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 54
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In March, 1884, Mr. Mohr married Miss Ida Reyburn. To their mar- riage were born six children, all sons, and four are still living. These sons are all home and all of them received good advantages in the way of home training and discipline and the privileges of the local schools. Ernest J., the oldest, is a practical agriculturist on the home farm, is a Republican and a member of the Methodist Church. Louis is also a successful young farmer and a member of the same political party and of the same church as his brother. The two younger sons are Fred and Carl, the latter still attending school.
It would not be possible to speak too highly of the good and capable companion that Mr. Mohr chose for his wife and whose industry and thrift were such important factors in their success. She was born in Champaign County in 1863, a daughter of R. G. and Isabel (Herriott) Reyburn. She was reared and educated in this county and possessed more than ordinary ability and wisdom. She was a member of the Presbyterian Church and in that faith she passed away in October, 1915. Her remains are now at rest in the Riverside Cemetery.
Mr. Mohr has been a Republican since he acquired his American citizen- ship, and while always interested in the welfare of his community has never held any office. He is of the German Lutheran faith and is in every way a true and loyal American and has reared his sons to cherish the principles of his adopted land.
LAWRENCE E. FARLOW. While one of the younger residents of Fisher as a business man, where he has lived for the past five years, Mr. Farlow lacks none of that enthusiasm, energy and enterprise which are funda- mentals in success and the advancement of a community. His responsi- bilities in a business way are chiefly as manager of the Fisher Farmers Grain and Coal Company.
Mr. Farlow is a native of Jefferson County, Illinois, where he was born January 2, 1889, a son of S. M. and Marian (Redmond) Farlow. His father was also, born in Jefferson County and the larger part of his life has been spent as an agriculturist. The common schools educated him and he also had a year of college training. For fifteen years he was suc- cessfully at work as a teacher in Jefferson County, and many of his students now grown to, manhood and womanhood have a grateful memory of his work in their behalf. Politically he is a Democrat and has served his home county and township as an official for a number of years, having been justice of the peace sixteen years and school treasurer four years. Both he and his wife have been affiliated with the Missionary Baptist Church and he is now superintendent of the Sunday School, an office he has filled a number of years. The father resides at Belle Rive, Illinois. His wife, who was also born in Illinois, died in October, 1897, and is buried in her home township.
Lawrence E. Farlow in addition to the advantages of the common schools had one year of training in Ewing College in Franklin County, Illinois, and also took a course in Carleton College at Farmington, Mis- souri. His early work was in the same line as his father, teaching, which he followed successfully for five years in Jefferson County. Mr. Farlow came to Fisher, Illinois, in 1912, and was made bookkeeper of the Fisher Farmers Grain and Coal Company. Three months later the directors of that company, recognizing his thorough fitness and capability, made
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him manager, and the business has since grown and flourished under his capable direction.
Mr. Farlow married, February 6, 1910, Miss Bertie Bumpus. They have two young children, Coenia B. and Edwin M. These children are the pride and delight of their parents.
Mrs. Farlow was born in Jefferson County, Illinois, in 1891, and besides the common school course she attended Mount Vernon High School and spent one term in Carleton College. She is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and is secretary of the Domestic Science Club of Fisher.
The Farmers Grain and Coal Company of Fisher is one of the leading enterprises in that section of Champaign County. To the business Mr. Farlow has given the best that is in him and he is well fitted tempera- mentally for contracting business with the public. He possesses the qualities of cordiality and a pleasant greeting for all comers, and these, combined with his honesty and integrity, command for him an impreg- nable place of advantage in the community. Politically he is a Demo- crat, having cast his first presidential vote for President Wilson. . He was one of the village trustees of Fisher for one year. Mr. Farlow is a member of Lodge No. 704 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Fisher and is treasurer of the lodge. While his church affiliation is as a Baptist, he is now superintendent of the Methodist Episcopal Sunday school at Fisher, this being one of the most vigorous Sunday schools of the town. Mr. and Mrs. Farlow have a beautiful and modern bungalow residence on Fifth Street, and it is a home of peace, harmony and good cheer, where they extend their hospitality to many friends.
J. B. DUNN, after many years of activity as an agriculturist in Cham- paign County, is living retired in the comforts and conveniences of a good town home on Third Street in St. Joseph.
