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 40
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Mrs. Sizer was born in Tazewell County, Illinois, November 14, 1865, the fourth in a family of seven children, five sons and two daughters. Her parents were Joseph Nitzer and Emily (Blair) Shurts. Three of the children are still living and Mrs. Shurts and her brother Fred are living in Champaign County. The father was born in New Jersey in 1824 and died in 1906. When a young man he accompanied the family to Ohio, lived there a number of years, and he then moved west and located in Delavan, Tazewell County, Illinois. He acquired land in that beautiful section of the state and finally retired from farming into Delavan, where he spent his last years. He was a Democrat in politics. His wife was born in Michigan in 1836 and died in 1900. She was an active member
of the Christian Church. Mrs. Sizer was educated in the common schools . and had two years instruction in the State Normal University at Normal, Illinois. After this preparation she became a teacher and followed the profession for eight years very successfully, and the satisfaction that her labors afforded is well indicated by the fact that she taught five years in one school in Tazewell County. For three years of her teaching she was at Delavan. Mrs. Sizer was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Champaign and of the Domestic Science Club at Fisher. She proved a very able and capable woman in the establishment of her home and in bearing her social duties.
Mr. Sizer was a Republican and the only office he accepted was director of the public schools. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Lucius Noyes Sizer passed away July 6, 1917, and after the funeral
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services his remains were interred in Riverside cemetery at Mahomet, Illinois. The death of Mr. Sizer caused much sorrow amongst his many life long friends in Newcomb Township, as well as the cities of Champaign and Urbana. His life was one of honor, and upright living, and he left a worthy heritage to his children as a man amongst men. Mrs. Sizer died October 5, 1917.
WILLIAM OSCAR DALE. During many years of residence in Champaign County William O. Dale has reached that enviable position where his word' is accepted in business matters the same as a bond, and all his friends and acquaintances repose the utmost confidence in his judgment and integ- rity. Mr. Dale, with the aid of his capable wife, has developed a fine country home in Mahomet Township, known as the Fern Dale Farm, and' at the same time he has acted on the principle that the community deserved some of his work and has interested himself for a number of years to the benefit and improvement of the local schools.
The Dale family has lived in Champaign County since pioneer times, and the family record is one that can be viewed in detail without finding a single unfavorable distinction. William Oscar Dale was born in this county, June 4, 1864, and was the third of eight children, five sons and three daughters. Of the four still living William O. is the oldest. His sister Tena was liberally educated, having at one time been a student of the Illinois State Normal School and a teacher in both McLean and Cham- paign counties before her marriage to Mr. W. H. Webb. Mr. Webb is a practical farmer and they now reside in Rockwell City, Iowa, the parents of four children. Frank Lee, the third child, was educated in the Mahomet High School and has spent a number of years in Oklahoma, where he was formerly editor of the Minco Minstrel and is now a banker at Foyil, con- nected with the Foyil State Bank. He married Miss Edith Lucas, and they have a daughter. Charles Wilson, the youngest, is now editor of the St. Joseph Record of St. Joseph, Illinois. He married Miss Myrta Morehouse.
The parents of these children were Thomas and Mary E. (Mead) Dale. Thomas Dale spent the larger part of his active career in Champaign County. He was born near Marion, Ohio, March 19, 1834, and still retains his intellect and his faculties at the advanced age of eighty-three. He is now living at Rockwell City, Iowa. He came to Illinois when fourteen years of age. The family made the journey with wagons and teams, and were among the early settlers in Mahomet Township, where they bought land from the Government at $1.25 per acre. The Dale homestead on this eighty-acre tract was built of logs, and Thomas Dale during his youth fre- quently hunted the wild game which abounded in this section, and has ,killed dcer within the limits of Champaign County. He secured his edu- cation in a log schoolhouse with its slab seats and other crude equipment, and he wrote his copy with a goose quill pen. Farming has been his voca- tion, and he was of an age to cast his first vote about the time the Repub- lican party was organized. Both he and his wife carly became identified with the Methodist Church, and he donated the ground where the present church at Mahomet stands. His wife was born in New Jersey in 1832 and died January 24, 1881. A monument stands at her grave in the Bryan Cemetery.
