Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Alexander, Henry ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com November 10, 2007, 9:49 am Author: Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County HENRY ALEXANDER. Through his active participation in enterprises for the benefit of his city and county and his progressive spirit as a citizen, Mr. Alexander has become one of the influential men of Joliet. No one has taken a deeper interest than he in measures calculated to benefit the people or to develop the material resources of the county, and he has been generous to the point of self-sacrifice in his gifts of time and means to promote projects of undoubted value. The position of supervisor which he held gave him an opportunity for aiding public movements. While acting in that capacity he was instrumental in securing the erection of the sheriffs residence, the rebuilding of the county jail, the making of many improvements in the court house and county poor farm, and the general improvement of county roads and bridges, and in each of these instances he served upon the special committee appointed by the board of supervisors. While he usually encountered no opposition in his desire to secure improvements, occasionally he had to hold his own against heavy odds, and this was especially the case at the time of the bill introduced to secure an elevator in the court house; after a hard struggle he was successful and the building now has a fine elevator. During the severe depression that followed the panic of 1893 he acted as superintendent of the poor, the position taking almost his entire time; he discharged its duties efficiently, and no worthy man who applied for help suffered from hunger and cold. A resident of Joliet since 1881, Mr. Alexander was born in Stuttgart, Wurtemberg, Germany, a son of Isaac and Theresa (Neumann) Alexander. His maternal grandfather, Solomon Neumann, was a hardware merchant, and his paternal grandfather, Simon Alexander, a farmer, was one of the few soldiers that returned with Napoleon from the ill-fated expedition to Moscow. Isaac Alexander was a dealer in antiquities and an authority in that line. He died while visiting a daughter in Bavaria. His wife died in Germany. Of their children, five are living, three being in the old country, and Henry and Robert in America. In Stuttgart, where he was born January 12, 1849, our subject was educated in a private school. In 1866 he took passage at Havre for New York, and on arriving in this country proceeded to Alexandria, Va., where he clerked in a mercantile store until 1868. Afterward he had stores successively in Front Royal, Edenburg and Shenandoah, that state. Selling out in 1870, he returned to Germany and entered the commissary department of the German army, serving through the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. Afterward he engaged in the live-stock business. Returning to the United States in 1880, he was for a short time interested in the stock business in Syracuse and Ithaca, N. Y., and in September, 1881, came to Joliet, where he began a wholesale meat business that he has continued to the present time. In 1892 he was elected assistant supervisor and two years later was chosen supervisor, which position, together with that of superintendent of the poor, he held for two years. Largely through his efforts, in 1895, a bill passed the legislature authorizing the establishment of an asylum for the incurable insane of Illinois. In August of that year Governor Altgeld appointed him one of the commissioners to locate the institution, notwithstanding the fact that he is a stanch Republican in politics. He served as secretary of the board of commissioners and took an active part in securing the location of the asylum in Peoria. March 17, 1897, Governor Tanner reappointed him to the same office and he was made chairman of the board and assisted actively in planning for and starting the construction of the building. In February, 1898, he resigned from the board and in April of the same year he was appointed special agent for the quartermaster's department of the United States army, to buy horses and mules for the army, which position he has since filled. He has frequently served as a member of the county central committee and in other ways has promoted the welfare of the Republican party in his vicinity. The home of Mr. Alexander, at No. 1000 South Joliet street, is presided over by his wife, whom he married in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1874, and who was Amelia Auerbach, a niece of Berthold Auerbach, the celebrated author and novelist. The four children comprising their family are: Theresa, wife of Sig. Goldstein, of Moline, Ill.; Bertha, Sigmund and Adell, at home. Additional Comments: Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County Illinois Containing Biographies of Well Known Citizens of the Past and Present, Biographical Publishing Company, Chicago, 1900 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/will/bios/alexande1104gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ilfiles/ File size: 5.3 Kb