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 50
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On March. 17, 1881, he married Mary F. Arnold, who was born in Champaign County. They have four children : Anna, wife of John H. Pierce, of Bloomington, Illinois; George W., of Buhl, Idaho; William H., of Hamer, Idaho; and Nettie, who lives at home and is in the training school for nurses of Burnham's Hospital.
Mr. Irle has not neglected the interests of the community in which he lives, and has shown himself a public spirited citizen. He has served as commissioner of highways, as tax collector and for over thirty years was a director of his home school district. He is a republican and a member of the German Lutheran Church. His postoffice is Leverett.
JAMES F. RANKIN has proved his ability both in general business affairs and as a banker, and is the organizer and active official of the State Bank of Sidney.
Mr. Rankin was born near Deland, Illinois, October 31, 1879, a son of Joseph H. and Emma (Brown) Rankin. His parents were natives of Ohio, and his father was for a number of years a general merchant at Deland, but about 1902 removed to Champaign County and located in the city of Champaign, where he is still living. James F. is the only surviving child, his younger brother, Willis D., having died in infancy.
Mr. Rankin was graduated from the public schools of Deland in 1898, and soon afterward entered the employ of John Kirby, a private banker. With that experience he assisted in organizing the State Bank of Deland, which he served as assistant cashier. Then, realizing the needs of further education, he entered the Bryant & Stratton Business College at Chicago, and from there in 1901 went to the National Bank of Commerce at Kansas City, Missouri, one of the largest banks in the Missouri Valley. He served as teller there two years, and with this metropolitan experience returned to Champaign County and for four years was draft and collection teller with the First National Bank of Champaign, Illinois. He then gave up banking and for four years was assistant superintendent of the great plant of the Republic Iron & Steel Company at Moline, Illinois. It was in 1911 that Mr. Rankin organized the State Bank of Sidney and has since given it his chief time and energies.
On February 10, 1901, he married Miss Irma K. Dresback, a native of Deland, Illinois. They have four children: Esther B., Helen M., Dwight D., and Irma Catherine. Politically Mr. Rankin is a Republican voter. He has attained the thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Masonry and is present worshipful master of his lodge at Sidney. He also belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is a church man, active in the Methodist Society at Sidney, and is assistant superintendent of the Sunday school.
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AMOS ELLIOTT has had his home in Champaign County fifty-four years, grew to manhood here, and his active life has been one of unremitting industry and capable management as a farmer. His home is in Ogden Township on Rural Route 15 out of St. Joseph.
His birth occurred at Rushsylvania in Logan County, Ohio, January 9, 1851. His parents were Moses and Mary (Bonner) Elliott, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Ohio. The Elliott family came to Illinois in 1860, lived in Coles County a time, but in April, 1863, while the Civil War was at its height, settled in Somer Township of Champaign County, not far from Urbana. Moses Elliott was a blacksmith by trade and he set up a shop and did work in Somer Township while eonducting lis farm. Amos Elliott was the oldest of seven children. He secured his education largely in the distriet school of Locust Grove.
Until he was twenty-seven he remained at home assisting his father in the work and then married Miss Sarah Kirby. Mrs. Elliott was born at Hannibal, Missouri, daughter of William and Charlotte Kirby. Soon after her birth her father died and when she was two years of age she was left an orphan by the death of her mother. There were four children in the Kirby family and after being left orphans they grew up among relatives. A great-aunt of the children was Lucy Clements, who lived in Illinois. Mrs. Clements took one of the Kirby children at the age of two years and some years later, when she again visited her people in Missouri, she brought back to her home the little orphan niece, Sarah Kirby, then nine years of age. Mrs. Clements and her good husband deserve more than a passing tribute. In the goodness of their hearts they reared not only six children of their own but seventeen orphan children, educating them and providing them homes until they were ready to take their places in the world. Some of these children they took when only six weeks old. An example of such generosity and large-heartedness is seldom found, and the world would be vastly better were there more such people. Mrs. Elliott and her children, and perhaps her children's children, will never be allowed to forget and pay gratitude to the names of James and Lucy Clements. Their home was in the southern part of Somer Township of this county. Here Sarah Kirby attended the Locust Grove district school.
