USA > Illinois > LaSalle County > Biographical and genealogical record of La Salle County, Illinois. Volume I > Part 25
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In 1849 Jacob Dolder married Miss Mary Louise Dolder, who has been a true helpmate, ably seconding her husband's efforts to make a home and competence. They were poor when they commenced the battle of life to- gether, but they had brave hearts and were willing to exercise frugality and toil industriously toward the goal which they had in view, and success crowned their struggles. They have a beautiful home in Sheridan, and are surrounded by all of the essential elements of comfort and happiness. Each time that Mr. Dolder sold his business he and his wife took advantage of his temporary retirement from the commercial world to make a trip to their native land, for Mrs. Dolder, also, was born in Alsace, and came to the United States in 1844. He is very fond of hunting, and every time that he returned to the land of his birth he enjoyed the privilege of hunting in the wild mountain regions, through the courtesy of an old friend, a wealthy, influential man of Alsace. The same gentleman frequently urged Mr. Dolder to remain in that province, instead of returning to the United States, but, though his affection for the land in which his happy childhood days were spent is unchanged, he has strongly preferred to pass his declining years in this country,-the place which has witnessed his struggles and triumph over
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adverse circumstances, the land where the prime of his life has been passed. Conspicuous in his pleasant home are some trophies of his skill in marks- manship,-a finely mounted head of a wild boar, two mounted antelope heads and the skin of a silver fox,-all killed in the forests of Alsace. Since his arrival in America Mr. Dolder has been a loyal supporter of the Republican party, casting his first presidential vote for John C. Fremont, and voting for every Republican candidate since then.
JOHN LINFOR.
This respected resident of Allen township, LaSalle county, is a native of Norfolkshire, England, born August 22. 1837, a son of William and Dinah (Isaba) Linfor, also natives of Albion's isle. He is one of six children, two of whom died in infancy. Sarah H .. who became Mrs. Golder, died in Kansas, in 1873; and those living are John William, a resident of Walnut, Iowa; and Robert, of Allen township, LaSalle county, Illinois. In 1849 the family emigrated to America, landing at New York August 22, 1849, after being eight weeks on the Atlantic ocean. A few weeks after landing on the shores of this New World they came to Ottawa, Illinois, arriving on the Ist day of October; and here the father, William Linfor, was the sexton of the West cemetery of Ottawa, while John was bound out to Jerry Woods, of that city. In 1856 John and his mother came out upon the wild prairie and began the development of the homestead now occupied by him, the father and the other children remaining in Ottawa; but the next year they also came here. John continued to work upon the place, assisting his father, in the days when ox teams were employed in breaking the original prairie. The father is still living, but is now a resident of Syracuse, New York. He was born in 1811, and his wife was born in 1805, and died in 1879.
On the 2d day of August, 1861, Mr. John Linfor, our subject, tendered a member of Company E of the Twenty-sixth Illinois Infantry Volunteers. his services to the government for the preservation of the Union, becoming This company was ordered to the front under Captain A. F. Jaques and Colonel John A. Loomis, and Mr. Linfor's army service covered a period of three years,-eighteen months in Company E. He was taken sick at the second battle of Corinth, and taken to the hospital at St. Louis, and remained there three months. Recovering, he enlisted again, this time in the Missis- sippi Marine Brigade, in Company A, cavalry, under Captain J. R. Crandall and Brigadier General Alfred W. Ellet. Finally he was honorably dis- charged, at Vicksburg, September 23, 1864.
Returning to his Illinois home, he assisted his father on the farm, and he
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has ever since been engaged in agricultural pursuits, with that success that attends perseverance and a judicial management. He is a member of Post No. 247, G. A. R., and of the Methodist Episcopal church.
Mr. Linfor was married February 21, 1865, to Miss Martha E. Patten, a native of Putnam county, Illinois, born November 16, 1845, a daughter of David and Catherine (Umbarger) Patten, the former a native of Ohio, born in June, 1826, and the latter of Pennsylvania, born in September, 1827. Of the thirteen children of Mr. and Mrs. Patten six are still living, namely: Martha E., George A., Owen W., Dartha J. Bergman, Alfred E. and Sarah E. Bergman. David Patten was a member of Company E of the Twenty- sixth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, going to the front under Captain A. F. Jaques and Colonel John A. Loomis, in 1861. Mrs. Patten died in 1888, and Mr. Patten died in the year 1895, both being members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. and Mrs. Linfor have two children,-Flora E. and Ida L.,-both of whom are married and settled in life. Flora E., born July 14, 1867, is the wife of John Blair, of Allen township, and has one child, named Flossie E .; and Ida L., born May 26, 1870, is the wife of Otto Strobel, also of Allen township, and has two children,-Martha C. and William O.
