Jefferson County, Alabama Biographies
The following biographies were extracted from: Jefferson County and Birmnigham, Alabama: Historical and Biographical, 1887, Author: John Witherspoon Dubose.
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Jefferson
County, Alabama Biographies
The following biographies
were extracted from:
Jefferson County and Birmnigham, Alabama: Historical and
Biographical, 1887, Author: John Witherspoon
Dubose.
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Upon coming to Birmingham he was given an interest in the business of his father, and placed in charge of the city trade. By uniform courtesy and attention to the wants of his customers, he has contributed, in a marked degree, to the popularity of his product, and assisted materially in establishing its present high reputation.
He is one of the most popular of the young men of the Magic City, adding to a pleasing address good businesss methods. He is a member of the A. 0. U. W., the K. of G. R., the K. of P., and the German Society.
Mr. Schillinger was married in 1880 to Miss Mary Zabel, of Louisville, and has one child, Emma
He is also married, being united to Miss Bertha Botzin, of Louisville, in 1886.
With his brothers he has an interest in the business, and is the secretary for the company.
Mr. Schillinger is a young man
with good business habits, and has the faculty of making and retaining friends.
LOUIS SCHILLINGER was born in Louisville in 1860, and in early years learned
the baker's trade from his father, following that avocation until the business
was disposed of. He then entered the brewery which his father had established
there.
Deciding to become proficient and practical in every branch of that trade, he went to Cincinnati, and entered the celebrated establishment of the Moerlein Brewing Company, where he remained until he became thoroughly conversant with the secrets of brewing.
Returning to Louisville he was placed in charge of the Phoenix Brewery, as foreman, and held that position until he came to Birmingham with his father, to establish their present business, in the building up of which he has proven an important factor. He attends to the brewing, and is the efficient general manager and superintendent of the entire works.
In 1884 he was united in
marriage with Miss Hannah Conradi, of Cincinnati.
PHILIP SCHILLINGER senior proprietor of the Birmingham Brewery, is a thrifty
and enterprising citizen and business man. He is a native of Germany, where he
was born in 1831, and where he resided until over twenty years of age.
Emigrating to America, in the year 1851, he first located in Ohio, and followed
his trade of baker in Sandusky for two years.
In 1853 he removed to Louisville, Ky., and continued in the bakery business for a number of years. In 1865, in connection with Zang and Miller, they organized the Phoenix Brewery, of that city, of which Mr. Schillinger was made superintendent, and which he conducted very successfully until 1883, when he disposed of his interest.
The same year he decided to locate in Birmingham, and the following year, 1884, he built his present works, and has established one of the most prosperous industries of the Magic City.
Mr. Schillinger has been remarkably successful in his business since coming to Birmingham, and has accumulated a handsome fortune. His brewing interests increased until he was forced to enlarge his capacity, and he has at present a model establishment, a more complete sketch of which appears in another portion of this work.
Mr. Schillinger has also been fortunate in real estate transactions, in which he has profited largely. He owns considerable property in Louisville, Ky., which he is trying to dispose of, to reinvest in the Magic City, which he has great confidence in, and in which he proposes to make his home.
He is a member of the Knights of Pythias and I. O. O. F. fraternities. Successful and enterprising in business, social and genial in his relations with his fellow man, he ranks as one of the solid men of Birmingham.
Mr. Schillinger was married in Louisville, Ky., in 1855, to Miss Kathrine Jenne. Four children are now living—August, Louis, Erwin, and Emma.
In 1871 he decided to follow the machinery business, and entered the large establishment of his uncle, H. Dudley Coleman & Bro., of New Orleans, as office boy. He remained there for nearly fifteen years, during which time he acquired a thorough knowledge of the machinery business, and had full charge of their sales and correspondence. He left their employment in May, 1886, and came to Birmingham and formed a copartnership in the machinery business with Mr. W. W. Davin. The firm of Shaw & Davin has had high success, fuller details of which the sketch of W. W. Davin, in this volume explains. Willis Shaw is a member of Tau Chapter, Sigma Chi Fraternity, of Roanoke College, Virginia, and of Indivisible Friends' Commandery, No. 1, K, T., of New Orleans, Louisiana.
