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 38
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ANDREW EKBLAW. For forty-one years Andrew Ekblaw has been a resident of Champaign County. The management and cultivation of the land and its resources have furnished him an occupation and business, and as a practical agriculturist he has few peers in this part of the state.
Mr. Ekblaw was born in Sweden in 1854, a son of Johannes and Char- lotte Ekblaw. He was rearcd and educated in his native land and was cighteen years of age when with other members of the family he came to Ameriea in 1872. The Ekblaws first located near Springfield, at New Berlin. There were seven children, Andrew being the third in age. All these children were cducated in the schools of Sweden.
In 1880 Mr. Andrew Ekblaw married Miss Ingry Johnson, also a native of Sweden, and a daughter of John and Lena Johnson. When she was
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ten years of age her father died, and two years later, in 1872, she and a brother and her widowed mother came to America. Four of the Johnson children had preceded them to this country and had found employment in Chicago. Mrs. Ekblaw lived in Chicago until her marriage.
Mr. and Mrs. Ekblaw after their marriage located near Rantoul on the farm of John Collison. They were young, energetic, had the thrifty virtues of the people of Sweden, and by honesty of purpose have distin- guished themselves as successful farmers and have reared a family of which any parents might well be proud. It is a growing practice among many farmers of modern times to handle land as managers rather than as owners. This has been Mr. Ekblaw's course during his long and active career. For thirty-two years he lived on the Collison place and for the past five years he and his wife have had their home on the Battles place, now the property of Lawyer H. I. Green of Urbana. During his entire career in Champaign County since 1876 Mr. Ekblaw has had only two places of residence and activity. He is a careful and methodical farmer, the well tilled fields giving every evidence of his ability, and his efforts have been liberally rewarded in the comfortable provision for themselves and in those means necessary to properly educate and train their children.
Mr. and Mrs. Ekblaw are the parents of six children, five sons and one daughter, named Walter Elmer, Carl John Theodore, Emma Irene, Eddie Lawrence, George Albert and Sidney Everett. Mr. and Mrs. Ekblaw from the start realized the advantage of good educational advantages, and sent their children to the district school of Pleasant Ridge. The children were all studious and attentive to their work, and all of them finished the course of the Pleasant Ridge school. Walter Elmer taught for three years at Harwood Center and in the Battles school for three years, after which he entered the University of Illinois, taking the regular scientific course in three years and two years later received his Master's degree.
The name of Walter Elmer Ekblaw has perhaps been spoken with more frequency in Champaign County in recent months than any other one citizen. In fact his fame is well established over the state and nation. In 1913, as geologist and chief assistant, he joined the Donald B. Mac- Millan Arctic expedition in search of Crocker Land. The University of Illinois helped defray the expenses of the expedition, which was fitted out chiefly by the American Museum of New York. Mr. Ekblaw was the special representative of the state university. The purpose of the expedi- tion was to locate the land claimed to have been discovered by Admiral Peary. In this they were disappointed and when the expedition returned in 1917 the announcement was given the world that Crocker Land was a "mirage." Early in September, 1917, Mr. Ekblaw arrived at Champaign, having come post haste to his old home and his alma mater after getting off the boat at Sydney, Cape Breton Island. He was accorded an enthu- siastic reception both at the university and in his home town of Rantoul and was paid such honors as few men of Champaign County have ever received. It is noteworthy that even the newspapers of the large cities, so completely filled in these days with war news, devoted a column or so to the arrival of the distinguished young explorer. The Chicago Tribune of September 11th reported Mr. Ekblaw as saying in part: "While we were disappointed because Crocker Land, in whose existence Admiral Peary believed, turned out to be a mirage, we felt that the expedition accom- plished a great deal. At times we were confronted with the hardest of difficulties, but in some way succeeded in. getting around them. We did not find the life so hard, however, after we became acquainted with the conditions and ways of the country and people.
"The expedition left New York and went from there to Sydney, Cape
plac
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Breton Island, where we were unable to proceed on account of our ship being wrecked. We fitted out another ship and the expedition again set out. This time we reached Greenland. It was along the last of August and by the latter part of September we had established our headquarters at a little village called Etah. Here we had built a house and other neces- sary buildings.
