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Belgians in the Civil War

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BELGIANS IN AMERICA:    Biographies of Belgian settlers  

MICHAEL HILGERT is proprietor of a line restaurant on Felix street, St- Joseph. This is the most popular resort for business men in the center of the city and, in fact, is the only place where one can get a first class meal at low rates. While ho serves only the test of well cooked food; his prices are as low as the cheap and uninviting hash-houses. Meals are set before the guest in a tempting manner, food being characterized by the chief requisites of daintiness and cleanliness.
The birth of our subject occurred on July 3, 1845, in Belgium. His boyhood and young manhood were passed in the country of his nativity where he gained a good education in his mother tongue.
In 1867, carrying out plans which he had formed some time before, he bade adieu to the scenes of his youth and crossed the broad Atlantic. Going to Minnesota he engaged in farming and stock-raising for two years, after which be removed to Missouri and proceeded to develop a five-hundred-acre farm in Nodaway County.
In 1878 Mr. Hilgert opened a saloon at Maryville, Mo., near which is situated his farm. On account of local option he was forced to suspend and a few years afterward came to St. Joseph, where be was the proprietor of the handsome New Uhne Exchange He has been very successful in his business ventures, particularly of late years.
Our subject is the owner of a fine kennel of St. Bernard and fox-terrier dogs, which are undoubtedly the best of the kind to be found in the state. At the late bench show in Chicago he secured` the first price on those exhibited and the leader was sold to a dog-fancier at a fabulous price. Mr. Hillgert easily obtained from five hundred to eight hundred dollars per animal and even young pups sell readily at one hundred dollars each.
Mr. Hilgert is a popular man who has a large circle of friends. He is considered a level-headed man of business and, if he desired could easily obtain public office, but his ambition does not lie is that direction. His business is constantly increasing and his returns on his investments are so sure that he prefers to devote his whole time to those interests. He is very hospitable, genial and good natured and to these qualities in a large measure is due the reputation he has made as a wholesouled and warm-hearted man. In personal appearance he is the fortunate possessor of a fine physique and manly bearing.

Source : Portrait and biographical record of Buchanan and Clinton Counties, Missouri; Chicago: Chapman Bros., 1893, 658  pgs.