USA > Illinois > Brown County > Biographical review of Cass, Schuyler and Brown Counties, Illinois: Containing biographical sketches of pioneers and leading citizens > Part 16
USA > Illinois > Cass County > Biographical review of Cass, Schuyler and Brown Counties, Illinois: Containing biographical sketches of pioneers and leading citizens > Part 16
USA > Illinois > Schuyler County > Biographical review of Cass, Schuyler and Brown Counties, Illinois: Containing biographical sketches of pioneers and leading citizens > Part 16
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1842, in Hanover, to L. O. Nora Deydrick. She was born and reared in Germany. Mrs. George Carles is yet living, and is quite feeble. She is a Lutheran, as is her husband. Mr. Carles is a Democrat.
Louis is the only surviving member of quite a large family. Mr. Carles has been a resident of this county all his life. He has a fine farm of 160 acres, well supplied with good farm buildings. He still attends to overlooking everything himself. He is a well informed man of good judgment, and is a prominent citizen.
He was married, in this county, to Caroline Musch, daughter of John and Albidena (Leppe) Musch. Her father came from Ger- many, and now resides in Virginia, Caes county; and her mother was born on the ves- scl from which she was named on the passage from Gerinauy to America. She died in this county when past middle age. Mr. Musch has married a third wife, who is still living.
Mr. and Mrs. Carles of this notice are energetic young people and faithful members of the Lutheran Church. They are the par- ents of eleven children, two of whom died young: George H., Jr .; Gustav A., Robert G., William M., Herman H., Louis W., Jr., Julius O., J. Albert and Paul B. The whole family is an honor to the county in which they live.
UGENE J. SCOTT, one of the leading farmers and stockmen of Schuyler county, Illinois, was born at George- town, Scott county, Kentucky, June 3, 1845. He passed a quiet, uneventful youth, remain- ing under the parental roof until his marriage. He was first united to Miss Ida V. Watson, March 15, 1877. She was born in Collins- ville, Illinois, February 7, 1847, and died in
Schuyler county, Illinois, January 1, 1881; her father was a physician, who died when she was yet a child. By this marriage one child was born, Eugene W., the date of his birth being February 6, 1879, and the place Rushville township. Mr. Scott was married a second time, April 10, 1888, when he was united to Miss Nora L. Finch, who was born in Greenfield, Greene county, Illinois, July 6, 1855, a daughter of Thomas and Eliza Finch. Mr. and Mrs. Scott are the parents of one child, Thomas F., born May 28, 1889.
Mr. Scott lived on a farm four years after his marriage, and then rented tlie land and removed to Rushville; here he owns a pleas- ant residence, and is very comfortably sit- uated. He makes a specialty of the breeding of fine horses and cattle, his favorite stock being Hambletonian horses and red-polled cattle; he has some of the finest animals in the State, in which he takes a just pride.
In politics he is allied with the Democratic party. He is a member of the school board, and in this capacity has doue his ntmost to further educational advancement. In all the walks of life his actions have been character- ized by the highest integrity, and he is well worthy of the confidence reposed in him by his fellow-men.
ACOB S. PRUETT, who for many years has been prominently identified with the agricultural interests of Schuyler county, was born at St. Mary's, Hancock county, Illi- nois, December 3, 1834, a son of Constant Pruett. His father was a native of Roaue county, Tennessee, and his grandfather was a farmer of that State, and spent his entire life within its borders. Constant Pruett was reared and inarried in Tennessee, and emi- grated to Illinois in 1829, accompanied by
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his wife and one child; they journeyed on horse-back to Kentucky, and then secured a cart in which they completed the trip. They first settled in Cass county, but at the end of a year removed to Hancock county, where Mr. Prnett entered a tract of Government land; on this he built a log honse in which Jacob S., the subject of this sketch, was born. In 1835 he sold the place and moved to Mc- Donough county, entering eighty acres of land on what is now section 33, Bethel town- ship; he built a log cabin on the east side of the tract, and a few years later erected one on the west side, in which he lived until his death in March, 1890, aged eighty-nine years. He married Susan Schoopman, of Roane county, Tennessee; her father, Jacob Schoop- man, started to Illinois in an early day; he fell ill on the way and died before reaching his destination; his widow came to this county, and died in Bethel township. Jacob S. is one of a family of nine children: he was an infant when his parents moved to McDon- ongh county; he attended the pioneer schools which were tanght in the primitive log house, with the yet more primitive furnishing of puncheon seats and desks of the same pattern ; the children were dressed in cloth of their mother's own weaving; there were no rail- roads, and wheat was hauled to market sixty miles distant, aud sold at twenty-five cents a bushel. Our subject remained with his par- ents until he was twenty years of age. He then began life for himself. Having no capi- tal he rented land in Bethel township for two years, and at the end of two years purchased forty acres of his father's original entry, and later he purchased the adjoining land across the county line on section 4, Brooklyn township.
