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 49
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ALBERT A. HYDE. A native of Champaign County and one who has spent his entire life within its borders, watching its development throughout the years of its greatest growth, Albert A. Hyde is so well known to the citizens of this great agricultural center that it may seem supererogatory to give his record in detail in a work of this kind. On the other hand, Mr. Hyde is one of those who have helped to make history in the county. He has not merely been a witness to progress-he has also been a participant in the movements which have made for the same, and his record of citizen- ship is also worthy of note.
Albert A. Hyde was born November 7, 1856, in Champaign County, Illinois, the third in a family of six children born to Adolphus W. and Sophia H. (Choate) Hyde. Of these children five are living: Elizabeth, who is the wife of G. E. Durbin, an agriculturist in the vicinity of Backus, Minnesota; Peoria, who is the widow of. Joseph L. Neal, also resides at Backus; Albert .A., of this review ; Carrie A., who is the wife of J. H. Abbott, a retired farmer of Lincoln, Illinois; and Adolphus Bruce, a prosperous farmer and miller of East Bend Township. The father of these children was born in Switzerland County, Indiana, February 16, 1825, and in his youth learned the trade of carpenter and joiner, which he had mastered before coming to this State in young manhood. In Illinois he was married, but returned to Indiana and spent four years in the Hoosier State, then coming back to the prairie country, where he settled on the land which had been taken up by his father from the United States Government, and the deed for which bears the bond and seal of Franklin Pierce, under date of January 3, 1856. This paper is still in the possession of Albert A. Hyde, and is a document which will be handed down with pride to his descendants.
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Adolphus W. Hyde was first a Whig and later a Republican, and his vote was sturdily given to Abraham Lincoln at a time when the country needed every loyal citizen. While not a man who courted honors or sought prefer- ence above his fellows, he was one who recognized and appreciated the duties of citizenship, and for nineteen years served capably and consci- entiously as township treasurer of East Bend Township. Mr. Hyde was of English stock and traced his ancestry to a family that was due to receive a large inheritance. However, he made no public mention of the fact, and scemed to be perfectly content to have his reputation rest upon the things that he did himself and not the accomplishments of those who had gone before him. When he died, October 27, 1907, a faithful member was lost to the Methodist Church, which he had joined in 1881 and which he had helped to build, as had also his son, Albert A., of this review. He was laid to rest in Mount Hope Cemetery. Mrs. Hyde was born in the same county as her husband, January 25, 1828, and died June 20, 1909. Her example and precept had been such as to guide her children along the right paths; her training was of the kind that brought them up to straightforward and sterling manhood and useful and modest womanhood; and her memory will be kept forever green in the minds of her children as a kind, loving and always self-sacrificing mother.
In a home of this kind it was not unnatural that Albert Hyde should grow up with ideals of clean and honorable living; nor is it surprising that he should remain under the parental roof until he was thirty years of age. Aside from the education that he secured in the public schools and the training that he gained during the leisure to be found in a family in which each member was supposed to do his or her part in contributing to the general income, he is a self-educated man. During his career he has seen much, has observed more, has gained information through association with his fellow men, has exercised a mind naturally bright, and as a result he is well informed, intelligent and alive to all that is going on in the great world, and able to converse upon it in a way that leaves no doubt as to his information. Brought up an agriculturist, he has been content to follow the vocation of the husbandman, and his fine tilled fields show the result of his industry and good management.
Mr. Hyde married March 18, 1886, Miss Alice M. Norton, and they are the parents of four children : Edith, who is the wife of P. M. Hamm, - connected with the United States Mail Service at Dewey, Illinois; Nellie, who resides with her parents; Marian A .; and Paul A.