"The longest trip that I ever made was 1,200 miles. We discovered and explored three new fjords, after which we returned to our camp. All the time we were in Greenland we were about 750 miles from the North Pole, and the closest that I ever got to the pole was about 500 miles."
"Ekblaw," continues the Tribune account, "was a member of the Illi- nois football squad in his college days, and when he went North he put a football in his kit. This resulted in the organization by the scientist of the first Eskimo football team in history. 'My quarterback could not see over the center's head and all my men were built close to the ground,' said the explorer. They had a fine disdain for the rules and used to pile up promiscuously, but they had a. good working knowledge of the object of the game and liked to play it on the icc.'
"Just before Ekblaw sailed for the polar regions his engagement to Miss Augusta May Krieger of Peoria, a graduate of the University of Illinois, then teaching in Highland Park, was announced. Miss Krieger agreed to wait and she was on the dock at New York to welcome her fiance."
The second son of Mr. Andrew Ekblaw, Carl Ekblaw, graduated from the Rantoul High School, taught for two years at Prairie Star school and has since taken his master's degree at the University of Illinois and for a time was an instructor there. In 1916 he completed further studies in Yale University. At the present writing he is professor of rural archi- tecture in the Kansas State Agricultural College, Manhattan, Kansas. Carl married Miss Alma Heuman of Elgin, Illinois, also a graduate of the university. The only daughter, Emma, is still at home with her mother. The son Eddie is his father's active assistant in the manage- ment of the farm. The fifth child, George, is a graduate of the Rantoul High School, taught two years at Wesley Chapel and also at Battles school, and entered the University of Illinois in the fall of 1917. The youngest child, Sidney, now fourteen, has completed the work of the grammar schools and is in the Rantoul High School. It is a source of pride not only to the parents but to all the people of Champaign County that the Ekblaw sons have so distinguished themselves in the work of teaching, scholarship and practical affairs.
Mr. and Mrs. Ekblaw are active members of the Lutheran Church at Paxton, still retaining the faith in which they were reared in the father- land. Mr. Ekblaw is a Republican in politics.
ALBA J. FLATT. In a business way Mr. Flatt has been most prom- inently known in the community of Leverett in Champaign County, where he has the finest grain elevator in this section of the state and where for many years he has been the active medium through which an important bulk of the local grain production has been marketed. Mr. Flatt in recent years has had his home in the city of Champaign.
While a resident of Champaign County most of his life, Mr. Flatt was born near Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, July 6, 1863. His parents, James H. and Matilda L. (Campbell) Flatt, both natives of Canada, came to Champaign County in 1865, and both lived here the rest of their days. The father died in July, 1908, and the mother in June, 1912. James H. Flatt was for many years a well known farmer in Champaign County.
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They were the parents of eight children : Charlotte, wife of William Whitt- more, of Emporia, Kansas; Silas Edgar, who died at the age of eighteen; Ormond B., of Champaign; Alba J .; Carrie, wife of L. S. Rupert, of Blocmington, Illinois; Annie L., deccased; George J. of Champaign; and Ira J. W., of Denver, Colorado.
Alba J. Flatt grew up on the home farm in Champaign County, attended the local schools, and at the age of twenty-one began helping his father in the management of the large farm of four hundred eighty-seven acres near Leverett. He assumed most of the responsibilities connected with this place until he was married, and he then bought eighty acres for himself. From farming Mr. Flatt gradually enlarged his range of activi- ties and in 1895. engaged in the general merchandise and grain business at Leverett. He has built two elevators in that town, and the second one is the best equipped structure of the kind in the central part of the state. He still continues his mercantile operations at Leverett under the firm name of A. J. Flatt & Son.
Mr. Flatt married January 5, 1887, Miss Mary F. Irle, a native of Champaign County. They have three children: Pearl L., wife of L. W. Roberts, of Leverett; Ross A., associated in business with his father as senior member of the firm A. J. Flatt & Son; and Nellie I.