WILLIAM H. CONARD.
William H. Conard, of Ransom. Illinois, is a prominent farmer and stock-raiser of Allen township, and this biography of the representative men of LaSalle county would fall far short of its object did it not contain a synop- sis of his life.
He is a native of Licking county, Ohio, born November 9, 1843. The ancestors of William H. Conard were undoubtedly Germans, the correct name being Conrad; but neither the date of their settlement in America nor the manner in which the name became changed can be definitely ascertained. Certain it is, however, that for a number of generations prior to the Revo- lutionary war his ancestors resided in the colony of Virginia and were re- spected people in that aristocratic old state. The grandfather of our subject, Anthony Conard, was a soldier of the Revolutionary war. Anthony was born at the foot of the Blue Ridge mountains in Loudoun county, Virginia, in the year 1760, and was but a mere boy when he enlisted in the patriot army. After the war he resided in Virginia, near the plantation of General Washington, with whom he was personally acquainted. The father of Anthony Conard was John Conard, a native of Virginia. His children were Anthony, John, Johnathan, Nathan, Joseph and Susan. In 1827 Anthony Conard emigrated to Ohio, lived one year in Belmont county, and then
normand
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located in Licking county, same state, near the village of Utica, where he died, in 1843.
Anthony Conard, Jr., the father of our subject, was born in Loudoun county, Virginia, October 16, 1799, and emigrated to Licking county, Ohio, in 1828, remaining there until 1847, when he emigrated to LaSalle county, Illinois, and died in Crawford county, this state, December 26, 1851.
He married Nancy Gregg, a native of Virginia, on the 18th day of January, 1821. She was born October 15, 1802, and died in LaSalle county, Illinois, on the 16th day of December, 1847. Their children were Mary E., Elinor, David W., Charles W., Amelia, George W., Nelson, John, Nancy, James W., Melvina M., Joseph W., William H. and Rebecca L.
William H. Conard removed with his parents from Licking county, Ohio, to LaSalle county, Illinois, when but three years old. Soon afterward he was left an orphan and he was cared for by his friends until he was nine years old, when his sister Nancy was married to P. W. Jacobs, of Serena township, and was adopted by them until fourteen years of age. He helped them on the farm in summer and attended district school in winter. At the age of fourteen years Mr. Conard started out in life for himself, inheriting nothing but health, an honest heart and willing hands to work. He began working as a farm hand at ten dollars per month and by most frugal habits and economy he saved sufficient from his small earnings in four years of patient labor to begin farming for himself on shares; but just at that time his country was in danger, rebels in the south had seceded and were trampling the "old flag" in the dust. President Lincoln had called for three hundred thousand more men and Mr. Conard could no longer quench the flame of. patriotism within his breast. He sold the little property he had, left the grain in the field to be gathered by others and went to battle for his country. His record in the army is one of honor, and it is with pleasure that we here insert his army record, taken from the "History of the One Hundred and Fourth Regiment of Illinois Volunteers," of which he was a member:
"Sergeant William H. Conard, aged eighteen, a farmer, enlisted from Serena August 14, 1862; was in the Kentucky campaign and the battle of Hartsville in the Tullahoma and Chickamauga campaigns; was present at Elk River and Davis Cross Roads and the battle of Chickamauga, in the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge and the skirmishes fol- lowing; was promoted corporal for meritorious services May 1, 1864; was in the Atlanta campaign at Buzzards' Roost, the battles around Resaca, New Hope Church, Kenesaw Mountain and Peach Tree Creek. In the last named battle he was severely wounded in the right shoulder and was sent to the hospital, thence home. On recovering he rejoined the regiment at Golds- boro, North Carolina, and participated in the last campaign. Promoted to
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sergeant April 7, 1865, for meritorious services. Mustered out June 6, 1865.
"A soldier who could be counted upon in a tight place, on his return home he was tendered a commission as a lieutenant in the regular army by Hon. B. C. Cook, then a member of congress from the Ottawa district, but declined."
