
In 1928, he was elected a member of the
City Board of Aldermen, representing Ward
Two. He served as Alderman for nine years.
In 1945 he was elected Mayor for a four-
year term and in 1949 was reelected to that
office. He has served on various boards in
connection with both his Aldermanic and May-
oral offices. He has been a member of the
International Association of Machinists since
1908 and is also active in the Benevolent
and Protective Order of Elks, the Loyal Order
of Moose, the Knights of Pythias and the
Dokeys. He is five feet eight inches tall, has
blue eyes and gray hair. Fishing, hunting
and baseball are his favorite sports. He played
baseball in his Princeton, Rockport and
Evansville days. His service to the commu-
nity has made him one of the popular figures
in Downstate Illinois.
HON. JAMES ARTHUR HEDRICK
Dedicated to every phase of public welfare,
the Honorable James Arthur Hedrick of De-
catur has risen to a position of great promi-
ILLINOIS EDITION
879
nence in Illinois. He is the holder of various
public offices, including the Mayorship of De-
catur, and is a leading figure in the oil busi-
ness.
Mayor Hedrick is the son of Thomas D.
and Anna M. (Casey) Hedrick. His father,
born at Athens, Menard County, July 12,
1850, died July 8, 1935. He was a black-
smith and the father of seven boys and six
girls. The mother was born on January 25,
1855, and died June 8, 1934. Decatur's fu-
ture Mayor was educated in grade school and
by way of a mechanical and electrical engi-
neering correspondence course. He began as
an apprentice in the machinist and tool-and-
die-making trades. At the age of 19 he was
promoted to toolroom foreman. Later he was
made machine shop foreman, motor foreman,
then assistant superintendent at the Bartholo-
mew Company, Peoria, makers of Glide auto-
mobiles. In 1909 and 1910 Mr. Hedrick drove
cars in the Glidden Tours. In 1913 he became
a salesman and territory manager for the Ca-
dillac Motor Car Company and in 1917 he
opened a Cadillac agency in Decatur, in part-
nership with A. R. Coggan. He lectured on
the first V-type eight cylinder Cadillac at
auto shows for two years. This business was
sold nine years later. Then Mr. Hedrick en-
tered the retail and wholesale oil business.
He sold his enterprise in 1941, but continues
prominent in the oil industry.
On October 8, 1909, at Lincoln, Mayor
Hedrick married Rilla M. Martin, daughter
of Robert R. and Kitty M. Martin. Mrs. Hed-
rick, also well known in Decatur and Macon
County, is especially noted for her work in
connection with philanthropies. She and the
Mayor worship in the Christian Church at
Decatur.
Mr. Hedrick's prominence in the automo-
tive and oil businesses brought him election
to such offices as president of the Decatur
Automobile Dealers Association and as a
member of the board of directors of the Illi-
nois State Petroleum Association. He was
named to the Illinois State Welfare Board
in 1945 and is also now on the Illinois Mu-
nicipal League Advisory Board. In 1950, he
was serving his second term as Mayor of
Decatur. His reputation as a city adminis-
trator is such that he has served as president
of the Illinois Municipal League, in which he
continues influential. Since 1944 Mayor Hed-
rick has been president of the Decatur Base-
ball Club, and thus has contributed further
to the welfare of the community. He is a
Mason and a Republican. In addition to base-
ball, football and basketball are his favorite
sports. Mayor Hedrick has attracted much
attention in the state because of his progres-
sive, business-like approach to the municipal
problems of Decatur and his wholehearted,
interested devotion to the solution of these
problems.
ROBERT CHARLES McMILLAN
"Have a goal; then be willing to put forth
the effort to attain that goal." With this
philosophy, Robert Charles McMillan of
Mount Vernon has made himself an important
figure in the car building world and an out-
standing citizen of Southern Illinois. He is
the general manager of the Mount Vernon
Car and Manufacturing Company, a subsid-
iary of the Pressed Steel Car Company, Inc.,
noted for the quality of its cars.
Mr. McMillan was born in Fairmount, Ver-
milion County, on December 31, 1893, the
son of Robert Hope and Phoebe (Williamson)
McMillan. His father, a native of County
Cork, Ireland, came to the United States with
his parents when he was two years old. The
family settled at Hanover, Indiana, where for
many years he was a railroader. He died in
1941, at the age of 89. The mother, born
in Veedersburg, Indiana, died in 1930. Her
father, Conrad Williamson, was a farmer at
Veedersburg. The car manufacturer's pater-
nal grandfather, Robert Hope McMillan, also
born in County Cork, was a machinist.
Robert Charles McMillan attended the pub-
lic schools of Terre Haute, Indiana, where
the family had moved when he was six years
old, and then continued at Mount Vernon,
to which the family moved when he was thir-
teen years old. He was graduated from the
Mount Vernon High School, where he had
distinguished himself as a long distance run-
ner. The family returned to Terre Haute,
Robert with the others, but a year later he
returned again to Mount Vex-non. The real
reason was a girl — Mary O'Riely — and they
were married. Mrs. McMillan, educated in the
public schools of Mount Vernon, is the daugh-
ter of Andrew O'Riely, who was born in Ire-
land. Brought to the United States by his
parents when he was four, he became a school
teacher in Jefferson County, where the fam-
ily settled. He taught for more than forty
years. Mr. and Mrs. McMillan have two chil-
dren— Robert Howard, born March 7, 1917,
who married Virginia Lyle of Mount Vernon
and is the father of Robert Richard born
March 12, 1939 and Charles Michael McMillan
born January 7, 1941; and Mary DeElla born
880
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
HON. JAMES ARTHUR HEDRICK
January 7, 1920, now the wife of Joseph
Cortwright, residing- at Berwick, Pennsylva-
nia, and mother of Joella Cortwright born
March 29, 1946.
Upon his return to Mount Vernon and mar-
riage, Mr. McMillan entered the employ of the
Mount Vernon Car and Manufacturing Com-
pany. His first job was that of helper in the
fabricating shops. Step by step he rose until
he was steel car superintendent. On March
15, 1940, Mr. McMillan resigned to accept
the general superintendency of the American
Car and Foundry Company at Berwick, where
he was soon promoted to manager of the
freight car division. On January 15, 1949,
he resigned the Pennsylvania post because he
was given the opportunity to return to the
Mount Vernon Car and Manufacturing Com-
pany as general manager. He immediately
began guiding the concern in its resolve to
produce high quality cars in the tradition of
the Pressed Steel Car Company. Pressed
Steel was the first builder of all-steel freight
cars in the world. Mr. McMillan is a member
of the Masonic order, the Elks and Moose
lodges of Mount Vernon, the Kiwanis, Rotary
and Lions Clubs of Mount Vernon and the
Mount Vernon Chamber of Commerce. He
worships in the First Baptist Church and golf
and hunting are his chief diversions. His lead-
ership in his field are not only helping the
development of Southern Illinois but also the
transportation and commerce of the nation.
FERREL M. BEAN
Having devoted his entire business life to
the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance
Company, Ferrel M. Bean is today General
Agent for that fine old Boston company at
Chicago. That he is known among insurance
men throughout the United States follows as
a matter of course. He is active in civic work
and in the affairs of the Episcopal Church.
The son of P. L. and Maude (Eubank)
Bean, Hancock's Chicago chief was born in
Farmer City, DeWitt County, on September
13, 1900. Both parents were also natives of
that community. P. L. Bean, the son of Mr.
and Mrs. James H. Bean, spent his entire
business life as a salesman. The mother is
the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Martin L. Eu-
bank.
Ferrel M. Bean was graduated from the
Farmer City High School and then attended
Eureka College and the University of Illi-
nois, and is a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon
Fraternity. Many years after he had begun
his career with the John Hancock Mutual Life
insurance Company, he attended and in 1941
was graduated from the Life Insurance Agen-
cy Management Association's School in Agen-
cy Management. In 1949, he took a graduate
course in that school. It was in February,
1920, that Mr. Bean started as an agent at
Farmer City. He continued to sell insurance
while attending the University of Illinois. On
January 1, 1924, he was made district agent
at Champaign and in July, 1928, he was ad-
vanced to agency supervisor at Decatur. From
November 15, 1934, to February 1, 1943, he
was General Agent at Oklahoma City and on
February 1, 1943, he was transferred to the
John Hancock home office in Boston as su-
perintendent of agencies. This post he held
until on February 20, 1946, he returned to
Illinois as General Agent at Chicago. As re-
ported in "The National Insurance Leader,"
the year 1943, Mr. Bean's last full year as
General Agent at Oklahoma City, was the big-
gest year that agency ever had, the total paid
volume of business exceeding $4,000,000.
When he left to take up his post in Boston,
the agency had eight full time agents in the
main office and about forty agents in other
parts of the State of Oklahoma.
On January 19, 1924, about two weeks aft-
er he had been appointed district agent at
Champaign, Mr. Bean married Irene Battaile,
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William A. Battaile
of the university city. Mrs. Bean, who has
been a prominent citizen of the communities
in which she has lived as Mr. Bean's wife,
was active in the American Red Cross
throughout World War II, serving as a staff
assistant in both the Oklahoma City and Bos-
ton Chapters. Mr. and Mrs. Bean have one
daughter, Nancy, now Mrs. John W. Jones of
Oklahoma City and mother of Douglas B.
Jones. The Beans reside at 5555 Sheridan
Road, Chicago, and attend St. Chrysostoms
Episcopal Church. When they were in Okla-
homa City Mr. Bean was on the vestry and
Bishop's Council of St. Paul's Cathedral there.
Mr. Bean, who launched the Oklahoma
agency for his company in 1934, became one
of Oklahoma City's leading citizens. He was
active not only in insurance organizations but
in many civic groups and for a time was
chairman of the Chamber of Commerce med-
ical committee and a director of the state
Chamber of Commerce. He is now on the
board of directors of the Chicago Life Man-
agers Association, and also that organization's
program chairman; on the board of directors
of the Chicago Life Underwriters; on the
board of directors of the Illinois State Life
ILLINOIS EDITION
883
Underwriters; on the membership committee
of the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce
and is vice-president and on the advisory
committee of the John Hancock General
Agents Association. He also belongs to va-
rious Masonic bodies, including the Shrine;
the Union League Club; the Executives Club;
the Illini Club; the Chicago Association of
Commerce and the Illinois State Chamber of
Commerce. In politics he is a Republican.
Golf, fishing and horseback riding are his
recreations. He is a noted citizen of Chicago
and the insurance world.
KENNETH W. MOORE
A leading figure at Bloomington both as
funeral director and as citizen, Kenneth W.
Moore also has a reputation as a proponent
of pre-paid burial insurance. He is vice-pres-
ident of the undertaking firm of John A.
Beck Company and president of the Urbane
Burial Insurance Society of Bloomington. He
is also a cotton grower.
Mr. Moore was born in Chicago on June
3, 1890, the son of Otto W. and Mary L.
(Talty) Moore. His father, also a native of
Chicago, was with the Chicago Daily News
for many years. He died in 1929. The moth-
er, a native of Moline, died in 1939. The
future executive of the John A. Beck Co.
was educated in Chicago's elementary and
high schools and at Northwestern Academy,
spending two years at the latter. For twenty-
two years after completing his education he
was associated with the Peabody-Houghteling
Company of Chicago. Then he worked for
Otis and Company, also in Chicago, for two
and one-half years. In 1934 Mr. Moore moved
to Bloomington to join the John A. Beck
Company organization, of which he was made
vice-president in 1936. He has since assumed
the presidency of the Urbane Burial Insur-
ance Society. His cotton plantation is lo-
cated in Mississippi.
Mr. Moore's first wife was Grace Beck,
daughter of the late John A. Beck, the found-
er of the John A. Beck Co., and she died
May 2, 1936.
On June 22, 1937, Mr. Moore married Eliz-
abeth B. Birkoff, a native of Chicago and
daughter of Nicholas Birkoff, who was born in
Holland and who, after coming to the United
States, engaged in the real estate business
and died in 1935. Mr. and Mrs. Moore have
two children — John Beck Moore, who was
born on December 14, 1939, and Kate Isa-
belle Moore, who was born on February 13,
1941. The Moore home is at 1309 East Wash-
ington Avenue, Bloomington. Mr. Moore is
a Methodist and his wife a Christian Scient-
ist.
Mr. Moore belongs to the Bloomington
Chamber of Commerce, the Bloomington
Country Club, the Rotary Club of Blooming-
ton and the Union League Club of Chicago.
His community work — he is active in every
important phase of life at Bloomington — his
public service and related activities are his
hobbies. He likes golf and traveling for di-
version. Mr. Moore's activities, professional
and civic, have endeared him to the Blooming-
ton public.
T. A. CHAPIN
National fame has enveloped the Illinois
Steel Bridge Company of Jacksonville, Mor-
gan County, for many years, especially since
World War II when the company made such
a distinguished contribution to the all-out war
program. The company has helped the na-
tion in other wars also, especially World War
I, for it was founded in 1900 and has always
been led by men of national vision and in-
terest, such as T. A. Chapin, the president.
Mr. Chapin, an outstanding figure in the in-
dustrial world, is also one of Illinois' lead-
ing citizens.
Mr. Chapin, born in 1870 at White Hall,
Illinois and educated at Ann Arbor, Mich.,
and Dixon College, Illinois, became associated
with the company in 1902. It had been found-
ed in February, 1900, under the name of
Jacksonville Bridge and Machine Company.
Its founders were Charles A. Slaughter,
Charles Radjohns, Grace Ayers, J. W. Wal-
ton, John R. Robertson and W. E. Crane,
and it was incorporated for $20,000, with
Mr. Crane as president. The firm began
on a small scale, its founders furnishing tools
and capital. Dedicated to the purpose of
building, erecting and repairing steel bridges,
making and repairing steel boilers and gen-
eral machine work, the company has adhered
to this program through its more than half
century of existence.
When, two years after the founding, Mr.
Chapin joined the company, it was as general
manager and a member of the board of direc-
tors. Working closely with Mr. Crane, the
president, he helped build the concern to its
present great success and standing in the field
of industry and public service. Mr. Crane con-
tinued as president until his death in 1943,
and at that time Mr. Chapin succeeded him
in the company's top executive post. In 1905,
incidentally, the corporate name was changed
884
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
KENNETH W. MOORE
EDWIN L. HAUSMANN
to Illinois Steel Bridge Company, Inc. In ad-
dition to Mr. Chapin, the present officers are
H. W. Keadey, vice-president, and J. T. Flynn,
secretary-treasurer.
In World War II the company fabricated
boat sections, steel for ordnance plants and
other material for the prosecution of the war.
Also, it manufactured for the Lockheed Air-
craft Company of California the world's larg-
est three-hinged counter-balanced trussed
arches for the famous Burbank plant. For
this enormous piece of work the Illinois Steel
Bridge Company received national attention.
Mr. Chapin married Miss Ada Tunson of
White Hall, Illinois. They have four children:
Conine who died in 1946; she was the wife of
Captain T. P. Wilson of the U. S. Navy. T. A.
Chapin, Jr., now living in Chicago; Eleanor
who married Captain T. P. Wilson in 1949;
Clara who is married to George Louden and
lives in New York City. Mr. Chapin also has
four grandchildren: Diane Wilson, Barbara
Wilson, Thomas Wilson, Jr., and Gail Wilson.
Like his company, Mr. Chapin holds a distin-
guished position in industry. He is also active
in civic and philanthropic affairs.
EDWIN L. HAUSMANN
A famous address in western Illinois, es-
pecially in Saint Clair County, is 203-11 East
Main Street, Belleville. This is the site of the
Fellner-Ratheim Inc. Department Store, head-
ed by one of the region's most honored citi-
zens— Edwin L. Hausmann. Mr. Hausmann
not only directs the destinies of the depart-
ment store, but is active in banking, in city
planning and in civic, service and fraternal
organizations. He traces his success back to
the days when, as a boy of fourteen, he went
to work in St. Louis for a salary of twenty
dollars a month, resolved to succeed no mat-
ter how hard he had to work.
Mr. Hausmann was born in Belleville on
September 15, 1896, the son of Joseph P. and
Anna (Berkel) Hausmann. His father, a re-
tail merchant in Belleville, was born in 1867
on a farm near Smithton, Saint Clair County;
he died in 1907. Anna Berkel Hausmann was
born in Smithton in 1874 and died in 1941.
The department store prasident was educated
in the Cathedral Parochial School of Belle-
ville, taking a commercial course in the sev-
enth and eighth grades. He then went to St.
Louis to work in a bank. He was fourteen and
the salary was the meager twenty dollars a
month. But he was an expert typist, willing
to give long hours to his work, and this meant
promotion for him. Today he is president of
ILLINOIS EDITION
Fellner-Ratheim, Inc., a director and treas-
urer of the Building and Loan Association, a
director of the Belleville Savings Bank, and a
noted figure not only in the retailing world
but in civic and municipal affairs.
Mr. Hausmann married Clotilda Fellner,
native of Belleville and daughter of Peter
and Catherine Fellner, in the county seat in
1919. Mr. and Mrs. Hausmann have three
children — a daughter, Dolores, who is as-
sistant secretary-treasurer of the Home Build-
ing and Loan Association of Belleville, and
two sons, Joseph, who married Jean Wey-
gandt, and is associated with him in business
as secretary of the firm; and Eugene, who
( 1950 ) is a student at the University of Notre
Dame in South Bend, Indiana. The family wor-
ships at St. Luke's Catholic Church, Belleville,
and Mr. Hausmann, prominent in the Catholic
laiety, is a member of the Holy Name Society.
Mr. Hausmann, interested in serving his
city, is a member of the Belleville City Plan-
ning Commission. He was also treasurer of
the Belleville Board of Trade and of the Com-
mercial Club of Belleville. He is a member of
the board of directors and vice-president of
the Illinois Federation of Retail Associations,
and is past president of the Retail Merchants
Association of Belleville. He is a past presi-
dent also of both the Belleville Chamber of
Commerce and the Rotary Club of Belleville
and is also active in the Belleville Lodge, Be-
nevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is
a leading figure in the Belleville Council, No.
1028, Knights of Columbus, in which order
he holds the fourth degree. To be successful,
Mr. Hausmann contends, a firm must have
the constant supervision of its heads and its
methods of doing business and of serving
customers must constantly be improved. A
business man must strive to be the best in
his field and to keep his mind on his goal rather
than on the hours he works. Civic groups
should be supported by every business man
because the success of the merchants de-
pends on the success of the community, is
another belief of Mr. Hausmann. He has fol-
lowed all these beliefs throughout his career,
and has achieved for himself, his firm and his
community all that he has wished.
FRANK McCRORY
The contribution which the late Frank Mc-
Crory made through activity in agriculture
and the clothing business and in civic and
cultural affairs to the development of Central
Illinois will long remain in the history of
that region, and continue to influence the
889
work of future generations. At first a farm-
er, Mr. McCrory was in the last 30 years of
his life active in the operation of McCrory
Brothers Daylight Clothing Store at Charles-
ton, seat of Coles County, and he became
known and popular throughout that county.
Mr. McCrory was born in Cynthiana, Ken-
tucky, on March 24, 1847, the son of James
and Mary Ellen (Chambers) McCrory, and
came of Scottish and Irish stock. His father,
who was born in Bourbon County, Kentucky,
on November 16, 1814, was the son of James
and Sara (Vance) McCrory. Frank McCro-
ry's parents were married on March 20, 1838,
in Kentucky. His mother, also born at Cyn-
thiana, was the daughter of James and Sally
(Rankin) Chambers. Her father was a grand-
son of the James Chambers who came to
America from Chambers, Scotland, and gave
his name to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
Frank McCrory was educated in the public
schools of Charleston, his family having
moved to that city in 1850. The father had
been in the mercantile business in Cynthiana.
At Charleston, he became County Clerk, an
office he held eight years. Then he engaged
in the mercantile business. Finally, in 1867,
he moved to his 160-acre farm on the old
Lafayette State Road, now Route 16, between
Mattoon and Charleston. As a young man
Frank McCrory followed his father into ag-
riculture, and so continued until about 1885.
In that year he left the farm and moved
back to Charleston, where he became a mem-
ber of the firm of McCrory Brothers Day-
light Clothing Store. He remained in this
business for thirty years. His brothers were
William Edward, Henry, Joe and Charles Dun-
lap McCrory. He also had two sisters, Sarah
Ellen, who became Mrs. L. F. Wilson, and
Elizabeth, who became Mrs. J. W. Neal.
On April 21, 1875, Mr. McCrory married
Elizabeth Jane Balch, the daughter of George
Beall and Margaret (Walker) Balch. The cer-
emony was performed at Pleasant Grove
Township. Mrs. McCrory, who was born on
September 18, 1853, in Coles County, is re-
membered as a great homemaker. Both Mr.
and Mrs. McCrory were active in the First
Presbyterian Church. Mr. McCrory founded
the first Sunday School in Munroe Church,
Lafayette Township, later serving for nine
years as ruling elder of the church in Charles-
ton. Mrs. McCrory, assisted by her sisters,
had published a collection of her father's
poetry in book form about 1912. She and
Mr. McCrory became the parents of eleven
children, six of whom grew to adulthood:
Si)0
1. Mary, who died in 1937. She was the wife
of E. M. Pierce and the mother of Elizabeth
McCrory Pierce. 2. Clara, now Mrs. Frank
H. Wescott and mother of Mrs. Clara Jean
Galyan and Mrs. Lois Catherine Daily. 3.
James, who died on March 22, 1909, while
attending Oberlin College. 4. Bertha, now
Mrs. J. L. Wilson, and mother of Dr. James
McCrory Wilson, George Tinnin Wilson and
O. Lee Wilson. 5. Esther McCrory. 6. Marga-
ret, who died in 1935. She was the wife of
Dr. G. F. Corley and the mother of Edward
McCrory Corley. On their mother's side these
children are related to the Amos Balch who
fought in the Revolutionary War. One of
Amos' brothers was on the committee which
prepared the Mecklenburg Declaration of In-
dependence at Charlotte, North Carolina, in
May, 1775. This was Hezekiah J. Balch. An-
other brother, Stephen Bloomer Balch, was
a famed Presbyterian minister in the George-
town section of the District of Columbia. Both
Hezekiah and Stephen Balch were Princeton
graduates.
Frank McCrory was a former member of the
Modern Woodmen of America. He was a
great lover of music and nature and also was
interested in national and civic affairs. He
died on May 15, 1922 — one of the truly be-
loved men of his community.
AVERY BRUNDAGE
Internationally famous as an amateur
sportsman, for many years president of the
United States Olympic Association, vice-chair-
man of the International Olympic Commit-
tee, and chairman of the Comite Deportivo
PanAmericano, Avery Brundage is also noted
in Chicago and vicinity as an engineer, builder
of outstanding skyscrapers and as a real es-
tate and hotel operator.
This celebrated Illinoisan was born in De-
troit, Michigan, on September 28, 1887, the
son of Charles and Amelia (Lloyd) Brundage.
His father, a native of Steuben County, New
York, was the descendant of Scottish-English
ancestors who settled in New England and
New York in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth
Centuries. Mr. Brundage distinguished him-
self in athletics and other school activities
throughout the years he was obtaining his
education. He was graduated from Chicago
English High School in 1905 and took the
degree of Bachelor of Science in Civil Engi-
neering at the University of Illinois in 1909.
That same year he was intercollegiate cham-
pion, editor of the college magazine, and was
elected to the honor societies, Tau Beta Pi
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
FRANK McCRORY
and Sigma Xi. In 1912 he was a member of
the United States Olympic Team. In 1914,
1916 and 1918 he was Amateur All-Round
Champion of America. At one time he was
Handball Champion of Chicago.
For six year's Mr. Brundage was an archi-
tects' and engineers' superintendent in charge
of the construction of Chicago skyscrapers.
In 1915, he established and became presi-
dent of the Avery Brundage Company, Gen-
eral Contractors, which erected many of Chi-
cago's outstanding buildings. In 1932 he was
made chairman of the board of the Roanoke
Real Estate Company and in 1939 president
of the Roanoke Hotel Corporation. He is also
chairman of the board of the LaSalle-Madi-
son Hotel Company which owns and operates
the LaSalle Hotel in Chicago. At various
times he has been a director of other compa-
nies and financial institutions.
In 1927 Mr. Brundage married Elizabeth
Dunlap, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles
Carrol Dunlap of Chicago. Mrs. Brundage
shares her husband's interest in athletics and
is herself active in music and art. She has
been his companion on world travels during
which they have accumulated a large and im-
portant collection of objet d'art. He has one
of the finest private collections in the world
of Chiness ritual bronzes, porcelain sculpture,
jade, Japanese pottery, ivory carvings, net-
suke, lacquer and sword fittings. Mr. and
Mrs. Brundage maintain homes at 229 Lake
Shore Drive, Chicago, and 159 Ashley Road,
Santa Barbara, California.
To continue the story of Mr. Brundage's
place in the world of athletics, it should be
pointed out he was president of the Inter-
collegiate Conference Athletic Association in
1919. From 1928 through 1933, he was pres-
ident of the Central A.A.U., and in 1928 he
was elected president of the National A.A.U.,
an office to which he was reelected seven
times. In 1929 he was first elected to his
present office as president of the United
States Olympic Association and chairman of
the United States Olympic Committee. To
this position he has been reelected unani-
mously six times for four-year terms. He be-
came chairman of the United States Pan-
American Games Committee in 1941 and was
elected first president of Comite Deportivo
Panamericano in Buenos Aires in 1940. This
post he also continues to hold. Incidentally,
at Santa Barbara, in 1949, he was given the
Excelentisimo Senor Don de Santa Barbara
Award, the fifth person so honored. He is on
the executive council of the Comite Interna-
tional Olympique and is vice-president and a
member of the Council of the International
Amateur Athletic Federation, the Federation
Internationale des Sports de Handball d'ama-
teur and the Federation Internationale de
Basketball Amateur. In 1934 he was awarded
the special James E. Sullivan trophy for "out-
standing service to amateur sport." The au-
thor of various articles on amateur sport, he
was awarded an honorary degree by Spring-
field College in 1940. He is the owner of the
Montecito Country Club at Santa Barbara
and is a member of the Chicago Athletic Asso-
ciation, Chicago Engineers' Club and the Glen-
view Country Club. A famed sports writer
once called Mr. Brundage. "the high priest of
amateur athletics in America." He is one of
the great agents of peace in the world.
HARLAN LEE CALDWELL
An organization which has contributed
greatly to the progress and welfare of Morgan
County and the surrounding territory is the
Caldwell Engineering Company of Jackson-
ville, the county seat. Of this corporation
Harlan Lee Caldwell, a civil engineer, is presi-
dent. Mr. Caldwell, prominent in the con-
struction and industrial fields, is also a man
with a reputation in civic, organizational and
educational affairs, and in the Congregational
Church.
Born on March 16, 1886, in Minnehaha
County, South Dakota, Mr. Caldwell is the son
of George and Mary (Draper) Caldwell. His
father, a native of Hartford, Indiana, and a
Civil War veteran, traveled to South Dakota
in a covered wagon in 18 72 and homesteaded.
He became a successful and influential farm-
er. The mother, a native of Cambridge, Illi-
nois was the daughter of Clinton and Har-
riet (Vertner) Draper. Harlan Lee Caldwell
attended the University of Minnesota, at Min-
neapolis, in the summers of 1908 and 1909
and from 1908 to 1911 he was a regularly-
enrolled student at the University of South
Dakota, at Vermillion. He was elected to
Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Sigma Tau Fra-
ternities. Since completing his education Mr.
Caldwell has been in the engineering and con-
struction business. He operated his present
enterprise as an individual from 1912 to
1948. In July, 1948, the Caldwell, Engineer-
ing Company was incorporated, with Mr.
Caldwell as president.
On June 24, 1913, at Vermillion, South
Dakota, Mr. Caldwell married Vera Kahl, the
daughter of Charles and Stella Kahl. They are
the parents of two sons and two daughters —
ILLINOIS EDITION
895
Robert H. Caldwell; Donald L. Caldwell, who
married Anne Grover; Margaret, the wife of
T. R. Coleman; and Betty, the wife of Jack
Mathews and mother of Constance .Lee
Mathews. Like her husband Mrs. Caldwell is
prominently identified with important activi-
ties in Jacksonville. She is active in the P.
E. O. Sisterhood, various women's clubs, the
Fortnightly, Monday Conservation Club, and
ihe Jacksonville Country Club. The family
home is at 255 North Webster Avenue, Jack-
sonville, and the family worships in the Con-
gregational Church. Both Mr. and Mrs. Cald-
well are active in this church. Mr. Caldwell,
a member of the church's board of trus-
tees, is past chairman of the prudential com-
mittee and present chairman of the building
committee, is property custodian and hospital
representative of the church and member of
the Board of Governors of the Memorial Hos-
pital.
In the community at large Mr. Caldwell has
served on the school board 15 years, 1920
to 1935; is past exalted ruler of the Jackson-
ville Lodge, Benevolent and Protective Order
of Elks, and is vice president of the Jackson-
ville Community Chest and chairman of the
Council of Social Agencies. Formerly presi-
dent of the Rotary Club of Jacksonville, he
was an official delegate to the Rotary Inter-
national convention at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
in 1948. Has been interested in Boy Scout
work many years and is past Chairman of the
Honest Abe District of Boy Scouts of America,
and is presently a member of the Executive
Board Abraham Lincoln Council Boy Scouts
of America and in 1948 was awarded the
National Silver Beaver Award, the highest
honor in scouting. Golf and hunting are his
favorite sports. Mr. Caldwell, five feet eleven
inches tall and weighing 175 pounds, is de-
scribed as of jovial disposition. His business
address is 803 West College Avenue, Jackson-
ville. He is one of Morgan County's most
influential citizens, as well as one of its more
popular personalities.
EDWARD H. MEYER
On the outskirts of Mount Vernon, in Jef-
ferson County, stands a modern establishment,
operated with the most up-to-date equipment
and rendering tremendous service to Southern
Illinois and a large part of Kentucky — the Ed.
Meyer Tractor Company. Founded and operat-
ed by Edward H. Meyer, a native of the area,
this company sells road machinery and con-
struction equipment. Mr. Meyer, renowned in
the area, is active in the county and city's civic
affairs.
He was born at St. Jacob, Madison Coun-
ty, on October 20, 1899, the son of Hugo
Meyer, a livestock dealer, and Louisa (Adler)
Meyer, both of whom were also born in that
community. The father died in 1945. Ed
Meyer's paternal grandfather was Conrad
Meyer, who lived most of his life in St. Louis.
Ed Meyer was educated in St. Jacob's public
schools. When he completed his education
he went to work on his father's farm in Mad-
ison County. Then, for awhile, he worked
for the Brooks Tomato Products Company
at Collinsville, in charge of field production.
Afterward he was with the G. S. Suppiger
Company of Belleville as supervisor of field
work and salesman. From this work he was
transferred to the Scientific Tablet Company,
also of Belleville, a subsidiary of the Suppi-
ger Company, as special salesman. In 1928,
he left this concern to sell milking machines
and other farm equipment for the Babson
Brothers of Chicago. From 1933 to 1945 he
was in the sales department of the Allis-Chal-
mers company's tractor division. During the
war years Mr. Meyer was expeditor for Allis-
Chalmers Manufacturing Co. Then, in 1946,
Mr. Meyer established the Ed. Meyer Tractor
Company, with plant on the Salem Road, at
Stanley Avenue, just north of the Mount
Vernon city limits. The building is sixty by
one hundred forty. His firm represents six-
teen leading manufacturers of construction
equipment. He is represented on the road
by six salesmen. Operating with a stream-
lined organization, Mr. Meyer has an office
manager, shop foreman, service manager,
sales manager, credit manager and parts de-
partment. The repair shop has space of sixty
by seventy feet, with ten expert mechanics
working full time, five of them in the shop
itself and the other six on the road with the
company's six service trucks. There are $50,-
000 worth of parts in the parts department.
One of Mr. Meyer's customers is his only
brother, Fred, who owns an eighty-acre farm
in Madison County. Mr. Meyer is a member
of the Associate Equipment Distributors, the
Masonic fraternity, the Mount Vernon Lodge
of the Benevolent and Protective Order of
Elks, the Mount Vernon Chamber of Com-
merce and the Illinois State Chamber of
Commerce. He is considered one of the more
aggressive and far-seeing leaders in the com-
munity.
896
LIBHARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
EDWARD H. MEYER
HARRY JOHN SCHMOEGER
HARRY JOHN SCHMOEGER
President of the Peoria Builders Supply
Company, with headquarters at 1412-14 South
Washington Street, Peoria, Harry John
Schmoeger is a familiar figure in construc-
tion operations in the area. He not only leads
this firm but is president of the J. C. Proc-
tor Lumber Company and the Peoria Ready-
Mixed Concrete Company and was a pioneer
in the ready-mixed concrete field. His firms
play an important part in the growth of the
region.
Mr. Schmoeger was born in Sterling,
Whiteside County, Illinois, on September 19,
1883, the son of Sebastian A. and Katherine
(Salzman) Schmoeger, both of whom were
natives of Germany. His father, who died
m 1937, was a butcher, farmer, banker and
stockman. The mother died in 1939. Harry
Schmoeger first attended the elementary and
high schools of Sterling. He then attended
the Pennsylvania Military College and the
University of Wisconsin at Madison. For sev-
en years after leaving school he worked in
the sales department of the United States
Gypsum Company. In 1911 Mr. Schmoeger
moved to Peoria, where he bought out the
branch of the United States Gypsum Com-
pany, in association with a partner. The name
of the company was then changed to Peoria
Builders Supply Company, and until 1931 Mr.
Schmoeger was vice-president and manager-.
In 1931, he was made president, and since
then he has continued to occupy that office.
The firm carries a general stock of building
supplies, hardware, mason supplies and sim-
ilar items. It covers the Peoria trade terri-
tory and employs forty persons. The Proctor
Lumber Company is the oldest firm in its
field in Peoria, having been established in
1845. Mr. Schmoeger's other Company, the
Ready-Mixed Concrete, is the oldest or one
of the oldest in its field.
Mr. Schmoeger married Irene Louise Craw-
ford of Sterling on May 12, 1912. She is
the daughter of Elmer E. Crawford, also a
native of Sterling, and Jennie (Burdick)
Crawford, who was born in Chicago and died
in 1943. Mr. Crawford, who died in 1941, was
a utilities executive. Mr. and Mrs. Schmoe-
ger are the parents of three children — Kath-
erine, born in 1914, now the wife of Joseph
E. Cook; Ann, born in 1916, now Mrs. Oli-
ver E. Day, Jr., and mother of Barbara Day,
born in 1946; and Barbara, born in 1917,
now Mrs. Bert Wheeler, Jr., and mother of
Mark Wheeler, born in 1947. Mr. and Mrs.
Harry J. Schmoeger reside at Ankabar Acres,
Washington, in Tazewell County. Mr. Schmoe-
ger worships in the Lutheran Church, his wife
in the Presbyterian.
Ankabar Acres, the Schmoeger home, is a
thousand-acre farm operated by Mr. Schmoe-
ger. It is devoted to general farming. An-
other of Mr. Schmoeger's activities in the
rural world is the operation of one of the
major Standard Bred horse farms of the na-
tion. Horses are his hobby and he has owned
world champions Ankabar, Promoter, Eddie
Havens and Mclwin. Horses from Ankabar
Acres Farms are winners and contenders at
the nation's leading raceways and state and
county fairs. Twenty-five colts are sold an-
nually from Ankabar Acres. Mr. Schmoeger
is a popular figure among horsemen and
sportsmen in general. He is a member of the
Materials Dealers Association, the Peoria As-
sociation of Commerce, the Creve Coeur Club,
the Masonic order and Phi Kappa Psi Fra-
ternity. He has contributed to progress and
welfare at Peoria and is one of that city's
eminent citizens.
