USA > Illinois > Brown County > Biographical review of Cass, Schuyler and Brown Counties, Illinois: Containing biographical sketches of pioneers and leading citizens > Part 74
USA > Illinois > Cass County > Biographical review of Cass, Schuyler and Brown Counties, Illinois: Containing biographical sketches of pioneers and leading citizens > Part 74
USA > Illinois > Schuyler County > Biographical review of Cass, Schuyler and Brown Counties, Illinois: Containing biographical sketches of pioneers and leading citizens > Part 74
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FON. J. M. HAMBAUGH .- The sub- ject of this brief sketch is one of the men of whom the State of Illinois is proud. His career in the last Legislature, as a Representative from the Thirty-sixth Sen- atorial District, lias made a national reputa-
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tion for him as a champion of the rights and privileges of apiarists.
This gentleman was born in _Versailles township, Brown county, Illinois, July 16, 1846, hence he is over forty-five years of age. His father, Stephen D. Hambaugh, emigrated from Kentucky, and pre-empted the farm now occupied as a homestead by his son, in the year 1828, being one of the very first settlers of this section of the country. Ste- phen was the son of Henry, a native of Lonisi. ana, born in 1771, who married Rebecca Morris. Heury was the son of John, a na- tive of Germany, married to a lady of De- troit, Michigan, having come to this country when quite a young man. He and his wite died in Louisiana, leaving quite a family. Stephen was one of ten children, of whom he was the third. He was reared to farm life, receiving a fair schooling, and inarried Ehmnina Stone, daughter of John and Abigail (Crook) Stone, natives of New Hampshire and Ver- miont, respectively. The mother of our sub- ject was born in 1814, and was taken to Ken- tucky by her parents when only five years old, and is the last surviving member of her father's large family of ten children, who were reared to maturity and became the licads of families. The grandfather of our subject came to Illinois in 1824, with his wife and three children, leaving one son be- hind. He had no property, but settled first at Edwardsville, Illinois, in the fall of 1824, and in the spring of 1828 he came to the present home of our subject. Here he moved his family iuto a small log cabin, which his brother had built. The brother had preceded him and built this cabin on eighty acres of land. They made the journey to their new home in a " prairie schooner," drawn by four horses. The company that inade the trip was composed of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ham baugh
and their children,-Jolin P., Stephen D., Philip G., and Francis, the only living daughter, who became the wife of Governor Ford, of this State. S. D. Hamnbaugh, father of J. M. Hambaugh, died November 4, 1877. J. P. Hambangh, brother of S. D. Ham- baugh, a bachelor who had always made his home in the family of S. D., died Sep- tember 3, 1886, leaving his nephew, J. M. Hambaugh, executor of his estate, and in his will bequeathed $1,000 to be expended on a monument to the Hambangh family, and an iron fence around the cemetery; and Mr. Hambaugh had a most unique model of the old pioneer log cabin erected on the bluff in Hambaugh cemetery near the old home, which has been visited by thousands of peo. ple and admired by all who have seen it.
At the time the Hambaugh family made their advent into Illinois there was not a railroad in the State, and but few in the United States. The father of our subject was united in marriage to Miss Elmina Stone on the eve of the great snow-storm, December 28, 1830, so historical and memorable in the minds of old settlers, the snow falling to a deptli of four feet on a level, and remaining on the ground until the 1st of April.
Nestling among the trees of the forest, where scarcely a ray of sunshine could pene- trate, Mr. Hambaugh had built his hut, which was in keeping with its rude surroundings, and it was to this rude structure that Mr. Hambaugh introduced his bride, to share his lot in the miseries and pleasures coincident with a truly pioneer life. They were the ad- vance gnards of the on-coming tide of civili- zation. With nerves of steel they endured privations and sufferings and made possible the deeds of to-day.
It was during the first winter of his pioneer experience that Mr. Hambaugh obtained a
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few colonies of bees from hollow trees, by felling them, and sawing above and below the colony. covering one end withi boards and mounting them upon platforms prepared for that purpose, then transporting them to his cabin on a sled. In this way the first bees were obtained, from which he increased their numbers year by year, until they reached as many as fifty or sixty colonies. The hive used was very primitive, and the method of taking the honey was with the brimstone match; but, strange as this may seem, wax and honey was quite a financial factor with the early pioneers, and many a heartlistone has been made happy by the timely exchange of this product for linsey, jeans and other necessities for home comforts; and one settler states that he paid for eighty acres of land with the money obtained from honcy and wax.
