New York

Biography of Charles McHugh

Among those prominent in business, social and club life in the City of Rock Island, is Charles McHugh, a man who through persistent industry and commercial acumen has wrought for himself a successful career. His parents were Thomas Edwin and Ellen (House) McHugh. His mother was born in Syracuse, New York; his father was a native of Inniskillin, Ireland, but removed to this country, where the subject of this sketch was born September 3, 1863, at Syracuse, New York. Four years later his parents came west and located at Tiskilwa, in this State, where his mother is still living. Here … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Edgar H. Wilson

Born at Depauville, Jefferson County, New York, January 28, 1874, Edgar H. Wilson came to Moline, Illinois, with his parents, George T. and Mary E. Wilson, in the year 1892. He was educated in Lowville Academy, Lowville, New York. Leaving school at the age of seventeen he entered the service of Grant & Mould, grocers, at Watertown, New York, with whom he remained for three years when the family moved west. Arriving at Moline, Mr. Wilson was employed as clerk in the grocery store of George L. Benson at 1620 Third Avenue; at the expiration of three years he purchased … 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

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 Hugh Beverly Roney

HUGH BEVERLY RONEY, M. D., a progressive and successful physician of Pittsfield, whose preparations for his profession were made in leading educational institutions and whose success well appraises his ability, is interested in local and general progress, and in his profession he has attained an enviable position. He is a son of Gifford and Victoria (Lott) Roney, the father now deceased, the mother a resident of Pittsfield. Hugh Beverly Roney was born at Colborne, Canada, January 20, 1886. He received his early education in the public schools of his birthplace and spent two years in the high schools of Newburgh, … Read more

Biography of Edward Newton Frary

EDWARD NEWTON FRARY – One of the pioneers of New England, John Frary came from England and settled in Dedham, Massachusetts, and was one of the founders of the church there. He subsequently moved to Medford and died at an advanced age on June 14, 1685. His wife’s name was Prudence. Their children: Theophilus, Samson, Mary, John, Eleazer, of whom further; Isaac, and Samuel. (II) Eleazer Frary, son of John and Prudence Frary, was born in 1640, settled in Hatfield, Massachusetts, died December 19, 1709. He married, on January 25, 1666, Mary Graves, daughter. of Isaac Graves. They had seven … Read more

Biography of Dwight Morris Billings

DWIGHT MORRIS BILLINGS, of Amherst, Massachusetts, treasurer of The Hills Manufacturing Company, producers of hats, was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, February 17, 1866. (I) His ancestry in America probably goes back to Richard Billings, who received a grant of six acres of land in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1640. In 1659 he signed a contract with Governor Webster and others to remove to and settle at Hadley. The removal was made in 1661, and he lived in that part of the town which became Hatfield. He died March 3, 1679. He married Margery, surname unknown, who died December 5, 1679. (II) … 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 Sylvester Washington McMaster

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 by reputation. He was born October 8, 1811, near Watertown, in Herkimer County, New York, and died January 22, 1908, at the age of ninety-six years. His early life was spent upon a farm and he received such education as he could in the country … Read more

Biography of Charles J. Larkin

The City of Rock Island has several contractors and builders whose operations are upon a very extensive scale, and whose work is known, not only in the immediate vicinity of their home city, but throughout the entire western part of the United States, where they have been engaged to erect large public buildings, manufacturing plants, railway depots and other edifices requiring the expenditure of thousands of dollars. Among the men so engaged is Charles J. Larkin. Mr. Larkin was born September 13, 1852, in Schenectady, New York, and lived in that city until he was four years of age, when … Read more

Biography of Alexander E. Montgomery

Alexander E. Montgomery, well and favorably known for a generation past in Moline and Rock Island, was born February 2, 1831, in County Down, Ireland, and died in the City of Moline, Illinois, at his daughter’s (Mrs. Thornton’s) home, on Twelfth Avenue, July 17, 1906. His father and mother, James and Margaret (nee Swart,) were natives of Scotland, descended from Scotch-Irish ancestry, of honorable history. Mr. Montgomery received a common school education in his native land. In the year 1849, at fourteen years of age, he immigrated to New York City, and entered the service of the United States Hotel … Read more

Biography of Stephen Jose Vanderlick

STEPHEN JOSE VANDERLICK – Of the younger group of Northampton attorneys, who through energetic effort and by abilities well proven in training and in natural gifts have won deserved popularity, Mr. Vanderlick has established his offices as a general practitioner, and entered upon his professional career under excellent auspices. He is a descendant of an industrious Polish ancestry, who for generations were natives of Lipno, in Russian Poland. There his great-grandfather, Michael Vanderlick, was born March 25, 1800, and died in March, 1860; his wife’s name was Kathirim, and their children were: Josephine; Joseph, of whom further; Henry; and Anthony. … Read more

Biography of Orland Jonas Brown, M.D.