In 1861, at the first call for troops, he enlisted in the Sixteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and reported at Springfield; thence
he went to Quincy, but the quota was filled before his arrival; therefore he returned to his home, and in February, 1862, he again enlisted, entering Company I, Sixty-second Illinois Volunteer Infantry, for a term of three years or during the war; the regiment was organized at Anna, Illinois, and mustered in at Cairo; thence he went to Paducah, Ken- tucky, and then to Columbus, and then to Kenton, Tennessee, where Companies I and K were detailed to guard a railroad trestle; while on duty here he was taken ill, and was honorably discharged; he returned home and resumed agricultural pursuits.
In March, 1864, he started with four com- panions overland to Montana; at the end of one hundred and five days he arrived at Idaho Gulch, and there was engaged in cutting hay for three months, at $50 per month; then he and his brother and Solomon Pestel, engaged in the live-stock trade. In the spring of 1866 he disposed of his interest, and began teaming between Virginia City and Salt Lake. In the fall of the same year he returned to his home, and again took np agricultural pursuits. He was very successful, made in- vestments in land as his means increased, until he is now the owner of 360 acres; this is cultivated by his sons. He resided on the farm until 1882, when he removed to Rush- ville.
Mr. Pruett was first married March 4, 1855, to Jane Stoneking, who was born in Pennsylvania, August 29, 1833, a danghter of Joseph and Rebecca Stoneking, and died August 1, 1881. Mr. Pruett was married a second time, February 1, 1883, when he was united in marriage to Mrs. Mary J. (Mooney) Eales, a native of Henderson county, Ken- tucky, and a daughter of Henry L. and Octa- via (Kelley) Mooney, and widow of George Eales. Mr. Pruett has five childron born of
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his first marriage: Nicholas, Susan, Eliza A., Harriet and Mary; one child has been born of the second union, named Charles. Mrs. Pruett had by her first union six children : Effie E., Ad- die E., Edward Clarence, Zelina A., Cora V. and Katc. Politically our subject affiliates with the Democratic party, having cast his first presidential vote for Buchanan. He was elected Sheriff of the county in 1882, and served in this capacity four years. Hc was a zealons, capable officer and enjoyed the entire confidence of his constituency. Mrs. Pruett is a consistent member of the Christian Church.
RS. EMELINE SHAFER, of Lee township, was born in Kingston, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, Dc- cember 9, 1808. Her father was Peter Shafer and her mother was Elizabeth Shoals, both of Pennsylvania. Grandfather Shoals and his wife both came from Germany and both were sold for their passage, as was the custom in those days, that their time for one year should be sold to pay their passage. Be- ing sold to the same man in Philadelphia they became acquainted, and when they left this place they were inarried and walked the whole distance from Philadelphia to the Wyoming valley along the banks of the Sus- quehanna river. Here they soon became ten- ant farmers, and by industry and economy they became owners of a good farm therc. Mrs. Shafer had grown up in the same neigh- borhood with her husband, and though mar- riage did not change her namne, she was not related to him. Of course their means were very small, but their neighbors were in the same condition. After nine years they moved to Ohio by team. This was a pleasant trip of two weeks in 1834. They lived four years in
Union county, four more in Madison county, and then traded their nice farm of 100 acres with good buildings and orchard for 160 acres of timber, two miles west of Mt. Ster- ling village, getting $200 in cash. They again took up the line of march, bringing with then their four children. They moved into an old log stable near their land, which they made tenable for a short time. Mr. Shafer was tired of his trade when he found that much of the fine timber had been cut, and upon making inquiry he found that the man who had taken much ont of this timber had used it to fence eighty acres near what is now Fargo. They settled this by trading an eighty of Mr. Shafer's for the improved eighty that had been fenced with his timber. This was the place where Mrs. Shafer now lives, on which there was a comfortable, but rough house 16 x 16, with a fireplace and stick- and-innd chimney. They have lived here ever since. Here Mr. Shafer died in 1864, aged sixty nine years. They had buried three small children in Ohio and had eight living at his death, although all had gone from home but three. Charles Shafer and his brother Hiram D. were soldiers in the One Hundred and Seventeenth Illinois Volunteers Infantry from Brown connty; Charles returned to die at his brother's at Mound Station at the age of twenty eight years. Hiram was in active service as a musician for over three years; Francis was in the ranks from February, 1864, to September of the same year. Of the eleven children born to Mrs. Shafer, seven are still living. Benjamin and Francis are at home conducting the farm for their venerable old mother. She has 170 acres in this farm. She has three motherless grandchildren with her, Maude, Cora and William. Perry Shafer, the eldest son, is a farmer in Kingman county, Kansas; Denison is a farmer in Smith
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connty, Kansas; Wealthy Ann is the wife of Thomas Crabb, a farmer in Smith county, Kansas; Emeline, wife of Jordan Madison, a farmer in Leavenworth, Kansas; and Caroline, wife of James Wilson, a farmer in Kingman county, Kansas.