Mr. and Mrs. Hainbaugh had seven chil- dren born to them, four of whom are still liv- ing, Joseph M. being the youngest; and it has fallen to his lot to remain on the old home- stead to look after the fences and the bees. Having inherited a passionate fondness for this wouderful little insect, like his father, he declares that the old homestead will never be deprived of their merry hum; but it was not until 1881 that he began to study modern methods, and prepare for a new era in bee culture. Up to that time he had never seen the inside of a bce-book. He had been tanght to produce honey in small boxes, and believed it to be the ne plus ultra of all other meth- ods, when a little circumstance led him to an investigation, which was a ray of light cast upon a new field of labor, grand and beautiful beyond discription. It was in the fall of 1881 that, chancing to step into the grocery house of J. A. Givens, in Mount Sterling, he discovered a huge pyramid of
beautiful white clover honey put up in two and three pound packages, and upon inquiry he found that they had been produced by a citizen of his own county, by the name of Dunbar. He sought out Mr. Dunbar and found out that to be a successful honey-pro- ducer one must study the art. About this time he read A. I. Root's advertisement in an agricultural paper and sent for a cataloguc of his bee supplies, and he was soon in pos- session of Cook's Manual of the Apiary, Dzierzon's Rational Beekeeping aud many other works of note; aud it was after a care- ful persual of these works that he ventured on modern improved methods. Did not space forbid we might follow Mr. Hambangh through all his evolutions, but suffice to say that he prefers the Dadant live for extrac- ting purposes; and, as his success as a lioney- producer is well known throughout the conuty, his opinion is valuable.
He was married October 26, 1869, to Miss Josephine Shamp, of Edina, Knox county, Missouri, daughter of H. S. Shamp, who gladdened his home but the short space of two and a half years, when she crossed the dark valley, leaving to him an infaut but six hours old. This sorrowful experience in Mr. Hambaugh's life came near turning his brain, and he says that only those who pass through a similar experience can ever under- stand the intensity of the heartache and lac- eratiou of the soul such a disaster occasions. Mr. Hambaugh was married for the second time, February 29, 1879, to Miss Frances Cullinan, of Mount Sterling, daughter of Williamn and Ann (Brown) Cullinan. She is the mother of five children, all living, but one infant. The living ones are: Elmina, aged twelve; Anna M., aged nine years; William James, aged six years; Stephen D., aged two years.
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Mr. Hambaugh has borne his share of the ' ininor township offices, and was elected to the Legislature, November, 1890. He las pr- sued mixed farming and stoek-raising, in ad- dition to honey production, and has always been prominent in bee societies all over the State, and is a member of the North Amer- iean Beekeepers' Association, the Beekeepers' Union, and is President of the Illinois State Beekeepers' Association.
Onr subject is a devout Catholie in reli- gion. In politics he has maintained the prin- ciples of the Demoeratie party, is strictly temperate, and an ardent advocate of the abolishment of the American saloon.
OBERT E. SANDS. a highly respected eitizen of Rushville, Illinois, was born in Rushville township, Schuyler county, Illinois, April 15, 1849, a son of Robert R. Sands, who was born in Washington, Dis- triet of Columbia. The paternal grandfather of our subject, Robert Sands, was a native of Ireland, of Scotch ancestry; upon coming to to the United States he located in the capital city, where he resided several years. In 1831 hie removed to Schuyler county, Illinois, and was one of the pioneers of Rushville town- ship; he entered a tract of Government land on section 8, improved the place, and occu- pied it until his death. Robert R. Sands was a child of eight years when his parents come to Illinois; at that time there were few settlers, and Rushville was bnt a hamlet; deer, wild turkeys and other game were plentiful; there were no railroads and for many years the river towns were the market places. The following incident related by Mr. Sands is worthy of record: One season his father raised about 1,000 bushels of corn;
he shelled it in a machine operated by hand, teamed it to Frederick, and sold it for fifteen eents a bushel! Robert R. Sands inherited land from his father which he oeen pied until his death. His wife, whose maiden name was Franees Nall, was a native of Kentucky, and a daughter of Gabriel Nall, also a Ken- tnekian by birtlı, and a pioneer of Sehuyler county; she died on the home farm in April, 1870.
Robert E. Sands was reared and educated in his native town, and was never separated from his parents until the hand of death was laid upon them. He then purchased tlie in- terest of the other heirs in the homestead, and was actively engaged in agricultural pursnits until March 14, 1892, when he sold tlie farm, and reinoved to Rushville.
Mr. Sands was united in marriage, in 1873, to Sarah Montooth, a native .of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. They are the parents of three children: Walter E., Kate Alice and Mary Stella. Mr. and Mrs. Sands are worthy and consistent members of the Methodist Epis- copal Church. Politically he supports the issues of the Republican party.
