USA > Illinois > Ford County > History of Ford County, Illinois : from its earliest settlement to 1908, Vol. II > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30
ILLINOIS HISTORICAL SURVEY
HISTORY
OF
FORD COUNTY, ILLINOIS
FROM ITS EARLIEST SETTLEMENT TO 1908
VOL. II.
BY E. A. GARDNER
ILLUSTRATED WITH PORTRAITS AND VIEWS
With Biographical Sketches of some Prominent Citizens of the County.
CHICAGO THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING CO. 1908
777.342
Hough &Beach.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
JUDGE IIUGH PARISII BEACH.
Judge Hugh Parish Beach, a lawyer of Piper City and editor and proprie- tor of the Pan Handle Advocate, was born in a log cabin in the then wilderness about thirty miles south of Cleveland, in Montville township, Medina county, Ohio, more than sixty-six years ago. On the paternal side he is descended from an old family of New Jersey. His grandfather, David Beach, served in the war of the Revolution, and his grandmother, Mary Tomkins was a near relative of Daniel D. Tomkins, who was prominent in the early history of this country and at one time was governor of New York, and afterward vice president of the United States, for eight years, with President James Monroe,
Moses Tomkins Beach, father of our subject, was born in Cayuga county, New York, in 1810, and was reared to agricultural pursuits in that state. He married Maria Wylie Gillett a native of Bergen, Genesee county, New York, but directly connected with the Gilletts, Tullers, Phelpses, Pages and other leading families of Hartford, Connecticut, and vicinity, in the early history of that state. Her mother's maiden name was Pattie Tuller, who married Grandfather Gillett at Hartford, Connecticut, before they moved to Genesee county, New York. With his young wife Moses Tomkins Beach moved to the Western Reserve of Ohio about 1830. Being a skillful woodsman, he cleared and improved several farms in that heavily wooded section but later in life engaged in the practice of medicine until his death. In politics he was a whig and afterward a republican, and was a strong opponent of slavery.
The mother of our subject died when he was fourteen years of age but to her teachings and the remembranee of her exemplary character he owes much. He was the fourth in a large family. He was early inured to hard labor on the farm but acquired a good education for that period, for the settlers in the Western Reserve always established good schools, no matter what else had to be sacrificed. When his mother died he left school and began to earn his own livelihood, with no resources but his intellect and a strong determination to succeed. He had read accounts of the struggles and snecesses of Benjamin Franklin and a desire was created thereby to
446
HISTORY OF FORD COUNTY
become a printer. In the spring of 1857 the opportunity presented itself to gratify the ambition, and for the next two years he was constantly employed in that work, successively in two well appointed newspaper offices, in the course of which he passed through all grades of work, from "printer's devil," to assistant in the local news department. Like many others, he is indebted to this early newspaper work for much of his earlier general information in regard to public affairs. Succeeding this, a desire was aroused to become a lawyer and accordingly, for two following years he was found under the able tutelage of two of the leading lawyers of the state, Hon. Henry Grove and Hon. J. K. Cooper (both now deceased), pursuing the "labyrinthine intri- cacies" of the law, as embraced in Blackstone, Kent and other leading text- books of that department of learning. At that time he was a member of a home company of Zouaves, and when the country was startled by the firing upon Fort Sumter, the services of his company were immediately tendered to Governor Richard Yates, at Springfield. Not receiving any satisfaction from the governor, they sent one of their officers to Springfield to confer with him but, such was the patriotie rush to the defense of the country, Governor Yates replied to the effect that the applications ahead of the Zonaves were sufficient to fill the Illinois quota several times over. Nothing daunted, these determined patriots met in their armory and decided to tender their services direct to the general government and thereupon wired the then secretary of war, Hon. Simon Cameron, at Washington, D. C., to that effect. Imagine their disappointment when his reply came back: "Consult your governor!" This tended to abate the ardor of their patriotism, as there was no immediate hope of their services being accepted. A good part of the company returned to their accustomed pursuits but others kept up the organization and, months afterward, with recruited ranks, went to St. Louis and joined the Eighth Missouri Infantry. Still engaged in the study of the law, it was not until the government