CHESTER R. DAVIS, LL.D.
Possessor of a national reputation as a
banker and trust officer, Chester R. Davis is
senior vice president and a member of the
board of directors of the Chicago Title and
Trust Company. He has held positions of
great responsibility and influence in banking
and fiduciary organizations and is one of the
leading figures in regional planning and con-
servation in Cook County, and is also noted in
educational work.
Born at Saint Charles, Kane County, on
February 2 7, 1896, Chester R. Davis is the
son of the late Perry H. Davis and Lydia
(Buhl) Davis. His father was the superin-
tendent of the Moline Malleable Iron Com-
pany which he moved from Moline to Saint
Charles; he was the son of the late Wil-
liam and Mary Elrick Davis. Chester Davis
took the degree of Bachelor of Arts at Lake
Forest College in 1917 and the degree of
Bachelor of Laws at the University of Illinois
in 1922. He was elected to such fraternities
as Alpha Delta Phi, social; Phi Delta Phi,
legal; Phi Pi Epsilon, social, and Scabbard
and Blade, honorary military.
Mr. Davis began his career in the trust de-
partment of the Chicago Title and Trust Com-
pany in 192 2. Two years later he was ad-
vanced to assistant trust officer, a post he
held until 1936. In 1932 Mr. Davis was elec-
ted a vice president and in 1936 he was made
vice president and trust officer. From these
ILLINOIS EDITION
901
posts he rose to senior vice president in
November, 194 7, having been elected to the
board of directors in 1938.
Mr. Davis married Mead Scoville, daughter
of George F. and Valina Mead Scoville, in the
Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago, on Oc-
tober 12, 1929. They have three children —
Chester R. Davis, Jr., Richard Scoville Davis
and Jean Kathleen Davis. The family makes
its home at Wayne, on Oakenwald Farm.
Mr. Davis has an outstanding position in
the banking world. He was a member of the
American Bankers Association executive
council from 1947 to 1948, was chairman of
the organization's committee on service for
war veterans from 1944 to 1947 and was a
member of its executive committee in the
trust division from 1943 to 1947. In 1938
and again in 1943 he was president of the
Corporate Fiduciaries Association. Outside
the banking business, he is a director of such
firms as Kramer Opticians, Inc., Chicago
Gravel Company, Zeigler Coal Company, Crib-
ben and Sexton Company, DuPage Title Com-
pany and Kane County Title Company. In the
field of education and welfare, he has been
active with the Morrison Old Peoples Home,
the Shriners Hospitals for Crippled Children,
been a trustee of the University of Illinois
(194 0-49), Lake Forest College and Hektoen
Institute for Medical Research, been an as-
sociate of Northwestern University and a
member of the Citizens Board of the Univers-
ity of Chicago. Also, himself a veteran of
World War I, Mr. Davis has served as chair-
man of the advisory committee, Department
of Public Welfare, by appointment of Gov-
ernor Emmerson, handling veterans problems,
particularly the distribution of unclaimed
funds under World War I bonus legislation.
In 1929-30, he was chairman of the rehabili-
tation committee, American Legion, Depart-
ment of Illinois. In World War I, he was Cap-
tain of Company K, 320th Infantry, 80th
division, American Expeditionary Force, and
wounded in action in France, was decorated
with the Order of the Purple Heart. In the
World War II period (1940-47) Mr. Davis
was a Brigadier General, commanding the
First Brigade, Illinois Reserve Militia. He is
now Major General, Retired. For his many
contributions to life in America, Mr. Davis
received the honorary degree of Doctor of
Laws from Lake Forest College in 19 49. His
clubs include Legal (president in 1944); Ex-
ecutives (director in 1949-51); University,
Mid-Day, Economic, Commercial., Army and
Navy, Sky Line, Law, Rehearsal, St. Charles
Country, Dunham Woods Riding. He is a
Mason and Shriner. His honorary degree is
but one of the many forms of recognition of
his contribution.
HON. J. WES. GENTRY
The Mayor of Carterville is a public-spirited
citizen well known in the Southern Illinois
coal mine industry — the Honorable J. Wes.
Gentry- He is owner of the Pure Coal Com-
pany and president of the No. 6 Coal Com-
pany, Inc. Mayor Gentry is also noted for
his work on behalf of welfare and boys and
for his devotion to the development of the
entire Southern Illinois region.
Born in Carterville on June 15, 1916, Mr.
Gentry is the son of Edward and Jennie (Cole-
man) Gentry. Both the parents were also
born in Illinois. They are now divorced. Ed-
ward Gentry, a coal mine operator, is the
son of the late Thomas J. Gentry, who was
one of Illinois' Republican leaders. The Mayor
of Carterville was educated in the elemen-
tary and high schools of that city, graduating
from high school in 1934. He completed his
more formal education at Southern Illinois
University in Carbondale, where he partici-
pated in the staging of school plays and was
cheer leader at rallies and athletic events. He
supplemented his education with correspon-
dence courses in engineering and mining.
While attending school Mr. Gentry operated
a newspaper agency in Carterville, working
in coal mines on weekends. In 19 43, he, his
father and brother bought a small mine,
which was operated under the name of t lie
Gentry Coal Company. The father and bro-
ther later withdrew from this business, and
J. Wes. Gentry became its owner. Subse-
quently, also he assumed the presidency of
the No. 6 Coal. Company, Inc.
Mr. Gentry married Nelle Mae Boren, the
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James D. Boren
of Carterville, in that city on April 3, 1938.
Mr. and Mrs. Gentry are the parents of throe
children — Lynn Carol, Jennifer and Joan. The
latter two are twins. Mr. Gentry himself
comes of a family of four children, among
whom he was born second. The others are
James, William and Genevieve Gentry. The
Gentry family worships in the Second Bapiisi
Church of Carterville. Mr. Gentry is a devout
Christian and aside from being active in liis
church lives in accordance with strict Christian
principles.
His devotion to the public welfare brought
him election as Carterville's Mayor. Also, he
is a member of the Carterville High School
Board and, a sponsor of the Boy Scout move-
902
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
HON. J. WES. GENTRY
This Space Reserved for the Portrait
of Edgar Monroe Stephens, Jr.
ment, serves as member-at-large on the Egyp-
tian District Committee, Boy Scouts of Ameri-
ca. He is president of the Carterville High
School Alumni Association and a member of
the board of directors of the Greater Egyptian
Association. In addition, he belongs to the
Southern Ilinois, Inc., the Lions Club of
Carterville, the Carterville Lodges of the In-
dependent Order of Odd Fellows and the Fra-
ternal Order of Eagles. In politics he is a
Republican. Hunting and fishing are his
favorite recreations, and related to these are
two of his hobbies — bird dogs and guns. He
is president-elect of the Crab Orchard Sports-
men's Association and a member of the Illi-
nois Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs of
which he is presently director for the south-
ern zone. Another major interest is classical
music, especially grand opera, and he owns
eight hundred of the best recordings for his
radio-phonograph combination. He has long
served his community and region in a manner
to make him one of the most popular figures
there.
EDGAR MONROE STEPHENS, JR.
Not only in Illinois but also in Kentucky
and Missouri the name of Stephens has been
associated for three generations with high
quality contracting work and major construc-
tion projects. Though as a firm the big con-
struction organization bearing this name,
Edgar Stephens and Sons, Inc., of Cairo, bar-
kens back only to 1906, when it was taken
into the general field by the father of Edgar
Monroe Stephens, Jr., its antecedents are far-
ther back — to the days when the latter's
mandfn ther operated as a masonry and con-
crete contractor. Like the earlier men of the
family, Edgar Monroe Stephens, Jr., now the
head of the business, takes a leading part in
civic movements, and is a highly honored
citizen of the community.
He was born in Cairo on December 3, 1917.
His father, Edgar Monroe Stephens, was a
native of Mayfield, Kentucky. The senior E.
M. Stephens was one of Cairo's most promi-
nent citizens. He was active in Rotary and
Masonry, and served on the board of educa-
tion for twenty-five years. James M. Stephens,
who called the masonry and concrete con-
tracting business "J. M. Stephens and Son,
Masonry and Concrete," was also prominent
in the community. The mother of Edgar M.
Stephens, Jr., is the former Iva Mae Bateman,
a native of DeSoto, Illinois. She is active in
the city's affairs and in the Women's Club
and in the First Methodist Church.
Mr. Stephens was graduated from the Cairo
High School in 1935. In 1937, 1938 and 1939
he attended the University of Illinois, where
lie was elected to Phi Delta Theta Fraternity.
He left school in 1939 to manage his father's
business, which had, in 1906, been named
Edgar Stephens and Sons. The other sons
were Eugene and Russell Stephens. E. M.
Stephens, Jr., is now president and general
manager of the business, which has a branch
at Carbondale. The firm does a general con-
tracting operation, but specializes in com-
mercial and industrial construction. Mr.
Stephens owns and operates the Stephens
Ready-Mixed Concrete Company of Cairo.
Both the companies operate in Illinois, Ken-
tucky and Missouri. By late 1949 the con-
struction firm had built twelve school edifices.
Extent of recent operations include; Tele-
phone buildings at Carmi and Fairfield, Illi-
nois; Physical and Vocational Building, Har-
risburg, 111., Lincoln Junior High School and
Springmore Grade School at Carbondale, 111.,
Clinic and hospital at Carbondale, 111.., Wash-
ington Junior High School, Cairo Junior High
school and an addition to Sumner High School
at Cairo, Illinois. St. Mary's Nurses Home,
Cairo, 111., Reiss Dairy at Sikeston, Mo., Coca-
Cola bottling plant, Sikeston, Mo., Sections
No. 1 and No. 2 of the Ohio River flood wall
improvements, Cairo, 111., R.E.A. Office build-
ing, Donzola, Illinois and Rodgers Theatre at
Popular Bluff, Mo., opened in May, 1949, one
of the chain owned by I. Walter Rodgers of
Cairo, whose life story is also told in this his-
tory of Illinois.
Edgar M. Stephens, Jr., married Virginia
Shelton, in Cairo on January 1, 1941. Mrs.
Stephens was reared by an uncle and aunt,
Mr. and Mrs. George E. Dunn, in Cairo. Her
uncle at one time owned the Hotel Cairo. She
is active in the First Methodist Church and ?s
past president of the Junior Women's Club.
Mr. and Mrs. Stephens are the parents of
Ronald Bruce Stephens, who was born on
January 14, 1943.
Mr. Stephens is a director of the Junior As-
sociation ot Commerce of Cairo and is active
in the Association of General Contractors of
America, the Egyptian Country Club of Cairo
and the Masonic order. In Masonry, he be-
longs to the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite and the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of
the Mystic Shrine, as well as other bodies.
His construction work and community activi-
ties enable him to do his share in the build-
ing of Southern Illinois.
ILLINOIS
EDITION
907
RICHARD ANTHONY DOOLEY
"Peoria's factories are nationally famous
for modern mass production and precision
standards." So says a statement of the As-
sociation of Commerce of Illinois' second
city, famed for its live and prosperous spirit.
Among the plants which have helped give
the city its reputation is that operated by
Dooley Brothers, Inc., at 1201 South Wash-
ington Street, of which Richard Anthony
Dooley is president. This firm not only manu-
factures electric cold drills but is also the
agent for the explosives produced by E. I.
duPont de Nemours and Company. Mr. Dooley
is not only one of Peoria's leading citizens
but is also a leading figure among lay Ca-
tholics and industrialists. James B. Dooley,
grandfather of Richard A. Dooley, was one
of Peoria's most highly respected citizens and
was well known in business circles, being not
only an extensive dealer in coal, but also the
manufacturer of a line of coal drills which
were in demand throughout the coal indus-
try, both domestic and foreign. He was born
at Albion Mines, Pictou county, Nova Scotia
on June 21, 18 54 and was the son of Ed-
ward and Joanna (Bradshaw) Dooley. He
was of the third generation of his family in
this country, his paternal grandfather, James
Dooley, having been born in County Wexford,
Ireland, whence he came to America in Young
manhood.
James B. Dooley received a very limited
education in the public schools of Nova Scotia,
for at the age of nine years, he went to work
in the mines. In 1881 he came to Peoria to
work in the mines and in 188 4, in associa-
tion with others, started a cooperative mine
below Bartonville. In 1913 Dooley Bros, pur-
chased the business of Wantling Brothers,
makers of coal, drills.
On February 8, 18 84, Mr. Dooley was unit-
ed in marriage to Miss Fredericka Schultz, a
native of Pennsylvania and they became the
parents of a son Edward J. Dooley, who was
born on September 11, 1885. He married
Miss Catherine O'Gorman, who was born in
Peoria, on July 30, 1883. To this union were
born eleven children, namely, Emma, Mil-
dred, James Eileen, Mary, Rita, Lucille,
Richard, Edward, Fredericka, and Eugene.
Edward J. Dooley was made Secretary of
Dooley Bros. December 2 0, 1917 and was an
officer in this capacity until his death, May
13, 1929.
Richard Anthony Dooley was born in
<)08
Peoria on June 16, 1922, the son of Edward
J. and Catherine L. (O'Gorman) Dooley, both
also natives of that city. He was educated
in the primary and high schools of Peoria,
and at Brown's Business College, Peoria,
where for sixteen months he studied busi-
ness administration. In 1941 Mr. Dooley
went to work for the family company and be-
gan learning the business. It was not many
months later that the Japanese made their
"sneak attack" at Pearl Harbor and plunged
the United States directly into World War II.
Mr. Dooley took a military leave from the
plant and went into the United States Army
Air Force. He served in the Asiatic and
Pacific Theaters of War, attaining the rank
of Sergeant. Separated from the service in
December, 1945, he returned to Dooley
Brothers in 1946 and was elected to his present
post of president. He has done much to ex-
tend the company's business and prestige and
supervises a personnel of forty-nine. The elec-
tric cold drills produced by the company are
sold in all parts of the United States.
Mr. Dooley, who is unmarried, is active in
the Peoria Association of Commerce, the Illi-
nois State Chamber of Commerce, the Cham-
ber of Commerce of the United States, the
Peoria Association of Credit Men, the Knights
of Columbus, the Te Deum Institute and the
Creve Coeur Club. Photography is his hobby.
He makes his home at 812 Stratford Drive,
Peoria. Carrying on traditions made famous
by his grandfather, and other members of
his family, Richard Anthony Dooley is mak-
ing an outstanding contribution as indus-
trialist, citizen and churchman.
HON. SAMUEL THOMPSON BUSEY
One-time Mayor of Urbana, one-time mem-
ber of the United States Congress represent-
ing Champaign and adjoining counties, Civil
War veteran, banker, friend of the farmer
and farmer himself, sportsman — Such wis
the record of the late Samuel Thompson
Busey, whose service to his fellow citizens
of Illinois contributed so highly to the devel-
opment and welfare of the State.
Born at Greencastle, Indiana, on November
16, 1835, Mr. Busey was the son of Matthew
Wales Busey, a farmer, and Elizabeth (Bush)
Busey, who was the daughter of John and
Mary Bush of Washington County, Indiana.
The future statesman was educated in the
public schools and in a seminary located in
Urbana in the early days.
Mr. Busey became a merchant, in partner-
ship with a friend, in tha days preceding the
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
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Civil War. Also, he farmed, and this interest,
dating from the time of his birth, remained
with him to the end of his life. On August
2 2, 1862, he took a military leave from all
his civilian activities to be mustered into the
Seventy-sixth Infantry, in which he was com-
missioned a Lieutenant-Colonel. The follow-
ing February he was promoted to Colonel in
command of the regiment. This rank he re-
tained until the end of the war, at which
time he was breveted Brigadier-General, in
recognition of his gallantry at Fort Blakeley.
The regiment was mustered out on August 4,
1865.
After the war Mr. Busey continued his
farming and Mercantile activities. In Feb-
ruary, 1868, he and his brother, S. H. Busey
and a Mr. Earhart launched Busey's Bank in
Urbana. In the following years Samuel Busey
established his reputation as an earnest, hard-
working civic leader and in 18 8 0 the citizens
of the city harnessed his interest and ener-
gies officially by naming him Mayor. He
served until 1889. In 1891, he was elected on
the Democratic ticket to the United States
Congress and he served for one term, 18 92-4.
At the time of his election as a Representa-
tive, he severed active relations with the
bank, though he kept a desk in the execu-
tive's section, where he advised his numerous
friends and carried on his farming interests.
He had about 1400 acres. Toward the end of
his life he laid out Woodlawn Cemetery in
Urbana. Though he did not belong to any
church, Mr. Busey was a deeply religious man
who found God in his service to his fellow
man. He sang in the choir of the First Meth-
odist Church of Urbana. He was a member
of the Masonic order.
Mr. Busey was a Democrat through most of
his career, the first man to defeat the famed
and almost indomitable Joe Cannon. But
later in his career he was unable to agree
with Bryan on the free silver issue and broke
away from the Democratic Party to vote Re-
publican. He was fond of horses and not only
ode them but kept a team to drive. He also
liked outdoor games and fishing. It was fish-
ing that brought about his death. August,
1909, when he drowned at Mantrap Lake, Min-
nesota. His body was brought back to Urbana
and buried in the family lot in Woodlawn.
Mr. Busey married Mary Elizabeth Bowen,
the daughter of Abner T. and Catherine T.
Bowen, at Delphi, Indiana, on December 2 5,
187 7. His wife was also active in public af-
fairs and in 1904 was elected to the Univers-
ity of Illinois board of trustees. She served
on that body until her death in 1930. Mr.
and Mrs. Busey were the parents of three
children — Marietta, who was married to Guy
Allan Tawney on April 6, 1909. Her children
are George Busey Tawney, born July 7, 1912,
who died in the military service on June 27,
19 43, the husband of Lenore Gallagher, Miss
Elizabeth Paige Tawney, and Catherine
Tawney, born February 3, 1922, married to
John Guyon and living in New York City, the
mother of two boys; Bertha Busey, who died
in 1923; Charles Bowen Busey, who was
killed in the service in World War I. He mar-
ried Louise Carter in 1911 and one son was
born to them: Charles B. Busey, Jr., who,
married, and is the father of three children.
Tall and strong, the late Samuel Thomp-
son Busey was a familiar figure along the
streets of Urbana. He was known for his
kindness and for the wisdom and efficacy of
his advice. He belonged to that group of men
who gave their utmost to the development of
their country.
GUY ALLAN TAWNEY, M.A., Ph.D.
Two generations of Americans in the East
and Middle West knew and loved the late Dr.
Guy Allan Tawney, philospher and teacher of
philosophy, who served on the faculties of
four institutions of higher learning, includ-
ing the University of Illinois at Urbana. Aside
from holding a position of great prominence
in the educational world, Dr. Tawney was at
the time of his death an outstanding figure
in the civic life of Urbana and was an officer
in two of its financial institutions and the
head of the Woodlawn Cemetery Association.
He was also a leader in the Presbyterian
Church and active in the work of McCormick
Theological Seminarj.
Born at Tippecanoe City, Ohio, Dr. Tawney
was the son of the Reverend Daniel. A.
Tawney, a Presbyterian minister, and Adele
(Paige) Tawney of Johnston, Ohio. He was
educated at MacAlester College, St. Paul,
Minnesota; Wabash College, Crawfordsville,
Indiana; Princeton University, and Leipzig
University in Germany. At Princeton, where
he was active in debating, he took the de-
grees of Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts.
Lepizig awarded him the degrees of Doctor of
Philosophy.
Dr. Tawney then taught philosophy at
Beloit College, Belcit, Wisconsin; Columbia
University in New York City; Squire pro-
fessor and head of the department at the
ILLINOIS EDITION
911
University of Cincinnati, and finally profes-
sor at the University of Illinois.
On April 6, 1909, in Urbana, Dr. Tawney
married Marietta Busey, the daughter of Gen-
eral S. T. and Mary E. Busey of the Cham-
paign County seat. Mrs Tawney died of heart
failure on December 31, 1949. Mrs. Tawney
was one of Urbana's best known and beloved
women. She was influential and popular in
Cincinnati. She was actve in many spheres
of interest in Champaign County, especially
in the League of Women Voters. At Cincin-
nati she served on the City Charter Commit-
tee which drew up one of the model municipal
government structures of the world. She took
her degree of Bachelor of Arts at Vassar Col-
lege in 1899 and after a period of graduate
study at the University of Cincinnati was
awarded the degree of Master of Arts. Dr.
and Mrs. Tawney became the parents of a son
and two daughters — George Busey Tawney,
who married Lenore Gallagher and died in
service in World War II, on June 2 7, 1943;
Miss Elizabeth Paiee Tawney; and Catherine
Jane, who on October 7, 19 43, was married
to John Guyon and is the mother of George
Denis Guyon, born January 6, 1946, and Paul
Joris Guyon, born June 22, 1948. Mrs.
Tawney made her home at 502 West Main
Street, Urbana, and was active in the Presby-
terian Church.
Dr. Tawney, who was well known in the
church, was a life member of its board of
elders. He also served on the board of trus-
tees of McCormick Theological Seminary. He
was chairman of the board of the Busey First
National Bank of Urbana, treasurer of the
Citizens Building and Loan Association of
Urbana and president of Woodlawn Cemetery.
Also, served on the board of the University of
Illinois Young Men's Christian Association
and was a member of the Rotary Club and
Chamber of Comerce of Urbana. His fratern-
ity was Phi Delta Theta. In politics he was
independent. His death occurred on January
5, 1947, at Urbana, and he was buried at
Woodlawn Cemetery.
A man nearly six feet tall, Dr. Tawney was
a modest, unassuming individual who in-
spired confidence with his wisdom and human
understanding and who was especially loved
by his students.
I. WALTER RODGERS
"There's no business like show business,"
as the saying goes, and in show business there
are few individuals with more spectacular
success stories or popularity than I. Walter
Rodgers of Cairo, Illinois. The string of mo-
tion picture houses operated by Mr. Rodgers
under the name of Rodgers Theaters, Inc.,
stretches from the southeast corner of Ar-
kansas to the northeast corner of Missouri
and to Southern Illinois, and the policies un-
der which these theaters operate have made
Mr. Rodgers' name one to conjure with in
that region.
Mr. Rodgers was born in Neoga, Cumber-
land County, Illinois, on April 3, 1875, the
son of Carson Porter and Martha (Veatch)
Rodgers. His grandfather, Isaac Rodgers, was
born near Huntsville, Alabama, and came to
Illinois before the Civil War, where his son,
Carson Porter Rodgers, established himself
as a general merchant at Farmington and
Janesville. Isaac Rodgers, settled on a Govern-
ment land grant more than a century ago near
Janesville. Martha Veatch Rodgers came of a
family which originated in the area near Mam-
moth Cave, Kentucky. Her grandfather, when
sixteen years old, was with Washington's Army
in the Revolution, and was wounded in battle
during Gates' Defeat and was captured by the
Pritish.
Mr. Rodgers attended school near Charles-
ton while he worked on the family farm. Even
after leaving school, he remained on the farm
awhile. Then he went to Mattoon, where he
worked as a clerk in the Big Four shops.
Later he was assistant secretary of the Mat-
toon Young Men's Christian Association. To
this day he never touches coffee, tobacco or
alcohol. In 1893, when he was eighteen, Mr.
Rodgers went into "show business," having,
as he says, "been born with show business in
my blood." He bought a phonograph, at that
time one of the great wonders of the world,
and with it traveled the country and ap-
peared in lodge halls, schools and churches,
sharing the profits with sponsoring groups.
People came and paid money to listen to the
first "talking and music machine." When the
x-ray was invented, Mr. Rodgers bought one
of the machines and exhibited it in the South,
where it attracted as much attention as the
phonograph. Mr. Rodgers used his own body
to demonstrate the workings of the machine,
receiving 25 cents from each customer. He
received one of the first x-i-ay burns in his-
tory. In 1896 came the motion picture, and
Mr. Rodgers was among the first to open a
"store show." or "nickelodeon," this being in
New Orleans. Later, he had a "store show" in
Chattanooga. Mr. Rodgers was forced to buy
his films and he more or less prophesied the
912
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
I. WALTER RODGERS
HON. HERMAN CROVER WANGEI.IN
future of the film industry when he sought,
in vain, to induce other "store show" opera-
tors, also forced to buy films, to establish a
film exchange. When business in Chattanoo-
ga dwindled, Mr. Rodgers obtained a hydro-
gen and oxygen outfit to make light for his
movie projector and made another tour of the
South, showing his pictures in towns where
there were no electric light plants. Thus he
was able to show again and again the films
he had bought in Chattanooga but could no
longer exhibit there because they had become
"old stuff."
In June, 1906, Mr. Rodgers married Grace
Sawyer of Clarksville, Tennessee, the daugh-
ter of John and Lyda (Williamson) Sawyer.
Mr. Rodgers acquired a business partner as
well as a wife, for in later years Mrs. Rodgers
was to take an active part in the building of
the Rodgers chain of theaters. One son, Car-
son W. Rodgers, was born to them in Mont-
gomery, Alabama, on July 31, 1907. He is
now president and general manager of Rodg-
ers Theaters, Inc. He married Helen Pease
of Poplar Bluff, Missouri, and is the father
of Grace Culp, Phyllis Ann and Helen Car-
son Rodgers.
At about the time of his marriage Mr.
Rodgers, discouraged over the state of the
film industry, left show business temporarily
and operated hotels at Cleveland and Clarks-
ville, Tennessee, LaGrange, Georgia, and Ful-
ton, Kentucky. Also, for a time, he operated
a billiard parlor in Tampa, Florida. When
the film industry took on a new lease of life,
with the telling of stories — as Mr. Rodgers
had once predicted — he returned to the field.
He and his wife purchased a theater at Jones-
boro, Arkansas, and in March, 1914, took over
the Princess Theater, and closed it, and still
later the Jewel Theater, which they continue
to operate. Also, they acquired and closed
the Lyceum Theater of Poplar Bluff. In addi-
tion to the Criterion and Jewel in that city,
the Rodgerses have built a modern motion pic-
ture palace, the Rodgers ,which opened to
busy theatergoers in May, 1949. Other thea-
ters now in the chain are in Caruthersville,
.Missouri; Anna, Carbondale and Cairo, Illinois,
and Blytheville, Arkansas.
In 1914, Mr. Rodgers was one of a trio
which organized the Motion Picture Theater
Owners Association of Southeast Missouri
and Southern Illinois, and Mr. Rodgers was
the organization's first president. Since 1921,
when he bought the theaters in Cairo, he has
made that city the headquarters of the chain.
Mr. Rodgers is active in The Committee of
100, an exclusive club at Miami, Florida —
with about 400 members, all multi-million-
aires and representing every section of the
United States. He is also a member of the
Surf Club and the LaGorce Country Club of
Miami Beach, the Rotary Club of Cairo, the
Egyptian Country Club of Cairo, the Variety
Club of Miami Beach, the Masonic Order and
its various bodies, such as the Shrine and Scot-
tish Rite, the Elks and the Knights of Pythias.
Though in his seventies, Mr. Rodgers still
plays 18 holes of golf. He owns a home in
Miami Beach as well as in Cairo. A great
portion of the Middle West has been stimu-
lated to development and to culture through
the activities of this leader of show business
— I. Walter Rodgers.
HON. HERMAN GROVER WANGELIN
A leader in many fields, the Honorable
Herman Grover Wangelin of Belleville may
be said to have pioneered in the retail sale
of automobiles — not only because he entered
the business at an early age in the early part
of the present century but because he per-
suaded, even before then, his father to enter
that business. Today Mr. Wangelin is an out-
standing figure in the industry. But he has
also made a reputation for himself in public
affairs, in the political world, in local and
state chamber of commerce activities and in
the field of education. He is a former post-
master of Belleville — an office held by his
grandfather in post-Civil War days — and by
his father under the administration of Grover
Cleveland. Mr. Wangelin comes of an illus-
trious family closely identified with develop-
ments in Illinois. Boi'n in Belleville on Au-
gust 5, 1890, he is the son of Irvin Hugo
and Johanna (Weber) Wangelin. His father,
a native of Lebanon, in the same county, was
the son of Colonel Hugo Wangelin, who came
to the United States from Germany about
1848. The Colonel, who won his title with
the Union forces in the Civil War, was a
merchant in Lebanon. Later, he lived in Belle-
ville, which he served as Postmaster by ap-
pointment of Presidents Abraham Lincoln and
U. S. Grant. Irvin Hugo Wangelin grew up
in Belleville and was also in the mercantile
business, though later he switched to the in-
surance business. He was appointed postmas-
ter of Belleville by President Grover Cleve-
land and served four years. In 1909, at the
request of his son, Herman, he entered the
automobile business as a Buick dealer. Jo-
hanna Weber Wangelin was the daughter of
ILLINOIS
EDITION
917
Mr. and Mrs. Herman G. Weber, who also
came to Illinois from Germany.
Herman Grover Wangelin was educated in
Belleville's public schools and at the Univer-
sity of Illinois, where he spent three years.
On his return home he joined his father in
the automobile business. Their firm, Modern
Automobile and Garage Company, sold Buick,
White, Steamer and Cadillac cars. In 1911,
they became the Ford dealers. In 1924, Her-
man Wangelin took over the business under
his own name and in 1936 became the Chrys-
ler-Plymouth dealer, which franchise he still
represents. He has been in business on East
Main Street for forty years (as of 1950) and
owns considerable real estate. In 1936 he
was appointed Postmaster of Belleville by
President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This office
he occupied until on May 1, 1948, he resigned
to return to his automobile business.
In 1914 Mr. Wangelin married Magdalen
Heidinger of Belleville, daughter of Julius
Heidinger. Two sons were born to them —
Don J., who is in the research department of
Pure Oil Company at Northfield, who mar-
ried Elizabeth Moe of Detroit and who is
father of two children, Carolyn and James
Wangelin; and Jack J. The latter was a B-17
pilot in World War II. He was killed by flak
over Germany on his thirteenth mission and
was buried in England. Previously wounded
and awarded the Purple Heart, he had been
restored to active duty.
A leader in his field, Mr. Wangelin is past
president of the local and state automobile
associations and for three years was secretary
of the National Automobile Dealers Associa-
tion and a member of the National Control
Committee during the NRA. He was first
president of the Belleville Chamber of Com-
merce and a director of the Illinois State
Chamber. He is also past president of the
Rotary Club and for five years was president
of the Belleville School Board. He was pres-
ident of the Illinois Postmasters Association
and founded the Illinois Postmasters News,
which he edited nearly three years. He is
vice-president of the First Mutual Building
Association, an Elk and a Democrat. Further-
more, he is one of the state's valuable citi-
zens.
PHILIP MILSTER KIMMEL
At Carbondale the man who runs the Yellow
taxis and also five city buses is — Philip Mil-
ster Kimmel. He is sole owner of the Yellow
Taxi Company of Carbondale and president
of The City Bus Lines, Inc. He is one of the
leaders in community affairs and one of the
better known builders of Southern Illinois.
Mr. Kimmel was born in Elkville, Jackson
County, on February 1, 1902, the son of Ed-
ward Everett ("Red Ed") Kimmel, a native of
this State who became prominent as farmer
and banker, and Susan R. (Milster), born in
Missouri. A graduate of the Elkville High
School, Class of 1926, Philip Kimmel spent
a few months at Southern Illinois Univer-
sity in Carbondale. He then went to work
for a coal company at Elkville, operating its
liquid oxygen plant. He remained with the
company for twelve years altogether, and in
that time also operated an electrical shovel
for the loading of coal. In the Spring of 1937
Mr. Kimmel went to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
where he worked for the Portland Cement
Company for a year, during which time he
also operated a loading shovel. In 1939 he
returned to Carbondale and bought out the
Taxi business of the late Earl Throgmorton,
famed as the founder and operator of the
Carbondale and Harrisburg Coach Lines, Inc.
At that time Mr. Kimmel took over five
taxis and two public buses. Today he oper-
ates seven cabs — all radio-controlled — and
five buses.
On June 3, 1934, Mr. Kimmel married
Phyllis Prosser, the daughter of Everett
Prosser of Carbondale, and they have become
the parents of two children — Everett Dan,
born May 5, 1936, and Philip Michael, born
March 21, 1946. The family worships in the
Baptist Church. Mrs. Kimmel is also promi-
nent in Carbondale. She is vice-president of
the Carbondale Women's Club and teaches
in the primary department of the Baptist
Church Sunday School.
Mr. Kimmel, a former president of the Ro-
tary Club of Carbondale, now serves on the
organization's board of directors. He was
president of the Business Men's Association
of Carbondale for two years and he is now a
member of the Carbondale Grade School
Board. He is active in Red Cross and Com-
munity Chest drives and in such Masonic
bodies as the Blue Lodge, the Royal Arch
Masons, the Knights Templar and Ainad Tem-
ple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the
Mystic Shrine, at East St. Louis. A flying
enthusiast, he has a Luscombe plane of his own.
He has flown for six years and clocked off
500 hours of flying time. Golf, his favorite
game, he plays at the Jackson Country Club.
A man of strong and aggressive but popular
918
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
PHILIP MILSTER KIMMEL
PAUL FURGESON McROY
personality, Mr. Kimmel has made a reputa-
tion as a citizen devoted to community bet-
terment.
PAUL FURGESON McROY
As early as his high school days Paul Fur-
geson McRoy of Carbondale was a figure of
note in Southern Illinois and even Southeast-
ern Missouri, for he directed a dance band
of his own and traveled with it throughout
that region. Today he is even better known,
for, after a teaching career and service with
the United States Navy in World War II, he
is owner and operator of Radio Station WCIL,
Carbondale's only broadcasting outlet, serv-
ing a large Illinois-Missouri-Kentucky area.
Mr. McRoy was born in Carbondale on June
25, 1912, the son of Robert D. and Ann Eliza-
beth (Furgeson) McRoy. His father was a
locomotive engineer. After the death of his
father in 1939 his mother married John H.
Soaring, a prominent Southern Illinois law-
yer. Paul McRoy was graduated from high
school in 1930. He not only had his own dance
band in his high school days, but was also
athletic editor of the school paper, manager
of the cross-country team, member of the
school band and orchestra, president, secre-
tary and treasurer of the debating society
and secretary and treasurer of the Hi-Y
Club and actor in school plays. In 1934,
Southern Illinois University, also in Carbon-
dale, granted him the degree of Bachelor of
Education. At the university he had been
president of Kappa Phi Kappa and of the ed-
ucation club, program director of the YMCA
and member of numerous organizations as
well as the staff of the school paper, The
Egyptian. He was a member of the track
team, as in high school, and represented the
senior class on the school council.
Mr. McRoy began his career as assistant
principal and coach at the Lowell School in
Mound City in 1934. From 1935 to 1937 he
taught mathematics and was coach at Loves
Park Elementary School in Rockford. In 1939
he took his degree of Master of Philosophy
at the University of Wisconsin. For five years
he was with the Houston, Texas, schools. He
taught in both junior and senior high schools
there, and was director of visual education
for the entire school system. In 1941 he
served on the faculty of the University of
Houston, teaching visual education on Satur-
days and in the summer session.
