Rock Island County IL

Biography of Captain Thomas J. Robinson

The municipal history of Rock Island contains some illustrious names. It is a city that has been slow in attaining its present proportions, but its growth has been steady and constant. To those hardy and adventurous men who in an early day saw Rock Island’s possibilities and expended strength, time and money in laboring to build up what was then a mere handful of people gathered together, great credit must be given. They had faith in Rock Island’s future. They labored to make that future a reality, and in their labors they were successful. One of those men who had … 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 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 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 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

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 Captain David M. Tipton

It becomes the sad duty of the officer in temporary charge of the Rock Island District to announce the sudden death, on September 22, 1904, of Captain David M. Tipton, Master of the United States Steamer Colonel A. Mackenzie, near Frontenac, in Lake Pepin. Seated in a chair in the pilot house, having but a few minutes before been at the wheel, he passed away in an instant, without previous pain or suffering, from aneurish of the heart. Captain Tipton, who was about seventy-six years of age at the time of his death, was born on a farm on the … Read more

Biography of Harry P. Simpson

Harry P. Simpson, editor of the Rock Island Argues, was born in Davenport, Iowa, on July 6, 1863, and moved to Rock Island in 1887. He attended the public schools in his native city, and while yet in high school he developed a decided taste for newspaper work, serving as reporter on a society paper called the Saturday Afternoon People. His work attracted attention and he was offered a position on the staff of the Davenport Gazette, which he accepted, representing that paper in a reportorial capacity in Rock Island and Moline. A little later he was made city editor … 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. 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

Biographical Sketch of Maurice A. Hollingsworth

Mr. Maurice A. Hollingsworth, a veterinary surgeon, now practicing his profession in the City of Rock Island, was born December 10, 1872, at Cincinnati, Ohio, and has been a resident of Rock Island for a number of years. He is the son of Abraham and Celestia S. Hollingsworth, who gave him an education in the Ontario Veterinary College at Toronto, Canada. After completing his studies there he took up his residence in Rock Island and commenced the practice of his profession, which he has gradually built up so that he now ranks among the foremost of his profession in this … 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 Edwin B. Knox

One of the earliest born residents of Rock Island County is Edwin B. Knox, of Moline. Since October 15, 1842, when he first saw the light of day at Rock Island, Mr. Knox has continuously made his home in one of these two cities or their immediate vicinity. At the time of his birth, Rock Island, then known as Stephenson, was but a fair sized village and Moline but a settlement. His parents, Charles B. and Mary (Gorham) Knox, then lived in the middle of the present block east of Twentieth street, opposite Spencer Square, and the son first attended … Read more

Biography of Major Henry Clay Connelly

The record of Major Henry Clay Connelly, both as a soldier and as a civilian, is a brilliant one and will live long after he has passed to another world. His father was James Connelly, a son of Bernard Connelly, who settled in Philadelphia about 1800. He afterwards located in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, where, as a dealer in live stock he became successful. His wife, of English birth, was a Miss Eggleton. She was the first member of the Episcopal Church of England in that county and for many years the only one. James Connelly arrived at man-hood in Somerset … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Alexander W. Coyne

That farming in Rock Island County is a profitable occupation is attested by the subject of this sketch, who, though in business for himself but a few years, is now the owner of two hundred and sixty acres of well improved land in section eleven, Bowling Township. He was born in the same Township, the son of William and Margaret (Morrison) Coyne, March 15, 1866. After the usual schooling of the country boy and the practical preparation for life on the farm, he married March 27, 1901, Miss Nora S. Doonan, of Mercer County, Illinois. The latter is the daughter … Read more

Biography of Robert S. Montgomery

For a period of over 35 years the subject of this sketch was one of the leading farmers of Rock Island county. His farm was one of the largest and best under the highest state of cultivation, while the improvements upon it were among the finest and latest in design. Not only was the owner a leader in agricultural, but he was likewise foremost among his fellow men, in church, in politics and in society. His sons and daughters, following the example he set for them, grew into useful men and women and went out to fill responsible positions in … Read more

Biography of Peter Fries

Man whose personality was strongly A impressed on Rock Island County, was Peter Fries, distiller, banker, and man of affairs. Mr. Fries was born May 4, 1822, on the family estate known as “Guss-Hof,” situated on the River Main, in Bavaria, Germany. He died July 20, 1902, in Rock Island, Illinois. His father’s name was Johann, his mother’s, Gertrude (nee Brand), of Reistenhausen. Johann Fries was the owner of the Guss-Hof, the estate which had descended from father to son for many generations, and was situated near Stadt Prozelten. Peter Fries, the subject of this sketch, was the youngest of … 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