Biographical History of Rock Island Illinois Collections – Page 4 of 9

Biography of John Kimberland Scott

The subject of this sketch the present States Attorney of Rock Island County, was born in Muscatine, Iowa, on November 26, 1870. His parents were William W. Scott, now deceased, and Margaret (Hickey) Scott, the former of sturdy Scotch, and the later of keen, energetic Irish ancestry. Mr. Scott’s father served three years during the Civil War as a member of Company M, Eighth Iowa Volunteer Cavalry, and was for almost forty years a locomotive engineer on the Rock Island Railway, and for one term an alderman from the Seventh Ward of Rock Island. John K. Scott came to Rock … Read more

Biography of John H. Wilson

John H. Wilson has been a constant factor in the up building of the Cities of Rock Island and Moline for half a century. As president of the Wilson Moline Buggy Company and in other business enterprises in which he has engaged since coming to this community in 1856 he has given employment to many men and has directed their energies into channels that have brought adequate rewards to themselves, to their employers and to the cities in which they have lived and labored. Like many another of the substantial early residents of Rock Island County, Mr. Wilson is a … Read more

Biography of John H. Thornton

Mr. John H. Thornton, veteran of the Civil War and for many years employed in the Government service at Rock Island Arsenal, was born in Ireland June 24, 1847, and died at his home in Moline July 9, 1903. He was the son of Patrick and Mary Thornton and came to America with his parents while an infant, aged nine months. The mother died in Rochester, New York, after which the father removed to Philadelphia, from which city, at the age of sixteen, young Thornton enlisted, July 26, 1862, in Company Fifty-three, Twenty-Ninth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, Third Infrntry. His Company … Read more

Biography of John Edgington

The name of Edgington is a well known one throughout Rock Island County. It is the name of one of the county’s earliest pioneer families. It is also the name of one of the county’s most prosperous little villages, named in honor of one of the founders of that family, John Edgington, the subject of our sketch, a man who in his long lifetime spent in this county, lived to see it grow from a waste of prairie and wilderness into a wonderfully fertile farming community, dotted here and there with busy little villages and cities devoted to manufacture and … Read more

Biography of John Deere

No citizen in Rock Island County, or throughout the country, was probably more widely known than John Deere of Moline. He was born at Rutland, Vermont, February 7, 1804, and died May 17, 1886. 1805 the family moved to Middlebury, Vermont, where the children attended school in a district schoolhouse, which had a long fire place across the end of the room. The reading, writing and little arithmetic obtained here, before he was twelve years old, was the principal educational start Mr. Deere had for life. He afterwards attended private school for a few months, but the inborn inclination for … Read more

Biography of James M. Beardsley

The above named widely known soldier-citizen is a brother to Colonel Ezra, and Lieutenant Elisha I. Beardsley, the latter of whom was killed in action, December 29, 1862, at Chickasaw Bayou, during the assault under General Sherman. Mr. Beardsley, who is also a cousin of the late Major James M. Beardsley, and descended from a family who settled in America along with the Puritans in 1628, and whose relatives served in the Army and Navy in various capacities for nearly three centuries, was born near Aledo, Mercer County, Illinois, June 23, 1843. When he was still in his swaddling raiment, … Read more

Biography of James Franklin Robinson

A man of prominence and wealth, yet unspoiled by his position and prosperity; a man whose life was filled with kindly thoughts and generous deeds; a man of sterling integrity, who typified in his everyday life the highest type of Christian character, was James Franklin Robinson, the subject of this sketch. He was born in Rock Island County February 27, 1849, and died May 23, 1902, at his home in the city of Rock Island. He was the son of those well known Rock Island County pioneers, a sketch of whose lives is written elsewhere in this book, Captain and … Read more

Biography of James Brackett

James Brackett, a prominent lawyer of Cherry Valley, Otsego County, New York, who graduated in the class with Daniel Webster, at Dartsmouth College, came to Rock Island in 1847 to spend the last years of a long and useful life. John Ely Brackett, eldest son of James Brackett, graduated from West Point and later was appointed a Lieutenant in the Second Regiment of Artillery. Later he became a Captain in Colonel Stevenson’s Regiment, which was to sail for California to serve during the war with Mexico, and afterwards, as Major-General John Ely Brackett, was very active during the troublous California … Read more

Biography of James B. Titterington

A typical example of the virile manhood of Rock Island County is the subject of this sketch. Born in Buffalo Prairie Township, he resisted the lure of the city and of the great west to which so many of his boyhood companions yielded and set himself to the task of extracting wealth from the old home farm. After more than sixty years spent there he has now retired and is enjoying the fruits of his labors as a resident of the City of Rock Island. Mr. Titterington is a descendant of one of the oldest and most honored families of … Read more

Biography of James A. Wendell

To the subject of this sketch more than to any other person, perhaps, is due the fact that the finest plant in the United States for the manufacture of table oil cloth is now located in Rock Island. During a long career as traveling salesman for an eastern manufacturer he was impressed with the advantages of the upper Mississippi valley as a site for a factory, and it was the soundness of his reasoning which impressed the officers of the Standard Oil Cloth Company and led to the location of the present factory on the Father of Waters at Rock … Read more