William O. Dale as a boy attended the common schools and was also a student for two years in the Mahomet High School while the principal was Professor A. D. Sizer. Since his studies were concluded his work has been as an agriculturist and stockinan. He began as a wage worker at $18 a month and put in three or four years in that way and next rented
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land. A number of years ago he went to Oklahoma and bought 400 acres · near Frederick, and he still owns that property. He and his wife have' 200 acres in Mahomet Township, this land being an estate that has not yet been divided.
March 5, 1891, Mr. Dale married Miss Grace E. Rayburn. From time to time children have come into their home to the number of eight, three sons and five daughters, and six of them are still living. Much of their hard work and self-denial have been done in order that these children might have superior advantages at home and in school and their family do them credit and honor by their accomplishments. The oldest is Belle, now the wife of Otis Pfiester, an agriculturist living in Scott Township. Mrs. Pfiester attended the Mahomet High School, the Illinois State Normal School, and for six years was a successful member of the teaching profes- sion in Champaign County. Both she and her husband are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Ferne, the second daughter, had similar educational advantages with her sister Belle, and both were well trained in music. She is considered one of the most talented teachers in Champaign County, and has performed that work creditably for several
years. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Lulu, the third daughter, was graduated from the Mahomet High School, spent one year in the State Normal, and also one year in the Normal at Charleston, Illinois. She is also a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The three younger children are Oscar, Mary R. and Robert. Oscar enters the Mahomet High School in 1917, Mary is in the sixth grade of the grammar school, while Robert is in the third grade.
Mrs. Dale was born in Champaign County, June 25, 1870, a daughter of Robert Gilbert and Isabel (Herriott) Rayburn. She grew up in this county, was educated in the common schools, and has deemed it a privi- lege to work beside her husband in establishing a home and in the careful rearing and training of her family. Her father was born in Ohio and his life has been successfully passed as an agriculturist. He is one of the, leading citizens of Champaign County and has one of the beautiful country homes herc. He is a Republican and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His wife was born in the Blue Grass State of Kentucky, and was a woman whose character and attainments commanded universal respect. Her death occurred September 5, 1912, and she was laid to rest in the Riverside Cemetery.
Mr. Dale is a Republican, having cast his first presidential vote for James G. Blaine. Both he and his wife have served as directors of the local public schools and have exerted their influence, whether officially or as private citizens, to secure the best teachers and the best equipment for the education . of the younger generation. Mr. Dale has filled all the chairs except the East in the local Masonic Lodge No. 220, A. F. & A. M. · The Fern Dale Farm, which he and his wife occupy, is a tract of the rich black soil characteristic of Champaign County, and its productiveness and value have been enhanced by the capable manner in which Mr. Dale has managed the land and its resources.
MRS. ANNA MARIE JONES. In the making of the worthy history of Champaign County, woman as well as man has played a most worthy part. But too often the part of woman has been overlooked or slighted and yet in those things of which Champaign County is most proud, its homes, the wives and mothers share on an cqual scale with the husbands and fathers. It is therefore most appropriate that this sketch should begin with the name of a noble Champaign County woman who has done her part both as a home maker and as a mother as well as in church and social affairs.
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Mrs. Jones is a native of Champaign County, having been born here January, 23, 1866. She is a daughter of August and Anna Johanna (Burkhardt) Sperling. Her father, who is still living at the age, of seventy-eight, was born June 14, 1839, in Stabelberg, Prussia. He has made seven trips across the ocean. The first of these long journeys was made when he was about eighteen years old. At the age of twenty-one he came again to America and located in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin. From there he went to Winona, Minnesota, and engaged in the grain busi- ness. About 1865 he came to Champaign County and turned his atten- tion to agriculture on these rich and fertile acres. Subsequently for ten years he was again in the grain business and he finally retired and moved out to California about 1905 and has since lived retired at South Pasa- dena. He is still owner of 520 acres of the valuable Champaign County land. Politically he has been a Republican and is a Knight Templar Mason with membership at Gibson City, Illinois, and is also an Odd Fellow. He and his wife were reared as members of the Lutheran Church. His good wife, who was born at Rottenacher, Wurtemberg, Ger- many, not far from the city of Berlin, on October 30, 1842, passed away February 4, 1913, at Pasadena, California. She was a noble woman and did her part well by her children and family.
