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 7
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Such advantages as the district schools were able to afford Thomas E. Smitlı availed himself of when a boy, but he was only fifteen when he began the battle of life for himself. His first experience was on the farm, and on account of failing health he soon went out to Minnesota. He spent two years therc and then going to South Dakota took up a claim. It would be a long story to recount all his experiences while in the North- west. He broke the virgin prairie lands with ox teams, and hauled his supplies on a stone boat drawn by oxen from Huron, South Dakota, eighteen miles from his settlement. It required a courageous spirit and an unlimited determination to survive the life of that period in the far Northwest. Mr. Smith finally sold his claim in South Dakota and for a time was a cattle rancher in Montana.
On May 1, 1884, having returned to Illinois, Mr. Smith engaged in the retail meat business at Champaign. That business has grown apace. He proved an adept not only in the service which a retail trade demands but in all other departments of the business, both buying and selling, and his interests have consequently assumed a large scale. In 1916 he built a cold storage plant four stories high and 80x195 feet in ground dimen- sions, absolutely fire proof, of brick and cement construction. This plant is adapted to the manufacture of ice and the handling of all kinds of meats and produce for cold storage. Mr. Smith also has another cold storage plant in Urbana, though not so large as the Champaign plant.
While building up his business he has not neglected the general welfare of the community. He served two terms in the city council, and for nine years was a member of the school board and during that time was chairman of the Building and Grounds Committee. Mr. Smith is a Republican, is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Wood- men of the World, and though not a member gives his active support to the Christian Church.
On March 17, 1890, Mr. Smith married Amanda Gibson, a native of Jasper County, Illinois. They are the parents of five children: Gladys May, a teacher in the public schools at Champaign ; Florence E., who died in August, 1915 ; Cleone, Harold T. and Alice, all at home.
ARTHUR ROBINSON STEWART'S chief work in Champaign County has been as an unusually competent and capable farmer. It is one of the larger and better managed places in Champaign Township where he has put into practice the accumulated wisdom and experience of many years as an agriculturist and stockman. Mr. Stewart and family are well known socially in their country community and also in the city centers of the county.
He was born in Ross County, Ohio, July 25, 1855, but in the same
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year was brought to Champaign County by his parents, Samuel G. and Jane (Evans) Stewart. His father was born in New York State, April 4, 1816, and his mother in Ohio on December 28, 1820. After eoming to Champaign County Samuel Stewart loeated land in Somers Township, and gave his time and toil to the improvement and cultivation of that farm for many years. His death occurred May 10, 1891. His wife had died August 26, 1867, and both were buried in Champaign. There were nine children: Esther, who died April 3, 1908; William, who became a Union soldier and died while still in the service at Memphis, Tennessee, October 20, 1863, being then little past twenty-one, since he was born January 14, 1842 ; Martha Ann, born October 28, 1843, died December 12, 1881; Mary E., born March 10, 1845, died July 15, 1893; Jane A., born September 5, 1846, is still living in Champaign County ; Robert E., born April 12, 1852, resides in Oregon; Emma D., born March 10, 1854, is the wife of George Lyman of Portsmouth, Arkansas; Arthur Robinson; and Walter N., who was born January 25, 1858, and lives at North Yakima, Washington.
In addition to the early training he secured in the common schools, and the practical experience on his father's farm, Mr. Stewart attended the agricultural department of the University of Illinois for about two years. He remained on the old honiestead in Somers Township, and subsequently was associated with his brother in managing the home farm of 200 acres. Later Mr. Stewart bought the interests of the other heirs in the farm, and retained its ownership and management until 1911, when he sold the farm to the Illinois Central Railway Company as a site for shops. Mr. Stewart then bought the old Beasly farm of 160 acres in seetion 1, Champaign 'Township. This gives him a large and productive place to manage, and he has handled it largely as a dairy proposition, having a herd of mixed Hol- steins and Jerseys.
He has not neglected the public welfare while attending to his private interests and for one year served as township assessor in Somer Township. He is a Republican. He and his wife are members of the Congregational Church and Mrs. Stewart belongs to the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
On September 4, 1900, Mr. Stewart married Margaret Nesbaume Roper, who was born in Ohio, daughter of Charles and Amelia ( Nesbaume) Roper, the former a native of New Hampshire and the latter of Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart have four children: Lyman Roper, who was born June 18, 1902 ; Charles Robert, born November 11, 1903, and died October 3, 1904; Donald Judson, born January 25, 1906; and Catherine Elizabeth, born February 23, 1909.
