USA > Illinois > A history of southern Illinois; a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests > Part 32
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AMERICUS GASAWAY. Among the prominent and influential citizens of IIerrin, Illinois, Americus Gasaway holds prestige as a business man whose dealings have all been of a fair and straightforward nature. His civie attitude has ever been earnest and sincere and he has done
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a great deal to advance the general welfare of this community and of Williamson connty at large. Since March. 1910, Mr. Gasaway has devoted his attention to the real-estate and general abstract and title business. At the present time, in 1911, he is deputy to Sheriff Duncan of the Herrin precinct and he is noted for his stalwart support of Republican principles.
Amerieus Gasaway is a native son of Williamson county. Illinois, his birth having occurred in the vicinity of Alta on the 26th of Novem- ber, 1874. He is a son of Mack Gasaway, who was born near the line dividing Williamson and Saline counties in 1847. Maek Gasaway was a farmer by occupation and he was summoned to the life eternal in 1881. His forefathers were of Irish descent and the original pro- genitor of the name in Illinois came hither from Tennessee. The paternal grandfather of him whose name forms the caption of this review was a prosperons merchant along the cast line of Williamson county and his children to grow up besides Mack were: Marshall, who served as a gallant soldier in the Union army during the war of the Rebellion and who now resides at Galatia, Illinois: Martha be- eame the wife of John Gasaway and she passed to the great beyond in Williamson county in 1899; Julia died single; Anna wedded Sylves- ter Phillips and died in this county in 1879; and Elvira is now the wife of Ilal Mason, of Seattle, Washington. Mack Gasaway married Emily Karnes, now a resident of Herrin, and they became the parents of four children, as follows,-Minnie is the wife of John Gogne, of Saline county. Illinois; Olive is Mrs. Thomas Barrett. of Herrin ; Ameriens is the immediate subject of this review; and Pearl is now single, living at Herrin, Illinois.
The childhood and youth of Americus Gasaway was passed in Wil- liamson and Saline counties, to whose publie schools he is indebted for his early educational training. When he had reached his twentieth year his mother located with her family at Crab Orchard, where he became a student in the Crab Orehard Academy, which excellent in- stitution he attended for a period of two years. At the age of twenty- five years he began to teach school in Williamson county, devoting the ensuing five years to pedagogical work. For two years he taught in the schools at Corinth and his last term was spent in the Bandyville distriet, just east of Herrin. In 1902 he gave up teaching as a pro- fession and entered the employ of the Government as a clerk in the Herrin postoffice, under Postmaster Stotlar. Two years later he was appointed chief of the office to succeed Mr. Stotlar. He continued the popular and efficient incumbent of the position of postmaster for the ensuing four years, at the expiration of which he was succeeded by Mr. Perrine, who holds the office at the present time. In 190] he was elected a member of the city council of Herrin, representing the First ward.
In 1909 Mr. Gasaway again turned his attention to private mat- ters, acting for a time as manager of the Herrin Mercantile Company. In March, 1910, however, he decided to launch forth in the business world on his own account and at that time he engaged in the real- estate and general abstract and title business, the scope of his operations being Williamson county. In addition to his other interests he is now tending to the duties of deputy sheriff, under sheriff Duncan of the ller- rin precinct. Mr. Gasaway is noted for his adherence to Republican doctrine and stanch support of Republican candidates for political office. In fraternal matters he affiliates with the Masonic order, he- ing connected with the Bhie Lodge and Chapter, of which latter organ- ization he is secretary. He has passed all the official chairs in the
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local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and has rep- resented the same in the grand lodge of the state. He is also a valued member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Herrin.
On the 28th of July, 1903, Mr. Gasaway married Annie MeNiell, a daughter of Wallace and Sarah (Crenshaw) MeNiell, of Herrin. Mrs. Gasaway was the second in order of birth of her parents' five children. Nr. and Mrs. Gasaway are the parents of three children, whose names are here entered in respective order of birth,-Florine, Wilmay and Americus, Jr.
