Rock Island County IL

Biography of Capt. John Burgess Davis

When the great West was young the Mississippi River, as the principal gateway to it and almost the sole means of conveying its products to the out-side world was the center of commercial life. Men who followed the river were participants in stirring events and their work was fraught with an importance in the eyes of the public that we of today can little realize. To be a steamboat captain in the fifties and sixties invested the individual with a dignity as great as that accorded to the average railroad magnate nowadays. Captain John Burgess Davis earned his title when … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Ambrose Swasey

Swasey, Ambrose; manufacturer; born, Exeter, N. H., Dec. 19, 1846; son of Nathaniel and Abigail Chesley (Peavey) Swasey; early education in schools of Exeter; degree of engineering Case School of Applied Science, 1905; Sc. D. Denison University, Granville, O., 1910; married, Hampton, N. IL, Oct. 24, 1871, Lavinia D. Marston, daughter of David and Sarah Ann (Dearborn) Marston; entered into partnership with W. R. Warner (Warner & Swasey), 1880, mfrs. machine tools and astronomical instruments; the 36-inch Lick telescope, the 26-inch of Naval observatory, Washington, the 40-inch Yerkes telescope, as well as a new and exceptionally accurate dividing engine, are … Read more

Biography of W. E. Taylor, M. D.

Placed at the head of a great state charitable institution, carrying the responsibility for the welfare of hundreds of unfortunates whose reason has been shattered and imbued with an earnest desire to restore his unfortunate charges to health and friends, stands Doctor W. E. Taylor, superintendent of the Illinois Western Hospital for the Insane at Watertown. He was born at Waukesha, Wisconsin, May 24, 1854, where his parents, E. T. and Esibell (Irving) Taylor resided. Here his boyhood was spent, and after thoroughly fitting him-self in preparatory schools, he entered the University of Wisconsin, and upon completing a course in … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Edward S. Coyne

A well known native son of Rock Island County is Edward S. Coyne, son of William and Margaret (Morrison) Coyne. He was born on the old homestead in Bowling Township, on which he now resides, October 25, 1873. Tilling the soil has been his sole occupation. In the Spring of 1896, he settled on one of his father’s farms in section eleven, Bowling, where he resided till the Spring of 1900. Then he removed to the farm he now occupies in section one, same township. He now owns two hundred and sixty acres of good land, which he cultivates with … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Warner L. Eddy, M. D.

One of the successful medical practitioners of Rock Island County is the subject of this review, who for fifteen years has followed his profession at Milan with a steadily increasing business. Dr. Eddy is a native of the Empire State, having been born in Madison County, New York, December 17, 1869. He is a son of Homer and Edith S. (Townsend) Eddy. His father was born in Madison County, New York, May 22, 1842, and his mother in Cape May County, New Jersey, May 17, 1846. The parents were married in New Jersey, and after a residence of several years … Read more

Biography of Major Charles W. Hawes

Major Charles W. Hawes is probably the oldest male “native” of Rock Island, Illinois, born within the Village of Stephenson, now embraced in the city limits of Rock Island, prior to 1842. His father was David Hawes, a native of Belchertown, Massachusetts, and his mother was Julia M. Babcock, a native of   Ware, Massachusetts, both of Revolutionary stock. (See biography David Hawes) Major Hawes’s father arrived in Rock Island from Massachusetts via St. Louis and the Mississippi River in October, 1835, where Mrs. Hawes joined him later, and Major Hawes was born March 7, 1841. He had the advantage of … Read more

Biography of Dr. Louis Ostrom

Dr. Louis Ostrom, A. B. M. D., was born in Helsingland, Sweden, May 1, 1874, and came to America when six years old. His father is a pipe-organ builder, known among hundreds of churches all over the country. Young Ostrom attended public schools, and as soon as he was able to work, was at one time or another employed during vacations in nearly all the shops of Moline. After becoming a student of Augustana College, he worked during the different vacations as section hand on the street car line, printer in a job office, and pressman to the Moline Daily … Read more

Biography of Otto Huber

Among the younger generation of Rock Island’s prominent business men whose names are deserving of special mention for what they have achieved in their chosen vocations in life, stands that of Otto Huber, who is the present secretary and treasurer of the Rock Island Brewing Company, a Rock Island industry whose formation, growth and present scope, has been related elsewhere in this book. Mr. Huber was born in Rock Island January 19, 1866, and attended schools in that city until he was ready to enter the Illinois State University at Champaign, where he spent three years. Afterward he studied two … Read more

Biography of Miss Myrtle E. Dade

By her work as beneficiary recorder of the Royal Neighbors of America, the woman’s auxiliary to the Modern Woodmen of America, the largest fraternal insurance society in the world, Miss Myrtle E. Dade has shown herself a woman of rare business and executive ability. A quality no less rare, she has demonstrated her ability to efficiently supervise a considerable body of women without friction and in a manner which has accomplished wonderful results. So systematically has the work in her offices been handled that other similar societies have paid her the compliment of adopting many of the devices which she … Read more