Mr. and Mrs. Elliott were married March 17, 1878, when she was twenty-four years of age. At the time of their marriage they had little of this world's goods and they lived on a rented farm in Stanton Township for a few years. They next removed to Ogden Township, again rented land, and out of what they made and saved they were finally able to buy eighty-eight acres in that township at a price of $30 an acre. The only improvement was some old fencing and the land abounded in sloughs and wet places. While to many the outlook might have been discouraging, Mr. and Mrs. Elliott began at once with hope and energy, and the years have abundantly rewarded their efforts until today they own 240 aeres of farm land and their present home is on an eighty-aere tract adjoining their first purchase. Their home surroundings are now of the best.
The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Elliott were named Clara, Fred, Mary, Emmett, Bertha and Nellie. Mary and Nellie died in childhood. The other children as they grew up were educated in the Union distriet school. Clara Elliott is now the wife of W. H. Davis, living at Muskogee, Oklahoma, and they have one child, Lavon. Fred Elliott is a farmer a mile and a half south of Ogden and married Maggie Frecman. Emmett Elliott remains on his father's farm as manager and married Zella Bradley. Bertha Elliott is the wife of Rolla Freeman, an Ogden Township farmer, and they have a son, Rolland.
Mr. and Mrs. Elliott are active members and supporters of the Pros-
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peet Christian Church, Mr. Elliott being chairman of its board of trustees. For twenty-one consecutive years he served as school director and for the benefit of his own children and those of the entire community he gave inuch time and study to every problem involved in procuring the best advantages of instruction. For eighteen successive years Mr. Elliott served as commissioner of highways. He was reared in the Republican party and has always been faithful to its principles. Six of his uneles did service for the country in the dark days of the Civil War, and Mr. Elliott himself would have followed their example had he been old enough. He is a mem- ber of the Masonic order, and he and his wife are members of the Court of Honor and two of their daughters belong to the Eastern Star.
When the Elliott family settled in Champaign County not a rod of tile drainage existed anywhere. Mr. Elliott's father was one of the first to put in any tiling, and whether on their own land or in drainage districts, the Elliotts have always taken a firm stand in advocating this improvement, whose benefit and value can never be properly estimated. It is through drainage largely that Champaign County has become one of the garden spots of the world. Mr. Elliott as a boy reealls a time when the wet lands of eastern Champaign County were a haven for immense flocks of wild geese, crane, dueks, pigeons, and even deer and wolves roamed over the prairies when Mr. Elliott was a boy.
WILLIAM HENRY TREES has lived a career that entitles him to a place of honor and respeet among the citizens of Champaign County. For years he was a successful farmer and is now a local business man at Sidney.
He was born in Champaign County February 5, 1872. He is a son of Ephraim and Helen (Martin) Trees. Both parents were born in Ohio. His father eame to Champaign County in an early day and located on a farm near Thomasboro. That farm he cultivated and was getting to a position where he could be considered prosperous when he met death as a result of a stroke of lightning in June, 1876. He left his widow with a number of small children. His widow died in 1904. Eight ehildren were born to them: Louisa, wife of William Arnold, of Iowa; Warren, living in Iowa; Belle, deceased; Marion, of Ohio; John, of Sidney Town- ship; George, living in Ohio; William H., and Jennie, wife of Frank Armstrong, of Sidney Township.
William Henry Trees early learned to be dependent upon his own efforts and with only a common sehool education faced life on his own responsibilities. He made farming his independent vocation for a number of years, did well at it, and in January, 1917, bought a livery establishment at Sidney, which he now conduets. He also has one of the comfortable homes of that village.
In October, 1895, Mr. Trees married Mary B. Towner, a native of Champaign County. They have three children: Bernice, deeeased; Leal Gleason, at home; and Dorothy Hilene. Politieally Mr. Trees is a Repub- lican. He has served his district as a member of the school board. He and his family belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church.
HERMAN H. BEHRENS has been a resident of Champaign County for forty-four years. During all that time his home has been in section 18 of Ogden Township. In his immediate community he has witnessed ehanges and developments that would have been regarded as impossible in such a short time when he was a boy. In some of the more substantial items of progress Mr. Behrens has borne a most influential and worthy part himself.
