Albert G. HUMPHREY, one of the prominent and representative residents of Henry, has been an active factor in public life and in office has rendered signal service to the city along lines of progress and improvement. He is now manager at this point for the Turner Hudnut Company, grain merchants at Pekin, Illinois, and is accounted one of the enterprising business men here.
He was born in Switzerland county, Indiana, July 9, 1857, and is one of the six children of Elias F. and Eliza S. (JACK) HUMPHREY. The father was born in Indiana and is now living in Peoria, Illinois, at the advanced age of seventy-five years. He followed the occupation of farming in Indiana and for some time was a distiller in Chillicothe, Illinois. In 1864 he removed to Peoria, where he was engaged in the real-estate business, in which he continued actively until 1871, when he retired from business life and has since enjoyed a well earned rest. Fraternally he is connected with the Masons. In politics he is a democrat, and held minor offices while in Chillicothe. His wife, who was born in Kentucky, died in 1896 at the age of sixty-eight years. She was a member of the Universalist church and a lady of many excellent traits of character. In the family were six children: Edward S., who is private secretary for Edward H. JACK, a capitalist of Peoria and an uncle of our subject in the maternal line; Katie, who died at the age of two years; Albert G.; Arthur, who died in infancy; Robert, who died at the age of four years; and Harry J., who is in New York city. He is one of the foremost managers of the Smith Typewriter Company, being formerly in charge of its branch offices at St. Paul and Chicago. He drew the plans for the company's office at No. 311 Broadway, New York, and was placed in charge of the Chicago branch in 1900, from which place he was changed to the New York office. The plans, furnishings and finishings of this office are all the embodiment of suggestions made by him.
Albert G. HUMPHREY attended the public schools of Chillicothe and is a graduate of the high school of the class of 1875. He was afterward a student in a business college in Peoria, Illinois, and after learning telegraphy he became an operator for the Western Union and the Rock Island Railroad and was also United States Express agent at Chillicothe for six years. He came to Henry in 1882 and accepted a position as book-keeper in the grain office of Nicholson, Gilbert & Company, with whom he remained for a year. They then sold out to G. C. Griswold & Company, with whom he continued until 1895, when Mr. GRISWOLD died, after which Mr. HUMPHREY conducted the business for A. K. KNAPP for a year and a half, or until it was sold. In 1899 he became manager for the Turner Hudnut Company, grain merchants, with headquarters at Pekin, Illinois, and is still acting in that capacity. He also has an interest in the coal firm of Greenlee & Humphrey, of Henry, which firm was organized in 1894, and he is likewise interested in insurance. He is a stockholder and director of the Henry National Bank, and is thus associated with various business interests of the city, being a man of keen enterprise and resourceful ability.
In 1885 was celebrated the marriage of Albert G. HUMPHREY and Miss Anna M. ORR, a daughter of N. W. and Lydia ORR. She was born in Troy, Ohio, in 1855, and her father was one of the pioneer merchants of Henry. Unto Mr. and Mrs. HUMPHREY have been born two children: Lila A. and Alta May.
Fraternally Mr. HUMPHREY is connected with the Knights of Pythias and with the Modern Woodmen of America. His political allegiance is given to the democracy and he is prominent in the local ranks of his party. He has been mayor, alderman, city clerk and city treasurer of Henry, and the duties of each office have been faithfully and promptly performed. He has also been a member of the board of education for twelve years, and the public-school system of the city finds in him a stalwart champion. The water works of Henry were built in 1902 under his administration, and he has always stood for progress and improvement in municipal affairs and champions every interest which is a matter of civic virtue and of civic pride.
Extracted July 2011 by Norma Hass from
Past and Present of Marshall and Putnam Counties
| Bureau Putnam La Salle | |||
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| Peoria | Woodford | ||