He is a fine salesman, fond of his business, has many friends, and is one of the assured successes of the Magic City.
Besides his investment in the machinery business Mr. Shaw has been equally fortunate in his real estate ventures, having netted $55,000 out of a $5,000 investment, in five months. Willis Shaw is director in the Birmingham Paint Manufacturing Company, the Edison Electric and Illuminating Company, and the Talladega Land and Improvement Company.
The firm of Shaw & Davin,
although but nine months old, are well and favorably known throughout the South
and have the entire confidence of all with whom they have business relations.
They represent some of the largest manufactories in the Union. They are
thorough, progressive, prompt, reliable, and courteous, and deserve the
magnificent success they have achieved by their own vim, push, and energy.
WILLIAM L. SHIDELERwas born in Troy, Miami County, Ohio, August 9, 1833. After
obtaining the rudiments of an English education he became a printer in the
office of the Cincinnati Times for five years. He then determined to learn the
machinist and blacksmith -trade, and with this purpose entered a machine shop in
Cincinnati, and spent several year's apprenticeship, and followed his trade up
to the breaking out of the war. He entered as a private of Company B of the
Thirty-fourth Ohio Regiment of Infantry, under the command of Col. John T.
Toland. He was in the war three years from September 13th, 1861. He was in the
campaign throughout West Virginia, and the Shenandoah Valley under Gen.
Sheridan, and passed through without receiving a wound. After the war he
merchandised at Higginsport, Ohio, for several years, and then resumed work at
his trade, in which he was employed at the same place until the fall of 1880;
then farmed in Lewis County, Ky., for four years; was the assistant
superintendent of the Champion Bridge Works at Wilmington, Ohio, and was with
them until the beginning of the year 1886. In January of that year he came to
Birmingham, and was interested with prominent citizens here in the organization
of the Southern Bridge Works. He was made superintendent, and from the starting
of the first machine the business has grown rapidly until these works are looked
upon as one of the very substantial enterprises of Birmingham. These facts are
the best testimonials of Mr. Shideler's skill as a workman.
Mr. Shideler was married in
March, 1855, to Miss Kachel Palmer, of Cincinnati, Ohio. The latter is a member
of the Baptist Church; the former belongs to the Masons-and Odd Fellows
G. W. SISSON is secretary and treasurer of the Baxter Stove Works of
Birmingham, already one of the leading iron industries of the South, and
doubtless destined to become of reputation in its line commensurate with the
fame of Birmingham.
Mr. Sisson is a native of Wheeling>, W. Va., the son of John E. and Maria Ann Sisson, nee Wood. He was born November 1, 1858. After passing through the common schools, and spending a year at the West Alexandria Academy, he entered Washington and Jefferson College, Washington, Pa., where he remained until 1875. He then entered mercantile employment as a clerk at McKeesport, Pa., with a coal-mining store, and soon became assistant manager of the business. In 1878 he was bookkeeper in Cincinnati. In the same year he went to New Orleans, to open a branch house in the oleomargarine trade. The yellow fever drove him away from that venture, and he at once went to Louisville, and opened a commission house, with his brother-in-law as senior partner, under the style of Crump & Sisson. After eight years in that line he went into the employment of the Baxter Stove Works of Louisville as secretary and treasurer. In two months Hill, Wooldridge & Sisson bought the plant and moved it to Birmingham.< /FONT>
Mr. Sisson is a welcome addition to the manufacturing circles of the city, as he possesses rare business attributes and practical experience.
Mr. Sisson was married October 14, 1885, to Miss Carrie, daughter of John G. Baxter, of Louisville. He is a member of the Episcopal Church.
Mr. Eastman, as is elsewhere in this volume narrated, is a native of New Orleans. Mr. Smith is a native of Vicksburg, Mississippi, where he was born in 1839, the son of Robert D. and Ann McClure Smith, the father a native of Pennsylvania, and the mother of Kentucky. The father was a preacher of the Methodist denomination. After some years spent in the general work of the ministry he was appointed Indian. missionary.