In January, 1942, Mr. McRoy entered the
United States Navy, with a commission as
Lieutenant Junior Grade. He emerged in Sep-
tember, 1946, a Lieutenant Commander, the
rank he holds in the Naval Reserve today.
He was in charge, during the war, of the
training section of the Sixth Naval District,
with headquarters at Charleston, South Car-
olina. In the service he became acquainted
with a man in the radio business and through
him became interested in broadcasting. Upon
separation from the active service, Mr. Mc-
Roy returned to Carbondale and opened its
first and only radio station, WCIL, now em-
ploying eighteen persons and handling 250
accounts in seventy-one towns in Illinois, Mis-
souri and Kentucky. The station began broad-
casting on November 14, 1946.
On June 12, 1937, Mr. McRoy married
Mary E. Helm, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
N. S. Helm of Benton. Their childi^en are
Paul Helm, born December 4, 1939, and Elea-
nor Ann, born June 22, 1942. The family
worships in the First Methodist Church of
Carbondale, in which Mr. McRoy is chairman
of the board of stewards. He is a member of
the Executive Committee of Holden Hospital,
Carbondale, 111., president of the Carbondale
Rotary Club, chairman of the Carbondale In-
ter-Service Club Council, secretary of South-
ern Illinois Incorporated. He is also a member
of the National and Illinois Associations of
Broadcasters, the Associated Press, the Elks,
the Busines? Men's Association, the Jackson
Country Club, York rite Mason and Shriner,
the Greater Egypt Association, and the Chi-
cago Radio Management Club. He is public-
ity chairman of his American Legion post.
His broadcasting and civic work have given
him great prestige in a tremendous area of
the Middle West.
HERMAN H. WALLACE
To Herman H. Wallace of Carbondale there
is no field of interest, commercial or volun-
tary, with value to the community at large in
which he would refuse to be active. As a con-
sequence Mr. Wallace has become known for
the tremendous contribution he is making
toward the general welfare. As a business-
man, he owns the Down-State Chevrolet Com-
pany in Carbondale (with his son Orlen H.
as a par'ner) and the Wallace Service Station
(with his son James R. as manager), also
handling farm machinery, heating equipment
and airconditioning devices. In his voluntary
activities as a public spirited citizen Mr. Wal-
lace is a leader in Boy Scout work — on a na-
tional as well as local scale — in community
education and welfare agency programs and
in religious affairs. And in World War II he
ILLINOIS EDITION
923
led an extremely successful series of salvage
drives.
Mr. Wallace was born in White County on
February 9, 1900, the son of Robert P. and
Lorena (Phillips) Wallace, and after attend-
ing the public schools of his native county
became a student at Southern Illinois Uni-
versity in Carbondale. He was at the univers-
ity three years, working his way as a janitor,
firing furnaces and doing other menial tasks.
After leaving the university he taught school
in a German section of White County for
three years. He then attended Gem City Busi-
ness College in Quincy, completing an eighteen-
months' course in thirteen months and emerg-
ing an honor student with an average of 96.
For the next two and one-half years Mr.
Wallace worked for the Goodrich Tire and
Rubber Company in St. Louis as a stenog-
rapher and clerical work in sales department.
In this period he completed a correspondence
course in accounting. He then worked for the
R. J. Brown Petroleum Company of St. Louis
for two years and after this was associated
with the General Motors Acceptance Corpora-
tion for nine years in a variety of capacities,
including credit manager and finally field
manager for Southern Illinois, with head-
quarters at Carbondale. His experience with
General Motors gave him the background for
his present activities. On May 9, 1934, he
bought out the Chevrolet agency in Carbon-
dale, paying $5000 for a business he has built
to the point where its value far exceeds $100,-
000. He had only four employees at the start.
Today he has twenty-five. Also, he has a
$50,000 stock of parts and $15,000 shop equip-
ment. He also operates the Wallace Service
Station, with Minneapolis-Moline Farm ma-
chinery, Delco heating equipment and Carrier
air conditioning.
Mr. Wallace married Mattie Scudamore, the
daughter of James Scudamore of White
County, on August 16, 1919. Of the two sons
born to this marriage, Orlen is a graduate of
Southern Illinois University and, married, has
a son named Robert Orlen; and James is also
married and the father of a son, James Terry.
There is also a daughter, Virginia, married to
Jack Lee Reno, who has one -daughter,
Sharan Kay. The family worships in the
First Baptist Church, in which Herman Wal-
lace is president of the board of trustees and
a former Sunday School teacher.
Mr. Wallace is president of the Egyptian
Council, Boy Scouts of America, covering fif-
teen Southern Illinois counties, and is a mem-
ber of the National Council of this organiza-
tion. He was president of the Lions Club in
1936 and of the grade school board in 1940.
He has been chairman of the Community
Chest many times and during wartime was
chairman of the salvage committee that was
so preeminently successful. He is prominent
in all bodies of the Masonic order, up to Ainad
Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the
Mystic Shrine, at East St. Louis, and is past
Worthy Patron of Eastern Star and Past
Watchman of White Shrine of Jerusalem,
Also, he is active in the Elks and the Carbon-
dale Business Men's Association. A popular
vote would place Mr. Wallace among the
first five who have done the most for Carbon-
dale and Jackson County.
HENRY RICHARDSON HELMLE,
A. I. A.
Member of an old Springfield family ren-
owned for the contribution it has made to
architecture both in America and in Europe,
the late Henry Richardson Helmle was an out-
standing practitioner among architects of the
Middle West. Numerous buildings in Spring-
field and elsewhere stand today, in their beauty
and usefulness, to his memory.
Mr. Helmle was born in Springfield on De-
cember 11, 1888, the son of George Henry and
Mimi (Whitehurst) Helmle. The family is de-
scended from William Helmle, who came to the
United States in 1849 from Karlsruhe, Bavaria.
The Helmles made their reputation in architect
and woodcarving in Europe and then proceeded
to do the same in the New World. William
Helmle established a planing mill and furniture
carving shop at 426-28 South Fifth Street,
Springfield— famed as "The Old Helmle Place."
Two of his sons became architects, George
Henry and Charles Helmle. George Henry
Helmle designed and built the old St. John's
Hospital, Springfield, and his son, the late
Henry Richardson Helmle, designed and built
the new one.
Henry Richardson Helmle took his degree in
architecture and engineering at the University
of Illinois in 1911. He was the valedictorian of
the graduating class. He began his career im-
mediately on leaving college. He served in
World War I and on December 2, 1919, soon
after his discharge from the Army, married
Ida May Huff, who was born on December 26,
1893, in Indiana, the daughter of William Huff,
a farmer, and Annie (James) Huff.
In the course of his career Mr. Helmle de-
signed and supervised the construction of
924
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
numerous residences, industrial plants, office
buildings, public structures and hospitals.
Among his "credits" are: The First National
Bank of Springfield, the Springfield Marine
Bank, the Illinois State Journal Building, the
Old Franklin Life Insurance Building, the
Abraham Lincoln Hotel, Broadwell Building,
Young Women's Christian Association Building,
the Sangamo Club, the Chicago Motor Club
Building, the Illinois Motor Building, the Cen-
tral Baptist Church addition, the Sangamo
Electric Company Building, the Allis-Chalmers
plant, Gothard Manufacturing Company plant,
Baker Manufacturing Company plant, all in
Springfield; the Crescent Forge and Shovel
Manufacturing Company, Havana, Illinois; the
Allis-Chalmers super-charger plant, built in the
course of World War II in Milwaukee, Wiscon-
sin, one of the largest in the world. Among the
hospitals to his credit are, in addition to St.
John's in Springfield, such as St. John's Sani-
tarium, St. John's Crippled Children's Hospital
and St. Francis of Assisi Convent, all in Spring-
field; the St. Mary's Hospital, Decatur; St.
Joseph's, Highland, Illinois; St . Elizabeth,
Belleville; St. Mary's, Streator; St. Clara, Lin-
coln; St. Francis, Litchfield, and St. Anthony's,
Effingham. Also, he designed and supervised
erection of the Catholic Girls' School at the base
of the Wasatch Mountains in Salt Lake City,
Utah.
An amateur astronomer, Mr. Helmle built
his own telescope and ground his own lenses
and became noted among both professional
astronomers and those who follow this science
as a hobby. Another of his avocational inter-
ests was his 1,000-acre farm. Mr. Helmle won
widespread popularity and affection not only
because of his valuable architectural contribu-
tion, his farming and other activities but also
because of a good heart which impelled him
to give time and money to civic and philan-
thropic projects. He died on April 24, 1949, a
few months after his sixtieth birthday, and is
survived by his widow, who is also one of
Springfield's outstanding citizens. Mr. Helmle
enjoyed prominence in the Masonic order, the
American Legion, the Illinois Chapter of the
American Institute of Ai-chitects, the Ameri-
can Association for the Advancement of
Science and the Sangamo Club. He was a life-
long communicant of the Episcopal church and
as a boy sang in the choir. He was past master
of his Masonic lodge — a citizen long to be
remembered.
WILL LESTER GRIFFITH
Southern Illinois, or the section known as
"Egypt" owes a debt of gratitude, to Will Grif-
fith and it will cherish his memory, for it was
he who established and published Egyptian
Key, the magazine of southern Illinois, and
founded the Greater Egypt Association. The
entire area was shocked and saddened to learn
of the death of Mr. Griffith on May 24, 1950,
in Carbondale.
Mr. Griffith was born in Terre Haute, In-
diana, October 2, 1889, the son of William Al-
bert Griffith. The Griffith family have been
residents of Edgar county since 1850, when
William Burrow Griffith moved there from
Pennsylvania. He built a home two miles west
of Paris and it became a popular resting] place
for others who were westward-bound. It be-
came known as Griffith's two-mile house and
is still standing at the junction of highways
133 and 16.
Will Griffith grew up in Terre Haute where
he completed the public grade and high
schools. At the age of sixteen he entered Rose
Polytechnic Institute. At the close of his second
year he left college and continued his education
in his own way. He had originally intended to
be a civil engineer, and during his college years
he had summer employment in the Maintenance
of Ways Department of the Pennsylvania Rail-
road. He was only eighteen when he went into
the office supply business for himself.
From 1916 through 1925, Mr. Griffith trav-
elled Southern Illinois for the Commercial Lith-
ographing Company of Louisville, Kentucky,
selling bank supplies. During those days, be-
fore hard roads were built, he said, "I made
my towns anyway I could get there — freight
trains, driving, or rowing if necessary." From
1924 through 1938 he published telephone direc-
tories, meantime operating the Griffith-Norris
Printing Company in Indianapolis and the Mil-
roy Press. The latter was a weekly newspaper.
The metropolitan newspapers frequently quoted
from his column facetiously called the "League
of Notions." In 1935 he went to Quincy, Illi-
nois, finding this a better center from which to
operate the directory business, and there estab-
lished the state magazine known as the Illi-
nois Quest. The publication was along historical
lines, each issue featuring a different county.
When Illinois Quest became a World War II
casualty Mr. Griffith did free lance writing for
some time. He then returned to Southern Illi-
nois and in March 1943 founded the Egyptian
Key. This was followed by the founding of
Greater Egypt Association in September, 1945.
The Egyptian Key and the Greater Egypt Asso-
ILLINOIS EDITION
927
ciation became a team implementing one an-
other. Both were under the guiding hand of
Mr. Griffith and both had the same purpose —
the promotion of Southern Illinois.
Will Griffith and Katharine Quick Bicknell
were married in Indianapolis, Indiana, on July
29, 1921. From that time to the day of his
death, they shared interests and activities,
work and pleasures, the "better" and the
"worse."
Professor E. G. Lentz of Southern Illinois
University, writing of Mr. Griffith in the Egyp-
tian Key summarized — "His position among his
fellow men was quite an unusual one. He was
the dreamer of a dream. He had a vision for
the future of an entire area. He gave his
thought and energies with unwearying devotion
to that dream and that vision. Because of his
faith and his efforts the dream caught on, and
it came to life in the minds of a large number
of his fellow citizens. In relatively few years
the dream began to bear fruit. The harvest
began to increase. To an unusual degree, Mr.
Griffith invested his life in the future."
HON. PAUL H. DOUGLAS
Born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1892, Paul
H. Douglas has had a varied and distinguished
career, as an internationally known economist,
Marine Corps War hero, and lecturer. Paul
Douglas was graduated from Bowdoin College
in 1913. Graduate work at Harvard and Co-
lumbia Universities, with a Ph.D. degree at the
latter school. He entered a teaching career and
later, government service, then came to the
University of Chicago in 1920, where he was
promoted to Professor of Economics in 1925.
Mr. Douglas served as Chairman of the Board
of Arbitration for the Newspaper Publishing
Industry from 1925 to 1942, handing down
eighty-five decisions. He served the longest
term on record in this work. He has served on
many state and national commissions. He was
drafted by Franklin D. Roosevelt, then Gover-
nor of New York, to serve as Secretary of the
New York Committee to Stabilize Employment.
He later worked under President Roosevelt on
the Consumers Advisory Board and the N.R.A.,
was active in drafting the original Social Sec-
urity Act, and was a member of the Advisory
Committee to the U. S. Senate on the revision
of this Act.
Mr. Douglas drafted the first old age pension
act passed by the Illinois Legislature in 1935
and helped draft the State unemployment in-
surance act of 1937. Appointed to the State
Housing Commission in 1930 serving to 1933.
He led the fight in the 1930's to reduce elec-
tricity and gas rates and to protect investors
in private utilities from financial manipula-
tion. He was recruited to draft the Utilities
Act of 1933. Elected a Chicago Alderman from
the Fifth Ward in 1939 and made a notable
record urging municipal economies.
Mr. Douglas enlisted as a private in United
States Marine Corps in May 1942; served
with First Marine Division, advancing through
ranks to grade of Lieutenant Colonel. He was
twice wounded, at Pelelieu and Okinawa and
was awarded Bronze Star for "heroic achieve-
ment in action." Returned to Chicago in late
1946 and resumed his position on the University
of Chicago faculty. Author of many books on
economic subjects, which have made him inter-
nationally known in this field.
Mr. Douglas was elected Senator on No-
vember 2, 1948, for the term expiring Janu-
ary 3, 1955. Elected President of the American
Economic Association in 1949 which is the high-
est honor in his profession.
He is a member of the Society of Friends
(Quakers) and a member of the American Le-
gion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Elks, and
the Chicago Literary Club. Married Emily
Taft Douglas, daughter of the famous sculp-
tor, Lorado Taft. Mrs. Douglas was Congress-
woman-at-Large from Illinois from 1945 to
1947. They have one daughter, Jean, and live
at 5658 Blackstone Avenue, Chicago.
HON. ADLAI EWING STEVENSON
Adlai Ewing Stevenson, member of a family
long prominent in public life, became the 31st
Governor of Illinois January 10, 1949. His elec-
tion was by the largest majority in the history
of the State.
Governor Stevenson is a fifth generation
Illinoisan whose career has sustained the
family tradition of public service. His paternal
grandfather, the first Adlai E. Stevenson of
Bloomington, was Vice-President of the United
States in the administration of Grover Cleve-
land. Governor Stevenson's father, Lewis G.
Stevenson, was Secretary of State of Illinois.
His great-grandfather, Jesse Fell, was a pio-
neer in the development of central Illinois and
an intimate friend and leading supporter of
Abraham Lincoln.
Born February 5, 1900, Governor Stevenson
attended the public schools in Bloomington.
After serving in the Navy as an apprentice
928
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
seaman in World War I, he graduated from
Princeton University and Northwestern Uni-
versity Law School. Following college he en-
gaged in newspaper work for a time in Bloom-
ington and for many years was a partner in
one of the leading law firms in Chicago.
Governor Stevenson's public career has in-
cluded major federal administrative and diplo-
matic assignments. He has written and lectured
extensively, particularly in the field of foreign
affairs. He served as special counsel to the
Agricultural Adjustment Administration in
1933 and 1934. For the first three years of the
war he was special assistant to Secretary of
the Navy Frank Knox. He headed the first
Economic mission to Italy in 1943, and served
on an Air Forces mission to the European thea-
ter in 1944. As assistant to the Secretary of
State he was a member of the U. S. Delegation
to the San Francisco Conference in 1945 and
later was U. S. Minister in London and head
of the American Delegation to the Preparatory
Commission of the United Nations. He was
appointed by the President as a U. S. delegate
to the several assemblies of the United Na-
tions in New York in 1946 and 1947.
Unopposed in the 1948 primary, he was
elected by a majority exceeding 570,000, win-
ning widespread independent support.
Governor Stevenson practiced law and re-
mained active in civic affairs in Illinois during
intervals between his federal service. He has
been a director or trustee of many business cor-
porations, charitable and educational organiza-
tions, including Hull House, the Illinois Chil-
dren's Home and Aid Society, the Chicago
Council on Foreign Relations, among others.
He was the first chairman of the civil rights
committee of the Chicago Bar Association. Hon-
orary degrees have been conferred upon him
by Illinois Wesleyan, Northwestern and Brad-
ley universities; Centre College of Kentucky,
Illinois College and Lake Forest College.
Governor Stevenson has three sons : Adlai
E., Ill, Borden and John Fell Stevenson.
HON. SHERWOOD DIXON
Sherwood Dixon was born June 19, 1896, in
Dixon, which city has been the home of his fam-
ily since it was first settled in 1830.
Mr. Dixon was educated in the public schools
of Dixon and the University of Notre Dame,
where he was graduated in 1920 with the de-
gree of Bachelor of Laws. He has been engaged
in the general practice of law in Dixon since
that time.
His college career was interrupted by two
years military service in World War I, during
which he became an infantry sergeant in the
A.E.F. After his discharge, he entered the
129th Infantry Regiment of the Illinois Na-
tional Guard and served more than twenty
years in that organization, with which he en-
tered Federal service in 1941. He was released
from active duty in 1946 as a Colonel of Infan-
try. He took part in the reorganization of the
Illinois National Guard after World War II
and is still the Commanding Officer of the 129th
Infantry.
Mrs. Dixon is the former Miss Helen M.
Cahill of Dixon. They are the parents of seven
children: Henry, Mary, William, Louise, James,
Patrick and David.
Mr. Dixon is a member of the Illinois State
Bar Association, American Bar Association,
American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars,
Knights of Columbus and Elks.
HON. EDWARD J. BARRETT
Born in Chicago, March 10, 1900, Edward J.
Barrett has made a career of military and civil
public service. Mr. Barrett has the distinction
not only of having been elected to three major
State offices, but of having served as an over-
seas enlisted man in World Wars I and II. He
was the sole Democrat elected to State office on
two occasions.
When the United States became involved in
World War I, Mr. Barrett immediately en-
listed with the 131st infantry and was at
that time but seventeen years of age. He ob-
served his eighteenth birthday in France as a
private in the A.E.F., and his next anniversary
found him in Germany with the American
Army of Occupation. He had been wounded
and gassed, awarded the Purple Heart, and
cited for performance "above and beyond the
call of duty."
After being mustered out of the U. S. Army
in 1920, Mr. Barrett continued his studies at
Spaulding Institute and finished at Mayo Col-
lege, where he received the degree of Bachelor
of Science. He then entered advertising and
sales promotion work in Chicago, and was later
active in organized labor.
In 1930, Mr. Barrett was elected State Treas-
urer. Two years later, he was elected to a four-
year term as Auditor of Public Accounts, being
re-elected in 1936 and serving until 1940.
ILLINOIS EDITION
929
During World War II, he again enlisted,
although he was forty-three years of age.
Again he went overseas, this time to the South
Pacific as a private in the United States Marine
Corps. He was discharged a Sergeant in No-
vember, 1944, to become Illinois Secretary of
State. As a candidate for Secretary of State,
Mr. Barrett was in the unusual position of a
man being sought for the office. Although he
was thousands of miles from home, friends and
supporters from all sections of the state in-
sisted that he permit himself to be drafted as
a candidate for the office he now holds.
As an executive officer, he has been actively
concerned in beneficial legislation affecting the
Old Age pensioners, administration of State
Banks, Building and Loan Associations and
Credit Unions. He has recommended construc-
tive amendments to the Securities Act, Corpo-
ration Act, Drivers' License Law, Motor Ve-
hicle Act and Library Laws. He has supported
constructive legislation for the veteran and his
family and has been active in labor's cause.
Secretary Barrett, a widower, married Miss
Jeanne Townsend in December of 1948. He is
a member of the American Legion ; the Disabled
Veterans; Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Ma-
rine Corps League, and Thirty-third Division
War Veterans Association and numerous civic,
social and fraternal organizations.
JAMES ROLAND ANSLEY, D.C.
Member of a family which settled in Ameri-
ca long before the Revolutionary War, Dr.
James Roland Ansley of Mount Vernon has
made a reputation as a chiropractor through-
out Southern Illinois and the "Egyptian"
area. Formery of the staff of the Southmoor
Medical Health Center, Dr. Ansley is now
in private practice, with offices at 616 Main
Street, Mount Vernon.
He was born in Warrenton, Warren County,
Georgia, on November 18, 1916. His parents
were James Thomas and Josie (Ivey) Ansley,
the father also a native of Warren County,
the latter of McDuffie County, Georgia. Born
April 7, 18 79, his father was a building con-
tractor and planter in Warren County. He
served as a school trustee for years and was
active in the school consolidation movement
and in the Camak Baptist Church at Camak,
Georgia. The mother was born on December
23, 1874. The chiropractor's paternal, grand-
father, James Capers Ansley, a planter, was
born in Warren County on October 3, 18 53,
and died there on April 10, 1897. He was a
trustee and steward in the Methodist Epis-
copal Church, South. The grandmother, also
a native of Georgia's Warren County, was the
former Anna Ivey. Dr. Ansley's great-grand-
parents, Elum F. and Epsey (Granade) An-
sley were still other natives of that county.
The great-grandfather, born on November 20,
1826, died on August 24, 1883; his wife, born
April 26, 1827, died September 2, 1855. Dr.
Ansley's great-great-grandparents were James
and Betty (Jones) Ansley. James Ansley was
born in 1779 at Mecklenburg, West Virginia.
He was given a land grant by the government
in what is now Warren and Columbia,
Counties, Georgia.
Dr. Ansley began his education in the
public schools of Camak, Georgia, and was
graduated from high school, in 1934. In 1936
he entered the National College of Chiro-
practors, Chicago, and in 19 41 was graduated
with the degrees of Doctor of Chiropractic
and Doctor of Naturopathy. While at this
school, he worked at the Presbyterian, St.
Luke's and Michael Reese Hospitals, Chicago,
doing general nursing work. From 19 41 to
1943 Dr. Ansley was on the staff of South-
moor Medical Health Center in charge of the
department of x-ray diagnosis. In May, 1943,
he established his office in Mount Vernon and
has since then built a tremendous practice as
a chiropractor.
On January 2 5, 1941, Dr. Ansley married
Amelia Gumienny, who was born at Indiana
Harbor, Indiana, on December 31, 1912. Mrs.
Ansley first attended Holy Angels Parochial
School and then Horace Mann High School, in
Chicago, graduating from the latter in 1931.
In 1932 she entered the St. Mary School of
Nursing at Rochester, Minnesota, and, grad-
uated in 193 6, has since been a Registered
Nurse. She was a member of the University
Hospital staff in Cleveland, Ohio, until
August, 1938, and of the Michael Reese Hos-
pital staff until January, 1941. She is active
in the Brownie Scouts in Mount Vernon. Mrs.
Ansley's parents were Edmund P. and Louise
(Chudzinski) Gumienny, both born near
Reading, Pennsylvania. Dr. and Mrs. Ansley
have five children — Amelia Louise, born Oc-
tober 3 0, 1941; Barbara Jean, born November
2, 1942; Janice Elaine, born September 14,
1944; Caryl Christine, born August 15, 1946,
and Marsha Jo, born November 21, 1947.
Dr. Ansley was secretary of the Southern
Illinois Chiropractors Association in 1948. He
also belongs to the National Chiropractors As-
sociation, the National Council of Chiropractic
Roentgenologists, the Illinois Chiropractic
Society, the Optimist and Kiwanis Clubs and
the Masonic order. He has become one of
Southern Illinois' noteworthy citizens.
930
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
HON. FRED W. WANLESS
The sudden death of Fred W. Wanless ift
his Springfield office in 1949 left the state's
capital not only stunned but bereft of a citi-
zen who for years had been dedicating his
daily life to the advancement and prosperity
of the community. For 30 years Mr. Wanless
had, as the Illinois State Register described
it, "been a part of the business, financial, po-
litical and community life of this city." He
had been a leader in all those phases of the
civic picture. Among those of his family who
remain to carry on in his traditions is his son,
the distinguished Paul Fyffe Wanless, attor-
ney and executor of his father's estate.
Fred W. Wanless was born in Riverton,
Sangamon County, Illinois, on March 16, 1881,
and after completing his education embarked
on an educator's career. He was at first a
teacher. Then he served as principal of the
Riverton Schools. About 1919 he moved to
Springfield, the county seat, and began the
series of activities which were to have such
marked value to the entire county. In the be-
ginning he was associated with Albert S.
Spaulding in the real estate business, but la-
ter and for many years he and his brother,
Charles S. Wanless, operated the real estate
firm of Wanless and Wanless. When the firm
was dissolved, the brothers established sep-
arate real estate offices. "The rise of the two
brothers in the business world was marked
with great success," says the Illinois State
Register. "Many of the city's building addi-
tions were laid out by them. Their develop-
ments of residential and business property
were extensive." As he made his career in
real estate and land subdivision, Fred W.
Wanless also rose to leadership in political
and other fields, and he became one of the
popular citizens of his section of the state.
On December 30, 1903, at Riverton, Illi-
nois, Mr. Wanless married Alva Fyffe, and
two sons and a daughter were born to them —
Paul Fyffe Wanless and J. Thor Wanless, at-
torneys in Springfield, and Virginia, now the
wife of Henry R. Barber, also an attorney at
the capital. At the time of his death, these
children survived him, along with his widow,
who is prominent in Springfield's civic and
social circles; his sister, Mrs. Margaret Jones,
also of Springfield, and his brother, Thomas
Wanless, of Riverton, as well as seven grand-
children. The family home is at 1700 Wiggins
Avenue.
In his rise in politics Mr. Wanless became
chairman of the Sangamon County Republi-
can Committee, retiring from the chairman-
ship in 1934 but not from his interest in the
party and its program. In 1918 he served on
the Sangamon County Board of Supervisors
and in 1920 was elected to the State House
of Representatives. He served only one term,
declining to run for re-election. In his civic
work Mr. Wanless was prominently identified
with the raising of funds for the construction
of the new Memorial Hospital in Springfield,
and for ten years he served as president of
the hospital's board of directors. Again the
Register says, "During his service as director
his success in clearing the hospital indebted-
ness and at the same time making many im-
provements stimulated the interest which
made possible the raising of the money for
construction of the new hospital. He donated
his time and work to make the hospital a suc-
cess." In World War II Mr. Wanless was
chairman of the Sangamon County rationing
board for automobile tires and tubes, gaso-
line, and gave five hours a day to the work.
He was a director of The First National Bank
of Springfield, a member of the Springfield
Rotary Club and of the Masonic order. His
Masonic affiliations were with the Riverton
Union Lodge, of which he was past master;
Springfield Chapter, No. 1, Royal Arch Ma-
sons; Elwood Commandery, No. 6, Knights
Templar; Springfield Consistory, Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite, and Ansar Temple,
Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic
Shrine. He was also prominent in the First
Methodist Church of Springfield. He not only
served for many years on its board of trus-
tees, but also acted as chairman of the fund-
raising campaign for remodeling the church
edifice in the late 1920's. More recently he
was chairman of the financial drive which led
to the purchase of the property immediately
north of the church structure. He was, at the
time of his death, one of the two Rotarians
who had not missed a club meeting in twen-
ty-five years. This long and useful life came
to a sudden end through a heart attack on
September 3, 1949. Mr. Wanless was then
sixty-eight years old. He lies buried in Oak
Ridge Cemetery. His memory lingers on in
Sangamon County, which he did so much to
develop.
The executor of Mr. Wanless' estate, his
son Paul, was born in Springfield on August
10, 1912. After he was graduated from the
Springfield High School, he went to Green-
castle, Indiana to study at DePauw Universi-
ty. When he received the degree of Bachelor
of Arts from DePauw he prepared for the
legal profession at Northwestern University
ILLINOIS EDITION
931
School of Law, receiving the degree of Juris
Doctor and being admitted to the practice of
law in Illinois in 1937. That same year Mr.
Wanless began a general practice of the law
in the capital. He became one of the most
active and prominent attorneys in Sangamon
County and Central Illinois, and is counsel
for many large corporations as well as for
some of the state's most important citizens.
When his father died in 1949, Paul Wanless
took over active management of the firm
called Fred Wanless, Real Estate Broker,
and through his leadership the business con-
tinues to serve the community and area in ac-
cordance with the high standards established
by the founder. As executor of Fred Wanless'
entire estate, Paul Wanless has further op-
portunities to serve his fellow citizens. He
married Berenice McAlester on October 14,
1940, and they have three children — -Virginia
Fyffe, born in 1942; Kirk M., born in 1944,
and Berry Fred, born in 1946. Mr. Wanless
served with Military Intelligence and The
Judge-Advocate General's Departments in
World War II. His period of service began
June, 1942, and ended July, 1946. Like his
late father, Paul Wanless is an active Repub-
lican. Also, he is a member of the Masonic
order, the Rotary Club of Springfield, the
Illini Country Club, and the Sangamon Coun-
ty Bar Association and the Springfield Real
Estate Board. He is adding luster to a name
already brilliant in the history of the state.
GORDON LANG
The leadership which Gordon Lang has giv-
en to civic projects in Chicago has accelera-
ted the growth and promoted the welfare of
the nation's second city. This has made Mr.
Lang a figure of national prominence. To his
reputation as a civic leader he has added that
of a business leader, for he is president of
Spaulding and Company, the Middle West's
leading jewelers, silversmiths, goldsmiths and
stationers for six decades.
Mr. Lang, born in Sayre, Pennsylvania, on
November 3, 1895 ,is the son of the Reverend
Herman and Martha (Levis) Lang. His father,
who held the degrees of Master of Arts and
Doctor of Divinity was born at Kitchener,
Canada, was a Baptist clergyman, lecturer
and author. Gordon Lang completed his edu-
cation at Denison University, Granville, Ohio,
where he was awarded the degree of Bachelor
of Science in 1918, though he had already
left his classes to become a soldier in World
War I. At college he was four-letter man in
the sophomore, junior and senior years; also,
he was president of Lamda Deuteron Chap-
ter, Phi Gamma Delta, and a member of the
Masquers.
Mr. Lang became a Second Lieutenant and
instructor in mechanism in the Machine Gun
Officers' Training School in the war. When
he returned to civilian life, he began his
business career as sales correspondent for the
B. F. Goodrich Rubber Company. The posi-
tions which followed included bond salesman
for Borton and Borton, Cleveland; manager,
bond department, Guarantee Title and Trust
Company; director of sales development, The
Gorham Company; vice-president and man-
ager, Black Starr and Frost-Gorham, Inc.;
president, Spaulding-Gorham and director of
Spaulding-Gorham, Black Starr and F'rost-
Gorham, Inc., Gorham, Inc., Gomanco, Inc. In
1943 Mr. Lang became president and owner
of the great firm of Spaulding and Company.
He is also consultant and director of Lyon
and Healy. His business is located at 959
North Michigan Avenue, Chicago.
On August 2, 1927, at Akron, Ohio, Mr.
Lang married Harriet Kendig, daughter of
Karl and Evalyn (Hill) Kendig. Mrs. Lang,
who holds the degrees of Bachelor of Arts
from Wells College and Master of Social Sci-
ence from Western Reserve University, is
past president of the Junior League of Chica-
go and currently president of the women's
board of St. Luke's Hospital. Mr. and Mrs.
Lang are the parents of Gordon Lang, Jr.
They are communicants of the Episcopal
Church and reside at 1420 Lake Shore Drive,
Chicago.
Mr. Lang has held some of the outstanding
posts in Chicago's civic life. He is president
of the board of the Chicago Latin School for
Boys; director and past president of the Chi-
cago Better Business Bureau; vice-chairman
and director of the Chicago Area Project;
vice-president and director of the Chicago
Crime Commission; director of the Chicago
Retail Merchants Association; president of
the North Michigan Avenue Association;
chairman of the City Planning Advisory
Board, and member of the Chicago Plan Com-
mission. He is a member of the Chicago, Rac-
quet, Casino, Indian Hill, Old Elm, Shove
Acres, Les Cheneaux, Commercial, Common-
wealth and Adventurers Clubs. He is a Repub-
lican. Golf and sailing are his favorite sports.
Chicagoans have long recognized the contri-
bution Mr. Lang is making toward education,
crime prevention, city beautification and other
major developments.
932
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
GEORGE NYLE HUFFMAN
George Nyle Huffman is perhaps best
known as the operator of the Huffman Fu-
neral Home at Carbondale, an institution
which has been serving the people of Jackson
County for decades. But he is also known for
his leadership in the many-faceted programs
for veterans — he is a veteran of World War
I himself — and in civic and fraternal affairs,
not to mention another of his business enter-
prises, the Hamilton Service Station.
Born at Murphysboro on July 18, 1898, Mr.
Huffman is the son of George R. and Maggie
M. (Will) Huffman. George R. Huffman, now
retired, founded the Huffman Funeral Home.
He was also in the furniture business for
years. Nyle Huffman was educated in the ele-
mentary schools of Carbondale and the Uni-
versity High School there, graduating from
the latter in 1916. He then attended South-
ern Illinois University for one. year. By this
time the United States had become a bellig-
erent in World War I, and he broke off his
education to enter the Navy. He reported at
the Great Lakes Naval Training Station in
April, 1918, and was attached to the Naval
Air Station.
Upon his discharge from the Navy Mr.
Huffman, who had worked in the post office
at Carbondale in his student days, returned
to that Federal job. Soon afterward, how-
ever, he became associated with his father
in the undertaking business. Meantime, he
continued his education and training. In 1922,
after completing a two-year course at South-
ern Illinois University, he resumed his work
with his father, but later, to perfect himself
for a career in the conduct of a funeral
home, he attended Worsham School of Mor-
tuary Science in Chicago for nine months,
finishing in January, 1925. In 1929 he bought
out his father's business and since then has
been the sole owner of the Huffman Funeral
Home.
On March 1, 1925, Mr. Huffman married
Gwen Hamilton, the daughter of W. W. Ham-
ilton of Carbondale. Mr. and Mrs. Huffman
are the parents of two children — William
Nyle Huffman, born on February 11, 1926,
now married and a former college professor
in Ohio, and at present preparing to enter
business with his father; and Imogene Huff-
man, born on June 23, 1928, now 1950, a sen-
ior at the State University of Iowa, Iowa
City, from which she will graduate with a
degree in Physical Education. Mrs. Huffman
is active in Girl Scout Work in Carbondale,
and the entire family is active in the First
Christian Church of that city, Mr. Huffman
being a member of the official board.
Mr. Huffman is a former president of the
City Park Board, on which he served as a
member for nine years, and is intensely in-
terested in youth and recreational programs.
He was on the Carbondale City Council in
1927. He is also past president of the Lions
Club of Carbondale and of the Carbondale
Business Men's Association and is past exalted
ruler of the Carbondale Lodge, Benevolent
and Protective Order of Elks. Also, he is ac-
tive in Masonic bodies, including Ainad Tem-
ple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mys-
tic Shrine, East St. Louis. He is past com-
mander of the American Legion post in Car-
bondale and now serves on the draft board.