ORLAND JONAS BROWN, M. D. – Since 1870, Dr. Orland Jonas Brown has been steadily practicing his profession in North Adams, and his activities in the service of community, commonwealth and nation have created a debt of gratitude that they have been repaying in the honored esteem in which he is held. He has served his community as a health officer, his State in its Legislature, and as a surgeon in its militia, from which, after twenty years service he was retired with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and his long record is one of honor and brilliance in service. Dr. … Read more

Biography of Samuel Partridge Billings

SAMUEL PARTRIDGE BILLINGS, as deputy collector of internal revenue for Franklin and Hampshire counties, is rendering efficient service in local public office. Mr. Billings traces his descent from Richard Billings, who was in Hartford, Connecticut, with his wife, Margery, in 1640. He removed to Hatfield, Massachusetts, in 1661, and died there March 3, 1679. The line descends through their son, Samuel Billings, who married Sarah Fellows, daughter of Richard and Ursula Fellows. Their son, Samuel Billings, who married Hannah Church. Their son, Fellows Billings, born February 15, 1704, died June 29, 1784; removed to Conway during the Revolutionary War, in … Read more

Biography of James Neild

JAMES NEILD – The Neild family came from the North of England. Thomas Neild, a native of Halifax, Yorkshire, England, a stone cutter by trade, now living in Jamestown, New York, was born on February 9, 1854, and came to America in 1882, locating first at Albion, New York, where he procured work in his trade. He later moved to HoVey, New York, and in 1893 came to Holyoke, Massachusetts, and entered the mill of the American Thread Company, working there for four years. After this he returned for a time to England, but later came back to America and … Read more

Biography of F. Emmett Dwyer

F. EMMETT DWYER, progressive and outstanding professional man of Pittsfield, and one who has gained general recognition in the work of undertaking and funeral directing, in which for the past six years and more he has been active, stands at the head of a long established business, of which his father was the founder. Mr. Dwyer has demonstrated his large natural ability, and in his forward looking spirit the people feel that he is giving to his work sincere and devoted attention. Mr. Dwyer is a native of Chatham, New York, a son of Simon P. and Katherine (McNamee) Dwyer. … Read more

Biography of L. S. McCabe

L. S. McCabe has been a factor in the commercial history of Rock Island County since 1868. He is a native of Delaware County, New York, and was educated in the common schools and academies of that locality. Coming west in his young manhood, Mr McCabe took up his residence in Rock Island County. He taught school for two terms in the southern part of this county during the time that the Hon. W. H. Gest, the present circuit judge, was county superintendent of schools. In 1870 his business career as a Rock Island merchant was begun, and his steadily … Read more

Biography of George Wagner

A man whose perseverance, industry and business sagacity has been largely instrumental in the establishment of one of Rock Island’s largest industries was George Wagner, one of the founders of the Rock Island Brewing Company, a man in whom those potential elements that are essential in every successful career, seemed to center. George Wagner was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, January 13, 1832. He died January 10, 1907, in Rock Island. In his boyhood he attended the common schools of his native land, and there acquired a fair education. After leaving school he was apprenticed to a baker, and in this … Read more

Biography of Robert Wagner

One of Rock Island’s native sons, a man upon whom devolves to a large extent the management and control of a great and growing industry, is the subject of this sketch, Robert Wagner, president of the Rock Island Brewing Company. He is the son of George Wagner, the story of whose life and rise in the world appears elsewhere in this book, and Frederica Wagner. He was born in Rock Island, June 15, 1866. During his boyhood he attended the city’s public schools and private German schools, fitting himself for entrance in the University of Iowa, at Iowa City. After … Read more

Biography of Isaac Negus

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 received a common school education. After leaving school he found employment in the construction department of the Erie Canal in New York State, where he remained for three years. The experience and practical knowledge gained during those three years was a great service to him … Read more