Cook County IL

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 Jesse A. De Witt

Jesse A. De Witt, whose mental equipment is of that character that enables him to delve to the root of business problems and whose determined energy enables him to conquer obstacles and difficulties in his path, is now occupying a most enviable place in financial circles of Muskogee. He was the President of the Central State Bank until January 1, 1922, and is now a director. He comes to the southwest from Wisconsin, his birth having occurred in Montfort, that state, September 23, 1889, his parents being I. G. and Abbie (Taylor) De Witt, the former a newspaper publisher. In … Read more

Biography of Bertha Louise Ahrens

Bertha Louise Ahrens (B. Feb. 26, 1857), missionary teacher among the Choctaw Freedmen of Indian Territory since 1885, and principal teacher at Oak Hill Academy, 1905-1911, is a native of Berlin, Prussia. Her parents, Otto and Augusta Ahrens, in 1865, when she was 8, and a brother Otto 5, came to America and located on a farm near Sigourney, Iowa, after one year at Bellville, Illinois; and four, at Harper, Iowa. The schools and Churches first attended used the German language. Her first studies in English were in the graded schools at Sigourney and here at seventeen, she became a … Read more

The Potawatomi of Illinois

The tribe that held the Chicago region from about the close of the seventeenth century until 1833 were the Potawatomi. They axe discussed here at some length, as they played an important role throughout the early American period, and we are fortunate in possessing quite detailed accounts of their mode of life. According to a tradition possessed by all three tribes, the Potawatomi, Chippewa, and Ottawa were once one people, and appear in history more or less simultaneously in the territory about the upper end of Lake Huron. The name Potawatomi means “People of the Place of Fire,” as did the … Read more

Biography of Paul Phillip MacCaskill

Paul Phillip MacCaskill. One of the younger members of the Kansas bar, in active practice at Parsons, Paul MacCaskill has already had a wide range of experience in his profession and in public affairs. While studying law and since he spent a good deal of time in the service of public men, at Topeks and elsewhere, and in 1915 was secretary to Hon. Baille P. Waggener, the Atchison County representative in the State Senate. He is of a fine strain of Scotch ancestry. The name MacCaskill, or MacAskill, is of Norse origin, meaning Anses Kettle, or sacrificial vessel to the … Read more

Biography of Harry Herrick

Harry Herrick. The invention of the automobile not only brought a new element into business and social life, but in its subsequent development and improvement opened up other industries that have now become as essential to progress as the vehicle itself. The business of dealing in ‘automobile supplies engages the attention of many wide awake business men all over the country. Champaign, with its wealth, culture, business enterprise and close contiguity to a rich agricultural section has, perhaps, a larger purchasing class interested in automobiles than many cities of equal size, and all these car owners are, to some extent, … Read more

Biographical Sketch of John Henry Kuechenmeister

John Henry Kuechenmeister, president of the St. Louis Paper Can and Tube Company, was born in Chicago, Illinois, March 10, 1875. His father was John Kuechenmeister, a native of Mecklenburg, Germany, who came to Chicago in 1868 and engaged in the brick contracting business, dying here in March, 1919. His mother was Bertha Schwartz, who was also born in Germany, and who married John Kuechenmeister in Chicago in 1872. Four sons and two daughters were born to them, all but one of whom survive, a daughter having passed away. John Henry Kuechenmeister received his education in the public schools of … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Edwin L. Thurston

Thurston, Edwin L.; patent lawyer; born, Pawtucket, R. I., Oct. 3, 1857; son of Thomas E. and Anne W. Falconer Thurston; educated, Brown University, class of 1881, B. P. H.; began the practice of his profession in, Chicago; came to Cleveland, October, 1887; has been a member successively of the following firms, Watson & Thurston, Wing & Thurston, Thurston & Babis, Thurston & Woodward, Thurston & Kwis; pres. The Maxwell Filing Systems Co., Chi Phi College Fraternity; member Union, Mayfield, Country, and Automobile Clubs. Recreation: Golf.

Biography of John J. McGrath

San Mateo is fortunate in having so many of San Francisco’s substantial business men listed among its residents. John J. McGrath Is one of them who, although burdened with the responsibilities of an Important position, gives painstaking support to every movement for the good of the city and enables the community to ‘reap the benefit of having men of his type as a resident. Mr McGrath is an expert sales manager, having been in this line for twenty-five years. His first sales position was with Swift & Co., when he had emigrated from Ireland and settled In Chicago. Two years … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Thomas P. Ballard

Ballard, Thomas P.; real estate; born, Canton, O., Apr. 27, 1854; son of Martin and Sophia Ball Ballard; educated, A. B. Amherst College, 1876 and A. M. 1879; married, Columbus, O., Jan. 20, 1886, Isabella Clerk (deceased) ; one son, Clifford B. Ballard; married, Cambridge, Mass., Aug. 29, 1907, Frances Anne Keay; one son, Hyde Whitcomb Ballard; 1877-79, supt. schools Navarre, O.; 1879-80, prin. Unadilla N. Y. Academy; 1880-90, agt. for Ginn & Co. of Boston at Columbus, O.; 1890, admitted as partner of Ginn & Co., 1892-99, Chicago office of Ginn & Co.; 1899-1906, social and settlement worker, Philadelphia; … Read more

Biography of Joseph L. Eyman, Dr.