In 1945-46 he served on the re-employment
committee of that board. He has also been
active in Red Cross and Community Chest
work. Few men have devoted themselves so
whole-heartedly to the betterment of their
home cities than George Nyle Huffman.
ALBERT MOHR, JR.
As president and a director of John Mohr
and Sons of Chicago, Albert Mohr, Jr., is
known throughout the nation. A leading man-
ufacturer, he has given much attention to
education and college athletics. He is one of
the great American athletes of the period
1918-1921.
Mr. Mohr was born in Chicago on Oct. 11,
1899, the son of Albert and Emily Alice
(Sutton) Mohr. His father, also a manufac-
turer and also a native of Chicago, was one
of the Windy City's outstanding citizens. He
served as a South Park Commissioner for ten
years. The mother, another Illinoisan, was
the daughter of Isaac Terry and Susan (Chau-
craft) Sutton. Albert Mohr, Jr., went through
University Elementary School in Chicago and
then University High School. In 1922 he was
graduated from the University of Illinois, with
the degree of Bachelor of Science. He played
varsity football at the University of Illinois
in 1918, 1919, 1920, and 1921. The 1918
team was the Big 10 Champion and the 1919
team was the national champion. Mr. Mohr
was a member of Walter Echersoll's All-West-
ern team while in college. He also received
All-American mention from Walter Camp.
In 1918, he was an apprentice seaman in the
United States Naval Reserve, the Armistice
being signed before he could be called to
active duty.
Since the beginning of his business career
in 1922, Mr. Mohr has been identified with
ILLINOIS EDITION
933
John Mohr and Sons, with offices at 3200 E.
96th St., Chicago 17, Illinois. He began as an
apprentice and rose step by step in responsi-
bility until he was elected president and a di-
rector in 1938. He has continued to serve in
that capacity since then, and to guide the
firm to greater prestige and production and
distribution volume.
On October 8, 1924, at Champaign, Mr.
Mohr married Dorothy Dobbins, the daugh-
ter of Oliver Beard and Edith Emma (Leon-
ard) Dobbins. Mrs. Mohr is a director of The
Home for the Friendless in Chicago. The
Mohrs have two children — Courtney Ann
Mohr and Marjory Lloyd Mohr. They reside
at 7221 Crandon Avenue, Chicago, and wor-
ship in the Episcopal Church. Mr. Mohr's
favorite hobby at home is gardening.
Continuing his associations with his Alma
Mater, Mr. Mohr is president of the Alumni
Association of the University of Illinois Chap-
ter of Delta Kappa Epsilon and is vice-presi-
dent of the Dads' Association of the University
of Illinois. He was a director of the Flossmoor
Country Club and is also a member of the South
bhore Country Club, the Chicago Athletic Asso-
ciation and the Duquesne Club of Pittsburgh.
He votes as a Republican. Golf is his favorite
game. Mr. Mohr has become a popular figure in
the industrial world as well as in community
life at Chicago.
FREDERICK HENRY EBERSOLD
In both Chicago, where he operates his busi-
ness, and in Downers Grove, where he lives on
a twenty-acre farm, Frederick Henry Eber-
sold has demonstrated extraordinary qualities
of leadership in public affairs and an equal
zeal in carrying out programs for the gen-
eral welfare. In Chicago he is the president
of the firm of Fred H. Ebersold, Inc. He is
an officer or director of a variety of organi-
zations devoted to the public interest.
Mr. Ebersold was born in Chicago on Feb-
ruary 19, 1902, the son of Frederick Anthony
and Emma T. (Rieke) Ebersold. Both parents
were also natives of the Windy City. The
father, prominent in banking, was the son
of the Frederick Ebersold who won fame as
the man who quelled the notorious Haymar-
ket Riot. He was general superintendent of
the Chicago Police Department from 1886 to
1888 and it was in this capacity that he led
the police against the rioters. Emma Rieke
Ebersold was the daughter of Henry E. Rieke,
one of Chicago's early real estate and man-
agement brokers. He subdivided part of the
city's near north side and founded several
Methodist churches in that area of the com-
munity.
Frederick Henry Ebersold achieved such
standing scholastically and otherwise as to
be salutatorian of his class when graduated
from Oak Park High School in 1920. In 1924,
he took the degree of Bachelor of Science at
the University of Illinois College of Com-
merce. His fraternities were Delta Upsilon,
Alpha Kappa Psi, Sigma Delta Chi, Ma-wan-
da, Skull and Crescent and Phi Eta Sigma. He
was news editor of The Daily Illini; editor
of The Illini Weekly, publication of the Dads'
Association; president of the Wesley Foun-
dation Council and chairman of the final Me-
morial Stadium campaign. He has continued
prominent in the university's affairs and is
noted for his interest in education. From
1924 to 1927 Mr. Ebersold was assistant ad-
vertising manager of the Universal Portland
Cement Company in Chicago. From 1928 to
1932 he was account executive for the Dosch-
Kircher Organization, Chicago. In 1932, he
participated in the formation of Ebersold-Oli-
ver, Inc., Chicago, becoming its president
Since 1937 he has been president of Fred H.
Ebersold, Inc.
On September 1, 1928, at River Forest, Mr.
Ebersold married Marguerite G. Sander,
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Sander. Mrs.
Ebersold is active in the League of Women
Voters at Downers Grove. They live with
their two sons at 6000 South Main Street,
Downers Grove, this being the address of the
twenty-acre farm. The sons are Kenneth
Frederick Ebersold, born on March 31, 1931,
a graduate of the Downers Grove Commu-
nity High School and The Avery Coonley
School, and now (1950) at the University of
Illinois, and Keith Sander Ebersold, born on
September 13, 1935, who following gradua-
tion from The Avery Coonley School entered
the Downers Grove Community High School.
The family worships in the Downers Grove
First Methodist Episcopal Church.
In his civic activities Mr. Ebersold is direc-
tor and past president of The Junto of Chi-
cago, is serving a two-year term (1949-1951)
as president of the University of Illinois
Alumni Association, and is president of the
Downers Grove Village Forum. He is also a
co-founder and vice-president of the Downers
Grove Community Chest, a director of the
University of Illinois Foundation and mem-
ber of the administrative board of The Avery
Coonley School. He belongs to the Chicago
Federated Advertising Club, the Electric Club
of Chicago, the Advertising Federation of
934
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
America, the Farm Bureau, the S.P.E.B.S.
Q.S.A. (Barber Shoppers) of Downers Grove
and the Kiwanis Club of Downers Grove. His
recreational interests include farming, an-
tiques, civic work and university affairs. He
is a Republican. Known for his enthusiasm,
he has instigated and led numerous civic
movements which have resulted in much good.
IRA GOODSELL NICHOLS, SR.,
D.D.S., ScD.
"Prosthetic Dentistry" is an authoritative
textbook in the dental profession, fully recog-
nized by the profession and used in dental col-
leges throughout the world. It was written
and compiled by Dr. Ira Goodsell Nichols of
Champaign, with the collaboration of the
world's foremost men in this field. Through
this work, his other writings, his researches,
teachings, lectures, inventions and other activi-
ties, Dr. Nichols has himself become a world
figure. He also practices dentistry and, in
addition, is a farmer and a sculptor.
Dr. Nichols was born in Horton, Kansas,
on November 9, 1888, the son of John Good-
sell and Odelia Johnson Nichols and the grand-
son of Lorenzo Dow Nichols. His father, a
native of St. Louis, Missouri, was a civil engi-
neer and contractor on Government projects.
The grandfather, author and poet, was also
a banker and landowner. He wrote fifty arti-
cles and volumes for the Esoteric Fraternity,
established in 1887 at Applegate, California.
Dr. Nichols attended high school at Biloxi,
Mississippi. He did his dental studies at the
University of Louisville and completed his
training in the Northwestern University Den-
tal School. He holds the degrees of Doctor of
Dental Sui'gery and Doctor of Science. He
has operated a farm in Marshall County, Illi-
nois, throughout the years that he has also
practiced dentistry.
Besides "Prosthetic Dentistry," Dr. Nichols
has written "Action of Hypotonic, Isotonic
and Hypertonic Solutions Upon Blood, Muscles
and Nerve Tissues of Living Animals," Jour-
nal of the American Dental Asociation, Feb-
ruary, 1922; "Photomicrographic Moving Pic-
tures Using Living Animals: Changes in
Blood Cells from Local Anesthetic, Blood Cells
in Circulation and Heart in Action, with En-
tire Circulatory System of Embryo Chick,"
Journal of the American Dental Association,
September, 1930; "Some Important Factors
that Enter into the Construction of Success-
ful, Complete Dentures," Massachusetts Den-
tal Society Bulletin, July, 1940. His researches
have been into local anesthesia, and these have
been described in the book "Block Anesthesia
and Allied Subjects," by Arthur E. Smith,
M.D., D.D.S.; in moving pictures in local an-
esthesia, in which Dr. Nichols opened a new
field for further investigation, by using a
high-powered microscope with the films, for
the study of disease and the use of drugs on
the circulatory system ; motion pictures in
"Complete Denture Prosthesis"; rubbers, vul-
canization and acrylics, the results having
been quoted in the book "Acrylics and Other
Synthetic Resins Used in Dentistry," by Stan-
ley D. Tylman, M.S., D.D.S. He designed frac-
ture appliance, universal for all fractures of
the head, which he contributed to the Navy
and used in World War II ; stress-breaker for
partial dentures; impression trays for class-
ification of partial dentures and made the
formula for treatment in desensitizing hyper-
sensitive teeth in cavity preparation. He has
given lectures and held clinics before all the
major dental and denture prosthetic associa-
tions of the nation and given post-graduate
courses to various other organizations, espe-
cially in the West. His motion pictures have
been used by the American armed forces, by
medical and dental organizations and by for-
eign countries, and he has been recognized
as one of the outstanding contributors to the
entire field of visual education. He was invited
by the dean of the University of Athens,
Greece, to give a thirty-day post-graduate
course in full denture prosthetics. He is also
known as one of the first four to make nerve
blocking of the second division of the fifth
nerve, blocking tonsils and extra oral injec-
tions under the direction of the original de-
veloper of this technique, Dr. Arthur E.
Smith, of Los Angeles, California. He pre-
sented a full-day program, including lectures
and clinic, before the Centennial Celebration
of the University of Louisville and the Ken-
tucky State Dental Association in 1937. He
has won gold medals, honorable mention and
other awards. His was the highest award for
research, presented by the American Inter-
national Academy. Most of Dr. Nichols' ex-
periments were carried out in the department
of Experimental Surgery, University of Min-
nesota, Medical School and in the animal
Pathology Department, College of Veterinary
Medicine, University of Illinois.
Dr. Nichols is past president of the North
Dakota State Dental and the North Dakota
State Post Graduate Associations; past secre-
tary-treasurer, North Dakota State Dental
Post Graduate Association; delegate to thf
ILLINOIS
EDITION
935
American Dental Association from North
Dakota, 1921; chairman, executive committee,
North Dakota Dental Association, 1921 ; pro-
gram committee member, National Dental
Society Denture Prosthetists, Los Angeles,
1922; and a member of the American Inter-
national Academy, the Association of Military
Surgeons, the American Dental Association,
the Illinois State Dental Society, the Cham-
paign-Urbana Dental Society, the Champaign-
Danville District Dental Society, charter mem-
ber of the National Society of Denture Pros-
thetists, Army and Navy Club, U. S. Reserve
Officers Association, University of Illinois
Quarterback Club, Champaign and Urbana
Country Clubs, Masonic order, Moose and
Elks. He holds the rank of Lieutenant Com-
mander in the Naval Reserve. His home is at
2104 Grange Drive, Urbana; his office at 113
North Neil Street, Champaign.
Dr. Nichols married Blanche Marie David-
son in LaPrairie Centre, Illinois, on June 21,
1916. Mrs. Nichols was a graduate of North-
western University and was a teacher prior
to her marriage. She was very active in club
and church work in the Champaign-Urbana
area. She died March 31, 1942. Dr. Nichols
has one daughter and one son. Eolyne Yvette
Nichols is a pilot and aeronautical engineer
and served with the WASPS in the United
States and Great Britain in World War II.
Ira Goodsell Nichols, Jr., has received his
M.D. degree and has specialized in obstetrics
and gynecology. He served in the U. S. Navy
in World War II. He married Dorothy Blair
and is the father of two daughters, Nancy
Ann and Claire. On December 9th, 1949, Dr.
Nichols was married to Mary Corbett Buckner
of Urbana.
EOLYNE YVETTE NICHOLS
A renowned flyer of vast civilian and mili-
tary experience — of whom General H. H.
Arnold, commander of the United States Army
Air Forces in World War II said, "Her serv-
ices have been of great value to the Army Air
Forces in World War II" — Eolyne Yvette
Nichols of Champaign, Chicago, New York and
the world at large is today an outstanding
personality in the fields of aeronautical engi-
neering and airline research and development.
She is frequently called on for airline effici-
ency advisor work and as an airline operations
consultant and airline commerce and finance
advisor. To her has been attributed much of
the forward-looking developments in aviation
in the world over in the years since World
War II. She has been active in many other
fields of interest, including teaching, horse-
manship, dancing, ice skating, bowling, shoot-
ing and world travel. In connection with her
travels, it is interesting to note she has gone
by plane, car, boat, bicycle, horse, train and
afoot, and there is hardly a country or spot in
the world she has not visited.
Miss Nichols, born in Mandan, North Dako-
ta, on January 22, 1919, is the daughter of
Dr. Ira Goodsell Nichols, Sr., dental surgeon,
researchist, teacher and writer whose own
story appears in other pages of this edition,
and Blanche Marie (Davidson) Nichols.
The distinguished record this young woman
made in her childhood as she went through
school, or gave piano concerts beginning at
the age of five, would fill pages of description.
She began her education under the Winnetka
system in Dr. Howard's School and later at-
tended the University of Illinois High School.
She was active in Girl Scouting, Girl Reserves
and various extra-mural programs. She was
fifteen when she entered the University of
Illinois. On the campus and in her classes
she was again distinguished. To prepare for
her career in aeronautics Miss Nichols went
to the Lane Technical School, University of
Chicago, Harbican Air College and, later, to
the Naval Air Station at Pensacola, Florida,
and the primary and secondary flight and
ground schools of the Civil Aeronautics Ad-
ministration. Meantime she was winning
championships in many fields of sport.
Miss Nichols was on the faculty of Starrett
School for Girls in Chicago and in World War
II served twenty-four months with the Wom-
en's Army Ferrying Service (WAFS) and the
Women's Air Force Service Pilots (WASPS),
receiving a special commendation from Gen-
eral Arnold at the conclusion of her service.
She was graduated as an advanced ferry
pilot and received a certificate of graduation
from a course in the piloting of radio con-
trolled aircraft. She flew special missions
with tow target squadrons and on detailed
service and flew on radio controlled aircraft
missions, and was one of the first women ever
to check out in B-29's, B-17's, and B-24's. She
flew operational missions with light, medium
and heavy bomber squadrons, and had much
to do with development of training programs
for other women flyers, and there are few
military planes of any type she has not piloted.
In her civilian career Miss Nichols has been
with the Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM), the
Trans-Canada Air Lines, Iranian Airways,
British European Airways and guest consult-
ant of boards of directors of aviation manu-
936
LJBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
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facturing corporations and airlines. She was
a delegate from KLM to the International
Aeronautical meeting of forty-one countries
which was held in Montreal, Canada.
Miss Nichols is a member of the National
Aeronautical Association, the Institute of
Navigation, the Order of Fifinella (WASPS),
Alpha Gamma Delta Alumni Association, the
International Civil Aviation Organization, the
International Air Transport Association and
numerous international organizations. She is
one of the leading women in world aviation.
JAMES OLIVER SHANAFELT
A farmer and oil man of great reputation
in Southern Illinois, James Oliver Shanafelt
is one of the venerable and most highly re-
spected citizens of that region. His farm and
oil lands are in Marion County, near the
county seat, Salem.
Mr. Shanafelt was born on the Salemville
Eoad, at an address which is now Route 2,
Salem. His parents were Jacob and Annie M.
(Houchen) Shanafelt. The father, a native of
Seneca County, Ohio, and the son of Adam
Shanafelt, a farmer born in Pennsylvania,
came to Illinois at a young age and settled in
the vicinity of Salem, where he became a
prominent farmer. The mother, a native of
Chambershire, England, was brought to the
United States by her parents when she was
six years old; her father and mother were
Charles and Susan Houchen.
James Oliver Shanafelt grew up at Salem-
ville and attended the district public schools.
He recalls that he began doing his first farm
work when he was six years old, working on
his father's farm until he was twenty-one.
Then he rented a farm of his own near Salem.
Later he acquired his father's farm, where
he still lives. Oil was found on the land in
1938.
Mr. Shanafelt married Nettie Rebecca Web-
ster, a native of Wisconsin. The ceremony
took place in Salem, to which community Mrs.
Shanafelt was brought when she was a child.
Her parents were Van Buren Webster, a
farmer and carpenter, and Susan (Carrigan)
Webster. Three children were born to the
marriage. All are well known today. There
are two daughters and a son — 1. Shirley Ann,
now the wife of Dwight Young and residing
on Rural Route 2, Salem, or Salemville, and
the mother of four children, Jean, Mildred,
Betty and John Young; her husband is a
retired farmer and oil man. 2. Ella S., now
Mrs. Featherling, also living near Salem, who
has two children, LaDon Featherling, born
in 1930, and Jacquelin Sue, born in 1931. 3.
Estle Paul Shanafelt, engineer on the Cotton
Belt Railroad, also married, and the father of
three children, Helen, Paul Jacob and Donald
Shanafelt.
James Oliver Shanafelt has made his in-
fluence felt throughout Marion County and
he is one of its most popular citizens. The
growing of roses and dahlias is his hobby.
Television is another of his interests. He has
made an important contribution to agricul-
tural and other developments in his native
county.
ROY ESTEE FRAZIER, SR.
Carrying a newspaper route and working
as a railroad telegrapher have been two tradi-
tional American avenues to success. Roy Estee
Frazier, Sr., of Centralia, has traveled both.
Today he is one of the best known fruit
growers and shippers in his part of the state,
being a partner in the firm of Frazier and
Wooters. He is also one of those men who
give public service and are always ready to
help out in the community when needed and
called on.
Born in Rockbridge, Greene County, on
July 4, 1888, Mr. Frazier is the son of Samuel
Harvey and Lucy Eleanor (Finch) Frazier.
His father, a native of Peoria who moved
with his parents to Burlington in childhood,
was with the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy
Railroad for many years. The mother, born
in Concord, Kentucky, lived in Concord, Illi-
nois, in early life. Her parents were John
Thomas and Nancy (Johnson) Finch, also
natives of Kentucky. Roy Frazier's paternal
grandfather, John Frazier, an Illinoisan by
birth, was a bridge foreman for the Chicago,
Burlington and Quincy.
Roy Estee Frazier, Sr., grew up in Brigh-
ton, Macoupin County. At the age of twelve
he moved with his family to Rock Island. He
was educated in the public schools of both
communities. His first job was that of news-
paper carrier. When he was fourteen he began
learning telegraphy, and at fifteen he was a
telegraph operator and agent for the Chicago,
Burlington and Quincy. Two years later he
attended Brown's Business College at Jackson-
ville. Then he returned to the railroad and
for four and one-half years was in the super-
intendent's office. In 1912 Mr. Frazier left
the railroad to take a position with the travel-
ing brokerage firm of Harmon and Evans,
well known in the fruit business. After two
years with this firm he became associated with
the Fruit Supply Company of St. Louis, Mis-
ILLINOIS EDITION
939
souri, as traffic manager. He was with this
concern for five years. In 1919, Mr. Frazier
established himself at Centralia, where at first
he was engaged in the wholesale fruit and
vegetable business in association with J. C.
Clovinger and L. E. Porter. In 1928 the
firm name became Frazier and Wooters, and
so it continues. In addition to growing fruit
and shipping it, this firm handles orchard
supplies and electric appliances. Mr. Frazier
and his partner grow and buy strawberries in
Tennessee, green beans in Mississippi and
Florida and peaches in Arkansas. Their South-
ern Illinois operations in peaches, apples and
strawberries are tremendous: they handle the
output of 600 acres and 500 growers in that
region alone.
Mr. Frazier married Mildred Marie Greve,
a native of Beardstown and daughter of Anton
Fred and Marie Ann (Paul) Greve, of Ger-
man extraction. Her father was a cigar manu-
facturer in Beardstown. Mr. and Mrs. Frazier
have three children — Roy Estee Frazier, Jr.,
born in 1917, a graduate of the University of
Michigan College of Law, Ann Arbor, who
married Lucy Mallory of Centralia and is the
father of Roy E. Frazier, III, born in 1944;
Elda M., born in 1923, now the wife of Lapsey
Hensley of Chicago, a graduate of the Univer-
sity of Illinois School of Fine Arts, who has
become well known for her excellent art work,
which has been widely shown; and Glen G.
Frazier, born in 1927, a graduate of the Uni-
versity of Illinois School of Architecture, now
practicing in association with the Clanson
Architectural Company of Decatur, though
residing in Urbana.
The senior Mr. Frazier was a member of
the Centralia City Health and Safety Com-
mittee for four years. A Mason, he belongs to
such bodies as the Knights Templar and the
Shrine. Also, he is a member of the United
Fruit and Vegetable Association, the Centralia
Chamber of Commerce and the Methodist
Church. He is a trustee of his church and a
member of its finance committee. In politics
he is a Republican. Hunting, football and
baseball are his favorite sports; gardening is
his hobby. Mr. Frazier has won high distinc-
tion at Centralia and in his field of business
operations.
ROBERT MINER CAPPS
In 1839 Joseph Capps of Kentucky, the son
of a wealthy and influential planter named
Caleb Capps, settled in Jacksonville, seat of
Morgan County, and proceeded not only to
establish what is now the famed woolen cloth-
ing firm of J. Capps and Sons, Ltd., but to
promote the cause of education, civic better-
ment and good government, making the Capps
name forever renowned in Illinois history.
Today his great-grandson, Robert Miner
Capps, continuing family traditions, adds to
the fame and success of J. Capps and Sons,
Ltd., as its president, and furthers the civic
and educational program so closely identified
with the family.
Robert Miner Capps was born in Jackson-
ville on November 16, 1894, the son of Alfred
T. Capps, born 1863, died 1935, a one-time
president of the Illinois Anti-Saloon League
and of the clothing company. Alfred T. Capps
was the son of another important figure in the
business and the community, Stephen Reid
Capps, born 1838, died 1914. The first Joseph
Capps was born in 1811 and died in 1872.
Like numerous members of his family, Robert
M. Capps received all his education in Jack-
sonville. He was graduated from the county
seat's grade and high schools and in 1917
took the Bachelor of Arts degree at Illinois
College, an institution founded in Jackson-
ville only ten years before the Capps plant.
Mr. Capps had barely been graduated from
the college when, the United States having
entered World War II, he enlisted in the
Army. He was commissioned a Second Lieu-
tenant in the Army's Ordnance Corps. For a
few months after the war Mr. Capps worked
for the Sangamo Electric Company in Spring-
field. But he returned to Jacksonville and
joined other members of his family in the
employ of J. Capps and Sons, Ltd., the firm
once called the Jacksonville Woolen Mills and
built by the Capps family into a world re-
nowned enterprise. For twelve years Robert
M. Capps was a traveling salesman for the
firm. Then he was taken into the administra-
tive offices where he rose from one responsible
position to another as he demonstrated his
executive and other abilities. In 1931 he was
elected secretary and treasurer of the corpora-
tion and in 1946, president.
On February 1, 1921, Mr. Capps married
Lucy Gatling of Tarboro, North Carolina.
They have two daughters — Frances, now Mrs.
A. D. Robinson, residing in Grosse Isle, Michi-
gan, the mother of Sarah Gray Robinson; and
Helen P. Capps, who is in the advertising
business in Chicago. The family worships in
the Congregational Church, the church sup-
ported for years by the Capps.
Mr. Capps, one of the nation's outstanding
business men and industrialists, is a director
of the United States Clothing Manufacturers
940
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
Association. Active in Jacksonville's and
Morgan County's civic life, he has given lead-
ership to the Jacksonville Chamber of Com-
merce and other groups and movements and
serves on the board of trustees of Illinois Col-
lege, thus following another family tradition.
He is a member of the Rotary Club of Jack-
sonville and of the Manhattan Club of New
York City. Golf and fishing are his favorite
forms of relaxation. An historian of the
Capps family and J. Capps and Sons, Ltd.,
has said of Jacksonville that it "took leader-
ship in civic, political, educational and re-
ligious affairs in Illinois." To this may be
added that the Capps family has given the
leadership to the community, the mantle of
which has fallen on the shoulders of the
present company president, Robert Miner
Capps.
EUGENE PHILIP REINHARD
Through two companies at Pekin, the Taze-
well County seat, Eugene Philip Reinhard has
aided a home and general building program
which has helped maintain progress and pros-
perity in the area. These companies, in both
of which he is a partner, are Philip Reinhard
and Son and the Reinhard and Meyer Lumber
Company. Mr. Reinhard is well known in the
banking business at Pekin and as an amateur
photographer and flyer.
He was born in Pekin on May 22, 1900,
the son of Philip H. and Fannie (Hummel)
Reinhard. His father, who was a native of
Heidelberg, Germany, founded Philip Rein-
hard and Son in 1912. He died in 1932. Fannie
Hummel Reinhard, born at Bishop, Illinois,
survives her husband. Eugene P. Reinhard
was educated in grade and high school in
Pekin and on leaving school went to work in
his father's business. In 1921 he was made
a partner and he continues in this capacity.
Philip Reinhard and Son does a general mill-
work business and manufactures sash and
door. Its territory is the entire Pekin trade
area and it employs twenty-five persons. The
Reinhards organized Reinhard and Meyer
Lumber Company in 1925. This is a retail
lumber and building materials concern, operat-
ing throughout the Pekin trade territory.
Eugene P. Reinhard married Lillian Presley
of Bloomfield, Missouri, on July 30, 1925, and
they have one daughter, Phyllis Jean Rein-
hard, who was born on July 19, 1926, and is
now the wife of Charles Hanson. Mrs. Rein-
hard's parents, both also born at Bloomfield,
Missouri, were Joseph Presley, a railroad
storekeeper who died in 1941, and Tina
(Heinze) Presley, now living at Pekin. The
Reinhard home is at 1021 South Fourth Street,
Pekin. The Reinhards worship in the Grace
Methodist Church of that city.
Besides flying — for which he has his own
plane — and photography, fishing is Mr. Rein-
hard's favorite diversion. He belongs to the
American Photographic Society, the Pekin
Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order
of Elks, and the Masonic order. He is a direc-
tor of the Herget National Bank of Pekin. An
outstanding citizen of Pekin, he is contributing
to the development of Illinois.
CHARLES ERNEST LOVEJOY, JR.
A member of the publishing business since
1923, Charles Ernest Lovejoy, Jr., is now vice-
president of Bill Brothers Publishing Corpo-
ration, Chicago, publishers of seven well-
known trade journals, among them "Sales
Management." He is also prominent in the
affairs of the University of Illinois.
Mr. Lovejoy was born in Chicago on No-
vember 20, 1899, and is the son of Charles
Ernest and Anna (Thompson) Lovejoy. His
father, a native of Bangor, Maine., now de-
ceased, opened the Chicago plant for Chase
and Sanborn's coffee and tea during the
World's Fair of 1893. He was active in the
Methodist Church, though his own father, who
was the captain of Negro troops in the Civil
War, was a Unitarian minister. The mother,
also deceased, was born in Boston, Massachu-
setts. Her father was on the Monitor when
it fought the Merrimac in the Civil War.
The publisher received his early education
in the Clissold Grade School and Morgan
Park High School. In 1920, he took the de-
gree of Bachelor of Science at the University
of Illinois. He was one of the outstanding
students in his time at the university and he
has continued so as an alumnus. He was
on the varsity football team for three years,
having been a member of the Big Ten cham-
pionship teams of 1918 and 1919. Also, he
was president of the junior class and mem-
ber of Ma-Wan-Da Senior Honorary Society
and Phi Gamma Delta.
For three years after his graduation from
the university Mr. Lovejoy worked as super-
intendent and salesman for the Case Harden-
ing Service. Company of Cleveland, Ohio. In
the meantime, he studied in the night classes
of the Case School of Applied Science, in
Cleveland. In 1923, Mr. Lovejoy returned
to Chicago as assistant advertising manager
of Sales Management Magazine, then owned
and published by The Dartnell Corporation.
ILLINOIS
EDITION
941
Later Mr. Lovejoy became advertising man-
ager of this publication and in 1928 vice-
president. In 1945, Mr. Lovejoy became vice
president of Bill Brothers Publishing Corpora-
tion, which had acquired "Sales Management"
and which publishes six other business publi-
cations.
On June 14, 1923, in Chicago, Mr. Lovejoy
married Doris Martin, the daughter of Charles
B. and Alice G. Martin. They have three chil-
dren— Alice Lovejoy Hine, born in 1927, who,
like her husband, Manford Doyle Hine, is a
graduate of the University of Illinois; Sally
Clare Lovejoy, born in 1929, also a graduate
of the University of Illinois, and Charles Er-
nest Lovejoy, III, born in 1933, now (1950)
a student at Morgan Park Military Academy.
The family resides at 10315 South Hoyne
Avenue, Chicago, and worships in the Epis-
copal Church of Morgan Park.
Mr. Lovejoy's five-foot-eight-and-one-half-
inch, stocky figure is a familiar one in Chi-
cago's civic life and among University of Illi-
nois students and graduates. He is former
president of both the Illini Club of Chicago
and the board of directors of the University
of Illinois Athletic Association and is a mem-
ber of the University of Illinois Foundation.
In his classroom days, he was a member of
the Student Army Training Corps (1918) at
the university. He is a Republican, and his
favorite sport is golf.
JOHN FRANCIS O'KEEFE
Formerly business manager of the Chicago
Daily News, John Francis O'Keefe is now
secretary of the Chicago Newspaper Publish-
ers Association. He has had a long career in
the newspaper world, but he has also been
long associated with public utilities and invest-
ments. His career began, like that of many
another business man, when he took a job as
stenographer.
Mr. O'Keefe was born in Chicago on Au-
gust 24, 1904, the son of John F. and Kath-
erine (Harte) O'Keefe, and he was educated
in the parochial schools of Chicago. In 1920,
he became a stenographer in the employ of
the Chicago Police Department. Later he be-
came an official reporter, via the notebook
and typewriter, for the department. When
he left the police force in 1925 Mr. O'Keefe
became a stenographer and secretary in the
office of Samuel Insull in Chicago. Later,
he was promoted to private secretary to Mr.
Insull, with whom he remained until 1932.
From 1930 to 1932 he was secretary and
treasurer of the Insull Utility Investments,
Inc., and also secretary and treasurer of the
Corporation Securities Company of Chicago.
From 1928 to 1934 Mr. O'Keefe was assist-
ant secretary, and subsequently assistant to
the vice chairman of the Commonwealth Edi-
son Company. In 1934 he became secretary
of the Chicago Daily News, an office he held
until 1942; from 1942 to 1944 he was vice-
president, and in October, 1944 he became
business manager and assistant secretary of
the company and of the Chicago Daily News
Printing Company, of which he was later made
vice-president. He has been secretary of the
Chicago Newspaper Publishers Association
since January 1946. His office is at 211 West
Wacker Drive, Chicago.
Mr. O'Keefe married Elizabeth P. Burton
in Chicago on June 12, 1937, and they are
the parents of five children — John Francis,
Jr., Mary Sheila, Denis, James Paul and
Philip Joseph O'Keefe. All the members of
the family are communicants of the Roman
Catholic Church. The O'Keefe home is at
3020 Normandy Place, Evanston. Mr. O'Keefe,
a Republican, is a member of the Electric Club,
the Economic Club, and various newspaper
groups. From 1940 to 1942 he was special as-
sistant to the Secretary of the Navy. He is a
member of the Board of Directors and Vice-
President of Catholic Charities of Chicago and
is a member of the Board of Directors of the
Community Fund of Chicago. He is well known
among publishers throughout the United States
and Canada and has done much to promote
cooperative relationships among them.
WALTER HENRY REASOR, JR.
The man behind the Midwest Building Com-
pany and the residences famed as "Midwest
Homes" is Walter Henry Reasor, Jr., who went
into the lumber and home building business
after World War II. In that war he served
the nation as an Air Force pilot. He is one of
the best known men in Coles County, and .
has offices in both Mattoon and Charleston.
Mr. Reasor was born in Charleston on June
8, 1918, the son of Walter Henry and Marie
Sayre (Gramesly) Reasor. Both his parents
were born in Coles County, his father in the
county seat. The father is now retired, having
served thirty-five years with the Railway Ex-
press Agency. Mrs. Reasor is the daughter of
Charles and Keturah Gramesly. Walter Rea-
sor, Jr., attended grade and high school and
Eastern Illinois State College, Charleston. In
high school he played football.
Mr. Reasor began his career in 1936 as an
office boy for a Chicago real estate firm. In
942
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
1937 he returned to Charleston and then
spent six months at Eastern Illinois State
College. In 1938 and 1939 he was a clerk in a
Mattoon shoe store. From 1940 to 1942 he
worked as an insurance agent for the Wash-
ington National Insurance Company in Cham-
paign. In April, 1942, he entered the United
States Army Air Forces, in which he served
the next forty-six months. After completing
his aviation cadet training, Mr. Reasor became
a troop carrier pilot with the 46th Troop
Carrier Squadron. He was with the 317th
Troop Carrier Group in the Southwest Pacific
Theater of Operations for nineteen months.
He is now an officer in the Air Force Re-
serve. Upon his separation from the active
service in February, 1946, Mr. Reasor, return-
ing home, bought an old house and six acres
of land. He remodeled the house, converting
it into three separate apartments. He subdi-
vided part of the land and built houses on
the lots. This was his beginning in his present
field of operations. In 1948 Mr. Reasor started
a small lumber yard and since then has op-
erated under the name of Midwest Building
Company. He dismantled barracks at various
military installations and sold them. In 1949
he began the manufacture of "Midwest
Homes," which are prefabricated dwellings.
His business keeps growing and in 1950 he
was building a new factory as well as start-
ing an addition in Charleston (his headquar-
ters are in Mattoon). He is also building
homes for rentals.
On January 7, 1938, in Knox, Indiana,
Mr. Reasor married Ruth Hawley, the daugh-
ter of Mabel and Dennis Hawley of Danville,
Illinois. Mrs. Reasor, one of the well known
women of Coles County, is active in the Par-
ent-Teacher Associations, in the Presbyterian
Church of Mattoon, the Coles County Home
Bureau and, the leader of a bowling team,
in the Woman's International Bowling Con-
gress. Mr. and Mrs. Reasor are the parents
of four children — William Sayre Reasor, born
on March 9, 1939, a Boy Scout; Maribeth
Reasor, born on November 15, 1940, a Girl
Scout; Julie Reasor, born on April 10, 1947,
and Margaret Ann Reasor, born on Febru-
ary 13, 1948. The family home is at 820 A
Street, Charleston.
Mr. Reasor is a member of the Mattoon As-
sociation of Commerce, the Illinois Retail
Lumber Dealers Association, the Charleston
Country Club and the Air Force Association.