Altogether there were ten children, five sons and five daughters. Six are still living. Emma was educated in the common schools of Cham- paign County and is now living with her father at South Pasadena, Cali- fornia. J. A. F. Sperling is a well known citizen of Dewey, Champaign County, where he is serving as postmaster. He was a soldier in the Spanish-American War. In politics he is a Republican and is a member of Sangamon Lodge No. 801 of Masons and the Lodge of Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Dewey. Next in age comes Mrs. Jones. Alwin H. is married and is successfully pursuing his business as a farmer in East Bend Township. Godfrey is a civil engineer by profession, having graduated from the University of Illinois with the class of 1895. He is now practicing his profession at Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He is mar- ried, is a Republican, and a member of the Christian Science Church. Johanna A. is the wife of William Burkhardt, who resides in Los Angeles, California, and is owner of a large ranch in that state.
Mrs. Jones was educated in the common schools of Champaign County and on March 7, 1888, at the age of twenty-two, was married in this county to John Morris Jones. To their marriage were born five children, four sons and one daughter all of whom are still living.
The oldest is J. Karl Jones, who attended the common schools, the Academy of the State University and spent three and a half years in the State University taking the civil engineering course. He followed his profession in the mountains of Idaho in 1910, and then returning to . Champaign County entered his father's store at Dewey as a salesman and is now senior member of the firm of Jones Brothers at Dewey. This is a business which in scope and importance deserves first rank among the mercantile firms of Champaign County. About $50,000 is invested in capital and stock and equipment, and the annual turnover of business amounts to about $300,000. The firm has a large and complete stock of general merchandise, and also buys and sells grain, coal, tile, automobile supplies and agricultural implements. During 1916 their sales ranged all the way from a package of pins to a threshing outfit. Mr. Karl Jones is a Republican and cast his first presidential vote for Theodore Roosevelt. · He is a central committeeman of East Bend Township and is also a mem- ber of the road committee and is an enthusiast in the advocacy of good country roads for Champaign County. He is in line to pass all the offices in
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Sangamon Lodge No. 801, A. F. and A. M., at Fisher, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His home is at Dewey with his mother.
John M., the second son, was educated in the common schools, took two years of high school work at Champaign and finished his course in the South Pasadena High School in California, where he was graduated with the class of 1910. After that he was a student for two years in the
University of Illinois. He is now associated with his brothers in the general mercantile business at Dewey and furnishes some of the enterprise and vigor by which that firm has steadily mounted to success. Fraternally he is affiliated with Sangamon Lodge of Masons at Fisher and the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows at Dewey and has served as a delegate to the Grand Lodge. He is also a member of the local school board and belongs to the Methodist Church. He has traveled extensively over the western states and Canada and knows conditions not only at home but over a wide stretch of country. Both he and his brother Karl are members of the University fraternity Chi Phi at Champaign.
Emma Verna, the only daughter of Mrs. Jones, is the wife of Harry J. Hamm of Dewey. Mr. Hamm is associated with the banker C. E. Jackson in the automobile business. Mrs. Hamm was for three years a student in the Champaign High School and for one year was a student of instrumental music in the Von Stein Academy at Los Angeles. Her musical course was taken during the year 1910-1911. She is an active member of the Christian Church at Rantoul, while Mr. Hamm is a Metho- dist. He is a graduate of the Champaign High School and by his good work won a scholarship in the University. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and he and his wife are active in the Rebekahs at Dewey, Mrs. Hamm having served as a delegate to the Grand Lodge. Theirs is one of the comfortable homes of the village and is a hospitable social center.
