History of Lee County, Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY 121
Ml'. Vaupel was a member of the Evangelical church and gave
his political allegiance to the republican party. For several j^ears
he rendered the county efficient service as a member of the board
of commissioners and he was for six j'ears tax collector. His suc-
cess came to hiui as the legitimate and logical reward of his
perseverance and labor. Althuugh he did not seek to figure promi-
nently before the public, he came to be known throughout the
community as an exemplary citizen, a faithful husband and father
and a reliable and trustworthy business man.
J. ARTHUR EDWARDS.
J. Arthur Edwards, a well known ice dealer of Amboy and one
of the most jDrogressive and successful business men of that community,
was born in Lee county, in the city where he now resides,
October 28, 1871. He is a son of Isaac and Elizabeth (Saul) Edwards,
the former of whom came to Illinois at an early date and
opened the first livery stable in Amboy, this establishment having
been in continuous operation from 1855 to the present time. The
father was also a railroad contractor and aided in the construction
of the Illinois Central, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul and the
Toledo & St. Louis Railroads. He was a stanch republican in
his political beliefs and held many important public positions,
serving during the Civil war as horse ])uyer for the government
and being afterward sheriff of Lee county and county supervisor.
He died in Ai^ril, 1900, at the age of seventy-tT\'o. and is buried in
the Prairie Repose cemetery.
J. Arthur Edwards acquired his education in the Amboy pub-
lic schools, which he attended until he was thirteen years of age.
He then assisted his father in the livery business for some time,
after which he was for four years fii-eman on the Illinois Central
Railroad. He was afterward in the livery business with his
brother for two years and at the end of that time turned his at-
tention to his present occupation, his father having established
the concern some years before. Mr. Edwards has now a large
and representative patronage and conducts it successfully, for
he is a business man of unusual energy and capacity.
In Amboy, on the 4th of August. 1897, Mr. Edwards married
Miss Mary Waters, a daughter of Arthur and Mary (Quirk)
Waters, the former a railroad man and an earlv settler in Amboy.