About 120 years ago, the northwest corner of Eighth Street and Park Avenue was the location of the Royal Oil Company of Pekin, an oil and gasoline station whose proprietor was a prominent Pekin businessman and community leader named Frederick William Hamsuit (1851-1926).
Fred W. Hamsuit was the son of Henry and Wilhelmina (Meier) Hamsuit, who came to Pekin from the Chicago area in 1860. The Hamsuits were farmers, and Fred himself continued in farming as a young man, owning and working his own land a few miles west of the Mackinaw River, in Section 27 of Spring Lake Township.
In the mid-1890s, however, Fred sold his farm and moved with his wife Addie Sarah (Leach) Hamsuit to Pekin, buying a house at 731 Park Ave. that had been built in 1870 and which he extensively remodeled in 1910 — the house still stands today. In Pekin, Fred opened an oil station at 313 Elizabeth Street, about a block and half from the Tazewell County Courthouse.
By the early 1900s, however, he had relocated his oil station to his property at Eighth and Park Ave. About the same time, Fred became active in local politics as a member of the Democrat Party, and was elected to the Pekin City Council as Road Commissioner.
A short biographical sketch of Fred W. Hamsuit was published in Ben C. Allensworth’s updated “History of Tazewell County” (1905), page 1013, and reads as follows:
Fred Hamsuit, for the past eight years agent of the Royal Oil Company, Pekin, Ill., was born in Cook County, Ill., in 1851, and came to Tazewell County with his father Henry Hamsuit, in 1860. He was reared on a farm and educated in the public schools, eventually engaging in farming, on his own responsibility, in Spring Lake Township. About 1894 he settled at Pekin, and purchased a fine residence on Park Street.
Mr. Hamsuit has since taken a deep interest in the general affairs of the city, stanchly supporting the Democratic party, and able discharging his duties as Road Commissioner. His long association with the Royal Oil Company is sufficient guarantee of his faithfulness and efficiency, and the esteem in which he is held by his fellow townsmen argues well for his sterling personal characteristics.
In 1878 Mr. Hamsuit married Addie Leach, who was born in Pekin, and they are the parents of two children, Fred and Lulu.
On Sunday, 19 Sept. 1926, Fred died of a stroke while assisting a customer at his oil station adjacent to his home at 731 Park Ave. His obituary was published the following day on the front page of the Pekin Daily Times, as follows:
Fred W. Hamsuit Called Suddenly
Prominent Resident Of This City Dies Sunday at 3:30 (sic)
Frederick William Hamsuit, for many years a well known resident of this city, died suddenly yesterday afternoon at 5:07 o’clock at his home 731 Park avenue. While waiting on a customer, at the oil station, which he conducted at his home, Mr. Hamsuit was stricken with apoplexy, his death occurring almost instantly.
Mr. Hamsuit had been engaged in the oil business in this city for many years, he was a pioneer in this business in Pekin and for many years conducted an oil depot in the 300 block [of] Elizabeth street. Later he moved his residence. He was an honourable man and citizen, whose word was as good as his bond, whose acquaintance was wide and who enjoyed the confidence and friendship of all who knew him.
He was born in Addison, Dupage county, Illinois, September 14, 1851, and was a son of Henry and Wilhelmina Meier-Hamsuit. He had resided in this state all of his life. Prior to moving to Pekin many years ago he had been a successful farmer in Spring Lake township.
March 7 1878 he was united in marriage to Miss Addie Leach, who with one son, Fred H. Hamsuit, one daughter, Mrs. Lulu May Galyean, both of Pekin and one sister, Mrs. Charles Lewedag of St. Louis, survive him. Funeral services will be held Wednesday afternoon at 3:30 o’clock at the residence.
After the funeral, he was buried in Lakeside Cemetery, Pekin.
