ANTON DIRKSEN, senior partner of the firm of Dirksen & Son, manufacturers and dealers in upholstered furniture and mattresses, 410 Washington street, had been in the business in Springfield thirteen years. In 1879 he admitted his son Theodore Dirksen into partnership, when the firm took its present name. Until within the past two years Mr. Dirksen directed high attention to mattress_making, which includes every grade from the cheap husk to the finest hair spring mattress. Since 1879 the feature of upholstered goods has been added, and so elegant in design and finish, and substantial in workman shop are their parlor sets, that they have already built up a large demand for them, and have furnished a number of the most luxuriant homes in Sangamon county, with goods rarely equaled anywhere. The product of their factory is sold at both wholesale and retail. An average of eight skilled artisans are employed on this class of work. Mr. Dirksen, was born in Germany, in 1827, learned the cabinet and upholstering trade in his native land, commencing at the age of fourteen; served two years in the Prussian army; crossed the Atlantic in 1853 , and settled directly in Springfield, Illinois. Worked nine years for the Wabash Railway Company at Cabinet finishing and upholstering their cabinet finishing and upholstering their passenger coaches, and two subsequent years for Jacob Hough; at cabinet work. In July 1865, he married Mary Elshoff, in Springfield, a former neighbor in Germany. They have six sons and one daughter, three of the former are with their father in the factory. The eldest, Theodore H., is twenty five years of age; began learning the trade at thirteen , and is now a partner. Mr Dirksen is one of the organizers and a charter member of the St. Vincent De Paul Benevolent Society and the family are members of the Catholic Church.