BIOGRAPHY - JOHN MEYER
John C. Meyer, postmaster and merchant of Garber, is a successful business man who owes his prosperity to enterprise, unfaltering determination and inflexible business integrity. These qualities never fail to win success and the life history of Mr. Meyer is another proof of the fact that they constitute a sure foundation upon which to build the superstructure of business advancement.
A native of Indiana, he was born near Osgood, Ripley county, July 27, 1864. No event of special importance occurred to vary the routine of farm life for him in his boyhood and youth. His time was divided between the duties of the schoolroom and the work of the home farm, for during the periods of vacation he assisted in the labors of field and meadow. When about seventeen years of age he left home and went to Dearborn county, Indiana, where he was employed for one year as a farm hand. On the expiration of that period he removed to Greensburg, Decatur county, Indiana, where for eight years he worked as a farm hand. He afterward spent two years in Pekin, Tazewell county, Illinois, as farm hand, coming thence to Garber, and after serving as farm hand for one year he rented a one hundred and twenty acre farm and engaged in general agricultural pursuits on his own account in the operation of rented land for five years, when with the capital he had acquired through his energy and diligence he purchased the store building and property of S. D. Litwiler and leased it to T. J. Williams for one year, but at the end of the year he purchased the stock and fixtures of Mr. Williams. At that time the stock was very small. being worth only about three hundred dollars, but he soon increased it, so that today it is valued at over five thousand dollars and he is conducting a successful business as a general merchant. Besides this he owns other property. He is also acting as agent for the leading implement manufacturers of the country and in 1907 his sales in all departments amounted to thirty thousand dollars. His success is due to his earnest desire to please his patrons and the carefully selected line of goods which he carries and to his straightforward dealings.
In 1894 Mr. Meyer was united in marriage to Miss Katie Gerber, of Pekin, Illinois, a daughter of Peter Gerber, a Frenchman. They have a daughter. Hazel, now eleven years of age, but they lost their only son, Edward, at the age of six years.
Mr. and Mrs. Meyer are members of the United Brethren church at Gibson City and he is interested in the education as well as the moral development of the community, having served as school trustee for the past ten years. He does all in his power to further the interests of public education. In politics he has always been a republican, with strong prohibition tendencies, and he has long been recognized as a stalwart advocate of the cause of temperance. In fact, his aid and influence are always given to the side of reform, progress and improvement, and he stands inflexibly for truth and justice on all occasions.
Extracted 16 Oct 2016 by Norma Hass from History of Ford County, Illinois, From Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, author E. A. Gardner, Volume 2, pages 477-478.