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 58
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In 1871 Mr. Fenwick was married to Martha E. Johnson, who was born near Richmond, Wayne County, Indiana, daughter of William and Cath- erine (Ladd) Johnson, a member of a notable family which traces its ancestry back many generations in this country, and a granddaughter of a cousin of President John Quincy Adams. To Mr. and Mrs. Fenwick there were born the following children: Cary C., W. J., Inez C. and Zula B., all graduates of the St. Joseph High School, where they made exceptional records, and all now worthy and honorable citizens of their communities. Cary C. Fenwick married Juniata Graham, who was born at Vevay in southern Indiana, daughter of Robert and Martha (Lester) Graham, a family which owned and operated the ferry at Vevay. She has been granted a Government license as pilot on the Ohio River, dated August 9, 1915. Cary C. Fenwick is one of the foremost carpenters and contractors of St. Joseph Township, having built some of the finest struc- tures in this part of the county, including the brick Christian Church at St. Joseph, of which he and his family are members and liberal supporters, he having served as superintendent of the Sunday school. Mr. Fenwick is one of his locality's honored citizens and the possessor of a refined wife and attractive home. W. J. Fenwick married Irma Martin of Louisa, and has one child, Louise. He resides at home and is engaged in assisting his father with the work of the homestead. Inez C. Fenwick married Alex- ander Penny and resides at Skykomish, Washington, where Mr. Fenwick is connected with railroad shops. Mrs. Penny was formerly for one year worthy matron of the Order of the Eastern Star at Urbana, Illinois. Zula B. Fenwick married Charles Davis, a farmer of St. Louis, Michigan, and has one child, Martha.
In various ways M. Fenwick has been a factor in bringing about the development of Champaign County, and his assistance has been constant in support of worthy measures. He has served as road commissioner and school director, and when the first drainage system was installed was elected drainage commissioner, and with his helpers dug and completed forty miles of open and tile ditches within three years in one township, a feat which is one that stands out as a great accomplishment in the history of
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this section. In political matters he holds to broad views on various sub- jects and refuses to allow himself to be confined to party lines, his support being given to the men whom he believes best qualified for the office and to the policies that he feels are best for the general welfare. He has been a generous donator to the Christian Church, of which he and his family are members. For fifty years he has been identified with Masonry, in which he has attained to the thirty-second degree, and his son has also been a member of this order for some years. In every respect Mr. Fen- wick is a representative citizen of his community, a man whose excellent reputation has been built upon a long period of straightforward dealing and clean living, and a worthy bearer of this honorable family name.
ROBERT J. MYERS. For forty-one years Robert J. Myers has lived in Champaign County. Those have been years of productive labor, of public spirited enterprise, and few men have left a stronger impress upon their home locality than he. He was not a wealthy man when he came to this county and his prosperity has been the fruit of long continued work, good management and an unselfish interest in the life and affairs of his community.
He is a native of the old Blue Grass State and was born in Lewis County, Kentucky, March 23, 1853. He is the oldest of four children, three sons and one daughter, born to John Means and Isabel (Markland) Myers. Three children are still living: Robert, Henry and Nannie. Henry, still living in Lewis County, Kentucky, is both a farmer and manager of a large tobacco warehouse. He is married and he and his wife are members of the Christian Church. Nannie is the wife of A. G. Wilson, a farmer and breeder of blooded horses in Lewis County, Ken- tucky.
John M. Myers was born in Lewis County November 2, 1812. His death occurred in 1896, at the age of eighty-four. He improved his limited advantages in the common schools so as to be able to teach for a number of terms. In politics he was an old line Whig and an admirer and supporter of Henry Clay. From that party he went into the Repub- lican ranks upon the organization and cast his vote for Fremont in 1856. Besides the ownership of 572 acres in Lewis County he acquired 1104 acres of land in Newcomb Township of Champaign County, Illinois. Part of, his Champaign County possessions he entered direct from the government. Land that he paid a dollar and a quarter an acre for could not now be bought for less than three hundred dollars an acre. He and his son Robert walked all the way from Kentucky to Illinois to enter the land in Champaign County. Combined with his ability and success in material affairs John M. Myers possessed the qualifications of the true Kentucky gentleman. He lived liberally and hospitably and was a man looked up to wherever he was known. His death occurred in the old home where he was born and reared. His wife was a native of Adams County, Ohio, born there September 20, 1818, and died a number of years ago. She grew to young womanhood in her native state, was edu- cated in Ohio, and then accompanied her parents to Lewis County, Kentucky. Her father was William Markland. John M. Myers and wife were both members of the Christian Church.