OHN F. SNYDER, a progressive and enterprising agriculturist of Littleton township, is a native son of Illinois, born at Rushville, Schuyler county, Novem- ber 20, 1849, a son of William and Jane (Little) Snyder; the father was born in Lan- caster county, Pennsylvania, April 23, 1803, and was a eabinetmaker by trade; he pene- trated the frontier in 1835, and settled at Rushville, where he followed his trade until removing to Littleton township in 1854; here he engaged in farming in connection with his other vocation. His father, Henry Sny-
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der, was also a native of the Keystone State, but emigrated to the West and died in Rush- ville township at the age of sixty-seven, October 23, 1835. William Snyder died on the farm now occupied by his son John F., September 22, 1875, at the age of seventy- three years; his wife was a Pennsylvanian by by birth, and now deceased. They reared a family of seven children, five of whom are now living, viz .: John F .. who lived u pon his fatlier's farm until the death of the latter; Mrs. M. A. Davidson, Mrs. Ellen De Witt Mrs. Susan Dooley, and William. James Lit- tle, the maternal grandfather of John F Snyder, departed this life October 19, 1855, aged seventy-one years, and his wife Septem - ber 10, 1864, in the sixty-fourth year of her age.
The subject of this sketch was first mar- ried October 2, 1873, to Miss Frances Park, who was born, reared, and died in this county ; she was a daughter of Washington and Maria Park, natives of Ohio, who were among the early settlers of this county; the parents are deceased. Mr. Snyder's second marriage was May 12, 1880, when he was united to Miss Brunette Spragg; slie was born in Lewis county, Kentucky, August 25, 1858. Five children have been born of this union, three of whom are now living: Mary J. dates her birth March 12, 1881; Martha E. was born September 10, 1883, and died April 16, 1889; William H., born December 23, 1885, died September 16, 1887; John L. was born December 8, 1889, and Charles Beaın, July 26, 1892. Mrs. Snyder's parents are William P. and Mary B. (Scott) Spragg, natives of Ohio and Kentucky, respectively ; they are now residents of Nasliville, Tennes- see. William P. Spragg was born Novein- ber 22, 1837, in Fairfield county, Ohio. His father, N. B. Spragg, was born in the State
of Pennsylvania, October 1, 1797. His wife, Rhoda Green, was born in Fairfield county, Ohio, July, 1795, the second white child born in that county. Mary B. Spragg, Mrs. Snyder's inother, was born in Greenup county, Kentucky, November 4, 1835, and married William P. Spragg, December 2, 1855. Her father, Jacob Scott, was born in the State of North Carolina, Jannary 15, 1798, and his wife, nee Catherine Thompson, was born in Lewis county, Kentucky, June 24, 1802.
Mr. Snyder settled on his father's farm after his marriage, purchasing fifty-four acres of land; as his means increased, he made additional investments, and now owils 210 acres, all in a high state of cultivation. He carried on his agricultural pursuits with great intelligence and energy, and has mnet with merited success; he gives especial atten- tion to the raising of live-stock, and has some very fine specimens on his place.
Politically our worthy subject adheres to the principles of the Republican party, as did his father before him. He has filled some of the local offices, and has discharged the duties intrusted to him with a zeal and ability that have won the confidence of the community. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and are both active workers in the cause of the Mas- ter. His father was also a zealous church- inan, and for many years, was a Class-leader on the frontier. Mr. Snyder belongs to Littleton Lodge, No. 766, A. F. & A. M. He was not a soldier in the late war, but his brother William was in the service two years, in Company A, Tenth Missouri Volunteer Infantry, and was wounded in the battle of Corinth.
Concerning Mrs. Jane Snyder, deceased, the mother of the subject of the foregoing sketch, we are furnished with the following
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additional items: She was a daughter of Mr. James and Mrs. Rebecca Little, and was born in Columbia, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, on the 26th day of July, 1810. On April 2, 1833, she was united in marriage with Mr. George Carson, who survived this marriage but fifty-seven days, leaving a young bride to mourn his untimely death. After a widow- hood of nearly two years, she married Mr. William Snyder, on May 20, 1835, and soon after they removed to Illinois, first to Jack- sonville, and then to Rushville, where they resided till 1854, when they removed to Littleton. Mr. Snyder died in September, 1875, and Mrs. Snyder remained on the farm with her son, John F., till, within the last few years, she has been making her home with her daughter, first at Augusta, and then at Plymouth, spending some time every year with her son at the old home.
