USA > Illinois > Champaign County > A Standard history of Champaign County Illinois : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, civic and social development : a chronicle of the people, with family lineage and memoirs, Volume II > Part 16
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ROBERT DAVISON BURNHAM is the only surviving son of the late Albert C. Burnham, long prominent as a pioneer lawyer and banker at Cham- paign and whose career is more fully noted on other pages. Robert Davison Burnham learned banking with his father, but for many years has been actively engaged in the farm loan business, with offices in the First National Bank Building.
He was born in Champaign, February 19, 1872, one of the five children of the late A. C. Burnham and wife. Three of these children died in infancy. Mr. Burnham was the oldest and the second in age was Mary Bruce, now wife of Newton M. Harris.
Mr. Burnham was liberally educated, though he did not complete a university course. He attended the University of Illinois and also the famous college preparatory school at Lawrenceville, New Jersey. He left school to take a position in his father's office in the Burnham, Trevett & Mattis Banking Company. He was well traincd in the details of banking, but in a short time left his father's office to form a partnership with his brother-in-law, Newton M. Harris, in the farm loan business.
Mr. Burnham has the public spirit of his honored father, has been a member of the Park Commission of Champaign, and is now serving on the Public Library Board. He is a member of the Episcopal church. Decem- ber 4, 1895, he married Miss May Wilcox, a native of Champaign. Their three children are Robert D., Jr., Sidney Wilcox and Albert C.
ELNA A. ROBINSON. During a lòng and active career Mr. Robinson has been prominently identified with Champaign County both in a profes- sional and in a business way. His success in business has enabled him to retire and enjoy a financial competence and he is now a resident of the city of Champaign.
Mr. Robinson was born in South Reading, Vermont, December 15, 1839, a son of Ebenczer, Jr., and Adeline (Williams) Robinson. His father was born at South Reading, Vermont, September 30, 1809, and dicd July 5, 1849. He was married January 4, 1837, to Miss Williams, who was born
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December 19, 1814, and died July 18, 1894. They had three sons, Elna A., Stillman and Albert A.
Stillman Robinson is well remembered at Champaign and in University circles and was one of the leading engineers of the country. He was graduated as a civil engineer from the University of Michigan, and from the age of twenty-five to twenty-eight was assistant on a United States lake survey and from twenty-eight to thirty-two years of age was assistant engineer with the faculty of the University of Michigan. From the age of thirty-two to forty he was professor of mechanical engineering and physics in the University of Illinois. Hc then accepted the chair of mechanical engineering with the Ohio State University, where he remained until he resigned in 1895. In 1896 he was given the degree D. Sc. and in 1899 was made professor emeritus in mechanical engineering at the Ohio State University. During, the years 1880-84 he was inspector of railroads and bridges for the State of Ohio. He was also engincer super- vising the construction of the famous Lick telescope in California. His death occurred at Columbus, Ohio, in 1910.
Albert A. Robinson was born October 21, 1844, and became a civil engineer. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan, and followed railroading all of his active life. He was vice-president and general man- ager of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, president of the Mexican Central Railway for nine years, and he is now living retired at Topeka, Kansas.
Elna A. Robinson secured a substantial groundwork of literary training, and from seventeen until he was twenty-one was a machinist apprentice. In 1870 he entered the University of Illinois and was graduated in 1875 with the degree Mechanical Engineer. For the next four years he remained as an assistant in the mechanical engineering department of the University. Mr. Robinson in 1878 formed a partnership with E. M. Burr in the general machine construction business. This partnership continued until dissolved in 1899, when Mr. Robinson took the plumbing end of the business and continued it successfully until he sold out in 1915 and has since lived retired. He is a Republican in politics and a member of the Baptist Church.
On April 27, 1861, Mr. Robinson married Miss Melora M. Smith, who died August 16, 1885. They were the parents of five children: Sarah Ann, Addie Eva and Gertrude Minnie are all now deceased. Gertrude M. became the wife of William L. Troyer and she left two children, Fannie F. and Mabel. Inez Mary is the wife of A. Boyd of Urbana and their children are Bert B., George A., Wilber A., Neil D., John R., Jay, Blanche, de- ceased, and Ruth. Fannie Nettie is the wife of Thomas Inskip, of Cham- paign, and has had three children, Thomas, deceased, Francis R. and Clarence E. Mr. Robinson married for his second wife Mrs. Semphronia E. (Stage) Jenks, who was born in Iowa.
