The above named and beloved patriot was of that branch of the Beardsley family which trace their genealogy in America as far back as 1628. Major Beardsley was born October 30, 1833, at Ellington, Chautauqua County (near the reservation of the Six Nations), New York State; died at Rock Island, August 22, 1903. He came […]
One of the prominent citizens of Rock Island, and a man of high standing in the legal profession, was Colonel Henry Curtis, deceased. He was born at Boston, Massachusetts, August 13, 1834, the home of his parents. Henry and Rebecca L. (Everett) Curtis, and in that city he spent his boyhood and received his preliminary
Rev. Ernst Fredrick Pihlblad, D. D., president of Bethany College, is an educator of long and successful experience and had been connected with Bethany College more than twenty years. He was born at Kansas City, Missouri, March 18, 1873, a son of John and Louise (Nord) Pihlblad. Both parents were born in Sweden. His father
Biography of Ernst Fredrick Pihlblad, D. D., Rev. Read More »
The history of the United States Government Arsenal located upon Rock Island is exhaustively narrated from its inception in another portion of this work. Consequently it is not the intention of the writer of this sketch to touch upon any phase of that history except the period covered by the regime of the present Commandant
The life record of Henry J. Frick, the subject of our present sketch, is that of a self-made man; a man who through his unflagging industry and undaunted perseverance has achieved for himself not only a comfortable competence, but an enviable reputation for unswerving integrity and uncompromising honor. He was born August 31, 1858, at
Holding in high estimate the duties and responsibilities which his position involved, and more than ordinarily successful as a medical practitioner surgeon, Dr. Henry H. Chase is well remembered in Rock Island, the city in which he spent the later years of his life. He was an American of the highest type, and of purest
In considering the prominent legal firms in Rock Island County one’s mind instinctively turns to the firm of McEniry & McEniry, a firm composed of the two brothers, Hon. William McEniry and Matthew J. McEniry, having offices both in Rock Island and Moline. It is the life and character of the former of these two
In considering those among Rock Island’s citizens whose activities have been directed toward developing that city’s industries, and whose foresight has been rewarded in a most substantial manner, one’s mind instinctively turns to the subject of our present sketch, Samuel Sharpe Davis. He was born February 1, 1858, at Covington, Kentucky, his parents being John,
Almost the only living individual among those earliest settlers who came to Rock Island County in the thirties and forties, when the present City of Rock Island was a small village, known as Stephenson, is Sylvester Washington McMaster, a man whom nearly every man, woman and child throughout Rock Island County knows, either personally or
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
Mrs. Mary Fay Hawes, wife of Major Charles W. Hawes, and a member of the board of supreme managers of the Royal Neighbors of America, is an admirable type of the purposeful woman of the day. She proves in her own person that the American woman may exert a powerful influence in the enlargement of
The soldier-sheriff of Rock Island County needs no introduction to that county’s people. That he is well and favorably known is evidenced by the office with which they have honored him, and which he now holds and fills so acceptably. Edward Kittilsen was born in Moline, July 19, 1854, his parents being Andrew and Frederika
Born in Rock Island in 1875, the above named gentleman, young though he is, has, by persistency and application to his chosen vocation, forged to the front until he is now one of the best known and capable contractors and builders in the City. Many structures throughout the City attest his mastery of the building
Isaac Negus, deceased, who, during his lifetime, was one of the leading business men in Rock Island, was a man whose be-lief in the future of the city he had chosen for his home took the substantial form of building enterprise. He was born December 31, 1799, at Labions, Ondaga County, New York, where he
One of Rock Island’s most revered and honored ministers of the gospel, a man who has grown old in the service of his God and his church, is Rev. C. A. Mennicke, pastor of the German Evangelical Lutheran Immanuels Congregation. He was born September 17, 1834, at Friedrichsschwerz, a small place near Halle, in Prussia,
Grasselli, Thomas S.; manufacturer; born, Cleveland, Nov. 14, 1875; son of C. A. and Johanna Ireland Grasselli; educated, Mt. St. Mary’s College, Emmitsburg, Md.; married, Rock Island, Ill., May 29, 1899, to Emilie Schmidt; issue, three boys; entered Troop A, O. N. G., 1893; appointed capt. and quartermaster First Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, May, 1898; resigned
Col. Charles William Durham is the principal assistant in the engineering office at Rock Island Arsenal. His father, Charles Durham, was born in Belfast, Maine; his mother, Dorcas C. Durham, was born in the town of Brewer of the same State. Mr. Durham, senior, was for the greater part of his life a lumber merchant
One of the most brilliant and astute attorneys practising at the Rock Island County Bar is Mansfield M. Sturgeon, senior member of the legal firm of Sturgeon. Stelck & Sturgeon, a man whose great ability and profound learning as an attorney has been demonstrated in the trial of many important suits, as well as in
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
