years of age when he came from Ireland. He first located in Vermont,
where he obtained employment at whatever offered. He came to Quincy in
1837. Being young, vigorous and industrious, success attended him from
the start. He soon accumulated sufficient capital as a common laborer to
purchase a few horses, carts and wagons, which enabled him to accept
contracts in constructing railroads, at which he made money rapidly and
invested every surplus dollar in Quincy real estate. In 1848 he was
elected a member of the city council; in 1860, mayor; in 1864 to a seat
in the State Legislature. From 1837 until his death in 1883, he was a
valuable servant of the city and state. He was one of the twenty
citizens who furnished the capital from their private funds to build and
equip the Quincy, Missouri and Pacific Railroad, from Quincy toward
Omaha, Nebraska. Possessed of large wealth, he employed it liberally to
beautify and advance the interests of the city in which it was
accumulated. His son, Patrick H. Redmond, was educated at the Catholic
College in Washington, D. C., and became a brilliant newspaper writer as
editor of the Quincy Herald, but did not survive his father. His son,
James Redmond, continued his father’s occupation as a contractor and is
still in Quincy. Two of his daughters are living here. Margaret is the
widow of Jacob Dick of the noted Dick Brothers Brewing Company. She is
very wealthy, is a shrewd financier and is a prominent worker in the
Catholic Church. She has two sons, who with their cousins manage the
great brewing business established by their fathers. The daughter of
Margaret Redmond Dick, Mrs. John B. Ellis, is a widow, who owns and
manages the Quincy Whig and is a favorite in society. A daughter of
Thomas Redmond, Catherine, is the wife of J. Frank Ricker, cashier of
the Ricker National Bank, one of the strongest financial institutions in
Illinois.
The Heire or Haire Brothers—spelled both ways—came to Quincy before
1840. They proved to be valuable and influential citizens as merchants
and professional men. Captain Thomas J. Heire, a son of Thomas, Sr.,
served his country gallantly in the Union Army. He is a printer by trade
and after the war published the Quincy Evening News. For a number of
years he held the office of city clerk. He was popular and efficient,
the soul of honor and as honest as the sun. In late years he held a
position in the Treasury Department at Washington, but is now taking
life easy among his relatives and the friends of his youth in Quincy.
The Long Brothers came in 1839 with the Best and Finlay families, to
whom they were related. They were both contractors and farmers, settling
in or near the city and becoming wealthy. Their sons are still in
Quincy. They are grain buyers and large capitalists. They stand well in
the community and are active members of the Methodist Church.
The McCormick Brothers came in company with the Longs and located on
farms close to Quincy. A number of their collaterals are still in the
city and county, all fairly prosperous and respected. James McCormick,
Jr., went to California in 1848 and became very wealthy as a merchant at
Redding. He died without direct heirs, a few years ago, leaving his
wealth to his nephews and nieces here and at other places in the West.
Thomas Rhea came in 1839. He settled on a farm near the Longs and became
wealthy. He is an admirable citizen, industrious and frugal. He has
lately moved into the city to take his remnant of life easy.
Dr. John Fitzpatrick remained unmarried. He acquired much wealth, which
he left to his nephews and nieces. It was said that he had been a
priest. He was highly eccentric, but honorable.
John W. McFadon came before 1830, after serving his adopted country in
the war of 1812. He followed merchandising and farming and became very
wealthy. He left two sons and a daughter—William and Robert McFadon,
both graduates of Harvard and lawyers of a high grade. Both died in
Chicago, where they added to their wealth in the practice of their
profession, and by largely dealing in real estate. At the time of his
death, William McFadon was attorney for the Lake Shore Railroad. He left
two sons, John W. and Donald, both of Harvard and attorneys, also a
daughter Anna. His daughter Anna is the wife of Hon. William A.
Richardson, son of Senator W. A. Richardson, who in the days of Douglas
was one of the best known democrats in the republic. They have no
children. Robert McFadon left one son, Robert, lately graduated as an
attorney from Harvard, and two daughters who are in Chicago.
James Arthur was born in Londonderry, Ireland, March 2, 1811, and came
to America in 1833. For a number of years he owned and operated
steamboats on the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. In 1840 he located in
Quincy as a pork packer and general merchant. He also operated a saw
mill. He died wealthy in 1899, at the age of eighty-eight years. He was
moral, temperate and frugal. Four sons and three daughters survived him.
