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 39
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After the war, in 1867, Mr. Zilly became identified with a private bank, which afterward became the First National Bank of Petersburg, Illinois, and was with that institution for a period of twenty years. His financial judgment brought him other interests and he became associ- ated with J. B. and W. B. McKinley, interested in Western loans, and has since been a member of the firm of Zilly & McKinley, loan brokers.
Mr. Zilly was elected president of the first Anti-License Board at Petersburg, Illinois, when residing there. He is a Republican in politics, an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic and affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In 1865, soon after the close of the war, he married in Chandlerville, Illinois, Emma Rickard. She died February 13, 1872, and the one child of the union, Carroll K., now lives at Portland, Oregon. On February 12, 1874, Mr. Zilly and Miss Helen L. Mckinley were married in Petersburg, Illinois. Five children have been born to their marriage: Mabel H., wife of L. H. Hamilton, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ; Fred McKinley Zilly, of Portland, Oregon; Alice, deccased ; Marie Louise Zilly; and Agnes Elizabeth, wife of F. E. Berger, of Davenport, Iowa.
WILLIAM H. SMITH, who owns and occupies one of the beautiful and attractive country homes near Urbana, represents one of the oldest and . most prominent pioneer families of this county.
Here Mr. Smith was born July 22, 1844, a son of Jacob and Margaret J. (Beattie) Smith. His father was a native of Shelby County, Kentucky, and his mother of Virginia. Margaret Beattie went to Kentucky with her parents at the age of eight years, and somewhat later the family went on to Missouri. While en route through that state they were both taken ill, and both died near Jefferson City. They were survived by seven
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children, who then had to shift for themselves. Margaret Beattie grew up almost among strangers, and after her marriage to Jacob Smith they migrated to Illinois with the Webber family and the family of Stephen Boyd.
It was about 1833 that the Smith family came into Champaign County. That was a very early year in the history of this county, and they located on land now included in Urbana Township. At that time the town of Urbana did not exist. Jacob Smith went to Danville to enter more than 600 acres of land, at the regular Government price of $1.25 per acrc. He was a man of unusual industry and business ability and acquired a large estate. He and his wife had ten children, two of whom died in infancy. The others received their education in the district school known as the Bromley School No. 4, and grew to maturity, married and settled down, the sons becoming progressive farmers and men of recognized ability and success.
William H. Smith grew up in Champaign County and remained at home assisting in. the management of his. father's farm for a number of years. On August 22, 1880, he laid the foundation of his own home by his marriage to Miss Emma Elder. Mrs. Smith was born at Decatur in Brown County, Ohio, daughter of Robert and Elizabeth (Mattox) Elder, her father a native of Pennsylvania and her mother of Ohio. Mrs. Smith was one of nine children. When she was a small child her parents moved to Illinois and settled near the Star schoolhouse. In that school Mrs. Smith obtained her first instruction, beginning to attend when only five years of agc. Her sister Bell Elder qualified as a teacher in Champaign County at the age of sixteen and for a number of terms taught school.
After the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Smith they decided to establish themselves in a comparatively new country and went to the State of Texas, locating in one of the rugged and semi-mountainous districts of that great state. There Mr. Smith took up the sheep industry for ten years and at times had a flock of 1,500. He also engaged in the cattle business, the open range affording a fine opportunity for grazing. Mr. and Mrs. Smith lived in Texas for about twenty-five years. In the mean- time nine children were born to them, named Grace, Elizabeth, Ruby, Willie, Mervin, Mada, Robert, Fred and Erma. The children Mada and Robert died in infancy. The others obtained their first advantages in the public schools of Texas and were then sent North to complete their training in the Urbana High School. It is an interesting fact that Professor J. W. Hayes, the venerable educator, was not only one of Mrs. Smith's instructors hut also taught some of her children. At the present time Fred Smith is a student in the University of Illinois, while Erma is in the Urbana High School. The other children are all established in homes of their own.
Grace Smith married Sidney Prince, who is a contractor and builder at Fisher, Illinois. Their two children are Sidney and Nellie. Elizabeth Smith is the wife of E. J. Dunn, a farmer living at Urbana and their four children are Clyde, Louis, Emma and Roy. Ruby Smith married J. R., Saddler, a farmer at Ames, Iowa. They have two children, Frances and Henry. The daughter Willie married Ralph Dunn, and they live on a farm near the Smith homestead. Their four children are Frank, Ruth, Ralph and Wilma. Mervin Smith married Verna Johnson and has one daughter, Laura Emma.