She had returned but a short time to her home, from an extended visit with her son, when she was stricken down with a violent attack of flux, and notwithstanding all that physicians could do, with the loving care and nursing of children and friends, she calmly departed out of this life on Friday, Septem- ber 23, 1892, after only five days' illness, in the eighty-third year of her age.
Mrs. Snyder was converted and united with the Methodist Episcopal Church, when she was but fifteen years old, and she held fast the beginning of her confidence firm unto the end.
M RS. MARGARET FRANCIS BOWE, widow of Thomas Bowe, was born July 27, 1857. Her parents were Lawrence and Mary (Adams) Costello, both natives of the Emerald Isle, the father
having been born in Westmeath Athlone, Ireland, in 1822. In 1844, at the age of twenty-two years, he emigrated to America, landing in New York, where he remained for a short time, going thence to Pennsyl- vania. He afterward came West to Mt. Ster- ling, Illinois, where he was married, Octo- ber 11, 1856. The worthy parents still re- side on their farm, two and one-half miles west of Mt. Sterling. They first bought eighty acres and lived for several years in a sinall log house: later they built the pleasant home they now occupy. It is a seven-room, two-story house. Soon afterward, they added a large barn to their frame buildings. They began life with but little means, but are now well-to-do farmers. They buried an infant son and daughter, also a son, James, born July 23, 1864, died January 22, 1880, in his sixteenth year; and Thomas, born April 6, 1860, died April 3, 1880; bothı thus dying within three months of each other. Another son, Walter, was injured by a runaway, and died at the age of thirty-two, in Woodland Park, Colorado, where he had gone in search of health. The living members of the fam- ily are, Mrs. Bowe; John, First Sergeant, Second Artillery, in the regular army, sta- tioned at Fort Riley. He began as a teams- ter when eighteen, but volunteered at twenty- one, and was made Post Librarian, and has been regularly promoted until he is now First Sergeant. This young man is quite an adventurer, having started ont on his life of adventures at the age of twelve, without the knowledge of his parents, who thonght for a long while that he was dead, and were re- joiced to hear from him, some four years later, that he was safe and well. The next child was Catherine H., who was married to Elmer Byrns, July 6, 1829, and now resides in Mt. Sterling, where she and her husband intend
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to make their future home. William and Chris are young men at home on the farm. Their parents came to Illinois when young, Mr. Costello from Pennsylvania, and Mrs. Costello direct from Ireland. Both came without means, and worked by the week and month, and they have been very successful, and by hard work and economy have accumn- lated a large fortune of $20,000, besides their other property, which is very valuable.
August 7, 1892, Mr. Costello started for the land of his birth, to benefit his health and visit his three sisters and two brothers, who still reside there. He reached his home in safety, and has every prospect of a pleasant visit.
Mrs. Bowe had only a common-school edu- cation, but has improved her mind by read- ing. She has one daughter, Eva May, born January 23,1886, twenty-nine days after the death of her husband. Mr. Bowe left 500 acres of land, but Mrs. Bowe only received fifty-fivc acres of it. She now has 150 acres, having bought the remainder herself, and this large farm with its nice buildings she superintends herself. She is a very remark- able lady in that she can manage the cstate in so able a manner.
OHN KIRCHER, a practical farmer and stock-raiser, living on section 29, town- ship 17, range 11, was born not many iniles from Frankfort on the Main, Germany, October 4, 1835. His father, Henry, was a native of Hesse-Darmstadt. He grew up a farmer, and was there married to Elizabeth Folp, who was born and reared in the same province. After they had six children, they decided to try their fortunes in a new country. In 1847, they took passage on board a sail-
ing vessel at Havre de Grace, France, and af- ter forty-seven days landed in New Orleans, and came from there up the rivers to Beards- town. Here they lived a short time, and a few months after landing the mother died, at the birth of another child, when she was in her fortieth year. The infant died also. The children have been taught to revere her name. Her husband is yet living, aged eighty-seven, making his home with his son, our subject. He has been a cripple for forty years, having lost his leg by the accidental discharge of a gun in the hands of a friend, when they were out hunting. The Lutheran Church has al- ways been his choice, as it was that of his wife, and he has always been a Democrat. Onr subject and a sister, Elizabeth, wife of Mi- chael Fortune, of Rich Hill, Missouri, are the only remaining children.
