TURNER, George W
- One of the many advantages of biography is to tell the story of self-made men for it is a great encouragement
to read of those who, through personal effort have attained success along any line. George Washington Turner, who
is secretary of the Tri-City and North Eastern Street Railroad Company of Moline, Illinois, and a prominent agriculturist
of Rock Island county, is an example at hand. He was born in Wayne county, Ill., January 12, 1859, and is a son
of Israel J and Lucy A. (Tibbs) Turner. The father was born in White County, Ill., and spent his life as a farmer
and miller in his native state. He was a son of William and Charity (Jennings) Turner. His death occurred January
6, 1877; his wife survived him for but twenty-two days.
George W Turner was the ninth born in his parents family of five daughters and six sons. Bereft of both parents
in the same year he remained on the home farm a twelve months longer and then went to work on the farm of his uncle,
William Cook, with whom he continued for eighteen months. He then secured the position of weight boss at the Happy
Hollow coalmines under the late Taylor Williams, and remained there for four years. About this time he married
and worked for seven years on his father-in-laws farm, after which he moved to Moline. Whit his available capital
he bought a home here and for the next half year worked as a teamster for the government, afterward for three years,
for Diminick, Gould & Co. Mr. Turner then bought the John Wells farm of 160 acres, situated on section 21,
Hampton township, Rock Island county. In 1809 he rented out the farm and went to Sioux Falls, S.D., where he was
in the real estate business for two years and returned to Illinois and for two years more was a coal operator at
Happy Hollow. He then resumed farming for two more years and then moved to Silvis, where he invested in real estate
and built a residence but only remained there for eighteen months, returning to Hampton, Ill. , where he was occupied
in looking after his coal interests until the spring of 1910, when, with his son-in-law, he returned to his farm
in Hampton township. Here they carry on general farming and dairying and do a large stock business, raising Jersey-Red
hogs and Norman horses. In January 1909, he assisted in organizing the Tri-City and North Western Street Railway
Company, which was to be operated between Watertown and Albany, and served as trustee, later as a director and
still later was elected secretary of the same. The president of the company is J. W. Simonson of Port Byron; the
vice-president is William H Ashdown, and the treasurer is C. E. Peck of Albany.
On September 5, 1882, Mr. Turner was married to Miss Inez L Devinney, a daughter of Samuel and Sarah (Wixcel) Devinney,
the former of whom was born in Pennsylvania and the later in Sweden. Mrs. Turner died March 16, 1909, survived
by two daughters: Lucy Elizabeth, who is the wife of Frank Fleshman of Silvis: and Mildred A who is the wife of
Henry W Harder of Hampton township. Mr. Turner was reared in the Congregational Church. He is superintendent of
the Methodist Episcopal Sunday school of Hampton. For two years he was president of the village board of Hampton
and served three terms as school director. Fraternally he is identified with Abraham Lincoln Camp No. 153, M.W.A.
of Moline and Silver Leaf Lodge, No. 60, Mystic Workers of the World.
He has never been unduly active in politics, but it has not been because he is lacking in every good quality of
good citizenship, but rather because his inclinations have led him other directions. He is acknowledged to be a
representative citizen of his section.” [Source: HISTORY OF ROCK
ISLAND COUNTY pgs, 1469-1470, submitted by Nancy Huaracha, nance188@yahoo.com]
Daniel Hayes
- Daniel Hayes was living in Buffalo Prairie Township in the 1870s. He bought up mortgages and put together a ranch
of 1600 acres along the Mississippi. He sold this sometime between 1902 and 1912.
In 1909 he reportedly subdivided 100 acres in South Rock Island County and sold it off as building lots.
He and his son, Daniel Gordon Hayes, formed the Daniel Hayes and Son Real Estate Company. They bought the Rock
Island Savings Bank building and sold farmland in Idaho and later in California.
After his father's death in 1917, Daniel Gordon Hayes continued the business, dividing his time between Rock Island
and Chicago, while living in Rock Island. The family spent much of its time crossing back and forth across the
river, for there is as much mention of Muscatine in the records as of Rock Island. The son, Daniel Gordon Hayes,
(b. 1886 in Muscatine) married Emma Blanche Munn (b. 1888 in Cedar County, IA) in 1910. They had a daughter, Alice
Jean. Daniel Gordon attended Knox College in Galesburg, and according to a letter to his sister now in the Knox
College archives, once walked from Muscatine to Galesburg.
Alice Jean Hayes had a son named Hayes, who submitted this information.
Catherine Dickson Hammer
Captain John Bond b 1816 KY married Elizabeth Daily 1838
Elizabeth Daily Bond died 1877 HCI
John married secondly to Catherine Dickson Hammer in 1878 @ Delafield in HCI.
Catherine is not even mentioned in obituary of John Bond when he died 6-25-1899 in HCI.
Would like to know something about her?
Her father was listed as Willilam Dickson on the marriage certificate.
Submitted by Gail Hahn Hutchcraft. E-mail: ladybug@arends-sons.com
The Gager Blacksmith Shop
Gager Blacksmith Shop - owned by George H. Gager who came to Cordova from New
York. Later it became garages run by Reynolds, Del Prater and Bob Dhamer. Most recently it has served as a New
York Life Insurance office.
There was another blacksmith shop on the east end of Main Avenue run by James
Ong who came to Cordova from Ohio prior to 1877.
