USA > Illinois > Brown County > Biographical review of Cass, Schuyler and Brown Counties, Illinois: Containing biographical sketches of pioneers and leading citizens > Part 42
USA > Illinois > Cass County > Biographical review of Cass, Schuyler and Brown Counties, Illinois: Containing biographical sketches of pioneers and leading citizens > Part 42
USA > Illinois > Schuyler County > Biographical review of Cass, Schuyler and Brown Counties, Illinois: Containing biographical sketches of pioneers and leading citizens > Part 42
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76
361
SCHUYLER AND BROWN COUNTIES.
his own efforts that he has arisen to a pos- ition of financial independence.
Mr. Davis was nnited in marriage April 1, 1860, to Miss Lydia E. Smith, a native of Schuyler county, Illinois, and a daughter of Jonathan and Nancy Smith, whose history appears elsewhere in this work. Eight chil- dren have been born of this union : Charles J., Mary, Virginia E., Williamn, Margaret, Sam- uel, Fanny and John. Mr. Davis is a con- sistent member of the Missionary Baptist Church, and is highly respected by the cit- izens of his county.
HOMAS M. REDFIELD was born in Cayuga county, New York, August 27, 1816. His father was Richard Redfield, born in Connecticut in 1768. He was a blacksmith all his life. He had but one brother, Reuben. Richard was married twice and Thomas was a child of the second marriage. His mother's name was Mrs. Lucy Brown, nee Main, daughter of Thomas and Lucy (Taylor) Main, of Connecticut, where she was born. Mr. Redfield had one brother, Charles, who died young, and a sister, Mrs. Charles Hulett, the mother of ten children who died in Brown county, aged forty-six : only two of these now survive. The father and mother of Thomas came to Illinois fromn Indiana with a hired team and wagon in the fall of 1830. They lived about a year at Ruslıville, where in 1827 he had bought eight lots. He sold these off and moved five miles" southwest of Rushville and cleared up a farm on school lands. They moved from these lands to a new place in La Grange, then in Schnyler, but now in Brown. In 1836 they came to Brooklyn and obtained forty acres of Government land,
Thomas lived at home until he was married, in 1839, to Mary Pyle, danghter of Nicholas and Mary Pylc, who came from Kentucky to Illinois abont 1832. Mr. Redfield began married life on a farm of forty acres about one mile northeast of the village site, and in 1852 he inoved to the village where they lived nntil 1869, when they sold the home and moved to his present place, September 15. He bought 120 acres of land at $3 an acre. Mr. Redfield lost his wife February 17, 1884. She was in her sixty-sixth year and left five living children. They buried four, Nancy, an infant; Lncy; Mrs. George W. Logan, who died in early married life, and her infant with her; and Melissa, who was Mrs. Daniel Gross; she was first inarried to George A. Brown, who was Lieutenant of Company A, Seventy-eighth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and was killed during the war. Her second husband was also a soldier in the army. She died in 1873, aged about thirty-three, leaving five children. Sarah, Mrs. John Krieble, died at the age of twenty-seven, leaving two chil- dren. The living children are: Ovandea, at home with her father; George, in McDonough county; Lovisa D. Camp, a widow. Mr. Redfield has been School Director, a life-long Republican and he is a Universalist. Mary, another of his daughters, now Mrs. Logan, lives in Sacramento, California; and Thomas, Jr., lives on part of the farm. Mr. Redfield has twenty-five grandchildren and four great- grandchildren.
ILLIAM H. BURNSIDE, one of the mnost substantial farmers in Schuy- ler county, resides on section 29, Buena Vista township. He was born in Bainbridge township, this State, on July 3,
362
BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW OF CASS,
1848, his parents being Thomas and Saralı J. (Henry) Burnside, natives of Ireland and Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, respectively. The father of our subject was born in Ireland in 1816, coming to the United States wlien sev- enteen years of age. He was one of a family of six children, three sons and three daugli- ters, named William, James, Thomas, Mary, Lillie and Margaret. On arriving in the United States, he went to Pittsburg, Penn- sylvania, where he worked at the tradc of cabinet-maker, afterward going into business for himself in that city, but later lost every- thing, and in 1843 came to Illinois, a poor man. He worked for a time at his trade in Rushville, this State, and afterward engaged in farming, in which he was very successful, eventually becoming the owner of 345 acres of land, higlily improved with good house and barns, the land being well cultivated and dc- voted to mixed farming. He died in 1876, his wife dying a few months previous. They had seven children: Lillie, who married Washington Lawler, of Woodstock township; William H., the subject of our sketch ; Sarah, who resides on the homestead; James, also a resident of the homestead; Thomas, living in Buena Vista township; Robert, a resident of Bainbridge township; and Margaret, living on the homestead.
