USA > Illinois > A history of southern Illinois; a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests > Part 11
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On the 23rd of December. 1875, in Hagerstown, Illinois, Judge Farmer married Illinois Virginia Henninger, a daughter of William and Mary Henninger. Two girls. Virginia and Gwendolyn, comprise their family.
In politics JJudge Farmer is a Democrat, and in 1892 he received the honor of being sent to the Democratic national convention as a delegate. He and his household are members and active workers in the Moth- odist Episcopal church. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Odd Fel- lows, the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of America.
The success of Judge Farmer as a lawyer is die, first. to the fine training which he has had, and, second. to his own keen intellect. his powers of concentration and his remarkable clearness and simplicity of expression. His success as a judge is due to his logical mind and his
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knowledge of human nature, gained from a long experience with many different types of men.
GRANT CRUSE. The coal fields of Southern Illinois have added greatly to the prosperity of this section, and in their operation large companies have been formed employing a vast army of people. In this connection it is not inappropriate to speak of the Carterville Big Muddy Coal Company, and of Grant Cruse, connected with the offices of the plant at Cambria. Mr. Cruse comes of an old family of Williamson county. He was born January 2, 1879, on the farm on which the com- pany employing him is now operating, and which his father settled and developed into a productive homestead from the virgin timber. His father was John M. Cruse, who migrated to this state from Christian county. Kentucky, in 1868, marrying and following the vocation of his father, the farm. His father, a native of Virginia, moved first to Ten- nessee, settling in Ray county, where he died during the childhood of his son, leaving a wife and the following children : Martha, Delilah, Nancy, Amanda, and John M., father of Grant Cruse.
John M. Cruse failed to have the advantages of the ordinary schools of his day and did not learn to read or write until after his marriage. He enlisted in the Union army when the Civil war came on and was a member of the Seventeenth Kentucky Infantry, raised about Hopkins- ville. His regiment formed a part of the Army of the Cumberland, and was in the engagement at Shiloh, the campaign against Vicksburg, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, participated in the Atlanta campaign and after the capture of the city returned north with the army, following the Confederate General Hood, and fighting him at Franklin, his army being annihilated at Nashville. In all of these engagements and more Mr. Cruse took a very active part, serving three years and eight months, but receiving neither scratch or blemish. As a citizen he was noted for his industry and his sympathy with progress and for his loyalty and local activity in Republican poli- ties. Ilis lack of education hampered him no little, but he made the most of what he had and was ever regarded as a valuable citizen. He married Rebecca Sizemore. She died in 1879, leaving children as fol- lows: Anna, who married W. Albert Perrine, of Herrin, Illinois; Martha ; Manthus, the wife of J. B. Crowell, V. S., of Marion ; James B., living in Salina, Kansas; Alice, who died as the wife of S. A. Crowell ; Jennie, the wife of L. B. Sizemore, of St. Louis; Oscar, on a farm near Carterville, Illinois ; Grant ; Robert R., mine manager of Cambria; Ethel, the wife of S. L. Brainerd, of Fordville, Illinois; and Mrs. Emma Schuttee, of Champaign. Mr. Cruse was an active Free Will Baptist church worker from early manhood.
Grant Cruse acquired a liberal education. He attended the Illinois State Normal School for two years, and was then a teacher in the publie schools for two years, then returning to the old farm, on which he has since resided. Ile owns the old home, having bought it after his fa- ther's death, in 1908. In 1903 the coal was leased to the Carterville Big Muddy Coal Company, and at the same time Grant entered their office as clerk, in which capacity he still continues. Like his father, Mr. Cruse is an adherent of Republican principles. but, while he is just as earnest, he has not been as active as was his father. His religious belief is that of the Free Will Baptist church.
Grant Cruse was married April 13, 1902, to Miss Florence E. Wil- liams, a daughter of Walker Williams, who brought his family to the United States from Oxfordshire, England, in 1866, and is now a retired mine manager. Mrs. Cruse is one of seven children and was born in
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Perry county, educated in DuQuoin and Carbondale, and taught in the public schools for seven years. She and Mr. Cruse have three ehil- dren : Rebecca, Harold and Dean.