The only one of the family now in Quincy is a daughter Virginia M.,
widow of Col. Edward Prince. One of his sons, James A. Arthur, owns a
large farm at La Belle, Missouri. The other sons, I. H., William N. and
W. A., are successful merchants in western cities.
The Little, Carroll and Campbell families were related by marriage and
came to Quincy direct from Ireland in 1836. Edward Little had two sons,
Patrick H. and Frank E., both well educated, and are now successful
business men in St. Louis, Missouri. James Campbell had three sons, who
are now in the lime business in Quincy, as was their father and also
their uncle Arthur Carroll.
The Benneson Brothers, Nathaniel, Thomas, Robert and William were born
in Newcastle County, Delaware. Both parents came from Ireland in 1800.
All of these brothers became prosperous citizens of Quincy. In their
youth, all learned the carpenter’s trade, except William, who was the
youngest. They came to Quincy in 1837. The carpenters worked at their
trade as journeymen until they accumulated funds that enabled them to
become contractors, in which Thomas continued until his death in 1870.
Nathaniel and Robert became successful lumber merchants. Robert retired
from the lumber business in 1872 and devoted himself to buying and
improving real estate, in which he was also successful. Many of the most
imposing and durable buildings in the city were erected and owned by
Robert Benneson. He filled many positions of trust and honor. He served
as alderman and as mayor, and for several years preceding his death was
president of the school board. He was president of the gas company,
which he helped to organize; was a director in numerous corporations,
among them the First National Bank, the Gas Company and the Quincy,
Alton and St. Louis Railroad. He was a zealous and generous supporter of
the moral, social and commercial growth of the city, and none ranked
higher in public esteem. He died at the age of eighty-five years.
[Illustration:
HON. JOHN J. MEE,
Judge of Probate, Woonsocket, R. I.
A Member of the Society.
]
William Benneson was a lawyer. His first partner was Stephen A. Douglas.
Theirs was the first law office in Quincy. Mr. Benneson had served as
clerk of the circuit court. After Mr. Douglas went on the bench, Mr.
Benneson was identified with several of the leading lawyers of Illinois.
When the civil war broke out he was made Colonel of the Seventy-eighth
Illinois. After the war, he resumed his practice. He was made postmaster
of Quincy by President Johnston. He died in 1899 at the age of
eighty-one years. Like his brothers, Colonel Benneson was a man of the
strictest integrity.
The Brothers, David and Dennis Higgins, came to Quincy before 1840. Both
were successful contractors in railroad building and street grading and
became property holders. David died several years ago at a ripe age,
leaving sons and daughters. Dennis died in 1904 at the age of
ninety-two, and although married he had no children. Both brothers were
devout Catholics. David was a staunch Democrat and Dennis equally as
staunch a Republican. They were good citizens.
James Fisher was born in 1811 near Londonderry, Ireland, and with two
sisters came to Quincy in 1833. They were strict Presbyterians. Mr.
Fisher was a successful dry goods merchant and died wealthy while
attending to his business at his store in 1898, at the age of
eighty-eight. He had three sons, who are now doing business at Kansas
City and other places in the West. Mr. Fisher’s sisters never married.
Both are now dead.
William B. Powers was born at Temple, New Hampshire, of Irish descent.
He came to Quincy in 1838; was a brickmason and followed that trade for
several years, then entered into partnership with Matthew B. Finlay in
the clothing business, where he accumulated much wealth. After the death
of Governor Wood, the beautiful Woodland Cemetery was neglected and
commenced to run down. Mr. Powers organized the Woodland Cemetery
Association, of which he was chosen president, and soon restored that
sacred garden of the dead to its former position, the most beautiful
cemetery in the West. He died in 1895 at the age of eighty-four years.
Only one son, W. C. Powers, survived him, and he is now a retired
merchant.
The Shannahan Brothers, John, William and Patrick, born in Waterford
County, Ireland, came to Quincy before 1840. They were all successful
railroad builders and constructed roads in all parts of the country. In
1852 they built sections of the Iron Mountain Railroad in Missouri. They
constructed the Northern Cross Railroad between Quincy and Clayton. Had
contracts on the Hannibal and St. Joseph road, and the Quincy, Alton and
St. Louis road. John and William lived to a ripe age. Patrick survived
them. He died in 1895 at the age of eighty-four years, leaving three
sons, James P., Richard and William, and four daughters, all in Quincy
except William, who is in California. John Shannahan had two sons, but
William had none. A brother, Thomas, came from Ireland in 1851.