Mr. Conard was married, the 20th of February, 1866, to Sarah Belinda Dominy, a daughter of Lorenzo and Sarah A. (Gurnea) Dominy, both of whom were natives of New York. Her parents were among the early settlers of LaSalle county, and here Mrs. Conard was born and reared. She was born March 13, 1845. To Mr. and Mrs. Conard have been born five chil- dren, all of whom are living: John M., born January 24, 1867; William L., September 25, 1868; Belinda R., December 15, 1870; David E., November 2, 1873; and Reno J., August 12, 1876. John M. Conard was married to Esther A. Shinn, of Ottawa, Kansas, January 21, 1891, and they have one child, Alberta B., born March 2, 1899. Mr. Conard is a farmer and stock- raiser on his ranch in Franklin county, Kansas. William L. Conard was married to Elizabeth A. Martin, of Detroit, Michigan, January 31, 1894, and they have two children: Wilma A., born November 27, 1894; and Harvey M., December 23, 1896. Their home is in Toledo, Ohio. William L. is a professor in the Toledo College. Belinda R. Conard was married to Frank X. Strobel, of Allen township, on January 28, 1891. They live near the old home and are farmers. David E. Conard was married to Nettie Clark, of Dwight, Illinois, February 15, 1899, and is a farmer near the old home. Reno J. lives at the old home, single, and farms his own and a part of his father's farm.
Lorenzo Dominy was born in Clinton county, New York, June 22, 1822, a son of Ezra and Rhoda (Smith) Dominy. He removed with his parents to LaSalle county, Illinois, in 1835, and shared the hardships incident to a new country. He was much respected. He served his town in the capacities of supervisor and justice of the peace, and finally died at his home in Serena township, April 18, 1887. Ezra Dominy was born on Long Island, New York, May 13, 1786, and died January 13, 1879, in LaSalle county, Illinois. Ezra was a son of Henry Dominy, also a native of Long Island, born Decem- ber 26, 1746, and a grandson of Nathaniel Dominy, one of three brothers who came to America from England and settled on Long Island. Henry Dominy was in the employ of the government and was on Long Island when it was captured by the British. The grandfather of Rhoda (Smith) Dominy was a native of England and also settled on Long Island. Sarah A. (Gurnea) Dominy was born April 21, 1826, in Montgomery county, New York, and now resides in Los Angeles, California. Her father, William F. Gurnea, was
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born September 15, 1796, in Montgomery county, New York, and died in LaSalle county, Illinois.
Isabella (Peck) Gurnea, wife of William F. Gurnea, was born April 6, 1807, in Montgomery county, New York, and died in LaSalle county.
In the year 1866 William H. Conard bought eighty acres of land on ยท section 35 in Allen township and moved to it in 1867, and here he still resides. He has occupied his time in farming and stock-raising and he has added to the orginal eighty acres until now, after giving to each of his chil- dren a good farm or its equivalent, he still has nine hundred and sixty acres of good land in his possession.
Mr. Conard has served his town in the capacity of school trustee, road commissioner, school treasurer and supervisor. He is an honored member of the Grand Army of the Republic and belongs to the Methodist church. In politics Mr. Conard is thoroughly independent. He votes for men and measures and not for party. The party lash in the hands of party "bosses" finds no victim of obedience in his political action. He votes his convictions without obligations to partisans and believes the purity of the ballot-box can be secured from fraud and corruption only by every one so doing.
HERMAN BRUNNER.
Herman Brunner, who was for some years president of the Peru Beer Company and a well known citizen of Peru, was born in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, on the 5th of March, 1838, his parents being August and Johanna (Roth) Brunner. His father was the superintendent of iron works in Hirzen- heim. Herman was the eldest of three children and acquired his education in Germany. In October, 1866, he came to America, coming direct to Peru, Illinois, where he accepted a clerkship in a store. After a short time, how- ever, he resigned that position and became a clerk for the Peru Beer Com- pany, with which he was connected up to the time of his death. In 1872, in connection with Andrew Hebel, he purchased the business and conducted the plant under the name of Hebel & Brunner. That partnership was maintained until Mr. Hebel died and was succeeded by his son, Andrew, in 1886. Three years later the company was incorporated and has since been known as the Peru Company. Herman Brunner at that time became its president, Andrew Hebel its secretary and treasurer, and Charles Herbold its superintendent. They built up a good business and shipped their goods to various markets.