Biography of Martin Theodore Rudgren

Even in an age which recognizes young men and places responsibilities upon them which in the past have been laid only upon the shoulders of those of more mature years we seldom find one of twenty-eight years entrusted with the complex details of the business end of the administration of a City of 30,000 inhabitants. Such, however, is the confidence placed in Martin T. Rudgren by the people of the City of Rock Island that they elected him City Clerk when he had barely passed his twenty-eighth mile-stone, and that by an overwhelming majority. Events have shown that the trust … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Frank B. Hawes

Frank B. Hawes, son of David Hawes and brother of Major Charles W. Hawes, was born in the City of Rock Island on November 14, 1844. (See biographies David Hawes and Major Charles W. Hawes). Since April 13, 1891, the subject of this sketch has been prominently connected with the head offices of the Modern Woodmen of America. For years he was the society’s statistician, but of late years he has discharged the responsible duties of chief of the final accounting department. He has supervision over the most important set of accounts maintained by the Modern Woodmen Society-the financial. It … Read more

Biography of Frederick C. A. Denkmann

When on March 2, 1905, the spirit of Frederick C. A. Denkmann passed from earth there was completed and rounded out a life that may well serve as an inspiration for American boys of this and succeeding generations, through its disregard of difficulties, steadfastness of purpose, energy and accomplishment, sterling worth and help-fulness. In such a life there is encouragement for every young man who is constrained to be the architect and builder of his own fortunes, even as this necessity was laid upon Frederick C. A. Denkmann. He sprang from sturdy German stock, did this great American lumberman, and … Read more

Biography of George T. Wilson

Not alone to the men of daring initiative in the fields of manufacture and merchandising does Rock Island County owe its greatness in the world of commerce, but also to the mechanics whose unsurpassed skill and industry have contributed, in larger measure than we always realize, to our worldwide reputation for all that is best in our manifold lines of product. In the front ranks of these skilled artisans is Mr. George T. Wilson, the well known carriage iron worker, foreman of the blacksmithing department of the Velie Carriage Company. Mr. Wilson was born under Her Britannic Majesty’s Flag, in … 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 Carl Bernhardi, M. D.

One of Rock Island’s long established physicians who has achieved an enviable reputation in his profession, and who is held in high personal regard by all who know him, is Doctor Carl Bernhardi. He was born September 10, 1843, in the City of Koenigsberg, East Prussia, Germany. Here he spent his boyhood, receiving his preliminary education in the schools and colleges of his native city, and finally entered the medical department of the University of Koenigsberg in 1863. He continued his medical course in this university until the Autumn of 1866, when he went to the University of Berlin. From … Read more

Biography of James Blair Lower

James Blair Lower, president of the First National Bank of Washington, is a banker of long and active experience, and represents a family in which the financial ability had been highly developed, two of his brothers being also well known western bankers. Mr. Lower had spent most of his life in Kansas, but was born at Lenark in Carroll County, Illinois, July 30, 1860. A number of generations back his first American ancestors came out of Europe and settled in Pennsylvania. His father was of German descent and his mother of Irish-Scotch descent, her father being Irish and her mother … Read more

Biography of Alfred Bergin B. D., Ph. D.

Alfred Bergin, B. D., Ph. D.The Bethany Church at Lindsborg ever since it was established on the prairies of Central Kansas nearly fifty years ago had been a powerful influence not only in the religious life of Kansas but to a remarkable degree in the social and intellectual advancement of the people of the state. It is the oldest and the parent church of the Swedish Lutheran people who did so much to colonize and develop these prairles from a wilderness into a smiling landscape of farms and towna. The church had a membership of over two thousand people. It … Read more

Biography of Colonel George Davenport

Colonel George Davenport was the first white man to make a permanent settlement in what is now Rock Island County, arriving here in the spring of 1816. He was a native of England, born in Lincolnshire, in 1783. At the age of seventeen he enlisted as a sailor on a merchant vessel, and for the next three years he visited France, Spain and Portugal. In the fall of 1803 his vessel sailed from Liverpool to St. Petersburg, Russia, and shortly after its arrival there an embargo was laid upon all English vessels in that port, the vessels taken possession of … Read more

Biography of Martin Schoonmaker

Much has been written in this historical work of the banks and bankers of Rock Island and Moline. However, in estimating the financial strength of Rock Island County the banks and bankers of its smaller municipalities are deserving of very prominent mention, for they are the tributaries of larger financial institutions and have an important part in swelling the stream of the county’s prosperity. To the village bank comes the farmer from the surrounding countryside and deposits the golden fruits of his toil. From the proprietor of that bank its customers may ask and receive sound financial advice. He is … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Dr. F. H. Gardner

Doctor F. H. Gardner, a physician residing at 507 Fifteenth Street. Moline, Illinois, is a native of the state, having been born at Sublette March 16, 1839. After acquiring a common and high school education he entered the Chicago College of Pharmacy and Medical Department Union of Illinois, from which he graduated. He served briefly as a military man as a member of the Chicago Zouaves, this service extending from the year of 1886 to 1887. Politically he was every hair a Republican, and in 1897 he received the appointment of United States pension examiner, which position he holds to … Read more