John Kircher landed in Beardstown in 1847. His mother died before he was twelve years old, and he had to go out among stran- gers to work for a living. In 1856, he bought his first forty acres of land; he was married the same year; he hired to a inan to work on a farm at $20 per month, and boarded him- self. The next year he rented a small farm and commenced farming for himself, and im- proving his forty acres. His first corn was shelled by a hand sheller, and he hauled it fif- teen miles to market, and got fourteen cents per bushel for it. From then on, he bonght one piece of land after another, adjoining his, when he could get it, until he now has a farm of 280 acres.
He was married in Cass county, Illinois, to Elizabeth Rahn, born in Hesse-Darm- stadt, near the birthplace of her husband, coming in 1854 with her parents, John and Mary Rahn, to Cass county. Mr. Rahn was a farmer near Arenzville. He died Febru- ary 1, 1892, aged eighty-two years. He
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had come to this country in 1854, with his wife and family. The wife, who is yet liv- ing, is eiglity years old and lives with lier daughter, Mrs. Kircher. They were always members of the Lutheran Church. Mrs. Kircher is the only daughter, although she has three brothers, George, living in Chris- tian county, and John and Henry, living in Cass county.
Mr. and Mrs. Kircher have had eleven children: Louisa and an infant died yonng; Edward married Laura Buck, and is a farmer in this county; William married Josephine Buck, and is also a farmer in this county; Henry, Frank, Mary E., Lena, Anna, Lucy and Rosa are all at home.
Mr. and Mrs. Kircher are members of the Lutheran Church, and Mr. Kircher and his grown sons are sound Democrats. They are excellent representatives of the thrifty Ger- inan element in this township.
BENEZER SPINK, the able editor of the Sangamon Valley Times, of Chan- dlerville, Illinois, was born in Mason county, this State, January 8, 1857, his par- ents being Ebenezer and Fannie (Baylor) Spink.
The originator of the paternal branch of the family in this country was Daniel Spink a native of England, who emigrated to Amer' ica in middle life, settling in Rhode Island" where he spent the rest of his life. Samuel' his son, was born in Rhode Island, about 1784 and inarried Ruth Slocumnb, also a native of that State. Her parents were Pelick Slo- cumb and Ruth (Cappes), her mother also be- ing a native of England, and both parents re- siding in Rhode Island until their death. Both Samnel Spink and his wife resided in
tlie State in which they were born until their death, which occurred in 1814, at the age of thirty years. They were the parents of four children: Washington, Williamn, Louise Ann and Ebenezer, the father of the subject of this sketch. Ebenezer Spink, Sr., was born in Prudence Island, in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, April 12, 1812. After the death of his father, Ebenezer went with his inother to Wickford, on Narragansett bay, and thence to Providence, in 1822, where he received instruction in the rudimentary branches of education. In 1825, he left home and worked in various localities, doing whatever he could to turn an honest penny. He finally went to Boston, Massachusetts, where he met and married his first wife," Juliet Nichols, their marriage taking place in 1832. Two years later, he removed with his family to Indiana, whence they moved, in 1836, to Kentucky. Two children, Alonzo and Melissa, were born to this marriage.
Mr. Spink, Sr., was, sometime later, sep- arated from his wife, and in 1843 married Fannie Baylor, an estimable lady and the mother of the subject of this sketch. Her parents were George P. and Louise E. (Moy) Baylor, who were married in Pennsylvania in 1823. Her father was a native of Germany, and served twelve years in the Revolutionary war, for which he received a large tract of land in Fulton county, this State; her mother was a native of Pennsylvania, where she was born in 1803. They were the parents of eleven children, seven now living, their daughter, Fannie, the mother of our subject, having been born in Pennsylvania, July 18, 1826. The parents eventually removed from the Keystone State to Fulton county, Illinois, where they both died, the mother at the age of fifty-one years and the father aged seventy- two.
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In 1853, Mr. Spink, Sr., removed with his wife and children to Illinois, by boat, landing at Havana, and continued to reside in and . near that city until his death, August 14, 1892, aged eighty years, three months and twenty-seven days.
There were twelve children born to bless this union. Two daughters died in infancy. The eldest, Charles H., was born in Ken- tucky, February 11, 1844. He enlisted in Company B, Eighty-fifth Regiment of Illi- nois Volunteers, in 1862, and was killed in the battle at Peach Tree creek, Georgia, July 20, 1864. The remaining children are as follows: Mary E. Haynes, of Blue Mound, Kansas; Isabelle Chambers, of Mason City, Illinois; Joseph E., of Guthrie, Oklahoma; George W., of Petersburg, Illinois; Clara Yates, of Havana, Illinois; Ebenezer, of Chandlerville, Illinois; Walter W. and James W. of Havana, Illinois .; and Lilly M. Mor- genstein, of Topeka, Illinois.
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