DeMoulin, Edmond

From:  The DeMoulin Museum [https://www.demoulinmuseum.org/factory.html]  

Edmond DeMoulin was the founder of DeMoulin Bros. & Co., a lodge paraphernalia, band uniform, and graduation gown manufacturer.

Born June 11, 1862 at Jamestown, Illinois, Ed DeMoulin learned the family blacksmith trade. He may have soured on the vocation when at age fifteen he nearly lost his thumb in a sawing mishap. DeMoulin developed an interest in photography and opened a studio in Greenville. His reputation grew as an outstanding photographer and artist. His first patent was issued in 1892 for a camera attachment that created seamless, dual images of a subject in a single photograph.

Ed became involved in Greenville’s fraternal orders including the Modern Woodmen of America (MWA) where he became acquainted with William A. Northcott. The Bond County State’s Attorney, Northcott had been elected national president of the MWA in 1890. Seeking to increase membership, Northcott sought the input of Ed DeMoulin who then consulted his brothers. The DeMoulins soon found themselves creating lodge initiation paraphernalia for the MWA and other lodges.

Like his brothers, Ed was a member of the Greenville Concert Band and was often praised for his French horn solos. Technology was perhaps his true love. He was the first person in Greenville to own an automobile, having purchased a two-seat Oldsmobile in 1902. In the summer of 1892, Ed and two other men invested in a steam-operated “merry-go-round and panorama” they toured southern Illinois with. In 1899 he spent $300 on a 12 disc music box that automatically changed them after each tune.

DeMoulin, a four term Greenville mayor (1897, 1899, 1903 and 1905), was instrumental in the community’s industrial growth. He also championed infrastructure improvements like electric street lights, a new water tower, and the oiling of streets. He later purchased a home in Los Angeles, California and by 1920 was living there permanently.

Ed’s first wife, Constance, died in 1899 after a brief battle with influenza. They had five children: Gladys, Horace, Eric, Adele and Lillian. Later that year he married Anna Diehl, the sister of U.S. DeMoulin’s first wife, Emma. Her brothers, Henry and Phil, would be long-time DeMoulin employees.

Ed DeMoulin died October 29, 1935 at his Los Angeles home. His body was returned by train to Greenville for burial at Montrose Cemetery.