The subject of our sketch was reared on a farın, and attended the country schools. He resided at home until 1883, when he located on the farm on which he now resides. This land he purchased in 1882, which then com- prised 320 acres, to which he has since added fifty acres more, making altogether 370 acres of well improved land, which he now owns. He has erected good buildings, a residence and barns for grain and stock and other mod- ern improvements, and has put his land un- der a high state of cultivation. Besides
agriculture, he also raises stock, principally short-horn cattle, in which latter pursuit he is very successful.
He affiliates with the Republican party, but is not an office-seeker, taking only such interest as all good citizens feel in the ad- vancement and welfare of their native county and State.
Beginning life with only such means as his father could spare from the care and support of a large family, he has by economy and thrift become one of the largest land- owners and stock-raisers of the county. Honest in dealings, courteous in nianners and cordial to all, he enjoys the respect and esteein of the community and has a host of warm personal friends.
LFRED M. SMITH, a well-known citi- zen and an honored veteran of the late war, now residing in Ashland, Illinois, was born in Brown county, Ohio, June 30, 1849. His parents were Wesley and Mary M. (Moore) Smith, both natives of Ohio, the foriner of Chillicothe and the latter of Fees- burglı. They had nine children, five now living: Margaret C., wife of Charles Wig- gins, resides in Ashland; James Monroe served four years and three months in 'the Union army, enlisting in the Twenty-third Kentucky Regiment, and participated in all the principal engagements in which the Twenty-fourth Corps took part; he died, un- married, of smallpox, in Hamilton county, Ohio, in 1876. John Wesley served in the Fifty-fourth Kentucky (Union) Regiment, is married, and lives in Tallula, Menard county, Illinois; the next in order of birth is the subject of this sketch; William Henry is married, and is a Methodist Episcopal minis-
363
SCHUYLER AND BROWN COUNTIES.
ter in Akron, Ohio; Alice Virginia inarried Jolın R. Hull, and lives in Bracken county, Kentucky; Mary, Joseph and Eliza died in childhood. In 1858, the parents removed to Kentucky, where the father died in 1861, leaving a large family of children to the care of the mother. She afterward married Sove- reign Greene, who also died in Kentucky. She then removed with her children to Fred- erick, Illinois, where she married Martin Bridgman, surviving her marriage only about a year, dying in Frederick in 1874.
The subject of this sketch was but nine years of age when his parents moved from Ohio to Kentucky, at that time a new and sparsely settled county. He was reared on a farm, and followed that vocation until the breaking ont of the war. Those happy, peace- ful days, spent in rural scenes and homely duties and pastimes, were interrupted by his enlisting, at the age of sixteen years and seven months, in Company K, One Hundred and Ninety-sixth Ohio Infantry, for the period of one year, which he served in full, being un- der the command of General Hancock, in the Second Army Corps. He took the measles while in Camp Chase, Ohio, and was dis- charged from the hospital to accompany his regiment to the front, when he took cold, and the disease settled in liis eyes and lungs, de- stroying the sight of his right eye, severely injuring the other, and superinducing neu- ralgia, from, which he greatly suffered. He now receives a pension for these disabilities.
On September 11, 1865, he was honorably discharged at Baltimore, Maryland, where- upon he returned to his widowed mother in Pendleton county, Kentucky, where he ex- perienced some exciting scenes, caused by the return of the disbanded rebel army of that vicinity. It was while lie was at home that his mother became a widow a second time,
after which Mr. Smith accompanied her to Frederick, Illinois, where she spent the rest of her life. She is now buried in the Messer cemetery, near Frederick.
Mr. Smith was married in Springfield, Illinois, April 1, 1878, to Miss Anna Ratliff, an estimable lady, and a uative of Morgan county, Illinois. She is a daughter of Rich- ard and Mary (Bridgman) Ratliff, both of whom had been previously married, the father having one son and three danghters: Lucy J., Mary Ellen, Isaac Wesley, and Lucretia. The mother was formerly married to a Mr. Houston, to which union three children were born: Hezekiah, Isaac and William Thomas. All of these children of both marriages are now living, except Lncy J., and all are married. To the marriage of Mrs. Smith's parents, four children were born, of whom she is the eldest: Anna Nancy J., now Mrs. E. T. Welcli, resides in Amarillo, Texas; Mary M., inarried James Allen, of Ashland, Illinois; James Albert, unmarried, is a farmer. The mother still lives, at the age of seventy-one years, and is comfortably situated in Ashland. The father, Hezekiah Bridgman, was a prominent citizen and estecmed pio- neer of Morgan county, Illinois, who died in Concord, that county, in 1884. He was was widely known throughout this vicinity and was deeply mourned by a large com- munity.