Mr. Behrens is all but a native of Illinois. He was born February 21, 1857, and six months later he was carried, an infant in arms. by his
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parents, Harm G. and Anna (Lichtsin) Behrens, accompanied by the ten older children, on the way to America. The Behrens family landed from a boat at New Orleans, came up the Mississippi River and first located in Adams County, Illinois, not far from Quincy. They remained there until 1873, when they came to Champaign County, where the father bought forty-eight acres in section 18 of Ogden Township. For that raw land he paid $18 an acre. The children who were then of school age attended the Pleasant Valley schoolhouse in the southwest corner of that section.
Herman Behrens was sixteen years old when he came to Champaign County, and he remained at home for ten years after that, attending school and assisting his father in the work of the farm.
At the age of twenty-six he married Eliza Park. She was born in Illinois, daughter of John and Tina (Duis) Park. The Park family were also natives of Germany. Mrs. Behrens was one of a family of nine children.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Behrens located on his father's homestead in section 18 and that has been continuously their home ever since. Mr. Behrens has shown himself to be a progressive and industrious farmer, and with the aid of his good wife has materially increased his estate until it now comprises 334 acres.
Into their home were born five children: John H., Anna, Tina, Harm . and Catherine. These children were educated in the old home school of Pleasant Valley, where Mr. Behrens himself had received some of his instruction. They were also students in the German parochial school and were there taught the religious faith of their ancestors.
The son Harm fitted himself for pedagogical work and as a successful teacher of Champaign County taught in the Morning Star School and also had the honor of being employed by the board of the home district, the Pleasant Valley. The son John H. Behrens lives on land owned by his father and by his marriage to Anna Buhr has two children, Herman and John. The daughter Anna Behrens is the wife of John Osterbur, an Ogden Township farmer, their six children being Lizzie, Thea, Catherine, Herman, Anna and Helen. Tina Behrens married Henry Osterbur, who is also iden- tified with the agricultural enterprise of Ogden Township. Their two children are named Louisa and Frank. The son Harm now lives at the old homestead and manages his father's farm. He married Nancy Loschen. Catherine Behrens is the wife of George Freriches, an Ogden Township farmer. Their two children are Eleanor and John.
June 5, 1898, the death angel came to the Behrens home and took away the good wife and mother. Mrs. Behrens was a woman of exceptional Christian character and was much beloved both in her family and by a large circle of friends. Since his wife's death Mr. Behrens has continued to live at the old homestead and has been devotedly cared for by his son Harm and wife.
The public spirit of Mr. Behrens has always been a strong point in his favor. He was elected and served twenty years as school director, nine years as road commissioner and eight years as drainage commissioner. Judge Roth appointed him drainage commissioner. The drainage system of Ogden Township was greatly advanced by Mr. Behrens' work as a com- missioner and he is one of the men who can appreciate the value of this improvement. The Behrens home was surrounded by a vista of slough grass, prairie grass and in the summer season life was made almost unbear- able for human beings and animals by the presence of the green-headed flies and mosquitos which propagated and flourished in the undrained dis- trict. ' Thus the drainage system has not only contributed to the welfare
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of all the people living therein but has made the land more profitable for cultivation and has added hundreds of thousands of dollars to the value of Champaign County. Mr. Behrens is one of the directors of the Farmers Grain Elevator at Royal. In politics he votes as a Republican and alto- gether is a man of admirable integrity of character, never makes a promise that he cannot fulfill, and has reared a family who do credit to him. Mr. Behrens is now found in a comfortable home where he spent part of his boyhood and enjoys the shade of many grand old trees which were set out by the hand of his father more than forty years ago.
CHARLES A. DALY of Philo Township has surrounded himself with all the evidences of prosperity and enterprise as a farmer and stockman. Largely through his own efforts and enterprise he has acquired a large acreage of Champaign County farm land, has it under improvement, and for many years has been a successful raiser of good stock and gets his profit out of his land largely through feeding the crops at home.