John Burns, Sr., was born in Maine of Irish parents and came to Quincy
in 1834 with a family of several sons. He was a man of strong religious
convictions and a hater of slavery. John Burns, Jr., went to California
in 1849 and became a prominent man of that state. George W. Burns went
with his brother, but returned after one year and engaged in the
mercantile business in the town of Payson, eighteen miles south of
Quincy, where his father was then residing. In 1854 he returned to
Quincy, and in company with John Wood, Jr., engaged in the flour milling
business. In 1862 he was appointed paymaster in the army with the rank
of Major, and was captured on the Red River and held for three months.
He was elected a state senator in 1874. In 1880, he went again to
California, where in a gallant effort to catch a team of runaway horses
attached to a carriage containing ladies, he was killed on the streets
of Sacramento. Major Burns inherited a brave and generous disposition to
risk his own life to save that of others, as shown by the brave conduct
of his father in saving and protecting the noted Doctor Nelson, the most
brilliant man among the early pioneers. Dr. David Nelson was born in
Tennessee. He was a friend of Andrew Jackson and served under him as
surgeon during the war of 1812. He had been an infidel, but was
converted and became an ardent advocate of Christianity. He was an
extensive slave holder and moved with them to Missouri, near Palmyra,
eighteen miles west of Quincy. He was a kind and humane master and soon
caused a bitter feeling against himself among his slave holding
neighbors by persisting in teaching his negroes to read and write and
giving them religious instruction in defiance of a law then existing
forbidding the teaching of negroes. He attempted to found a college at
Palmyra, and had books shipped to him from the East. Upon opening one of
the boxes, it was found that not being quite full of books, it had been
filled with anti-slavery pamphlets, by some eastern man who knew his
desires to educate and uplift the blacks. The knowledge of the receipt
of the pamphlets spread like wild-fire among the slave holders, who
determined to take his life. The Doctor was spirited away by his friends
and hid in a cave, where he wrote the first chapter of his great work on
“Infidelity,” while his enemies were scouring the country for him, with
all of the roads guarded and every supposable means of escape cut off.
His friends implored him to come to Quincy. Making his way through a
heavy forest, he arrived at midnight on the west bank of the Mississippi
River opposite Quincy, where John Burns and other friends were to meet
him and row him across. While waiting at the edge of the forest for his
friends to appear, with the wide sweeping river before him and the
lights of Quincy on the opposite shore, he composed that beautiful hymn,
“The Shining Shore”:
My days are gliding swiftly by
And I, a pilgrim stranger,
Would not detain them as they fly,
Those hours of toil and danger.
Chorus.
For Oh, we stand on Jordan’s strand,
Our friends are passing over,
And just before, the shining shore,
We may almost discover.
When Burns and his friends arrived with boats, they informed him that a
number of infuriated slave holders were on the other side, determined to
seize him and bring him back to Missouri. To avoid them, they rowed up
the river twenty miles before crossing to Illinois, then quietly brought
him down, overland, to Quincy. Several efforts were afterwards made to
retake Doctor Nelson to Missouri, but John Burns and his loyal friends
vigilantly guarded him until the bitter feeling subsided and died out.
In Quincy Doctor Nelson established one of his four institutes to
educate young men for Christian Missionaries, in which he spent all of
his own means besides much money raised by him in the East. He died
poor, at the age of fifty-one, and was buried in Woodland Cemetery,
where friends have erected a large granite monument to his memory. He
left only a daughter, a Mrs. Rose Clapp, who, if living, is now in
California. One of John Burns’ daughters is in Quincy, Mrs.
Schermerhorn. Miss Julia Burns, long a school teacher here, is now
employed in the Treasury Department at Washington.
Samuel Hopkins Emery, D. D., born at Andover, Massachusetts, in 1815,
died in Taunton, Massachusetts, October fifth, 1901, was a Manx and
Irish Celt. His father was John Emery, who traced back to John Emery of
Newbury, Massachusetts, who, with his brother Arthur, came to America
from Ramsey, Isle of Man, England, in 1635. His mother was a daughter of
Colonel Welch of New Hampshire, who commanded a regiment under
Washington during the war for American freedom. Doctor Emery graduated
at Amherst College, a classmate of Henry Ward Beecher. He was one of the
brainy Americans, who made their age and time famous for high thought
and culture. He came to Quincy as pastor of the First Congregational
Church in 1855, at the height of the formative thought that lifted the
Republic out of the black slime of human slavery and made of it in deed,
as well as name, what their fathers of 1776 meant it should be, a real
land of the free and home of the brave. Doctor Emery remained in Quincy
fifteen years, during which time he endeared himself to all by a kind
and generous nature and an untiring interest in the public welfare.