Since the war, Mr. Smith has been in rather poor health. Thinking a change might prove beneficial, he traveled through the South for two years, visiting Texas, New Mexico, Mis- sissippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. Some of the time he is able to work, while often lie is incapacitated for active pursuits.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith have five children: Jessie, Clarence, Randolph, Mary Alice,
364
BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW OF CASS,
William Ellsworth and Ada Belle, all at home with their parents. Miss Jessie Smith is particularly intelligent and active. She is now at that age commonly known as " sweet sixteen," and is attending the high school in Ashland, hoping some day to become a teacher. She is an earnest member of the Christian Church, and takes an active part in church and Sunday-school work, never having missed a session of Sunday-school for two years. Mrs. Smith is also a most devoted and useful meuiber of the same church.
Mr. Smith is Democratic in his political affiliations, and takes a deep interest in the affairs of his State and county.
He is a member of Dick Johnson Post, No. 381, of Tallula, Illinois, and of the Brotherhood of United Friends, as well as of the I. O. O. F.
Having followed his career thus far, which has been most honorable, it is reasonable to prognosticate a fitting close, as, surrounded by sympathetic friends, to whom his many sterling qualities have endeared him, and vindicated at the tribunal of his own search- ing conscience, he peacefully pursues his pathway through life.
REGORY WAGNER, JR., farmer and resident of Mt. Sterling township, was born in Owen county, Indiana, March 24, 1853. His father, Gregory, was born at Baden, Germany, February 24, 1820, and his father was also born in Baden, where he learned the trade of a weaver and there fol- lowed it. He came to America about 1827, accompanied by his wife and six children. He lived in New York, Philadelphia and Pitts- burg, where he worked in the iron works for some ycars. From there he went to Co-
shocton county, Ohio and was one of the early settlers there. He continued on the land he then bought until his death in 1837. This was occasioned by the bite of a rattle- snake. IIis wife's name was Magdaline Ril- ing, also of Baden. After her husband's deatlı she came to Brown county and died here about 1862. Gregory, Sr., was seven years old when he came to America. While the family lived at Pittsburg he worked in the iron works and after their removal to Ohio he assisted his father on the farm. He in- hierited a part of his father's land and bongth forty acres more from his brother and lived there nntil 1851. He then moved to Indi- ana, traded his farm in Ohio for land in Owen township, Indiana, remained there two years, then sold and came to Illinois, and settled in Mt. Sterling township, buying land in sections 1 and 2. There was only a log cabin on the place, but he shortly began improving; later he bought another tract and engaged in farm- ing until 1878, when he moved to Mt. Ster- ling, where he now resides. He was married November 18, 1840, to Miss Agatha Lash, born in Alsace, Germany, February 5, 1821. Her father was a carpenter of Baden, who came to America in 1827 with his wife and six children. The parents of our subject have ten living children.
Gregory, Jr., was but an infant when he came to Illinois with his parents. He began when very young to help on the farm, was reared to habits of industry, received the benefits of the district schools, and continued to reside with his parents until twenty-one, since when he has been engaged in farming and threshing on his own responsibility. He now owns and occupies a portion of the old homestead, where he has erected a good set of frame buildings and has otherwise improved the place.
365
SCHUYLER AND BROWN COUNTIES.
He was married January 15, 1878, to Miss Mary Factor of Ohio, daughter of Benjamin Factor, she being one of eleven children. The family are highly regarded members of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church. He is a Democrat and the whole family is greatly re- spected. Mr. and Mrs. Wagner have seven children,-four sons and three daughters.
H. DUNN, dealer in all kinds of hard- ware, stoves and gardening imple- ments, in Beardstown, was born in this county. He attended school at home and in Jacksonville College. His father, Luke Dunn, was a native of Cornwall, En- gland. He followed the business of farmer. He married Elizabeth Jasper, of the same place, and soon after, late in the '40s, they reached the United States and settled on the Sangamnon bottoms in Cass county, Illinois, upon unbroken land. After making some improvements, he sold the land and took up more land, and still later moved into the city of Beardstown, retiring from active labors. Mr. Dunn still lives, being sixty-eight years of age, but his wife died in 1892, at the age of sixty-six years. She was a good wife, mother and neighbor, of Christian spirit, and a inember of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Dunn is an active politician and has been County Commissioner twice, and has held other local offices. He is a well-known, good citizen.