Mr. Robert J. Myers grew up in his native state. The advantages he acquired in the local schools were supplemented by a rigid course of self training and study. At one time he attended school kept in a log cabin. He even used and made the old-fashioned goose quill pen as the implement of writing. For thirteen terms Mr. Myers was a school teacher, teaching ยท twelve terms in his native state and one in Illinois. Some of his Ken-
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tucky schools were supported on the subscription plan. His home was with his parents until he was twenty-thrce and part of his earnings always went into the family cxchequer.
At the age of thirteen Mr. Myers met with an accident which made his left leg permanently crippled. In spite of that handicap his indomit- able energy and ambition has made him a very successful man. Coming to Illinois, he took up a life of agriculture, and that has been his chief calling and the source of his best success. With the aid of his good wife he has accumulated 200 acres of the rich land in Newcomb Township and they also have a beautiful residence in Fisher.
On December 21, 1886, Mr. Myers married Miss Anna Belle Gilmore. Two children have been born to their union, a son and a daughter. John G., the son, has for the past seven years been a resident of Mansfield, Illinois, and is assistant cashier and bookkeeper in the State Bank of that town He was educated in the Fisher High School, and before entering the bank took a business course in the Bloomington Business College. He is a Republican, and in Masonry has advanced from the Blue Lodge to the thirty-second degree of Scottish Rite. He is a live and enterprising young citizen and besides lis connection with the bank is associated with Alva James in the automobile business. John G. Myers was married in December, 1916, to Miss Phoebe James.
Lela M., the only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Myers, married W. B. Scott. A resident of Fisher, he spends his time in travel as an employe in the United States mail service. Mrs. Scott was educated in the Fisher schools, is an active member of the Domestic Science Club and was its secretary four years. She and her husband are members of the Christian Church at Fisher. Mr. Scott was educated in the common schools and the Danville High School and is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America. The delight of the home of Mr. and Mrs. Scott and the grand- parents, where Mrs. Scott resides, is the little daughter, Virginia Erretine.
Mrs. Myers was born in Licking County, Ohio, October 9, 1865, a daughter of George. W. and Hannah J. (Holland) Gilmore. She was one of four sons and two daughters, five of whom are living and all residents of Illinois. Her father was a native of Virginia, where he grew to manhood and received his education. Hc and his wife werc mar- ried about the time of the war and removed to Licking County, Ohio. He followed agriculture as his vocation and had seventy-five acres in Licking County. During the war he fought as a soldier and at the end of his term was granted an honorable discharge. His death occurred June 2, 1898. Politically he was a Democrat and he and his wife were members of the Methodist Church. Mrs. Gilmore, also a native of Vir- ginia, where she was reared and married, attended the common schools and she died in Champaign County in 1901. Both of them are now at rest in the Mahomet Cemetery, where a monument marks their resting place. Mrs. Myers was educated in the common schools and has proved a most capable helpmate and counselor to her husband in the rearing of their children and the establishment of their home.
In politics Mr. Myers is a Republican and cast his first presidential vote for James G. Blaine in 1884. . For nine years he served as assessor of Newcomb Township. He and his wife are active members of the Court of Honor at Mahomet and belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church at Fisher.
MARTIN ORLANDO STOVER. Farmers arc the uncrowned kings of America today, and if they do not hold the political destiny of the country in their hands they are at least the custodians of the resources which are the
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most vital and necessary to the welfarc and existence of the millions who live in the great cities and industrial centers. Champaign County has a wealth of men who are doing their part in the development of American agriculture, and it is no disparagement of what others are doing and have done to name Martin Orlando Stover as a recognized leader among them all.
