Biography - Wilmer A. Steidley
WILMER A. STEIDLEY, the editor and proprietor of the Call-Mail, a weekly
paper, published in Moweaqua, Shelby County, is a bright and ambitious young
man, who has already had considerable experience in journalism, and gives to
the public one of the best family papers issued in Central Illinois. He was
born in Barr Township, Macoupin County, August 10, 1861. He received a
practical education in the public schools, and when a boy worked on the
farm. At the age of seventeen he left school to enter the office of the
Moweaqua Register, the first paper published in this city. He soon acquired
the art preservative in that establishment, and remained there until the
fall of 1880, when he went to Montezuma, Ind., and was employed in the
office of the Era the ensuing three months. From there he went to Maroa, and
was employed in setting type in the office of the Maroa News until 1881.
In that year Mr. Steidley entered upon his career as a journalist, coming to
Moweaqua in the month of January, and started a paper called the Mail. In
1884 he sold that publication, and returning to Maroa, bought the News, the
paper on which he had formerly set type. He conducted the News until July 1,
1888, and then sold it on good terms, and for nearly a year thereafter he
lived at Colorado Springs, Col., where he was engaged as a clerk in a
furniture store. In May, 1889, he returned to Moweaqua, and resumed his
vocation as editor, purchasing the Call, and in July of the same year buying
the Mail, and consolidating the two under the name of the Call-Mail. Thus
united he has infused new life into their columns, and has made the union
paper a strong, breezy, entertaining family newspaper, full of information
on subjects in which the public is most interested, with its matter well
arranged, and its editorials showing a progressive spirit, and giving good
points in regard to political and other topics with which the people should
be familiar.
November 1, 1881 is the date of the marriage of our subject with Miss S. E.
Huff. Mrs. Steidley was born in De Witt County, Ill., in February, 1862, and
is a daughter of James and Nancy (Dine) Huff. Three children are living of
this union — James J., Wilmer A. and Ida Clare. Their fourth child, named
Marguerite, died in July, 1889, aged ten months.
Mr. Steidley is popular and well-known in social circles as a member of the
following organizations: Shelby Lodge, No. 274, I. O. O. F., and Home Lodge,
No. 452 of the Order of Tonti, he being President of the latter lodge. In
his political affiliations, he is a Democrat. Religiously, both he and his
wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Extracted 16 Feb 2019 by Norma Hass from 1891 Portrait and Biographical Record of Shelby and Moultrie Counties Illinois, page 621.