Our subject is the eldest son and second child of seven children, all yet living. He was for some time engaged in farmning, and was also at one time a clerk for Colonel B. G. Wheeler & Co., of Missouri. His present business was established by an old settler, Abner Foster. Except for six months, when
Mr. Dunn had associated withı M. T. Dunn, Mr. Dunn has been the sole proprietor since 1882. He is a live young man, and is snre of making his business succeed.
He was married in this county, to Miss Lizzie Miller, who was born, reared and edu- cated and taught school in this same county. Her father, E. P. Miller, was born in Ken- tucky, but married in Beardstown. Mr. Miller was engaged in the livery business when he died in 1884. He was born in 1818; was a sound Republican, but not an office-seeker. His wife, born in Illinois, is yet living and is quite an old lady. Mrs. Dunn is a bright, intelligent lady, and thic mother of two children, Edna and E. Miller. She is a member of the Methodist Church.
ILLIAM CAMPBELL was born in county Tyrone, Ireland, April 18, 1818, on the same farm on which lis father, Archibald Campbell, and his grand- father, William Campbell, were born. This farın was owned by his grandfather, who passed his entire life on it. William Camp- bell, Sr., was a member of the Episcopal Church, and in that faith reared his family. Archibald Campbell, like his father, spent his whole life on the farm on which he was born. He lived to the ripe old age of eighty-nine years. The maiden name of his wife was Elizabeth Stewart, she being a native of the same vicinity, and a daughter of James Stewart, who was a native of Ireland and a descendant of Scotch ancestry. Mrs. Camp- bell died in Ireland, aged seventy-eight years. The naines of their six children are: Mary, William, Catherine, James, Archie and Ann. James and Archie are deceased. Mary is the wife of Samuel Shaw, and re-
25
366
BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW OF CASS,
sides in Dixon, Illinois. Catherine married Hugh Gibney, and lives in Canada. Ann still makes her home in Tyrone, Ireland.
William Campbell, the subject of our sketch, was reared and educated in Ireland, and as soon as he was old enough aided in the farmn work. In 1840, bidding farewell to the Emerald Isle, he sailed from London- derry, May 10, and landed at New York after a voyage of thirty-one days. From New York he came direct to Illinois, making the journey via water, rail and stage, to Pittsburg, and thence by way of the Ohio, Mississippi and Illinois rivers to Beardstown. Then he came by tean to the vicinity where he now lives. At that time Cass county was sparsely settled, some of the land still being owned by the Government. He spent a few montlis with his brother-in-law, Samuel Shaw, and at this time was taken sick with ague. Seeking a change of climate, he went to St. Louis and took charge of a livery stable, remaining there three years. At the end of that time he came back to Cass county and bought a farin three miles and a half west of Virginia. This farin, consisting of 100 acres, lie purchased for 85 per acre, a log house and stable and fifty acres under cultivation comprising the improvements on it. Five years later he sold out at an ad- vance, and bought the farni ou which he now resides, two miles west of Virginia. The improvements on this place at the time of purchase were a log house with a frame addi- tion, and a frame stable. He has since re- , placed them with a good set of frame build- ings, has purchased other lands at different times, and is now the owner of upwards of 1,000 acres in Cass county.
Mr. Campbell was married in 1845, Octo- ber 10, to Mary D. Sudbrink, daughter of Frederick and Catherine Sudbrink. She was
born in Germany, and came with her parents to America when young. Their four children are Henry I., Alfred, Emma Ann and Edwin.
Mr. and Mrs. Campbell are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Po- litically he affiliates with the Democratic party. He has served as a member of the Board of County Commissioners.
R. ARCHIBLE R. ALLEN located in Huntsville in 1882. He was born in Bainbridge township, Schuyler county, Illinois, September 22, 1851, being a son of William J. and Mary G. (Edmondston) Allen, natives of North Carolina and Indiana. The father of our subject was reared in Indiana and in 1844 came to Illinois and settled in Bainbridge where he married; and in 1852. Having some land in Missouri, he left his wife and children with her parents and went to that State. From there he went to Oregon and later to California, where he died. His wife died in Adamns county, Illinois. They had two sons, Archible and James E.
Archible is the older, and resided with his grandfather in Schuyler county; but when he was ten years old he removed to Adams county. In 1869, after the death of his mother, he went to Fandon, McDonough county, where he lived with an uncle, Colonel Samuel Wilson, and attended school. In 1874, he commenced the study of medicine with Dr. N. E. Wilson. He subsequently attended college at Keokuk, graduating in 1886. He located in practice at Huntsville.