Mrs. Hyde is a native of Pickaway County, Ohio, born April 29, 1861, a daughter of Edwin D. and Mary (Rhoades) Norton. There were four sons and three daughters in the family, and of these five children are resi- dents of Champaign County. Edwin D. Norton was born in Pennsylvania, February 26, 1830, and died December 20, 1898. He went to Ohio as a young man and resided there until 1865, and during his residence in that State served as postmaster at Tarleton during the administration of Presi- dent Lincoln. In 1871 he came to Champaign County, Illinois, and made his home here until his death, which occurred on his farm in the vicinity of Bondville. He cast his vote for Fremont and was a stanch and sturdy Republican. Mrs. Norton was born in Indiana, January 13, 1838, and is still living, at the age of seventy-nine years, being a resident of Cham- paign. She is a faithful member of the Methodist Church and one of the most beloved ladies of her community. Mrs. Hyde, after completing the public school course, spent two years at Monticello High School, and for four years following was one of the most popular and successful teachers in Champaign County. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in the work of which she takes an active part, as she does also in the
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activities of the Ladies' Aid Society, to which she also belongs. Like her husband, she is a firm believer in the value of education, and the Hyde children have been given every opportunity to fit themselves for the battle of life.
Mr. Hyde's first vote was cast for President Garfield, and since that time he has been an active and helpful supporter of every candidate who lias headed the Republican ticket. For the past six years he has been a member of the board of directors of the public schools. His fraternal con- nection is with Camp No. 6319, Modern Woodmen of America, at Dewey. The well-cultivated and handsome 160-acre Hyde estate is situated two and one-half miles east of Dewey, on the North and South Road, in East Bend Township, and upon it stands the modern and hospitable home where the family's many friends are always welcome.
CHARLES BOYS is one of the oldest residents of Champaign County, where he has witnessed the changes of fortunes of life in this community for over fifty years. Hard work has been the keynote of his career, and with that as a fundamental qualification it seems that everything he has touched has responded to his management and has served to increase his prosperity. Mr. Boys became one of the large land owners of Champaign County and was for years noted as one of the cattle kings of this section of Illinois.
He is a native of New England, son of Loren and Alvira Boys, also of New England stock. When he was a small child the parents removed to Chautauqua County, New York, and soon afterward to Michigan. Charles Boys while growing to manhood learned the trade of plasterer and brick- layer. From Michigan he went to Chicago, and remained there two years, working at his trade for wages of $1 a day, boarding and keeping himself.
It was on the 9th of September, 1852, that Mr. Boys left Chicago and came to Urbana. In that small town he spent another two years working at his trade. Then, at the age of twenty-two, he laid the foundation of his own home by his marriage to Matilda E. Morris. She was born in Pennsylvania, daughter of a physician and a well known former business man of Champaign County.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Boys remained in Urbana for six months, and he then accepted an invitation from Doctor Morris to move to Salt Fork and enter a partnership in a general mercantile store. Mer- chandising was an item of his experience for one year, but keeping store proved too confining and was not satisfying to his disposition for a more active life. Leaving the store, he rented a farm near St. Joseph for five years, and there laid the foundation of his permanent prosperity. From his savings as a renter he bought 120 acres in St. Joseph Township, and as that transaction occurred many years ago the price of the land was only $10 an acre. On that farm he made his real substantial start in life. It was only a short time before he began adding to his holdings, purchasing the next year forty acres in Stanton Township. He was concerned not only with the cultivation of his land in the most practical way, but the construction of good building improvements, the planting of trees, and always took care that his farm should measure up to the best standards of Champaign County rural life.
Mr. and Mrs. Boys had seven children: Benjamin, who died at the age of three years; Alvira, who died in infancy ; and Ida M., Hannah H., Ella, Clint and William. The local district schools gave these children their early advantages, and those to grow up have since married and set- tled in homes of their own and have reflected honor upon their parents. Ida M. Boys is now the wife of Jesse Archer, a St. Joseph Township
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farmer, and their family consists of four children, Myrtle, Charles, Clint T. and Chester. The daughter Hannah is the wife of Charles Lehr, and also has four children, Roscoe, Cody, Beatrice and Opal. Ella married J. E. Hiser and is the mother of Charles, Raymond, Grace and Ruby. Clint married Ada Peeps and has two children, Fern and John. William remains on the old homestead and manages the place for his father. He married Minnie Vest, and their family consists of Charles, Opal and Esther.