Biography of J. Silas Leas

One of the old and respected citizen of Rock Island County, a man who stands high in the estimation of all who know him, is J. Silas Leas, who although now spending the closing years of his life in retirement, was at one time engaged in some of Rock Island County’s principal manufacturies. He was born October 31, 1830, in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, his parents being Christian H. and Julia Ann (Brandt) Leas, both of whom were also natives of that state. His mother died when the subject of our sketch was but two years of age. In his early … Read more

Biography of Isaac Negus

Isaac Negus, deceased, who, during his lifetime, was one of the leading business men in Rock Island, was a man whose be-lief in the future of the city he had chosen for his home took the substantial form of building enterprise. He was born December 31, 1799, at Labions, Ondaga County, New York, where he received a common school education. After leaving school he found employment in the construction department of the Erie Canal in New York State, where he remained for three years. The experience and practical knowledge gained during those three years was a great service to him … Read more

Biography of Ignatz Huber

The City of Rock Island is indebted for its present prosperity and commercial activity to many men whose capital and intellect have been instrumental in promoting its growth; but one of the men to whom it is chiefly indebted for his activity in promoting those industries and measures which are the life of a city is Ignatz Huber, one of Rock Island’s pioneer brewers and financiers. Mr. Huber is a native of Bavaria, Germany. He was born February 1, 1826. His boyhood and youth were spent in his native Bavaria, and after his school days were finished, learned the brewer’s … Read more

Biography of Hon. William Payne

Farmers who have been elected to positions of trust and honor are not by any means few in America, but it is the exception that the tiller of the soil continues to be such long after he has won success in any sphere outside his regular calling. The allurements of city life in the great majority of cases quickly overcome the inborn love of nature unadorned and the farmer is known by another name. Honorable William Payne has been one of the few. After terms of service in county offices and through twelve years in which he held membership in … Read more

Biography of Hon. William McEniry

In considering the prominent legal firms in Rock Island County one’s mind instinctively turns to the firm of McEniry & McEniry, a firm composed of the two brothers, Hon. William McEniry and Matthew J. McEniry, having offices both in Rock Island and Moline. It is the life and character of the former of these two gentlemen that we pro-pose to depict in the sketch that is to follow. The life and character of Matthew J. McEniry will be found elsewhere in this work treated at length. William McEniry was born in Rock Island County, Illinois, May 9, 1860, his parents … Read more

Biography of Hon. William Jackson

Among the old settlers of Rock Island County, who has assisted during his residence here in accomplishing many permanent reforms, is the Hon. William Jackson, who is entitled to honorable mention. Mr. Jackson was born in the City of Liverpool, England, August 14, 1834, of English parentage. His early boyhood was spent in his native city. After leaving school, the last being the Liverpool Collegiate Institution, he was, at an early age, apprenticed to a grocer. Serving part of his apprenticeship, and being very desirous of trying his fortune in the new world, where he had many relatives, he left … Read more

Biography of Hon. T. J. Medill

Ranking among Rock Island’s prominent men, who have been honored politically and who have achieved a high standing in the realm of business, stands the subject of this sketch, Thomas J. Medill. He was born in Milan, Illinois, March 16, 1859. His parents were Thomas J. and Eliza A. (Dickson) Medill. The father, when a young man, emigrated from the north of Ireland to America, and here he married Miss Eliza A. Dickson, the daughter of William Dickson, and a native of Erie County, Pennsylvania. William Dickson, of whom a more extended biography appears elsewhere in this volume, laid out … Read more

Biography of Hon. Samuel S. Guyer

The Honorable Samuel S. Guyer was born at Lewistown, Pennsylvania, December 26, 1814. In his early manhood he was a contractor in New York City and in the construction of the Pennsylvania Canal System. In 1839, with his mother, sister and two brothers, he removed to Peoria, Illinois, from which base he engaged in the business of building flat boats and carrying cargos of merchandise to trade with the planters between Natchez and New Orleans. In the great tornado at Natchez in 1842, he lost all his possessions and barely escaped with his life. Returning to Peoria he studied law … Read more

Biography of Hon. John T. Browning

The oldest member of the Rock Island County Bar, a lawyer of ripe learninig and wide experience, who has now retired from the active practice of his profession, is the Honorable John T. Browning, of Moline. He was born in Genesee County, New York, June 11, 1830, his parents being John L. and Lucy (Tillotson) Browning. He received an academic education at Rochester, where later he was admitted to the bar in the Autumn of 1858. He came west in December of that same year and located at Moline, where he immediately engaged in the practice of law, being that … Read more

Biography of Hon. Henry C. Scaffer

Rock Island is an exceedingly prosperous and well governed city. Its municipal prosperity must be attributed in a great degree to the business like and economical administration of the city’s affairs. Its good government must be attributed likewise to the enforcement of law and the preservation of order, so essential in every well regulated community, by the city’s chief executive, Mayor Henry C. Schaffer, the subject of our present sketch. Henry C. Schaffer was born October 16, 1851, at Baltimore, Maryland, his parents being Conrad and Mary (Hoffmeister) Schaffer. Both his parents were natives of Germany. Their son received his … Read more