Joseph L. Eyman, M. D. In the profession of medicine and surgery few Kansas physicians have dispensed their services more widely and more successfully than Dr. Joseph L. Eyman of El Dorado, He is a most loyal Kansan. Coming to the state when a child with his parents, he began the practice of his profession twenty-one years later and had witnessed the gradual change and transformation which have made Kansas a highly developed agrienltural and industrial section from what was within his personal recollection an open prairie. Doctor Eyman had traveled over many of the states of the Union, and … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Burt M. Gardner

Gardner, Burt M.; salesman; born, Cleveland, Jan. 16, 1867; son of George W. and Rosaline L. Oviatt Gardner; public school education; married, St. Paul, Minn., Sept. 12, 1895, Marian P. Hall; one son; 1892-1901, associate editor The Iron Trade Review, located at Chicago, Ill.; 1895-1898, sec’y The Western Foundrymens’ Ass’n; 1901-1906, iron and steel broker in Chicago, Ill.; 1909, sales agt. Ansonia Brass & Copper Co., New York; 1912, district sales agt. for Ohio for Worth Bros. Co., of Coatville, Pa.; and Michigan Copper & Brass Co. of Detroit, Mich.; pres. The Standard Iron & Steel Co.; treas. Ventwell Stove … Read more

Biographical Sketch of V. R. Bridges, M. D.

V. R. Bridges, M. D., physician and surgeon, Mattoon; was born in Rockingham Co., Va., June 4, 1832; his father settled in Ross Co., Ohio, near Chillicothe, in 1836; in 1841, he came to Illinois and settled in Newton, Jasper Co.; he was engaged in contracting on public works, both in Ohio and Illinois. Dr. Bridges acquired a good academic education, mainly through his own exertions, and at the age of 14, began life for himself. At the age of 17, he taught his first school; in 1851, he was employed in the drug store of Dr. H. H. Hayes, … Read more

Olin Hatheway Todd of Barnum MN

Olin Hatheway Todd10, (Charles F.9, Walter S.8, Ira7, Jehiel6, Stephen5, Stephen4, Samuel3, Samuel2, Christopher1) born July 26, 1878, in Chicago, Ill., married Feb. 22, 1901, Addie Dickinson. He graduated from the Duluth, Minn., High School. He is now (1912) engaged in the stock and poultry business in Barnum, Minn. Child: 2801. Georgie, b. April 15, 1909.

Biography of John Flett

JOHN FLETT. – Among the schemes of the Hudson’s Bay Company, in 1839 and 1840, to acquire occupancy and secure British title to the territory on the north side of the Columbia river, was an immigration to the Cowlitz and Nisqually Plains from the Selkirk settlement in the valley of the Red river of the North. It will be remembered that the Hudson’s Bay Company was present in the territory west of the Rocky Mountains by virtue of a license of trade from the British Crown, which precluded it from acquiring landed possessions. Its right was a mere tenancy for … Read more

Biography of Richard T. Keefe

Richard T. Keefe is secretary and treasurer of Henneberry & Company, packers and provisioners at Arkansas City. Mr. Keefe was one of the founders of this packing industry, and had been closely associated with its development. His active career had been devoted almost entirely to the packing industry and he had an ample experience with the great packing concerns of the country before he helped establish this independent plant at Arkansas City. Mr. Keefe was born in Keokuk, Lee County, Iowa, September 20, 1873. His father, Thomas Keefe, was born in County Tipperary, Ireland, in 1829, came to the United … Read more

Biography of Walter George Gibbons

Walter George Gibbons, vice president and cashier of the Chestnut-Gibbons Grocery Company, a wholesale concern, doing business in Muskogee, has since 1908 been in charge of this establishment. The business was founded here in 1902 and since Mr. Gibbons took charge material advance has been made in the trade connections of the firm. This results from his close study of every phase of the business, his persistency of purpose and his thorough application. Mr. Gibbons was born in Tiskilwa, Illinois, October 1, 1868, and is a son of George and Mary (Cook) Gibbons, the former a harness manufacturer, devoting his … Read more

Biography of Robert A. Maxwell

ROBERT A. MAXWELL THE HON. Robert A. Maxwell, superintendent of the insurance department, was born in Washington county, N. Y. , in 1838. He is a son of Alexander Maxwell, of Jackson, a prominent citizen of the town, and an intelligent and wealthy farmer. Robert was given the advantages of a liberal education by his father. After receiving a thorough instruction at the common schools in his neighborhood, he was sent to the normal school at Albany, where he finished his education at the age of eighteen. His rare qualities as an educator were unfolded while attending this excellent institution, … Read more

Biography of Gotthart Schippel

Gotthart Schippel spent nearly fifty years of life in Kansas. He was one of the real pioneers. His active lifetime was one of hard work, and in the early days he encountered constant hardships and overcame difficulties that would have daunted any man less sturdy and courageous. He helped to build the solid foundation on which the prosperity of the great state now rests. Kansas was still the disputed territory of the wild Indians and the wild animals, and vast stretches of prairie grass occupied only by the countless herds of buffalo and the tepees of the red men surrounded … Read more

Biographical Sketch of George N. Ifft

George N. Ifft, of the firm of Ifft & Wallin, proprietors and managers of the Pocatello Tribune, is a native of Butler County, Pennsylvania, born January 27, 1865. He began newspaper work, as a reporter, in Pittsburg, that state, and continued in that capacity and in various editorial relations in other cities, as Washington, D. C, Chicago, Denver, Salt Lake City and San Francisco, until January 1, 1893, when he came to Idaho, locating at Pocatello, and since that time he has been connected with the Pocatello Tribune, as more fully described in our sketch of that paper. Mr. Ifft … Read more