The home of the Boys family has always been noted for its hospitality and the kindly, neighborly influences emanating therefrom. Mr. and Mrs. Boys gave their liberal support and membership to the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1895 the death angel entered this home and Mrs. Boys entered into rest. After her death Mr. Boys found his children willing and kindly home makers and has continued to live on the old farm. The years have liberally rewarded him with substantial success, and at the present time his holdings aggregate 1,000 acres. For many years he fed cattle on a large scale, buying in the fall and feeding until the stock were right for market. He is one of the men who came to Champaign County with a very small stock of trade capital and has raised himself to a plane of afflu- ence, has reared a family of industrious and capable children, and in his declining years a large community respects his activities and honors his character. His public spirit has been manifested chiefly in behalf of good schools in his community, and for a number of years he filled the office of school director.
ADAM KRONER. In making productive the vast prairies of the Middle West no one class of people has borne a more steady and effective part than the German element, and particularly to those who came as colonists after the German revolutionary troubles of the '40s. Representing the second generation of this element is Mr. Adam Kroner, concerning whose work and standing as a Champaign County agriculturist only the highest words of praise may be spoken. Mr. and Mrs. Kroner occupy a fine home in Newcomb Township. Mrs. Kroner is also of a prominent German family of the county, and at all times has proved herself a valuable helpmate and counsel to Mr. Kroner in the establishment and building up of their beautiful rural home.
Mr. Kroner was born in Dearborn County, Indiana, July 29, 1865. He was the fourth in a family of six children, five sons and one daughter, whose parents were Frederick and Marie Kroner. Four of these children are still living: Emma, wife of Charles Zimmerman, a farmer at Wise- burg in Dearborn County, Indiana; Adam; Christ, who is unmarried and las a farm at Yorkville in eastern Indiana; and Martin, who is married and owns a good farm home in Dearborn County.
Frederick Kroner was a Bavarian German and was born in the old country in 1825. His death occurred in 1901. He served an apprentice- ship and was a journeyman mechanic, but subsequently turned his attention to agriculture. He was educated in German schools and when a young man sailed for America, spending many weeks on the ocean in one of the slow-going sailing vessels. He first located in New York State, afterward lived in Cincinnati and finally in Dearborn County in southern Indiana. There he bought 120 acres, and though he went in debt he kept steadily at the task until he had his land paid for and was rated as one of the sub- stantial agriculturists of that vicinity. Politically he became a Republican. He and his wife were members of the German Lutheran Church. His wife was born in Germany in 1834, and died in 1901, the same year as her husband.
Adam Kroner spent his childhood and early youth in his home county.
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He attended school and received instruction in both the German and English languages. At the age of twenty-one he started out to make his own fortune in the world. Having no capital he had to depend upon the labor of his hands. His wages for a time were only $12 a month. On such a low salary he was able to test his ability as a thrifty man, and he put aside some of these meager earnings for future use. For seven years he continued to work at farm labor in Indiana and Illinois.
In 1889 he came to Illinois and spent the first year in Piatt County. From there he came to Champaign County and for two years was employed as a wage earner by Mr. Ludwig Liestman. He next rented some land, and by slow and steady progress has raised himself from comparative poverty until he now stands among the successful men of Champaign County.
On October 29, 1893, Mr. Kroner married Miss Lizzie Liestman. Into their home came three sons. In the goodness of their hearts they have also adopted a daughter, Lucile Liestman. Of their sons Frederick L., the oldest, finished the common schools and for three years was a student in the Mahomet High School. After that he taught two years in his home township and in 1915 entered the University of Illinois, where he studied journalism. He is now a student in the dental department of North- western University of Chicago, a member of the class of 1919. Politically. he is a Democrat, a member of the German Lutheran Church, and belongs to several fraternities. William Otto, the second son, has finished his common school course and has shown unusual energy and ability as - a practical farmer and stockman. He, like his brother, is a Democrat and a member of the German Lutheran Church. Louis Albert, the youngest child, is a bright and earnest student now in the third grade of the public schools. Mr. and Mrs. Kroner have always taken the utmost pains with the education and training of their sons.