About thirteen years ago Mr. and Mrs. Smith returned from Texas to the scenes of their carly youth. In the meantime Mr. Smith had acquired 300 acres of Illinois farm land. On returning to Champaign County he located on a farm of 100 acres east of Urbana. Mr. Smith bought this land a number of years ago at prices ranging from $40 to $75
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an acre. When he acquired it the land had no improvements, and eighty acres was a continuous grass sod. He has used time and means in devel- oping it, has added many fruit and shade trees, and has a commodious residence situated on a slight eminence, surrounded by a fine grove of stately trees.
Mr. Smith is an ardent Democrat, and believes that President Wilson is the man of the hour and has the ability and the wisdom to bring the ship of state out of troubled waters.
The Smith farm is a place of much interest from an archaeological standpoint. At one time an Indian village stood on the land. Indian arrowheads have been picked up from the ground, and in a hollow are found many wild cucumber vines which competent authorities say the Indians planted. Mr. Smith has in his possession a fine specimen of Indian whetstone. It was made from a piece of petrified hickory wood, and through the center is bored a hole, through which a buckskin thong was strung so as to make it more convenient to carry.
SAMUEL B. VARNEY. As told on other pages of this work, the found- ing and early growth of Champaign was largely due to the construction of the Illinois Central Railway. One of the first active settlers in the com- munity was Samuel B. Varney, a pioneer whose influence did much for Champaign in its formative stages and whose name is one to be spoken with respect and cherished with honor. He died when Champaign was still a small and struggling town, and the only one of his children still living is Mrs. L. V. Crane, who resides at 412 West Church Street in Champaign.
The late Samuel B. Varney was born in Albion, Maine, April 27, 1812. He spent many years in his native state, engaged in farming, in the stren- uous endeavor to coax a living from the rocky soil, and was also a mer- chant, manufacturer and hotel proprietor. When the Illinois Central Railway was built large bodies of land were granted to the company as a bonus, and the company sold this land to investors in many parts of the country. One of the buyers was Samuel B. Varney, who acquired a quarter section four miles from the then new town of Champaign. After making this investment Mr. Varney came to Illinois in 1859, when the railroad had just been completed, and at the same time he bought four lots in the J. P. White Addition, the first addition made to the town of Champaign. On one of those lots he erected his home in 1859, and that old residence is still standing as a landmark of the larger city which has grown up around it. Mr. Varney was in a position to take advantage of the many opportunities then existing in Champaign County, and he not only acquired large property interests, but also did much to improve the city of Champaign. He was especially interested in the West Side Park, helped to plant many trees, and in other ways beautify the new town.
He lived only about a half dozen years in Champaign. His death occurred in the city of Chicago, at the home of his daughter Mrs. Crane, November 19, 1866. He had gone to Chicago for medical treatment, but did not survive.
Mr. Varney married in 1833 Miss Sarah Pierson, who was born in Montsville, Maine, but was a resident of Bangor at the time of her mar- riage. She died in Maine in 1844. In 1845 Samuel R. Varney married Lucy J. White, who died at Champaign in 1895. Samuel B. Varney was the father of eight children. His son Charles P. Varncy, who died in 1900, made a record as a soldier in the Civil War, being a surgeon with the Twenty-sixth Illinois Infantry for four years, and afterward served as revenue collector in Georgia.
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Mrs. Lauzarah V. Crane, the only living child of the late Samucl B. Varney, was born at the old Varney home at South Levant, Maine, October 19, 1835. She now owns and occupies the old homestead ac- quired and improved by her father in 1859. She came out to Champaign with her father and was then twenty-four years of age. She had been liberally educated and was one of the first teachers in the public schools of Champaign. On August 26, 1863, she married Archibald M. Crane, of Chicago. Mr. Crane died in Livingstone County, Illinois, in 1879. In 1894 Mrs. Crane returned to her old home in Champaign and has lived here ever since. Mr. Crane was a member of the Masonic Order and was active in the Presbyterian Church.'
Mrs. Crane became the mother of six children, the two youngest dying in infancy. Edward S. is now a resident of Cleveland, Ohio; Charles M., of Chicago; Jonah, of Hartford, Connecticut; and Lauzara B. is the wife of Lee C. Emerson, of Champaign.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN McGATH is one of the old-timers in Champaign County, and has witnessed its growth and development since 1861, the same year that he went out to do service as a Union soldier. He made a creditable record in the army and his entire life has been a record of patriotic devotion and duties worthily and successfully performed.