ALVIN E. HUCKINS is head of the leading clay products business of Champaign County. A mechanical engineer by profession, Mr. Huckins has been identified with several large industrial eorporations in the United States, and now gives his time and energies to a plant at Urbana which is capable of turning out any form or class of product from clay. It is a big business, and Mr. Huckins is considered one of the big business men of this community.
He was born in Chicago, July 31, 1884, and as a young man made his way through difficulties to suecess. His parents, Clarence L. and Flora E. (Ryans) Huckins, were both natives of Canada and both are now deeeased. His father was for many years in the wholesale tobacco business in Chicago. Mr. Huckins was the youngest of their five children, the others being: William A., of Miami, Florida; Albert C., of Chicago; Webster Lee, of Chicago; and Luella R., wife of Walter Quinn, of Chi- cago.
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Mark Corley
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
Mr. Huckins had a grammar school education in Chicago, and sold papers in order to pay his way through the English High and Manual Training School of that city. He also did night work in .an architect's office and subsequently had some valuable experience with Piercc, Richard -. son & Neiler, a prominent firm of consulting engineers. For a year and, a half Mr. Huckins 'was assistant superintendent of the American. Spiral. Pipe Company of Chicago.
In 1903 he entered the College of Mechanical Engineering at Cham-, paign, and had two years of technical training. In 1905 he took the" position of superintendent of the Abendroth & Root Manufacturing Com -. pany of Newburgh, New York: He was there about three and a half years and then removed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where for a short time he was connected with the Standard Asphalt and Rubber Company ..
Returning to Chicago in 1909, Mr. Huckins became associated with J. W. Stipes in the Shieldon' Brick Company. For several years he was' connected with that corporation, and in 1912 hic bought the Sheldon Brick' Company's plant at Urbana. This is one of the largest plants for the. manufacture of clay products in this section. ' It has a capacity of forty thousand bricks a day or ten million a year. The company .manu-' factures bricks of every type and size and for every purpose and a large line of other. clay products. Mr. Huckins is vice president for Illinois, of the National Brick Association and is secretary of the- Illinois Clay Manufacturers Association. He is an ex-president of the Chamber" of. Commerce of Champaign. Mr. Huckins is a Republican, a member of the Masonic' Order, and of the Rotary Club. .,
He was married November 7, 1906, to Miss Clara Gerc, a native of: Champaign. They have two daughters and a son: Helen, born March, 18, 1911; Clara Beth, born February 21, 1915, and 'Alvin E. Huckins, Jr., born June 11, 1917. Mrs. Huckins is a daughter of the late George W. and Mary H. Gere, her mother still living in Champaign. George W. Gere was a prominent attorney at Champaign; and represented a. number, of large corporations, including the Illinois Central Railway, the' Big. Four Railway Company, the Illinois Traction System, and some. years ago was candidate for governor of Illinois on the prohibition "ticket. Mrs. Huckins is the only surviving child of her parents, her sister Eva. having died a number of years ago.
MARK CARLEY was one of the founders of the city of Champaign: His' name appears again and again in connection with the early annals of that city and of Champaign County, and always he appears as a man of force,' of almost unlimited enterprise and of a public 'spirit that' was in keeping. with his many successes in private life. He knew much of the world by experience and had come to, Champaign County soon after returning from an excursion to California during the great gold excitement on the Pacific Coast. His own life was to a large degree the expression of those forces' accumulated and inherited by him from a notable American ancestry.