Mr. Stover has been identified with this county since 1883. His beauti- ful country home, known as Evergreen View, is located two and a half miles northwest of Mahomet on the Bloomington Road and it is one of the farms which might be selected as an example of what scientific and system- atic management can accomplish.
Mr. Stover was born in Edgar County, Illinois, March 31, 1861. His parents were Ptollman and Mary E. (Earhart) Stover. He was the second of their three children, and his two sisters are both deceased. His father was born in West Alexandria, Preble County, Ohio, in 1833, and is still living at the venerable age of eighty-four, his home being in California. He was reared and educated in his native state and was for years a successful farmer and horticulturist. After his marriage in Ohio he moved to Wayne County, Indiana, lived there three years, and about 1860 settled in Edgar County, Illinois. A short time after the birth of his son Martin O. he went to Charleston, Illinois, and his first wife died therc. He afterwards married Mrs. Mary Harris Dilling, and of the five children of that union three are living. Some time prior to the Civil War P. Stover invented a corn planter, and it was one of the first successful devices of the kind ever introduced. From Illinois he returned to Wayne County, Indiana, where he married his second wife and where he bought eighty acres of land. In 1871 he removed to Missouri, lived about twenty-five years there as a farmer and fruit grower, and about 1896 went west to California, where he is still living. He began voting as a Whig and for sixty years has supported the Republican candidates and principles. He is a Master Mason and in religion is liberal. His first wife was a native of Ohio, was reared and educated there, and was a member of the German Reformed Church.
Martin Orlando Stover lived with his father in Missouri from 1871 until 1883, but otherwise his experience has been chiefly in Illinois. After the common school course he entered the Versailles High School in Morgan County, Missouri, graduated in 1880, and also took a normal training sum- mer school course at Versailles. From 1879 to 1889 he was successfully engaged in teaching. Four years of that work were done in Missouri and six years in Champaign County, partly near his present home and partly near Fisher.
In 1885 he and his wife located on the eighty acres in Newcomb Town- ship which Mrs. Stover inherited. Their present home farm is 209 acres in Mahomet Township, and they still own forty acres in Newcomb Township. Some years ago Mr. Stover remodeled a beautiful residence and has made it one of the most attractive country homes in the county. Since giving up school teaching he has devoted his life to farming and on the scientific plan. He has judiciously combined experience and the theories taught in books and by professors of agriculture, and has reduced farming to a strict business principle. He keeps books on his farm and at any time he knows exactly where he stands in matters of assets and liabilities. For years he has practiced the principle of crop rotation, and all his fields in his farms in Newcomb and Mahomet townships are numbered and strict count is kept of each field. He has adopted the system advocated by the United States Department of Agriculture and the State University Agri- cultural Department, known as the Farmers Account Book. Mr. Stover is authority for the statement that about 125 farmers in Champaign County follow the same plan.
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On December 24, 1885, Mr. Stover married Miss Laura B. Lyons. They are the parents of a son and daughter. Nellie E., the older, was educated in the common schools and for a short time attended the University of Illinois. She is now the wife of Ernest Mitchell, and they live on a farm in Newcomb Township. They have one daughter, Louise, now eight years of age and a student in the second grade. Nellie is a member of the Baptist Church. Orville O., the son, is still at home and is active manager of his father's farming enterprise. He was educated in the common schools, graduated from the Mahomet High School, and spent one year in the agricultural course of the University of Illinois. He is a member of the Masonic Lodge at Mahomet.
Mrs. Stover was born in Champaign County February 13, 1861, a daughter of Samuel and Martha (Newell) Lyons. She is the second of three living children. Her older brother, William B., has shown great ability as a business farmer and stock raiser and in Michigan is handling a farm for the breeding and raising of Hereford cattle. Her younger brother, Dwight, is a farmer in Condit Township of Champaign County.
Samuel Lyons was a native of Kentucky, and came to Champaign County in 1856, when a young man. He made his start here with little capital, though he was a member of a well to do family in Kentucky, and at the time of his death, which occurred about 1888, he left his children a goodly estate and also an untarnished name and a reputation for square dealing. Mrs. Stover was educated in the common schools and for years has been an active member of the Baptist Church at Mahomet.