In 1870 Mr. Brunner was married to Miss Rosa Reinhart, whose father,
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Professor Joseph Reinhart, is well remembered here as a music teacher of more than ordinary ability and skill. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Brunner, namely: Flora, Rose, Sidonia and Camilla. Mr. Brunner died in December, 1899, but the family yet reside in Peru.
WILLIAM F. CORBUS.
William F. Corbus, of LaSalle, than whom few, if any, have been longer engaged in the drug business in LaSalle county, is a native of the Buckeye state, his birth having occurred in Millersburg, Holmes county, April 28, 1840.
He obtained a good common-school education, and from the time he was thirteen until he was twenty years of age he worked at the printer's trade in his native town, being employed in the office of the Holmes County Republican. In 1860 he came to this state and dwelt in Lee county until September 15, 1862, when he enlisted in Company K, Seventy-fifth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, as a hospital steward, in which capacity he continued to serve until he was granted an honorable discharge, July 3, 1865. During all this time he was with the Army of the Cumberland from its organization until his company was disbanded, and took an active part in every skirmish and engagement in which it was concerned.
After his return from the battle-fields of the south, Mr. Corbus obtained a position as a clerk in a drug-store in Mendota, and subsequently embarked in the same line of business in that place as a member of the firm of W. F. Corbus & Company. In 1876 he came to LaSalle, where he opened a drug- store.
In 1870 the marriage of Mr. Corbus and Miss Clara M. Robison was solemnized in Mendota. They have one son. Politically our subject is a Republican, and fraternally he is a Master Mason and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic.
HON. HAMILTON MURRAY GALLAGHER.
Without doubt one of the most public-spirited and representative cit- izens that Peru ever had was the gentleman whose name forms the heading of this brief tribute to his worth and ability. Everything connected with the city's progress and advancement, in whatsoever lines of industrial enterprise or improvement, its municipal government, its educational system, and in
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short in all things which affected the permanent welfare of the place, received his earnest attention and elicited his zealous interest.
Bernard Gallagher, the paternal grandfather of our subject, lived in Virginia during the progress of the war of the Revolution and rendered effective service to the colonial army under Washington by carrying pro- visions and supplies to the troops. On one of these expeditions he was captured by a band of the enemy but was soon exchanged. He died in Alexandria, Virginia, and left five or six children to perpetuate his name. One of the number, Charles Henry, was the father of Hon. H. M. Gallagher. He was born in the Old Dominion, but possessed the spirit of enterprise which led so many of the sons of that state to explore the west and to develop its wonderful resources. After spending a few years in New York city, engaged in the dry-goods business, he went to Moniteau county, Mis- souri, some years prior to the outbreak of the civil war. In the vicinity of Boonville, he owned and carried on a large plantation, and there he con- tinued to dwell until he was summoned to the silent land, at the age of eighty-two years. His wife, whose maiden name was Sophia Cole, survived him about one year, and was over sixty-five years of age at the time of her death. She was a native of Virginia, but her father and ancestors were Pennsylvanians and of the old Dutch stock which did so much for that great state. Seven of the nine children of C. H. and Sophia Gallagher are yet living, namely: Sarah, wife of George Reynolds, of Missouri; Kate and Mary, unmarried, and residents of Tipton, Missouri; Milton and Peyton, of Missouri; Newton, of Peru, Illinois; and Jesse, of Waco, Texas.
The boyhood of our subject was spent in the vicinity of his birthplace, near Tipton, Missouri, his nativity being on the 26th of April, 1841. He was a studious lad, and though his advantages for obtaining an education were not of the best in that western state, he made the best of his opportunities, and attended the private school in Boonville which had at its head Professor Kemper, a man of considerable ability. Before attaining his majority Mr. Gallagher took up the study of law, and after being admitted to the bar engaged in practice in St. Louis for a few years. In 1865 he went to Ottawa, Illinois, where he was occupied in his professional labors for about a year, after which he came to Peru, thenceforth to be his home. Here he was. the city attorney for a number of years, and conducted an excellent and representative practice as long as he lived. During some six or eight years he was the editor of the Peru Herald, manifesting his unusual talents as forcibly in this new field of effort as in any which he had hitherto undertaken.
