History of Lee County, Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

402 HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY
his labors is seen in its attractive appearance. Mr. Smith was
at one time vice president and a director in the State Bank of
Paw Paw and is now a large stockholder, and he is interested in
many other enterprises which are factors in general growth.
Upon its organization Mr. Smith joined the republican party
and voted for its candidates continuously until 1912, when he
entered the ranks of the progressives. He was for three years
township supervisor, has been township treasurer, trustee and
assessor and also school trustee and school director. In fact he
has held practically every important position within the gift of
his fellow citizens, for he has been at all times interested in the
advancement of the community and takes every means in his
power to promote its progress. During the many years of his
residence here he has won a high place in the esteem and regard
of all who know him, and he has an extensive circle of warm
friends.
HENRY EWALD, Jr.
The name of Ewald is well known to all who are familiar with
the history of agricultural development and progress in Reynolds
township and Lee county, for through more than a third of a
century the family has been represented here and its members
have taken an active and helpful part in promoting farming inter-
ests in this section of the state. Henry Ewald, Jr., now living on
section 22, Reynolds township, was born in Ogle county, Illinois,
Febi'uary 6, 1877, and is a son of Henry and Anna Martha Ewald,
of whom further mention is made on another page of this volume
in connection with the sketch of Charles Ewald. The family
removed from Ogle to Lee county in 1879, and Henry Ewald, Jr.,
spent his boyhood and youth in the usual manner of farm lads,
working in the fields through the summer months, attending the
district schools during the winter seasons and finding time and
opportunity for play when more serious tasks did not engage
him. He continued to assist his father in the cultivation of the
home farm imtil twenty-eight years of age, when he was united in
marriage on the 20th of June. 1905, to Miss Marie Kaecker, who
was born in Bradford township, January 7, 1880, a daughter of
William and Minnie (Aschenbrenner) Kaecker. The father was
born in Germany and came to America when twenty-one years of