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Biography - Herman Meyers

HERMAN MEYERS, dealer in cigars and tobacco, 62 Ohio Levee, Cairo, Ill., was born in the city of Hanover, Germany, on the 29th of May, 1835. At the termination of his school years, he adopted the trade of locksmith and machinist, serving an apprenticeship thereat of four years. In 1853, he came to the United States and located in Chicago, Ill., where he engaged to work in the machine shops of Seville & Sons, who had a contract for the first locomotive engines ever built in Illinois. He was afterward employed in the Wright Reaper Factory, and finally in 1855 he opened a cigar manufactory in Chicago, which he operated with varied success until the panic of 1857, when he was compelled to seek other fields. He next located at Davenport, Iowa, from whence he went to St. Louis, where he became associated in business with his brother-in-law, William Meyers, and enjoyed a successful business until the breaking-out of the civil war, when he came to Cairo, Ill., in 1861, and opened a manufactory there, and is now the oldest tobacconist in the city. Here he has a very lucrative trade, as his brands of cigars are of the best quality on the market. He was married on the 9th of August, 1863, and has a family of nine children, of whom two are dead.

Extracted 31 Mar 2017 by Norma Hass from 1883 History of Alexander, Union, and Pulaski Counties, Illinois, Part V, pages 32-33.


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