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 31
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After all his children were old enough to look out for themselves George C. Mullikin married for his second wife Corrina J. Hunter, who survives him and now makes her home at Bondville, and is a woman of
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admirable character, who cared for her husband to thie very last and who is respected and loved by her step-children and her grandchildren as if she were their rcal mother and grandmother.
Charles J. Mullikin grew up on the farm, and besides the duties he learned and assumed at home he attended the local public schools. When he was twenty-one years of age his father gave him a team and. wagon and a couple of plows. With that equipment he rented a small tract of land and farmed it a year. He then sold his interest, and about that time he married a popular young school teacher of the neighborhood. The young couple removed to Bondville, bought a home there, and Mr. Mullikin found a position with the local grain elevator for a year. From Bondville he came to Champaign, and for a year was a locomotive fireman with the Illinois Central Railroad Company. Returning to Bondville, he accepted financial help from his father and bought a general merchandise store. He was one of the leading merchants of that village for six years, and during that time he served as town 'clerk, and on February 27, 1893, was appointed postmaster of Bondville, about the time President Cleveland began his second term. In 1895 Mr. Mullikin traded his store for a farm in Indiana. He never occupied the farm or managed it personally, but instead engaged in the real estate and insurance business at Champaign.
In the past twenty years Mr. Mullikin has become one of the leading real cstate and insurance men of the city. He has handled a very extensive business in that time. In 1896 he was elected an alderman from the Third Ward and from August, 1896, until January, 1898, served as assistant postmaster of Champaign, filling the vacancy caused by the death of the assistant postmaster. In 1900 he was elected mayor, giving the city's affairs a splendidly efficient and economical administration during his one term. He has also served as Democratic State Central Committeeman. In February, 1914, he was appointed postmaster of Champaign and is now giving all his time to the duties of that office.
On March 8, 1889, Mr. Mullikin married Elizabeth E. Lowman, who was born at Champaign, a daughter of Allison and Sarah J. (Lytle) Low- man. Both her parents were born in Pennsylvania and both are now deceased. Mr. Mullikin is affiliated with the Masonic order, the Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He and his wife are members of the Congregational Church.
CHARLES H. SPEARS, M. D. While the success of the ethical physician does not permit of the analysis to which a career in other lines of business or in other professions might be subjected, there are many things that indicate the standing of the reputable doctor of medicine. His associations in medical circles, his length of practice, his training, all have a bearing upon his relative success. Measured by whatever standard, Dr. Charles H. Spears is one of Champaign County's foremost physicians. He has been in practice at the city of Champaign for upwards of twenty years.
Doctor Spears was born in Shelbyville, Illinois, April 22, 1873, a son of Henry and Rebecca (Warner) Spears. His father was a native of Ohio, moved from that state to Illinois, and was a farmer in both com- monwealths. About six years ago he removed to Champaign, where he low lives retired.
Educated in the public schools of Illinois, Doctor Spears took up the study of medicine in the medical department of the University of St. Louis, where he was graduated in 1897. He then located in Pana, Illinois, where he practiced until moving to Champaign. So far as the practical demands upon his time and attention have permitted, he has neglected no opportunity to improve himself and gain the highest possible proficiency in his work. He took post-graduate courses in the Medical College of
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Chicago and had much hospital service, specializing in diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat. He also studied along the lines of their specialties for one year in the hospitals of London, England.
After his return to the United States Doctor Spears resumed his prac- tice in Champaign, where he has since been in practice. His finely equipped offices are. in the Illinois Building, the finest building in the city. He has prospered in a business way and owns considerable real estate in Champaign and elsewhere.
Doctor Spears married Miss Nellie E. Ainsworth, a native of Champaign County. They have two sons, Charles and John. Doctor Spears is a Republican in politics, is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Modern Woodmen of America and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He is also a member of the Champaign County Medical Society, the Illinois State Medical Society, the Twin City Physicians' Club, is on the staff of Julia F. Burnham Hospital and also on the staff of the Julia F. Burnham Training School for Nurses, and is local oculist for the Illinois Traction System and the Illinois Central Railway.
JOHN MURPHY. A fine farm, a good home, an excellent family belong to John Murphy, one of the prominent residents of Kerr Township, his well cultivated acres being located in section 32.
