HOUCK,WH

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL ALBUM.

page 462

WILLIAM H. HOUCK, the son of a pioneer family of Clark County has been prominently identified with the interests of Springfield for many years, and as a manufacturer of brick and in other ways has done a great deal toward building up the city. He is honored not only as one of the most substantial public spirited citizens of this municipality, and one of its most successful business men, but for his unswerving integrity and high personal character.

A native of Maryland, he was born in the town of Emmitsburg, Frederick County, April 5, 1821. George Houck, his father, is supposed to have been born in the same place, while his father, John Houck, it is thought, was a native of Pennsylvania. He was a brick-maker by trade and carried on the business in Emmitsburg, though he spent his last years at Mercersburg, Pa. The father of our subject learned his father's trade at Emmitsburg and made the brick there for the large nunnery in that town. In 1836 he decided to try life in what was then the "Far West,'' and emigrated to this State with his wife and ten children, performing the journey with a wagon and a pair of horses and a carriage and one horse. Arriving in Springfield May 21, Mr. Hauck left his family in the village and visited other parts of the country on a prospecting tour, but finding no location that suited him better than this he returned to Springfield and bought a brick-yard located on Washington Street between Yellow Spring and Plum Streets. This city was then a small place, with no railways or canals, the only communication with the outside world being over rough roads. Mr. Houck continued in business many years and was so prospered that he accumulated a competence, and was enabled to live in retirement during the last part of his life, his death occurring here about the close of the war. He was of much assistance in building up the county, which he lived to see well developed, and his memory is cherished as one of the most worthy of the stalwart, intelligent, energetic pioneers of this region. The maiden name of the mother of our subject was Mary Snyder, and she was a native of Pennsylvania, and spent the last years of her life in Springfield. There were ten children born to her and her husband, eight of whom were reared to maturity.

William Houck was a lad of fifteen years when the family left the old home in Maryland to build up a new one amid the pioneer scenes of the wilds of Ohio. He remembers well the journey hither, and can contrast the village of other days with its population of twenty-five hundred, with the flourishing city of the present inhabited by forty thousand people. The trade of brick-maker seems to have descended in his family from father to son, at least he was of the third generation that adopted it, and when he was seven years of age he began his initiation into his future calling, and finally succeeded his father in his business, and has continued in it since, building up a large trade, extending to various parts of the State and even beyond. He has also found other means of increasing his wealth. In 1851 he purchased twelve acres of land on South Limestone Street, at $150 an acre, which was regarded as a large price, and his friends thought it a wild speculation, but with characteristic discernment be foresaw that the property was bound to rise in value as the city grew and would in fact some day form a part of the city, so he waited with calm assurance for his prophetic vision to become a reality. He built a substantial brick residence there when it was all woods between his residence and the railway station, and for a few years was quite alone. He only had to wait, however, until Springfield grew in his direction, and now his land is very valuable, as it is within the city limits, has been platted, and is covered with buildings, which extend several blocks beyond his former residence that he built on the edge of the forest. He sold that house in 1875, and built his present commodious dwelling at No.312, South Limestone Street, and remodeled in 1886, making it one of the most conveniently arranged and most desirable homes in the city. He owns besides considerable other real estate in the city and other valuable property.

To the wife who has contributed her quota to his prosperity, presides with grace and true hospitality over his home, and makes his interest her own, Mr. Houck was united in marriage in 1850, the ceremony that made them one being solemnized in Rushville, Ill. Mrs. Houck was born in Indiana, a daughter of John and Mary Johnson. Mr. and Mrs. Houck have five children, as follows: Emma, the wife of the Rev. William Singley; Laura B., Lavinia, William F. and John H.

The life record of our subject is an honor to him and an example to the youth of the present generation. He is gifted with a strong, clear mind, tenacity of purpose and far-seeing sagacity, which have enabled him to control his business affairs to the best advantage, so that he has become wealthy. He is liberal in the use of his money, showing that he has not labored merely for himself. In his politics he is a strong Republican; religiously, both he and his wife are consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

26 Dec 1999

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