FRANCIS M. AVEY. Of the men whosc ability, industry and forethought have added to the character, wealth and progress of Champaign County none stands higher than Francis M. Avey, now living retired at Rantoul, which has been his home for over forty-five years. Among other enviable distinctions Mr. Avey is one of the honored survivors of the great war of the rebellion, and he was a member of the first regiment that marched away from Illinois to fight in the South. His entire career has been in keeping with the high standards of patriotism which caused him to enter the army as a youth.
Hc was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, January 24, 1835, and is now past four score. He is a son of Daniel and Hannah (Van Hise) Avey, the
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former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Maryland. Francis M. was the third of five children. His father was a farmer, and F. M. Avey grew up and obtained his early education in Butler County, Ohio.
As a boy he heard much of the country of Illinois and Indiana, and at the age of sixteen his ambitions prompted him to go out to Fountain County, Indiana, where he had a brother. There he began an apprenticeship to the blacksmith's trade. Having learned the trade, he took his accomplishments into western Missouri. At that time western Missouri was a scene of the terrible border ruffian warfare which went on with more or less regularity until after the close of the Civil War. It was not a safe territory for a man who came from a free state and had the convictions of Mr. Avey. The first time he applied for work he found a big black slave working in a shop. This slave had been hired out by his master. In competition with such labor Mr. Avey could make no progress, and he soon left the country which had disgusted his ideas of liberty and freedom, and came to Illinois. In the vicinity of Decatur he hired out to a man, and for five months drove four yoke of cattle to a breaking plow. From there he went to Vermilion county and for two years was employed in a blacksmith shop at Georgetown. Then occurred in 1860 the election of Lincoln as president. In the disturbed condition that followed Mr. Avey went to Indiana and there became acquainted with a business man who had recently returned from Mattoon, Illinois. He reported that a company of soldiers were being raised at Mattoon, and the two boys hurried to that point and enlisted at Lincoln's first call for 75,000 troops. F. M. Avey enlisted in the first regiment organ- ized in Illinois, the Seventh Illinois Infantry, in Company B. He was in camp at Springfield, went from there to Alton, Illinois, and thence down the Mississippi to Cairo. The first time Mr. Avey saw the Rebel flag was at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, on the banks of the Mississippi. For three weeks he and his comrades were at Cairo, and then were returned up the Ohio River to Mound City, where at the expiration of his three months' service he was mustered out on August 25, 1861.
Later Mr. Avey helped recruit some men, and in February, 1862, enlisted at St. Louis. For three months he was on duty as a patrol in St. Louis. In April, 1862, he and his comrades were organized into a company, and he was elected its second lieutenant. Three months later he was promoted to first lieutenant, and for one year he served as post adjutant of a military post. He was then made ordnance officer, in charge of the ordnance depart- ment, and filled that position with efficiency and fidelity until his term of enlistment expired. He was mustered out at Benton Barracks in St. Louis April 15, 1865.
While on duty in the ordnance department he was under the command of Major Colendar, a major in the regular army. Their associations were very pleasant and were the basis of a lasting friendship. On being relieved from duty and while waiting for transportation Mr. Avey started to spend the day in camp, and on arriving saw the flag at half mast. That was the first intimation he had of the assassination of the beloved President Lincoln. Mr. Avey was stationed at Rolla, Missouri, when Lincoln was re-elected in 1864. At that time Illinois soldiers were not allowed to vote in Missouri, but Mr. Avey's regiment was the Fifth Missouri Cavalry, and all of them marched in a body and voted for Lincoln amid the checrs of the multitude. The women, he reports, were especially bitter. They called them Lincoln- ites, black Republicans and other appropriate names. But the brave boys in blue did not hesitate to express their sentiments and convictions.