Mrs. Kroner was born in Piatt County, Illinois, May 23, 1873. She was third in age among a family of twelve children, seven sons and five daughters. She is a daughter of Ludwig and Frederika (Kersten) Liest- man. Of their family eight children are still living. Four have their home in Champaign. County. Two sons, Herman and Frank, live at Alief in Harris County, Texas. Another son, William, is an agriculturist and gardener in Webster, Florida.
Ludwig Liestman was born near Berlin, Germany, in 1837. His life was a long and useful one, and came to a close in Champaign County in 1914. He grew up in his native land, was educated in the German tongue, and was twenty-two years of age when he came to America in 1859. The voyage was made on a sailing vessel, and he landed from the ship a stranger in a strange land, without money, without friends, and with only his earnest, hard-working German characteristics as a means of opening the door of success. A sister was living in Bloomington, Illinois, and that city was his first destination. He found employment at day wages. He was paid a meager salary, but it offered an opportunity for him to adapt himself to the ways and practices of the new country, and he was not long in getting ahead. He capitalized his earnings until he was justified in buying some land in sections 7 and 18 of Newcomb Township, Champaign County. For one who had come to America a poor immigrant there is scarcely a more striking case of conspicuous success among all the citizens of Champaign County. Out of his prosperity he was able to give 600 acres of rich land to his sons, and besides that he owned a large farm of 480 acres. He reared his large family to lives of usefulness and honor, and his name is still spoken with respect and esteem throughout the county. He was a Democrat and a member of the German Lutheran Church. In 1905 he retired from his farm to the city of Champaign and spent his last
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years there. Mr. and Mrs. Kroner have in their home an engraving show- ing her father in the uniform of a body guard to Kaiser Wilhelm I, father of the present German emperor.
Mrs. Liestman, mother of Mrs. Kroner, was born almost in the same locality as her husband. She died in the city of Champaign in 1902. Life meant to her an unceasing round of devotion and duty performed in her home and to her children, and she was also strikingly generous and the poor and needy were never turned empty handed from her door. She and her husband now rest in Woodlawn Cemetery at Champaign, where a hand- some monument stands sacred to their memory.
Mrs. Kroner attended the common schools, and at her marriage was well qualified for the duties of home making and as a counselor to her husband. She is cordial in manner and has a host of friends in Champaign County.
Mr. and Mrs. Kroner are Democrats in politics. They are regular members and aided substantially in the erection of the German Lutheran Church at Osman. Officially Mr. Kroner served four years as road com- missioner, and for three years was school director, and Mrs. Kroner has also been a director of the public schools. Their home farm consists of one hundred and sixty acres of land, the southeast quarter of Section Twenty-nine in Newcomb Township. Better land it would be difficult to find anywhere in the length and breadth of Champaign County. Mr. and Mrs. Kroner have remodeled their residence and all the barns and outbuildings, and have shown great taste in securing homelike surround- ings as well as developing the farm to a higher degree of efficiency.
CHARLES D. THOMPSON has been a resident of Ogden for many years, and enjoys a substantial position in that community because of his record as a good citizen and his honest workmanship as a painter and paper hanger.
Mr. Thompson was born August 24, 1853, at Leesburg in Kosciusko County, Indiana, son of John and Hester (Rhodes) Thompson. His father was born near Chillicothe and his mother in Marion County, Ohio. From Ohio the parents removed to Indiana and two months after the birth of Charles his mother died. Bereft of his mother, the infant was taken into the home of an aunt in Ohio, where he lived until 1861. He then joined his father and the other five children in Illinois. Charles D. Thompson is the only one of his brothers and sisters still living.
He attended public school in Ohio and finished school at Sidney in Champaign County. He grew to manhood near Homer and in 1881, at the age of twenty-eight, married Miss Frances Sweet. Mrs. Thompson was born near Manchester in Delaware County, Iowa, daughter of Samuel and Maria (Lee) Sweet. Her father was born near Rutland, Vermont, and her mother in Virginia. Her mother was a second cousin of General Robert E. Lee. Maria Lee's grandfather, James Lee, and the famous "Light Horse" Harry Lee of Revolutionary fame were brothers. When Mrs. Thompson was four and a half years of age her mother dicd, and at the age of six she came to Mahomet, Illinois, with her father, who passed away a year later. After that she was reared by her foster parents, Mr. and Mrs. S. H. Lyons, a pioneer family of Champaign County. Mrs. Thompson acquired a good education and at the age of eighteen received her first certificate from the county superintendent to teach. Her first school was the Burr Oak School, five miles north of Ogden.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Thompson located in Ogden Town- ship, near where the village of Royal now stands. They engaged in farming on rented land and went through a number of years in which thrift and economy were the prime necessities of existence. For twelve years they
George & Orle
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continued farming and then came to the village of Ogden, where they have had a pleasant home in the north end of town for the past twenty years. During that time Mr. Thompson's services as a paper hanger and decorator have been in great demand.