THOMAS B. F. SMITH. Farmer, educator, lawyer, lecturer and pub- lic official, Thomas B. F. Smith, of Carbondale, has proven his capacity and the worth of his citizenship in many lines of endeavor and been successful in them all, winning high credit and material advancenment for himself and rendering valuable and appreciated service to the com- munities in which he has lived and the one in which he now resides. He is serving his third term as city attorney of Carbondale.
Mr. Smith is a Kentuckian by nativity, having been born in Lyon county in the Blue Grass state on May 12, 1877. His parents were William F. and Sarah (Nickell) Smith. They moved to Illinois in 1889 and located on a farm in Williamson county. On this farm the son grew to manhood and obtained the beginning of his academic edu- cation in the country school in the vicinity. He completed its course of instruction and supplemented that by diligent and reflective reading and study on his own account, and so prepared himself for the profes- sion of teaching, in which he engaged for a few years. Then, feeling the need of more extensive knowledge and better training for the work, he attended the Southern Illinois Normal University, from which he was graduated in 1901.
After receiving his diploma he again taught school for a time, and while teaching began the study of law, which he continued in the law department of the University of Illinois, being graduated therefrom in 1905. He was admitted to the bar in February of that year, and at once began the practice of his profession. He had heen well prepared for the contests of the legal forum by the knowledge of human nature he acquired during his five years' experience as a school teacher, two of which were passed by him as superintendent of the schools in Jones- boro, Union county, as well as the teacher of one, giving him complex duties and a wider range of vision.
In 1897 Mr. Smith moved to Carbondale, and since 1905 has been actively engaged in an extensive general practice. The people of Car- bondale have shown their appreciation of his worth as a man, high char- acter and usefulness as a citizen and ability as a lawyer by electing him city attorney three times in succession, and always with strong manifestations of general esteem and admiration. He is a zealous Re- publican in his political affiliations and one of the influential men of his party throughout Southern Illinois. His services to the party are always effective, his counsel in its campaigns is always good. and his popularity as a leader and campaigner is coextensive with his acquaint- ance in this part of the state, where he has long been prominent in all political consultations on his side of the great and perpetual line of battle.
In religious allegiance he is a Presbyterian and one of the deacons of the congregation in which he holds his membership. Fraternally he is a Freemason of the Royal Arch degree ; a member of the Order of Elks; a Knight of Pythias with the rank of past chancellor com- mander; an Odd Fellow; and a Modern Woodman of America of high
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standing in the order. In it he is elerk of the eamp to which he be- longs, and has frequently been its delegate to the meetings of the head eamp. He is also in frequent demand as a lecturer on the tenets and purposes of the order, and is serving as its treasurer in this state, having held this office for the past three years. Socially he is con- neeted with the Twenty-fifth District and the social clubs. In addi- tion, he is a member of the Carbondale board of education.
On the 9th of September, 1903, he married Miss Bessie Johnson. a daughter James M. and Sarah A. ( Harvey) Johnson, highly respected residents of Carbondale. where the marriage was solemnized. Mr. Smith is yet a young man, but by industry, thrift and determined per- severance he has already achieved a great deal in life. Ile has made his own way, without capital or other resources except his good health, resolute spirit and fine natural endowments; and the progress he has so far enjoyed and wrought out by his own efforts is an earnest of what he will yet accomplish in higher lines of usefulness if his life and health are spared. He has gained an advanced stepping-stone to a loftier range of duties and more extended usefulness, and he is of the caliber that never hesitates to take a step forward. The people of Jackson county regard him as one of their most serviceable citizens at present and one of their men of greatest promise for the future.