Mr. Daly has lived in Champaign County most of his life, but was born in Ontario, Canada, February 8, 1859. His parents, John and Mary Ann (McKipill) Daly, were both natives of Ireland. From Canada the family came to Champaign County in 1868, locating in section 1 of Crittenden Township. John Daly followed farming, was a man of industry and stood well in the community, and lived there until his death on April 5, 1885. His widow survived him until January 8, 1892. They reared a family of ten children: Sarah, widow of William Moran of Philo; Hannah, widow of Michael Reiter of Philo; Andrew, deceased; Elizabeth, widow of Joseph Donalson of Urbana; Mary and Margaret, both living at Philo; John and Anna, also of Philo; Ellen, deceased; and Charles A. Daly.
Charles A. Daly finished his education in the district schools of Cham- paign County. Being the youngest child, he remained at home with his widowed mother for a year or so and in 1887 bought eighty acres in section 36 of Philo Township. That acreage was only a beginning and he has steadily increased his holdings until he now owns and controls the operation of 280 acres in that township.
Mr. Daly was married October 9, 1889, to Miss Susie Clennon. They have reared children who are a credit to the parents and there were seven of them: Margaret Mary, at home; John Joseph, at home; Ellen Loretta, wife of Vincent Cain; Myrtle Frances, deceased; Albert Vincent, at home ; Mary Josephine and Leo Yunon. Mr. Daly is a Democrat, a member of St. Thomas' Catholic Church of Philo and affiliates with the Knights of Columbus. He has served as road commissioner and has always endeavored to do his part in community affairs.
LEVI MEAD HALL, who recently celebrated his ninetieth birthday, still walks with firm step and unclouded mind the streets of Homer, and during his long and useful life in Champaign County has witnessed almost its entire development and has borne a share in its progress. He still mani- fests a keen and intelligent interest in all that affects the welfare of his community and country, and is widely and favorably known as a man of progress and public spirit.
He was born in Indiana, a son of Frost Underlin and Maria (Mead) Hall. The traditional account is that the founder of this branch of the Hall family came to America with General Braddock's army and partici- pated in that notable campaign which ended in western Pennsylvania on the march to Fort Duquesne, where Braddock was defeated and where the day was only partially saved by George Washington and his Virginia frontiersmen. This British soldier and his wife came from the vicinity
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of Edinburgh, Scotland, and they remained in this country and died in New York City. They left only one son, David Hall. David Hall mar- ried Phoebe Allen. Her father, Andrew Allen, had come from Falkirk, Scotland, to America before 1756.
Frost Underlin Hall, father of Levi M., came from the East and was an early settler in Ohio. It is said that while he was traveling with the Mead family he came to the banks of the Ohio River. At that time he lad only 25 cents in his pocket, and, pulling out this piece of money, he threw it into the river, saying, "I am going to begin life even." He lived in Butler County, Ohio, a number of years, but in 1840 moved to Indiana, and spent his last years at Quaker Point in Vermilion County. While in Ohio he had charge of a section of the old Miami Canal and lived at what was known as Hall's Locks. He often said that the Hall boys threw a wagon load of stones over the canal, aiming at birds on the other side.
Mr. Levi M. Hall was three times married. On September 20, 1846, he married Rachel Hollingsworth. On April 3, 1855, Mary Darling became his wife. His present wife was Mary Frances Patterson, and they were married October 12, 1876.
Levi M. Hall learned the trade of blacksmith, and in the early days he shod horses that drew stage coaches over the route from Covington, Indiana, to Johnston's Tavern. He is one of the best posted men on the old-time days and incidents in Champaign County. He had a large acquaintance with all the pioneers.
Mr. Hall arrived at the old town of Homer October 4, 1846. All there was of the village at that time was located by the creek ncar where Homer Park now is. In that community he has made his home all the years since then, a period of over seventy years. From his good business man- agement he acquired a farm of over 200 acres and was for years extensively engaged in buying and selling farms. He made it a practice to buy up unimproved or rundown. places, living thereon until the land was once more in a state of good cultivation, and then sell out at a profit.
