Mike Levy, secretary of the Carterville & Big Muddy Coal Company, and
one of the leading business men of his community, has acted in his present
capacity since 1904, and has made his name familiarly known to the coal
trade. The plant of the company is situated adjacent to the town of Cambria,
and its owners are citizens of Jackson county. Mr. Levy passed the years of
his minority in Murphysboro, to which point his father brought the family
from Cincinnati, Ohio. In the latter city Abe Levy, his father, was a
merchant, who had added his presence to the Hebrew population of the United
States in 1865.
Abe Levy was born in Germany in 1847, and sought
America after his schooldays were passed. Reaching his destination on April
15th, the day following the assassination of President Lincoln, he was soon
in the employ of one of his countrymen in the big metropolis along the Ohio
river. Subsequently he went to Indianapolis, Indiana, and he returned to the
former city some months later, prior to coming to Illinois. He was married
in Cincinnati to Miss Paulina Rittenberg, and they had the following
children: Simon, of Murphysboro, a machinist; Harris, of Murphysboro, a
clothing merchant; Mike; Sadie, residing in Murphysboro; Isaac, who is
state's attorney of Jackson county; and David B., who is a lawyer and his
brother's assistant.
Mike Levy has been a resident of Murphysboro
since the 'seventies. He was educated in the graded schools, and when he was
thirteen years of age began to make his own way in the world. As a messenger
boy for the Western Union Telegraph Company Mr. Levy performed the duties
incident to that position and also carried the mail from the postoffice to
the depot, and for this double service he was paid the sum of thirteen
dollars per month. The lad was ambitious, however, and soon learned
telegraphy, being subsequently employed by the old Cairo Short Line as
operator at different points for a few years, and became agent of the
company at Murphysboro. When that road was absorbed by the Illinois Central,
Mr. Levy was made agent of the consolidated company at Murphysboro in 1898.
In 1904 he gave up that position to accept the one he now holds, which has
since received the benefit of his best energies.
On September 30,
1911, Mr. Levy was married at Carbondale, Illinois, to Mrs. Etta Grammer, a
daughter of Allen Holder, a farmer and old settler of Carbondale, while the
new Levy home is situated in Murphysboro. Mr. Levy has given his attention
to business rather than to promiscuous affairs. He is a Republican in
politics, but they have no attraction for him other than as a voter, and his
connection with fraternities is told when it is stated that he is an Elk.
Extracted 11 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from 1912 A History of Southern Illinois, by George W. Smith, volume 3, pages 1411.