During the war there were three military hospitals in Quincy, crowded
with sick and wounded soldiers brought up the river on boats from the
frontier. Doctor Emery was the army chaplain in charge. He comforted and
cheered as few men could, the sick and wounded, especially those on
whose brows the cold hand of death was laid, because his heart was in
the cause of the country for which they were suffering and dying. Early
in the war, he aided in organizing two patriotic bands of Quincy women
devoted to the relief and comfort of soldiers, not only in his own
hospitals, but on the fields everywhere. They were known as the “Needle
Pickets” and “The Good Samaritans,” among whom were Mrs. Governor Wood,
Mrs. Anna McFadon, Mrs. Robert Benneson, Mrs. Anna McMahon, Miss Ella
Carrott and Mrs. Finlay, the wives and daughters of Irish pioneers.
Those consecrated women devoted their time and strength and means to
furnish supplies for the hospitals at home and on the fields of
conflict. They commenced their work early, scraping lint and rolling
bandages, and remained active until the close of the war. They organized
an “Old Folks” concert company that gave entertainment in cities in
Illinois, Iowa and Missouri. They sent nurses to the front. They held a
fair in Quincy that continued two weeks and netted them $36,000. With
the consent of President Lincoln, they sent Doctor Emery to visit the
hospitals in the South and report on their condition. The following is a
copy of his pass or authority:
“WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., April 13, 1862.
“Ordered; That permission be given to the Rev. S. Hopkins Emery of
Quincy, Ill., to pass within the lines of the United States forces to
Savanna, Tennessee, and wherever the sick and wounded soldiers of the
United States may be, together with any ladies and gentlemen that may
be in his company, for the purpose of affording care and attendance to
the sick and wounded. The quartermasters and commissaries will afford
them transportation when required and all officers and persons in the
service or employment of the United States will afford them courtesy,
assistance and protection.
“(Signed) EDWIN M. STANTON,
“Secretary of War.”
The Illinois Sanitary Fair, which was held in mammoth tents which
covered Washington Park at Quincy, Illinois, attracted the attention of
the nation. One of the things offered by them at auction was a book of
autographs signed for the occasion by some of the most distinguished men
and women of the time. The one from James Russell Lowell was accompanied
by the following note and verses:
“I couldn’t send a bare signature to a state which has sent 200,000
men to fight the battles of us all and whose regiments bear on their
tattered flags the names of our most glorious victories.
“Tears may be ours, but proud for those who win
Death’s royal purple in the enemy’s lines.
Peace, too, brings tears, and ‘mid the battle din,
The wiser ear some text of God divines.
For the sheathed blade may rust with darker sin.
“God give us peace, not such as lulls to sleep,
But sword on thigh and brow with purpose knit
And let our Ship of State to harbor sweep,
Her ports all up, her battle lanterns lit
And her hushed thunders gathering for their leap.
“(Signed) J. R. LOWELL.
“Cambridge, Mass., October, 1864.”
No grave of all the millions who maintained the Union cause on or off
the battlefield deserves to be more gratefully remembered and strewn
with flowers each recurring Memorial Day than that which in Taunton,
Massachusetts, contains the remains of the patriotic Quincy Chaplain,
Dr. S. Hopkins Emery. At the time of Doctor Emery’s death, his two sons
were among the most prominent business men in Quincy, S. H. Emery, Jr.,
was vice-president and manager of the Straw Board Paper Company; J. W.
Emery is president of one of our largest stove foundries, and father of
an interesting, growing family. S. H. Emery, Jr., died shortly after his
venerable father, leaving only a daughter, Mrs. Ellis, surviving him.
George Brophy came from Kilkenny, Ireland. He was an assistant in the
county clerk’s office for many years. In 1868 he was himself elected as
clerk and by repeated elections held the office for twenty-four years.
He had but one son, who died at about the age of thirty years, and two
years before the death of his father. His only daughter is the wife of
Duke Schroer, now one of the editors of the Quincy Journal.
John Lawless was born in Stafford County, Virginia, June 20, 1795. His
father was John Lawless of Irish blood and a slave holder. He served all
through the Revolutionary War and was wounded at the battle of Cowpens.