Mr. Hall's children are noted as follows: Calvin Jenks Hall lives in Bond County, Illinois. He married Amy I. Dodd. Persis A. Bell, a widow, lives in Los Angeles, California. Mr. Hall's oldest son was William Smith Hall, who died and left two children, Nellie R. and Levi B. Mr. Hall has three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
At the ripe age of ninety he is still a well preserved man and the years sit lightly upon his head. He is a man of genial character, and in a business way his word has always been accepted as good as gold in the hand.
His present wife, whose maiden name was Mary Frances Patterson, was born near St. Joseph, Illinois, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth M. (Ray) Patterson. She was educated in the district schools near St. Joseph. To their marriage have been born five children: Charles A., who died at the age of four years; C. B .; Ada M .; Carl C., who died at the end of ten months; and Laura A. The children who grew up werc educated in the district schools and attended the Homer High School. C. B., who also attended the business college at Decatur, is now in the transfer and storage business at Danville, Illinois. He married Lillian Pogue and has a son, Melvin P. Hall. Ada M. Hall is the wife of E. M. Beazcley and they live at Denison, Texas, where he is manager of a wholesale mercan- tile house. Laura A. Hall is a graduate nurse of Danville and is still located in that city. About eighteen years ago Mr. and Mrs. Hall left their farm and bought a pleasant home on West Street in Homer. Herc they live with every comfort, and surrounded with friends and relatives
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they have a most happy outlook on life and on all that awaits them in the future. They are active members and supporters of the Methodist Epis- copal Church. In politics he is a stalwart supporter of the Republican party. Mr. Hall has experienced the bitter along with the sweet of life, and has been called upon to lay away two wives and ten of his children. He and his present wife have been married now for over forty years and he considers it his high good fortune to have had such a capable woman at his side as an adviser and counselor during all these years. One of the most pleasant events in his life was the celebration of his ninetieth birthday at the home of his daughter, Mrs. E. M. Beazeley at Denison, Texas, on June 19, 1917. Mr. Hall has made a splendid record for him- self in dealing with his fellow men, and his integrity of character has been a contributing factor in the development of his home county.
HENRY HUMMEL. Perhaps to no one nation does America owe more for the successful development of its farms than to Germany. No better or finer class of people ever came to this country than the German colonists of the '40s. On the broad prairies and in the forests of the West, in peace and in war, in every branch of human endeavor and human achievement, by brave and honest service they made compensation to the land of their adoption.
One of this class of citizens long identified with Champaign County is Mr. Henry Hummel of Dewey. He was born near that historic place celebrated in song and story, Bingen on the Rhine, August 28, 1840. His parents were Philip and Katherine (Bloss) Hummel. He was one of a family of seven children, four sons and three daughters, and it is an indication of the virility of the family stock that all these children are still living, all of them in America and five residents of Champaign County. Philip Hummel was a native of the same locality as his son Henry, and gave the best endeavors of his long lifetime to farming. In 1843, with the purpose to better his condition and secure better oppor- tunities for his children, he set out for the New World. He and his family traveled on a sailing vessel and landing in New York City pro- ceeded west to Kaneville in Kane County, Illinois. Like many of his compatriots he arrived poor in purse but rich in energy and resources of mind and body, and in Illinois he began work as a wage earner. He continued that until he was able to buy a team of horses, and in 1861 he came with his family to Champaign County. In this county he lived the rest of his days, and passed away in 1906. At the time of his death he owned 244 acres in East Bend Township, a farm adjoining that now owned by his son Henry. Politically he became a Republican. He was a strong friend of public education, served his school district as a director, and he and his wife were active members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church at Dewey. His wife was born in the same locality of Germany and has been dead now for many years, Both are interred in the Beek- man cemetery, where monuments mark their last resting places.
Henry Hummel was three years old when he came to the United States. His parents were poor, and there were few opportunities for him to attend school when a boy and his best training was acquired by the wholesome work of the home place. He largely educated himself by study outside of school. He continued to live with his parents until he was twenty-seven, and all his active years have been given to farming and stock raising.
When it came time for him to make an independent start in the world he lacked none of the courage which had enabled his father to establish a home in a new and strange land. Hc bought eighty acres.
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