He was married in May, 1882, to Maggie R., daughter of Marslıall and Rebecca Spon- denburg) Wells. She was born in Brown county, Illinois, January 8, 1870. They have one child, Bessie May.
367
SCHUYLER AND BROWN COUNTIES.
The Doctor was in the drug trade from 1874 to 1876, at Birmingham, Illinois. He was quite successful at it.
Dr. Allen is a stanch Republican in poli- tics and a member of the Huntsville Lodge, No. 465, A. F. & A. M., and Cyclone Lodge, I. O. O. F. He and his wife are among the best people of that section, and are highly respected by their large circle of friends.
EORGE CONOVER, of the firm of Petefish, Skiles & Co., bankers, Vir- ginia, Illinois, was born in Princeton precinct, Cass county, this State, September 11, 1846. Of his life and ancestry we pre- sent the following facts:
Dominicus Conover, great-grandfather of George Conover, was born in Holland and came to America in Colonial times, settling in New Jersey, where his son, Levi, was born. The latter served in a cavalry regiment for five years during the Revolutionary war. In In 1790 he moved to Kentucky and settled near Lexington. Five years later he moved to Adair county, where he spent the residne of his life. The maiden name of his second wife, grandmother of our subject, was Jane Galbraith Turnbow. Their son, Levi Con- over, Jr., was born in Adair county, Ken- tucky, and was there reared to manliood. At the age of twenty-two years he came to Cass county, Illinois, arriving here without any ineans other than the horse he had ridden. He found employment of various kinds, earıl- ing his first money by splitting rails at fifty cents per hundred. In 1834 he went to Galena and worked in the mines of that vicinity till fall. He then returned and went to the territory of Iowa, where he took a squatter's claim to Government land. He came back to Illinois and spent the winter,
and in the spring returned to Iowa, in com- pany with a friend, making the journey with oxen and wagon. He at once began the work of improving his claim, and soon had his log cabin built. In 1836 he returned to Illinois, married Elizabeth Petefish, and took his bride to their frontier home. In 1837, while they were on a visit to Cass county, this State, Mrs. Conover dicd, and soon after her death Mr, Conover sold liis Iowa claim and settled in Cass county. In 1841 he the Peter Conover homestead, on which he was engaged in farmning for some years. From there he moved to the town of Virginia, where he spent the last years of his life. The maiden name of his second wife, mother of George, was Phoebe A. Rosenberger. Her father, John Rosenberger, was born of German parents.
George Conover was reared on his father's farm, attending the district schools a portion of each year. He advanced his education by one terin at Beardstown high school and one terin at Wesleyan University at Blooming- ton, after which he entered Bryant and Strat- ten's Business College at Chicago. After his marriage he located on a farm, owned by his father, two miles and a half southeast of Virginia, which farm his father deeded to liim soon afterward. He continued to reside there till 1876, when he came to Virginia to accept the position of book-keeper in the bank of Petefislı, Skiles & Co. The same year he became a partner, and so remains, and since 1884 has been cashier. He still owns his farm.
In February, 1870, he married Virginia Lce Bone, a native of Rock Creek, Sangamon county, Illinois, daughter of William and Farinda (Osborn) Bone. To them have been born four children: William B., Ernest B., George B. and Virginia Louise.
368
BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW OF . CASS,
Politically Mr. Conover affiliates with the Democratic party. He has served two terms as Mayor and six years as a member of the Board of Education. Though not a third party man, he is a prohibitionist in prin- ciplc. He was elected Mayor on the tem- perance issue, and it was during his first term that the saloons were closed in Virginia. They have since remained closed. He is a director in the Virginia Building and Loan Association.
HARLES M. TINNEY was born in Marion, Grant county, Indiana, Nov- ember 11, 1852. His father, John M. Tinney, was born in Washington county, Kentucky, son of Nathaniel Tinney, a native of Virginia and a soldier of the Revolution- ary war. Grandfather Tinney moved to Kentucky about 1800, and became one of the pioneer farmers of Washington county. He was by trade an architect and builder, but he spent his last years on the farm, and died in his Kentucky home. Grandfather Tinney's inaiden name was Caroline Marshall. She was a native of Virginia; spent her last days and died in Tazewell county, Illinois. John M. Tinney was reared in Kentucky and learned the trade of tailor in Cincinnati. He carried on business in that city for a time, and from there went to Dayton, Ohio. In 1859 he inoved to Pekin, Illinois, where he engaged in hotel-keeping. He continued his residence at that placc until the time of his death. His widow, a native of Dayton, Ohio, was before her marriage Miss Saralı Kangh- ınan. She now makes her home with her children.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.