Robert D. Smith had an adventurous life before coming to Birmingham, and his opportunities for acquiring knowledge of men and affairs had been very extensive and varied. Arriving here he was admirably prepared to discriminate between and select from the many invitations to men of enterprise offered by the local resources.
He had been taught in the public schools of Vicksburg and at the college of Salem, Ohio. In 1856, when in his seventeenth year, he graduated in the literary course at Miami College, Ohio. In the winter of 1857 he graduated at Bryant & Stratton's Business College, of Cleveland, Ohio. Thus, well prepared, in his eighteenth year, Mr. Smith began an active business career, which has ripened into wealth and affluence. Going from college to Nebraska, when that territory was the object of great political excitement, he first engaged as clerk of a river steamer, the Omaha. Ill-health forced him to abandon this occupation after six months' service. Returning to the Mississippi Valley, he engaged in Illinois and Ohio in the land abstract business, in insurance and in railroad work. In 1869 he was engaged in the grain and lumber business at Thompson, 111. The same year he returned to his native State and engaged in cotton planting near Yazoo City>. This he abandoned, after one year's experience, and became circuit clerk. This place he held for five years, when he bought the Castillian Springs, Miss., and kept up the establishment as a watering-place and pleasure resort for several years. At Macon and Meridian, Miss., and Tuscaloosa, Ala., he engaged in keeping hotels for several years. After finishing work as contractor on the New Orleans & North Eastern Railroad, he determined to come to Birmingham. This purpose was executed in 1883, and with the happy results already explained.< /FONT>
March, 1864, Mr. Smith married Miss Mary J., daughter of Judge McLean, of Cincinnati, Ohio. They have five children. Both Mr. and Mrs. Smith are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He is a member in good standing of the Free and Accepted Masons.
His father began his medical practice in Mississippi about the year 1838, where he-remained a few years, returning to his native State, locating at Dreslen, Kennebunk, and Biddeford, Maine, where he established an extensive practice, which extended over the States of Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. He subsequently became a resident of Old Orchard Beach, where he is still engaged in active practice.
The subject of this biography graduated from the high schools of Biddeford, Maine, and at the age of sixteen entered Portland (Maine) College, and after finishing his studies there became a law student, continuing in the office of Hubbard & Wedgewood for two years.
He next entered commercial life, and was financier and bookkeeper of a large boot and shoe firm in Boston for over four years. Resigning, he became cashier of the Standard Sugar Refinery of the same city, and acceptably filed that position for about five years.
Learning of the great development of Southern industries he camne to Birmingham in the latter part of 1884, and in that short period intervening, has established a name as one of the most enterprising of the young business element of the city.
Mr. Stevens purchased the fire-brick plant owned by Mr. DeBardeleben, and entirely reconstructed it, making additions and placing the most improved machinery, until now he has a capacity of six millions of bricks annually, employing about seventy men. He meets all competition, and ships extensively to nearly all Southern sections.
In January, 1886, he formed his business into a corporation, and was elected president and general manager. Their plant consists of ten acres of land lying between Birmingham and Avondale, and the company also owns two hundred acres of valuable fire-clay land near the city.
Mr. Stevens has invented a fire-grate lining which commands great success. Besides being very handsome and ornamental, it reflects great heat, effects a saving of coal, and costs very little more than the common setting.
He has established a large number of branch offices in the leading cities of the for the sale of his fire-bricks, fire-brick tile, engine blocks, fire-clay sewer pipe, drain tile, lawn vases and pedestals, chimney tops, flue linings, street-paving bricks, red-pressed, ornamental and fancy, glazed and common encaustic tiling and terra cotta ware.
Mr. Stevens is a Knight Templar Mason, and a man who receives and commands the respect of his fellow-men, and in his private life is an accomplished musician and gentleman.
He was married in October, 1882, to Miss Mabel F., daughter of James L. and. Amanda M., nee Pratt Hanson, of Boston, Massachusetts.
They are the parents of two children—James H. and Robert G.
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