Mr. Dunn is a native of the grand old Blue Grass country of Harrison County, Kentucky. His parents were Benjamin F. and Rachel (Kerns) Dunn, also natives of Kentucky. Mr. Dunn grew up in Kentucky and acquired his education by attending about three months every year a sub- scription school. When he was ten years of age he lost the guidance and care of his mother and some years later his father moved to Illinois. The family arrived in Champaign County October 18, 1871, when J. B. Dunn was twenty years of age. This was only a few days after the great Chicago fire, and much excitement prevailed and all the talk on the train was of the terrible disaster. The family location was in Somer Township, near Locust Grove.
On coming to this county J. B. Dunn obtained work as a farm laborer, and afterwards, with a view to bettering his condition, farmed on the shares. He continued in this way three years.
August 3, 1878, he established a home of his own by his marriage to Matie L. Hunt. Mrs. Dunn was born in Stanton Township of Champaign County, daughter of Jonathan Hunt. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Dunn rented 200 acres in Stanton Township, and they worked hard, economized and remained on that site for eight years, at the end of which time they had acquired some capital with which to make a real start in life. Mr. Dunn then bought a farm for $40 an acre and when he got on land of his own his enthusiasm was born anew and with bountiful crops rewarding his labors he was soon on the highway to independence and success.
Into the home of Mr. and Mrs. Dunn were born five children : Claud O., Lawrence E., Ethel Irene, Lena Ray and Merle. These children were
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educated in the district schools of Stanton Township. Claud and Law- rence were also students in the St. Joseph High School, and later both of them took a business course in a college at Marion, Indiana. That gave them superior equipment for their respective callings in life. Claud O. Dunn is a successful farmer near Elwell, Michigan. He married Leonet Doll of Elkhart, Indiana, and their three children are Everett, Florence and Hilda. The son Lawrence E., a successful stockman in Indianapolis, where he is a commission merchant, married Nellie Snyder. The daughter Ethel Dunn married Raymond Besore, and they live at Alma, Michigan, where Mr. Besore is proprietor of a steam laundry. They have a son, Lisle. Lena Ray Dunn married Otis Phenicie, a farmer in Stanton Town- ship, and they have a son, Arden. Merle, the youngest child of Mr. Dunn, is associated with his brother in the stock business at Indianapolis, and both of them are doing very well for young men. Mr. Dunn's children have thus proved their ability to go out and cope with the problems of the world, and they are a credit and satisfaction to their father.
The family has experienced the usual joys and sorrows of existence, and on July 23, 1903, the good wife and mother passed away. On October 24, 1906, Mr. Dunn married Mrs. Laura E. (Swisher) O'Day. They have a bright young daughter, Roxine Lucile, now seven years of age and in the third grade of the public schools.
In 1912 Mr. and Mrs. Dunn decided to leave the farm and remove to the village of St. Joseph, where they purchased a fine brick residence on Third Street. Having spent many years as a practical farmer, Mr. Dunn is now able to enjoy thoroughly the leisure and comforts won by so much expenditure of effort. He and his wife are regular attendants of the Methodist Episcopal Church and their little daughter is a student in the Sunday school. In politics Mr. Dunn is a Democrat. He is affiliated with the Masonic order, being a charter member of St. Joseph lodge, while Mrs. Dunn is a member of the Eastern Star. Mr. Dunn is a man who with all the cares of his home and business has been willing to assume the burdens of public responsibility. He has filled several offices which indicate the confidence of the community in his judgment, such as road commissioner, township supervisor and school trustee. He is a man among men, interested in questions of vital interest to the public, and willing to get out and work for anything that concerns the welfare of Champaign County.
MORRIS F. COLE. The following sketch contains the important facts in the life and family record of a Champaign County citizen whose name always stood for all that was honest and of good report in the community. It also was significant of thrift and business integrity. Mr. Cole was a farmer, spent his life, which was prematurely cut short at the age of forty-nine, in Champaign County, and had gained a competence for him- self by his well directed labors.