The Democratic party of this section of the state, in whose councils Mr. Gallagher ranked high, found in him an able supporter and friend. He attended numerous conventions in the capacity of delegate, and acted
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upon many important committees. Elected to the office of mayor of Peru, he served to the entire satisfaction of all of our citizens during a number of terms, and at the time of his demise he was a supervisor and a member of the board of education. In 1870 and 1871 he represented this district in the Illinois legislature, winning fresh laurels for himself and party. Socially he was a Master Mason, and also belonged to the Odd Fellows order.
In 1867 Mr. Gallagher married Miss Martha A. Brewster, who departed this life about four years subsequently. Their only child, Charles D., was one of the gallant Seventy-first Regiment of New York Volunteers in the late Spanish-American war. The second marriage of Mr. Gallagher took place November 18, 1874. Miss E. Lena Kellenbach becoming his bride. They became the parents of three children, namely: Kate Murray, Harry Milton and William Hamilton. The parents of Mrs. Gallagher, Anton and Margaret (Birkenbeuel) Kellenbach, esteemed citizens of Peru, are natives of Prussia, Germany. They came to this country in 1856, and, locating in this place, the father was actively engaged in working at his trade, as a brick and stone mason, and as a contractor on the Rock Island Railroad, for many years. His father died in Germany, and his wife's father, William Birkenbeuel, died on ship-board, on his way to America. He was then over three-score and ten years of age.
The extremely active and successful life of H. M. Gallagher came to a close while he was in the prime of manhood, his vigor of mind and body unimpaired. The summons came April 13, 1888, and he was laid to rest near the city which he dearly loved and with whose fortunes his own had been so closely interwoven. His record as a business man and citizen, as a friend and in the home circle, was above reproach, and his children have just cause to be proud of his honorable name and fame.
THOMAS F. DOYLE.
The legal profession has ever had great attractions for a large class of American young men; for, added to the desire to assist in the righting of wrongs and injustice, which is a most natural and commendable feeling, there are greater opportunities for genius to assert itself within this realm than perhaps in any other; and from its ranks our most illustrious statesmen have been culled. He who grapples with the intricacies of the law receives a peculiar training, acquires a keenness and acumen which qualifies him for any position, howsoever responsible and important; and thus it is not strange that bright, ambitious minds are the rule and not the exception among those who have practiced law.
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Thomas F. Doyle, one of the young members of the bar of LaSalle county, is a native of Dimmick township, this county, his birth having oc- curred July 8, 1873. He is a son of Luke and Ann (Hanley) Doyle, who reside on a farm in the locality mentioned, and are worthy and respected citizens of the community. The boyhood of our subject passed uneventfully, his time being chiefly devoted to the obtaining of an elementary education in the common schools of the neighborhood of his home. Later he went to New York and completed his literary and scientific training at Niagara University. He then entered the law department of the University of Mich- igan, at Ann Arbor, and was graduated in that celebrated institution of learning with the degree of Bachelor of Laws, in June, 1895. In the pre- ceding April he passed the required examination admitting him to practice in the Michigan courts, and subsequently he was admitted to the Illinois bar.
In September, 1895, Mr. Doyle accepted the position of assistant state's attorney under V. J. Duncan, of Ottawa, then occupying the superior office, and in this capacity he continued to act for one year, or until the expiration of Mr. Duncan's term. Then coming to LaSalle, Mr. Doyle opened an office and started upon the regular practice of law and continued alone in business until January 15, 1897, when he entered into partnership with his former friend and legal associate, Mr. Duncan. This business connection is still in existence, and the firm enjoys a large and representative practice in this section of the county. They are both deservedly popular with the citizens of LaSalle and Ottawa, and take an active part in local affairs. Mr. Doyle uses his right of franchise in favor of the platform and nominees of . the Democratic party.
HARRY E. ROCKWOOD.
Owning and occupying one of the nice country homes in Farm Ridge township, LaSalle county, is found the gentleman whose name forms the heading of this sketch,-Harry Earl Rockwood,-a representative of one of the well known families of the county.
He was born on his father's farm in Farm Ridge township, April 27, 1861, a son of William H. Rockwood, deceased. The Rockwoods are of English origin and the family was represented in America at an early day, New England being their first place of settlement. (The genealogy is given more fully further on.) William H. Rockwood was born at Chesterfield, New Hampshire, November 2, 1826. In 1835 John Rockwood and family came to Illinois and settled in South Ottawa township, LaSalle county, and on his farm he and his wife passed the rest of their lives. He was a school-
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