Mr. Murphy is a native of Ireland, a son of Martin and Mary Murphy. He grew up in his native isle and was twenty-four years of age when, seeking the better opportunities of the New World, he immigrated to America and came direct to Champaign County. This section of the New World seemed to offer especial promise to young men of limited capital and unlimited energy and he soon found work as a hand.
It was after coming to this country that he married Miss Jennie Whalen. She was born in County Wexford, Ireland, daughter of James and Mary (Cullen) Whalen. She also was twenty-four years of age when she came to America with two cousins named Gordon. She was the first member of her immediate family to come to this country. She was ambitious and able to work and willing to do her part. She first came to Gifford, where she had cousins and friends, and the first friendly face she met after leaving her home in Ireland was her cousin, Joseph Gordon, who took her to his home, where she remained four years. While there she made the acquaintance of John Murphy, a young Irishman from the same part of Ireland, and in a short time they were married. They began housekeeping east of Gifford on the farm of Mr. Sunderland. They rented land from Mr. Sunderland six years, and there they laid the foundation for their permanent prosperity. They next moved half a mile south of Penfield, and for three years rented a farm from Mr. Benjamin. By that time through strict economy and thrifty saving they had accumulated enough to enable them to purchase 120 acres north of Penfield. In that locality they have made their home ever since.
Six children were born to them, and they lost one, Thomas Richard, in infancy. The others are, James, Mary, John, Margaret and Mildred. One of the first things Mr. and Mrs. Murphy thought about was the proper edu- cation of these children. They sent them regularly to the Stonestreet dis- trict school and afterwards to the Penfield High School. Miss Mary was graduated in 1916 from the high school and made a splendid record as a student. The subject of her graduating thesis was "The Value of Reputa- tion," and many compliments were paid her for the manner in which she treated this subject and for its delivery. Besides her literary training she took music lessons from Mrs. Klein, and music has always been encouraged as a feature of culture in the Murphy home. The daughter Mary had an ambition to teach school but so far has been hindered in taking the examina-
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tion on account of illness. The son James Murphy is living on his father's old farm. He married Esther Kelley, daughter of Patrick Kelley, present postmaster of Penfield. Mr. and Mrs. James Murphy have a little daughter, Mary Vivian, who at this writing is four months old. The other children of Mr. and Mrs. Murphy are students in school and Margaret has taken piano instruction from Miss Grace Gray.
Mr. Murphy has done his part toward maintaining high standards in the local schools and has served several years as a school director. The family are active members of the Catholic Church at Penfield, all the children hav- ing been reared and confirmed in that faith. In matters of politics Mr. and Mrs. Murphy are Democrats. In northeastern Champaign County the ability and success of Mr. Murphy's efforts as a farmer need no special mention. Farming with him is a business and crops always seem to prosper under his skillful touch. Mr. and 'Mrs. Murphy have developed a fine grove of trees on their farm, an attractive feature of the landscape, furnishing protection to the live stock both winter and summer.
A word should be said concerning the younger children in school. Margaret is now in the seventh grade and Mildred in the fourth grade. Mr. and Mrs. Murphy have done everything they could to encourage their children in obtaining the best of educational advantages. Their daughter Mary especially excelled in penmanship and was awarded a Palmer's certifi- cate for skill in writing.
JOHN WALLACE MULLIKEN. It is said that the greatest incentive to ambition for young people who have not yet discovered their proper talents and place in life are stories of successful self-made business men. Any boy might be encouraged by reading something of the career of John W. Mulliken, one of Champaign's leading merchants.
Mr. Mulliken has been a resident of Champaign County for over sixty years. He came to the county when a boy of six and he had practically no opportunities to gain an education. This was partly due to the fact that good public schools did not exist during his youth and also because of the necessity which early put him in the ranks of wage earners. When he was only eight years of age he entered the store of Walker Brothers in Champaign to learn the undertaking and furniture business. He remained steadily with this firm until 1877. This partnership later dissolved, and Mr. Mulliken was taken into the new firm, which later became known as Walker & Mulliken. Mr. Walker died in 1905, and at that time Mr. Mulliken took over the entire business and is now conducting it as a furniture store, having abandoned the undertaking business. He has given Champaign its largest and most complete furniture establishment. He carries over $40,000 worth of stock and is able to supply every demand that reasonable taste requires.