This grand old lady is now nearly eighty- four years of age and is still as vigorous as inost women at fifty years. She thinks notli- ing of walking three or five miles and attends church regularly in the village. She has a lively recollection of mnuch of her experience in pioneer life. She tells how they shelled the corn by driving the horses over it on the baru floor and drew it sixteen iniles to the river market and then sold it for ten cents a bushel. She tells her children that a person can live entirely on corn meal, because she has tried it. All of her experiences, with many of her rough ones, are told with a zest which shows the stuff that this old heroine was made of, and it is refreshing to hear her speak of it as a rich romance in which she took part.
AMES CRAWFORD, of township 17, range 10, Virginia, is a native of Ireland born in 1833. His parents were William and Margaret (Patterson) Crawford, botlı na- tives of Ireland who came to America after marriage, about 1843. They located near what is now Virginia, where they spent their lives. Both parents are interested in the Virginia cemetery. They had four children, two of whom are now living.
Janes grew to manhood on his father's farm. He lias always worked hard and lias accumulated property valued at thousands of dollars, all the result of his own industry and economy. He owns 540 acres of land sur- rounding the town of Virginia, for which he
las refused $100 per acre. He gives liis whole attention to stock- raising and feeding. He and his son are now feeding about 500 head of three to four year old steers. He is raising about 300 acres of corn this year (1892). The voters of the family are Demo- crats, and the family are among the represent- ative citizens of Virginia. They have been raised in the Presbyterian faith. This is not a long-lived family, the members generally dying young.
He was married in Jacksonville, in 1868, to Miss Jane Elliott, of Virginia, born in 1841. They have five children: Fannie, Willie, James, Maggie and Floy; two died in infancy,-Henry C. and Thomas Elliott. Willie is now of age and is supporting him- self by farming a portion of the homestead, feeding 125 lead of cattle.
Mr. Crawford is an outspoken man, who speaks exactly what he thinks, and tliese qualitics indicate the honesty of his nature, as he scorns to gain the favor of men by flat- tery. He has given his children a good edu- cation. He is a inan of almost unlimited means, yet he spends his days in toil, feeling that his work is not yet accomplished, thongh he feels the weight of advancing years. He is a man of sterling honesty and the county is indebted to such men as he for much of its prosperity. He has resided for forty-five years on his farm.
ILLIAM M. GREENWELL, an in- telligent and progressive citizen of Cooperstown, Brown county, Illinois, and a prosperous farmer, was born in Meade county, Kentucky, June 27, 1842.
His parents were George and Amanda (Rentfro) Greenwell, both natives of Kell- tucky, the foriner born in 1816, the latter in
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1813. The father's grandparents came from Germany. His paternal grandfather was a well-to-do-farmer in Kentucky, who died in middle life, leaving a widow and seven chil- dren, fonr sons and three daughters. George, the father of the subject of this sketeh, had charge of the homestead farm for many years, and was married there. In the spring of 1846, le and his family removed to Brown county, Illinois; his brother William had preceded him in 1840, and liad erected a gristinill on Crooked creek. This was for inany years the only water-power mill nearer than Quincy, and did a large custom business, and could have been sold at one time for $10,000. George and his family made their home with this brother for about six weeks, when, having sold their homestead in Ken- tucky, the father and brothers bought eighty acres near Monnt Sterling, on which there were good improvements, paying for the farm $800. They added to their original purchase from time to time, until they had 280 acres, which continued to be their permanent home, and on which the father still resides. Here the father lost his first wife, mother of the sub- ject of this notice, who died in 1882, aged seventy years. They were the parents of ten children, five now living. They lost an infant son, and a daughter, Sarah J., at the age of twelve years. Mary E., unmarried lives at home; William M., of this sketch; Horaee D., a successful farmer of Cooperstown town- ship; Henry H. served six months in the army, in Kansas, where he was accidentally drowned, in 1862; Harriet A. married John G. Dennis, and died in 1872, aged twenty- two years, leaving one daughter, who lives with her grandfather; Amy I., wife of N. B. Cox, a prosperous farmer of Cooperstown township; Benjamin S. was a schoolteacher of high reputation, a self-educated man, and
very enthusiastic in his work, whose early death was, no doubt, due to overwork; he went to California for his healthi, and tanght while there; he came back home and died, at the age of twenty-eight; George F., the youngest, is at home, an invalid.