After being mustered out of the army with this honorable record Mr. Avey came to Champaign County, and in February, 1868, he married Miss Alice Bryan. Mrs. Avcy was born near Mahomet, Illinois, a daughter
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of John and Melinda (Busey) Bryan. Melinda Busey enjoyed the distine- tion of being the first bride in Champaign County. Her wedding was eele- brated in a log eabin in Urbana. She and her husband became the parents of ten children, but the three who grew up were Aliee, Lillis and Edward. Aliee Bryan obtained her education in Urbana, and while her people lived in the country she boarded at the home of Colonel Busey's mother. Later the Bryan family removed to Urbana and were prominent people them- selves and numbered among their friends the best people of the eity, inelud- ing the late Judge Cunningham. Aliee Bryan's grandfather, Isaae Busey, and Mr. Webber donated the land for the county seat at Urbana, Mr. Busey giving thirty aeres and Mr. Webber twenty aeres. This gift still stands as a memorial to their publie spirit.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Avey lived in Champaign, where he worked at his trade, but in Mareh, 1871, they removed to Rantoul. He then built the house on Sangamon Avenue where he has continuously resided for over forty-five years. For many years Mr. Avey condueted his blacksmith shop, and to furnish employment during his later years of retirement and leisure he kept the news stand at Rantoul.
Mr. Avey's only son and child is Arthur Avey, who was born December 7, 1868. He attended the Rantoul High School and at the age of sixteen entered the Bryant & Stratton Business College at Chicago. For the past twenty-six years Arthur Avey has been associated with the P. V. Palmer Wholesale Cloak House at Chieago. The only interruption to this regular service was while he was in the Spanish-American War. When he enlisted for that serviee his employer said : "Mr. Avey, if you are gone ten years re- member your position awaits your return." Arthur Avey enlisted for that war in the first Illinois regiment that started from Chicago. He went to Santiago, Cuba, and was in the several engagements around that eity until the Spanish commander surrendered. Mr. Arthur Avey thinks that Colonel Roosevelt was the finest offieer in the war. He commends him especially for his interest in the soldiers. When the boys were in the trenehes Roosevelt was always looking after their welfare, and his kindness and thoughtfulness, as well as his bravery, endeared him to the heart of every Ameriean trooper. Mr. Arthur Avey married Miss Mamie Flood of Chicago. Three children were born to them: Franeis Marion, who was named for his grandfather and is now deceased ; Anna Dorothy and Howard Franeis. These two ehil- dren take a great deal of pleasure in their periodieal visits to Rantoul to their grandfather and grandmother.
Mr. F. M. Avey has lived to vote for every presidential candidate of the Republican party sinee it was organized, beginning with John C. Fremont. In many ways besides the part he performed as a gallant soldier he has given evidenee of his publie spirit and his usefulness in the community. For twenty-seven years he served as treasurer of the Village of Rantoul, for four years was a justiee of the peaee, and has also been village elerk and a member of the town eouneil. For thirty years he was seeretary of the Masonie Lodge, and as proof of their esteem his fellow members of the fraternity presented him with a beautiful gold headed eane, on which are engraved the words : "F. M. Avey from Rantoul Lodge No. 470, A. F. & A. M., Secretary, 1885 to 1915." Mrs. Avey possesses as a valued souvenir a fine white bed- spread, which was purchased by her grandfather, Isaae Busey, in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1807.
HOWARD Ross, has built up a large business as a retail meat dealer in Champaign, learned his trade in that eity, and by good management and by making it a point to offer the best of service and goods he is now one of the leaders in his line in the county.
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Mr. Ross was born near Savoy, Illinois, August 29, 1874, a son of David I. and Mary Elizabeth (Bowers) Ross. His father was born in Newburgh, New York, and his mother in Indiana. David Ross came to Champaign County about 1869. He was an active farmer here until 1882, when he moved west to Topeka, Kansas, and followed the drug business. in that city four years. After returning to Champaign County he lived retired until his death on January 21, 1890. His wife died in Topeka, Kansas, in 1888. There were five children: A son who died in infancy ; Howard; Grace, wife of Bert Thrasher, of Berryton, Kansas; Ella, wife of Ralph Yingling, of Kansas; and the fifth, a son, died in infancy.
Howard Ross spent part of his carly boyhood in the State of Kansas. He was educated in local schools, and when fourteen years of age he got a job driving a grocery wagon at Champaign. A year later he found work with a meat market driving a wagon, and after about two years he went in the shop to learn the trade. Altogether he put in twelve years with this firm, Dallenbach & Boyle. He became an expert at the block, was a valuable man to his firm, and at the same time acquired a thorough knowledge of the financial end of the meat business. With this experience, and with such capital as he had been able to accumulate, he opened a small shop for himself in 1901. Later he removed to his present location at 105 South Neil Street, and besides the business he owns a half interest in the building.