His birth occurred in Vermilion County, Indiana, March 15, 1841. He is the only survivor of a family of ten children, six sons and four daughters, born to William and Nancy (Fannon) McGath. He was the eighth in order of birth. His father was born near Wilmington, Ohio, grew up and received his education there and also married in Ohio and went across the country in pioneer style to Indiana and settled on a farm in Vermilion County in the valley of the Wabash River. His death occurred there about 1847 and he was one of the pioneers in that section. He was a Jeffersonian Democrat and he and his wife were active Methodists. His wife was born in Ohio and was of German ancestry. She was a kind and loving mother, and after her husband's death she lived for sixteen years at the home of her son Benjamin, and her death occurred in 1900. She was laid to rest at Mansfield.
Benjamin F. McGath grew up in Indiana, acquired a common school education, and came to Illinois when twenty years of age. He had been here only a short time when he enlisted in the Second Illinois Cavalry under Colonel Berry. He was trained and equipped in the Springfield barracks, and was never called into active service during his first four montlıs' term of enlistment. After that he did some recruiting and then joined the Seventy-first Regiment of Illinois Infantry. This regiment became a part of the Army of the Tennessee under General Grant, and he performed his duties as a soldier in several of the memorable campaigns of the Mississippi Valley. He was present at the battles of Corinth and Iuka and was finally mustcred out and received his honorable discharge at Mat- toon, Illinois.
Mr. McGath made his material success in life as the result of hard work and persistent energy. As a young man he worked as a farm hand at $15 a month. Farming has always been his active pursuit and from the soil he has gathered sufficient wealth to provide for his family and for his own needs. In Champaign County he had accumulated a farm of eighty acres, but in 1873 he sold out and moved to Kansas, buying a half section of 320 acres in Russell County. His move to Kansas was an unfor- tunate one, since it took him into the state during the period when Kansas was scourged by grasshoppers, persistent drought and every other vicissi- tude known to a farming population. The five years he spent there he
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raised only one satisfactory crop. Finally selling his land, he returned to Champaign County, soon afterward removed to Vermilion County, Illinois, but for the greater part of his active career was a farmer in Champaign County.
On July 3, 1873, the same year that he moved out to Kansas, Mr. McGath married Miss · Permilla Jane Kilgore. Five children were born to their marriage, three sons and two daughters, and four are still living. Clella C., the oldest, is the wife of J. C. Herriott, and their home is at LaJara, Colorado. Mr. Herriott is a farmer and a barber. They have a daughter, Fay. Clella is an active member of the Methodist Church and received her education in the Mahomet High School and for a time taught in Vermilion County. Royal K., the oldest son, is also a resident of LaJara, Colorado, and is a barber running a shop with his brother-in- law. He was educated in the Mahomet High School, is a Republican in politics, and married Miss Katie Brown. Bertie, the third child, is a practical agriculturist at Lynne, Illinois, and has made a success as manager of a large farm of 320 acres. Hc was educated in the common schools, is a Republican and a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, and he and his wife are active Methodists. He married Miss Carrie Moore, and their children are named Cleo, Lloyd and Opal. Mary A., the youngest child, is the wife of Edgar Moore, also a farmer, and they reside at East Lynne. Their children are Glenn and Bennie Guy. They are members of the Methodist Church.
The record of their children is one that Mr. and Mrs. McGath may review with pride and satisfaction. Mrs. McGath was born in White County, Indiana, January, 22, 1848, and represents a family of early settlers in that section of Indiana. Her parents were John C. and Mar- garet (Carr) Kilgore. Her father was born in Indiana in 1813, three years before Indiana was admitted to the Union, and he died in 1892. He was a practical farmer, and moved to Mahomet, Illinois, when Mrs. McGath was ten months old. Her mother was also a native of Indiana and died when Mrs. McGath was five years old. In their family were six sons and six daughters, three now living. Mrs. McGath's sister Mary is a member of the Methodist Church and is married and lives in Liv- ingston, Illinois. Her other sister, Silance, lives at Ogden, Illinois, the widow of William Hubbard, and she is also an active Methodist. Mrs. McGath was educated in the common schools and with her husband is a loyal and devout member of the Methodist Church. She has made her home a place of hospitality and has always been devoted to her children and her many friends. Mr. and Mrs. McGath now have a comfortable residence east of Mahomet on a tract of six acres, which furnishes them a beautiful environment for their declining years and also plenty of activity. Mr. McGath is a Republican and has given his zealous support to the public schools. Mr. and Mrs. McGath in their later years have made several trips to the far West, including Colorado, and have wisely and judiciously used the means accumulated by a lifetime of earnest effort and toil.