William M., whose name heads this sketch, was but a child when , he accompanied his father to Brown connty, Illinois, where his youth was spent. At the age of nineteen years, le volunteered his services to the Union, and enlisted in October, 1861, in the Tenth Illinois Cavalry, for three years. He served four years and three months, and was with his regiment most of the time. He entered the service as a private and eame out as an Orderly.
Within two years after his return to eivil life he was married, and after marriage set- tled on forty acres of land in Ripley town- ship, which property he had bonght while in the army, paying for it $1,350. Four years later, he sold this land for $2.150, and bonght sixty-seven aeres in Cooperstown township, on which he farmed for eight years. He then again sold out, disposing of his farm of 107 acres for $3,000, and buying his present place of 160 aeres. Since then he has bonght an additional eighty acres a mile and a half away, making, altogether, 240 aeres wliich he now owns, all of which he is farming.
He was married on December 26, 1866, to Mary Ann Bates, an estimable lady and a native of Brown county, Illinois, where she was born in 1845. Her parents are William H. and Mary A. (Price) Bates, well-to-do and esteemed residents of Brown county. They have had eight children, seven now living: a son died in infaney; James, aged twenty- five, married Julia Six, and has one son; Os- car, aged twenty-one is at home, as are also
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all the rest,-William, aged nineteen; Lilly Pearl, sixteen; Amanda, twelve; Lettie, eight; and Laura, aged six.
Altliongh a Republican in politics, he has been once elected as census enumerator, and once as Assessor of a strongly Democratic township. In the discharge of his official duties, as in his private life, he has displayed superior ability and unimpeachable integrity. He is a member of the G. A. R., and belongs to Isaac McNeil Post at Ripley. He and his wife and two sons have been for a number of years earnest and useful members of the Christian Church, of which he is an Elder.
Aside from his highly respectable family relations, his father having been for many years a prominent resident of the State, he has gained for himself, by continned indns- try, upright dealing and uniform courtesy, both financial prosperity and the universal esteem of his fellow men.
ILLIAMS D. SCOGGAN was born in Lee township, Brown county, Illinois, December 28, 1843. His father was Isham Scoggan, born 1807, in Shelby county, Kentucky. He was the son of William Dotson Scoggan, who settled in Kentucky at a very early day, living to be a very old man, rearing seven children. Isham was the eldest son and on coming to this county he bought 320 acres of land and in 1839 brought his wife and two children. They made this journey by team. Some eight or ten years later his brothers and one sister came, and witlı them the aged father and inother. The mother of our subject was his father's sec- ond wife and was named Eliza Jane Arnold. Her parents were Kentucky farmers who lived
and died there, leaving a family of nine chil- dren. The father of Mr. Scoggan died Septem- ber 8, 1861, in his fifty-seventh year, leaving 700 acres of land and other property. The inother, in her seventy-eighth year, is still liv- ing, but is in fceble health.
William received a common school educa- tion and was reared to a farm life. He is now engaged in stock-farming, raising great numbers of cattle and horses. He lias from 150 to 200 head of stock. His land is very fertile and lie is able to rasise upon it corn, wheat, oats and hay and, as it is rolling and lias natural drainage, lie has not been obliged to do much tilling.
He was first married in Kansas, in 1875. but he lost his wife and one child within two years. He was at that time a farmer of La- bette county, and remained there nine years. He owned 320 acres, which he sold and then returned to Illinois to the old homestead. His present wife was Susie Long, a native of Morgan county, Illinois, and daughter of An- drew and Lizzie (Buckton) Long. He was married September 30, 1891. Mrs. Scoggan is a Methodist, his mother a Missionary Bap- tist, his niece a Campbellite, and he himself represents the outside world, supporting them all. He is an ardent Republican.