The Carleys were staunch and patriotic New Englanders. Mark Carley was born at Hancock in Hillsboro County, New Hampshire, August 24, 1799. He was a son of Elijah and Agnes (Graham) Carley and a grand- son of Joseph and Sarah (Washburn) Carley. He was thus related to the Washburns whose names appear frequently in New England history, and from the same family came the Washburns who were conspicuous in the early days of Illinois. The Carleys were of Scotch-Irish ancestry. They settled in America long before the Revolution, and one of the cherished · possessions of the descendants is a discharge paper signed by George Wash- ington and granting release from the Continental Army to Jonathan Carley,
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
an uncle of the late Mark Carley. By kinship and social ties the Carleys were closely connected with many of the leading families of the New Eng- land states and also in the states of New York, Kentucky, Ohio and Illinois. Among such families were the Stevensons of Vermont, prominent in Colo- nial and Revolutionary history, the Harrimans, the Fisks, the Lawsons and the Kendalls. There were also the Goulds and Boutons of Chicago. Louise Carley Lawson, a sister of Mark Carley, acquired marked distinction as an artist in her generation. She was the wife of Professor L. M. Lawson, dean of the Medical College of Ohio and later of the Medical College of Lexington, Kentucky.
When Mark Carley was eleven years of age his parents removed from New Hampshire to Vermont. He grew up in the hills of that State and his education was confined to the practical branches of learning taught in the public schools and to such experience as he could acquire. As a youth he learned the trade of carpenter and millwright. At the age of twenty, leaving home, he spent a brief time in the province of New Brunswick and then set sail for New Orleans. The vessel carrying him was wrecked and the passengers landed at Savannah, Georgia. From there he crossed to Havana, Cuba, and finally arrived at New Orleans April 24, 1820. In Louisiana Mark Carley had an extensive experience building mills and cotton gins. While there he learned to speak fluently the language of the French Creoles.
In 1830, during one of his visits to the North, he married Abigail Wetherbee Stevens. In 1837 Mark Carley established his home in Cler- mont County, along the Ohio River, in southern Ohio. There he acquired large interests as a land holder, farmed them, and also engaged in boating on the Ohio River.
In 1850 Mark Carley left his property interests in southern Ohio and crossed the plains to the gold fields of California. Here his qualities of leadership made him a marked man among the fearless and democratic . element of that State. He was chosen judge of the Minors' Court and was prominent in regulating public affairs in the district where his own opera- tions were.
In 1853 Mark Carley came to Champaign County and located at Urbana. He erected the first dwelling house in the city of Champaign, and also constructed the first grain warehouse therc. He introduced the first steam engine for the operation of his elevator. A number of other business enterprises and buildings were the direct result of his enterprise and capital, and several buildings are still standing in Champaign as a monument to this pioneer. Some years later Mark Carley built the fine old homestead at 134 West Church Street, which is now occupied by his granddaughter, Martha Kincaid Weston.
Mark Carley was an ardent Whig and admirer of Henry Clay. Among the heirlooms left by him is an ivory snuff-box which was presented to him by the great Kentucky statesman. He naturally gravitated into the Repub- lican party when that was formed, and the most distinguished visitor who ever graced the old homestead at 134 West Church Street was Abraham Lincoln.
Mark Carley lived vigorously throughout a long lifetime. He was nearly eighty-nine years of age when he passed away at his home in Cham- paign, February 3, 1888. His wife died November 12, 1871. They were the parents of three children : Mrs. Mary A. Carley Kincaid; Mrs. Isotta Carley Mahan of Kenwood, Chicago, but now a resident of Los Angeles; and Graham Carley, who was an important capitalist and man of affairs and died in Hyde Park, Chicago, Illinois, in 1893.
Mary A. Carley, oldest child of the late Mark Carley, was born in Cler-
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mont County, Ohio, and was married in Ohio in August, 1851, to the late Dr. Samuel W. Kincaid. Dr. Kincaid was born at West Union, in Adams County, Ohio, July 15, 1823, a son of Judge John Kincaid. His brother, Hon. W. P. Kincaid, for several years represented his Ohio district in Congress. The Kincaid family is descended from the Lairds of Kincaid of Stirlingshire, Scotland. The first Kincaid in America was Captain John Kincaid, who located in Virginia in 1707. He was a native of the north of Ireland, while his wife, Margaret Lockhart, was born in Scotland. Their son, Captain James Kincaid, was a gallant Revolutionary soldier and married a niece of James Wilson, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Dr. S. W. Kincaid was liberally educated in the schools of Cincinnati, and entering the Medical College of Ohio was graduated M. D. with the. class of 1853. Soon afterward he removed to Ohio and began practice at Tolono in Champaign County. In 1855 he removed to Champaign, then known as West Urbana, and was a prominent figure in professional circles for a number of years. He finally retired from practice and returned to his old boyhood home in Ohio, where he died. Mrs. Kincaid died in Cham- paign, February 3, 1907. She was the mother of four children: Annie, Carley and Frank, all deceased ; and Martha K.