He was extremely young when his father died, and he has always taken a great deal of satisfaction in having undertaken the support of the family after it was deprived of the father's care. As his work was better rewarded he borrowed $600 to buy his mother a little home. On this borrowed money he paid interest at 11/2 per cent per month. It required four years of strict saving and hard work in order to pay off the debt.
Mr. Mulliken has always had musical talent and has done much to cultivate it. Even as a boy he was able to earn money on the side by playing in an orchestra. His employer, Mr. Walker, would let him off from business, knowing the uses to which he was putting his time. He used to play the tuba or the "bass," as it was called popularly, in the band, and in the orchestra his instrument was the double bass viol.
Mr. Mulliken was born in Steuben County, New York, March 9, 1849,
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a son of Albert and Susan (Cook) Mulliken, both natives of the same county. Albert Mulliken was a lumber dealer in New York and he brought his family to Champaign June 15, 1855. Here for three years he was line agent for the Illinois Central Railway, and then embarked in the agricultural implement business, which he continued until his death on July 23, 1864. His widow survived him many years. There were eight children, John W. being the youngest. William is .now deccased. Fran- cis G. died at Duluth, Minnesota, January 1, 1917. at the age of eighty-four. Sarah is deceased. Clarence, deceased, undertook at the age of twenty years to copy the courthouse records of Champaign County, and he soon afterward enlisted in Company G of the Twenty-fifth Illinois Infantry, and died during the service. Edmund F. was also a soldier in Company G of the Twenty-fifth Illinois, was mustered out with the rank of sergeant- major and is now deceased. Herbert, deceased, enlisted in the Seventy- sixth Illinois Infantry as band musician and served throughout the war. Helen, a twin sister of Herbert, is the widow of James C. Wright and lives at Champaign.
Mr. John W. Mulliken married September 10, 1876, Miss Josephine Danforth, a native of Union County, Ohio. She died in 1908, leaving two children, Albert D., an attorney at Champaign, and Phoebe, wife of Ellsworth Story of Seattle, Washington. Albert D. Mulliken married Pearl Mulberry, a native of Illinois, and they have two children, Wallace M. and Albert D. On July 10, 1911, Mr. Mulliken married for his present wife Jean Agnew, then a resident of Detroit but a native of Canada. Mr. Mulliken is a Republican in politics. He is a member of the Lodge, Chap- ter and Knight Templar Commandery of Masons, also belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and was a charter member of the Knights of Pythias lodge, but has given up that affiliation.
HENRY C. BEAR is one of the oldest residents of Champaign County. He went from Macon County as a brave and gallant soldier into the Union Army during the Civil War, returned after the war with his wounds and gave his energy to agriculture until his health would permit following that no longer, and now for many years he has been engaged in the grain business at Penfield. His is a record that deserves more than passing mention.
He was born at Mount Rock in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, a son of David and Maria (Yoter) Bear. His father was a native of Pennsyl- vania and his mother of Maryland. Henry C. was the oldest of their nine children and was fifteen years of age when the family came to Illinois, locating at Decatur in Macon County. Mr. Bear and his brothers and sis- ters were educated partly in Plainfield, Pennsylvania, and also in Illinois.
On November 17, 1859, Mr. Bear married Miss Lucetta Jane Likins. She was born in Marion County, Ohio, a daughter of John and Sarah (Cole) Likins, also natives. of Ohio. Mrs. Bear was likewise fifteen years of age when her parents came to Illinois. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Bear located in Oakley Township in Macon County and were quietly engaged in the peaceful vocation of farming for several years.