Flying and hunting are his favorite pastimes.
A vigorous energetic individual who tends
to become restless when conditions become
static, Mr. Reasor has worked his business
rapidly from one small operation to bigger
and better operations, until today he is one
of the outstanding figures in his field in the
state.
GEN. ROBERT ELKINGTON WOOD
One of the most distinguished American
careers in history has been that of General
Robert Elkington Wood of Chicago. General
Wood is not only chairman of the board and
former president of the great Sears, Roebuck
and Company, but he is the possessor of an
extraordinary record as military man, as for-
mer chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank
of Chicago and former member of the War
Resources Board and as an ardent worker on
behalf of youth, health and welfare, agricul-
ture and industry.
General Wood was born in Kansas City,
Missouri, on June 13, 1879, the son of Robert
W. and Lillie (Collins) Wood. His father, a
native of Herkimer, New York, was a mer-
chant. After his graduation from Central
High School of Kansas City, the future gen-
eral and merchant entered United States Mil-
itary Academy at West Point. Graduated from
West Point as a Second Lieutenant in 1900,
he served as Second and First Lieutenant of
Cavalry with troops in the Philippine Islands
during the insurrection of 1900-1902 and at
Fort Assinniboine, Montana, 1902-03. From
1903 to 1905 he was an instructor at West
Point and in March, 1905, he was sent to
the Isthmus of Panama, where he was de-
tached from the Army for duty with John
F. Wallace, first Chief Engineer employed by
the Isthmian Canal Commission during the
construction of the canal, 1905-1915. Sub-
sequently, General Wood served as superin-
tendent, assistant chief quartermaster, chief
quartermaster and chief of building depart-
ment in charge of recruiting, housing, dis-
tribution of labor, requisition, purchase and
distribution of supplies for the Panama Canal
and the Panama Railroad and Steamship Line.
In May, 1915, General Wood resigned from
the service and from July to October of the
same year was assistant to the vice-president
of E. I. duPont de Nemours Company. From
1915 to 1917 he was assistant to the presi-
dent of the General Asphalt Company. In
May, 1917, less than a month after the United
States entered World War I, he reentered
Government service as general purchasing of-
ficer, Emergency Fleet Corporation. Then
he sailed for France with the 42nd Division,
as Colonel of Infantry; was assigned to the
ILLINOIS EDITION
943
General Staff in charge of transportation on
arrival, and later as assistant to General At-
terbury as director of Army Transport Serv-
ice in charge of all ports, water terminals
and shipping in France and England. Recalled
to the United States in 1918, he was pro-
moted to Brigadier General, Acting Quarter-
master General, later director of purchase
and storage in charge of all Army supplies
except ordnance and aircraft. On March 1,
1919, he returned to civil life. In World
War II General Wood served on the Advis-
ory Staff of the Chief of Ordnance and as
General Consultant and Adviser to the. Com-
manding General of the Army Air Forces in
reorganization of supply functions of the Air-
Forces and as such visited all the theaters of
war, flying a total of 200,000 miles and
around the world twice by air.
When he left the Army in March, 1919,
General Wood became general merchandise
manager and vice-president in charge of mer-
chandising of Montgomery Ward and Com-
pany, and this office he held until in 1924
when he left M.W. & Co. He went to Sears,
Roebuck & Co. as vice-president and in 1928
he was made president of the company and
in 1939 he was elevated to the chairman-
ship of the board, his present office. It has
been in the years since General Wood be-
came president that Sears has made some
of its greatest strides, especially in the ex-
pansion of its retail establishments, and Gen-
eral Wood has himself become a world figure
in merchandising and other affairs. He is a
director of the Illinois Central Railroad, the
First National Bank of Chicago, North Amer-
ican Car Corporation, McGraw Electric Cor-
poration, International Minerals and Chemi-
cal Corporation.
On April 30, 1908, in Augusta, Georgia,
General Wood married Mary Butler Hard-
wick, daughter of George W. and Anna (Sto-
vall) Hardwick. They have five children —
Anne Wood, now Mrs. William H. Mitchell
and mother of Mary Tullis Kinnear, Robert
Wood Tullis and Edwin E. Tullis, Jr.; Fran-
ces Wood, now Mrs. Calvin Fentress, Jr., and
mother of Audrey, Calvin, III, Mary H. and
Robert W. Fentress; Sarah Wood, now Mrs.
James R. Addington and mother of Keene
H., Whitney W. and Anne H. Addington; Rob-
ert W. Wood, who married Martha Cook and
is the father of Robert E. Wood, II, Daphne,
Katherine K. and Sarah H. Wood; and Mary
Wood, now Mrs. Hugo V. Neuhaus, Jr., and
mother of W. S. Farish, III. General and
Mrs. Wood reside at 700 South Ridge Road,
Lake Forest, and worship in the Episcopal
Church.
The General has always been active in pub-
lic affairs. In 1933-34 he was on the Indus-
trial Advisory Board of the N.R.A. and in
1934-38 on the Business Advisory Council of
the Department of Commerce, being since
1938 a Graduate Member of the Council.
From 1936 to 1940 he was deputy chairman
of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and
in 1940 was chairman. From 1938 to 1940
he was public representative on the board of
the New York Stock Exchange. From 1939
to 1943 he was on the Committee for Civil
Service Improvement and in 1939 on the War
Resources Board. From 1938 to 1940 he was
a member of the American Youth Commission
of the. American Council on Education and
from 1940 to 1942 he was on the board of
the National Association of Manufacturers.
In the 1946 campaign he was a member of the
Chicago Committee of the National Service
Fund of the Disabled American Veterans and
was vice-president of the Community Fund of
Chicago for several years and one year
headed the Community Fund drive. He is a
trustee of St. Luke's Hospital, the Museum
of Science and Industry, Farm Foundation,
Midwest Research Institute, Advisory Coun-
cil of Southern Research Institute and Inter-
American Council of Commerce and Produc-
tion; president of the Chicago Boys Clubs
and a director of the Foundation for Amer-
ican Agriculture; honorary president of the
North Shore Area Council, Boy Scouts of
America; member of the University of Illi-
nois General Advisory Committee, Salvation
Army Association of Chicago and board of
Cradle Society. The entire world has long
honored him and his achievements.
EARL THROGMORTON
On December 31, 1948, "The Rotary Spur,"
official organ of the Rotary Club of Carbon-
dale, wrote the following, under the title "Ro-
tary's Great Loss": "Thursday night, at ten
o'clock, Carbondale lost a friend. Past Presi-
dent Earl Throgmorton died. He had been
ill for several months. The story of Earl's
life is a regular Horatio Alger tale. Born
in a log cabin on land now covered by Little
Grassy Lake, Earl fought his way to the top.
At his death he was the largest independent
operator of bus lines in the United States.
There is a gap in Carbondale today. It will
be years, if ever, before this gap is filled.
Kindly, generous, civic minded, everybody's
friend, Earl did a great amount of good in
944
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
and for Carbondale." Mr. Throgmorton was
an outstanding citizen of that section of the
United States called "Egypt," and he worked
day and night for its welfare and prosperity,
and he was also known for his sponsorship
of collegiate athletics in the North Central
States. The company through which he be-
came so prominent in motor coach transpor-
tation in the United States was the Carbon-
dale and Harrisburg Coach Lines, Inc., of
which he was founder and president. Today
this great corporation is being directed by
Mr. Throgmorton's widow, the former Ruth
Keith of Alto Pass, who is herself developing
a reputation of great proportions for leader-
ship in the transportation world.
Earl Throgmorton was born on June 3,
1899, on a farm south of Carbondale, and he
attended rural schools, Carbondale Univer-
sity High School and Southern Illinois Uni-
versity. Unable to finish his formal educa-
tion, Mr. Throgmorton obtained employment
with the Illinois Central, and in time became
a freight and passenger brakeman. In 1924,
with the few dollars he had accumulated, he
started the taxi service at Carbondale now
known as the Yellow Cab Company. Four
years later he inaugurated his chartered bus
service, buying out the Carbondale-Harris-
burg Coach Line, Inc., then operating two
buses bewteen those two communities. In
1938, Mr. Throgmorton built the new bus
station in Carbondale, doubling the building
in size in 1941. In 1947 six large new buses
were put into operation on the line, which
had expanded to include transportation serv-
ice for practically all of Southern Illinois,
parts of Central Illinois, Missouri and Indi-
ana. New depots and new buses were later
added to the system. Mr. Throgmorton's en-
try into this field really began when he op-
erated a charter bus primarily for athletic
teams of Southern Illinois University. At the
start of his business, he was his own driver,
sleeping in the bus to save hotel expenses on
long trips. Through the "national emergency"
period preceding World War II and the war
period itself, Mr. Throgmroton's coaches car-
ried thousands of workers to essential jobs
in war plants.
Mr. Throgmorton served as president of
the Rotary Club of Carbondale, was a char-
ter member and director of the Greater Egypt
Association and active also in the Benevolent
and Protective Order of Elks and the Masonic
order. In the latter, he belonged to Shekinah
Lodge, No. 241, A. F. and A. M. ; Reynolds
Chapter, No. 75, Royal Arch Masons; Beau-
sant Commandery, No. 86, Knights Templar;
and Ainad Temple, Nobles of the Mystic
Shrine, East St. Louis. He was a past patron
of the Carbondale Chapter, No. 467, Order
of the Eastern Star. He was one of the two
men honored with honorary membership in
the "I" Club of Southern Illinois University
and was a member of the Carbondale Com-
munity High School board and otherwise ac-
tive in civic affairs.
Mr. and Mrs. Throgmorton were married
in 1923. Mrs. Throgmorton, whose parents are
Mr. and Mrs. J.J. Keith, still residing at Alto
Pass, is a graduate of Southern Illinois Uni-
versity and taught at Chicago before her
marriage. She succeeded her husband as pres-
ident of the C. and H. Coach Lines and since
then has helped further development of the
system through participation in the manage-
ment. She. has been a leader in the Order
of the Eastern Star and is now Associate
Grand Matron of the Grand Chapter of the
Order of the Eastern Star of Illinois, having
previously served as Worthy Matron of her
chapter. In 1951 she will serve as Worthy
Grand Matron of the Order of the Eastern
Star of Illinois, the highest office in the
Order. Since the death of Mr. Throgmorton,
which occurred on December 30, 1948, when
he was forty-nine years old, Mrs. Throgmorton
has preserved the Throgmorton reputation for
a contribution of a high order to progress
and welfare.
WATSON GAILEY, M.D.
Possessor of an international reputation as
a specialist in the diagnosis and treatment of
diseases of the eye, Dr. Watson Gailey of
Bloomington is also noted as a teacher in this
field and as a leader in work for the visually
handicapped and in movements aimed at eye-
sight conservation. He is the founder and
chief ophthalmologist of the Gailey Eye Clinic
of Bloomington and president of the Wat-
son Gailey Eye Foundation.
Dr. Gailey was born in Ashland, Cass Coun-
ty, on September 7, 1882, the son of Dr.
William Watson and Mary Elizabeth (Sinclair)
Gailey. His father, who was born on July
19, 1842, near Newcastle, Pennsylvania, was
graduated from Westminster College, Wil-
mington, Pennsylvania, when he was 17. Later
he took the degree of Doctor of Medicine at
the University of Pennsylvania. He enlisted
as a medical cadet soon after the outbreak
of the Civil War and served in Army hos-
pitals and also on the high seas on the war-
ship Commodore Vanderbilt. Later he prac-
I L L I N O I
EDITION
945
ticed medicine in Jacksonville, Illinois, and
also Ashland.
Dr. Watson Gailey, a graduate of Ashland
High School of the Class of 1900, received
the Doctor of Medicine degree at the Uni-
versity of Illinois College of Medicine in Chi-
cago in 1904. For 18 months he interned
at Cook County Hospital, Chicago, and for
a like period afterward served as resident at
the Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary. Subse-
quently, he did graduate study in ophthalmol-
ogy in all the leading medical centers of the
country, and since 1909 he has been practic-
ing his specialty in Bloomington. He has
studied ophthalmology in Vienna, Berlin, Chi-
na, India, England, Japan and Spain. In 1931-
1932 he spent six months in India doing noth-
ing but cataract surgery, and, previously, in
World War I, he spent 18 months in the
United States Army Medical Corps as a Cap-
tain stationed at General Hospital No. 9, Lake-
wood, New Jersey. When he began his prac-
tice, he opened offices in the Griesheim Build-
ing, Bloomington, where he remained until
1941. Then he built the Gailey Eye Clinic,
at 1008 North Main Street. Because of the
rapid growth of the clinic, it became neces-
sary in 1950 to build a new structure, a
duplication in size of the original. On March
1, 1949, Dr. Gailey founded the Watson Gail-
ey Eye Foundation, a non-profit corporation
formed to afford a means by which private
funds, in the way of contributions and gifts
of any kind, can be channeled into uses pro-
moting and improving the science of ophthal-
mology. In addition to being president of the
foundation and chief ophthalmologist of his
clinic, Dr. Gailey is chief ophthalmologist of
Mennonite Hospital and is extramural oph-
thalmologist for the University of Illinois Di-
vision of Services for Crippled Children. He
is consultant in the special education pro-
gram for the visually handicapped at Illinois
State Normal University.
Dr. Gailey married Louise Huffaker, daugh-
ter of Frank and Liza Huffaker, at Jackson-
ville, and one daughter, Janet, was born to
them. She is now the wife of Dr. Charles
Digges Branch, physician and surgeon, and
mother of Watson Gailey (Twig) Branch and
Charles Digges Branch, II. Dr. and Mrs. Gail-
ey reside at 8 Country Club Place, Blooming-
ton.
Dr. Gailey is a member of the McLean
County Medical Society, Illinois State Medi-
cal Society, American Medical Association,
Pan-American Congress of Ophthalmology,
American Academy of Ophthalmalogy, the
Central Illinois Society of Ophthalmology and
Otolaryngology (of which he was first presi-
dent), and also Bloomington Lodge, No. 43,
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Bloom-
ington Consistory, Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite, and coordinate bodies; Louis
E. Davis Post, No. 56, American Legion, at
Bloomington. His profession is his hobby. He
is known for his generosity and charitable-
ness as well as his leadership in the world
of ophthalmology.
JAMES EVERETT ETHERTON
The leadership of James Everett Etherton
of Carbondale, one of Illinois' best known cit-
izens, extends into many fields. A lawyer
who has not only practiced privately but
served as special prosecutor for the Illinois
Pure Food Commission and on the Illinois
State Board of Bar Examiners, he is also
president of The Carbondale National Bank
of Carbondale. He has headed some of the
most important civic and health and welfare
organizations in his community.
Mr. Etherton comes of a family whose
progenitor in America settled in Jamestown,
Virginia, in 1640, after coming to the New
World from England. His father was James
Marcus Etherton, a native of Illinois who was
also president of the Carbondale National
Bank and his grandfather was William Carroll
Etherton, another native of this State, who
served as Sheriff of Jackson County. James
Everett Etherton's mother was Lavannia J.
(Lee) Etherton, also born in Illinois.
Born at Pomona, Illinois, on February 21.
1889, Mr. Etherton began his education in
Carbondale's elementary schools. He has at-
tended Southern Illinois University in Car-
bondale, Shurtleff College at Alton and the
University of Illinois. He was graduated with
a degree of Bachelor of Laws from the Uni-
versity of Illinois at Urbana in 1913, and
when he was admitted to the Illinois State .
Bar in 1914 he achieved an ambition to which
he had clung since boyhood. He practiced
in Carbondale until 1917, when he became
assistant cashier of the Carbondale National
Bank. In 1938, he rose to the presidency of
the bank. The bank grew with the career of
Mr. Etherton's father, who became one of the
State's leading Democrats and who served in
the State Legislature, and has continued to
grow with the career of its present presi-
dent. Mr. Etherton has continued his law
work, chiefly in probate matters and in ad-
visory capacities. His legal practice has, how-
ever, been intermittent in character.
946
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
From 1916 to 1918 Mr. Etherton was spe-
cial prosecutor for the Illinois Pure Food
Commission; from 1919 to 1920 he was super-
visor of the census for the 17th District of
Illinois; from 1920 to 1922 he was a member
of the 52nd General Assembly, representing
the 44th District, and from 1935 to 1945 he
was a member of the Illinois State Board of
Bar Examiners. He was chairman of Local
Board No. 2, Selective Service System, Jack-
son County, from its organization until its
dissolution. He has also been a member and
president of the local school boards, and is
active in civic affairs in general.
Mr. Etherton married Julia Rachel Mitchell
on October 21, 1918, and they have a son,
William C. Etherton, and daughter, Annabel
L. Etherton. The son, a graduate of the
University of Illinois, was a Technical Ser-
geant in the United States Army Air Forces
in World War II, serving in the Mediterra-
nean Theater of Operations. He married
Helen Morlock of Champaign, also a grad-
uate of the University of Illinois.
The banker is a member of the American
Bankers Association; the Illinois Bankers As-
sociation, of which he is currently (1949-
1950) vice-chairman; the Illinois Bar Asso-
ciation, the American Bar Association; the
Missouri Athletic Club of St. Louis; The Car-
bondale Business Men's Association, of which
he was president in 1921-1923; the Lions
Club, of which he is past president; and the
Elks Lodge, of which he is past exalted ruler.
He is a director of the Southern Illinois Uni-
versity Foundation, the Carbondale Building
and Loan Association and the Good Luck
Company of Carbondale, Illinois. Through
his hobby, civic work, and his other activi-
ties he serves his community and State.
FLOYD PARKER BRACY
Acknowledged for many years as a leader
in the insurance business of Illinois, especially
in the southern region, Floyd Parker Bracy
of Herrin has been identified with the prog-
ress of ths State since the early 1920's. He
is the founder and operator of the Floyd P.
Bracy Insurance Agency and is district super-
visor for the Sun Life Insurance Company of
Canada, though he writes all types of insur-
ance for many companies. He is the only
Southern Illinois member of the Illinois De-
velopment Committee, under appointment of
both Governors Horner and Green, and has
also served as City Treasurer of Herrin and
member of the board of education and high
school board in Herrin. He is well known in
church and organizational work.
Mr. Bracy was born in Williamson County,
about three miles from Marion, on January
23, 1897, the son of Samuel L. Bracy, a farm-
er, and Mae (Parker) Bracy. Both parents
were also born in Illinois. Samuel Bracy was
active in the Methodist Church and was a
member of the school board for District 51 for
twenty-one years. Floyd Bracy attended the
rural schools of his native county and was
graduated from the Marion Township High
School in 1916. For a year he studied at
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
and then taught for two semesters in the Ma-
rion school system. In the summer of 1918,
he enlisted in the Navy and was stationed at
the Great Lakes Naval Training Station and at
Norfolk, Virginia.
Discharged from the service in 1919, Mr.
Bracy returned to Herrin, where he worked
for the wholesale fruit and produce business
of Harry W. Bracy. At first he was office
manager, but later, upon acquiring an intei'-
est in the enterprise, he was made vice-pres-
ident. In 1926, he sold out his share of the
business and entered the University of Illinois,
where for a year he studied economics and
insurance. In 1927, he formed a partnership
with his father-in-law, Mark Woodley, and en-
tered the insurance business. This partner-
ship was dissolved in 1930 and since then
Mr. Bracy has operated alone, under the firm
name of Floyd P. Bracy Insurance Agency.
He became district supervisor for Sun Life
in 1940. He is active in the Life Underwrit-
ers Association.
On December 30, 1922, Mr. Bracy married
Ruth Woodley, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
Mark Woodley of Williamson County. Their
children are: William Thomas, born June 3,
1927, a graduate of Southern Illinois Uni-
versity and now associated in business with
his father; James Richard, born November 4,
1930, now doing pre-medical work at the same
university.
The family worships at the First Methodist
Church of Herrin in which Mr. Bracy has
served in various official capacities and is
former Superintendent of the Sunday School.
Active in public affairs for years, Mr. Bra-
cy became City Treasurer of Herrin in 1930.
In 1940, Southern Illinois Incorporated was
organized by a group of leading business men
of Southern Illinois, to promote industry, ag-
riculture and recreation in that part of the
state. Mr. Bracy, one of the founders, was
ILLINOIS EDITION
94"
first Treasurer of the group which is still
operating.
Active in Boy and Girl Scout work for the
past ten years, Mr. Bracy was one of the
group that organized the Egyptian Council,
Boy Scouts of America. He is a member of
the State Welfare Commission of William-
son County. He was a leader in the sale of
bonds in Williamson County during the late
war, and is still Chairman of the bond selling
group in 1950. He received several citations
for his War Bond work as well as for his ac-
tivities in the Defense Council for the County.
Active in Red Cross work during the war,
he is serving on the Board of Directors for
Williamson County at the present time.
He is former president and secretary of
the Lions Club of Herrin and former Deputy
District Governor. He is now a Master Key
Member of the organization. On the board of
directors of the Herrin Chamber of Commerce
several years, he is now chairman of its pub-
lic relations committee. He also belongs to
the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce. In
Masonry he is a member of the Mississippi
Valley Consistory of the Scottish Rite and
Ainad Temple of the Shrine at East St. Louis.
Fishing and boating are his chief recreations.
The contribution he has made to the entire
State is widely recognized.
FLOYD FLEMMING STABLES
"Believe you'ro right. Then go ahead with
all your might." That is the motto Floyd
Flemming Stables of Mount Vernon has fol-
lowed all his life. It has brought him suc-
cess and the respect of his fellow citizens.
Well known for years as an educator, Mr.
Stables is now in the lumber business. His
firm is the Mount Vernon Lumber Company.
He is also a leading figure in civic, fraternal
and religious affairs, and an active worker on
behalf of education.
Mr. Stables was born in Bethany, Moultrie
County, on February 2G, 1890, the son of
Thomas and Oriana (Crowder) Stables.
Thomas Stables' father, a native of England,
was Edward Stables, a farmer and harness
maker who settled in Moultrie County in the
1860's. Thomas Stables was born in that
county, near Bethany. He too became a har-
ness maker, and operated harness stores in
Bethany and Lexington. He lived at Lexing-
ton from 1905 until his death in 1944, at the
age of eighty-seven. Oriana Stables, born in
Bethany, was the daughter of one of the early
pioneers in the Bethany section, J. H. Crowd-
er. Her father, who bought his land from the
Government, was a farmer. He served in the
Union Army in the Civil War and for a
time afterward was State Commander of the
Grand Army of the Republic. He is credited
with having imported the first red polled cat-
tle into the United States. Floyd F. Stables
has one brother, Glenn C. Stables, a voice
instructor at Converse College, Spartanburg,
S. C. He received his training in New York
and Paris.
Floyd F. Stables attended the public schools
at Bethany and Decatur, completing his high
school work at Lexington. At high school he
was on the track, basketball and baseball
teams, and also active in dramatics. For three
and one-half years he was at James Millikin
University, Decatur, majoring in industrial
arts. At the university he was also active in
athletics, and for one year he was captain of
the basketball team. He was named the All-
State Forward in 1911, 1912 and 1913. On
leaving the university Mr. Stables became
the teacher of industrial arts and athletic
coach in the Centralia Township high school.
He then moved to Mount Vernon, after a year
in Centralia, and held the same faculty posi-
tions until 1921. One basketball team he
coached at Mount Vernon won the state
championship in 192 0. He gave up coaching
in 1921, but continued as a teacher until
194 4. Back in 1919 Mr. Stables had become
financially interested in the Mount Vernon
Lumber Company. When in 1944 he gave up
pedagogy as a career, he took over active
management of this lumber business.
On June 9, 1915, Mr. Stables married
Laura Belle Howenstine, a native of Decatur.
She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. B. L.
Howenstine of Decatur — was active in Church
and social life. She died December 31, 1936.
Two sons were born to the marriage — James
G., a Certified Public Accountant at Hannibal,
Missouri, he married Ruth Lee of Duquoin Illi-
nois in 1941 — have 3 children; John Richard,
James William, Peggy Lee; and John L., who
is engaged in the lumber business with his
father in Mount Vernon. Both sons are grad-
uates of the University of Illinois. In 1938
Mr. Stables married Mrs. Helen M. P'ord of
Peoria, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Chas.
P. Heald. Her father was a Harvard Law
graduate and business man. Mrs. Stables was
born in Kingston, Jamaica. Her parents were
missionaries. Mrs. Stables majored in art at
James Millikin University, Decatur, 111. She has
a daughter by her first marriage, Artys Ford,
a graduate of James Millikin University and
also an artist. The daughter flew to Ger-
948
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
many in 194 6 to be married to Captain Ray
Galligar of the United States Army. They
have one child, Vincent Robert.
Mr. and Mrs. Stables are both active in the
Presbyterian Church. Mr. Stables, a former
Sunday School superintendent, served for
about twenty years as a trustee. He is now
serving as building committee chairman of
an attractive new church edifice. He is a
former chancellor commander of the Mount
Vernon Lodge, Knights of Pythias, and a
former president of the Rotary Club of Mount
Vernon, of which he is a charter member. He
is a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fra-
ternity and a member of the Masonic order
and the Mount Vernon Chamber of Commerce.
His many-sided contribution to progress and
culture at Mount Vernon has brought him
widespread recognition.
HAROLD ABBOTT WRIGHT
The possessor of a national reputation in
the fields of industrial and labor relations,
Harold Abbott Wright is now a partner in the
management consulting firm of A. T. Kearney
and Company, Chicago. He has done con-
siderable research and writing in these fields
and collaborated in the book, "Management
and the Worker: An Account of a Research
Program Conducted by the Western Electric
Company, Hawthorne Works, Chicago."
Mr. Wright was born in Hopedale, Massa-
chussetts, on May 5, 1901, the son of William
C. and Florence (Smith) Wright. His father,
a native of Sandgate, Vermont, was a consult-
ing foundry engineer. His mother was born
at Williamstown, Massachusetts. H. A. Wright
was graduated from high school at Oak Park
and then attended the University of Illinois,
Urbana, for three years. He was elected to
Chi Phi Fraternity.
Mr. Wright began his business career in
1923 in the industrial relations organization
of the Western Electric Company at its Haw-
thorne Works in Chicago. For twenty years
he remained with that company having, at
various times, charge of training, personnel
research and the coordination of the com-
pany's relations with the labor union. It was
under his direction that the well-known Haw-
thorne studies in employee relations devel-
oped. "Management and the Worker," pre-
pared by F. J. Roethlisberger and W. J. Dick-
son, with Mr. Wright's collaboration, is a
written report of these studies. It was pub-
lished by the Harvard University Press in
1939, and immediately accepted by manage-
ment, personnel authorities and professional
journals, has since been a part of the litera-
ture of the field. In 1944, Mr. Wright became
associated with McKinsey, Kearney and Com-
pany, management consultants, the firm now
called A. T. Kearney and Company. He be-
came a partner on September 1, 1945. He
is a director of the Herman Nelson Corpora-
tion at Moline. Mr. Wright's work at Western
Electric was reviewed by Stuart Chase in a
Reader's Digest article called "What Makes
the Worker Like to Work?" and appearing
in February, 1941. Many of his discoveries
in his Hawthorne researches were outlined
in this article. He has himself written articles
for various publications, among them a timely
contribution called "Personal Adjustment in
Industry," which appeared in Occupations,
the Vocational Guidance Magazines, in May,
1940, just as Americans were preparing for a
"national emergency" and were soon to be
"all-out" for victory in World War II.
On September 18, 1926, in Chicago, Mr.
Wright married Dorothy Dennett, the daugh-
ter of Mr. and Mrs. O. M. Dennett and also
a former student of the University of Illinois.
She is active today in the West Suburban
Auxiliary of the Cradle Society at Evanston.
Mr. and Mrs. Wright have one son, Stephen
A. Wright. Their home is at 4032 Ellington
Avenue, Western Springs.
In World War II, Mr. Wright aided the war
effort not only by his work at the Western
Electric's Hawthorne Works but also his ac-
tivities with his present firm, which speeded
production at some of the nation's most im-
portant war plants. In addition, he served
on the rationing board at Western Springs.
Another of his public activities has been serv-
ice on the Zoning Appeal Board of that com-
munity. He is a member of the Union League
Club of Chicago and worships in the Con-
gregational Church at Western Springs. His
contribution to the understanding of indus-
trial and employee problems has received
widespread recognition, and he is himself a
popular figure in the industrial world.
RYBURN ROBERT COLP
The Colp Wholesale Lumber Company, with
headquarters in Carbondale and yards in Mis-
souri and Kentucky, serves five States and is
an outstanding enterprise in its field in the
entire region. Its founder is Ryburn Robert
Colp of Carbondale, a leading citizen of
Downstate Illinois who is also known for his
hobby, the buying and selling of cattle, and
for his other agricultural pursuits and his
civic work. He is a veteran of World War I
ILLINOIS
EDITION
049
who has taken a leading part in veterans'
work, as well as in business men's organiza-
tions.
Mr. Colp was born in Carterville, William-
son County, on September 22, 1897, the son
of Monroe D. and Calla (Vick) Colp, both al-
so natives of Illinois. Monroe Colp was in the
flour milling and wholesale grocery business.
Graduated from high school in 1916, Mr. Colp
attended the University of Illinois for a year
and one-half. In January, 1918, he entered
the United States Navy. Stationed at the
Great Lakes Naval Training Station as a radio
electrician, he remained there until his dis-
charge in 1919. Before he went into business,
Mr. Colp spent some nine months at the Gem
City Business College, in Quincy.
He then went to California, where he work-
ed as a service station attendant for the
Standard Oil Company. On his return to Illi-
nois, he served as a salesman for the Black
and White Milling Company for eighteen
months. On October 23, 1923, Mr. Colp went
into the retail lumber business in Carbondale.
For a decade or so he operated six different
businesses in as many cities. In June, 1938, he
established the Colp Wholesale Lumber Com-
pany in Carbondale, and now serves Southern
Illinois, southeast Missouri and all of Arkan-
sas, Kentucky and Tennessee, maintaining
wholesale yards at S-ikeston, Missouri, and
Fulton, Kentucky. He continues in the retail
lumber business in Carbondale and Sikeston,
Missouri. He is a member of the Southeast
Missouri Lumber Dealers Association and the
Illinois Lumber Dealers Association.
Mr. Colp married Eula Harris, the daugh-
ter of Mr. and Mrs. E. S. Harris of Carbon-
dale, on June 22, 1920. The marriage took
place in California. Mr. and Mrs. Colp have
a son, Bill, who is in charge of sales in his
father's business. He married Shirley Smith
of Sikeston, Missouri and is the father of
Robert Ryburn Colp. The entire family
worships in the Missionary Baptist Church of
Carbondale.
Buying and selling cattle is Mr. Colp's hob-
by. He maintains an average herd of 500
head of cattle, and does an annual volume of
business in his "hobby" running more than
$100,000. He owns and operates three farms,
with a total of 300 acres, and rents 1250
acres of pastureland from the Government in
Jackson and Williamson Counties. As a side-
line to his lumber business, Mr. Colp has de-
veloped four subdivisions in Carbondale,
named Randelman, Sprague, Etherton and
Oakland. Also, he has built more than one
thousand homes. He has twice been presi-
dent of the Carbondale Business Men's As-
sociation and also headed the Lions Club of
Carbondale and has been commander of the
American Legion post in that city. He con-
tributes further to the growth and welfare of
the region through active membership in the
Greater Egypt Association and Southern Illi-
nois, Inc. Mr. Colp's philosophy is summed up
in these words: "A man's ability to conduct
business does not rest purely on his ability to
do business but dots rest on his ability to
handle the irregularities of business."
PAUL L. MATON
The roses grown by Paul L. Maton in Pana,
Christian County, are known to hundreds of
thousands of persons in the United States.
His company, of which he is president, is the
Pana Rose Company. Mr. Maton, a World
War I veteran who is active and popular in
Christian County, is known to retail mer-
chants and flower men the nation over as the
Eastern pioneer in the idea of prepacking
roses for sale in five-and-ten-cent stores.
Mr. Maton was born in Belgium on April
17, 1894, and came to the United States at
an early age. In 1923, Mr. Maton and his
brother, the late Arthur L. Maton, built their
first greenhouse in Pana. This was known as
the Maton Brothers Greenhouse, and they
grew roses only. They continued this busi-
ness until 1932 when litigation with a gas
company forced them to close up. This liti-
gation arose out of the Maton Brothers'
charge that the gas company's pipes were
leaking enough gas into their greenhouses to
kill their roses. The litigation lasted three
years.
, Arthur L. Maton died in 1941. That same
year Paul L. Maton re-acquired the same
business. He renamed the business Pana Rose
Company, Inc. In 1944, Mr. Maton also pur-
chased the Webb Greenhouses in Pana. A
few months later, his nephews, Arthur and
Walter Maton, sons of his late brother, re-
turned from military service and he gave
this business to them.
Mr. Maton married Verma White in 19 36.
By a former marriage the present Mrs. Maton
has two children, Jack, born in 1928, and
William, born in 1932. By the present mar-
riage Mr. and Mrs. Maton have a son, Phillip
Maton, who was born in 1941. Five children
were born to Mr. Maton's first marriage —
Paul L. Maton, Jr., in 1925; Donald B. Maton,
950
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
PAUL L. MATON
in 1927; Robert M. Maton, in 1930; Jean L.
Maton in 1931, and Carl Maton, in 1933.
Mr. Maton served in World War I as a
member of the United States Army Band,
with which he went overseas. He is today a
member of the American Legion in Pana, as
well as of the Pana Country Club. His green-
houses occupy 280,000 square feet, this be-
ing the growing area under glass. He em-
ploys fifty persons and ships more than 3,000-
000 roses every year. His annual coal bill is
$30,000 alone. Mr. Maton was the first big
rose grower in the East to prepack roses for
sale in the five-and-ten-cent stores and other
retail outlets. The process includes the gass-
ing of the flowers and their packing in sealed
waterproof lead boxes. Under these condi-
tions they maintain their freshness for about
a week. Flowers sold in this form have proved
exceedingly popular. Tall, well built and
white-haired, and possessed of an attractive
personality, Paul L. Maton is one of Christian
County's and the flower world's leading citi-
zens.
FRANK MERRILL LINDSAY, JR.
A dominant figure among broadcasting
men in the State of Illinois, Frank Merrill
Lindsay, Jr., is general manager of Radio
Station WSOY in Decatur, as well as vice-
president and treasurer of the Illinois Broad-
casting Company, licensee of the station, and
a director of WTAX, Inc., Springfield. In
addition, he is treasurer of Decatur Newspa-
pers, Inc., a director of East Shore Newspa-
pers, Inc., publisher of the East St. Louis
Journal, and business manager of the Deca-
tur Herald and Review.
Mr. Lindsay was born in Decatur on Jan-
uary 3, 1910, the son of Frank Merrill and
Vivian (Simpson) Lindsay. His father is pres-
ident of Decatur Newspapers, Inc., and East
Shore Newspapers, Inc. Frank M. Lindsay,
Jr., is a graduate of the Decatur grade and
high schools, New Hampton (N.H.) School,
Kenyon College, and the Harvard School of
Business Administration.
Mr. Lindsay became general manager of
Radio Station WSOY in 1939. Two years
prior to that the newspaper interests with
which he is affiliated purchased a substantial
minority interest in the station and in 1939
acquired control. The station originally went
on the air as WJBL, licensed to the William
Gushard Co., at that time Decatur's largest
department store. It later was licensed to
Commodore Broadcasting, Inc. under the own-
ership of Indiana interests. In 1949 the cor-
porate structure was modified and the Illinois
Broadcasting Co. (Delaware) became the li-
censee.