CHESTER D. BROWNELL is president of the Reliable Plumbing and Heating Company of Champaign. His career, which has been known to the people of this locality since he was a boy, has not been one of spectacu- lar success, but a slow and steady progress from minor duties and responsi- bilities to something better and larger, and from an employe he became an employer, and is now at the head of a business second to none in efficiency and facilities in the county.
Mr. Brownell has been a resident of Champaign nearly all his life, but
A
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CD Brownell.
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was born in Chautauqua County, New York, April 10, 1873. His parents were Oliver D. and Lucy A. (Sabin) Brownell, also natives of Chautauqua County, New York. His father was a soldier in the Civil War and subse- quently a conductor with the Erie Railway Company. In 1876 he re- moved to Champaign and engaged in the implement business with his brother-in-law, C. J. Sabin. He maintained an active connection with that firm until 1895, when he retired. He also served as chief of police of Champaign under Mayor Sabin and also during Mayor Woody's adminis- tration. He was a highly estecmed citizen and is still well remembered in the community. His death occurred April 11, 1905. His widow is still living in Champaign. Chester D. Brownell is their only son, and their only daughter, Pearl, is the wife of E. G. Greenman, of Champaign.
Chester D. Brownell was fortunate in his environment and the magnifi- cent educational opportunities he enjoyed as a boy. He attended the public schools and also had about three years in the chemistry department of the University of Illinois. His first employment was as a bill clerk with the American Express Company, where he remained three years. In 1897 he became identified with the F. K. Robson department store, and for eight years was in the carpet and upholstery department. His experience and thorough knowledge of the business brought him an offer, which he accepted, to open the carpet department in the store of W. Lewis & Company, where he remained a year. From that he acquired an interest in a business of his own in the plumbing and heating department of Walsh, Heuck & Company. In 1905 Mr. Brownell organized the present business of the Reliable Plumbing and Heating Company, his former associate being Pearl Fisher. Subsequently Mr. Fisher sold his interests to Mr. E. G. Greenman, who is secretary and treasurer and Mr. Brownell is president of the corporation.
He was the first master of the Plumbers Association of Champaign, and for five years served as vice-president of the Illinois Master Plumbers Association. He has had some active part in local affairs, and for six years represented his ward on the board of aldermen. He is a member of the Champaign Chamber of Commerce, of which body he is president. He is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, the Sons of Veterans, and is a member of the Christian Science Church. Mr. Brownell's present public service is being given as a member of the board of education. In politics he is a Republican.
On June 8, 1896, he married Miss Maud Riffenberick, a native of Champaign. They are the parents of four children : Richard and Dean, twins, the former now deceased ; Marion ; and Chester, Jr.
LUCIUS NOYES SIZER was a member of the firm Sizer Brothers, com- prising himself and his brother Oscar Bertrand Sizer, proprietors of the Maple Lawn Stock Farm in Newcomb Township. Both brothers became too well known to require any extended introduction. They proved them- selves capable as farmers, stock raisers, business men and in every rela- tionship of life.
Of the two brothers, Lucius Noyes Sizer was born in Kankakee County, Illinois, November 15, 1860. His brother Oscar Bertrand was born in Champaign County, December 29, 1863. His birth occurred on the farm where he now resides. He is the only survivor of seven children, four sons and three daughters, born to Albert Dann and Mary (Noyes) Sizer.
Mr. Bert Sizer was educated in the Mahomet public schools and ac- quired the equivalent of a high school training. His life has throughout been devoted to farming and Champaign County has always been his home. His wife, now deceased, bore the maiden name of Emma Judy. Bert Sizer is a Republican, served as road commissioner six years and
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as supervisor of Newcomb Township four years. He is a member of the Elks Lodge at Champaign and belongs to the Shiloh Methodist Episcopal Church in Newcomb Township.
