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financial return annually. He practices along scientific lines,
keening in touch with modern research and his efforts have been
attended with a gratifying measure of success.
On the 30th of November, 1898, Dr. Andrew
was married to Miss Jennette Ramsay, who was born on Prince Edward
Island and came to America with her parents in early childhood. Her
father located in Colorado and was engaged in the grocery business
for many years at Longmont, but is now giving his attention to the
commission business. The marriage of Dr. and Mrs. Andrew was
celebrated in Illinois and has been blessed with two children: John
Ramsay, born September 3, 1899; and Helen, born April 18, 1901.
Dr. Andrew is a republican but has never
held any office, preferring to give his undivided attention to his
professional duties. In addition to a large private practice he is
acting as examiner of several old-line insurance companies,
including the New York Mutual, the New York Life, the Equitable and
the Manhattan. He belongs to the Masonic lodge at New Salem and in
the line of his profession is connected with the Pike County Medical
Association. He is interested in all that tends to promote the
efficiency of medical practitioners and in his chosen work has
rendered valuable aid to his fellowmen.
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AUGUSTUS DOW
Augustus Dow, a leading
representative of commercial and industrial interests in Pittsfield
and also a prominent factor in public life, having been honored by
election to the state legislature, where his official services
reflect honor upon the constituency that had called him to office,
was born in South Coventry, Tolland county, Connecticut, on the 9th
of October, 1841. His parents, Cyrus and Charity A. (Chapman) Dow,
were of Scotch descent. The father was born in the year 1800 and
died in 1855, when scarcely past the prime of life, but the mother
reached the advanced age of ninety-three years, passing away in
Connecticut on the 12th of March, 1905.
In the public schools of his native town
Augustus Dow began his education and afterward attended an academy,
pursuing a good practical course of study. He entered upon his
business career in the capacity of a clerk at Hartford, Connecticut,
but wisely thinking the great west, which Illinois was then
considered, would offer better opportunities to a young man of
energy and determination than could be secured in the older towns of
the east, he came to Pike county, Illinois, in 1858, bringing with
him good business habits, laudable ambition and strong
determination. He accepted a position as clerk in a store in
Pittsfield and was employed in that capacity until 1862, when he
entered the service of the government, being appointed paying clerk
of the Army of the Cumberland under Major W. E. Norris with
headquarters at Louisville, Kentucky. There he remained until 1865.
During the time that he was connected with this department he paid
to the troops nine million dollars and carried as much as three
hundred thousand dollars at one time. He was then about twenty-two
years of age -- a young man for such responsibility -- but his
duties were most faithfully discharged and not a cent was lost in
the transactions.
After the close of the war Mr. Dow returned
to Pittsfield and established himself as a dry-goods merchant,
continuing in the business until 1872, when he joined C. P. Chapman
in the milling business. He has devoted himself strictly to the
work, soon gaining a full understanding of milling in all of its
details, and as the years passed developed a large and profitable
enterprise. In 1898 Mr. Chapman died and Mr. Dow admitted Mr.
Chapman's son-in-law, M. D. King, to a partnership, so that the firm
is now Dow & King. The mill which they owned and operated was
built in 1870 and therein their products were manufactured until
1900, when the mill was destroyed by fire. The firm then rebuilt as
soon as the insurance was adjusted. The new mill has a greater
storage capacity than the old one and is one of the most modern and
best equipped plants of the kind in the state, its capacity being
six hundred barrels per day. The old plant was built as a burr mill,
but in 1883 the roller process was installed. In March, 1992, the
elevator was burned, but was immediately
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