Not long after the war began Mr. Bear showed his practical patriotism by enlisting in Company A of the One Hundred and Sixteenth Illinois Infantry. He enlisted at Decatur, went south to Memphis, and was soon with General Sherman's great armies operating around Vicksburg. Mr. Bcar had his first experience in the scenes of warfare at Chickasaw Bayou, the engagement in which Gencral Grant nearly lost the day and would have been defeated had it not been for the coming up of General Sherman's troops. Mr. Bear was next at Arkansas Post under Gencral McClelland and was at the capture of Fort Hinman, where the Federals captured 5,500
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Rebels. He was then again with the troops in the investment and siege of Vicksburg and helped dig the eanal aeross the river from Vieksburg at Young's Point. He was also a participant in the expedition up the Yazoo River to Black Bayou and was in the skirmish with the Confederates who tried to prevent the Union forees from securing several gunboats. Mr. Bear was a participant in those fruitless efforts of General Grant in the early months of 1863 to open up the Mississippi by means of eanals and in the later movements by which Sherman and Grant's armies engaged the Con- federates at Fort Gibson, Bolton, Raymond and other points in the rear of Vieksburg. He was also at Champion Hill and Black River Bridge and on the 18th of May he was one of Grant's forces that seized the Confederate stronghold of Haines Bluff. On the next day Grant ordered an assault on the Vicksburg works, intending to charge with the entire line. He ehanged his mind and countermanded part of the order. The batteries, however, gave the signal to charge and two divisions, one of which Mr. Bear was a member, stormed the fort and were badly used by the Confederate garrison. Mr. Bear was severely wounded in this charge and was sent to Van Buren Hospital, where he remained until that hospital was discontinued on August 20th. The patients were sent to a hospital at Keokuk, Iowa, and on June 1, 1865, after the war was over, Mr. Bear was honorably discharged. The surgeons were never able to find the bullet which wounded him and he still earries it in his body and it has been a souree of more or less trouble to him ever sinee. Besides his own wound Mr. Bear while at Vieksburg had to suffer the loss of a younger brother, William W. Bear. His death was eaused by severe exposure during a storm. Mr. Bear ministered to the comfort of this brother during his last illness, and obtained a coffin in which he was laid to rest on one of the great battlefields around the Mississippi stronghold.
After his honorable discharge Mr. Bear returned home. Mrs. Bear had in the meantime lived with her own and her husband's people and had endured bravely the sacrifices which every soldier's wife must make in time of war. Before he went into the army they had buried their first ehild, Minerva May. When he returned from the army his wife presented him with a little daughter, then a year old, which she had named Eugenia C. With his family reunited Mr. Bear took up. the thread of life again as a farmer, and in the spring of 1869 located on a farm near Penfield in .Champaign County.
Two other children were born to their marriage. Their names were Mary M. and Eudora. Eudora died at four years of age of typhoid fever. Mr. and Mrs. Bear gave their children the best of educational advantages, at first in the distriet schools and then in the Penfield sehools. The daugh- ter Eugenia married David P. Cox, and they now reside in Denver, Colorado. To their union were born three children, named Thomas Henry, Weaver B. and Mary J. The son Weaver died and was buried after they moved to Denver.
Mary M. Bear married G. W. Hadden. Mr. Hadden with Mr. Henry Bear is engaged in the elevator business at Penfield and Gerald. They own the two elevators, the one at Penfield having a capacity of 16,000 bushels, and that at Gerald 35,000 bushels. In the course of a year they handle a large amount of the grain raised and produeed in this seetion. Mr. and Mrs. Hadden have one ehild, Stanley B. Hadden, a fine manly boy who finished the eighth grade of the Penfield schools and then pursued the full course in the University of Illinois, from which he graduated. On leaving the university he became associated with his father and grandfather at Penfield. In 1916 he was solicited to teach the Gerald sehool, and his sue- cess there eaused his engagement for the year 1917-18 as principal of the Penfield sehool. His father, G. W. Hadden, had been a teacher for twenty- five years, and education has been something of a family profession. Stanley
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B. Hadden married Miss Sylvia Renner of Urbana, daughter of Enos Renner of that city. One child was born, Jane Elizabeth, on November 8, 1915. She is now eighteen months old and Mr. Henry Bear is very proud of his great-grandchild.