The two brothers acquired an estate of two hundred forty acres in Newcomb Township. The Sizer Brothers gave several years to the breed- ing of English Shire horses. Some of the finest animals of this class in the Middle West have been raised under their supervision. Their fine stock has been awarded many first prizes, trophies and gold medals, their trophy exhibition containing twenty-five silver trophies, three gold medals, won at the state fairs of Illinois, Indiana and Iowa and the International Stock Show at Chicago. One of the finest animals of this class on the Sizer farm today is Tatton Eldorado, which was a first prize winner in the four year class at the International Stock Show in Chicago in 1916. It is an animal of great value and it indicates how the Sizer Brothers were able to make their live stock enterprise a matter of practical benefit to a large community.
Albert. Dann Sizer, father of these brothers, was born in Otsego County, New York, in 1823 and died in 1885. His ancestry is traced back to colonial days. His grandfather, Daniel Sizer, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. He was a private in the Fourth Company under Capt. R. J. Meys from Middletown and in the Second Connecticut Regiment under Col. Joseph Spencer. He served during the siege of Boston, and the remainder of his official record as given in the Revolu- tionary archives is as follows: Private, November, 1777; Prisoner of war and was exchanged July, 1778; was a corporal March 20, 1780, and sergeant January, 1781, in the Third Regiment from Connecticut; was in the line formation 1781 till 1783 under Col. Samuel B. Webb. Served as a private in the retreat from Rhode Island. Such is the record of his activities as found in the adjutant general's report.
Albert Dann Sizer was reared to manhood in his native state, was educated in common schools and the academy at Batavia, New York, and spent most of his active career as a teacher. His two sons are chil- dren of his second marriage. His second marriage occurred in Vermont and in 1857 he came to Kankakee County, Illinois, where he became principal of the Kankakee schools. In the fall of 1862 he removed to Newcomb Township of Champaign County, where in the meantime he had ·bought 160 acres of land. This purchase is part of the 240 acres now owned and managed by his sons. 'Fifty years have served to bring about remarkable changes in land values in Champaign County. He paid only $5 an acre for his quarter section, but it is now worth $200 or $300 an acre. It was Illinois Central Railroad land and in an absolutely raw and unimproved state when he bought it. In 1865 Albert D. Sizer assumed the prin- cipalship of the Mahomet schools, and when his death occurred twenty years later he had put in sixteen years of the time at these schools. Among old time teachers he is rated as one of the most successful and is remembered by many hundreds of men and women now in mature years who went to school to him when children. He was a Republican in poli- tics and began voting in that political faith at the time the party was organized. He and his wife were also members of the Presbyterian Church. They are laid to rest in the Riverside cemetery.
The mother of the Sizer brothers was born in Vermont, September 1, 1831, and died in October, 1899. She was well educated. Her grand- father and her great-grandfather on the paternal side were in the Revo- lutionary . War, the great-grandfather being a lieutenant. He was of English origin in the Noyes line.
The late Lucius Noyes Sizer was educated in the public schools at
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Mahomet and also attended the State University of Illinois, where he was graduated in the civil engineering department with the class of 1884. Though his home was in the country and his time was devoted to the stock farm, Mr. Sizer gave the greater part of his thirty years after leav- ing college to the civil engineering profession. He made a record for him- self in that line in Champaign and Ford counties. It was Mr. Sizer who planned one of the largest open ditches in either of these counties, the big Ford ditch in Ford County, built at a cost of a hundred thousand dollars. For three and a half years he served as city engineer of Cham- paign, during which period his chief work was paving.
In June 30, 1892, Mr. Sizer married Miss M. Anna Shurts. To their marriage were born four children, three sons and one daughter. Albert Dann, the oldest, is now principal of the public schools of Pesotum in Champaign County. He was educated in the Champaign High School, graduating in 1911, and three years after that pursued his studies in the University of Illinois, in the agricultural course. Albert D. Sizer mar- ried Miss Pauline Moss Carter, and they have a son, Albert Carter. Mr. Sizer is a Republican and he and his wife are members of the Mctho- dist Episcopal Church. Bruce Lucius, the second son, finished his educa- tion in the ,Champaign High School with the class of 1912, then entered the State University and was given an appointment to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis and spent one year in training in that institution. On account of failing health he had to give up his intention of training for officer in the United States Navy and he is now at Las Animas, Colorado. Donald Eugene, the third of the sons, finished the course of the common schools and is now carrying forward his work of a higher education in the high school at Fisher. The only daughter, Dorothy M., has finished the work of the common schools and has spent one year in the Fisher High School. The parents of these children exer- cised much care in bringing them up and gave them an excellent training, above the ordinary in preparation for the duties and responsibilities of life.
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