His mother was a Scotch lady. She was a devout Catholic and also a
doctor who practised a little. The subject of our sketch, while still a
boy, moved to Kentucky with his mother’s parents, where he received a
common school education. On February 24, 1820, he married Margaret
Skirvin, a devout Baptist, and settled in Grant County, Kentucky, on a
farm. In 1835, with a family of seven children, they came to Adams
County, Illinois, and settled on a farm twelve miles northeast of
Quincy, where his descendants are still living. It required four weeks
to come in an ox-wagon from Kentucky to Quincy. After coming to Adams
County, three more children were born to them. John Lawless was a model
pioneer. He was a fine rifle shot and enjoyed the use of a gun. He was a
very successful farmer; a good business man; an excellent hand to write
deeds and legal documents for his friends and neighbors. He was a
consistent Old School Baptist. He died May 13, 1865. All of his ten
children grew to maturity. Like their father, all may well be considered
western pioneers. His oldest son, Henry Harrison, died at the age of
twenty-one; Mary Ann, the second child, is still living at the age of
eighty-six years at Columbus, Illinois. She was married in 1846 to
William Judy, who died a year later. A son, William H., was born to
them. Her daughter-in-law and three children are living in Pawnee,
Oklahoma. Elizabeth Jane Lawless, born December 8, 1824, was married to
John P. Yeargain April 9, 1849, and died April 15, 1899. Her descendants
number thirty-two. John Quincy Lawless, born December 1, 1826, was
married to Elizabeth Pearce, February 26, 1863. Both are living in
Columbus, Illinois. They have two sons and two daughters, all married,
and five grandchildren. William Conrad Lawless was born in 1828, and was
married February 1, 1855, to Mary Ann Pierce. He died February 15, 1898.
Their descendants, including sons and daughters, number twenty-six.
Sarah Margaret Lawless was married to John Lummis, February 26, 1852.
She still lives at Paloma, Illinois, a widow. She has eight children and
twenty-three grandchildren. Thomas Lawless was born March 21, 1834; died
February 28, 1897. He married Annie M. Ferguson, in 1874. They have
three sons, a daughter-in-law and one grandchild. Susannah Lawless, born
March 18, 1836, died November 25, 1876. She married James R. McBroom
October 10, 1855. Their living descendants number twenty-eight. James
Sanford Lawless lives on the farm where he was born seventy-one years
ago. He married Clara Ferguson in 1871. They have seven children; two of
them are married. Oliver Perry, the youngest, born July 20, 1841,
married Margaret Gutherie, March 10, 1864. This branch numbers
twenty-one. They have all followed farming, taking up much of their
lands in a wild state when of but little value. They broke out the
prairie sod, fought their way through the hardships known only to the
early settler, and are now turning over these farms in a high state of
cultivation to their children. But, better than this, they are leaving
an example in their lives, which is worthy of imitation. The third
generation numbers eighty-five. The most active of all at the present
time running in age from children to sixty years of age. They represent
various avocations of life, but the greater part are farmers. There are
seventy-nine of the fourth generation, scattered among five states, and
seven of the fifth generation, a total of one hundred and eighty-four.
Very few families have held together so long in residence and
association; comparatively few are living outside of Adams County, and
those who are keep in close touch with the rest. On the twenty-first day
of August, 1909, the Lawless family held a reunion at Columbus. It was
the largest gathering of this kind ever held in Adams County. The
Lawless family of Adams County and its branches are the only ones known
in the West. It is known prominently still in Virginia.
Oan Piggott, father of the writer, came from near Thurles, County
Tipperary, Ireland, in 1844, with two sons and two daughters by a first
marriage and one son by a second marriage. He came via New Orleans to
St. Louis, Missouri. William was the oldest son. He was a steamboat mate
on the lower Mississippi and was killed in the Confederate service
during the civil war, as an officer in an Arkansas regiment. Michael,
the next son, learned the bricklayers’ trade in St. Louis, and at the
age of twenty moved to Quincy, where he commenced business for himself
as a builder. When the war commenced, he enlisted in the Union Army in
Company “F,” Birge’s sharpshooters, subsequently known as the Fourteenth
Missouri Infantry, and finally as the Sixty-sixth Illinois Infantry,
commanded by Col. Patrick E. Burk of St. Louis, Mo. At Fort Donaldson,
he was promoted as Captain of his company. In February, 1864, his
company reënlisted. On the fourteenth day of the following May, he lost
a leg at the battle of Resace, Georgia, where Burk was killed. The older
of the two girls, Honora, entered a Catholic convent at St. Louis, and
died in 1865. The younger, Mary, died in St. Louis in 1847 from cholera.
James, the youngest son, a stove moulder by trade, died at Louisville,
Kentucky, since the civil war. Two children by the second marriage were
born in St. Louis, Richard and Sarah, both now living, Richard in St.
Louis, and Sarah in Calaway County, Missouri, the wife of Christopher
Connell, a prosperous farmer. Richard served with Price in the
Confederate service, until captured at the battle of Iuka, Mississippi,
in 1863. Oan Piggott died on a farm in Warren County, Missouri, in 1876.