He was born on a farm in section 24 of Philo Township, November 27, 1867. His death occurred at his home April 8, 1917. His parents, Charles F. and Maria (Pease) Cole, were natives of Massachusetts and were early settlers in Champaign County. His father was a practical farmer, and died in this county January 7, 1899. The mother is still liv- ing at Philo. They had eight children: Nellie, deceased ; Belle, wife of Millard Porterfield, of Fairmount, Illinois; Hattie, wife of J. N. Black, of Mahomet; Angie, wife of J. T. Black, of Peru, Indiana; Morris F .; Royal G., of Cortland, New York; and Stella and Charles, both of whom died in childhood.
The late Morris F. Cole was reared at home and in the local schools
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acquired a good education. At the age of. twenty-one he went out to Wyoming and put in three years of adventure and exciting experience as a cowboy on the ranches. He returned to Champaign County in the win- ter of 1892, was married soon afterward, and he and his wife started housekeeping on a rented farm. He handled about 300 acres of rented land and worked it profitably for himself and its owners for about seven- teen years. In the meantime he began buying land of his own and at the time of his death had 200 acres in section 25 of Philo Township.
Mr. Cole was married February 2, 1893, to Lydia Thrash, daughter of John and Matilda (Knepper) Thrash. Her parents were born in Fairfield County, Ohio, and moved to Champaign County, Illinois, in 1873, locating on a farm in Philo Township. Her father died March 8, 1917, and thus Mrs. Cole suffered bereavement of her father and husband within a few weeks. Her mother passed away October 4, 1906. Mrs. Cole was one of seven children: Emma, wife of A. J. Pettigrew of Wayne County, Illinois ; a daughter who died in infancy; Perry of Tolono, Illinois; the fifth child also died early; William lives in California; Mrs. Cole is the next; and John H. lives at Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Mr. and Mrs. Cole had five children : Hazel Mae, Estella M., Nina B., Charles F. and Gladys L. All the children are still living except Nina. -
Mr. Cole was not only a practical and progressive farmer but a man who commanded the confidence of his fellow citizens and was frequently entrusted with offices of responsibility in the community. He served as road commissioner, school director, was active in the Champaign County Agricultural Association and also held the offices of assessor and collector. He was affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Court of Honor, the Knights of Pythias, and the Loyal Order of Moose. He and his family worshipped in the Presbyterian Church.
J. L. PETERS. Three years have gone by since Mr. J. L. Peters passed that landmark of mortal journey known as three score and ten, and he and his good wife, who has been counselor and adviser and companion by his side for more than half a century, are now enjoying the comforts of retirement at their pleasant and attractive country home near the village of Tipton in St. Joseph Township.
Mr. Peters is one of the oldest living native sons of St. Joseph Town- ship, where he was born January 25, 1844. That date is of itself evidence that the Peters family came to Champaign County along with the earliest pioneers. His parents were William and Sarah (McNutt) Peters. They were born in Kentucky, were married there, and soon after their marriage they started for a new home in the North, making the journey in a covered wagon. At that time all of Champaign County was a new district, and Indians were still here in large numbers, and through their thieving and begging propensities were somewhat troublesome. Mrs. Peters had never been accustomed to such neighbors, and she lived in constant dread of the red men, though they confined their excursions to the Peters home to merely beg something to eat. When the Peters family came to Champaign County fully 500 Indians were living within its boundaries .. They usually spent the winter in the South, but returned early in the spring and fre- quented tlie sugar maple groves, where they tapped the trecs and made sugar. Amid the circumstances of pioneer life Mrs. William Peters would gladly have returned to her old home in the Blue Grass State, but such a course was not practicable and in time she became better satisfied and contented.
William Peters on coming to Champaign County filed on 160 acres
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of Government land and paid $1.25 an acre. He was an energetic worker and a good business manager. There were few of the modern facilities and institutions in Champaign County, no railroads, no interurbans, and no modern highways. He usually went to Chicago to mill, driving in a big wagon and taking a week for the trip. On one of these trips he traded the only horse he had for some land and returned home on foot, carrying the flour on his back. He was determined to have as much land as he could care for, and he was granted his desire, and at one time owned more than 400 acres of the rich and fertile soil of Champaign County. The children of these parents had to make the most of their advantages in an old log schoolhouse, a building that was exposed to the elements and in spite of a roaring fire at one end was miserably cold.