called for three hundred thousand volunteers that our subject went into actual service. Then for more than four years and a half contin- uously, in both infantry and heavy artillery, he served successively in about all positions from private to that of commander of his company. He was for a time clerk in the quartermaster's department at New Orleans, Louisana ; also clerk of a court martial in that city, and after being promoted to a commissioned officer was a member of a military commission by appointment of General Sheridan, commander of the Department of the Gulf. He cam- paigned through Kentneky, Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana and across Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf of Mexico. £ He par-
447
HISTORY OF FORD COUNTY
ticipated in some of the most important military operations of the Mississippi valley, under Generals Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Banks, MeClernand, A. J. Smith, Canby, Hurlbut, Ord and others, and was present at the engagements at Haine's Bluff, Chickasaw Bayou, Arkansas Post, Magnolia Hills, Grand Gulf, Port Gibson, Champion Hills, Raymond, Black River Bridge and the siege of Vicksburg. He went on the famous campaign of General Banks up Red river, then across Lake Pontchartrain, and on the march of General Gor- don Granger through eastern Mississippi in the combined movement against Mobile, being then in command of his company, and in all engagements of that campaign. During the latter part of his service he was stationed successively at Fort St. Philip and Fort Jackson, commanding the defenses of New Orleans. on the Gulf coast, at the mouth of the Mississippi. Through all his long and perilous service he received only two slight wounds, but he has now in his possession his army cartridge-box which undoubtedly saved his life, as it was perforated by a ball of the enemy in an engagement, while it was drawn in front of his body for convenience in loading his gun, as it was the practice in a fight.
While in the service and in command of his company, he raised a subscrip- tion in the company to the National Lincoln Monument at Springfield of seven hundred and fifteen dollars and thirty cents, and received a personal letter from Governor Oglesby in acknowledgment of its receipt, expressed in the most complimentary terms. The documents accompanying the subscription are now in the archives of the National Lincoln Monument Association.
Just about the close of his military career he was brevetted to a higher rank by the president of the United States "for faithful and meritorious ser- viees," as the parchment commission states. A singular incident is connected with this. The commission was forwarded at the proper time but to the wrong postoffice, and, not being called for, was returned to the war department at Washington. As the fact of being brevetted was unknown to the recipient of the honor, no call was made for the commission until many years after his return to eivil life, when, accidently, a brother officer in the east, who knew about it, mentioned the fact in a letter. This gratifying news led to corre- spondence with the War Department, at Washington, and the highly prized document was forwarded by return mail, after slumbering in the official vaults of the government for about twenty-four years; however it was none the less gratefully received.
Another matter relating to his military service, which also has a most grateful side to it, is the fact that no complete settlement was ever had with
448
HISTORY OF FORD COUNTY
the government of his accounts as an officer until the winter of 1892, when the government found itself indebted to the Judge several hundred dollars.
While in the military service, Judge Beach wedded Mary Estelle Smith, of Louisiana, a daughter of Captain Henry Lyon Smith, of the engineer corps of the regular army, and Mrs. Armalie H. Smith, nee Hebert. Captain Smith was a graduate of the West Point Military Academy and for a time professor at that school. Although himself a native of Maine, his military duties took him to Louisiana, where he married Armalie H. Hebert, a sister of his class- mate at West Point, General Louis Hebert. The Heberts were a very prominent family under the old order of affairs before the war. Grandfather Vallery Hebert held a prominent position under General Jackson at the battle of New Orleans in 1851. Panl O. Hebert was a governor of Louisiana, another representative was a speaker of the legislature, still another was a superintendent of one of their railways, while another, Mrs. Ernestine S. Stevens, widow of the late General Walter Stevens, another graduate of the West Point Military Academy, was first librarian of the patent office at Wash- ington, D. C., and for many years was librarian of the department of agriculture. She is rightfully classed among the great women of the nation. She is Mrs. Beach's aunt.