Alwin A., the fourth child of the family, was graduated from the Rantoul High School in 1913 and afterwards entered the University of Illinois. He continued his studies there two years and early in 1917 resigned from the University to accept one of the numerous calls made upon the patriotic youth of this country and joined the agricultural service for the United States Government. He is one of a number of competent young men from the University who have been assigned to duty in Western Canada, his present location being at Regina. He left his home at Dewey, April 27, 1917. He is a young man, the joy and pride of his home and family, and when the appeal was made for young men to join in the cause of universal defense against autocracy he was first and foremost and did not hesitate a moment to assume the responsibilities placed upon him by the president and the government. He has member- ship in the Christian Church at Rantoul, is a member of Sangamon Lodge No. 801, A. F. and A. M., at Fisher, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and both he and his brother John have been through the Encamp- ment degrees of Odd Fellowship and are also members of the Rebekahs.
Sperling D., the youngest of Mrs. Jones' children, is now in the sixth grade of the public schools and is showing an unusual capacity for his studies. He has also taken instrumental music.
. Mrs. Jones' only daughter has always been an active factor in her church, her social community, and in everything that pertains to her home, and is a thoroughly cultured young woman.
Mrs. Jones has given the best years of her life to her children and her home. Her children have well repaid this affection and care, and throughout she has endeavored to teach them the truth of a clean and up- right life and an honorable and straight-forward course in all things.
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The late John Morris Jones was born in Carmarron, Wales, January 7, . 1861, but when five years of age came with his parents to America. The journey was made on a sailing vessel from Liverpool, England, to New York City. It was a long and tedious voyage as compared with the speed of the ocean greyhounds of modern times. While the vessel was in New York harbor the boy narrowly escaped death. While reaching for an apple he lost his balance and almost providentially escaped falling into the ocean and perhaps losing his life. The Jones family came direct to Champaign County and located just north of Dewey, where his father bought a farm of 300 acres in East Bend Township. That was the home of Mr. Jones during his youth and until his marriage. With his wife he started a career as an agriculturist on a small place of forty acres. Later he bought forty acres more, and having steadily climbed to pros- perity as a farmer he entered the grain and implement business about 1901. In 1912 he erected the present store building at Dewey and en- tered upon the still larger business activity which is now carried on by his sons under the name Jones Brothers. He had been in the store only two years when he was taken away by death. The late Mr. Jones made a signal success in business affairs and had the good will of all who knew him. His family and their welfare were uppermost in his mind always. An active Odd Fellow, he was a charter member of the lodge of the order at Dewey and a delegate to the Grand Lodge. He also belonged to the Court of Honor and the Modern Woodmen of America. When an infant he was christened in St. Horeb Church in England, and at the age of sixteen joined the Independent School Society in 1877, and in 1890 be- came a member of the Christian Church at Fisher. For a number of years he served as superintendent of the Sunday School at Dewey.
He also participated in the life of his community in an official way. He served as tax collector for a number of years and was a director of the schools and wherever possible supported and advocated better schools. At the time of his death he was serving as township treasurer. He was an active Republican and his death left vacant the position of central com- mitteeman. Mr. Jones passed away May 12, 1914, and his remains were laid to rest in the cemetery at Fisher.
Mrs. Jones is still living at her old home in Dewey, surrounded by children and friends, and almost her lifetime has been spent in that one locality. Her choice of church is the Christian denomination, but she also attends the Methodist Church at Dewey.
SALEM L. KETTERMAN, one of the oldest residents of the village of St. Joseph, has been there continuously for forty-four years. He has all the time been closely associated with its welfare and has lived to see many changes recorded in the history of Champaign County. The only other man still living in St. Joseph who was there when he first settled is Mr. T. Jefferson Wooden.
Mr. Ketterman is a native of the old State of Virginia, having been born in Hardy County, March 19, 1847, a son of John and Belinda (Full) Ketterman. His parents were also natives of Virginia and of German descent. The first American Ketterman was Christopher, who settled in Virginia in 1760. A son of this immigrant, Daniel Ketterman, a great- uncle of Salem L., was a Revolutionary soldier and was present at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, the closing scene of the war for independence. John and Belinda Ketterman had only two children, Salem and Hannah J., Salem being the older. The mother died when Salem was a child and the father married again, and altogether had seven children, two sons and five daughters.
