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CASPER WESTERMEIER, JR. Probably no resident of Carlinville is more widely known, by reputation at least, than Mr. Westermeier, who was for several years the incumbent of the office of County Clerk. In the arduous position, with all its responsibilities, he proved faithful, accurate and trustworthy, and his resignation was accepted with regret. When he withdrew from politics he opened an office for general abstract of title, insurance and real-estate business and he represents some of the best insurance companies in the United States, while his familiarity with the records of Macoupin County makes him exceptionally reliable in examination of titles to real estate.

Mr. Westermeier is descended from excellent German stock, both parents having been born in the Old Country. His father, for whom he is named, was a native of Prussia, and his mother, Anna Marie Deckemeier, was born in Hanover. The latter came to America with friends when a young lady, being the only member of her family to cross the ocean. She was married in St. Louis, Mo., where Mr. Westermeier had located almost immediately after his migration. He had served his time in the German army, entering at the age of eighteen years, in accordance with the custom of the empire, and soon after his discharge came to America. he was a carpenter by trade and in St. Louis he worked as a journeyman for a time and then became contractor. In 1861 he removed to bunker Hill, this county, and in 1884, their children having all left home, they removed to Carlinville, where the two eldest sons resided, and is retired from active life, although for several years he carried on his business at Bunker Hill. The faithful wife and mother died May 25, 1889. She had reared three sons - Casper, John and Joseph.

The subject of this notice was born in St. Louis, Mo., July 22, 1846, and received his early education in the Catholic parochial schools there. When he was sixteen years old, he began clerking in a general store in Gillespie, where he remained a year and a half. He then returned to Bunker Hill and for four years was a clerk and bookkeeper, and then removed to Litchfield and embarked in business, carrying a stock of general merchandise. After a year of business life he sold out and after the November election in 1868, came to Carlinville to accept and assume the duties of Chief Deputy in the Circuit Clerk's office, under H. W. Burton, Esq. He acted in that capacity nine years and during this time, in the spring of 1872, he was elected and served one term as City Treasurer of Carlinville, and was then next elected County Clerk. This was in the fall of 1877, and after serving a five years' term, he was re-elected and acted four years longer, and one of the chief duties and responsibilities with which he had to contend in the administration of the office of County Clerk as the refunding of the $1,500,000 courthouse bonds of macoupin County, with eleven years' interest at ten percent accrued, outstanding into six per cent, bonds on compromised propositions, and having determined to adopt a different life of life he was no candidate for re-election, but opened the office as before stated.

The lady who presides in Mr. Westermeier's pleasant home was known in her maidenhood as Margaret Carlisle and their marriage was solemnized October 15, 1867, at Litchfield, Ill. the bride was born in Dumfries, Scotland. Her father, William Carlisle, was a Government banker. He came to America with a party of pleasure seekers, was stricken with yellow fever and died. Subsequently the widow of Mr. Carlisle came to this country with her two daughters, in company with her parents, who were McVeighs. They settled in Ohio and later made their home in Covington, Ky. In that State the widow was married to Mr. William Manly and the family removed to St. Louis, Mo. A second removal was made to Bunker Hill and thence Mr. and Mrs. Manly went to Litchfield, which is still Mrs. Manly's home. Mrs. Westermeier was two and a half years old when her mother brought her across the water and her education and training have been received in the city of St. Louis and the towns above mentioned. She has the sterling qualities of the Scotch and the progressive spirit of the American and her care of her family is devoted. She has ten children, whose respective names are Joseph, Emma, Nellie, Mae, William, Margaret, Edward, Aloysius, Reba and Genevieve, all born at Carlinville except Joseph, who was born in Litchfield, Ill.

In exercising the right of suffrage Mr. Westermeier votes with the Democrats. the connection of the family is with St. Joseph's Catholic Church. Mr. Westermeier is a very enterprising man and one who is likely at all times to make his way in business, as he has so far in life been doing.

