Quincy’s J. H. Duker Had a Passion for Education

    

A number of whiskey men profiled on this website, some of them with minimal schooling themselves, devoted their money, time and energy to the betterment of education in their communities.  A prime example is John Herman Duker of Quincy, Illinois.  Deprived of an education beyond the basics himself, Duker, shown here, spent a quarter century working to improve that city’s schools.

Duker was born in Aukum, Hanover, Germany, in 1933, the son of Elizabeth and Gerhard Duker, a carpenter.  When John Herman was still in elementary school, his father died leaving Elizabeth with three sons to raise.  Likely having relatives in the United States, in 1847 the mother with her three boys came to America, landing in New Orleans.  From there the family took a boat to St. Louis, a city with a substantial German population, but soon after relocated to Quincy, Illinois, where Duker relatives lived.

Throughout the 19th Century, Quincy had grown from a backwater hamlet along the Mississippi River to become one of Illinois’ most important cities and ports. Quincy was a thriving transportation center as riverboats and rail service linked the city to many destinations west and along the river. It was on its way to becoming Illinois' second-largest city, surpassing Peoria in 1870.  A number of German immigrants had made it their home.

Required to earn a living to help support the family, continuing his education in America was out of the question for John Herman.  Reported, however, to have been “ambitious, determined, and resolute,”  the youth apprenticed with a saddle-maker.  Within a few years he had mastered the trade to the point where, with a partner, he was able to open a harness and saddlery store.  In 1959, still only 26 years old, Duker sold out and with his brother, Theodore, opened a grocery, one that featured liquor.

In the meantime, John Herman was having a personal life.  In Quincy he met Clara Elizabeth Glass, born in the city, and the daughter of Margaret  and Simon  Glass, a blacksmith, bricklayer and later saloonkeeper.  Both were German immigrants.  When John Herman and Clara married, he was 23 and she was 20.  Over the next 18 years the couple would have ten children, six of whom lived to maturity. 

By 1871 the Duker brothers had decided that the liquor trade held considerably more promise for profitability than groceries.  Calling their company “J. H. Duker & Bro.,” they located they located their wholesale liquor house initially at 1032-1034 North Maine Street.  As their business flourished, the brothers felt the need for more space and the company moved to  323 Hampshire Street, shown in the photo here.  Behind the standing men are large doors that could be opened to accommodate large wagons used to haul barrels of whiskey in and out. J.H. Duker appears to be third from left.

The interior of the J. H. Duker & Bro. shown below reveals the depth of the building and the great numbers of barrels being readied for delivery.  The two men in the photo are identified as John Ording, John Herman’s son-in-law and office manager and Theodore’s son, Otto Duker.  The sign at left, advertising Pacific Express, a company shipping by railroad to various destinations in the West suggests that the Dukers were doing a mail order business in places far away from Quincy.

In addition to selling established brands the Dukers featured a number of proprietary whiskeys, likely blended on their premises from stocks they were receiving by ship and railroad from distilleries in Illinois, Kentucky and beyond. Duker was known to be drawing liquor from warehouses of the J. B. Wathen & Bro. Co. distillery in the 5th District of Kentucky. [See the post on Wathen, August 1, 2020.]  Among the company’s house brands were "Briar Mint," "Old Seal," "Old Si," "Old Stand," "Quincy Belle," and "Sunny Springs.”  The Dukers declined to register any of these brand names with the government.

Like other liquor wholesalers the Dukers issued a number of giveaway items.  Those would have been gifted to saloons, restaurants, and hotels using Duker liquor.  As shown above, primary advertising giveaways were shot glasses, some advertising specific house brands, others the company itself.  Other items were pocket mirrors in the shape of whiskey barrels and cork screws.

In time John Herman Duker expanded into other business ventures.  Of him, a biographer noted:  “He was a man of excellent business ability and executive force, capable of controlling extensive interests, for he possessed sound judgment and keen discrimination.”  His significant wealth resulting from liquor sales now was available for investment.  As a consequence Duker became the primary stockholder and founding president of the First National Bank of Quincy, a post he held until his death.  Shown here is one of the institution’s banknotes.

Duker’s money allowed him to settle his family in a home called “one of the finest residences of the city,” located at 601 Spring Street at the corner of Sixth. Shown here, the mansion, described by contemporaries as “palatial,” was constructed with blocks of granite and featured considerable ornamentation, looking much like a medieval castle.  As Duker and his family rose to prominence in Quincy their home became noted for its social functions. Clara Duker was accounted a gracious hostess.

As he watched his children grow up and attend school, Duker must have thought back on his coming to Quincy and being denied by circumstances to complete his own education.  The schools became his passion.   He determined to join the School Board, an elected body in Illinois.  The Illinois Constitution grants boards of education wide latitude in governing their school districts.  Duker saw an opportunity to contribute to the schooling of Quincy’s youngsters, ran for School Board and was elected.

Education underwent many changes in the late 1800s, including the widespread adoption of the German kindergarten model and the establishment of trade schools.   Schooling was understood as not just a privilege for the rich but increasingly a system to prepare children of all economic backgrounds to become contributing American citizens.  By the end of the century, students in each grade were expected to learn specific skills in common during the school year. Textbooks were standardized, ensuring that a fourth-grader in one region of the country learned approximately the same things as a fourth-grader elsewhere.

Many of these innovations were adopted or expanded during Duker’s school board service.  A forward thinker who prized education as he did, John Herman was open to new ideas and to broadening the learning process.  Hailed as “deeply interested in the public school system…,”  the people of Quincy elected him time and again to the board.  In all Duker gave an astounding twenty-five years of service to the schools.

When he died in November 1903 at age 77, Duker was mourned in Quincy as a pioneer, business leader, educator and community-minded citizen.  After a funeral at St. Boniface Catholic Church, he was interred in Block 1, Lot 132, of the parish cemetery.  The Duker monument is shown below, along with his headstone, front left.  The liquor house continued to bear his name, managed by Theodore Duker and other family members, until closed by National Prohibition in 1920. 

 A biographer aptly has encapsulated John Herman Duker’s life: “His history is notable in that he arose from a humble financial position to one of affluence and his progress was due entirely to his persistent and well directed effort, for reliable business methods and unfaltering purpose.”

Note:  Although this post was gathered from multiple sources, the principal one was “Past & Present of the City of Quincy & Adams County, Illinois,” by Hon. William H. Collins and Cicero F. Perry, Chicago, 1905. All quoted material in italic is from that source.  Photos of the Duker store and home are from the collection of the Quincy Public Library.