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Salem L. Ketterman received his first advantages in the district schools of Virginia. He was ten years of age when, in 1857, his father came to Champaign County and he completed his education while living on the paternal farm in St. Joseph Township. He grew up here, made the best of his early advantages, and for twelve years was one of the successful teachers of the county.
In 1875, at the age of twenty-eight, Mr. Ketterman married Miss Mellie E. Utt. She is also of Virginia ancestry, having been born in what is now the State of West Virginia, near Morgantown, a daughter of James Utt. She was educated in the Glenburn Seminary at Morgantown.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Ketterman located at the village of St. Joseph, where he engaged in the drug business for several years. Later he took up the business of house decorating and painting.
Mr. and Mrs. Ketterman had one daughter, Blanche. She completed her education in the high school at St. Joseph and fitted herself for school work and for a number of years taught in this county. She spent six years in the Ogden High School, taught the Bowers district school two terms, the Hunt school two terms, and then married Arthur E. White. Mr. White was then proprietor of a grain business at Ogden, but is now in the lumber business at St. Joseph. Mr. and Mrs. White have two chil- dren, Pauline and Wendell. Pauline is now a student in the St. Joseph High School.
Mr. Ketterman's family experienced the usual joys and sorrows of life and on January 8, 1909, the good wife and mother entered into rest.
Politically Mr. Ketterman is a man of broad views, supporting the prin- ciples rather than the party, though he has always been a Republican. His early work as a teacher has always led him to support and encourage public education. He also served from 1873 to 1880 as postmaster of the village of St. Joseph.
JOHN EDWARD MOJILTON. Formerly an agriculturist in one of the greatest cornbelts in the world, still the owner of a large amount of valu- able land in Champaign County, and now the proprietor of a leading and successful lumber business, John Edward McJilton is one of the residents of Fisher who is familiar with the county in which he has spent prac- tically all his life. From a modest beginning he has succeeded in building up a prosperous trade in lumber, and his standing in business circles is that which is attained by men who have honorably worked out their own success.
Mr. McJilton was born in Woodford County, Illinois, April 9, 1862, and is the youngest of five children, three sons and two daughters, born to John Thomas and Elizabeth Jane (Shafer) McJilton. His father was a native of Ohio, born in January, 1822, and died about April, 1904, at Elm Creek, Nebraska. He was about twelve years of age when he came to Woodford County in pioneer style, in wagons, with his parents, and here secured his education in the early public schools, his boyhood training being along agricultural lines. He traced his ancestry to Scotland, the land of the thrifty and industrious, and had inherited the characteristics of his forefathers, so that he was not long a worker for others, but secured land of his own. IIe was married in Woodford County, where his children were born, and in 1868 came to Champaign County, purchasing eighty acres of land in East Bend Township. This original purchase was subse- quently augmented from time to time until Mr. McJilton was the owner of 200 acres of well improved land in the county, when he sold out and went to Butler County, Kansas, there becoming the owner of a farm by purchase. Mr. McJilton made his home in Kansas for about five years,
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following which he went to Buffalo County, Nebraska, and there rounded out his long and honorable career in the prosecution of agricultural opera- tions. Mr. McJilton was not only one of the leading farmers of his section, but was prominent in township affairs, held a number of local offices, and for many years was a school director. He and his wife were consistent and faithful members of the Christian Church, to the move- ments and work of which they contributed liberally. In political affairs Mr. McJilton was a Democrat. Mrs. McJilton was born in 1828 in Wood- ford County, Illinois, where she was educated in the public schools, and died in June, 1906, in the same locality as her husband, Elm Creek, Nebraska, where a beautiful stone marks the resting-place of this devoted and highly respected couple. They were the parents of the following children : Mary, who is the wife of W. H. Swazey, a well known resident and merchant of Ashland, Kansas; Simon W., who is a resident of Overton, Nebraska, married and a retired farmer; Joseph W., who is engaged in agricultural work at Saint Louis, Michigan; Emma, the wife of Isaac Davis, who is connected with the United States mail service and is a resident of Towanda, Kansas; and John Edward, of this review.
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