AMES N. ROBISON of Lee township, was born in Huntingdon county, Penn- sylvania, November 22, 1823. His father, Henry Robison, was born in the same county, April 22, 1798, and his father was born in Scotland, but spent his last years in Huntingdon connty, dying when his son Henry was six years old. Henry after his father's dcath was obliged to earn his own living and remained on a farm in the same
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county until 1824, and then with his wife and infant son emigrated to Ohio and lived near Cadiz for two years, then returned to West- moreland county, Pennsylvania, there en- gaged in farming and dealing in stock. He bought stock in Ohio and drove the across the mountains to Philadelphia. Hc
made considerable money, which he expended on a stage line, but failed in that enterprise. In 1837 he came to Illinois with his wife and four children by team to Pittsburg, then by way of the steamer, Rion, to Phillips Ferry, landing in Pike county. In August of that year he rented some land and exercised his natural good judgment in stock and farmning and in six years' time was able to purchase land. He first bought cighty acres, which he soon sold and then bought 160 acres near Pittsfield, Pike county. He occupied that farm a number of years, then sold it and moved to Adams county, lived there a few years, then bought three iniles west of Perry, pike county, and there remained until his death in 1870. The maiden name of his wife was Margaret Taylor, who was born in Huntingdon connty, Pennsylvania, daughter of Robert and Mary (McElroy) Taylor. She died at her home, August 1, 1867.
James was in his fourteenth year when his parents came to Illinois. At that time this section of country was but little improved, and deer, wolves and wild-cats were plentiful. There was no railroads for years and the river towns were the only markets. He resided with his father until twenty-one and then with a horse which his father gave him he started out for himself. He went to school during the winter and worked for his board. In the following spring he rented land and farined for three years and then bonght 160 acres in Lee township. It was military land and he soon lost that on account of a faulty
title, but he then bought another farin, of 120 acres. Hc has been a resident of Lee town- ship since 1847, with the exception of one year in Adams county. He now has 700 acres in Lee township, 480 in Buckhorn town- ship, 225 acres in Pike county and 370 in Johnson county, Kansas.
He was married December 1, 1847, to Mary E. Caughenon. She was born in Hunt- ingdon county, Pennsylvania, January 14, 1829. Her father, Henry, was born in Lan- caster county, Pennsylvania, and his father, John, as far as known was born in Penn- sylvania of German ancestry. He came to Illinois in 1887, settled in Pike county, then moved to Pea Ridge in Brown county, bought a farm and lived there until his death. The maiden name of his wife was Dorathea Law- rence of Lancaster county. She died in Pike" county. The father of Mrs. Robison was reared and married in Pennsylvania and re- sided there until 1836, and with his wife and four children came to Illinois. He lived in Pike county for two years and followed his trade of miller and then built a mill on Mc- Grees creek and operated it for ten years. He then traded the mill for a farm, three miles west of Mt. Sterling, remained four years, then traded the farmn for a stock of goods, engaged in the mercantile business in Clayton, Adams county, and remained there until his deatlı in 1859. The first name of his wife was Agnes, danghter of William and Nancy (Tayler), likely natives of Ireland and Penn- sylvania. The grandfather was of Scotch ancestry. Mrs. Robison's mother died in Clayton in 1889.
Mr. and Mrs. Robison have eight living children : Henry, Mary, William, Robert, Enos M., Fred, Belle and Walter. The first child, Margaret, the wife of Rev. J. O. Jen- nings, died in California, January 29, 1891.
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Threc others died in infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Robison are members of the Presbyterian Church, and he has served as Trustee of the church and his wife has taught in the Sunday- school. He has been a Republican since the formation of the party.
AMES M. BLACK, dealer in hard coal. and wood, was born in Indiana county, Pennsylvania, October 12, 1835. He was the son of John W. Black of the same county, who was one of thirteen children. All grew to maturity, and the sons were ine. chanics by trade. John W. Black was a blacksmithi by trade. After he came West he was foreman of the Boyles Scales Company of St. Louis, Missouri, for some years, and, later came to Beardstown and established himself with Mr. T. A. Fisher, another old blacksmith. He was later with Messrs. Milner and Hill. He did business as a smith and a manufacturer of wagons and buggies. He went to Pike's Peak in the early sixties and was a miner there for some time. He se- cured his claim, but later came back to Van- dalia and died there, about fifty years of age. He was married in his native county, to Mar- get A. Shankle, of early Englishi ancestry. She was born in Indiana county, Pennsylvania, where her parents lived and died. She died when in St. Louis, after the birth of five chil- dren, when she was in the prime of life.
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