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FRANK ERNST,
secretary and general manager of the New Baden Milling Company, organized principally by him in 1900, is one of the solid men of his district. All his life connected with the milling industry, he is regarded as one of the foremost millers of this favored section of Illinois. His efforts have been rewarded with a degree of success consistent with his labors, and as a man of splendid traits, both in his capacity as a man of business and as a valuable citizen, he takes a high rank in his community.
Born June 8, 1863, in Hanover, Germany, Frank Ernst is the son of Henry and Theresa (Engelke) Ernst, of Hanover, Germany, in which
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town the parents were reared and passed their lives. They were the parents of a family of six children: Henry, Frank, Jauchaim, Lena, now Mrs. John Moehie, Josephine, the wife of Frederick Schroeder, and Therese. The father died in 1901 and the wife and mother passed away four years later. They were communicants of the Roman Catholic church all their lives.
Frank Ernst came to America on March 6, 1879, locating first in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was employed in a wholesale flour house. From there he went to Belleville, where he secured work as shipping clerk for the Crown Mills, and he remained with them for some years, studying the business in every detail, the one dominant idea of his life to become established in a business for himself. He labored so well that in 1886, on New Year's day, he started up a grain business in Belleville on his own responsibility. He continued there for the space of one year, then removing to Mount Vernon, where he again entered the grain business, and after another year he sold out and went to Clinton, Missouri. His time there was as brief as in the other places, and he went on to New Memphis, Illinois, continuing there for some little time, and on July 1, 1890, he established a milling business in New Baden, Illinois, which is now known as the New Baden Milling Company, incorporated under the laws of the state, with Mr. Ernst as secretary and general manager of the organization. The company has done a splendid business in the years of its operation, the bulk of their meal and grits going to the south and the feed to Pennsylvania, corn being the product they utilize. Mr. Ernst has run the business with a view to conservative advancement, and as a result the New Baden Milling Company is one of the most stable and reliable concerns in the community.
Mr. Ernst is a Democrat in his political leanings, but is in no sense what might be termed a politician. He is averse to any political entanglements and his interest in the party is in a purely impersonal sense. He has served his village four terms in the capacity of president, proving himself to be competent in affairs of civic administration, but further than that he has not gone. Like his parents, Mr. Ernst is a devout churchman of the Roman Catholic faith, as is also his family. On October 23, 1895, Mr. Ernst married Miss Lillian Hoffman of St. Louis, Missouri, and of their union four children have been born. They are: Katherine, born January 22, 1897; Elenora, born December 30, 1899; Francis, born August 8, 1901; and Frederick Richard, born December 28, 1905. Their first born, Katherine, passed away on October 27, 1902.