FANNY POSEY HACKER. As superintendent of publie instruction of Alexander county Mrs. Fanny Posey Hacker has proved herself one of the intellectual, alert and strenuous women of Southern Illinois, and during the third of a century or more which she has passed in Cairo her life has been both domestic and literary,-domestic in the rearing and training of her family, and literary in its relation to the sphere of public education, to the promotion of elnb work for women, and semi-politieal in her advocaey of universal suffrage and in her incui- beney of an important publie office. Mrs. Hacker was born in 1855, in Henderson county, Kentucky, and the blood of the scions of patriotic Americans courses her veins. The name of Posey has been stamped indelibly upon the communities along the Ohio Valley, where her illu- strious ancestor. General Thomas Posey, did his work as a statesman, soldier and citizen. This Revolutionary patriot was a factor in the winning of American independence as a general officer in Washington's army, and was a native son of Virginia. The family lived in Rich- mond, and some years after the war he identified himself with Lonis- iana, being elected the first of that commonwealth's I'nited States senators. Subsequently he came up the Father of Waters and located in Indiana and became, in time, governor of that state. and one of the richest agricultural counties of Indiana is named Posey in his honor. From there he crossed the river into Kentucky and entered politics. following his natural bent, and was elected lieutenant-governor of that state. He purchased a large traet of land in Henderson county, established his family upon it, and there the remainder of his life was spent.
Major Fayette Posey. one of the general's sons and the grand- father of Mrs. Hacker, was born in Virginia, was a man with some of his father's military instinets and habits, served as a major of United States troops during the war of 1812, and engaged successfully in farming with slave labor during his active life. His son, Fayette Washington Posey, the father of Mrs. Hacker, was born in Henderson county. Kentucky, reared amid luxuriant environment and lived the life of a gentleman before the Civil war. His sympathy ran with the institution of slavery, and he was properly classed as a confederate,
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but he was without the military ambition necessary for activity in the field and he took no part under the "Stars and Bars." His wife was diametrically opposed in her attitude upon the issues of the war, and would have shouldered a gun in defense of the Union without much encouragement from others. Both she and her husband died at the age of sixty-two years. Iler father, Colonel John Sublette, of Frenel lineage, was an officer during the Mexican war.
Mrs. Hacker was the first child in a family of twelve, and her childhood was passed amid the pastoral and agricultural surroundings of an extensive plantation. She was fond of nature and communed with all its forms, learned its varied language and studied in the home under Northern teachers of culture, refinement and education. Her whole being called for life in the open air, where she could hear the music of the winds, mingle with the labor of the field, mount a horse and enjoy the exhilaration of a daylight ride, or where she could climb the tall trees and swing out upon their swaying boughs and laugh at the dangers she encountered. During her girlhood she became a stu- dent in a preparatory school at Evansville, Indiana, conducted by Professor Gow, and graduated from the Henderson high school at the age of fifteen years, subsequently taking a post-graduate course. She grew to be a student and to acquire a fondness for imparting knowl- edge, and when the war made free men of the Negro race, the educa- tion of those upon her father's plantation opened a field for the exercise of her talents. While she did not engage formally in the work as a licensed teacher, she lost no opportunity in dropping the elementary principles of an education into the mind of every seeker of school advantages, and capped her career in the proper rearing of her own family of six children.
Mrs. Haeker's election as county superintendent, in November, 1910, as a Democrat, was a surprise to her. as it came from the votes of hundreds of Republicans whose votes controlled the politics of the county. Nevertheless, her success brought her into the very position for which her life work had fitted her, and the office has given her an opportunity of demonstrating the practicability of a few commendable theories, and of making some changes in the conduct of the county schools which have improved their morals. She is reaching school boards and patrons weekly with newspaper articles upon vital matters pertaining to their duties. She is raising the standard of teachers. and is separating the colors and urging the independence of each of the other in their social sphere, so that when her term eloses it will have marked an epoch in the common school history of Alexander county.
On March 19. 1877, Fanny Posey was married in Chicago, Illinois, to John S. Hacker, and eame at once to Cairo. Captain Hacker has spent his life on the river and for many years has been master of the Tri-State Ferry here. To their home have come: Loulu, who be- eame the wife of A. W. Danforth and spent the first years of her mar- ried life in China, where her husband was mechanical expert with the firm of Li Hung Chang, the noted oriental statesman, and who sub- sequently engaged in commercial pursuits in China and took an active part in church work, but who is now a business man of Lowell, Massa- ehusetts ; Miss Daisy, Mrs. Hannah, Gentry Nicholas, Miss Alice and Miss Amanda Dimple, the latter a teacher in one of the county schools. These daughters are all busy with some department of activity, busi- ness or domestie, and the son is one of the bookkeepers of the First Bank and Trust Company of Cairo.