The Stover home possesses one of the best private libraries found in that part of Champaign County. The 500 volumes range from the Encyclopedia Britannica to the classic works of literature, and all the books show wise and careful handling and study. Mr. Stover has always been a student, has kept in close touch with life and affairs and there is hardly a doubt that his well trained mind has had a great deal to do with his success as a farmer.
In past years he figured somewhat prominently in local politics as a member of the Democratic party. He represented his party in various county and state conventions and served six years as supervisor of Mahomet Township, as clerk of Newcomb Township, as a director of the schools and being an old teacher he has performed his greatest pleasure in sustaining and keeping up good educational institutions in his community. He has steadily advocated the hiring of the best talent and the securing of modern equip- ment for school use. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Mahomet Lodge of Masons, with Chapter No. 50, R. A. M., and Commandery No. 68, Knights Templar, at Champaign, and he is also a member of the Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows at Mahomet.
ISAAC HIXENBAUGH is an old time resident of Champaign County, was for many years identified not only with farming but also the civic affairs of Ogden Township, and is now enjoying the comforts of material pros- perity and the rewards of his earlier strenuous efforts in a pleasant home at Homer.
Mr. Hixenbaugh was born near West Warren in Marion County, West Virginia, May 4, 1846, a son of Isaac and Martha (Ogden) Hixenbaugh. His mother's brother, John Ogden, was the man after whom Ogden town and Ogden Township in this county were named. Isaac Hixenbaugh was one of eight children, next to the youngest, and grew up and received his education in a backwood district of West Virginia, where he attended a log school conducted on the subscription plan. He sat on a roughi board bench without a back, learned the lessons of the few text books, chiefly an
MARY M. HIXENBAUGH FIRST WIFE
ISAAC HIXENBAUGH
PRISCILLA E. HIXENBAUGHI SECOND WIFE
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arithmetic, speller and reader, and had limited comforts and conveniences both in school and at home. When he was fourteen years of age his parents moved to Green County, Pennsylvania, locating seventeen miles west of Waynesburg. After three years they moved to Morrow County, Ohio, settling half a mile south of Sparta, on a farm.
Isaac Hixenbaugh was in Morrow County, Ohio, four years, and in 1868, at the age of twenty-two, came to Illinois, spending one year a mile east of Mount Vernon, Ohio. 'On August 19, 1869, he married Miss Mary M. Freeman. Mrs. Hixenbaugh was born in Homer Township of Champaign County, three miles southwest of Ogden, a daughter of Thomas and Nancy Freeman. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Hixenbaugh located three-quarters of a mile north of where the town of Ogden now stands. At that time there was no Ogden, no railroad, and everything was new and primitive. Mr. Hixenbaugh paid $10.50 per acre for a tract of forty acres. Three years later he moved three and a half miles south- west of Ogden and bought fifty-one acres, which was one of the first improved farms in that section of the county. He paid $42.50 an acre for the land and forthwith began the task of making a permanent home there. His industry was rewarded and he became able to buy other land until he acquired 236 acres. Mrs. Hixenbaugh also inherited 170 acres. Mr. Hixenbaugh built two good barns, a commodious house, surrounded the home with fruit and shade trees, and in that pleasant environment his chil- dren grew up. Instead of buying more land for himself he wisely assisted his children in acquiring their homes.
Mr. and Mrs. Hixenbaugh had six children, Louie Margaret, Newton, Clara, Grace, Thomas and Ava. Grace and Thomas died in infancy and Clara died at the age of twenty-two. The children were educated in the Clark School in District No. 1. The daughter Louie M. married Thomas W. Richards, a retired farmer at Homer, and they have two children, Amanda and Bessie. Amanda is the wife of Frederick Umbenhour and has two children, Dorothy and Edward, while Bessie is the wife of Thurl Schaum- burg, and has one child, Earl Richards.
Newton Hixenbaugh first married Eva Curry, who was burned to death thirty days after her wedding, and he subsequently married Mattie None- maker and by that union has two children, Dolly and Maud.
