Biography - LOUIS LINCOLN EMMERSON
Conspicuous among the really big men of Mount Vernon who have attained
to high places in financial circles in Southern Illinois is Louis Lincoln
Emmerson, for twenty-five years past a resident of Mount Vernon, and a
participator in practically every enterprise worthy of note in his section
of the country. He has from the beginning of his association with Mount
Vernon filled various positions calling forth qualities of strength and
dependability, and in his present connection with some of the most thriving
commercial and financial institutions in the country those splendid traits
have increased commensurately with the added responsibilities.
Born December 27, 1863, at Albion, Illinois, he is the son of Jesse Emmerson
and Fannie (Suardet) Emmerson, and the grandson of Alan Emmerson, a native
of Kentucky who migrated to Indiana and later settled in Illinois, near
Albion, in 1817. There Alan Emmerson married a daughter of the Mounts
family. He was but twenty years of age at that time, and he and his wife
lived together in harmony for sixty-five years. They reared a family of
fourteen children, and in 1876 the aged pair passed away within a period of
three months. He was a veteran of the Black Hawk war, rendering valiant
service to his country in that conflict. Their son Jesse married Fannie
Suardet, as previously mentioned, and four children were born of their
union; three sons and one daughter. They are Morris, who is publisher of the
News Herald in Lincoln, Illinois; Charles, cashier of the First National
Bank at Albion; Louise, the wife of Otto Krug, of Sullivan, Indiana; and
Louis Lincoln, of Mount Vernon. The father, Jesse Emmerson, was a prominent
and familiar figure in his locality throughout his life time. He was always
active in political circles, serving in a number of public offices. At one
time he was clerk of Edwards county, and during the Civil war served as
county sheriff. He died in 1891, and the wife and mother survived him for
almost twenty years, passing away in 1911, on November 16th.
Louis Lincoln Emmerson passed his boyhood and youth as a student in the
public schools and the high school of Albion, in which city he lived until
he had reached his twentieth year. Completing his schooling, he became
engaged in business in Sullivan, Indiana, and was thus occupied for one
year. In 1886 he located in Mount Vernon and became interested in mercantile
pursuits, in which he continued successfully for a number of years. In 1901
he became cashier of the Third National Bank, filling that position
acceptably and capably until 1909, when he was elected to the presidency of
the bank. In that year further honors became his, when he was appointed to
the secretaryship of the Steele-Smith Dry Goods Company of Birmingham,
Alabama, a department store owned principally by Mount Vernon capital, and
in which he is a prominent stockholder. Mr. Emmerson has become connected
with numerous other commercial and financial enterprises in and about Mount
Vernon, by reason of his peculiar ability in the successful administration
of any business requiring traits of progressiveness, aggressiveness and,
withal, proper conservatism. He is a stockholder and director of the Mount
Vernon Ice Company, the Illinois Knitting Company and the Mount Vernon Car
Manufacturing Company, all of them being institutions of solid organization,
and branching out with the passing of time with an avidity consistent with
safe managership. Mr. Emmerson has been secretary of the Mount Vernon
Building & Loan Association for the past ten years, and is connected with
numerous other smaller banks and commercial organizations throughout
Southern Illinois as a director and stockholder. He was one of the principal
organizers of the Albion Shale Brick Company recently incorporated, and he
is president of the company. This is adjudged to be the largest shale brick
plant west of the Allegheny mountains, having a capacity of 100,000 bricks
daily, and incorporated with a capital stock of $200,000. In addition to his
many other positions of trust and honor, Mr. Emmerson was at one time
appointed to fill a vacancy as commissioner of the Southern Illinois
Penitentiary, which post he accepted and discharged the duties in connection
therewith in a highly creditable manner.
Mr. Emmerson is an adherent to Republican principles, and has always been an
enthusiastic supporter of the party, as well as a dominant factor in
Republican state politics. He has been county chairman of the Republican
party for the past ten years, and is state committeeman from his district.
He is prominent as a fraternalist, being especially so in Masonic circles,
in which society he has taken the thirty-third degree. He is also a member
of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and of the Modern Woodmen. He
is a communicant of the First Presbyterian church of Mount Vernon,
materially aiding the work of that organization on all occasions.
In 1887 Mr. Emmerson married Miss Anna Mathews, the daughter of Thomas
Mathews, of Grayville, Illinois. Two daughters have been born to them:
Aline, aged eighteen, now a student in the Belmont College of Nashville,
Tennessee, and Dorothy, aged fifteen, a student in the Mount Vernon high
school.
Extracted 11 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from 1912 History of Southern Illinois, by George W. Smith, volume 3, pages 1373-1374.