II. K. POWELL has held the office of county clerk for forty-one years, a period longer than any other clerk in the state of Illinois, and it is safe to say that there are few, if any, inemmnbents of this important office in all the length and breadth of the United States who have exceeded his record. From the first Mr. Powell proved wonderfully faithful and efficient, his eye being single to the good of the people and the best per- formance of the duties of the office with which they had entrusted him. Jasper county is indeed to be congratulated for a discernment as to its best interests which has led it to keep in office men loyal to the best interests of the county, and of ability and inpeccability. He is a man of well-deserved popularity and no one is better known in this locality. Among Mr. Powell's distinctions are the faets that he is a native son of the county, the son of one of the staunch pioneers of this section, and one of the gallant boys in blue who marched forth willing to risk life and limb in the canse of the Union, whose integrity they placed above per- sonal safety.
The life record of Mr. Powell began November 12, 1848, on a farm in Crooked Creek township, in Jasper county. His father, John Powell, was born in Madison county, Ohio, in 1823, and when a young man removed from the Buckeye state to the newly opening Illinois. He located in Jasper county, where he farmed and engaged in stock buying, driving cattle in herds to Chicago from this part of the country. He married Francis A. MeComas, a native daughter of Jasper county, and into their household were born five children. Mr. Powell being the oldest of the number. The father journeyed on to the "Undiscovered Country," De- cember 24, 1857. and the demise of his cherished and devoted wife or- curred February 20, 1901. The subject's father was Democratie in his political faith and during his active years played a leading role in the many-sided life of the community in which his home was located.
Although Mr. Powell of this review was born on a farm. he did not long maintain his residence amid these rural surroundings, for when he was three years of age his parents removed to Newton. In its public schools he received his education and while yet a lad entered upon his career as a wage-carner. In those early years he worked at various ve- enpations-on a farm. in a printing office and for three years he fut- filled one of his youthful dreams by driving the stage from Newton to Olney. Part of the time he plerked in the store, and in whatever posi- tion he found himself he proved useful to his employers. While yet a school boy the long gathering Civil war cloud broke in all its fury and as soon as he would be accepted, at the age of sixteen, he enlisted, becom- ing a member of Company I, of the One Hundred and Forty-third Hli- nois Regiment and serving for a few months. He then returned to New- ton, and it was affer that that he worked in a printing office. Upon the attainment of his majority in 1869 he entered upon his publie career. being elected assessor of Wade township, and at the completion of the assessment the then county clerk engaged this useful and competent young man as deputy under County Clerk Robert Leach. He held that office until 1873, and then as the logical successor of Mr. Leach he became county clerk himself. Ever since that time, without exception, at every election he has been returned to the office and thus has completed forty- one years in office, the record, as before stated, for the commonwealth of Illinois. He is a Democrat of sound and honest conviction and he has ever proved ready to do anything in his power for the success of his
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party. He is genial and cordial in his bearing, easily approached and attracts friends as the magnet does the needle, while those for whom he forms an attachment may be as certain of his unfaltering friendship as that the orb of day will appear each morning in his daily round.
Mr. Powell was happily married January 11, 1870, Dolly Thomp- son, of Newton, becoming his wife. Six children have been born to their union, five of whom are living: Julia, now Mrs. Evans, resides in Jas- per county; Robert L. holds the office of deputy county clerk and is a competent young man ; Hattie makes her home in Newton; Thomas W. is a citizen of Chicago; and Boyce is still in the schools of Newton. Mrs. Powell is a valued member of the Methodist Episcopal church and the subject is member of Jacob E. Reed Post, No. 550, Grand Army of the Republic, with the comrades of other days renewing the sad but stirring events of our greatest national crisis.
FRANCIS E. CRAWFORD, the popular superintendent of schools in Fa- vette county, Illinois, must look upon his sueress as the work of his own brain. Starting on his career as a teacher with only the meager equip- ment of the country school, he has secured his education piecemeal, when- ever he had a chance. Much of his culture he has acquired by himself, when, after a hard day's work with refractory pupils and often with grown-ups, he has sat till far into the wee sma' hours poring over some book. He is essentially a self-made man, and looks upon the niehe which he has carved for himself in life with justifiable pride.