WSOY operates on a frequency of 1340
kilocycles and a power of 50 watts. WSOY-
FM, its frequency modulation affiliate, was
the pioneer fulltime FM station in downstate
Illinois. It operates on a frequency of 102.1
megacycles with a power of 32 kilowatts.
The stations are affiliated with the Columbia
Broadcasting System. In the decade between
1939 and 1949 the station has been developed
into one of the most influential stations of
its size in the United States.
On October 19, 1940, Mr. Lindsay married
Margery Crawford, who is active in the civic
and social life of Decatur. They have two
daughters, Lucy, who was born March 2, 1944,
and Katherine Ann, who was born April 18,
1946. The Lindsays, whose home is at 538
Bradley Court, Decatur, are members of the
First Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Lindsay, who early in his career in the
field of radio established a reputation for
leadership and progressive ideas, has served
as President of the Illinois Broadcasters As-
sociation for two years. He is a member of
the Board of Directors of the National Asso-
ciation of Broadcasters and is active in mem-
bership in the Rotary Club, Country Club of
Decatur, and the Decatur Club. In World
War II he served with the United States
Navy, leaving the service as a Lieutenant
Commander in 1945. In the Navy he attended
radar schools at Noroton Heights (Conn.),
Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technol-
ogy, and the Naval Air Technical Training
Center at Corpus Christi, Texas. The last
twenty-one months of service he was in charge
of the radar maintenance section of the Bu-
reau of Aeronautics. Golf is his favorite
sport. Through his radio and newspaper work
Mr. Lindsay has made himself invaluable to
his fellow citizens and his state.
JAMES WESLEY HAYTON
When James Wesley Hayton opened the
Hayton Theater at Carterville in Williamson
County at the beginning of the depression in
1929, he established an admission price of ten
cents, thus making available to persons of ev-
ery circumstance the pleasures of motion pic-
tures and other entertainment. From this
beginning in show business Mr. Hayton has
come to be known throughout Southern Illi-
nois. Among his activities today is leadership
in the operation of the Williamson County
Fair at Marion.
ILLINOIS EDITION
953
Mr. Hayton was born in Carterville on
July 1, 1885, the son of William and Cora
(Fox) Hayton. He is a grandson of the late
Dr. James Hayton, a native of England who
practiced medicine in the Carterville area for
years. James Hayton, the theater owner, was
educated in the public schools of William-
son County. He remained on his father's
farm until he was twenty-one. In 1907, he
entered the livery business, and for the next
ten years operated the Hayton Livery Stable
in Carterville. In 1912, he went into the au-
tomobile business, operating as Hayton Mo-
tor Sales. He left livery and automobile busi-
ness behind him when, in 1929, he established
the Hayton Theater. By 1939 he had pros-
pered to such a degree as to build a new
theater structure, seating six hundred per-
sons, and it is in this building that he oper-
ates today. Through a few years as theater
man Mr. Hayton also had a farm, but he sold
it.
On October 12, 1910, Mr. Hayton married
Zella West, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
J. C. West of Carterville. In 1926 a son,
Jacob William Hayton, was born to them.
Following his early education in Carterville's
elementary and high schools, the son went to
Chicago to prepare for a career as a lawyer.
Mr. and Mrs. Hayton worship in the Chris-
tian Church.
Mr. Hayton was chairman of bond drives
in both World Wars I and II and has also
been active in Red Cross work. He is presi-
dent of the Williamson County Fair Associa-
tion and also active in Southern Illinois, Inc.,
of which he is a charter member. He was one
of those who, through this regional promo-
tion organization, helped establish such com-
munity projects as Crab Orchard Lake. He
is treasurer of the Century Club of Southern
Illinois and is the only surviving charter mem-
ber of the Lions Club of Carterville. A pro-
found believer in education, he participates
in all movements to improve the school sys-
tems. In his promotion of the Williamson
County Fair, Mr. Hayton brings to bear not
only his experience as show man but also as
one who in early life traded horses, mules,
cattle and other livestock. He is generally
recognized in Southern Illinois as among the
leading figures in regional development and
improvement activities.
KENNETH ALBERT PAUTLER
A man who has worked in a store since he
was big enough to walk, Kenneth Albert
Pautler of Chester is now the owner and op-
erator of the Pautler Super-Market in that
community and is one of the outstanding
food men of Southern Illinois. Mr. Pautler
is prominent outside the food industry, being
one of the leading figures in Catholic lay
circles and in developmental and public af-
fairs. He is one of the ten men credited with
bi-inging about erection of the Mississippi
River bridge at Chester.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, on January
10, 1905, Mr. Pautler is the son of Albert
John and Ida (Schnier) Pautler, and he is the
oldest of eight children. His father, native of
Evansville, another Randolph County commu-
nity, was for a time in the meat business in
St. Louis. Later, he moved to Ava, in Jackson
County, where he also operated a meat mar-
ket. Finally, in 1900, he established himself
at Murphysboro, where he ran a grocery and
meat market, and it was in this establishment
that Kenneth Pautler virtually learned to walk
and to sell at the same time. Mr. Pautler's
paternal grandfather was P'aulus Pautler, a
native of Alsace-Lorraine, who came to the
United States in 1844 and died in 1918. Ida
Schnier Pautler was a native of Washington,
Missouri.
Kenneth Pautler was educated in the pub-
lic and parochial schools of Murphysboro. He
was graduated from high school in 1923. In
that same year he established a window shade
and radio business, known as the Pautler
Shade Company. This he operated until 1927,
when he went to Johnston City to manage
the meat department of a Daniel Grocery
Company store. In July, 1928, he was trans-
ferred to Chester as manager of the grocery
and meat departments of a Daniel store there.
This position he retained until in 1937 he es-
tablished his own retail grocery and meat
business in Chester. He made this a self-serv-
ice store in 1943 and in 1947 he remodeled
and doubled the establishment in size, and it
is now one of the biggest enterprises in the
independent field in the area. In 1941 Mr.
Pautler installed a locker plant in the base-
ment of his store. It had 238 lockers for
frozen meats and other foods and did a tre-
mendous volume of business. In 1943 he in-
creased the number of lockers to 454, and
the business has kept pace with this increase.
Mr. Pautler processes much of the meat he
sells, curing and smoking hams and bacon.
On June 9, 1930, when he was still with
the Daniel Grocery Company, Mr. Pautler
married Lydia Decker, the daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. Henry Decker of Chester. Mr. and
Mrs. Pautler have two children — Janice Ida,
D.V1
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
born June 21, 1931, and Donna Lois, born
October 26, 1939. Mr. Pautler and the chil-
dren are communicants of St. Mary's Roman
Catholic Church of Chester. Mrs. Pautler wor-
ships in the Lutheran Church. Mr. Pautler is
treasurer of the Holy Name Society.
He is also president of the Twin Rivers
Club and is a member of the Chester Bridge
Commission, in which he continues to look
after the interests of the bridge across the
Mississippi which he helped bring into ex-
istence. He is a former member of the Ches-
ter City Park Board and was president in
1948-49 and 1950 for the Chester Chamber
of Commerce. He is a director of the Greater
Egypt Association and active also in the Ches-
ter Sportsman's Club, the Knights of Colum-
bus, the Illinois Locker Association and the
National Locker Association. His civic work
being a hobby with him, Mr. Pautler rejoices
in every opportunity to serve his fellow citi-
zens in Southern Illinois.
HORACE BRYAN CARMAN, LL.B.
A national reputation as lawyer and worker
for standards in the legal profession has been
developed by Horace Bryan Garman of Deca-
tur. He is a member of the law firm of Mc-
Millen, McMillen and Garman, Decatur.
Mr. Garman was born in Decatur on July
19, 1897, and is the son of Isaac Henry and
Minnie B. (Garrison) Garman. He completed
his education in the University of Illinois,
taking the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1919
and that of Bachelor of Laws in 1922. From
1919 to 1922 he was assistant dean of men at
the university. Admitted to the Illinois State
Bar in 1922, he has since engaged in the prac-
tice of law in Decatur. In 1927 he became a
member of his present law firm, McMillen,
McMillen and Garman, which maintains of-
fices in the Millikin Building in Decatur. Mr.
Garman's efforts to elevate standards in the
profession brought him appointment as secre-
tary-treasurer of the Illinois Board of Law
Examiners and as a member of the executive
committee of the National Conference of Bar
Examiners. He is also president of the Play-
ground and Recreation Board of Decatur. He
is a member of the American Bar Associa-
tion, the Illinois State Bar Association, the
Chicago Bar Association and Phi Delta Phi
Fraternity. His other organizations include
the Lions Club of Decatur, Masonic bodies,
University Club, Decatur Club and Decatur
Country Club. He is a Democrat and a Meth-
odist.
On February 1, 1930, he married Ethel
Stuart. They reside at 2096 West William
Street, Decatur.
Mr. Garman's is one of the most respected
names in the legal profession.
ILLINOIS EDITION
955
HARRY N. PERLMUTTER
ILLINOIS
A GREAT INLAND EMPIRE
This is a brief story of the State of Illinois, truly an "Empire
Within Itself." No similar area in all the world has such a diversity of
wealth of rich farm lands, minerals, navigable rivers and industrial and
recreational advantages. In agriculture, industry, mining, oil, trans-
portation, trade — in all those economic elements that make a state or
nation great — Illinois stands among the leaders.
Billions of dollars in manufactured products roll endlessly from
the state's mighty industrial plants to markets all over the world. Car-
rying these products of the field and the factory to neighboring states
and faraway lands is a highly developed system of rivers, lakes, high-
ways, railroads, canals and airports.
Illinois is rightfully proud of these economic advantages but its
citizens are equally proud of their fine homes, their modern schools, the
vast system of parks and memorials extending from one end of the
state to the other; proud of their state government which is so deeply
conscious of its obligations to all citizens.
FROM SLEEPING PRAIRIES TO RICH FERTILE FIELDS
When the signatures that give life and vitality to the Constitution
of the United States were yet fresh and unblotted, the area that is now
Illinois was but a wilderness. Although Pere Jaques Marquette and
Louis Joliet discovered the Illinois country in 1673, it was not until
1818 that the state was formally admitted into the Union.
During the interim between the discovery of the Illinois territory
and its admission to the Union as a state, the French and English each
controlled the area for a period. Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle,
and his lieutenant and successor, Henry de Tonty, carried the standard
for France. Fort de Crevecoeur was established near Peoria in 1680,
followed in 1682 by Fort St. Louis on Starved Rock. One of the first
white villages, Pimitoui, later called Peoria, was established in 1691.
Cahokia was organized in 1699, and Kaskaskia four years later. Fort
de Chartres was completed in 1720.
ILLINOIS EDITI a. N 957
Defeated by Great Britain in the Seven Years War, France ceded
her American possessions east of the Mississippi to the victors in 1763.
The British rule was short lived, however, as a handful of American
militia led by George Rogers Clark in 1778 captured the villages of
Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Vincennes and ended forever foreign rule in
the Illinois country.
Established as a county of Virginia in 1778, the Illinois country
remained so until 1782. During the next five years the area had no
legally constituted government, but in 1787, it became part of the
Northwest Territory, in which it remained until 1800. In 1800 the Ter-
ritory of Indiana was established and Illinois, including the present
state of Wisconsin, was made a territory in its own right. Kaskaskia
was designated as the capital, and Ninian Edwards of Kentucky served
as the first territorial governor. On December 3, 1818, Illinois, having
a population of about 35,000 was admitted to statehood. Kaskaskia
was selected as the state capitol and Shadrach Bond, the first governor,
was inaugurated.
The last great Indian uprising in Illinois was the Black Hawk War
in 1832. Chief Black Hawk and his Sauk and Fox Warriors defeated
the white militia at Stillman's Run, but retreated into Wisconsin where
the band was decisively defeated.
In 1839 the capital was moved to Springfield from Vandalia,
which had succeeded Kaskaskia, the first capital, and soon the state
was divided on the question of whether the territory farther west was
to be slave or free. Abraham Lincoln emerged from political retirement
in 1858 to challenge Stephen A. Douglas, United States Senator from
Illinois, and the national policy on slavery which he advocated. The
eyes of the nation focused on the state as the two men engaged in their
historic series of debates on the question. There they remained until
Lincoln left Springfield in 1861 for his inauguration as the first Repub-
lican president of the United States.
Invention in 1837 by John Deere of the Prairie plow gave great
impetus to Illinois agriculture and its broad prairies soon turned into
rich farmlands which have made this state one of the leaders in agri-
culture.
After the Civil War, Illinois turned to the development of its na-
tural resources and to extension of its transportation system. By 1870
coal mining had become one of Illinois' largest industries. Improved
958 LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
transportation, an abundance of coal and the westward movement of
industry combined to make Illinois a great industrial area.
By 1850 the state had a population of 850,000. By 1870 this figure
had been tripled. In 1948 the population was estimated at 8,670,000.
Sprawling, vigorous Chicago was destined early in American
industrial development to become the manufacturing center not only
of Illinois, but of the entire midwestern inland empire. From its earliest
days, the destiny of the village lay in its geographic setting on the
southern shore of Lake Michigan; and, later, its position as the terminus
of railroads from the east and subsequent extensions to the north, west
and south; to its wide-spread hinterland of rich and varied natural
resources and the favorable climate — all were potent factors in stimu-
lating one of the greatest industrial developments in the world.
Illinois is distinguishd as a great industrial state, the third in the
nation, the first in the midwest. From Pearl Harbor to V-J Day, Illinois
produced about one-twelfth of all the weapons and materials of war-
fare, valued at more than $27,000,000,000. According to the last census,
Illinois ranked second in the value of wholesale trade — almost $5,000,-
000,000; fourth in the value of retail trade— $3,000,000,000; and third
in banking assets — more than $9,000,000,000. Chicago's Union Stock-
yards, the largest in the world, are an integral part of the greatest meat
packing business in the nation.
Farm property in Illinois has a value of more than $3,000,000,-
000; no state surpasses it in modern farming. Agricultural experiment-
ation and study at the University of Illinois has long been a major
factor in the state's development.
Scientific farming in Illinois increases the corn yield per acre each
year. In 1948 the average was 57 bushels per acre with top fields soar-
ing above the 100 bushel mark. Increased acreage devoted in recent
years to soybeans has developed a new major crop.
In the important field of production of hybrid seed corn, Illinois
ranks first in the nation. It bows only to Iowa in total bushels of field
corn produced annually, surpassing all other states. The production of
corn is a major item in the state's economy.
Second in the nation in agricultural production, Illinois grows 43
different field crops on 19,000,000 acres. Since 1850, the state has
ranked high in the production of corn and other crops, in livestock and
ILLINOISEDITION 959
poultry and in dairy products. Illinois also ranks high in the production
of fruit, in an average year growing about 3,500,000 bushels of apples,
1,500,000 bushels of peaches.
Traffic moves in an almost continuous stream down Illinois water-
ways to the ports of the world. Chicago is one of the greatest inland
ports. First in heavy duty railroad mileage and second in total railroad
mileage, Illinois is the transportation hub of the nation. Chicago is the
greatest rail terminal. A network of 167 commercial airports serve the
people of Illinois in the newest branch of transportation.
Chicago, the giant of the midwest, is secure in its position as the
second city of the nation, the eighth city of the world ! Metropolitan in
every aspect, Chicago is not only a center of trade, manufacturing,
transportation and finance, but of education and culture. Its colleges
and other educational activities are unsurpassed and in the fields of
the theater and opera it has maintained high standards. Museums house
treasures of art, science, industry, history and archaeology, while con-
servatories, zoos and aquaria display exotic plants and strange animal
and marine life for study or leisurely enjoyment.
Illinois is more than a state of rich agricultural fields and mighty
industrial plants. Generously endowed by nature, Illinois is abundantly
supplied with sources of recreation. Her numerous waterways and the
broad expanse of Lake Michigan offer the finest kind of cruising and
boating waters. The same waters, supplemented by the state's numerous
lakes, furnish excellent fishing facilities for the state's anglers. On the
broad plains and on the hills and in the river valleys, Illinois' hunters
find many kinds of small game and waterfowl. The northeast section
offers some of the finest pheasant shooting in the midwest; in the west-
ern, central and southern sections are found the quail ranges. Along the
Mississippi and Illinois waterways are located the finest waterfowl
hunting grounds in the nation. Rabbits abound throughout the state.
KNOW YOUR ILLINOIS
The highest portion of Illinois lies in Jo Daviess county where the
general surface has an elevation of 1,000 feet and the mounds rise more
than 200 feet above this level. Charles Mound, near the Wisconsin
border, is 1,241 feet above sea level. Highest point in southern Illinois
is William Hill in Pope county, an extension of the Ozark Mountains.
960 LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
Lowest point in the state is at Cairo on the Ohio River, 268.58 feet
above sea level.
About agriculture: 90 percent of Illinois' farms are electrified. Illi-
nois has 27 rural electric cooperatives, serving 105,000 members . . .
Grows in a normal fruit season over 1,494,000 bushels of peaches . . .
Has a smaller percentage of waste land in proportion to total area than
any other state . . . Chicago is the largest cut flower market in the
world . . . Average investment per farm in Illinois is $18,000 . . . 20,-
030,571 acres are now included among the 88 soil conservation districts
. . . Corn products of Illinois are marketed throughout the world.
Annual value of milk produced in Illinois is $162,000,000 . . .
Illinois has 204,239 farms; 87,527 are operated by owners, 35,266 by
part owners, 81,446 by tenants and hired managers . . . Three to six
thousand acres of cotton are grown annually . . . Farm property is
valued at 3.7 billion dollars . . . Forty-three different field crops are
grown on an annual acreage of 19,000,000 acres . . . Illinois has 526
refrigeration plants; 1,727 rural routes serving 327,687 patrons.
No other state has so many important "firsts" as Illinois: First in
soybean production . . . meat packing . . . cash receipts for feed grains
. . . baby chicks . . . county corn yield . . . oleomargarine manufactur-
ing . . . county hog production . . . railroads entering and leaving state
. . . farm machinery . . . hybrid seed corn and wall paper production . . .
manufacturing of railroad cars . . . airport construction . . . candy and
confectionery products . . . food processing plants and kindred activ-
ities . . . commercially grown flowers. . . .
MANUFACTURING
Third in the nation and first in the middle west in manufacturing,
Illinois industry produces practically every known type of commercial
product. In many of these products Illinois holds a commanding lead
and in each of twenty industries produces 20 percent or more of the
national total. Among these 20 leading groups are tractors, candy, con-
fectionery products, tin cans, other tin ware, agricultural machinery,
radios, tubes, phonographs, steam fittings, cars and equipment, electri-
cal appliances, roofing, asphalt shingles, secondary smelting, non-fer-
rous metals, iron and steel forgings, coin-operated machines, surgical
supplies and equipment, orthopedic appliances, soybean oil, cake, meal,
ILLINOISEDITION 961
coal tar products, printing trades machinery, laundry equipment, print-
ing ink, baking powder and yeast.
While the Chicago area dominates the state as well as the middle
west with its enormous volume of industrial products, downstate manu-
facturing has made enormous strides in recent years with new indus-
trial centers expanding throughout the state.
POPULATION
Illinois' population is 73.6 percent urban and 26.4 rural. More
than 50 percent of the state's population is located in Cook and adjoin-
ing counties.
FORESTS, FISH AND GAME
Illinois today is operating a long-range, practical program of
conservation. Millions of trees are being replanted, streams stocked
with fish, and quail, pheasants and other wild life restored. The State
Department of Conservation, the State Natural History Survey and
the University of Illinois are all cooperating, as are many private
agencies.
ELECTRICITY AND GAS
Illinois is unusually favored with basic requirements for the pro-
duction of cheap elecetric power — extensive bituminous coal fields and
an abundance of condensing water. Total capacity of the state's gener-
ating plants is over 3,000,000 kilowatts. Natural gas pools are aug-
mented by Mid-Continent pipe lines.
OILS AND MINERALS
Nearly two-thirds of Illinois is underlayed with coal veins. Largest
coal shaft mine in the world is Orient No. 2 in Franklin county. Among
other minerals produced in quantity are cement, silica, lime, stone and
fluorspar. Vast oil deposits underlie the southern and southeastern part
of the state with annual production around 140,000,000 barrels. The
state has 326 active coal mines (1949) and 28,897 producing oil wells.
WATER
Illinois has an abundance of surface and underground water in
nearly every portion of the state. On the west border is the mighty
962 LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
Mississippi, in the South the Ohio, the east the Wabash, and at the
northeastern tip Lake Michigan. Through the heart of the state flows
the Illinois river with its many tributaries. Numerous natural and
artificial lakes abound.
AGRICULTURE
Since 1850 Illinois has been one of the top ranking agricultural
states, leading all others in many products as well as in quality and
variety of crops. Second only to Iowa in the annual production of corn,
its land value per acre is the highest in the middle west. Chief among
its grain crops are corn, oats, soybeans, wheat, barley, rye and cow
peas. More than two million acres are devoted to hay crops of which
red clover is the leader. Upwards of a million acres are planted annually
in miscellaneous crops such as sweet corn, flax, pop corn, cotton, broom
corn, truck and garden crops and sorghums. The state's 204,239 farms
have a total acreage of 31,602,186 acres. Although general farming is
prevalent throughout the state, southern Illinois has concentrated on
fruits and vegetables.
MANUFACTURING
Third in the nation and first in the middle west in manufacturing,
Illinois industry produces practically every known type of commercial
product. In many of these products Illinois holds a commanding lead
and in each of twenty industries produces 20 percent or more of the
national total. Among these 20 leading groups are tractors, candy, con-
fectionery products, tin cans, other tin ware, agricultural machinery,
radios, tubes, phonographs, steam fittings, cars and equipment, electri-
cal appliances, roofing, asphalt shingles, secondary smelting, non-fer-
rous metals, iron and steel forgings, coin operated machines, surgical
supplies and equipment, orthopedic appliances, soybean oil, cake, meal,
coal tar products, printing trades machinery, laundry equipment, print-
ing ink, baking powder and yeast.
While the Chicago area dominates the state as well as the middle
west with its enormous volume of industrial products, downstate manu-
facturing has made enormous strides in recent years with new industrial
centers expanding throughout the state.
ILLINOIS EDITION 963
BANKING
With a total of 850 banks, Illinois ranks third in the nation in
banking assets. Two Federal Reserve Districts bisect the state — one
with its bank in Chicago and the other in St. Louis. These reserves, in
addition to the funds stored up from local endeavors, are available for
the encouragement of business and enterprise in the state and district.
TAX SYSTEM
Local governments in Illinois are financed almost wholly by prop-
erty taxes. State government obtains its funds mostly from taxes on
retail sales, motor fuel (shared with county and cities), motor vehicles,
alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, public utilities, corporations, insurance
premiums and inheritances. There is no state income tax or property
tax.
WHOLESALE AND RETAIL TRADE
In a normal year Illinois' wholesale trade amounts to better than
five billion dollars, second in the nation. Of this amount $4,000,000,000
is handled in the city of Chicago. Retail trade represents sales valued
at three billions with salaries and wages approximating $340,000,000.
The food group ranks first in sales.
TRANSPORTATION
Illinois' exceptional facilities for commerce are due to its geog-
raphical location, high degree of industrial development, level topo-
graphy and unexcelled systems of transportation. By 1870 it was in
first place in railroad mileage. Its vast system of heavy duty highways,
14,636 miles, exceeds that of any other state. Waterways, which con-
tributed to the state's first development, now total 1,068 miles, internal
and bordering. Chicago is one of the great air terminals of the world,
and nearly every sizeable downstate city has access to a public or private
airfield.
HISTORY OF ILLINOIS CAPITOLS
On December 3, 1818, Illinois became the twenty-first state to be
admitted to the Federal Union and the more than a century and a
964 LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
quarter that has passed since that historic day has provided Illinois
with three seats of government and six Capitols.
Illinois' first State Capitol was Kaskaskia, a thriving community
of French origin, which had played a prominent role in early middle-
west history. This little city and Shawneetown were in 1818 the most
important settlements in the territory.
Situated on the Kaskasia River, in what was later to become Ran-
dolph County, Kaskaskia was founded in 1703, when the Jesuits were
transferred there from the Illinois Indian Mission at Des Peres (present
St. Louis).
In 1778, George Rogers Clark and the little army of Virginians
that accompanied him captured Kaskaskia from the British and made
it a part of the County of Virginia.
When Illinois territory was created by Act of Congress in 1809,
Kaskaskia became the territorial Capital and nearly a decade later on
January 16, 1818, Nathaniel Pope petitioned Congress for Statehood
for his adopted territory. The Congressional Enabling Act admitting
Illinois to the select company of States was duly passed and Illinois be-
came a part of the Union on December 3, 1818.
FIRST CAPITOL WAS RENTED
The first Capitol or State House was a rented two-story limestone
building. The lower floor was occupied by the House of Representatives
and the chamber above by the Senate. Appropriations made to cover
the rent of this building for the first two sessions of the First General
Assembly of the State as well as the Constitutional Convention of 1818
were as follows:
"To George Fisher for use of three rooms of his house
during the present and preceding session, $4.00 per day; also
for the use of one room during the sitting of the Convention,
$2.00 per day."
Meeting in this small building, the first General Assembly com-
posed of 13 Senators and 27 Representatives petitioned Congress for a
grant of land to serve as a site for a new Capital. This request was
granted and a committee of five was named to choose a site. They
selected Reeves Bluff, later to be known as Vandalia, which was then
I L L I N O I S E D I T I O N 965
a heavily wooded tract 80 miles northeast, up the Kaskaskia River from
Kaskaskia.
Removal of the Capitol to Vandalia was caused by land specu-
lators who thought they might profit by starting a land boom in some
new location.
KASKASKIA DETERIORATES
After Vandalia became the Capital in 1820, Kaskaskia deterior-
ated, gradually disappearing under the waters of the Mississippi River
which lapped its shores. In 1881 the river went on one of its many
rampages, changed its course, moving eastward and then southwest
to find its old channel. This action created an island and washed away
a considerable portion of the ancient capital. Each recurring spring-
flood encroached further upon the site until the last vestige of Kaskas-
kia slipped into the Mississippi.
On the remaining portion of the island is a farming community
of about 131 persons and it still bears the name of Kaskaskia, perhaps
to perpetuate in memory the little Capitol which lies beneath the murky
Mississippi.
FIRST VANDALIA CAPITOL OF WOOD
The original Capitol at Vandalia was a two-story wooden build-
ing, with one big room on the ground floor for the House of Represent-
atives, and two rooms on the second floor which were used by the Senate
and the Council of Revision. The Secretary of State, Auditor and
Treasurer occupied rented offices detached from the Capitol.
The first session of the Second General Assembly met in the first
Capitol owned by Illinois on December 4, 1820, and during its sitting
passed an act making Vandalia the seat of government for the next 20
years.
On December 9, 1823 fire destroyed this first State-owned Capitol.
During the summer of 1824 a new building was constructed of wood
and cost $15,000. Soon thereafter agitation was started for the removal
of the Capital to a site nearer the geographical center of the State.
This sentiment caused the General Assembly to pass an act in 1833
whereby the voters at the following general election could decide the
location for a new Capitol city.
966 LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
The sites on which the vote was to be taken were Vandalia, Jack-
sonville, Springfield, Peoria, Alton, and the State's Geographical cen-
ter. Alton received the greatest number of votes but the margin was so
small as to be inconclusive, and the vote was not announced officially
as it would undoubtedly have been rejected by the next General As-
sembly. So the suggested removal from Vandalia was dropped until the
1836-'37 session revived the question.
LINCOLN SUGGESTS SPRINGFIELD
Matters then took a very different turn for the proposal was inter-
esting a rising young lawyer known as Abraham Lincoln who repre-
sented Sangamon County. Lincoln introduced a bill providing for re-
moval of the Capital of Illinois to Springfield, and he was backed by
eight fellow members who with him were known as the Long Nine
because their aggregate height was 54 feet.
Residents of Vandalia were determined that they should retain
the capitol so in the summer of 1836, without authorization, and while
the legislature was recessed, they tore down the old Capitol. In its stead
they erected a State House costing $16,000. This gesture, however, was
in vain for with the return of the General Assembly Lincoln was success-
ful in having Springfield named as Illinois' new Capitol.
On February 25, 1837, the Assembly passed a bill providing that
the Capitol be moved from Vandalia to some place nearer the center
of the State and three days later — February 28, 1837 — Springfield was
chosen as the new Capitol City. Because of the Act of the Assembly
in 1820, Vandalia was to continue as the Capital until December 1,
1840, but on June 20, 1839, Governor Thomas Carlin issued a pro-
clamation that all State records be removed to Springfield by July 4,
1839. However, the State Government did not actually function in
Springfield until December, 1839.
The Eleventh General Assembly returned the Vandalia Capitol
to the county of Fayette and the city of Vandalia, and the old State
House still stands, but once again is State property.
The cornerstone of the State's fourth Capitol was laid at Spring-
field on July 4, 1837. After many delays the building was finally com-
pleted in 1853 at a total cost of $260,000 double its original estimate.
ILLINOISEDITION 967
The building occupied the center of the square nearly three acres
in extent, and was constructed of cut stone brought from a quarry six
miles away. The building took 15 years to complete but was considered
one of the architectural wonders of the State.
SPRINGFIELD SITE OF FAMOUS SPEECH
This building is rich in Lincoln associations. After Lincoln became
a resident of Springfield in 1837 he was, of course, one of the regular
frequenters of the State House. In addition to serving in the legislature
he appeared and argued cases befor the Supreme Court, located in the
edifice, and made frequent use of the State and Supreme Court libraries.
In this building he first took public issue with Douglas, here he made
his famous "House divided against itself" speech, here were his head-
quarters during his 1860 campaign for the Presidency, and here finally
his remains rested on May 4, 1865 before burial at Oak Ridge Ceme-
tery.
PRESENT STATE HOUSE PLANNED IN 1867
Illinois continued to prosper and gain in population and soon it
was apparent that a much larger Capitol would be needed. The en-
abling act was passed by the 25th General Assembly on February 24,
1867. This was the fifth of the buildings owned by the State and the
one in use today.
When the new Capitol was completed, the old Capitol was sold
to Sangamon County for $200,000. Certain alterations were made to
this old building, the most remarkable one being that of raising the
massive two-story structure off the ground and building under it, while
it was suspended, what now is the ground floor of the Sangamon Coun-
ty Court House.
Ground was broken for the present Capitol, March 11, 1868.
Formal laying of the cornerstone took place October 5th of the same
year. Still unfiinished, the building was first occupied in 1876. Twenty-
one years after the Legislature first authorized its construction, the
building finally was completed. Originally construction costs were
limited to $3,000,000, but before completion expenditures amounted
to more than $4,500,000.
968 LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
RICH COAL VEIN UNDER CAPITOL
The present Capitol, situated on a nine acre plot, is in the form
of a Latin Cross. The circular foundation, 92/2 feet in diameter, upon
which the vast dome rests, is 25 /2 feet below the grade line, based on
solid rock. It is interesting to know that many feet below runs one of
the richest veins of Illinois coal.
The walls supporting the dome are 1 7 feet thick from the founda-
tion to the first story. They are built of granular magnesian limestone
from the sonora quarries of Hancock County.
The outer walls of the superstructure are of Niagara limestone,
that of the lower stories from the quarries of Jolict and that of the
upper stories from Lemont.
The extreme length of the building from north to south is 379
feet, and from east to west 268 feet. The height from the ground line
to the top of the dome is 361 feet, and to the tip of the flagstaff 405 feet,
the highest building in central Illinois. This led to the choice of the
State House dome for the installation of the red beacon which glows
throughout the night as a guidance for aviators. In 1949 the beacon
was equipped with an electronic "eye" which turns the lights on when
visibility reaches a certain low — day or night. It used to operate on a
clock device which turned the lights on in the evening and off in the
morning, making no provision for foggy or overcast days.
ILLINOIS STATE PARKS AND MEMORIALS
Apple River Canyon State Park. In Jo Daviess County, south and
west of Warren near State Route 78. 157.1 Acres. Here in the hilly
northern part of Illinois is a beautiful canyon which has been formed
by the action of the waters of winding Apple River. Footpaths along
its bank take visitors to vantage points affording close-up views of the
colorful canyon walls dotted with mosses, lichens and bushes. Other
footpaths lead to the tops of hills, from which Charles Mound, the
highest point in Illinois, 1,241 feet above sea level, can be seen ten miles
to the northwest.
Bishop Hill State Park. In Henry County at Bishop Hill, north of
U.S. Highway 34. 4.3 Acres. Principal point of interest in this State
Park is the Old Colony Church which was built in 1848 by the group
ILLINOISEDITION 969
of Swedish immigrants led by Eric Jensen who settled in Henry Coun-
ty in 1846. In the church building are many relics dealing with this
pioneer Swedish settlement.
Black Hawk State Park. In Rock Island County on State Route
2 at the south edge of Rock Island. 207.3 Acres. The hilly, wooded
terrain included within the boundaries of Black Hawk State Park is
the oldest recreational area in the Middle West if not in the entire
country. It has never been devoted to any other use except recreation or
ceremonial rites from times immemorial. One of the principal settle-
ments of the Sac and Fox Indian tribes was in the flat Rock River Val-
ley beneath the bluffs. It was here that the famed Chief Black Hawk
was born and raised. The most commanding point in the park has been
known for generations as Black Hawk's Watch Tower and according
to legend, it was there that he stood to watch for the approach of ene-
mies. Today, beautiful stone Watch Tower Inn and the museum hous-
ing the famed Hauberg Indian collection occupy this spot.
Bryant Cottage. In Piatt County at Bement on State Route 105
east of Decatur. The tiny frame cottage, home of Francis E. Bryant,
where Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas met the evening of
July 29, 1858, to make arrangements for their famous series of seven
debates.
Buffalo Rock State Park. Near Ottawa in LaSalle County. 43
Acres. Seen from across the Illinois River, Buffalo Rock resembles a
sleeping bison if one's imagination is reasonably active. The top of the
rock is a plateau-like level area with foot trails leading to cliff brinks
which afford delightful views of the Illinois River. A shelter house and
an enclosure with a herd of Buffalo adjoin the parking area atop the
rock.
Cahokia Court House. In St. Clair County, south of East St.
Louis, State Route 157. 1.5 Acres. The Cahokia Court House, with
many of the original timbers, is the oldest house in Illinois and most
certainly the elder of all court houses west of the Allegheny Mountains.
Thought to have been built shortly after 1737, it was the home of
Captain Jean Baptistc Saucier, builder of Fort de Chartres, and was
sold by his son, Francois, in 1 793 for a court house and jail, as which
it served until 1814 when Belleville displaced Cahokia as county seat.
970 LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
Cahokia Mounds State Park. In St. Clair and Madison Counties,
northeast of East St. Louis on U.S. Highway 40. 144.6. The famed
Cahokia Indian mounds are relics of an ancient Indian race living here
a century or more before Columbus. There are twelve mounds in the
park, the largest of which is huge Monk's Mound a few steps away from
busy Highway 40. This mound, which represents a greater expenditure
of human labor than the construction of the Great Pyramid of Egypt,
is covered with trees and shrubbery that have grown up on it through
the passage of years, but natural though the hill appears, it actually is
man-made. At the base of Monk's Mound is a museum in which may
be seen Indian relics and artifacts.