In such circumstances J. L. Peters grew to manhood. The war came on when he was still a small boy, and during his twenty-first year he volunteered at Homer and enlisted in Company K of the One Hundred and Thirty-third Illinois Infantry. He marched away with the boys in blue, being first ordered to Camp Butler at Springfield, and was then sent to Rock Island on the Mississippi River, where he was one of .the soldiers guarding 10,000 Rebel prisoners. Practically all his service was in performing this heavy guard duty, and he welcomed the restoration of peace and his relief from such burdensome responsibilities. He was mus- tered out at Springfield, given an honorable discharge, and set out for home.
It was a sad home coming, since his father had died during his absence in the army. On April 20, 1865, soon after the close of his military experience, Mr. Peters married Ann E. Moore. She was born at Greens- boro in Henry County, Indiana, a daughter of William and Rhoda (Maudlin) Moore. When she was six years of age her parents came to Champaign County and she grew up and attended the same district school as her husband.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Peters started farming the old homestead and acquired part of the estate. Here they surrounded them- selves with much material prosperity, but their chief pride has always centered in the fine family of children who have grown up around them. They are eleven in number, and were named Emmaline, Laura B., Lucinda A., Alta M., Milton, Lida M., John N., Grant, Maggie P., Minnie E. and Fred. These children were educated in the local district schools. The daughter Emmaline married Charles McElwee and her chil- dren are May, Oral, Jennie, Effie, Iscle, Thelma and Ray. Laura B. mar- ried William Coburn, and is the mother of two children, Fay and William. Lucinda A. is the wife of James Stayton, and their two children are Florence and Hazel. Milton, who married Clara Hixenbaugh, have two children, Cecil and Bessie. Lida M. married Adrian Overman, and they have a large family consisting of Hallie, Helen, Lawrence, Russel, Ruth and Ray. The son John N. married Anna Pieplow, their children being Gladys, Grace, Dallas, Wayne, Charles and Paul. The son Grant married Bessie Raderbaugh. Maggie P. is the wife of Ed Lientz and the mother of Francis, Opal, Carl and Pauline. Minnie E. married Floyd Stephenson and has a son Paul. Fred married Bertha Schmidts.
Death has not spared the Peters family circle and at different times three of the children have been taken away, Laura B., Alta M. and Milton, while the wives of the sons Graut and Milton are also deceased. Mr. Grant Peters, since the death of his wife, has lived at the old homestead with his parents, superintends the management of the farm and is a good, steady, hard working man whose presence is a great comfort to his father and mother in their declining days.
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Mrs. Peters is an active member of the New Light Church at Tipton. Politically Mr. Peters has always been stanchly aligned with the Republican party, and has given it his best support since Civil War times. He has served as school director, and having a large family of his own to educate has been extremely interested in securing the best of instruction for the young people of the neighborhood.
WILLIAM B. BROWN. By a residence of fifty-seven years in Cham- paign County there is no place in the world so dear to William B. Brown as this picturesque and beautiful section of eastern Illinois. His suc- cesses have been gained here, he reared his family on his farm, and prac- tically all the associations of a long life have been found here.
Mr. Brown was born in Monroe County, Indiana, September 22, 1854. ยท He was the only son in a family of three children born to Milton Monroe and Sarah (Houston) Brown. His two sisters are Mary Jane and Eliza E. Mary Jane is the wife of C. T. Langwell, a farmer at Reynolds, Indiana. Mrs. Langwell was educated in the common schools and is a member of the Christian Church. Eliza is the wife of A. H. Dellman, also of Reynolds, Indiana.
Milton M. Brown was born in Monroe County, Indiana, October 25, 1829, and spent his life as a farmer. He was educated in one of the log cabin schoolhouses with its slab benches and its restricted curriculum. About 1855 he came out to Eastern Illinois, making the journey in pioneer style with wagons and teams. He bought land in Brown Township, but subsequently returned to his native county. A few years later he located in Champaign County, Illinois, and at the time of his death was the owner of 280 acres of this rich soil. He was a Democrat in politics. His first wife died when William B. Brown was four years old, on December 25, 1858. She is buried in the Devore cemetery, where a monument marks her last resting place. The father married for his second wife Rosa Torpy, and of their three children all are now deceased. The lineage of the Brown family goes back to England.