In 1910 Mr. Flatt removed to Champaign and has since occupied his fine home at 1102 West Church Street. He has served as alderman from his home ward, and while living in the country was honored with several township offices. Mr. Flatt has attained the Scottish Rite Consistory degrees in Masonry and is also affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In politics he is a Repub- lican, and his church home is the Presbyterian.
BENJAMIN H. MCKINSEY is one of the younger business element of Champaign, a vigorous and progressive citizen and a man who makes good his promises and professions at whatever cost or sacrifice to himself.
He was born in Urbana, August 21, 1888, son of Jacob and Mary E. (Young) McKinsey. His father was born at Antioch, Indiana, while his mother is a native of Leverett, Champaign County. Jacob Mckinsey came to Champaign County about 1886, locating at Urbana, and for a number of years was an agent for Cole Brothers, lightning rod manu- facturers. He continued a resident of Urbana until his death in 1896.
The only child of his parents, Benjamin H. Mckinsey had the advan- tages of the common schools and early sought a means of earning his own living. In 1906, at the age of eighteen, he went with the Champaign Gas Company and worked as a gas fitter about two years. Another two years he was employed in Urbana as a boiler maker helper. Mr. Mckinsey then entered the establishment of Mr. A. Peters, and for the past eight years has been in his employ.
On December 23, 1909, he married Miss Stacia Hall, a native of Champaign. They have one child, Lawrence. Mr. McKinsey is a Demo- crat and has served as alderman from the First Ward. He has always been interested in politics and has served three years as democratic com- mitteeman. Fraternally he is identified with the Masonic lodge.
WILLIAM J. DOWNING is one of the men of strength and successful record as a farmer in Ogden Township, and his name has also been iden- tified with that locality in a civic way.
He was born in Ogden Township, a son of Alvin and Serene (Hayden) Downing. His parents were natives of Indiana. Mr. Downing was one of two children, his only sister dying in infancy.
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Mr. Downing received his education in the Ogden schools and at the age of twenty-three he married Miss Cora Freeman. She was also born in Ogden Township, a daughter of Edmond Freeman and member of one of the pioneer families of Champaign County.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Downing settled on eighty acres in section 17 of Ogden Township, a place belonging to Edmond Freeman. This has been developed as their permanent home. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Downing, one of whom died in infancy. The other threc are Chester, Verna and Virginia. Chester and Verna are of school age and are bright and intelligent students in the Ogden schools. In October, 1915, Mr. Downing was bereft of his beloved companion and wife, who died after an illness of six weeks. Thus left alone Mr. Downing has continued to live on the home place and has kept his children with him and is carefully directing their education and training.
Mr. Downing is an attendant of the Christian Church of Ogden and his wife was a member of the same denomination. He was reared a Republican and has always voted that ticket and fraternally is identified with the Knights of Pythias. He is a very successful farmer, raising large crops of oats, corn and wheat and is giving much attention to live stock. His record is that of a worthy and honorable citizen, one who enjoys a large circle of friends, and his name stands high among the men of Champaign County.
CHARLES E. KELLER. The position of court stenographer is one which calls for speed and accuracy in execution and intense concentra- tion of mind. The records of the testimony taken in court are too im- portant in character to be handled in any slip-shod manner, and the individuals designated for this kind of work are therefore chosen for their reliability and fidelity as well as for their intelligence and mere physical attributes. The court reporter of the Circuit Court of Champaign County, Charles E. Keller, has been the incumbent of his present position since 1915 and his skill and exactness have gained him the approbation of the bench and bar. He is an alert and reliable young man, and as he is a product of Champaign County the people here have watched his advance- ment with interest.