-------------------------------------------------------- COWEN, BALFOUR, who since April 1867, has been practicing law at Virden, was born at Bath, Grafton county, New Hampshire, June 30, 1832. He is descended from a family of Welsh origin which settled in New England at an early date. The name of both his father and grandfather was Zachariah Cowen. His father was born and raised in New Hampshire, and married Mary Titus, whose ancestors were early settlers of Weymouth, Massachusetts. They subsequently lived in Attleboro, Mass., and removed from there to Bath, N. H., in 1765. New Hampshire at the time was almost a complete wilderness. It is handed down as a family tradition that Mr. Cowen�s great-grandmother mounted a horse, with a feather bed as a saddle, and with one child before and one behind her, made the long journey of two hundred miles to the place of their pioneer settlement. One of these children was the grandfather, Eleazer Titus. His great-grandfather was Capt. Samuel Titus; his military title he acquired in the Revolutionary War.

The subject of this sketch was the youngest of a family of three children, all of whom were sons. In 1835, when he was three years of age, his father moved with the family to Illinois, and entered 240 acres of land four miles north of Jerseyville, now in Jersey, but then in Greene county. The next spring he died, leaving Mr. Cowen�s mother in charge of the family. The educational advantages which Mr. Cowen enjoyed were very limited. The first school he attended was at the stone schoolhouse at Otterville, in Jersey county. The nearest school was five miles distant, and about three months� schooling, every other winter, was all the instruction he received until he was fourteen. Most of his education he has obtained since he has grown to manhood. His mother had kept possession of the land which her husband entered, and it was fenced and put under cultivation by her children. In March, 1855, Mr.Cowen married Amanda Bartlett, a native of Maine. After his marriage he bought out the interest of his brothers in the homestead, and was farming till the fall of 1856. He moved to Virden in the spring of 1858, and embarked in the mercantile business at first in partnership with his brother.

In the second year of the war of the rebellion he enlisted in the army. He was mustered into the United States service September 4, 1862, as captain of Comp. G, 122d Illinois regiment. He served in Tennessee, Missouri, Mississippi, Kentucky, Louisiana and Alabama. The regiment was raised in Macoupin township and its history is familiar to the people. On the 20th of December, 1862, while on detached service, acting as provost marshal at Trenton, Tennessee, he was captured by the Confederate general Forrest. He was exchanged in March 1863, rejoined his regiment, and afterward took part in the battles of Tupelo, Mississippi, July 14, 1864; Nashville, December 15 and 16, 1864, and Fort Blakley, on Mobile bay, April 3-9, 1865, the last battle of any moment of the war. He was discharged at Mobile, Ala., and was mustered out at Springfield, August, 1865. Mr. G. Evans, now a resident of California, who had been his partner in the mercantile business at Virden while Capt. Cowen was absent in the army, had disposed of the store in 1864; and on Mr. Cowen's return he resolved of fitting himself for the legal profession. He was admitted to the bar April 6, 1867.

As a lawyer he has gained a leading position among the members of the Macoupin county bar. He has endeavored to practice his profession the most honorable and legitimate manner, and to follow a course calculated to advance the best interests of his clients, believing that there is no reason why a lawyer, to be successful, should stoop to any act which would bring the slightest stain on the personal honesty and integrity of a gentleman. He was raised as on old line Whig, and taught to revere Henry Clay as the greatest of American statesmen. Although he was brought up chiefly among people pro-slavery in their sympathies, he became an early member of the republican party, and cast his first vote for presidency. He has acted with the republican party, and cast his first vote for president in 1856, for Gen. Fremont, the first republican candidate for the presidency. He has acted with the republican party ever since on all questions of national politics. While Capt. Cowen is in every sense of the word a self-made man, he attributes whatever of success he has acquired in his profession and as a business man to the example and teaching of his mother during the early years of his life. His opportunities in early life were few, and he has succeeded by his own native energy and resolution As an officer in the army his record is clear from any stain; his professional abilities have made for him an honorable place in his profession, and as a citizen his personal conduct has been such as to command respect of the community.  -------------------------------------

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