ALBERT WYMAN, a large and successful dealer in boots and shoes, who is doing business in a fine establishment at the southwest corner of the public square, came to Sullivan, Moultrie County, in 1870 and entered upon work as a journeyman shoemaker. Later he began business on his own account and finally added a stock of goods and opened a store. He has been a hard-working man and is the architect of his own fortune, and out of his profits he has built the commodious business house which he now occupies. It is twenty-two feet wide by eighty-two feet deep, two stories high and was built in 1885, since which time he has kept it stocked with an excellent and extensive line of boots and shoes.

Mr. Wyman came here from St. Louis, to which point he had traveled over a great many States since coming to this country in 1858 from Germany. He was born in Prussia not far from Berlin, July 10, 1835. His parents, Daniel and Dorathea (Heiser) Wyman, natives of Prussia, were of excellent German stock and reared him through his boyhood, giving to him the best advantages of a German education. The father passed from life in his native country in 1862 at the age of seventy-six, and his good wife, who was born in 1804, died in 1866. Daniel Wyman had fought with the German forces in the war with France which took place between the years of 1812 and 1815, being an active soldier for four years and bearing throughout life wounds received in conflict. He and his faithful wife were devout members of the Lutheran Church.

Our subject is the youngest of his parents' children, six sons and one daughter, and two of these sons are now deceased. Albert having grown to manhood in his native Province, set out while still young for this country, breaking away from home and friends and coming all alone from Hamburg to New York City, landing there in 1858, and beginning as a workman at his trade which he had learned in his native country.

Mr. Wyman served for four months as a soldier in the War of the Rebellion, enlisting at the first call in the Second Missouri Infantry, and fighting at the battle of Wilson's Creek, Mo. He often says that this short experience gave him a sufficient taste of war and of rebellion and he was satisfied after that to settle down to his trade in St. Louis.

He adheres to the church of his forefathers, the Lutheran, and is active and helpful in its good works. In political matters he is independent, not being trammeled by party ties.

Portrait and Biographical Record of Shelby and Moultrie Counties, 1891 - p. 558/559

Transcription copyright 2003/2007, Moultrie County ILGenWeb/USGenWeb