Francis E. Crawford was born in Fayette county, near Brownston, on the 23rd of March, 1869. His father was Martin Van Buren Craw- ford, who had been born in Ohio in 1844. Mr. Crawford. Sr., lost his father when he was a very small child, and was brought by his mother into Illinois in 1848. Here he grew to manhood, working on the farm to help his mother. He followed this occupation all of his life, and at- tained to considerable suecess as a farmer. In 1867 he married Eliza- beth J. Bolt, and they spent the remainder of their lives in Fayette county. Six children, five boys and one girl. were born to them, of whom Francis E. is the oldest. Of these children all have died except one of his brothers, James L. In polities Mr. Crawford was a Democrat, and both he and his wife were members of the Christian church. His wife died in 1893 and he followed her on the 26th of February. 1905.
Francis E. Crawford spent his younger days on the farm, receiving his education in the country schools. When he was seventeen domestic troubles forced him to add his quota to the support of the family, so he turned his hand to that work which he felt best able to do, and on the 1st of April, 1886, began teaching his first school. For the next six years he served a weary apprenticeship in the school of experience by teaching in the country. Then he was offered the principalship of the Ramsey schools. which he held for two years. The four years follow- ing were spent in the grammar department of the Vandalia schools, and then he was promoted to the position of assistant principal of the same schools, at which post he worked for two years. He then went to St. Elmo, where for eight years he acted as principal of the schools. The Casey schools called him next, and for a year he held the superintend- ency here. He was elected for a second term, but resigned to accept the position of county superintendent. This took place in 1910. and his long experience in various places and positions has given him the experience now so necessary to him. He is now able to understand the problems of a teacher of any rank, those of the country as well as those of the eities, and the wisdom with which he handles these is shown by his popularity and by upholding the high standard of education now in vogue. He has
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never received a degree from college or university, but he has attended several summer sessions of various normals and in this way has kept in touch with the trend of modern thought. Teaching in the first place was foreed upon him, on account of siekness that deprived the family of some of its bread earners, but he came to love his profession and now his whole soul is in his work.
. On the Ist of October, 1890, the marriage of Mr. Crawford to Sarah A. Pilcher was consummated. She was the daughter of Winston Pil- cher, a farmer of Fayette county. They had two children, one a little girl, died in infancy, the other, Cecil C., is a graduate of the high school in Casey.
In polities Mr. Crawford is a Democrat, and the influence which he possesses as a semi-publie man is always used to further the interests of his party. Mr. Crawford is a member of the Christian church and be- longs in the fraternal world to the Odd Fellows and to the Modern Wood- men of America. In his own profession he is a member of the Illinois and of the Southern Illinois Teachers' Association.
The people of Fayette county are still congratulating themselves upon their good luck in having secured Mr. Crawford to direct the educational work of this section. for he had been tried and tested in the furnace and had been proven to be pure gold. His gradual rise is a splendid proof of his natural ability unassisted by the influence of a number of letters tacked on to his name or by having friends in high places.
DANIEL BALDWIN FAGER. To the land that has sent to our country so many of her best sons, and that has given that tingo to the stream of America life that renders it healthy and wholesome. in other words, to Germany we owe the presence among us of Daniel Baldwin Fager, who has done so much for education in Southern Illinois, and in whom may be traced that clarity of intellect and steadiness of purpose that char- acterizes the land of his ancestry. He has given his whole life to the cause that he holds closest to his heart, and in the remarkable progress that the science of education has made in the past decade or so Mr. Fager has always been in the fore front. In addition to his scholarly attain- ments he has much taet and the personality that charms both children and grown people, so as a superintendent he has been remarkably sue- cessful, and outside of his profession he numbers hosts of friends.