Cave-In-Rock State Park. In Hardin County near Cave-In-Rock,
State Route 1. 64.5 Acres. Cave-In-Rock, extending 108 feet back into
the cliff on the Illinois shore of the Ohio River, was once the lair of
blood-thirsty river pirates who preyed upon the thriving Ohio river
traffic. Later the notorious Harpe brothers used Cave-In-Rock as head-
quarters for their outlaw band which held the surrounding country in
a grip of terror. Federal troops eventually captured the survivors of
the gang in 1834 and the bloody history of Cave-In-Rock ended at that
time.
Dickson Mounds State Park. In Fulton County northwest of Ha-
vana, near State Routes 78 and 97. 24.5 Acres. Here is one of the most
important archeological discoveries ever made in Illinois, an Indian
mound that has been excavated, revealing over two hundred and thirty
skeletons which have been left in their original postures together with
their possessions such as pottery, weapons and oraments. A museum
houses artifacts and other material taken from the excavation.
Dixon Springs State Park. In Pope County between Vienna and
Golconda between State Routes 145 and 146. 391.4 Acres. The rugged-
ness of the region around Golconda, situated on the southern slope of
the Illinois Ozarks, is due in part to earth movements. Dixon Springs
State Park is located on a giant block of rock which was dropped down
two hundred feet along a fault line that extends across Pope County
just to the northwest. Rapid erosion has produced fantastic rock forma-
tions, with rivulets everywhere cascading down the hillsides, forming
more than 1,500 waterfalls of varying size and height.
ILLINOISEDITION 971
Fort Armstrong Blockhouse. On Rock Island in the Mississippi
River between Illinois and Iowa near U.S. Highway 150. This is an
authentic reproduction of one of the buildings of old Fort Armstrong
on the northwest tip of the island.
Fort Chartres State Park. In Randolph County near Prairie du
Rocher at the end of State Route 155. 19.6. At Fort Chartres, another
of the early French and English fortresses guarding the farthest frontier
in the 18th century, a unique method has been utilized to convey to the
visitor a true impression of the appearance of the original Fort. In
addition to the reconstruction of the massive gateway and faithful re-
production of some of the barracks buildings to serve as custodian quar-
ters and museum, the parade ground has been excavated to a depth of
several feet to expose the foundations of the original buildings. It re-
quires but little stretch of the imagination to project those foundations
to walls the height of the other buildings and to visualize the way Fort
Chartres appeared over two centuries ago when it housed French
troops, and a little later British Redcoats. The oldest building in the
Middle West, the original powder house, dating back over two centu-
ries, is still preserved to intrigue the imagination of visitors.
Fort Creve Coeur State Memorial. In Tazewell County on State
Route 29, southeast of Peoria. The site of a temporary fort built by
LaSalle in 1680. It was destroyed by mutinous French troops after the
departure of LaSalle and Tonti to explore Starved Rock as a site for a
permanent fort.
Fort Kaskaskia State Park. In Randolph County on State Route 3,
north of Chester. 201 Acres. In 1778, two years after the start of the
Revolutionary War, George Rogers Clark and his band of "Kentucky
Long Knives" undertook their history-making expedition to wrest Illi-
nois from the hands of the British, and it was at Fort Kaskaskia that
the decisive encounter in this expedition took place. Fort Kaskaskia
occupied the summit of the hill overlooking the town of Kaskaskia
which had been founded in 1703 by a group of French traders. It re-
mained under French control until 1765 when the British took over the
territory only to lose it a few years later to George Rogers Clark. The
log stockades have long since rotted away but the earthen ramparts of
the Fort can still be easily seen by visitors to the State Park. Adjoining
the site of the fort is Garrison Hill Cemetery, burial place of pioneer
972 LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
residents of Kaskaskia. At the foot of the hill is the white frame Home-
stead of Pierre Menard, first Lieutenant Governor of Illinois, complete
with its original furnishings and slave house at the rear. Shortly before
the turn of the century, flood waters of the Mississippi River broke
through the narrow strip of land separating it from the Kaskaskia River
a few miles upstream and the Mississippi changed its course, washing
away the last vestiges of the old town, the first capital of Illinois, on
the plain below.
Fort Massac State Park. In Massac County adjoining Metropolis
on U. S. Highway 45. 456 Acres. Here in June, 1778 Clark and his
"Kentucky Long Knives" hid their canoes up Massac Creek, east of
the then abandoned fort, setting out by foot for Kaskaskia. The spot
occupied by the original wood stockade fort has been excavated by
State archaeologists and many interesting and informative relics have
been uncovered. Posts outline the compound and buildings, and the sur-
rounding moat has been restored.
Fox Ridge State Park. In Coles County near Charleston, west of
State Route 130. 690.3 Acres. In sharp contrast to the flat prairies of
the central eastern part of Illinois is the area included in Fox Ridge
State Park, a heavily wooded tract on rolling hills rising from the banks
of the Embarras River. The Natural History Survey maintains an ex-
perimental area in Ridge Lake for the study of fish and aquatic life.
Giant City State Park. In Jackson and Union Counties south of
Carbondale, east of U. S. Highway 51. 1,522.6 Acres. It is not surprising
that this area was christened with such an imaginative name as "Giant
City," for here in the Illinois Ozarks is found one of the most amazing
rock formations in the nation. The ridge to the west of the Lodge is a
maze of huge blocks of stone with walls as vertical as the sides of a sky-
scraper aligned along "streets" as straight as though laid out by a sur-
veyor's transit, the result of some upheaval in the dim and distant past
which caused a bed of sandstone to slip over a deposit of shale. Other
strange formations are "Natural Amphitheater" and "Devil's Stand
Table." All of this is surrounded by the great natural beauty that is
found in the Ozark Mountains, where flourish many southern species
of plants and animals. A beautiful stone lodge contains a comfortable
lounge and a very attractive dining room and is located atop the highest
hill within the park, with comfortable guest houses nearby.
ILLINOISEDITION 973
Grand Marais State Park. In St. Clair County east of East St.
Louis between U. S. Highways 50 and 460. 1,125 Acres. Serving the
large populace of the East St. Louis region is one of the most popular
and complete recreational parks of the State. Its facilities include lakes
for boating and fishing, an 18-hole golf course, horseback riding, picnic
facilities and playgrounds.
Grant Home. At Galena, in Jo Daviess County on U. S. Highway
20. Shortly before the Civil War a tanner named Ulysses S. Grant
brought his family to live in Galena. With the start of hostilities, he
donned the uniform of his country and became the most successful
general in the Union Armies. When he returned home at the close of
the war, grateful citizens gave him a new home as a token of their
gratitude and esteem. This square brick house is now preserved as a
State Memorial to General U. S. Grant. It contains many of the orig-
inal furnishings and military trophies.
Illinois and Michigan Canal State Parkway. In Grundy and La-
Salle Counties extending from Channahon to Utica, paralleling U. S.
Highway 6. More than a century ago one of the principal arteries of
trade was the newly constructed Illinois-Michigan Canal, the forerunner
of the present Illinois Waterway. At Channahon, in the center of a very
attractive State Park, is one of the original locks of the old canal, re-
stored to working condition. It appears almost toy-like today by com-
parison with the tremendous locks and dams of the Illinois Waterway.
Across from the park entrance, a narrow one-way road branches off
south from the highway. This is one of the most interesting and beauti-
ful drives to be found anywhere in the State, the "Towpath Drive"
which follows the original towpath along the top of the dike separating
the old canal and the Illinois River. The Illinois-Michigan Canal State
Parkway also includes Illini State Park across the river from Marseilles,
the Aux Sable and Split Rock areas, and Gebhard Woods.
Illinois Beach State Park. In Lake County between Waukegan and
Zion, east of State Route 42. 1,114.5 Acres. A summer playground
easily accessible to more than half of the population of the State is Illi-
nois Beach State Park with its clean sandy beach stretching 3-and-a-
half miles along the shore of Lake Michigan. When development of
this park has been completed there will be ten separate sections each
with its own beach house, parking facilities, refreshment stands and
974 LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
guard service stations, connected by a 40-foot wide boardwalk. On the
inland side of the boardwalk, between parking areas, will be recreational
areas, and a nature preserve, with a profusion of flowers, shrubs, and
trees, many rare, and birds and small animals. Beach house, picnic
tables and adequate parking areas are already provided.
Jubilee College State Park. In Peoria County northwest of Peoria,
near U. S. Highway 150. 96 Acres. In Jubilee College State Park is
preserved a building of one of the earliest educational institutions to be
established in Illinois. Founded by the Right Reverend Philander Chase,
first Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Illinois, the College was char-
tered in 1847 and continued to function until the Bishop's death in
1852. After that time the College fell into financial straits and was
abandoned during the Civil War. In the small graveyard nearby, the
grave of Bishop Chase is marked by a stone lectern.
Kankakee River State Park. In Kankakee County near Kankakee,
State Route 1 13. 266 Acres. The Kankakee River, with its facilities for
boating and fishing, is a focal point for the area along its banks which
has been acquired by the State for park purposes. It is planned as a
purely recreational park with a minimum of artificial facilities.
Kickapoo State Park. In Vermilion County near Danville, State
Route 10. 1,578.7 Acres. Kickapoo State Park is not only a source of
much enjoyment to the outdoor lover for its beautiful scenery and its
boating, fishing, picnic, camping, hiking and riding facilities, but it is
also a striking demonstration of reclamation. Strip-mining operations left
the area a veritable "bad lands," with bare ridges of sub-soil separated
by deep gullies. Nature's efforts to camouflage this were aided by the
State and the result is an area of remarkable beauty with many lakes.
Lincoln Home. The Lincoln Home at Eighth and Jackson Streets,
Springfield, the only home that Abraham Lincoln ever owned, is an un-
pretentious white frame two-story building where he spent the early
years of his marriage, where three of his children were born and whence
he left to go to Washington to assume the Presidential chair. Visitors
see many of the original furnishings of the home as they are conducted
through the rooms in which the Lincoln family actually lived.
Lincoln Log Cabin State Park. In Coles County, south of Charles-
ton, near State Route 16. 86 Acres. Here is another Lincoln shrine, the
reproduction of the last home built and occupied by Abraham Lincoln's
ILLINOISEDITION 975
father, constructed in 1837, where Thomas Lincoln lived until his death
in 1851. The present reproduction has been so faithfully constructed
that to all intents and purposes, it seems to have endured a century of
withstanding the elements. Surrounding the park is a rail fence of the
exact type which Abraham Lincoln built to earn for himself the nick-
name, "The Rail Splitter." Three miles from the park is the cemetery
where Lincoln's father and step-mother are buried.
Lincoln National Memorial Highway. The approximately 250
miles of highways designated as the Lincoln National Memorial High-
way extend from the Illinois-Indiana border east of Lawrenceville, west
and north over U. S. Highways 50 and 36 and State Routes 33, 1, 121,
97, and connecting county roads to Beardstown. This route takes the
tourist to many Lincoln Shrines, including the Lincoln Trail Monu-
ment, Lincoln Log Cabin State Park, the Moore Home, Lincoln Home,
Lincoln Tomb and New Salem State Park.
Lincoln Tomb. The Lincoln Tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Spring-
field, is visited annually by many thousands of men, women and chil-
dren, including many visitors from foreign countries. As they stand be-
fore the huge marble sarcophagus none can fail to feel the tremendous
surge of reverence which comes over one upon beholding the resting
place of the Great Emancipator.
Lincoln Trail Monument. Nine miles east of Lawrenceville on
U. S. Highway 50. In a small roadside park at the approach to the
Illinois end of the Lincoln Memorial Bridge, stands the impressive Lin-
coln Trail Monument. This, the work of sculptress Nellie Walker, de-
picts the youthful Abraham Lincoln walking beside the covered wagon
carrying the worldly possessions of the Lincoln family when they en-
tered Illinois at this point in March, 1830. This is the starting point of
the Lincoln National Memorial Highway.
Lowden Memorial State Park. In Ogle County on the east bank of
the Rock River near Oregon, north of State Route 64. 274.2 Acres. As
the motorist drives north or south on Highway 2 between Dixon and
Rockford, at a point just north of Oregon his eyes are caught by a
tremendous concrete statue towering 250 feet above Rock River on a
high hilltop on the opposite bank. This is the so-called "Black Hawk
Statue," created by the famous American sculptor Lorado Taft to
typify the Redman who once roamed this area. A close-up view of the
976 LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
statue is afforded by visiting Lowden Memorial State Park which sur-
rounds it.
Matthiessen State Park. In LaSalle County near Oglesby, south of
State Route 71. 174.6 Acres. In Matthiessen State Park, one of the
more recently acquired State Park properties, the visitor sees a rare
combination of scenic beauties and plant, animal and bird life. Over
fifty varieties of birds may be counted in the park and found here also
are many small animals such as rabbits, raccoons, opossums, muskrats,
and a herd of deer. The natural beauties are similar to those of nearby
Starved Rock State Park. Another point of interest is a reconstruction
of a block house of the type which was common on the frontier a
century and more ago.
Metamora Court House. In Woodford County on State Route 116,
northeast of Peoria. Preserved here as one of the many Lincoln Memo-
rials, is one of the court houses on the old Eighth Circuit where Abra-
ham Lincoln practiced law.
Mississippi Palisades State Park. In Carroll County on State Route
80 north of Savanna. 895.9 Acres. The east bank of the Mississippi
River in the northern part of Illinois is a series of lofty bluffs with
vertical out-croppings of limestone which give this area its name. The
most beautiful part of this entire stretch of scenic grandeur has been
set aside as a State Park. Well-marked foot trails lead the visitors along
paths once worn smooth by the moccasined feet of Indians to the very
tops of high palisades and sweeping views of the mighty "Father of
Waters" and the distant Iowa shore. Most striking of the strange rock
formations are "Indian Head Rock" and "Twin Sisters." Bob Upton's
Cave is a tiny fissure in the high wall in which the white youth lay con-
cealed while marauding Indians sought him to complete their grim
work of wiping out the population of his nearby village.
Mt. Pulaski Court House. In Logan County on U. S. Highway 54,
26 miles northeast of Springfield. One of the court houses on the old
Eighth Circuit where Abraham Lincoln practiced law, preserved as a
State Memorial.
Nauvoo State Park. In Hancock County on State Route 96. In this
town of some 1,000 population are preserved memories of its former
glory, when as home of the Mormons, from 1839 to 1846, it attained a
population of nearly 20,000 . . . then the largest city in Illinois. Points
ILLINOIS EDITION 977
of interest are the Orient Hotel, home of Joseph Smith, founder of Mor-
monism, site of the Mormon Temple and other buildings relating to
the Mormons.
New Salem State Park, "The Lincoln Village." In Menard County
on State Routes 123 and 97, 20 miles northwest of Springfield. 280.4
Acres. Most impressive of all Lincoln Memorials is New Salem State
Park. Here, reproduced in flawless authenticity, is the village where
Abraham Lincoln studied law by the light of the burning shavings in
the fireplace of Henry Onstott's cooperage, where he clerked in a store,
embarked upon his own ill-fated business venture as a storekeeper,
served as postmaster, where he met and loved Ann Rutledge. It was
from New Salem that he was first elected to public office as a Repre-
sentative in the State Legislature. The visitor seems to step back a cen-
tury in time as he enters the village of log buildings. From dwelling to
dwelling, from cooperage to store to doctor's office to tavern to carding
mill and to grist mill, the visitor makes his way through New Salem,
pausing to view the interiors of all these buildings. Each has been fur-
nished exactly as it appeared during the years that Lincoln lived there.
In the Lincoln-Berry store and the Hill-McNeil store are the actual
type of wares that the storekeepers dealt in. At the foot of the hill,
away from the village itself, and just off the highway, is a delightful
rustic restaurant, The Wagon Wheel, where luncheons and dinners are
served daily throughout most of the year.
Pere Marquette State Park. In Jersey County on State Route 100,
6 miles west of Grafton. 5,179.9 Acres. Largest of all Illinois State
Parks is the one named for Father Jacques Marquette, whose journal
records the first entrance of white men into Illinois. A simple but maj-
estic cross marks the point where Father Marquette, Louis Joliet and
five companions turned their canoes up the Illinois River one autumn
day in 1673. In the nature museum within the park can be seen animal
and bird life indigenous to the region. The roadway leading into the
park winds up to the tops of many of the hills from which vantage
points the Illinois River Valley spreads out before the beholder. Com-
plete facilities for vacationers are provided at Pere Marquette State
Park. These include a fine lodge with guest rooms, lounge and splendid
restaurant and delightful stone rustic guest houses.
978 LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
Red Hills State Park. In Lawrence County between Sumner and
Lawrenceville near U. S. Highway 50. 797.7 Acres. One of the newest
State Parks, this wooded, rolling area is one of wild natural beauty.
The northwestern boundary of the historic "Vincennes Tract," ceded
by the Indians in 1795 to Gen. "Mad Anthony" Wayne at Greenville,
Ohio, crosses the park.
Shawneetown State Memorial. In Gallatin County at Shawnee-
town, State Route 13. 40 Acres. Shawneetown, settled in the early part
of the 19th century, was the gateway to the Illinois country. The teem-
ing traffic of the Ohio River bringing freight and passengers to settle
the Midwest, passed through Shawneetown on the way to the great
Middle Border. The memorial occupying the site of the original village
preserves many of the landmarks, such as the Bank Building and the
historic Posey Building.
Siloam Springs State Park. In Adams and Brown Counties near
Kellerville, north of State Route 104. 2,047 Acres. This newly-acquired
tract of land in west-central Illinois occupies a beautifully-wooded area
of rolling country mid-way between the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers
east of Quincy. Plans for developing recreational and other facilities
are under way.
Spitler Woods State Park. In Macon County near Mt. Zion, State
Route 121. 202.5 Acres. Deeply shaded ravines and towering trees in a
true "forest primeval" are the lures which attract city dwellers of Illi-
nois to Spitler Woods State Park, one of the most beautiful areas of its
kind in the State.
Springfield. In Sangamon County, on U. S. Highways 66, 36 and
54. Springfield, in addition to being the seat of government for all of
Illinois, is a tourist objective with many points of interest. Dominating
the entire city is the dome of the Capitol Building. On the second floor
around the circular well beneath the dome are statues of numerous
Governors of the State, and below the dome the interior is a circular
bas relief frieze depicting scenes in the lives of pioneer settlers of Illi-
nois. The State House grounds are dotted with the statues of men
famous in Illinois history. The Centennial Building, south of the State
House, commemorates the centenary of the admission of Illinois into
the Union in 1818. On the first floor is magnificent Memorial Hall on
each side of which are displayed the flags of the Illinois Regiments, and
ILLINOISEDITION 979
the Gold Star Mothers Memorial. The Illinois State Museum on the
fifth floor is one of the most interesting places to visitors. The San-
gamon County Court House, in the center of the business district, was
the building started in 1837, which served as the fifth Capitol of the
State. It was here that Lincoln made his famous "house divided against
itself" speech. Numerous markers in the downtown section commemo-
rate events in Lincoln's life.
Starved Rock State Park. In LaSalle County between Ottawa and
LaSalle on State Route 71. 1,436.65 Acres. Throughout this park,
reached by inviting foot-trails or by boat trips from the river, are amaz-
ing rock formations and canyons filled with a profusion of plant life
and exhibiting nature's imaginative handiwork formed in sandstone by
water, minerals and unceasing wind. When Father Jacques Marquette
and Louis Joliet first visited here in 1673 they found a tremendous en-
campment of the Kaskaskias in the shadows of Starved Rock. It was
on the very top of Starved Rock that Robert Cavalier Sieur de LaSalle
ordered the construction of Fort St. Louis du Rocher. The name Starved
Rock is derived, according to tradition, from the incident in 1769 when
a band of Illinois Indians, besieged on its top by the Pottawatomies,
and unable to secure food or water, perished rather than surrender.
Facilities at Starved Rock are complete. The rustic lodge offers de-
lightful accommodations for overnight stays, weekends or complete
vacations. The restaurant is open to the public throughout the year.
Ample parking facilities, a camping ground with modern conveniences,
children's playground, and rest rooms are provided.
Vandalia State House. In Fayette County, on U. S. Highways 40
and 51. Here is preserved the fourth State Capitol of Illinois, erected in
1836. Abraham Lincoln served here as one of Sangamon County's Rep-
resentatives in the State Legislature. He was instrumental in having
Springfield designated as the new State Capital in the 1837 session. In
this building also was issued the city charter of Chicago, on March 4,
1837. In front of the building stands the magnificent "Madonna of the
Trail" Monument, honoring the pioneer women who accompanied their
husbands to the Middle Border.
White Pines Forest State Park. In Ogle County, 9 miles west of
Oregon, between State Route 2 and U. S. Highway 52. 385 Acres. In
this beautiful State Park is preserved the southernmost large stand of
980 LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
White Pines in the United States. The terrain which lends so much
beauty to White Pines Forest also served to protect the timber from
the ravages of the woodsman's axe. Entering the park, the roadway
leads first into a broad sheltered valley almost completely surrounded
by majestic bluffs rising sheer from the surface of winding Pine Creek.
High atop the bluffs rise the mighty white pines, towering as high as
90 to 100 feet, many with diameters of 2-and-one-half feet. Parking
areas are provided at intervals along the highway within the park, and
inviting footpaths lead up to the tops of the bluffs. In the center of a
level hilltop area, there is a clearing upon which faces the rustic lodge
which houses a lounge and dining room. Surrounding it are modern
overnight cottages of the same rustic construction to harmonize with
their setting.
Chicago, "Wonder City of the World." The early history of Chi-
cago is a record of overcoming difficulties and doubts about the future.
When Illinois was admitted to the Union in 1818 and many downstate
towns were already well established, only a few traders and settlers
had located in the vicinity of the new Fort Dearborn, built on the site
of the earlier fort which had been burned by the Indians after the
bloody massacre of August 15, 1812. In fact it took a second Indian
War — the Black Hawk War of 1832 — to open northern Illinois to
settlement and bring Chicago to the attention of large numbers of
people. After that its destiny was not to be denied. By 1833 it had
enough settlers to be incorporated as a town, and in 1837 it received
its charter from the State as a city. From then until 1870 was a period
of steady growth. Then in October, 1871 came the fire that leveled the
entire business district and much of the best residntial section, taking
300 lives and leaving 90,000 people homeless. From these ashes rose
the new Chicago, bigger and greater than ever before. Today Chicago is
the second city of the nation, famed as a center of meat packing, indus-
try, trade, manufacturing, culture and transportation. To the visitor
its more interesting aspects are its many recreational facilities and its
countless points of interest . . . the twenty-two miles of beaches that
line the lake front and such famed museums as the Chicago Natural
History Museum (formerly known as the Field Museum of Natural
History), the Museum of Science and Industry, the Adler Planetarium,
the Shedd Aquarium, the Art Institute of Chicago and, in Lincoln Park,
ILLINOIS EDITION 981
the Chicago Historical Society and the Chicago Academy of Sciences.
In addition to the museums named above which are in Jackson, Grant
and Lincoln Parks, are the famed Lincoln Park Zoo and the huge Con-
servatory in Garfield Park, one of the world's greatest collections of
floral and plant life. Surrounding Chicago are bands of wooded areas
in the Forest Preserve District of Cook County. Southwest of the city
is the Chicago Zoological Gardens, more familiarly known as the
Brookfield Zoo, one of the finest zoological gardens in the world.
COUNTY NAMES AND THEIR ORIGINS
Six counties of Illinois, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe,
Adams, and Jackson, were named for Presidents of the United States;
Adams for John Quincy Adams, sixth President, and not for John
Adams, second President, as is sometimes stated.
Four counties, Bond, Coles, Edwards, and Ford, were named, res-
pectively for the first, second, third and seventh Governors of Illinois.
Bond received its name the year before the election of the first Governor
of the State.
Sixteen counties were named for other citizens of the State, promi-
nent in different walks of life.
Alexander, for William M. Alexander, an early settler of the
county bearing his name and Senator in the second and third General
Assemblies of the State.
Cook, for Daniel P. Cook, a pioneer lawyer, first Attorney General
of the State and Representative in Congress from 1819 to 1827.
Douglas, for Stephen A. Douglas, an eminent lawyer, brilliant pol-
itical orator, Secretary of State (1840), Representative in Congress
(1843-1847), United States Senator (1847-1861), and candidate for
the Presidency in 1860.
Edgar, for John Edgar, a pioneer merchant, politician and land
speculator.
Kane, for Elias Kent Kane, a pioneer lawyer, Territorial judge,,
prominent member of the Constitutional Convention of 1818, first Sec-
retary of the State of Illinois, and later United States Senator.
Logan, for Dr. John Logan, a pioneer physician, father of General
John A. Logan.
982 LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
McHenry, for William McHenry, a pioneer of White County,
soldier of the War of 1812 and the Black Hawk war, Representative in
the first, fourth, fifth and ninth General Assemblies, and Senator in the
sixth.
McLean, for John McLean, a pioneer lawyer, Territorial judge,
first Representative in Congress from Illinois (1818), and United States
Senator (1824-1825).
Menard, for Pierre Menard, a pioneer Indian trader, Colonel of
Territorial militia, and first Lieutenant Governor of the State.
Ogle, for Joseph Ogle, pioneer politician and Lieutenant of Terri-
torial militia.
Piatt, for Benjamin Piatt, a pioneer lawyer and Attorney General
of the Territory (1810-1813).
Pope, for Nathaniel Pope, first Territorial Secretary of State
(1809-1816), and last Territorial Delegate to Congress from Illinois.
Stephenson, for Benjamin Stephenson, prominent pioneer, a Colo-
nel, Territorial militia, and Adjutant General of the Territory (1813-
1814).
White, for Leonard White, pioneer of Gallatin County, Major of
Territorial militia, member of Constitutional Convention of 1818, State
Senator in second and third General Assemblies, and killed at battle of
Tippecanoe, Nov. 7, 1811.
Whiteside, for Samuel Whiteside, a Colonel of Territorial militia,
Representative in the First General Assembly, and Brigadier General
of militia during Black Hawk War.
Will, for Conrad Will, a pioneer politician, Territorial Recorder of
Jackson County, member of the Constitutional Convention of 1818,
and member of the General Assemblies of the State from the first to
ninth inclusive.
Twenty-two counties were named in honor of military heroes,
generally of the Revolution, but some of later wars.
McDonough, for Thomas McDonough, a Commodore of the
United States Navy, who commanded the fleet on Lake Champlain in
a successful engagement with the British fleet, near Plattsburg, 1814.
Perry, for Oliver Hazard Perry, a Commodore of the United
States Navy, who won distinction as Commander of the fleet in the
battle of Lake Erie, in 1813.
ILLINOISEDITION 983
Twenty-one counties were named for statesmen and politicians,
not citizens of Illinois some of whom had distinguished themselves in
military as well as civilian life.
Calhoun, for John C. Calhoun, a lawyer and statesman, Repre-
sentative in Congress and United States Senator from South Carolina,
Secretary of War under Monroe, Vice-President of the United States,
and Secretary of State under Tyler, and was recognized as the "Father
of Nullification."
Carroll, for Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a statesman of the
Revolutionary period, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and
United States Senator from Maryland.
Cass, for Lewis Cass, a soldier as well as statesman, Territorial
Governor of Michigan, Minister to France, United States Senator from
Michigan, Secretary of War under Jackson, Secretary of State under
Buchanan, and at one time a prominent candidate for the Presidency.
Clay, for Henry Clay, a statesman and political orator, Repre-
sentative in Congress and United States Senator from Kentucky, three
times Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, famous
as the author of the political measures known as the "Missouri Com-
promise," and a prominent candidate for the Presidency.
Clinton, for DeWitt Clinton, a distinguished lawyer, financier and
statesman, Mayor of the city and Governor of the State of New York,
United States Senator and chief promoter of the Erie Canal.
Crawford, for William H. Crawford of Georgia, United States
Senator, Minister of France, Secretary of War, Secretary of the Treas-
ury, and a prominent candidate for the Presidency in 1824.
Franklin, for Benjamin Franklin, philosopher, statesman, diplomat-
ist, author, printer, a member of the Continental Congress, Ambassador
to France, and (before the Revolution) Deputy Postmaster General of
the British Colonies in America.
Gallatin, for Albert Gallatin, a statesman and financier, Repre-
sentative in Congress from Pennsylvania, Secretary of the Treasury of
the United States, and Minister to PVance and England.
Grundy, for Felix Grundy, a lawyer and politician, United States
Senator from Tennessee, and Attorney General of the United States.
Hamilton, for Alexander Hamilton, a soldier, statesman, author
and financier, aid to the staff of Washington during the Revolution,
984 LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
a member of the Continental Congress, first Secretary of the Treasury
(1789-1795), and Commander-in-Chief of the United States Army in
1799.
Hancock, for John Hancock, a prominent figure of the Revolution-
ary period, a Major General of militia, President of the Continental
Congress, first signer of the Declaration, and first Governor of the
State of Massachusetts.
Henry, for Patrick Henry, a lawyer, orator and statesman of the
Revolutionary period, a member of the Continental Congress, and
Governor of Virginia.
Kendall, for Amos Kendall, a successful politician and journalist,
Postmaster General under Jackson, and as partner of S. F. B. Morse,
the inventor of the electric telegraph, he contributed largely to the com-
mercial success of that invention.
Lee, for Richard Henry Lee, an orator and statesman of the Rev-
olutionary period, a member of the Continental Congress, a Represent-
ative in Congress and United States Senator from Virginia.
Livingston, for Edward Livingston, a lawyer and statesman, Mayor
of New York City, Representative in Congress from New York and
later from Louisiana, United States Senator from the latter state, Sec-
retary of State under Jackson, and United States Minister to France.
Macon, for Nathaniel Macon, a Colonel during the Revolution
and later a Representative and United States Senator in Congress from
North Carolina. He strenuously opposed the adoption of the United
States Constitution as conferring powers on the Federal government
which should be reserved to the States.
Marshall, for John Marshall, a soldier of the Revolution, states-
man, author and jurist, Ambassador to France, Representative in Con-
gress from Virginia, Secretary of State and Chief Justice of the United
States Supreme Court.
Randolph, for Edmund Randolph, a soldier of the Revolution, a
lawyer and statesman, member of the Continental Congress, Attorney
General and Governor of Virginia, Secretary of State of the United
States and Attorney General under Washington.
Shelby, for Isaac Shelby, a soldier of the Revolution and Indian
wars, Governor of Kentucky (1792-1796) and again ( 1812-1816). He
ILL1NOISEDITION 985
commanded the Kentucky troops in the battle of the Thames in the
War of 1812.
Tazewell, for Lyttleton W. Tazewell, an eminent lawyer, Gover-
nor, Representative in Congress, and United States Senator from Vir-
ginia.
Nine counties of Illinois adopted the names of counties of other
states through the influence of immigrants from the counties whose
names were thus adopted: Champaign and Richland from Ohio; Chris-
tian, Hardin, Henderson, Mason, Scott, and Woodford from Kentucky;
and Williamson from Tennessee.
Seven counties bear Indian names, given originally, as a general
rule, to a creek, river or lake, and afterward transferred to the county.
These named are Iroquois, Kankakee, Macoupin, Peoria, Sangamon,
Fourteen other counties derive their names from sources so diverse
that they cannot easily be classified under any special head.
Boone, for Daniel Boone, a pioneer hunter, Indian fighter and
pathfinder of the early days.
Bureau, for Pierre Buero, a French trader with the Indians.
Cumberland, from the Cumberland road, named in its turn from
the town of Cumberland, Maryland, which derived its name from the
mountain range of the same name adopted, presumably, from the Cum-
berland mountains of Great Britain.
DuPage, from a small river of the same name said to have derived
its name from a French trapper and trader of that region.
Effingham, for Lord Edward Effingham, who resigned his com-
mission as general in the British army, 1775, refusing to serve in the
war against the colonies.
Fulton, for Robert Fulton, the first successful builder of steam-
boats on American waters.
Jersey, for the State of New Jersey, which derived its name from
the Isle of Jersey, Great Britain.
Lake, for Lake Michigan.
LaSalle, for Robert de LaSalle, the French explorer who effected
the first white settlements in Illinois and explored the Mississippi to
the Gulf.
Massac, from Fort Massac, a corruption of a French surname,
Massiac.
986 LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
Rock Island, from the rock island of that name in the Mississippi.
Saline, from Saline creek, so called on account of numerous salt
springs in that locality.
Union, from the federal union of the American States.
Vermilion, from the river of that name, the principal branches
of which flow through the county.
A REPORT ON THE ECONOMIC PROSPECTS
OF SOUTHERN ILLINOIS
By Richardson Wood & Company, Chicago
THE GIFTS OF NATURE
Southern Illinois is at the very heart and center of an enormously
rich continent still being actively developed. The winters in this heart-
land are mild, the summers tolerable. Here, two great navigable rivers
join, one tapping the wheat and corn of the northern plains, the other
tapping the iron and coal from Pittsburgh and Wheeling. Together,
they form a stream that is a highway for cotton, lumber and oil, and
an outlet to the oceans of the world. Here, many railways pass, seeking
all points of the compass. Here, a highway network converges on two
great bridges spanning the rivers. Transcontinental pipelines carrying
natural gas and petroleum products furrow the fields. Within a few
hundred miles, a number of large cities are located. Bursting out of
the earth right across the area are thick seams of coal. A few miles
northeast of them, hundreds of wells pump crude oil to the surface.
Small wonder that such a scene has given rise to visions of Empire.
But the visions have failed to materialize for the most part. Instead of
Empire, there is a dwindling population and a rising relief load.
Hence this brief outlining the situation and suggesting certain efforts
to remedy it.
A "ONE-CROP^ ECONOMY
A hundred years of modern technology and energetic enterprise
have swept through Southern Illinois and passed on, leaving little more
than a desperately struggling coal industry. For coal is the one natural
resource of Southern Illinois that has invited exploitation on a relatively
ILLINOISEDITION 987
large scale. The area has for many years been a convenient mid-con-
tinent fueling station for the country's railroads. The thick seams that
outcrop along the east-west line running through Harrisburg, Marion
and Carbondale were first dug in a series of small claims. Many of the
remaining mines here are still small. As one goes north, the seams lie
deeper and the scale of the operation required to mine them becomes
larger. Finally the seams dip too deep for economical mining and are
no longer sought until they rise nearer to the surface in Central Illinois.
. . . FINDS A LIMIT
There will, in all probability, be an important coal mining business
in Southern Illinois for many years to come, since the reserves are
enormous. However, the area can no longer safely look to coal as the
economic mainstay of its existence, and this for several reasons. The
market for coal is sharply limited by competitive power sources. The
railroads are resorting increasingly to Diesel locomotives. Industries
and homes are using more oil and natural gas. To combat this process
of market attrition and to meet the wage requirements of labor, the
coal industry has devised ways and means of mining coal with fewer
men. Mechanization of the mines has virtually doubled man-hour out-
put. The industry is constantly seeking new and better ways of using
coal, but these efforts often result in a net diminution of coal demand,
since each pound of coal is made to render more energy. The high sul-
phur content of Illinois coal precludes, or at best sharply restricts, its
use for metallurgical coke except when blended with other coals, and
impairs its usefulness as a source of raw chemicals.