Her interest in the work of women in Illinois has ever been near
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the heart of Mrs. Hlacker, and her connection with the movement for women's clubs has covered a period of many years. She is always a delegate to the state meetings of the society and has frequently rep- resented Illinois as a delegate to the national association. She is a sworn suffragist, and it has been asserted that she would wear the senatorial toga from illinois in Washington with dignity and ability with the advent of universal suffrage in this state. In her religious conviction Mrs. Haeker is an Episcopalian.
WILLARD W. ADAMS. Among the prominent representatives of old pioneer families of Southern Illinois today one of the best known and most influential is Mr. Willard W. Adams, whose ancestors were old South Carolinians who early migrated to this section of the country. Mr. Adams' grandfather. Gus Adams, came from South Carolina in an early day, located in Franklin county, where he purchased land. and remained here until his death. His son, Joseph Adams, was born in South Carolina in 1839 and came with the family to Illinois, where he married Eliza Murphy, a native daughter of Franklin county, and in this location they spent their long and useful lives. Mr. Adams operated a mill in Franklin county and was one of the most widely acquainted and highly esteemed men of the community. He was un- fortunate in a business way in having his milling plant burn down twiee, the fires being of supposed incendiary origin, but in spite of this he was most successful in the conduct of his affairs and was able to aceumulate a considerable competence during his life. The ill will which engendered these destructive aets against him were doubtless inspired by Mr. Adams' fearless expression of sympathy for the I'nion cause during the War of the Rebellion. In that great conflict he did his duty at the front in a four years' campaign, he having been a captain in Company F, Fifteenth Illinois Cavalry. His demise, regretted by all, occurred in 1872. His wife survived him many years. her death having taken place on April 10. 1908. She was a consistent member of the Baptist church and a woman of many fine qualities, who was loved and revered by all who knew her. The Murphy family was a prominent one, and her father was one of the first settlers of Franklin county.
Of such sturdy and courageous ancestry was born Willard W. Adams on December 25, 1869, the place of his nativity being Mulkey- town, Franklin county. Until he was fourteen years of age he at- tended the common schools of that community and at that early age took up the burden of self support. His first work was at shoe shin- ing or boot blacking, was then a delivery boy in a grocery store at Benton, but he soon rose to a clerkship and was so engaged for several years, for a time in the Hubbard Grocery Store and later in the gen- eral store of I. G. Mitchell and Company.
Mr. Adams' ambitions looked beyond that of merely working for someone else for a salary and in 1893 he went into business for him- self. beginning with a small stock of second-hand clothing and fur- nishing goods and adding to his capacity as his trade grew until now he carries an exceedingly large assortment of clothing and does an immense business in that line of trade. le has at all times managed his financial affairs with great sagacity, invested his surplus resources with clear sighted judgment and has succeeded in amassing a consider- able fortune, his property holdings being at the present time very ex- tensive and ineluding 1,400 acres of coal land and numerous valuable town properties. In a mercantile way he holds the distinction of hav-
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ing conducted business under the same firm name longer than any other company in town.
In 1895 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Adams and Miss Kate Chenault, daughter of John T. Chenault, the well known president of the First National Bank of Benton. Mr. and Mrs. Adams are the proud parents of two children, Charles C. and Jane. They are mem- bers of the First Baptist church and take an active part in the aetivi- ties of that organization.
Mr. Adams holds membership in the Masonic fraternity, a Knight Templar, a Shriner, and a Thirty-second Mason, belongs to the Con- sistory and is a past master of Benton Lodge, No. 64. Politically he is in sympathy with the Republican party principles, taking a leading part in its affairs, and he once served in the capacity of treasurer of the Republican county central committee and was elected mayor of Benton in 1902. He is a man of comprehensive talents, progressive impulses and large inherent powers for executive affairs and is one whose influence is constantly being felt in matters pertaining to the social, civic and commercial welfare of the community which claims him as one of its most valued citizens.
Since the compilation of the above Mr. Adams moved his family to Boulder, Colorado, in September, 1911, and expects to make Colorado his future home.