Daniel Fager is not a German by birth, having been born, on the 15th of August, 1859, in Jackson county, Ilinois, but his father. Sebastian Fager was born in Germany. at Baden. The latter came to America about. 1850, and settled in Jackson county, where he engaged in farming. in which pursuit he spent all of his life. He rapidly became acons- tomed to the changed conditions under which he was to live, and soon became an ardent devotee of the Republican mode of thought, though he never entered actively into political life. Both he and his wife were mem- bers of the Lutheran church. He was married before coming to this country to Mary Mauer, who was of French descent. Eight children were born to this couple, of whom Daniel is the youngest. Of these children only four are now living. The father died in 1889, at the age of eighty. but the mother passed away many years before. in 1862, leaving Daniel a little three year old toddler.
The early life of Daniel Fager was spent on the farm in Jackson county, and the education that he received in the county schools caused him to realize the deficiencies that were glaringly evident in the schools , of his youth. He also studied some time in the village schools of De Soto.
After acquiring more than he at the time realized from this preparatory training he entered the Southern Illinois Normal and was graduated from
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this school in 1883. The two years previous to his entry into the normal school he spent in teaching a country school, so on his graduation he was not only equipped with a diploma but also with experience, and he was immediately offered a principalship. This first position was at Ga- latia, Ilinois, and he remained here for two years. He then accepted a similar position at Anna, and his stay here was of the same length. Shawneetown then eleeted him their superintendent of schools, and he accepted the post, which he held for a year, resigning to become super- intendent of the Collinsville schools. The people of the latter place had the good fortune to hold him for six years. during which the schools of the town made great strides forward, but Assumption finally seeured his services, though he only remained for one year. From Assumption he went to Salem, as superintendent of schools, remaining four years. At the end of this time he took the principalship of the Mount Vernon city schools, holding this office for a year, before coming to Vandalia. He has been at Vandalia for five years, and the citizens of the town can only hope that he will make a longer stay with them than he has at the other places where he has held executive positions.
There are eighteen teachers engaged in the Vandalia schools and the responsibility for their work rests upon the shoulders of the superin- tendent. The high school has a four year course, and is fully accredited, a diploma from the school being accepted by the University of Illinois in lieu of an examination. The enrollment of the high school has in- creased since Mr. Fager took charge of it from seventy-five to one hun- dred and twenty-nine.
While attending to the education of others. Mr. Fager has followed the principle that the teacher should always be the student, and to that end has not only read widely but has taken post graduate work at the University of Illinois, having spent in all four summer sessions at the University. An evidence of his popularity and ability as a teacher, as well as the progressive modes of thought which he has adopted. is given by the frequency with which he is invited to give courses or talks at the va- rious institutes that have been held in the counties of Marion, JJackson, Randolph, Saline and Jefferson.
In 1887 Mr. Fager was married to Fannie D. MeAnally, the daughter of Dr. J. F. MeAnally, of Carbondale, Illinois. One son was born to them, Frank D. Fager, who is now a junior at the University of Illinois, where he is pursuing the electrical engineering course.
Mr. Fager has joined that recent movement in politics with which most thinking men are in sympathy, at least in this section of the Union, that is. he is a Progressive Republican. His religious affiliations are with the Methodist Episcopal church, and he takes considerable interest in the affairs of the fraternal world, being a member of the Odd Fellows and of the Knights of Pythias.
JAMES WALTER GIBSON. Among the younger set of Mount Vernon's successful men James Walter Gibson takes prominent rank as one who has already made rapid strides in his chosen work, and who has a worthy and brilliant career before him. As assistant cashier of the Ham Na- tional Bank, Mr. Gibson is the incumbent of a highly responsible posi- tion. and he has held similar positions for the past ten years, establish- ing for himself in that time a reputation that stands for reliability, in- tegrity, energy and various other kindred virtnes.
