Charles Frank Van Vleck. It is not so very many years ago since the first American automobile attracted interest and curious comment as it rather cautiously sped up and down the highways of town and country, and few people had sufficient confidence in the new machine to predict that the time would come when it …
Isaac E. Hess. Successful merchandising is a business that is necessary in a community that desires to expand and progress, but all merchandising is not, by any means, successful. When poor stocks are offered to the public and indifferent salesmen reluctantly show the wares, the business is not very likely to interest any one very …
Charles F. Oehmke, assistant postmaster of Urbana, has been continuously identified with the post office in that city for the past eleven years. He was formerly a successful teacher. He is a native of Champaign County, where he was born January 22, 1880. His parents were John Fred and Elizabeth (Schultz) Oehmke, both natives of …
Richard M. Franks. One of the representative citizens of Philo, Illinois, is Richard M. Franks, who not only is managing important business interests but is also one of the trustworthy public officials of township and village. Mr. Franks was born in Saxony, Germany, February 7, 1868, to which province his people have belonged for generations. …
Jesse Newton Dick. The communities which do not have the proportion of intelligent retired farmers, many of whom are capitalists, as residents lack an element that may be one of great importance. The farmer’s life leads to thought and contemplation and a man who through his own toilsome efforts can acquire a competency and retire …
David A. Silver is one of the men who claim Champaign County as their birthplace and the scene of their substantial activities. Mr. Silver has found in farming both a congenial and profitable occupation. The management of well tilled fields, the care and superintendence of good stock, the task of winning a living and at …
Carl Odebrecht. Some of the finest farms in Illinois are to be found in Philo Township of Champaign County. This also means that some of the ablest exponents of the art of agriculture are in the same locality. One of the men who have been especially successful in transmitting the resources of the soil into …
Clarence L. Williams is an enterprising farmer of Philo Township and is now living in section 25, on the land where he was born August 7, 1875. The family is an old and prominent one of Champaign County. His parents were Elias and Hannah (Peterson) Williams. Both were born in Franklin County, Indiana. Elias Williams …
Charles W. Reed is a farmer and successful stockman with home in section 16 of Philo Township. His rural mail delivery comes from Tolono on Route No. 48. Mr. Reed was born in Marshall County, Illinois, March 11, 1869, son of John Caldwell and Mary (Bell) Reed. Both parents were born in Virginia and in …