William B. Brown grew up in Champaign County, attended the com- mon schools here, and early learned the lessons set for him in the fields and the meadows and the other workshops of his father's farm. When he left home it was as a wage earner and farm hand at a salary of $20 a month. In that way he continued working for six years, and he began truly at the bottom round of the ladder and steadily climbed by his own exertions by a strictly honorable relationship in all his dealings.
The first land he secured for himself was eighty acres three miles southeast of his present estate. He went in debt for most of the purchase price, having only $400 in capital at his command. For the balance he paid seven per cent interest. He made that purchase in 1880 and sold it in 1901 in order to buy his present farm of 160 acres, 140 acres being situated in section 10 and the remaining twenty in section 3. Every acre of the land is tillable, and altogether it makes a magnificent farming estate.
On January 1, 1880, Mr. Brown was united in marriage with Miss Amanda C. Blake. Seven children were the fruit of their union, four sons and three daughters. Only two are now living. Cynthia Ann is the wife of Frank Wilson. They lived at Foosland in this county until 1909, when they removed to North Dakota and they now have a fine farm of 320 acres at Fairdale in that state. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson have two children : Hazel, now attending the fifth grade of the public schools, and Bessie B., who is also in school. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church while they lived at Foosland.
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Robert C., the only living son of Mr. Brown, was educated in the com- mon schools, has proved himself a practicable and thoroughly progressive farmer, and has active charge of his father's estate. He married Miss Pearl Zimmerman. Their two sons are Warren B. and Sherrill H., both of whom are in school and are noted for their excellence in their studies. Miss Pearl Zimmerman was born in Harper County, Kansas, on Octo- ber 20, 1888, but when she was three years of age her parents came to Champaign County, where she attended the common schools. She and her husband are active members of the Christian Church. Her mother is now living with Mr. and Mrs. Robert Brown. She was one of six children, and three are now living, her two sisters being: Alta O., wife of J. A. Selberg, a successful stock buyer in Minnesota, and they have two sons ; and Fannie M., wife of J. W. Way, a farmer at Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and they are the parents of six children, three sons and three daughters.
Mrs. Robert Brown's father, Mr. Zimmerman, was born in Germany and after coming to America located on a farm in Ford County, Illinois. He was a Democrat in politics.
William B. Brown and his son Robert are both members of the Demo- cratic party. The senior Mr. Brown has served as tax collector two different terms and has been director of the local schools. His son has passed all the chairs in Lodge No. 842 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
FRANK STOUT. Practically every successful career is actuated by an earnest purpose and an energy of action sufficient to carry out definite plans of accomplishment. Purpose and energy have been the keynotes of the career of Frank Stout, a fine old-time citizen of Champaign County and one of the best known residents in the. northwestern part of the county. Mr. Stout is now enjoying the fruits of a well-spent career at his com- fortable home in Mahomet Township near the village of Mahomet. Since an early age he has been self-reliant and independent, and owes his pros- perity chiefly to the plans which have originated in his own mind and to the energy and thrift which dominated both him and his estimable wife in carrying them out.
Mr. Stout was born in Champaign County, August 27, 1857. He is the youngest of the three living children of Jacob and Louisa (Warner) Stout. His oldest brother, Charles, is a retired farmer in Champaign, a Methodist and a Republican, and he married Ella Heller. The second brother, Jesse, is now retired from farming and a resident of Champaign, is a Republican and a Methodist, and is married and has six children.
Jacob Stout, the father of these children, was born in Ohio, was reared and educated there, and came to Illinois a young man without capital. His first work was done as a farm hand at $18 a month, and he followed this kind of employment steadily for a number of years. For nine years he lived in Missouri and made his first purchase of land in that state. Altogether he made the trip between Illinois and Missouri three times and each time in the emigrant style, with wagons and teams. He finally bought 120 acres in Champaign County, in Scott Township, assumed heavy obligations, but had his property all clear of indebtedness before his death. He began voting as a Whig and was afterwards a Republican, and he and his wife were devout Methodists. His death occurred about 1887, and in the cemetery at Monticello a monument marks his last resting place. His wife was also a native of Ohio, had a common school education, and her death occurred in 1862. She is also buried at Monticello.
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