Mr. Keller was born on a farm in Scott Township, Champaign County, Illinois, December 3, 1889, being a son of Peter and Ella Belle (Flowers) Keller. His father, a native of Hocking County, Ohio, came to Cham- paign County when a young man, and here adopted the vocation of farm- · ing, which he followed for many years, or until his retirement. He was industrious and enterprising and developed a handsome property in the vicinity of Bondville, but the accumulation of a competence made it un- necessary for him to labor any more and he is now living in comfort at his home in that village. Mrs. Keller, who also survives, is a native of Champaign County. There were two children in the family : Charles E .; and Bessie Opal, who is unmarried and resides with her parents. The parents are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Charles E. Keller's boyhood home was in the vicinity of Bondville, and the schools of that place furnished him with his preliminary educa- tion. He was reared on the farm and trained in the matters that go to make up the skilled husbandman, but like many other farmers' sons be- fore him he answered the call of the city, and in order to train himself for a career in the busy, energetic life of the larger centers pursued a course in bookkeeping and stenography at the Brown Business College at Champaign. When he had completed his studies there, Mr. Keller secured a position in the office of Judge Boggs, of Champaign, with whom he re-
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mained from July, 1908, until 1915, in which latter year he was ap- pointed to his present position. As before noted, he has "made good" in the official capacity of Circuit Court stenographer, and has made numer- ous friends among the officials and attaches of the Court House at Urbana, where his office is located.
Mr. Keller was married October 4, 1911, at Champaign, to Miss Ethel Matilda Rayburn, who was born in Champaign County, and they are the parents of three children : Ernestine, born July 25, 1912; and Charles Irwin and Chester Edwin, twins, born July 20, 1916. Mr. Keller main- tains an independent stand in politics. He is a Mason and a Pythian Knight, and he and Mrs. Keller belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church at Urbana.
MORTIMER KILBURY of St. Joseph is an old-time resident of Champaign County, having been identified with the cultivation of its soil and the management of increasing burdens of business and public life for over forty years.
Mr. Kilbury was born at Darby Plains, Ohio, a son of Asa G. and Ruth (Clark) Kilbury. The Kilbury family were Colonial settlers in Vermont. They started West about the time of the beginning of western migration in the early part of the nineteenth century. They drove to Ohio in covered wagons. There were two brothers making this journey, one of them the father of Asa Kilbury. One morning after breaking up their night camp one of the brothers hitched up and started on ahead, driving along until he came to a fork in the roads, where he took one route. His brother followed him somewhat later, and after making a careful examination decided that his brother had taken the road to the right, whereas, as a matter of fact, it was the left road. He drove on, and, thus separated, they continued their journeys and never met again.
Asa G. Kilbury was born June 24, 1806. He grew up in Ohio, and when he started out for himself he gave his father all the money he pos- sessed, reserving only $1 as a luck piece. He settled at Darby Plains, Ohio, where he married Ruth Clark and as farmers they acquired a large amount of property. Asa Kilbury died January 5, 1884, and his wife, who was born February 27, 1815, died September 20, 1885. They were the parents of six sons and three daughters.
Mortimer Kilbury received his early education in Ohio and came to Champaign County in the spring of 1873, when a young man, locating in section 31 of Ogden Township. Here he and his brother James S. worked land which had been previously bought by their father from the Government at $1.25 an acre. It was an extensive tract and the two brothers did much to improve it and make a fine farm of the land.
On September 23, 1877, Mortimer Kilbury laid the foundation of his own home by his marriage to Mary Louise Frederick, who was born in Vermilion County, near Fithian, Illinois. Her parents were Richard A. and Parmelia (Allhands) Frederick. Mrs. Kilbury with her brothers and sisters attended the Central district school. She was one of a family of four sons and five daughters.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Kilbury located on the farm where Mr. Kilbury had been previously employed, and they continued to reside there for a number of years and laid the foundation of their permanent prosperity. After the death of Mr. Kilbury's father in 1884 the son inherited a part of the land and gradually he expanded the scope of his holdings and his operations as a farmer and stockman.
To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Kilbury were born six children, named Asa, Edna, Fred, Mabel, Winifred and Jeannette. Mr. and Mrs. Kilbury
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have devoted themselves to the proper rearing and training of their chil- dren. They sent them to the district schools and also to the St. Joseph High School, all of them graduating from high school. The sons were students in the University of Illinois and one of the daughters, Mabel, attended Northwestern University at Evanston. Winifred was a student in the Champaign High School and also the Academy at Evanston. The daughter Jeannette was graduated with honors from the Urbana High School with the class of 1917, having taken all her four years' work in that school and having gone back and forth from home to school on the interurban car morning and evening, rain or shine. She is now teaching the Shilo school.
