Part 30

In many instances, whole families came together, as will be noticed in the list of names given above, as having come before 1840. The most noted of them was that of the Rev. William Best, with his five sons and a daughter Charlotte Best Finlay, who with her husband accompanied them. The Reverend Best became a prominent minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Illinois and lived to a ripe old age, to see his family all successful in worldly affairs. His youngest son Joseph served as adjutant of the Twenty-first Missouri Infantry in the Union army; the other sons being over the military age supported the cause at home. His grandsons and great grandsons are now among our best business men. A grandson, John H. Best, has served as mayor of Quincy and is now president of one of our banks, a stockholder and director in nearly every corporation doing business here; also a large land owner in Illinois, Missouri, Oregon, Idaho and Montana, while his brother, Ezra Best, is president of the Best Plumbing and Steam Heating Company, one of the largest and most successful in the West. Both brothers coöperate and invest together. They are model citizens and have the respect and confidence of all our people.

The Finlay family, Rev. William B., James B., Matthew B., with their three sisters, Ann B. Padgett, Jane B. and Mary B. Finlay, became equally prominent. They came to America with the Best family in 1839, from County Cavan, Ireland. The Rev. William B. Finlay was an ardent church worker, and a school teacher in Ireland. His father, before him, was a school teacher and a member of the English church. His mother was a primitive Methodist and a member of the Bell family, hence the initial “B” was retained by the brothers and sisters. He had his religious training under such noted ministers as Rev. G. B. Moffatt, Doctor Averill and Gideon Ousley, D. D., a converted priest, who generally preached a part of his sermons in Irish. In his twentieth year, his father having died in 1829, the Rev. William Bell Finlay took charge of his father’s old parish school. In 1830 he attended the Kildare College in Dublin. He afterwards served five years as a government teacher, from which he resigned to accept charge of a school in the Parish of Tyholland, County Monaghan, where he married Charlotte Best and united with the Methodist Church. He remained at Tyholland, teaching and as an exhortor, until he started for Quincy, where he arrived June sixth, 1839, and the following Sunday united with the Methodist Church. He was licensed to exhort in September of that year, and in 1849 was ordained by Bishop Janes when the conference met at Quincy. The year before he died, he prepared a little sketch of his life work, which was found by his children after his death. The last paragraph, which we quote, shows that his was a beautiful Christian life: “So I am now in my eighty-ninth year, and an official member of the old Illinois Conference, still in the church of my childhood and of my youth, and of riper years. And now, old and grey-headed, I love the church of my choice; I love her doctrines and her ways. Though feeble in body, praise God, my mind is clear and sound as a bell. I don’t know how soon I may be permitted to leave for home, but it cannot be long. But Glory, honor, power and dominion be unto God, and the lamb, forever. Amen and Amen.” He died October fourth, 1898, at West Point, Illinois, within a few days of his ninetieth year. His four sons were all in the Union army and made excellent soldiers; William J. B. Finlay is dead; Matthew G. Finlay is a wealthy farmer; John H. Finlay is living at Warsaw, Illinois, a prominent lawyer and wealthy; Gerald H. Finlay is a retired, wealthy farmer and merchant in Quincy; all of fine reputations. His brother Matthew B. Finlay was a prosperous merchant and died wealthy, about ten years ago, leaving no children. James B. Finlay was not married. He died shortly after coming to Quincy. Ann B. Finlay married George Padgett before leaving Ireland. Her grandson, George H. Wilson, is a prominent attorney at the Quincy bar, and now a member of the State Legislature. Jane B. Finlay was married in Quincy to F. K. Carrott. Her son James Finlay Carrott, was a graduate of Harvard, and at the time of his death was an attorney for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad and was succeeded by his son, Matthew Finlay Carrott, also of Harvard, who is married to a daughter of Judge Montgomery, president of the State Savings, Loan and Trust Company, one of the oldest banking institutions in Quincy, and lives in the handsome Matthew B. Finlay homestead. Her daughter, Helen Carrott Walz, had two sons, one now being dead, the other an attorney in Chicago. Mrs. Walz was at one time considered Quincy’s brightest daughter. She now resides in Chicago with her son. Mary B. Finlay married William Jones in Quincy. Three of her sons are now railroad men in the West. One of them is in charge of the telegraph system of the Santa Fé Railroad. William Finlay Morgan, a grandson of Mary B. Finlay Jones, is now located in New York City. He married the daughter and only child of Mr. Nevins, head of the American Cordage Company. Before his marriage, he was in the employ of the company, first at St. Louis and then in New York, and made good in every department entrusted to his care.

The Redmond family became quite prominent. Thomas Redmond was sixteen 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.