Martha Kincaid is the widow of Charles Weston, who graduated from the University of Illinois as president of his class of 1876 and subsequently was elected auditor of the State of Nebraska. Mrs. Weston, as already mentioned, occupies the old homestead of her grandfather and lias many of the family heirlooms connected with the Carley lineage. She is a cul- tured woman and has long been prominent in musical affairs in Champaign. She is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and of the Colonial Dames, and is eligible to the Mayflower Society as well. Mrs. Weston's mother was also a member of the Colonial Dames.
SOLOMON MERCER, whose recent death was deplored by a host of friends, had been identified with Champaign County from the period of early youth, and had borne the heat and burden of the day during his early efforts at establishing a home and improving a farm. His later years were years of comfort and the growing esteem of his friends.
Mr. Mercer was born in Monroe County, Ohio, at Millwood, a son of Aaron and Mary (Cecil) Mercer. His father was a native of Virginia and his mother of Ohio. The father left Virginia in early youth, settling in Ohio, and there he married and his children were born, consisting of five sons and three daughters. Solomon Mercer received his first instruc- tion in the public schools of Monroe and Logan counties, Ohio. He was still a child when his parents came to Illinois, and after two years in Vermilion County located in Champaign County, where the children con- tinued their education at the Blue Grass school. Aaron Mercer was a very industrious man and worked hard and faithfully to provide for his family. By occupation he was a carpenter, built a large number of the early homes in Champaign County, and was very ingenious in the use of tools, being able to make all manner of furniture and also burial caskets. In a new country his services were in great demand and were much appreciated. He and his wife lived in Champaign County until they died.
When Solomon Mercer was twenty-five years of age he married Miss Mary Wyman. She was born in Ohio but when a girl came to Illinois witlı hier parents, and grew up and was educated in Vermilion County. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Mercer took a rented farm in Kerr Township, and were renters for four years. They possessed industry and thrift, and besides supplying the simple needs and comforts of the home they were able to accumulate something for the future. They possessed that spirit which
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has been described by the poet as "that delightful discontent which the hope of better things inspires within us." Thus at the end of four years they felt justified in buying 320 acres of land at a price of less than $40 an acre. They did not pay for the entire tract at once, but every year saw them a little further along the road to independence and in time they had the farm clear and improvements that enhanced its value several fold.
Into their home came four children: William L .; Allie, who died at the age of six years; Charles and Addie. Mr. and Mrs. Mercer from the first made ample provision to furnish these children with an education and with means of advancement to honorable position in the world. The chil- dren first attended the Sugar Grove school and afterwards finished the course of the Paxton High School. Addie graduated with honors from that school and all three children have made a creditable record. William i's now a traveling salesman for the iron works at Galion, Ohio. His nat- ural good nature makes him popular in the work and he travels all over the United States. He married Fannie Martin, and they have one daughter, Dorothy. Charles Mercer married Jessie Molsbury and they live in Clark County, Ohio. He is the proprietor of an elevator. Their four children are named Chester, Opal, Marion and Harold. Addie Mercer is the wife of J. W. McCall of Gibson City, Illinois, where Mr. McCall is superin- tendent of the canning factory.
Mr. Mercer, as was his wife, was an active member and liberal sup- porter of the Congregational Church at Paxton. On October 2, 1916, the death angel visited the home and took away the good wife and mother, after they had walked side by side along life's road for fifty-four years, sharing each other's joys and sorrows, and on the first anniversary, October 2, 1917, Mr. Mercer died. Mrs. Mercer was a good wife, a kind and loving mother and a splendid neighbor. Her funeral service was conducted by Rev. Mr. Webster, minister of the Congregational Church at Paxton, and a large concourse of friends and relatives gathered to pay their last tribute of respect. After the death of his wife Mr. Mercer made his home with his sister, Martha Morain of Penfield, widow of Isaac Morain. Mr. and Mrs. Morain were married in Champaign County and he died here in 1861.