The son Fred Kilbury is a farmer of St. Joseph Township and married Inez Mullen. The son Asa, a resident of St. Joseph, married Edna Norris of Frankfort, Indiana, and they have a son, Winston N., a manly youth, now numbered among the bright and promising students of the St. Joseph High School. The daughter Winifred married Raymond Jones, an archi- tect practicing his profession at Danville, and they have two sons, Robert Kilbury and Raymond Grant. The daughter Edna died at the age of eight and a half months. The daughter Mabel, whose death in 1914 was a heavy loss to the family and her many friends, while a student in college, met Rev. Arthur A. Halter, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and they were afterwards married and she left a daughter, Mabel Rachel. Mrs. Halter was a fine Christian character, active in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and a large community of friends felt that in her loss the old saying that death loves a shining mark was again corroborated.
For many years Mr. Kilbury has found himself profitably and pleasantly engaged in the varied pursuits of farming and stock husbandry. A num- ber of years ago he established a herd of Shorthorn cattle and exhibitors at county and state fairs have long known his prize winning stock. He has been awarded numerous premiums, and he produced one fine steer that weighed 2,380 pounds.
A number of years ago Mr. Kilbury bought 130 acres of land adjacent to the village of St. Joseph and at the end of North Main Street erected a commodious and attractive residence, where the family have long had their home. This house, which combines the advantages of both town and country, has been greatly beautified in its surroundings by the planting of fruit and shade trees and careful cultivation with a view to adornment and utility. Mr. and Mrs. Kilbury are attentive members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at St. Joseph and he has served as a trustee of the church. One of his first important efforts in behalf of community improvement was to secure a division of the school district and he donated land from his own place as a school site. He has been elected to and has served in some of those offices which are a mark of public confidence and esteem and are an opportunity for much hard and conscientious work with no remuneration. He has served as school director, and is a stanch Republican in politics. He grew to young manhood when the Republican party was in its prime and the vitality it showed in grasping and solving many great national problems inspired a confidence which has caused him . to keep firmly aligned within the party ranks. Fraternally he is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner and his wife is a member of the Eastern Star. Mrs. Kilbury has served as associate matron and at present is treasurer of the Eastern Star. She is active in the Woman's Club of St. Joseph and in the Foreign Missionary Society of her church. Mr. Kilbury has been fortunate in having a good wife to stand by his side forty years, aiding him in counsel and advice, and carefully looking after the rearing of their family and the making of their home.
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CHARLES ZILLY. One of the men whose sterling character, energy and industry have given an enviable prominence to Champaign as a com- mercial and financial center of Illinois is Mr. Charles Zilly, of the firm of Zilly & McKinley, mortgage loans, and who has been a resident of Cham- paign since 1890. His home has been in Illinois for more than half a century, and he is a veteran of an Illinois regiment in the Civil War.
Mr. Zilly is the example of a poor boy coming from a foreign land and eventually attaining and filling an honorable place in the business life of Champaign. He was born in Switzerland, February 11, 1842, a son of Frederick and Elizabeth Zilly. Both parents died during his early boy- hood.
After having had some of the advantages of the schools of Switzer- land, Charles Zilly at the age of fourteen immigrated to America. He was practically alone when he came and for the first year and a half he lived with some relatives in the East. From there he came West to Illinois, and while earning his living in the summer by farm work he made up for his earlier deficiencies in the way of an education and es- pecially for his lack of fluency in the English language by attending school in winter seasons. While in school one winter he fell and broke his leg, an accident which disabled him for farm work. In consequence he removed to Chandlerville, Illinois, and was employed in mercantile lines until 1861.
Though a foreigner by birth, Charles Zilly lacked nothing of the patriotism of the true American, and soon after the Civil War broke out in 1861 he was enrolled in Company E of the Tenth Illinois Cavalry. He was with that gallant organization throughout most of the entire war. He rosc to the rank of adjutant and was finally given an honorable dis- charge in 1865.
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