He and his wife are attentive members of the New Light Christian Church, known as Prospect Church, a center of religious enlightenment which has stood as a means and instrument of good in this community for many years. In politics both Mr. and Mrs. Thompson give their support to the Republican ticket, but chiefly to the man of principle and thorough fitness for the office in question. They are pronounced advocates of pro- hibition and temperance. Mr. Thompson has made a success in life and through all the years has had the aid and counsel of a good wife and a thorough home maker.
When Mr. Thompson moved out on to the prairie in 1869 there was no town of Ogden and no railroad, and only five houses in sight. All around was waving prairie grass and wet sloughs. He recalls that in the summer the stock suffered grievously from the horse flies. Many times when the women would drive to Rantoul to market, while the husbands remained at home working in the fields, the flies would attack the horses and in their suffering they would lie down and roll over to get rid of the pests. The women would then have to get down and get the team out of the tangle, and it might be necessary to repeat this performance several times before reaching Rantoul. Mr. Thompson's experiences go back to a time when the nearest postoffice was at Urbana and he appreciates the great contrast when mail is carried daily to the doorstep of every home in the county. When Mrs. Thompson was a small school girl in this county the teacher one day announced that school would be dismissed in order that the children might see the first train go by on the tracks of the I., B. & W. Railway. Mrs. Thompson and the other children climbed a plank fence in order to witness a spectacle the memory of which has never been erased from her mind. Fraternally Mr. Thompson is a Woodman and Odd Fellow and . Mrs. Thompson is affiliated with the Royal Neighbors and the Daughters of Rebekah.
GEORGE G. IRLE. In the famous farming district of Champaign County, where the possession of land spells prosperity, one of the active factors today is Mr. George G. Irle, whose well managed place is in section 16 of Somer Township. Mr. Irle began farming here over fifty-five years ago, and has been through practically every phase of experience as an Illinois farmer. He has had low prices and high prices for his crops, and through seasons both good and bad he has contrived to prosper and to grow in influence and affluence.
Mr. Irle has lived in Champaign County since childhood, but was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 31, 1852. His parents were Henry W. and Christina (Hohn) Irle. Both parents were born in Germany, the mother in Nassau. Henry W. Irle came to America in 1848, locating at Philadelphia, where he followed the trade of brass founder. In 1862 he brought his family west to Champaign County, and changing his occupation located on a farm in Somer Township. He became one of the substantial men of that district, and lived a long and useful career. His death occurred July 27, 1901. His wife passed away August 16, 1884. Their five children were: Hulda, deceased; Francesca, who died in infancy; George G .; Henry H., deceased; and Francesca, wife of Thomas B. Thom- burn, of Urbana, Illinois.
George G. Irle was ten years of age when his parents came to Cham- paign County. In 1859, when a boy of seven, he had an exciting experience
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and barely escaped becoming victim of a famous kidnapping case in Philadelphia. It all happened on Christmas Eve. On the same night and on the same street in the year 1876 a boy named Charlie Ross was kidnapped.
After coming to Champaign George G. Irle attended the local schools and lived with his father on the farm until 1880. He then went for himself, buying sixty acres in Somer Township. By diligence and efficiency his success has been a progressive one, and at different times he has purchased more lands until he now owns 376 acres in section 16 and twenty-four acres at another place in the township. He has pursued the plan of general farming and stock raising and is one of the men who have demonstrated the possibilities of successful farming on the high priced land of Champaign County. Mr. Irle started life with comparatively little, and for some years he and his wife lived in a log cabin home.
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