OTHER RESOURCES MARGINAL
Besides coal, Nature gave Southern Illinois very little, and what
few small gifts were offered, notably forests and some rich bottom
lands, have claimed relatively little attention. Just south of the coal
outcropping, a line of low hills rises, almost filling the entire tip of
the State. These hills, sometimes called the "Illinois Ozarks," are an
eastward extension of the Ozark Plateau of Arkansas and Southern
Missouri. They will grow trees, and they provide, here and there where
the slopes are not too steep, some pasture. In the center are many apple
and peach orchards. Flanking them and running to the bluffs over-
988 LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
looking either river are forest lands. Below the bluffs lie strips of bottom
land, for the most part drained and protected by levees from floods,
and capable of growing many crops.
North of the line of hills, above the coal measures, an almost im-
permeable hardpan reaches up to the shallow grass roots. Here and
there it is cultivated, but the yield scarcley repays the effort. Heavy
rains falling on this surface often make flash floods in the low-lying
spots. Surface water such as this is impounded in Crab Orchard Lake
and other smaller ponds. It runs off to either river in a number of
smaller creeks. Impounded surface water is about all that is available
for use. Sub-surface water is rare, and where it is found, it is often
polluted with sulphur from the coal. River water along the banks of
the Ohio and the Mississippi is, of course, abundant, but usually requires
treatment for industrial or municipal use.
The oil fields lie to the north of the coal area and extend into
Central Illinois. They bring in a satisfactory income, but, as oil fields
go, they are small producers and provide no such base for refining and
chemical operations as do the great fields along the Gulf Coast.
A GEOGRAPHICAL PARADOX
It is surprising that an area bounded by the confluences of the
Missouri, the Mississippi, the Tennessee and the Ohio should be short
of water. Yet, such is the case!
It is surprising that land in the center of a continental river basin
should be for the most part too poor to support normal crops. But
Southern Illinois, despite its popular nick-name of "Egypt," is no valley
of the Nile, no Mesopotamia.
It is surprising that a land rich in coal, the bed-rock of the Indus-
trial Revolution, should have been passed by in the race for indus-
trialization. But, as in many another place where Nature has placed
coal, other more common gifts have been withheld or have seemed too
meager to exploit.
THE HAND OF MAN
The five or six principal coal mining counties of Southern Illinois
offer an ethnographic feature that may be unique in the U. S. In a
belt that stretches approximately seventy miles east and west and is
ILLINOISEDITION 989
about fifty miles across at its widest, there are many small towns, only
two of them just exceeding ten thousand in population. Yet the popu-
lation of this belt approaches 250,000, nearly half of whom live out-
side of the towns — very few of them full-time farmers. The belt has
properly been called a "dispersed city." It is a city of miners, many now
employed intermittently and all of them accustomed to drive as far
as twenty-five miles to the pithead that calls for their labor.
The highways of this section are the avenues of the Dispersed City,
and the back roads are its residential streets. Automobiles run to and
fro at all hours of the day and night. Traffic counts show far higher
densities than are customary in country districts between towns of
the size found here. The automobile business has flourished in spite of,
perhaps partly because of, the irregularities of coal mining.
IMPROVED REAL ESTATE— AN ASSET IN DANGER
The dollar value of the social plant in this area — the homes, high-
ways, stores, schools and other buildings and utilities necessary to the
residents— is of the order of $200,000,000 to $300,000,000. Unemploy-
ment has caused the premature obsolescence of part of this investment
and threatens the obsolescence of much more. The burden of this loss is
concentrated in the area for the reason that mortgage lenders from
outside avoid loans in the area. They shun the area not only because
of its economic condition, but because many houses and buildings are
undermined.
Just what the annual loss may be from accelerated obsolescence is
not closely calcluable, but it must be at least $10,000,000 a year in ex-
cess of normal obsolescence. In addition to this intangible depreciation
there is a direct cost to government in relief. The amount of relief in
Southern Illinois that can be traced to abnormal unemployment re-
quires a direct annual expenditure by the State alone well in excess of
$6,000,000.
Under such circumstances it is often asked whether emigration
may not be the only answer. Many people have left the area to find jobs
in more flourishing parts of the country. Should not more people be en-
couraged to follow them? The question may be considered on a dollars-
and-cents basis and on the basis of human attitudes.
990 LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
As to dollars and cents, the investment in the social plant of an
area — the houses, stores, schools and roads — normally is three to five
times as great as the investment in the direct productive capacity that
supports the social plant. Since the social plant is indispensable to pro-
duction and must be provided if it does not already exist, the tendency
is wherever possible to bring the jobs to the people rather than move
the people to the job. There are familiar exceptions. A war-time ship-
yard, a valley newly opened by irrigation, a boom anywhere will draw
population and justify the building of new homes and stores and utili-
ties. A played-out mine in remote mountains will leave a ghost town
that is seldom worth salvaging. But in most times and in most places
the existance to people and their homes can be made to attract jobs.
Southern Illinois is obviously such a place. It is reasonably near
to many large cities. It has good transportation. It has proved its case
already by attracting such well-established firms as Norge, Sangamo
Electric and Hoosier-Cardinal Corporation, and by inducing Pickens,
Roberts and Mayor, a lively young team of Free Enterprisers who came
to strip coal, to remain to start a couple of spirited new ventures.
THE COUNTRYSIDE— AN ASSET STILL
UNDERDEVELOPED
There are a few minor assets that might well be developed some-
what further than they have been. They are: Land along the river bot-
toms suitable for growing truck crops; land in the hills and north of
them suitable for pasturage; timber lands now ready for cutting in two
national forests and on farmers' lots; orchards whose produce might
bring more income to the area if it were processed before shipping.
Not one of these assets is strictly first class in current commercial
terms. There is better developed country for canning and freezing
operations in Indiana, New Jersey and Minnesota. There is better
pasturage in parts of Kansas, Kentucky and Pennsylvania. There are
better forests in Louisiana, Oregon and even present-day Maine. There
are better apple orchards in New York and Washington, and better
peach orchards in Georgia. Commercial firms interested in resources
such as these will look in many places for them before they look any
further here. Although the commercial principle may no longer be
ILLINOISEDITION 991
the "mine-and-move-on" of the frontier, no commercial firm seeks a
marginal source of supply if it can find anything better.
Since the minor assets of Southern Illinois are marginal, their
further development calls for a modest and cautious approach, in a
European spirit of conservation, patience, and making the best one can
of what is there. For this reason, we have shown in one of our exhibits
the minimum in a timber collecting, cutting and grading operation.
Such an operation could grow into a small wood fabricating and pro-
cessing center. Other such operations could be started in other parts
of the area as the national forests in this part of Illinois reach a continu-
ous yield basis. The total value of all timber now standing in Southern
Illinois, if cut and sawed, exceeds $100,000,000. There is a chance that
income from wood can reach a sustained yield of $50 per acre per year
over a large area. This might not be a bonanza, but it would not be
destitution either.
The opportunities in pasturage arise from the fact that much of the
land adaptable to pasture is so poor that it can be acquired for around
$15 an acre. Expenditure of another $30 to $40 per acre can bring
it to the point at which it will produce a value of $60 to $80 in cattle
per year at the end of the fifth year and lesser returns somewhat sooner.
Similarly, a part of the fallow bottom lands along the rivers can be
quickly brought back into use by heavy harrowing at a cost of $10 to
$15 per acre. Further cultivation can fit this land for canning and
freezing crops. Planting of these crops might be stimulated by the ex-
istence of nearby processing facilities, such as we have suggested in
another exhibit forming a part of this report.
THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE
The natural inclinations of the people of the area reinforce the
conclusion that the existing social plant and the resources of the coun-
tryside should be used to the full rather than gradually abandoned in
part. The people like the place. It has been observed in many other
coal mining districts less pleasant to live in than this one that miners
are reluctant to move away when the mines can no longer support them.
Whatever that tendency may be, it is strengthened in this area by the
agreeableness of the surroundings. Unlike many other coal mining dis-
tricts, the climate is mild. Unlike many other mining districts, the land
992 LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
is flat and easy to come by. With care it will grow a few vegetables and
support a few chickens. The people are devoted to it. The slightest
rumor that a mine may be opening up will bring hundreds native sons
back from the northern cities to which they have migrated. They re-
turn often for vacations and regularly inquire whether is any work for
them locally. A recent call for tool and die makers issued from the area
on behalf of a prospective metal working operation brought out five
hundred applications from qualified men. Most of them were located
in Detroit, Toledo, Chicago or Milwaukee, but they had all been raised
in Southern Illinois and they all wanted to get back there. There is
no question but what the greatest asset of the area is its people — those
who are there now and those who wish they could come back.
The economic resources of a region are largely determined by
human attitudes towards the gifts of nature. To the American Indians
economic resources were deer and buffalo. To the nineteenth century
empire builders economic resources were stands of virgin timber, de-
posits of high-grade ores and coal, prime plowlands, low-cost hydro
sites, and gusher oil wells. In modern communities concerned with
their own survival and progress, economic resources are found increas-
ing in the ingenuity and efforts of their own members. In the insepara-
ble union of people and things that constitutes an economic resource the
emphasis is shifting from the quality and suantity of the fortuitious
gifts of nature to the acquired skills of men's hands and to the deliberate
imagination of the heads that guide them.
Insofar as the people of Southern Illinois accept this shift and
make the most of it, they can pull themselves out of their recent
troubles. Their attitude, as well as we have been able to observe it,
is one of determination to do all they can for the land they love, and
to accept outside help in their tasks only as a supplement to their own
efforts and initiative.
AN OPERATING AGENCY
Resolution to make the best of the situation as it stands is a begin-
ning. But resolution alone will not solve the intricate problems of eco-
nomic development. Some skilled agency must shape up the economic
projects that seem to make sense and keep after them until they are
established as going concerns, or else abandoned as hopeless.
ILLINOISEDITION 993
Southern Illinois already has such an agency. Its name is "South-
ern Illinois Incorporated." Its office is at Carterville. Its directors and
supporters are local businessmen and Chambers of Commerce. Its staff
is a graduate engineer and a secretary. Its disbursements this year have
been at an annual rate of $12,000.
Under the circumstances the achievement of Southern Illinois Inc.
has been remarkable. It has had a hand, along with others, in the
establishment in the area of several manufacturing plants. It has built
up contacts with about a hundred manufacturing concerns that have
from time to time considered a location in the area. It has prepared
plans for the conversion of a portion of the Crab Orchard Lake Arsenal
property into a modern industrial estate. But all of this has not been
enough to meet adequately the unemployment situation that Southern
Illinois Inc. was created to meet. The funds available have been too
meagre to maintain a minimum rounded job of economic development,
even after allowing for all the services such an organization can com-
mand free of charge.
ESSENTIAL ACTIVITIES
A minimum job of economic development, as we see it, has the
following elements:
1. a continuous survey of specific employment opportunities;
2. a staff competent to shape up as projects the opportunities re-
vealed from time to time by the survey;
3. a staff capable of securing capital and/or management for the
worthwhile projects not provided with these essentials.
The survey requires one or two men at least, traveling almost con-
stantly. They call on corporations, on banks, and on scientific centers,
seeking to find out what branch plants are under consideration and
what new processes and new products may require manufacturing faci-
lities. It will take them many months to make the rounds the economic
picture will have changed enough so that another round will produce
different results. This is the reason why the survey should be continu-
ous.
When the survey men make their calls, they seek to match up the
resources of their home area with the requirements of the new plants
994 LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
under consideration. If there seems to be any possibility of a successful
matching up, then the survey man marks down a prospect and goes on
with his calls. A project manager takes over the prospect and begins
to collect the detailed facts on sites, utilities, labor supply and so on
that are required before any decision can be reached to locate a plant.
Each prospect calls for a separate study, and this study may extend
over a period of months. Because of the intensity of the study required
and the length of time it lasts, no one man can do the survey work and
the project study at the same time. No one man can handle adequately
more than a very limited number of active projects.
To the extent that the prospects uncovered can supply all of their
own capital, the operation so far outlined should be enough. But many
worthwhile prospects may be found where capital is lacking or restrict-
ed. For instance, it may not be possible to find any large outside com-
mercial operator to take on either the wood collecting project or the
fruit processing project described in our exhibits. To get either project
going it may be necessary to locate management and get capital to
back it. One would have to put the pieces together for each business.
This takes more time, and a special skill on the part of the staff charged
with economic development.
There are other instances where a desirable manufacturer from
outside wants to come into an area, but expects the community to build
a plant, which he will then rent with option to buy. Such cases require
a local campaign to raise funds for the plant. Again, the job calls for a
great deal of staff time and skill to set up the deal and raise the money.
UNIVERSITIES CAN SUPPLEMENT LOCAL
ORGANIZATION
The skills and manpower needed to staff such an economic develop-
ment program are not often found in any one place, but a large part of
them may be assembled through the facilities offered by a university.
Presumably a university faculty either knows something about almost
any common technical or sociological problem or can readily find the
people who do know. It also knows how to do report work, and must
teach that important art. A co-ordinating officer within a university
can call on faculty, on students, and on outside experts as needed, and
can thus offer all-around support for an economic development pro-
gram.
ILLINOISEDITION 995
In Southern Illinois this channel seems particularly fitting. The
University of Southern Illinois has only recently achieved university
status and is still in the process of shaping its program. Those respon-
sible for it are interested in making the University a truly regional in-
stitution with an active relation to the communities it serves. The busi-
ness education provided by work on local projects would be invaluable
to both faculty and students.
Aid along many lines of special knowledge can be secured from
the University of Illinois. Close and harmonious working relations can
doubtless be established between the University of Southern Illinois,
the University of Illinois and Southern Illinois Inc., especially since
the executive of the latter organization is a one-time faculty member of
the University of Illinois. Southern Illinois Inc. can handle those parts
of the program that are more appropriate to a business organization,
such as traveling and selling. The Universities can handle the specific
research projects.
In order to do a proper industrial survey and selling job, Southern
Illinois Inc. will have to secure considerably more money than it is now
getting from its backers. The allocation of State funds to research pro-
jects supplementing the work of Southern Illinois Inc. might be made
contingent upon the support given to Southern Illinois Inc. by local
busiessmen. In any event, a program that is ( 1 ) paced by a local non-
profit organization broadly representing an area, (2) closely supported
by a local educational and research institution, and (3) backed by
the broad facilities of the big State University as they are required —
can, in our opinion, most quickly and effectively help the people of
Southern Illinois to help themselves. In addition, it may set a pattern
for other parts of the State, and for other States as well. A grant from
the State to the Universities can bring such a program into being.
996 LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LIVES
INDEX
A
Abbott, Robert L 415
Abbott, St. Clair C 415
Adams, Thurmond Ingram 295
Adrian, Roy L 221
Ahlenius, Rudolph 0 796
Albon, George Nelson, Jr 801
Alderman, Mrs. Eileen 541
Alexander, Rufus C 308
Alfred, Russell W 500
Allen, George WoodrufF 125
Amrhein, Carl 766
Amsbary, Frank Clifford, Jr 162
Anderson, Hon. Benjamin F 610
Anderson, George Harold 42
Ansley, James Roland, D. C 930
Arterburn, Rev. Marion W 633
Arterburn, Mrs. Marion W 632
Austin, Jack, B.Ed., LL.B 105
Avis, Edmond Jewell 126
Ayers, Robert Brent 760
15
Bailey, Captain Edward 210
Bailey, Fred S 215
Bailey, Hon. Virgil Trammell 851
Barham, LeRoy 765
Barrett, Hon. Edward J 929
Batchelor, Horace, D.D 427
Bauer, Eugene C 499
Baumgart, Carl II 652
Bayer, Kenneth M 166
Bean, Ferrel M 883
Becken, Albert Charles, Jr 717
Becker, Walter John 615
Behrend, Martin F 496
Beich, Paul Frank 58
Belinson, Louis, M.D 189
Bell, Clarence William 357
Bell, Mrs. Lucleda 356
Bennis, Steve L 556
Benoist, Leroy Louis 766
Benoist, Raymond Emil 66
Benoit, Raymond Joseph 74
Bergeron, Edwin Philip 789
Bertram, Peter Andreas, Sr 27
Bills, Robert Daniel 36
Bills, Robert Daniel, Jr 39
Bisch, Charles T 286
Bitterman, Norman George 663
Blades, Francis Raymond 664
Blaine, Shields Adams 242
Blake, Hon. Frank E 537
Bloom, Frederick E 700
Bolen, Major General Harry Lynn 511
Bond, Hon. Rufus Jeremiah 479
Bower, Arthur Oliver 169
Bower, Irvin J 712
Boyd, John Lee 147
Bracy, Floyd Parker 947
Braden, Hon. Glen William 250
Bray, Hon. Alvin Alfred 181
Bretscher, Carl Eduard, A.I.A 129
Brookby, Raymond French 158
Browder, Olin Lorraine, A.B., LL.B 301
Brown, Clyde A 376
Brown, Gilbert B 15
Brown, William Carroll 129
Brundage, Avery 890
Bryant, Loton Elisha 178
Buchanan, Hon. William Paul, A.B., LL.B. .712
Bucher, Clarence Sylvester,
D.V.M., M.D., F.A.C.A 351
Buckley, Homer John 616
Buford, John Lester, LL.D 257
Burgett, Hon. Burley S 394
Burnett, Hal L 158
Burnett, Hon. Henry Bruce 538
Burns, Byron Benoit 400
Burns, Hon. John Milton (Brother) 381
Burns, William Walker (Bill) 313
Busey, Charles Bowen 241
Busey, Hon. Samuel Thompson 908
Bush Brothers 457
Bush, Henry Charles 457
Bush, John William 458
Bush, Robert James 461
C
Cain, Sidney Vincent 610
Caldwell, Harlan Lee 895
Campbell, Theodore F 20
Capps, Robert Miner 940
Carpenter, Hon. C. Dale 490
Carr, George Russell 741
Carr, George Wallace, A.I.A 846
Carter, Hon. Clyde A 633
Case, J. Borries 562
Center, Hon. Virgil Harvey 549
Chambers, H. L 95
Chambers, Robert Lawrence 94
Champion, Hon. Horace Edward 369
Chapin, T. A 884
Chapman, Harold H 754
Charleston National Bank 462
Cherry, James Albert 699
Chicago & Illinois Midland Railway Co. ... 81
Clancy, Joseph Thomas 376
Clark, Horace Wesley 140
Clarke, John Earl 265
Clesson, Marion Sylvester 370
Cole, Austin 541
997
Coleman, Fletcher Bennett 16
Colp, Harrison E 687
Colp, Ryburn Robert 949
Comte, Eugene August 533
Conley, James Henry 86
Connor, John Maurice, A.B., LL.B 93
Cook, Joseph Edward, Sr. 363
Coolley, Hon. Isaac N., Sr 597
Cornell, F. Shepard 154
Corrington, John William 822
Cote, Ulyssess A 148
Courtney, Robert Gordon 550
Covington, Charles J 503
Crisp, Hon. Harry Lee 516
Cullin, Victor 816
Curry, Harold Ellsworth 21
D
Dallenbach, John Christian, M.D 218
Daniels, Richard 547
Danks, George I 338
Darmstaedter, George William 474
Davis, Carl E 230
Davis, Chester R., LL.D 901
Davis, Griffith 1 669
Day, Harry Warren 676
Decatur, Warren Linell 442
Deem, Kate Sargent Wilmeth 269
Deem, Max E 266
Degler, G. F 233
Dewein, Victor Charles 864
DeWitt, Lyle Vinson, A.I.A 840
Dirks, Edward 277
Dixon, Hon. Sherwood 929
Dodson, Virgil Ivan 364
Doerr, Hon. Charles C 868
Dole, Stephen Dexter 344
Doll, Clarence Warren, A.I.A 28
Dooley, Edward J 909
Dooley, James B 909
Dooley, Richard Anthony 908
Doran, John 296
Douglas, Hon. Paul H 928
Driscoll, Hon. John Edward 409
Dunlap, Leonard Eugene 676
Duvall, Hon. R. E 771
E
Eastern Illinois Clay Co 278
Ebersold, Frederick Henry 934
Ellison, Hon. Richard Earl 217
Engelhard, Eugene Field 585
Engelhard, Paul R 584
Engelhard, Willard Paul 580
Enloe, Roy Everett, Ph.G 237
Erickson, Louis Hyland 621
Etherton, James Everett 946
Evans, J. Clyde 69'
Ewing, James Tillman 229
F
Farr, Newton Camp 561
Farris, Hon. Joseph 97
Feldman, Hon. Alois M 254
Fetzer, Wade 640
Fetzer, Wade, Jr 645
Flanigon, James Steven 627
Flewelling, Carrel Wesley, D.D 216
Frank, Raymond W 706
Frazier, James William, II 320
Frazier, James William, III 325
Frazier, Roy Estee, Sr 939
Freiman, Samuel 118
Frick, Hon. Gottlib James 580
Frisina. Domenic 230
Fuller, Morris Greenleaf 16
Fullerton, Leslie Frank 772
Fulton, Lawrence Irving 98
Funk, Hon. Donald Shores 143
Funk, Eugene Duncan, Jr 694
G
Gaerdner, Pete, Jr 828
Gailey, Watson, M.D 945
Gaines, John Donald 173
Gallagher, Warren White 776
Garbe, Martin T 274
Garman, Horace Bryan, LL.B 955
Garrison, Ernie L 546
Gebhardt, Richard Karl 693
Gentry, Hon. J. Wes 902
Giles, William Spargo 57
Gipson, Robert Williams 777
Goble, George Washington 161
Gordon, Allan Thomas, D.D 31
Gothard, Ralph W 174
Gray, Frank S 121
Great Central Insurance Co., Peoria 622
Green, Kenneth Annin, LL.B 45
Greider, Harvey David 177
Griffith, Will Lester 927
Grimm, Melbourne William, O.D 507
Grob, Harold William 845
H
Hall, Andy, M.D 806
Hall, Charles Wesley, Jr 174
Hall, Ruel Elden, M.A 621
Halliday, Norman Remington 447
Hamel, William Bryan 670
Hamilton, Roy McGuire 253
Handlin, William Clyde, M.A 205
Hanft, John Frank 717
Hannah, Harry Ingalls, A.B., J.D 49
998
Hansen, Carl Nicolai 363
Harrington, Edward Patrick 270
Harry, Mark C 422
Hart, Troy Edwin 144
Hattenburg, Hon. Albert Frederick 50
Hausmann, Edwin L 889
Hayes, James Burton 154
Hayes, Orville Joseph 723
Hays, Okley 41
Hayton, James Wesley 953
Heberling, George Clyde 574
Hedrick, Hon. James Arthur 879
Heineke, Henry L 512
Heineke, Martin Louis 513
Helm, Hon. Grover Cleveland 35
Helmle, Henry Richardson, A.I. A 924
Herbert, Hon. Fred Bross, LL.B 742
Hewitt, Francis Marion, Jr 834
Higgins, Norman France 169
Hill, Donald Watson 273
Hindman, Wayne R 281
Hirschfeld, Julius James, LL.B 609
Hoag, Francis August 496
Hoag, Hon. Harry Earl 394
Holbert, James Ransom, Ph.D 113
Holt, Ruby Witters 62
Holton, Campbell 70
Holzweg, Edward G 23
Horsley, Jack Everett, A.B., LL.B 480
Hott, Maxwell Rhoades 519
Horstman, Carl Henry, D.V.M 815
Houde, Thomas P 579
Houghten, Charles Thomas 845
Howard and Kirkpatrick 589
Howard-Kirkpatrick House Furnishing Co. 590
Hudson, Alfred Eugene 628
Hudgens, William Charlie 65
Huffman, George Nyle 933
Huxtable, Delos Lloyd 352
I
Icenogle, Hon. Carus Stanley, LL.B 499
Ichkowsky, Harry 118
Illinois Commercial Telephone Co 89
Illinois Odd Fellows Children's Home 26
Impey, Frank J 603
Irions, Jacob Henry 711
J
Jachino, Peter 130
Johnson, John Luke 106
Johnston, George Seely 473
Johnston, Wayne Andrew 863
Jones, Fred Mitchell, M.S., Ph.D 805
Jones, Hon. Fred Monroe 202
Jones, Harold Clyde, LL.B 110
Jones, John Willard 480
Jones, Ruth Berneice Smith 806
Jorgensen, Frederick A 202
Joseph, Oliver C 134
K
Kaufman, Lt. Col. Stanley Louis 206
Keller, Oliver J 89
Kelly, Fred Hanford, LL.B 24
Kemper, Howard K 277
Kendall, Harry Frederick 592
Kennedy, George Robert 693
Kent, Everett Frank 62
Kidwell, William Kenneth 54
Kielsmeier, Karl F 814
Kielsmeier, Otto A 810
Kimmel, Philip Milster 918
Kimmel, Roger Q 634
Kirkpatrick, Charles S 590
Kirkpatrick, Edward R 590
Kirkpatrick, Colonel J. H 586
Kizer Oil Co., Mattoon 201
Kizer, Hon. George Andrew 447
Klein, Adolf E 664
Klein, Ernest S., M.D 568
Klinke, Harold P 489
Koeneman, Bruno William 555
Kroehler, Clarence B 523
Kuehne, Fred Oren, Jr 85
Kull, Adolph Franklin 523
Kull, Frederick Jacob 523
Kull, Joseph Albert 523
Kull, Robert Carl John 523
Kull, Rudolph Charles 523
Kull, William Christian 523
Kull, William Frederick 520
Kurth, Verner Wallace 833
Kurz, Armin C 534
L,
Lang, Gordon 932
Larson, Carl Clarence, M.S 24
Lashbrook, Orla Vivian 827
Laughlin, Robert Neil 682
Laughlin, Hon. William Martin 681
Lecas, George H 688
Lemna, James F., LL.B 189
Lindsay, Frank Merrill, Jr 953
Link, Edward Xavier, M.D 542
Linn, William H 261
Litoborski, Edmond Frank 741
Lively, Rev. James Marion, M.A., B.D., D.D. 851
Livesay, James Ray 375
Livingston, Hon. Park 833
Lockwood, William Frederick 22
Loeb, Hamilton Moritz 675
Lone Elm, The 348
Long, John Earle 441
Long, Wallace 530
999
Lovejoy, Charles Ernest, Jr 941
Lucas, Hon. William Watson 245
Luehrs, Hon. George Ernest 724
Lutz, John A., Sr 598
Lutz, John A., Jr 598
Lynn, Hon. William Wyman 134
Mc
McClelland, Clarence Paul,
D.D., LL.D., Litt.D 873
McClerren, Bennie Frank 687
McConnell, Harry J 77
McConnell, Robert G 77
McCormick, John Floyd 358
McCrory, Frank 889
McDougal, Robert Davis, Jr 436
McGehee, Dennis Burdette 226
McGrath, James W 348
McMillan, Robert Charles 880
McRoy, Paul Furgeson 923
M
MacKay, William Thomas 858
Mackey, Harry Joseph 549
Mackin, Henry Joseph 573
Madden, George Bowman 181
Malone, John Walter, Jr., D.D 296
Martin, Samuel L 772
Maton, Paul L 950
Mattoon, The National Bank of 493
Mayer, Oscar F 784
Mayer, Oscar G 784
Mecherle, George Ermond 10
Mecherle, George Jacob, LL.D 4
Mecherle, Ramond Perry 9
Meek, Edward Henry Joshua, Jr 857
Meier, Albert F 278
Meier, Arnold 278
Meier, Byron 278
Meier, Earl 278
Meier, Louis G 278
Messick, Harry Hill 165
Meyer, Edward H 896
Meyer, H. Edward 515
Miller, James Samuel 257
Miller, Leonard Samuel 254
Mitchell, Harry Arthur 454
Mitchell, John Franklin 234
Mitchell, Orvall Oran 209
Modahl, Adolph Carl 289
Modert, Alson W., M.D 110
Mohr, Albert, Jr. 933
Montgomery, Robert DuFay 534
Moore, Kenneth W 884
Morgan, Kent H 646
Moroff, Edward Henry 73
Morris, Lossie E., A.B., B.D 591
Morrison, Frank Eugene 61
Morrow, George William, M.D 122
Motel Marion, Marion, Illinois 432
Mueller, Charles A 262
Mueller, Eda 841
Mueller, Frederick 839
Mueller, Victor James 658
Mugge, George Hudson 486
Munson, Irving, M.A 197
Myers, Harold Henry 201
N
Neisewander, Ray H 700
Nelch, Franklyn C 242
Nelson, Lewen Russell 669
Newhouse, Durward Martin 114
Nichols, Eolyne Yvette 936
Nichols, Ira Goodsell, Sr., D.D.S., Sc.D. . . .935
Nichols, Ira Goodsell, Jr., M.D 937
Nickell, Hon. Vernon L., Ed.D 724
Niesing, Hon. John Charles 416
Nordheden, Carl, M.A 170
O
Oblinger, Daniel Harry 347
O'Brien, Martin J 50
O'Hair, Hon. Karl R 639
O'Hair, Zollie P 399
O'Hern, Charles Vincent, Sr., LL.B 759
O'Keefe, John Francis 942
Osgood, Harold M 185
Ozee, Carl Harding 102
P
Parker, Lloyd Lee 326
Parkhill, Theodore Dennis 137
Parris, Ace C 215
Parsons, James Henry 21
Partlow, Henry 409
Pattison, Clarence A 748
Patton, William James 735
Pautler, Kenneth Albert 954
Peers, George William 821
Perlmutter, Harry N 956
Peters, Walter C 369
Pflanz, Karl V 512
Phillips, Enos Leslie 302
Phipps, Harvey Otis 498
Pike, Harry Wardell 90
Pinnell, Hon. Charles R 282
Pocklington Brothers 249
Pocklington, Truman James 834
Pollitz, Hiram C 519
Poor, Fred Arthur 754
Poorman, Hon. John W 319
Poorman, Hon. Paul W 382
Pope, Harry Odell 343
1000
Poston, Emmett Vincent 77
Powell, Rev. George Harold, S.T.B 226
Preble, Robert Curtis, Sr 736
R
Rardin, Bruce 468
Rardin, Hon. Harrold Pierson 748
Reasor, Walter Henry, Jr 942
Reed, Harold W., A.B., M.S., Th.D 555
Reif steck, Fred 651
Reinhard, Eugene Philip 941
Reisch, Carl M 286
Reynolds, Charles William 467
Robinson, Ben Dwight 421
Robinson, John William 435
Roche, Frank Louis 101
Rodgers, I. Walter 912
Rohweder, Claus 615
Roth, Franklin Waldo 46
Roth, Hon. Richard Pettis 864
Routson, Charles William 73
Rowatt, Paul 783
Rowatt, Walter, Jr 53
Russell, John Walker 524
Rust, Adlai H., LL.B 9
Ryan, Willis Pierce, A.B., LL.B 57
S
Sanner, Truman Judson 453
St. Patrick's Church, Decatur, Illinois 225
Schafale, Henry Peter Oscar 778
Scheef , Victor Melvin 393
Schlitt, Frederick Philip, Sr 285
Schmale, John H 816
Schmoeger, Harry John 901
Schrader, Fred L 82
Schrader, Hon. Henry C. G 705
Schriver, Hon. Lester Osburne, LL.D 270
Schwartz, Hon. Chester Ray 314
Schwartz, Walker 778
Schwemm, Earl M 730
Scofield, Leo 497
Scruggs, William R 261
Seek, Joseph A 157
Shalla, Dominick 567
Shanafelt, James Oliver 939
Sheeks, John William 497
Shelby, Mervin Russell 290
Shoff, Frank Joseph 473
Sholem, Jerome J 485
Short, Herbert Dwight 250
Simmons, Elwyn LeRoy 867
Skinner, Fred Edwin 314
Smith, The A. O. Corporation 154
Smith, Hon. George William 879
Smith, Robert G 421
Smith, Robert 1 420
Snell, Clarence Eastlake 657
Solomon, Robert C 343
Sommer, Henry Getz 718
Sperry, Floyde D 31
Springman, John Joseph 858
Stables, Floyd Flemming 948
Stalcup, Murl 182
Staley, William Converse 147
Starr, Lester Eli 387
State Farm Fire Insurance Company,
Bloomington 3
State Farm Life Insurance Company,
Bloomington 3
State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance
Company, Bloomington 3
Steiger, Hon. William A 218
Stephens, Edgar Monroe, Jr 907
Stetson, Joseph W 85
Stevenson, Hon. Adlai Ewing 928
Stewart, Medf ord 337
Stewart, Winfred E 332
Stoltey, Raymond W 185
Storme, Albert Graves 729
Stotlar, Val 222
Stout, Robert Carl 307
Stubblefield, Ivan Reual 117
Suddes, Ralph Edward, LL.B 78
Sullivan, William Edward '. 337
Sunderland, Joseph Lawrence 32
Suttelle, Miss Leona 144
Sweney, Jack Charles 474
Swickard, Clinton Daniel, M.D. 238
Swickard, Mrs. Ruth Elizabeth 239
Swords, Hon. Charles Lester 760
T
Tawney, Guy Allan, M.A., Ph.D 911
Taylor, Guy Clifton, Ph.G 410
Thatcher, John Thomas 45
Thomas, Simeon E., B.Ph., M.A 462
Thompson, Charles Manfred IV
Thornton, James Franklin 26
Thrasher, Jesse William 209
Throgmorton, Earl 944
Thurmond, Ralph 428
Tick, Jean Q 186
Tompkins, Arthur W 19
Trettin, Walter 0 93
Tucker, Joseph Townsley 194
Tumbleson, Gene 827
Turner, Oscar Lee 258
Twenhoefel, Edmund William 747
U
Upchurch, Hon. John David 504
Underfanger, Charles 198
1001
V
Van Meter, Hon. James Craig, LL.B 130
Van Praag, Alex, III 795
Van Praag, Sol., Sr 790
Van Praag, Sol, Jr 794
Vaughn, James Howard 101
Vaught, Gilbert Reinhardt, D.D.S 524
Vollmer, Edward William 495
W
Wagner, Harold Eugene 730
Wagner, Robert Christian Herman 193
Wagner, William Andrew, B.S 193
Wahlfeld, Otto William Henry 652
Walker, Adriel Joseph 331
Walker, Chester Evert 545
Walker, Clegg 25
Walker, Jo Vincent 753
Walkup, W. E 658
Wallace, Herman H 923
Wangelin, Hon. Herman Grover 917
Wanless, Hon. Fred W 931
Wanless, Gail Montgomery 427
Wanless, Paul F 931
Ward, Herbert William 874
Ward, James Walter 723
Ward, Richard Wendell 874
Wareham, Darrell E 699
Wareham, Orville F 698
Wasson, Fred Harold 529
Watson, Calvin Earl 387
Wegener, Otto William 122
Weir, Benjamin 404
Weis, Joseph Stanley 494
Welsh, 0. Lloyd 109
Wenthe, Hon. Fred Christopher 153
White, Frederick Webster 448
White, Glynn William 568
Whiting, Albert Lemuel, B.Sc, M.Sc, Ph.D. 190
Whittenberg, Harry Allen 868
Wilkins, Charles Lincoln 537
Will, John Albert 35
Williams, Delbert 0 441
Wilson, George Worth 246
Wilson, Llewellyn James 97
Wilton, Ralph Eugene 562
Winkelmann, Roland E., LL.B 508
Wohlwend, Lawrence John 307
Wollrab, Louis Edward 646
Wood, Hon. F. W. "Bo" 388
Wood, Gen. Robert Elkington 943
Wright, Harold Abbott 949
Wright, Hugh T 545
Wrisley, George Alfred 249
Y
Yaffe, Saul (Red) 106
Z
Zarbuck, Gwain R., D.C 604
1002