James Walter Gibson was born September 25, 1874. on a farm three and a half miles south of Mount Vernon. being the son of Samuel and Angeline (Newby) Gibson. The father was born in 1828. in the little town of Muskingum, near to Zanesville, Ohio, and was the son of James
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Gibson, a native of Scotland, who in his young manhood migrated to the United States and finally settled on a farm near Zanesville, where he passed a quiet and uneventful life in the tilling of his farm and rearing his little family. His son, Samuel, the father of James Walter Gibson, migrated to Illinois in 1849, when he had reached his majority, and be- came engaged in the occupation in which he was reared, that of agrienl- ture. He passed his subsequent life on his Hinois farm, with the excep- tion of one interval when he became a soldier in the One Hundred and Tenth Illinois Volunteer Regiment of the Union army, serving through- out the war and winning for himself and his posterity a record of hero- ism and bravery that will be to them a gracious heritage of intrinsic worth for all time. ITis wife, and the mother of James Walter, was the dangh- ter of Hezekiah Newby, an early pioneer settler of Illinois and a native of Tennessee. She passed away in December. 1895, leaving Imshand and children to mourn her loss. They were the parents of ten sons and daugh- ters, but six of whom are now living. They are here named in the order of their birth : Augustus, deceased ; Ida and John A., also deceased ; Dr. O. N. Gibson, of Eldorado, Ilinois; Thomas Otis, a farmer near Mount Vernon ; Adella, deeeased ; Ernest, in Bozeman, Montana ; Sammel A., on a farm near Mount Vernon : Mrs. R. S. Mernagh, whose husband is man- ager of the Alton Brick Company, St. Louis, Missouri ; and James Wal- ter, assistant cashier of the Ham National Bank of Mount Vernon.
The edneation of Mr. Gibson was of a most liberal nature, beginning with a thorough course of training in the Mount Vernon High school, from which he graduated in 1895, and finishing with one term in the State Normal at Normal, Illinois. In 1900 Mr. Gibson became a clerk in the Mount Vernon post office, which position he retained until December. 1905. He then entered the Jefferson State Bank as assistant cashier, and was in that institution until May, 1906. He next became cashier of the Jefferson State Bank of Mount Vernon, serving in that capacity until January 1. 1911, when he resigned his position and became converted with the Ham National Bank as assistant cashier, the duties of which position he is still performing in a manner highly creditable to himself and to the institution. Mr. Gibson is a member of a number of fraternal societies, among them being the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. He is a member of the First Presbyterian church of Mount Vernon.
On October 13, 1901, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Gibson with Cora C. Young, the daughter of W. L. Young, of Mount Vernon.
ALPHONSO MCCORMICK. While demonstrating his executive ability, fine business capacity and general readiness, resourcefulness and adap- tability to requirements, in the teaching and management of several im- portant schools in different cities of this state, Alphonso MeCormick. of Carbondale, attracted the attention of the American Book Company. and was called into its service with bright prospects, a part of which have since been realized, with the rest still waiting for him as he ad- vanees toward them. In the service he has rendered it he has not dis- appointed the great book concern, and it always appreciates faithful at- tention to its interests and rewards it justly.
Mr. McCormick is a native of Indiana and a son of William and Sarah E. (Cotton) McCormick, and was born at Evansville in the Hoosier state on January 16, 1861. His father is a coal operator in that locality and a man of force and influence among his follows appreciates the value of a good education as a means of advancement in life, and gave his son every educational advantage he was able to provide for him. The son used his opportunities for all they were worth, wast.
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ing no time while attending school and neglecting no means available to him for the acquisition of useful knowledge and full mental develop- ment.
He began his scholastie training in the publie schools of his native city, continued it at Valparaiso University in the state of his birth and completed it at the University of Chicago. He began teaching school in 1881 and continued his work in this highly useful but very trying occupation until 1896. He was employed in several parts of Southern Illinois and served as principal of the schools of several different cities. In the year last named he accepted an offer from the American Book Company to act as its agent in Southern Illinois, and in 1896 was ap- pointed its general agent for the whole of Southern Illinois, with head- quarters in Carbondale, which has been his home for a number of years.
Mr. McCormick has been very diligent and vigilant in attending to the interests committed to his care, and they have prospered and grown stronger in his hands. He has applied to the management of them the same assidnous industry, determined will and fruitful persistence that he employs in everything else he undertakes, and he has made his efforts tell greatly to the advantage of the company, and at the same time they have served to raise him to the first rank in public estimation as a business man, while his high character, public spirit and general worth have given him a strong hold on the regard of the people as a citizen.
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