Mr. Ross married June 9, 1897, Miss Minnie Sinz, a native of Cham- paign County. Mr. Ross is a Republican in politics, and served as fire and police. commissioner under Mayor Coughlin. In Masonry he is affiliated with the Lodge, Chapter, Council and Knight Templar Com- mandery at Champaign and is also a member of the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks.
CHESTER GARFIELD REYNOLDS is one of the enterprising young fariners of Harwood Township, his well cultivated and managed farm being in sec- tion 14 of that township, not far from the Village of Gifford.
Mr. Reynolds was born in that township in 1881, the next to the youngest of the fifteen children of Hanford and Antoinette (Roberts) Reynolds. Two of the children died in infancy.
A conspicuous factor in the early days of Illinois was Father Hanford Reynolds, who was born in Westchester County, New York. He was a sur- veyor by profession and followed that calling in the early days, laying out the City of Genesco, Illinois. Before the war he also sold fruit trees in Mis- souri. He had a varied and active experience throughout the Middle West and came to Champaign County about 1866. In his early travels in Mis- souri he would come upon what was called a grocery store at every cross roads. Whiskey was one of the chief commodities sold in such stores. When he came to Champaign County the nearest railroad to his home was Ludlow. The land was all prairie, and deer and wild game of all kinds abounded. He hauled lumber from Ludlow to build a small house and moved in before the roof was completed. There were so many ducks, geese and brant in the country that he had to hire men to shoot them in order to keep the birds from eating his crops.
Chester G. Reynolds attended the Pleasant Vale Schoolhouse, also some- times called the Reynolds School. The name Pleasant Vale was given to the school by his mother.
Success attended the industrious labors of Hanford Reynolds and wife, and they built a fine two-story briek house to replace the humble home in which they had first lived. They also planted many shade trees and in course of time had one of the most attractive places in the county. Hanford
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Reynolds was in this county early enough to buy an entire section of land at $10 an acre. This land did not have a tree or bush, and it was his planting, continued over a course of many years, that gave the land its present pleasant aspect.
Hanford Reynolds also bought 1,400 acres in Sunflower County, Mis- sissippi, about 1905, at $12 an acre. One of the conspicuous features of this land was a grand cypress tree twenty-seven feet in circumference. There were many oaks six feet in diameter. One large tree had all the bark peeled off by bears. Mr. Reynolds conducted a sawmill, and the logs were so large that a groove had to be cut in some of them in order to make them pass the saw six feet in diameter. It was in the same territory where Roosevelt did his bear hunting. The canebrakes were twenty feet high and so thick that a man could hardly get through them. Hanford Reynolds took his wife and son Chester to that locality and remained nearly two years. The climate did not agree with the family and they were finally obliged to leave. Mr. Chester Reynolds says that he did not enjoy living where chill tonics were sitting around on the shelves in every house. On that southern plantation they tried raising cotton and cleared up considerable land, burning timber that would be exceedingly valuable today. While there Hanford Reynolds organized the Christian Church, and some of the hardest characters in the neighbor- hood were converted, and the church stands as a monument to his high cliar- acter and public spirit.
Mrs. Hanford Reynolds died at Rantoul in 1910, on her return from Mississippi. She was a noble woman, and exemplified the best virtues of the home maker and the kindly neighbor.
For a number of years Chester G. Reynolds has looked after the manage- ment of the old home estate known as Cloverdale. He has a tenant on the farm and this family keeps house for him. He gives active supervision to the 120 acres, and the well tilled fields show the carc bestowed upon them. Mr. Reynolds has also taken great pains to keep up the home place, and has cultivated and cared for the flowers which his mother so much loved. Hc has also carried out many of the ideas published in the bulletins of the Illinois State University on beautifying country homes. His home is sur- rounded by generous plantings of such ornamental shrubs as witch hazel, golden elder, sumacs, butterfly bush, snowberry, etc.
Mr. Reynolds is a man of broad views, was reared a Republican, and in the main gives his support to the candidates and principles of that party. His parents were active members of the Christian Church known as Mount Olivet in Ford County.