Mr. Mercer had always been distinguished by public spirit and his fellow citizens showed their confidence in his judgment by electing him as township supervisor. He was an ardent prohibitionist and the rapid prog- ress of that movement in recent years made him hope to see prohibition extended over the entire United States, if not the world. Mr. Mercer was one of the loyal friends and admirers of the late Judge Cunningham, who was so helpfully associated with the compilation of this work until his death.
ARTHUR C. SINGBUSCH, now city electrician of Champaign, is a man of thorough technical training and wide experience in his profession, and his proficiency is due to a combination of practical work in various industries and to the advantages afforded by the great technical schools of his native city.
Mr. Singbusch was born in Champaign October 13, 1882, a son of August C. and Anna (Wascher) Singbusch. His parents were both born in Germany, the father coming to America when about ten years of age. For twenty-five years August C. Singbusch was in the grocery business at Champaign, though with various other interests on the side, and now except for occasionally writing some insurance he is practically retired. He and his wife had only two children, Arthur C. and Elsa.
Arthur C. Singbusch graduated from the grade schools of Champaign and for two and a half years was a student in the engineering college . department of the University of Illinois. His first business experience was
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
with the firm of Root & Vandervoort, manufacturers of gas engines . at Moline, Illinois. After two years with that company he returned to Champaign for the purpose of bettering the technical side of his training and took a short course in the steam engineering department of the Uni- versity. He was next employed by the manufacturing company of Curtis & Singbusch, in which his father was a partner. This firm conducted a jobbing shop for the manufacture of auto supplies and foundry castings. Mr. Singbusch remained with them a year and once more returned to the University, where for about three years he was an employe in the electrical engineering department.
About that time the Singbusch family moved to Enid, Oklahoma, and Arthur was in the electrical business in that city for four years. Returning to Champaign, he spent four years with Caldwell & Company, electrical contractors, and in 1915 was called from this work to the office of city electrician, to which he was appointed by Mayor Swigart. He had every qualification for the office and has thoroughly justified the expectations entertained of him when he entered upon his duties. In politics Mr. Singbusch is a Republican. He is a member of the Masonic Lodge and of the Congregational Church. On April 27, 1910, he married Miss Hazel Scott, of Enid, Oklahoma. They were married at Enid, and are the parents of three children, Carl, Dorothy and Elsa Louise.
JOSEPH CLINTON WAMPLER PITTMAN. The passage of sixty years or more has removed from Champaign County the greater number of its earliest pioneers, although through worthy descendants their names are pre- served and their memories perpetuated. It was sixty-one years ago, in 1856, that Joseph C. W. Pittman was brought into this section of Illinois, being then a child of seven years. In his home community of Mahomet Mr. Pittman is known as a man of most substantial resources and of that influence that springs from strong character and worthy motives. His early life was one of toil and the meeting of adverse conditions presented by a comparatively new country and his success is due to that good fortune which is a result of industry and honorable activities.
Mr. Pittman was born in Butler County, Ohio, February 24, 1849, the cighth in a family of nine children, five sons and four daughters, whose parents were George H. and Eliza (Bake) Pittman. Only threc of these children are- still living, Mary, Joseph C. and Jacob D. Mary, who was well educated and taught school in Mahomet Township three years, is now living at Rockwell City, Iowa, widow of J. L. Stearns. Jacob D., a retired agriculturist at Mahomet, married Miss Mary Abbott.
George H. Pittman was born in New Jersey, but was taken when a child by his parents to Ohio, where he grew up, was educated in the common schools, and lived in the Buckeye State until after his marriage. All his children were born in Ohio and on moving to Champaign County he continued his career as a renter, and by the hardest kind of work he pro- vided for his family and always performed to the best of his ability the duties laid upon him as a citizen and neighbor. He was an old-line Whig and from that became a Republican, and he and his wife 'were very active in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He served on its official board. His death occurred in . Mahomet about 1895 and his remains now rest in River- side Cemetery, where an appropriate monument stands to mark the spot. His wife was born ncar Middletown, Ohio, was rcared and educated there and died about 1897. She was a fine type of courageous pioneer woman and gave tlic best of her life to the service of her home and children. The name Pittman is of English stock.
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