HENRY L. BURNETT, M. D. Among the men of Saline county, Illi- nois, who by their industry have made their own way to local prom- inence, mention must be made of Henry L. Burnett, M. D., the well known capitalist of Raleigh. If history teaches by example, the lessons inculcated by biography must be still more impressive. We see exhibited in the varieties of human character, under different circumstances, something to instruct us and encourage all our efforts in every emer- gency in life. There is no concurrence of events which produces this effeet more certainly than the steps by which success has been ac- quired through the unaided efforts of youthful enterprise, as illustrated in the life of Dr. Burnett.
Dr. Burnett comes from good old pioneer stock, and was born near Raleigh, Illinois, September 22, 1848, a son of Hiram and Emily (Bramlett ) Burnett. Hiram Burnett was born in Spottsylvania county, Virginia, and went thence to Kentucky and later to Illinois, in 1818. His father was a blacksmith by trade and a country post- master between Eldorado and Raleigh, this village being started at the time Saline county was formed by dividing it from Gallatin county. As a youth Hiram Burnett learned the trade of blacksmith with his father, and during the Black Hawk war served in the American army. When Saline county was formed he became the first clerk of the county court, and served in that office for close to twenty years, or until the county seat was moved to Harrisburg. He then engaged in farming on a Black Hawk war grant and also was a sehool teacher for some years, as he had been in early life, and later became a justice of the peace, all of these offiees coming to him as tokens of the respect and esteem in which he was held by his fellow men and the confidence they had in his fairmindedness and ability. For a number of years he was known as a Hard Shell Baptist. but when he became a member of Raleigh Lodge, No. 128, A. F. & A. M., some of his beliefs became less radieal. His son, Dr. Burnett, is now the possessor of an autographed letter from Robert G. Ingersoll, written upon receipt from Hiram Bur- nett, of the application for membership to Raleigh Masonic Lodge of his brother Eben, over whom his famous eulogy was pronounced, and
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which was signed by Dr. Burnett's father. Eben practiced law at Raleigh prior to his removal to Peoria. Hiram Burnett continued to farm until his death, in his eighty-second year, and the log house which was his home is still standing on the land. Ilis first wife, Sarah Mor- ris, bore him three children who grew to maturity: William W., cap- tain of Company E, Twenty-ninth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer In- fantry, who was killed while leading his company at the battle of Shiloh ; Richard M., who served through the Civil war in the same company with his brother, and died at the age of forty-eight years, be- came captain of the same company, although he did not immediately sneeeed his brother; and Charles P., who was a merchant of the city of Eldorado, where he built up the largest business in the county, now being conducted by his four sons. Mr. Burnett was married (second ) to Emily Bramlett, whom he survived for twenty years, and they had a family of six children to reach maturity: Lucinda: Catherine; Henry L .; Iliram A., who was a merchant of Raleigh, but for the past twenty vears has been a resident of Kansas, and is now president of the First National Bank of Dodge City: Mary A., deceased, who married the late Dr. J. W. Ross; and Eliza, who married W. W. Alexander, of Covington, Kentucky.
Henry L. Burnett began teaching school when he was twenty-one years of age, and continued to engage in that profession until he was twenty-four, at which time he began reading medicine with Dr. J. C. Mathews, who is now deceased. He entered the old Missouri Medical College, at St. Louis, and after graduation therefrom entered into practice, but finding that it did not agree with his health he gave it up and began to sell goods. this occupying his attention for twenty years. He finally sold a half-interest in his store, but has retained the rest. While engaged in the mercantile business he began to accommodate those who needed financial assistance, and he has found this so profitable that he has given the greater part of his time to it for upwards of twenty years, but has abandoned his practice entirely. Doctor Burnett is the owner of several farms. to which he often pays a visit when he feels the need of relaxation from business cares, and has always declared that he was proud he had been born on a farm. He has kept out of polities, preferring to give his time and attention to his business interests. Until 1896 he was affiliated with the Democratic party, but since then has been classed as a Republican although he is really independent in his principles and gives his support to the candidate rather than the party. Since 1887 he has been connected with the Masonie fra- ternity, being past worshipful master and taking an active part in the work of the Blue Lodge.
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