F. C. AMSBARY, superintendent and manager of the Champaign Water- works, has been superintending waterworks plants in different parts of the country for upwards of thirty years. It has in fact been his regular pro- fession, though some of his younger years were devoted to railroading. Mr. Amsbary has numerous connections that identify him with the sub- stantial interests of his home city.
A native of Illinois, he was born at Pekin, January 24, 1863, a son of William Wallace and Harriet E. (Harlow) Amsbary, both of whom are natives of New York State. William W. Amsbary moved to Champaign in 1907, and for several years was connected with the waterworks here. He died in 1911, and his widow is still living at Champaign. Their five children are: George E., of Urbana; F. C .; Wallace Bruce, of Chicago; Don H., of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Cordelia, still at home with her mother.
When F. C. Amsbary was four years of age his parents removed to Delavan in Tazewell County, Illinois. He attended the local schools there,
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and at the age of fifteen he left home and worked as elerk in a store at Tremont in the same county for two years. He then went to Peoria and acquired his initial experience in railroad offices, where he remained about three years. He was next at Council Bluffs, Iowa, in the Chicago North- western Railway offices a year and a half, then for two years a railroad clerk at Burlington, lowa, and returning to Pekin, Illinois, engaged in the gro- eery business for two years.
Mr. Amsbary began his career as a waterworks superintendent at · Pekin, Illinois, in 1888. After two years he went to Wiehita, Kansas, and had aetive charge of the waterworks in that city for three years. For nine years he was superintendent of waterworks at Little Rock, Arkansas, and in 1899 came to Champaign, where he has since been active manager and superintendent of this publie utility.
Mr. Amsbary was married at Pekin, Illinois, April 16, 1890, to Addie A. Aydelott, a native of Pekin. They have five. children : Helen A., Har- low A., Harriet E., Addie E. and Frank C.
Mr. Amsbary served as president of the Champaign Chamber of Com- meree in 1912, is now president of the Champaign Club, and of the Rotary Club and is a director in the Loan and Investment Association, is a Knight Templar Mason, a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Champaign Country Club and the Rotary Club. His church is the Presbyterian. Politically he is a Republican. For three terms he served as president of the Champaign Board of Education, and has always taken a keen interest in all loeal institutions.
WILLIAM KEUSINK was for many years actively engaged in business in Champaign, but is now living retired in that city. His family came to Champaign County before the Civil War.
Mr. Keusink was born in Schenectady, New York, August 19, 1856, a son of Benardus and Wilhelmina (Hall) Keusink. His parents were both natives of Holland, where they were married, and soon after their marriage they immigrated to America. About 1860 they came to Chain- paign, where the senior Keusink followed his trade as a machinist in the employ of the Illinois Central Railway Company. His death occurred in April, 1869. His widow survived him until July, 1913. Of their twelve children, six survived the father, and William Keusink was the third in age.
William Keusink grew up in Champaign, attended the local schools, and in 1872, at the age of sixteen, began to learn the cabinet maker's trade. He followed that as an occupation until 1884, and then entered the laundry business. For twenty years Mr. Keusink conducted the leading laundry of this eity, known as the Champaign Steam Laundry Company. He sold out in May, 1914, and has sinee retired and has merely looked after his private interests.
On June 28, 1879, he married Elizabeth Lynch, who was born in Cooperstown, New York, a daughter of William and Catherine (Lennon) Lyneh. Her parents were both natives of Ireland, were brought to the United States as children, and lived first in New York City and afterwards in Utiea, New York. The Lynch family removed to Champaign in 1875, but after three years returned to New York State, where Mrs. Keusink's father died in September, 1911, and her mother on May 5, 1913. Mrs. Keusink was the oldest of six children.
Mr. and Mrs. Keusink have two children: William B., a druggist; and Wilhelmina M., wife of H. C. Johnson, of Champaign. Mr. Keusink is a Republiean in polities and is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America. He served about twenty-five years in the Champaign volun- teer fire department.
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LELAND S. FOWLER, of the Penfield community of Champaign County, is one of the young and progressive agriculturists of this section. He has the management of his father's fine farm and he took hold of the business with such vigor as to bring results that are surprising even to himself.
Mr. Fowler was born in Vermilion County, Illinois, and is a son of U. G. and Etta (Wolf) Fowler. His parents were also born in Illinois. There were two sons of the parents, Wylie M. and Leland S. Both of them were educated in the high school at Urbana and the state university.
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