The subject of our sketch received his discharge from the army February 22, 1867, and, with his young wife, immediately came north, locating at Piper City (then called New Brenton), where they arrived April 19th. His sister, Mrs. Mary A. Wilber, now deceased, then resided here. It was her advice that brought him here. She and her husband and family had come from Ohio a couple of years before, when there was no town and only a few scattered res- idents near groves of timber on the then broad expanse of virgin prairie. She was a well educated, talented and exemplary woman and an especially devoted wife and mother. As a school teacher before her marriage and a shrewd investor in real estate after her marriage, she was a marked success. She died all too soon, in 1869, leaving a large family of young children to mourn her untimely Joss. Her remains were laid to rest in Brenton cemetery at Piper City. Ifer husband built the first hotel in the town-the Wilber House-in 1867.
At Piper City, Judge Beach resumed the study of law and in 1870 was admitted to the bar by the supreme court of the state, and has since practiced that profession. In the early history of Piper City he was elected president of the board of trustees and it was during his administration that many im- portant streets were graded, the town park, now a beautiful grove, was
449
HISTORY OF FORD COUNTY
planted, and a number of artesian fire wells sunk in different localities, which latter have since saved the place at least two very disastrous conflagrations. During said term the first fire engine was bought, which eventually led up to the present efficient fire department service of the village. In the spring of 1873 his fellow townsmen elected him a member of the county board of super- visors. In that body his advocacy of retrenchment, economy and reform in county affairs called publie attention to him, and he was the same year nominated and elected county judge, and was reelected for two successive terms. He served until December, 1886, a year having been added by an amend- ment to the state constitution, and it is not too much to say that he had the good will and confidence of the people as a just, faithful and upright judge.
For the past quarter of a century he has been editor, publisher and proprietor of the Pan Handle Advocate. It is sufficient to say that as a journalist he has always endeavored to advocate that which was for the very best interests of the people among whom the paper circulates, and he is always able to state in elear and forcible language just what he means. His success in this department is highly deserved. He is an acknowledged forcible public speaker and has delivered many publie addresses. In the presidential campaign of 1900 he was one of the campaign speakers in the state for the MeKinley and Roosevelt Campaign Committee.
He is a Knight Templar in Masonry, is a patriarch in Odd Fellowship and has been in attendance upon the grand lodges of both bodies. Ile is a past post commander of Piper City Post, No. 361, Department of Illinois, Grand 'Army of the Republic, and while commander took the initiatory steps which resulted in organizing Gresham Camp, No. 187, Sons of Veterans, of which the Judge is an honorary member. Judge Beach east his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln at Chicago in 1860, and has always been a believer in republican principles. He heard Lincoln and Douglas at Ottawa in the great joint discussion of 1858; has also listened to Lovejoy, Logan, Trumbull, Seward, Corwin, Hale, Ingersoll, Blaine, Oglesby, Harrison and a host of other leading orators of their day; has heard the greatest pulpit orator, Beecher; the greatest actor, Booth; and the greatest songstress, Patti. He was a member of the Pioneer Wide Awake Club of Chicago, in 1860, the captain of which was Orderly Sergeant J. R. Hayden, of the famous Ellsworth Zouave cadets.
Judge Beach has not accumulated wealth, but his love of good literature has brought around him one of the finest private libraries to be found any- where. The field covered is very wide. Besides his law library, there are
450
HISTORY OF FORD COUNTY
works of history, biography, travel, philosophy, science, mathematics, rhetoric, poetry, art, music, also medical, theological, political, military, agricultural, horticultural, pomologieal, stoek-raising and various other works, the aceumu- lations of a half century. These, and current leading journals and magazines of the day, furnish an extensive field for intellectual thought and culture on all manner of interesting subjeets.
Some years ago the judge found that his long and arduous military service, and too close confinement to sedentary pursuits since, had made inroads upon his health, to counteract which he has felt compelled to seek more active life in the open air than formerly, and in this connection he has what he calls his "gymnasium." It consists in interesting himself in the raising of blooded roadster horses and Jersey cattle, and taking care of them himself. Also in engaging in horticultural and other open air pursuits.
