Rock Island County IL

Biography of Dr. A. H. Arp

There is no period in the world’s history which fails to demonstrate that exceptional ability and knowledge are invariably triumphant and lasting, and live in memory long after the finite clay has returned to mother earth. In medicine, as. in every profession or business, nothing succeeds like success, but to attain success requires a master mind, a logical and conservative policy and a thorough understanding of one’s chosen calling. This being. true, what shall be said of those who are inordinately endowed with genius and ability of accomplishment? Hence, is so much as success is measured by achievement, and in … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Presley Greenwault

Presley Greenawalt, cashier of the Rock Island Savings Bank, was born May 31, 1858, at Wyoming, Stark County, Illinois, the son of Henry Andrew and Maria Calwell Greenawalt. In the public schools of Wyoming he obtained his education, leaving his studies at the age of fourteen to enter the printing office of the Wyoming Post. In 1882 he removed to Rock Island and secured a position as bill clerk with the Rock Island & Peoria Railroad. After a few months he was made cashier in the local freight office, from which position he was successively promoted to agent at Toulon, … Read more

Biography of William Fisk Eastman

William Fiske Eastman, co-editor with P. S. McGlynn, of the Moline Daily Dispatch and Weekly Review-Dispatch, and postmaster of Moline, was born in Ellisburg, Jefferson County, New York, November 11, 1844. His parents were Charles W. Eastman, Doctor of Medicine, and Cynthia (Fiske) Eastman. He attended the public schools of his native village and Union Academy in the neighboring village of Belleville. Graduating there he attended Union College at Schenectady, New York, graduating in the scientific course in 1866, and taking first honors of that course. In the meantime he had been teaching in the district schools, earning in this … 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 Douglas E. Hall

While not a long time resident of Rock Island County, the subject of this sketch is a native of Illinois, son of pioneers of the State, and is descended from an ancestry that has participated in all the wars that the United States has waged. Mr. Hall was born in Menard County April 6, 1861, his parents being James P. and Mary J. (Pierce) Hall. His father was born in Lawrence County, Ohio, July 1, 1818, and his mother in Sangamon County, Illinois, August 16, 1830. James P. Hall was a son of Elisha Hall, a native of Bedford County, … 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 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. 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

Biography of Stephen Henry Velie

The City of Moline owes its prominence throughout the United States, and in fact, throughout the entire civilized world, chiefly to its manufactories. And to Stephen Henry Velie, deceased, who, during his life, was conspicuously identified with several of that city’s leading manufacturing establishments, Moline is greatly indebted for the preeminence she now maintains in industrial enterprise. Mr. Velie was born April 21, 1830, near Hyde Park, Dutchess County, New York, his boyhood, until he arrived at the age of fifteen years, being spent upon his father’s farm in that county. During this period he attended the public schools of … 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 Walter A. Rosenfield

Walter A. Rosenfield, the eldest son of Morris and Julia E. Rosenfield, was born in Rock Island, June 13, 1877. The sketch of his father and of the history of the Rosenfield family precedes this. After completing the Rock Island public schools, Mr. Rosenfield entered St. John’s Military School at Manlius, New York, and graduated from that school. In 1898 the lingering and hopeless illness of his father, Morris Rosenfield, having made it impossible for him to longer assume the duties devolving upon the president of an industry like the Moline Wagon Company, his son, our subject, was elected to … Read more

Biography of George Loughead Eyster, M. D.

Among Rock Island physicians none have a wider practice or a more successful one than the subject of this sketch, Doctor George L. Eyster, one of that city’s old established and prominent physicians and surgeons. He was born May 14, 1853, at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, his parents being William IF. and Lucretia (Gibson) Eyster. His father was a native of Pennsylvania, and his mother of Vermont. His father’s family was of German origin, the Eysters being among the early settlers in the colony of Pennsylvania. Doctor Eyster’s father was for many years a clergyman of the Lutheran Church, being also engaged … Read more

Biography of Walter Johnson

Mr. Walter Johnson, the subject of this sketch, died in Rock Island, November 23, 1903. He was for a third of a century one of the vital forces of the community. For twenty-seven years he occupied the editorial chair of the Daily Union, in which position he at all times was an able and courageous champion of that which he considered right, and calculated to make the community better. His editorial utterances carried weight not only because of their intrinsic merit and evident fairness in the presentation of the subjects under discussion, but because it was recognized throughout the community … Read more

Biography of Alexander Owens

June 17, 1830, near Belfast, Ireland, the subject of this sketch was born. He was the son of Archibald and Mary (McMaster) Owens, both lifelong residents of the Emerald Isle. Their children were Jane, Mary, Alexander, Margaret, Anna, William and Jennie, all of whom became citizens of the United States, and all of whom, with the exception of Jennie and the subject of this review, are now deceased. Alexander came to America when but sixteen years of age and settled at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. There he earned the carpenter’s trade, which he has followed the greater part of his life. At … Read more

Biography of Josiah G. Heck

The subject of this sketch, Josiah G. Heck, of Moline, was born in Harrison County, Ohio, May 8, 1840, the son of John and Sarah (Wilde) Heck, and has been a resident of Rock Island County the past sixty-four years. The Heck family is an old one; Phillip Heck, grandfather of Josiah Heck, belonging to a family that was early established in the United States. John Heck, father of Josiah Heck, was born September 10, 1786, in Pennsylvania. In 1833 he emigrated to Harrison County, Ohio, staying eleven years there. There he married Miss Sarah Wilde, and a few years … Read more

Biography of Benjamin Harper

The subject of this sketch needs no introduction to the older generation of Rock Island County, the larger enterprises of which he was intimately associated with throughout the many years of his residence here. Benjamin Harper was born February 12, 1817, in the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and died April 3, 1887, in the City of Rock Island, Illinois. When about fourteen years of age his parents removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he served his apprenticeship to the wagon-maker’s trade, upon completion of which, that spirit of bold initiative and energy which characterized his whole after life, asserted itself in … Read more

Biography of William A. Meese

When that evil day shall come whereon William A. Meese exchanges his 7 1/8 derby of commerce for the starry crown of heavenly reward, doffs his conventional haberdashery of the Mississippi Valley for the celestial cerements of eternal bliss, Moline will pause in its onward march to industrial eminence, consider well this life-time of devotion to the city’s interests, drop a tear of affection for a departed comrade and wonder with apprehension where the half-dozen men are to spring from to take his place in the struggle for civic improvement. He has been for a half-century the loyal friend of … Read more

Biography of William H. Bean

Rapidly the ranks of those who took active part in the Civil War are thinning. One after another the gray haired veterans are going to join their comrades in a land where bloodshed and suffering are unknown. Few of the defenders of the flag in the sixties are now left who are able to hold their own in the keen struggle of present day commercial life. Physical infirmities, have with few exceptions long since compelled the great majority of the survivors to drop out of the race. Yet here and there are exceptions. Now and then a sturdy old warrior … 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