Ava Hixenbaugh is the wife of Charles Boyd, a farmer living on the old Hixenbaugh homestead. They have one child, Byrl. In the summer of 1917 a part of the cyclone which did such devastation in central Illinois tore the Boyd home to pieces. Mrs. Boyd was asleep in the house, while her little daughter, four years old, was playing outdoors. The daughter ran into the house and waked her mother just in time for them to escape into the cellar. The brick chimney tumbled down, a total ruin, striking the bed where Mrs. Boyd had been lying. Fortunately the floor fell with one edge resting on the bank cellar, and thus the mother and daughter were protected from harm.
On April 8, 1914, the good wife and mother, Mrs. Hixenbaugh, passed away, after having reared her children, and with their benedictions and the kindly memories of many friends following her. On August 31, 1914, Mr. Hixenbaugh married Mrs. Priscilla E. Richards. Her first husband was R. H. Trout, and before her marriage to Mr. Hixenbaugh she was the widow of Cyrus Richards. By her first marriage she had children named Charles, Boyd, Grace, Boyce and Lacy Trout. Charles Trout is a phy- sician practicing in Missouri and by his marriage to Miss Lottie Maynard has two daughters, Thelma and Evelyn. Boyd Trout is a farmer near Fair- mount, Indiana, and married Grace Bowers, their two children being Cecil and Irene. Grace Trout is the wife of William Jones of Shreveport,
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Louisiana, and has two children, Eugene and Meredith. Boyce Trout is a barber at Muncie, Indiana, and married Gladys Hamilton, their four chil- dren being Mary, Oma, Virgil and Carl. Lacy Trout resides near Mathews, Indiana, married Quincy Tapman, and has two children, Evelyn and Paul.
In addition to rearing their own children Mr. and Mrs. Hixenbaugh have had in their home his granddaughter, Bessie Peters, who is now Mrs. Wakefield of Homer, Illinois.
Mr. Hixenbaugh is one of the men who has lived to see the low ground drained, the prairies cultivated and Champaign County blossom like a rose. In the early days of low prices he sold corn at 16 cents a bushel, oats at 11 cents and hogs at 21/2 cents a pound. He had his share of the trials and adversities of pioneer days. He has not gone through life with- out giving his share to the public welfare. He served as school director seven years and was the first assessor to be elected in Ogden Township and also assisted in making the first poll book of that township. He and his wife are attendants at the Christian Church in Ogden and in politics he is a Democrat. In August, 1917, Mr. Hixenbaugh left his farm and bought a comfortable residence at 304 Fourth Street in the town of Homer. He felt that the time had come for his retirement from the active responsi- bilities of farming, and his material prosperity well justified such a move. He was not sure that he would be contented away from the farm and his accustomed work, but to his surprise he has found good friends and neigh- bors, and has thoroughly enjoyed his new life in this sociable and cultured community.
JOHN WESLEY STIPES. In the spring of 1917, after the declaration of war was made and preparations were hurried to convert and organize this nation for war, the United States Government made known its pur- pose for the selection of a location for an aviation field in Illinois and preferably convenient to the State University. A committee of half a dozen men were called together by President James of the University, and of this committee J. W. Stipes, of Champaign, was elected chairman. This committee gave careful study to the problems involved and after looking over many locations selected four possible sites, each a mile square, containing 640 acres. That was the work of the committee and after that the government had to choose among these four locations. The presence of the State University was a big factor in deciding the problem, since the university would undoubtedly furnish a large number of men for the aviation corps. The Champaign Chamber of Commerce, together with the committee, began an energetic canvass to convince the government that the Rantoul field would be the best suited for the purpose. Mr. J. W. Stipes went to Washington and for several weeks used his untiring efforts, as a result of which it was decided to acquire and develop the site at Rantoul.
In line with what seems a general policy of the Federal Government during the war, the improvement of this site was turned over to the civil authorities, and in this case largely to local men. Mr. Stipes, at the head of these local citizens, together with the English Brothers, secured the contract for improving and erecting the buildings on the ground, the contract to be completed in sixty days. Four days after the contract was signed 800 men were busily engaged, and at the end of ten days a force of 1,500 men and 225 teams were at work. By the end of June every building was under way and fifty per cent of the improvement was com- pleted, and before the end of the summer the grounds were in use for the training of an aviation corps. The buildings consist of barracks, store buildings, hospital, school, and twelve hangars for the flying machines,
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