The Bear family attend the United Brethren Church in Penfield and have for many years been liberal supporters of its cause. Mr. Bear was an early abolitionist and in the main has supported men rather than the party. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias. For the past thirty-six years he and his wife have lived in Penfield, since his wounds received in his coun- try's service incapacitated him for farm labor. The Bear home has been one of hospitality and one of the centers of culture and good influence in this section of the county. Mr. Bear has spent nearly half a century in Cham- paign County and has never cared to be away from the county for any length of time. He went to the capital at Washington, D. C., to attend President Cleveland's inauguration. The great recreation of his life has been fishing. No walk has been too long and the sun has never been too bright to hinder him from such sport. He was also an early day hunter and killed a number of deer in Macon County. His friends once planned a birthday surprise party for him. Mr. Azro Arms was delegated to keep Mr. Bear busy at the elevator until the company had assembled. He induced Mr. Bear to shoot at tin cans thrown into the air. After numerous failures and a few success- ful shots Mr. Bear said, "This is only a waste of ammunition. I can't shoot these cans like you." Mr. Arms was somewhat of an expert in this sport. To keep the unwitting host a little longer he replied, "What do we care for ammunition? You are doing first rate ; keep on and try again." Thus he was able to divert him until the company had assembled and then they went together to the house. On seeing the crowd Mr. Bear understood Mr. Arms' enthusiasm and he enjoyed the joke as much as the rest of the company.
His life has been noted for honesty of purpose and has been a long and commendable one. Of his good wife the following words may be appropri- ately recalled :
"It is a wonderful thing, a mother. Other folks may love you, but only your mother understands. She works for you, prays for you, watches over you, forgives you anything you may do, understands you, and the only thing unkind she ever does to you is-to die and leave you."
GEORGE B. FRANKS. Considered as an art, landscape gardening is one that has a definite place in life, appealing to and satisfying that innate sense of the beautiful that all possess to some degree. Nature points the way and it is the precious gift of the landscape gardener to be able to reproduce, in limited space, her noble effects and most pleasing arrange- ment of trce, shrub and flower. The wonderful facility in this direction, as in other artistic talents, is largely an inherited gift, although to make it practical, of course, there must be much definite knowledge, mathematical and otherwise. Perhaps no university grounds in the country, and cer- tainly none other in the State, have been as carefully and tastefully laid out as those of the University of Illinois and this admirable example of landscape gardening will long perpetuate the name of Franks, a name that has been identified here with flowers and gardening for almost a half century. The business, established in 1871 by the late Thomas Edward Franks, is prosperously continued by his son and partner, George B. Franks, the leading florist and very prominent citizen of Champaign. .
George B. Franks was born at Champaign, Illinois, November 2, 1879. His parents were Thomas Edward and Annie (English) Franks, the former of whom was born in England and the latter in Ireland. Thomas Edward Franks was a nurseryman in England before immigrating to Canada, in
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1865, after which he became a landscape gardener, first near Hamilton, Ontario, and then in Cook County, Illinois, and was associated with others in laying out Lincoln Park, Chicago.
In 1868 Thomas Edward Franks came to the city of Champaign, and here for three years he had entire charge of laying out and beautifying the grounds of the University of Illinois, a task he enjoyed and the result being admirable in every way. In 1871 Mr. Franks purchased property on the corner of Randolph and Vine streets, Champaign, and there started the first greenhouse in the city. In 1892 he enlarged the scope of his business, purchasing land at No. 204 East University Avenue, where he erected a nursery and greenhouse plant, and subsequently established a branch for raising cut flowers on North Goodwin Avenue. Both plants are of modern construction with every improved equipment known to the business, and there are in the older plant 15,000 feet of glass. Mr. Franks admitted his son, George B. Franks, to partnership in 1905, but continued an active factor in the business until 1911, when he retired. His death occurred October 8, 1916, having survived his wife since November 9, 1901.
George B. Franks attended the public schools at Champaign, and after completing the high school course expressed a desire for a business life, shortly afterward accepting a position in the State National Bank of Oklahoma, at Oklahoma City. The death of his mother in 1901 recalled him home, and because of his father's loneliness, he being the only child, he decided to give up his prospects in Oklahoma and remain with his father, his tastes also having considerable influence, for he has inherited the love for flowers and the understanding methods which have made both father and son successful along this line. He applied himself to the prac- tical details of the business and gave his father valued assistance for four years and then was admitted to a partnership in the business of which he is now sole owner, and during the last five years of his father's life was the same to a large extent, being the active manager after 1911. When the Champaign Park Board was organized his father served as a member and Mr. Franks also has served three years as a member of this board.
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