Hilliker, Charles Mahlon 1856-1933

HILLIKER, WILLIAMS, HOUGHTON

Posted By: Doris Hoffman, Volunteer (email)
Date: 5/11/2021 at 10:19:33

HOLD FINAL RITES FOR C.M. HILLIKER LAST SATURDAY

Had Been a Resident of This Community for More Than Sixty Years

In last week's issue of this paper there was briefly chronicled the death of Chas. M. Hilliker, the oldest active business man in Akron and a pioneer resident of western Plymouth County. He passed away at his home in this city on Wednesday evening, August 23, 1933, after an illness of about ten days of liver trouble and complications, aged 77 years, 4 months and 12 days.

Charles Mahlon Hilliker was born April 11, 1856, in the old Empire state near the city of Buffalo, N.Y. At an early age he moved with his parents, James O. and Adeline Frances (Williams) Hilliker, to Wisconsin, where he attended the rural schools. When but a lad he started to learn the blacksmith and wheelwright trade and when fourteen was an expert wheelmaker.

When about fifteen years of age he drove a team through for the family from Wisconsin to Dubuque, Iowa, near where he worked on a farm during the summer of 1871. In the fall of that year he joined his mother and step-father on their homestead in Johnson Township, Plymouth County, Iowa. During the next two years he engaged in work at several places in southeastern South Dakota in sawmills and railroad work, but the following year bought a tract of forty acres of railroad land in Johnson Township. On November 17, 1875 he was united in marriage with Mary E. Houghton, the ceremony being performed in Le Mars.

They lived in a humble abode on their land in Johnson Township, but they gave up farming after heroically enduring the hardships attending pioneer life for a few years and in 1877 moved to Le Mars, where he entered the building contracting business.

In 1881 he moved his family to Akron and continued in the same line of work. In 1887, as an adjunct to his building operations, he erected a blacksmith and wagon-working shop on the banks of the Big Sioux River here the same being operated by water power. In 1905, with the advent of the automobile, the type of work gradually changed and for a number of years he and two of his sons have been principally engaged in automotive repairing and blacksmithing. As a contractor he built a number of residence and business buildings in Akron in the earlier days.

Mr. Hilliker always took an active interest in the business and social life of the community, and was an ardent booster in every movement for the advancement and best interests of Akron and surrounding territory. He did not aspire to political preferment, but was a staunch Republican and a loyal worker for the part of his choice. He became a member of the United Brethren Church of Adaville, this county, at the early age of seventeen, but upon moving to Akron he and his family accepted the fellowship of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was a loyal supporter of it throughout life. In the year 1887 he became a member of the Masonic order, being the thirty-sixth member to be raised in Freedom Lodge, No. 434, Akron. During these forty-six years he served eleven years as secretary of the lodge, and then in turn held all the various chairs, and had been a past-master for a number of years. Both he and his wife have been members of Vesper Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star, for a long period of years.

Seven children came to bless the home of Mr. and Mrs. Hilliker, three of whom, Arvilla May, George Henry and Alice May, preceded him in death.

Besides his widow, he is survived by three sons and one daughter – Wilbert James, Mrs. Adeline Harriet Hanson, Waldo Ivan and Edwin Blaine, all living in Akron except the last named, whose home is at Earlham, Iowa; also by one brother, Fred J. Hilliker, of Mount Pleasant, Wash., a half-sister, Mrs. J. Weber of Le Mars, IA, and six grandchildren. A kind and considerate husband and father, a firm friend and helpful neighbor, upright in character and possessed of many virtues, this good and useful citizen will be greatly missed an sincerely mourned in the community where he has lived for more than sixty years. He held a wide acquaintance in the county, and his keen memory as stored with interesting reminiscences of the early history and development of Plymouth County, a series of is articles along these lines being published in the Register Tribune a few years ago.

Funeral services were held Saturday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock in the M.E. Church conducted by Rev. F.F. Robinson. There was a large attendance, a number of people standing (Continued on last page)
(Continued from first page) in the aisles and vestibule during the services. Hymns were sung by the U.B. Church quartet. The pallbearers were L.F. Sprenger, Max Pollock, Lee Stoutneburg, Bert Bradley, Chas. Allen and Lewis Bly. Between fifty and sixty Masons attended the services in a body. At Riverside cemetery the impressive Masonic burial service was conducted by Eugene Lias, assisted by a large number of the brethren.

Among the relatives in attendance at the funeral from a distance were Edwin B. Hilliker, of Earlham, Iowa; Mr. and Mrs. J. Weber and son, Walter, of Le Mars; Mrs. Wm. Albright and Miss Clara Fletcher, of Merrill; Everett Stinton, of Lucas, S.D.; Ray Bristow, of Minnesota.

[Source: The Akron Register Tribune; Akron, Plymouth County, Iowa, USA; Thursday, August 31, 1933; Volume 47, Number 6, Page 1, continued on last page.]