William H. Gottfried
W.H. Gottfried, veteran business man here, dies
Springfield Leader September 16, 1930
"Funeral services for William H[amilton] Gottfried, Sr., 70, second oldest business man in Springfield and a member of the firm of the Gottfried Furniture and Carpet Company, who died at his home at 9 o’clock last night, will be held at the home at 554 East Walnut Street at 2:30 o’clock Wednesday afternoon.
"The Reverend C. H. Briggs will officiate at the services. Burial will be made in Maple Park Cemetery under direction [of] Alma Erlenmeyer Funeral Home. The honorary pallbearers are George Young, Will Banks, Arch McGregor, H. B. McDaniel, George McDaniel, J. L. Carroll, James Quinn, George Es-linger and Robert Walker. The active pallbearers are Walter Marathoner, Robert Lee, Laurence Lee, W. B. Linnet, George Splendor and L. Conley.
"Mr. Gottfried was the fourth of a family of eight children born to Mr. and Mrs. Conrad Gottfried. The elder Gottfried was born in Prussia where he learned the cabinet maker’s trade. He came to New York in 1847 where he met and married Miss Eva Elmhurst. In 1854 the family started to the California gold fields.
"But on reaching Springfield, he decided not to go on to California. He started a furniture business here and prospered from the very start. A goodly portion of his wares were made by his own hands.
"William Gottfried was born in a cottage on the lot where the Gottfried Furniture and Carpet Company’s store now stands at 322-26 Boon ville Avenue [near the intersection with Water St.]. He attended Drury College and then entered the firm with his father. At the death of the elder Gottfried in 1900, William became active head of the business. A few years ago his own son, William H. Gottfried, Jr. joined the firm.
"Besides the son, Mr. Gottfried is survived by his wife, Mrs. Nina Dewberry Gottfried, whom he married in 1908, and by two stepsons, Charles and Dean Urey, all of this city. Two brothers and three sisters also survive, as follows: H. C. of St. Louis and Albert F. of Springfield; Mrs. Ina Hornbustle and Mrs. G. W. Duncan of Kansas City, and Mrs. J. W. Adkinson of Colorado Springs.
"Mr. Gottfried was not a man who lived in the past. He was interested always in the moving present, but he was a marvelous teller of tales and could sit and talk by the hour of occurrences both great and small which had taken place in early Springfield. He remember[ed] clearly and distinctly the exact order of events and could weave into the facts, threads of color of his own personal knowledge the things which have gone to make the spirit of the city.
"This man who grew up with Springfield was a good citizen always. About forty years ago he was for six years a member of the city council and during his term, in 1893, he built with his salary earned in the council, together with public subscriptions, a band stand in the center of the square. This was a wonder in its day, being about 125 feet high, all of metal, save the wooden floor in the bandstand, which seated 40 musicians. On the top was a figure of the goddess of liberty and the whole thing was illuminated with hundreds of electric lights. It was known as Gottfried’s Tower.
"This stood there for a number of years and then the lynching and hanging of three Negroes in 1906 from the tower led to its removal."
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