Judge and Mrs. Beach have a famliy of five living children. Henry Lyon, born and educated here and also trained in journalism in the Advocate office, was employed on the Chicago Tribune for four years and on the Record for one year. For the past nine years he has been connected with the Union Traction Company, now the Chicago Railways Company, of which he is a superintendent. He was married in Chicago, in 1899, and has a little daughter, Muriel. Carrie Estelle, Ernestine Kellogg, Metta Armalie and Daisy May have all received instruction and training in various duties in the office of the Advocate. All the children obtained a high-school education. Lillian Mary, the second daughter, pronounced a very interesting child by all who knew her, died suddenly of membranous croup in the fourth year of her age.
In elosing this outline of the biography of one of Ford county's best known citizens, let us say that Judge Beach is an unassuming, pleasant and companionable gentleman and stands among the first for integrity of purpose and general high character in the community where he has so long resided.
JAMES M. HIDDLESON.
An excellent farm of eighty acres on section 16, Rogers township, is the property of James M. Hiddleson. Today it is valued at two hundred dollars per acre but he purchased one-half of it for four dollars per acre and the remainder for seven dollars. Its rise in value is largely attributable to the
MR. AND MRS. J. M. HIDDLESON
LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF ITIN
453
HISTORY OF FORD COUNTY
care and labor he has bestowed upon it and the splendid improvements he has made thereon.
He is one of Illinois' native sons, his birth having occurred in Little Rock township, Kendall county, December 25, 1839. His parental grandfather was a native of the city of Dublin, Ireland, and was the first white teacher in the city of Philadelphia. A very highly educated man, he was closely associated with the early intellectual development of that city.
William Hiddleson, father of our subject, was born in Kentucky, April 23, 1801, and in 1836 took up his abode on a farm in Little Rock township, Kendall county, Illinois, where he spent his remaining days, passing away in March, 1896, at the venerable age of ninety-five years. When quite young he was left an orphan and later he removed to the vicinity of Canton, Ohio, being reared in that locality by George Williams. He was then a resident of the Buckeye state until 1836, when he came to Illinois, driving across the country with an ox-team. He suffered all of the hardships and privations incident to the estab- lishment of a home upon the frontier. At one time, soon after his arrival in Illinois, while living in a log cabin, six members of the family were ill. He had only fifty cents in his pocket and no team, nothing but his two hands to aid in providing a living for his wife and children. He worked diligently and untiringly, however, to overcome the difficulties of pioneer life and win success here. He hauled all his products to Chicago, a distance of fifty-two miles, making the journey most of the time with ox-teams, before the building of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. In addition to his farming operations he conducted a brickyard on the bank of Fox river on the south line of his farm, where the Black Hawk Indians encamped. He carried on general agricultural pursuits and also the manufacture of brick, which he molded by hand. He was a remarkable man, of strong character and of high principles, never using tobacco nor intoxicants. His political allegiance was given to the democracy and he was a stalwart advocate of the Union cause during the dark days of the Civil war. He attended school but twelve days and in that time participated in thirteen fights because the other children made fun of his poor clothing. In the school of experience, however, he learned many valuable lessons and im- pressed upon the minds of his children the worth of integrity and upright character development.
William Hiddleson married Elizabeth Ferguson, who was born in Stark county, Ohio, and died on the old homestead in Kendall county in 1856. Their children were : Charles, a resident of Woodland, California ; Mrs. Sarah Sargent, who became a resident of Ford county in 1863 and died near Cabery; John, who
454
HISTORY OF FORD COUNTY
died in infancy; Anna, the wife of H. N. Ryan, who is an attorney of Streator, while she died about two years ago; James M., of Rogers township, whose farm adjoins that of his brother William C., who is the sixth in order of birth in the family; Erastus, a retired farmer living in Cabery; George, whose home is in Rogers township; Romelions. of Plano; and Robert, who died in Guthrie, Oklahoma, in 1896. For his second wife Mr. Hiddleson chose Mrs. Hannah Sargent but there were no children by that union.
No event of special importance occurred to vary the routine of farm life for James M. Hiddleson in his boyhood and youth. With the other members of the family he shared in the hardships of life on the frontier, all around stretching the wild, unbroken prairie, while the farm implements were very ernde as com- pared with the modern machinery, and the homes were largely little frame or log cabins. He embraced such educational opportunities as were afforded and through much of the year was employed in the work of the fields, assisting therein from the time of spring planting until crops were harvested in the late autumn.
