This week we feature another of the six 19th-century downtown Pekin businesses in the collection of vintage business cards we’ve been examined for the past several weeks. This card advertises the business known as Wagenseller & Co., which operated in the 100 block of Court Street in the latter half of the 1800s.
The firm of Wagenseller & Co. was owned and operated by Joshua Wagenseller (1813-1882), one of Tazewell County’s Old Settlers whom we have spotlighted here twice previously. As we mentioned before, Wagenseller was an ardent abolitionist, a friend of Abraham Lincoln (who was a guest in the Wagenseller home on many a visit to Pekin), and a founding member of the Tazewell County Republican Party.
Wagenseller came to Pekin in 1837 and went into business with his brother Benjamin here in the firm of B. & J. Wagenseller, but Benjamin’s death in 1844 brought an end to that business. Joshua Wagenseller afterwards was engaged in various enterprises until he at least founded Wagenseller & Co. during the 1860s.
Wagenseller appears in the 1861 Root’s City Directory of Pekin as “Wagenseller Joshua, merchant; office, 48 Court, ss., 7th d. w. Second; res. sw. cor. Broadway and Market.” About a decade later, though, his eldest son William Henry Wagenseller had joined his father in the business, which is listed in the 1871 Sellers & Bates City Directory of Pekin as “WAGENSELLER & SON, (J. W. & W. H. W.), dealers in dry goods, clothing, boots, shoes, hats, caps, carpets, oilcloths, notions, groceries; also saddles and harness; ss Court 5 and 6 d w Second.”
In that same directory, we find Joshua still living at the southwest corner of South Market (today called South Second) and Broadway, while William was at the northwest corner of South Market and North Washington. Joshua’s younger son Frank Rupert Wagenseller is listed in this directory as “Wagenseller Frank, harnessmaker,” and living at home with his father.
By the time of the 1876 Pekin directory, both William and Henry were partners of their father. The directory that year shows “WAGENSELLER, J. & SONS, (Joshua Wagenseller, William H. Wagenseller, and Frank R. Wagenseller) wholesale leather and shoe findings, and saddlery hardware, 120 and 122 Court.” This directory shows that Joshua was still at the southwest corner of Broadway and Second (formerly called Market).
Joshua Wagenseller died 22 July 1882 of Bright’s disease (an old term for inflammation of the kidneys) and was buried in Lakeside Cemetery. The 1887 Pekin city directory shows that Frank carried on the Wagenseller & Sons general store, which by then had relocated to 302 Court St., while William ran a dry goods and notions store at 208 Court St.
Charles C. Chapman’s 1879 History of Tazewell County provides this biography of Joshua Wagenseller:
“Joshua Wagenseller is in the truest sense, one of Tazewell county’s pioneers, having arrived here as far back as Jan. 3, 1837. He points with pride to the Keystone State as the home of his birth. He first saw the light July 5, 1813, in Norris county, Pa. Peter and Susanna (Longacre) Wagenseller, his parents, were honest industrious people. Three years after he came here he was married to Miss Mary Rupert, five children being the issue of the union.
“Mr. W. is now engaged in the mercantile business, which is far the oldest established house in Central Illinois, having been opened 42 years ago and continued without intermission during all these years.
“Although not a politician, Mr. Wagenseller has numbered among his personal friends some of the greatest statesmen of our time, and among the number was Abraham Lincoln, who, previous to his election to the Presidency, frequently visited him at his home here. Lincoln was, in former years, Mr. Wagenseller’s attorney and after his elevation to the high position of President, he did not forget his friend of former years, but offered him an appointment to a Federal office, which Mr. Wagenseller chose to decline and time has proven that he chose wisely, for no country has a greater honor to bestow on any man than that of a successful, honest private citizen.”
Wagenseller’s obituary in the Bloomington Pantagraph mentions that the federal office which he had declined was “the marshalship of the Southern District of Illinois,” which Wagenseller turned down “on account of mercantile business.”
As a Tazewell County Old Settler, Wagenseller’s extended biography was included in the 1873 “Atlas Map of Tazewell County. Following are excerpts from that biography:
“Joshua Wagenseller is a native of Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, born July 5, 1813. He is the fifth child of Peter and Susanna (Longaker) Wagenseller. Mr. W., father of Joshua, was a native of Montgomery county, Pa., and his parents were of German descent. He followed farming as the vocation of his life. He emigrated to Ohio about the year 1832, and settled in Columbus, Franklin county, where he resided until his death, which occurred about two years after. His wife, mother of Joshua, subsequently removed to Pekin, Ill., terminating a useful life in 1866, while residing with her son Joshua. . . .
“The subject of this biography acquired his early culture mostly at Green Tree Seminary, in his native country, where he acquired a knowledge of the rudiments of a good, practical, business education. His first business engagement after completing his course was in a wholesale dry goods house in the city of Philadelphia, where he obtained a position as bookkeeper and accountant. The next business engagement was with his brother in Union county, Pa., where he remained about two years. We would remark that these experiences of his early life laid the foundation for that successful business career which in after life distinguished him in his subsequent mercantile transactions.
“He was now of age, and, looking westward for a richer field in which to enlarge and develop his energies, he went to Columbus, Ohio, and erected a saw mill on Elm creek, and was engaged in the manufacture of lumber about three years, or until the spring of 1837, when he removed to Illinois, and settled in Pekin, Tazewell county. . . .
“Mr. Wagenseller formed a partnership with his brother Benjamin, and, under the firm name of ‘B. & J. Wagenseller,’ he began, in Pekin, a course of mercantile life, which business he has since followed. This original firm ceased in 1844, by the death of his brother. They went through the financial crash of 1840 unscathed. . . . Since the dissolution of this firm, Mr. Wagenseller has been at the head of subsequent business houses, and although he has been identified with other business largely in life, merchandising has been his leading vocation. He has been engaged in milling covering an aggregate of nearly ten years. He rebuilt and owned the first good grist mill propelled by water in Tazewell county. . . .
“Mr. Wagenseller was married May 7, 1840, to Miss Harriet, daughter of Henry and Naomi Rupert, of Pekin, — formerly of Virginia. As the fruits of this union, they have had a family of six children. Two of his sons are now engaged with him in his present mercantile operations. Two of his sons are married, and all of his family are at this time (1873) residents of Pekin. Mr. Wagenseller and wife are both members of the Congregational Church of Pekin, and are among the original members of that church.
“Mr. W., in addition to his mercantile business, owns and carries on a farm near Pekin. He also owns a large area of land located in Iowa. . . . Politically, in early life, Mr. Wagenseller became a whig. His first vote for president was cast for Gen. Wm. H. Harrison, in 1836. He was anti-slavery in his sentiments, and the following circumstance, as related by himself, opened his eyes to the inhumanity of the slave traffic. While on a trip to New Orleans, on a steamboat, a slave owner came on board with a woman and six children. He witnessed the revolting spectacle of a slave girl sold on the block. ‘The scene,’ said Mr. W., ‘made me ever afterward an abolitionist.’ On the disorganization of the whig party, in 1856, he became identified with the republican party, to which he has since been strongly attached. He voted twice for the immortal Lincoln and twice for the valiant Grant, who so ably assisted in firmly planting the stars and stripes on the bulwark of American freedom. . . .
“Mr. Wagenseller has been required to represent the interests of his ward for several years in the common council of the city, and was vice president of the Peoria, Pekin, & Jacksonville Railroad Company. He has been one of the active, public-spirited citizens of Pekin for thirty-six years.”