In August, 1862, Mr. Iliddleson, no longer content to remain at home while the preservation of the Union was in question, enlisted for service as a member of Company K. One Hundred and Twenty-seventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry, under Captain John H. Lowe, of Plano, and Colonel John C. Van Armon. He and his brother William and stepbrother, Thomas Sargent, and a cousin, John Howard, all working in the same wheat field, left at the same time and went to Plano, where they enlisted. All four then returned to the field and helped finish the harvest. About two weeks afterward they went to Chicago and were at Camp Douglas, being mustered into the United States service September 6, 1862. They were sent to Memphis, Tennessee, where they went into camp and afterward marched to Pigeon Roost Gap, fifty miles away. They reconnoitered for about two weeks and then returned to Memphis. After a short time they took boats down the river to Milliken's Bend, unloaded and went into Chicka- saw Bayou, being first under fire there. Heavy rains fell and the water stood
At on the ground to such a depth that the soldiers had to climb on logs. Milliken's Bend they took boat for Youngs Point, near Vicksburg. Mr.
ITiddleson participated in the siege of Vicksburg and in the battle of Chatta- nooga. He was all through the siege of Atlanta and was taken prisoner there July 22, 1864, after which he was sent to Andersonville prison, where he was incarcerated for two months. He was then exchanged and went to Cleveland, Tennessee, where he continued for about two months. Later he went to Chatta- nooga and Nashville and on to Cincinnati, Baltimore and Fortress Monroe,
455
HISTORY OF FORD COUNTY
whence he proceeded around Cape Hatteras and afterward to Raleigh, North Carolina. He joined his regiment there and participated in the campaign northward to Washington, where he took part in the grand review, the most celebrated military pageant ever seen on the western hemisphere. Later he was sent to Chicago, where he was honorably discharged with his regiment.
His brother William, who had enlisted at the same time, was wounded at Atlanta, Georgia, August 26, 1864, sustaining a gunshot wound in both hands. The first time he was wounded was on the 22d of July, when a bullet pierced his shoulder, and on the 3d of August following he was slightly wounded in the hip. At the battle of Resaca he received a part of a cap in the left eye, which nearly destroyed the sight. The injuries which he sustained on the 26th of August forced him to retire from active service and he was then transferred to Marietta, Georgia, where he remained in the hospital for about four weeks. He was then granted a furlough home and for three months was unable to feed himself. On the 1st of June, 1865, he rejoined his regiment at Washington, D. C., partici- pated in the grand review and was mustered out in Chicago.
When the war was over James M. Hiddleson returned to Plano, Kendall county, Illinois, and in 1867 came to his present farm, where he has since resided. He has here eighty acres on section 16. The land which he purchased for four and seven dollars per acre is today worth two hundred dollars and constitutes a splendidly improved farm. All of the buildings and trees upon the place have been put here by Mr. Hiddleson, who has led a quiet but active and useful life of the farmer and has today a valuable property, which not only gives him a good living but also enables him to save something year after year.
On the 25th of January, 1868, Mr. Hiddleson was married to Miss Jessie Oglesby, who was born in Licking county, Ohio, November 10, 1842. She came to Illinois as a school teacher and resided with her brother James, who is now living in Kankakee. The death of Mrs. ITiddleson occurred June 8, 1899, after a happy married life of more than thirty years. They were the parents of two children : Edith, now the wife of L. G. Webster, a resident farmer of Norton township, Kankakee county; and Charlie M., who remains with his father and operates the home farm.
Since age conferred upon him the right of franchise Mr. Hiddleson has been a supporter of the democrat party and its principles. Ile voted for Douglas and has filled some township offices, serving as collector for two terms, while for the past five years he has been township assessor. He was also a school director for eighteen years and has ever been loyal and faithful in the discharge of his duties. He is a charter member of Cabery Post, No. 664, G. A. R., and thus
456
HISTORY OF FORD COUNTY
maintains pleasant relations with his old comrades, delighting in the camp fires and in recalling in his association with his old comrades at arms the scenes and events which occurred upon the battlefields of the south. He has attended nearly all of the national encampments of the Grand Army and has twice visited California.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.