USA > Illinois > Brown County > Biographical review of Cass, Schuyler and Brown Counties, Illinois: Containing biographical sketches of pioneers and leading citizens > Part 75
USA > Illinois > Cass County > Biographical review of Cass, Schuyler and Brown Counties, Illinois: Containing biographical sketches of pioneers and leading citizens > Part 75
USA > Illinois > Schuyler County > Biographical review of Cass, Schuyler and Brown Counties, Illinois: Containing biographical sketches of pioneers and leading citizens > Part 75
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Ebenezer Spink, Sr., being one of the pio- neer settlers of Mason county, was well known by all the older residents, and was held in higli esteem as a neighbor and friend. In 1856 he joined the New Lebanon Baptist Churchi, on Crane creek, and lived a consist- ent Christian life ever afterward. Having a large family he never accumulated much property, but was ever a most kind and in- dulgent father and husband.
Ebenezer Spink, Jr., whose name heads this notice, attended the schools in his vicin- ity and learned the printer's trade in Havana, Illinois. He resided in Havana until 1879, when he came to Chandlerville and engaged in the publication of The Independent, re- turning in 1881 to Havana. The following year, however, he again removed to Cliandler- ville, and bought out tlic Independent and changed the name to The Sangamon Valley
Times, which he has ever since continued to edit and publislı.
Wlien eighteen years of age, he was mar- ried, in Havana, Illinois, August 8, 1875, to Miss Anna R. Morrison, an estimable lady, a native of Havana, where she was born Janu- ary 19, 1859. She was a daughter of John and Virginia (Derry) Morrison, prominent and early settlers of Illinois. Her paternal grandmother's people came directly from the Emerald Isle to America, where her grand- mother married Thomas Morrison. They had four children, one of whom was John Morrison, the father of Mrs. Spink. He was born in Pennsylvania, December 27, 1821, and canie to Illinois in an early day. He was a blacksmith, which occupation he followed through life. He was twice married: first to Anrilla E. Jones, July 1, 1848, and they liad two children: Amelia A. and Marcus J. Tlie latter child was born December 27, 1852, and became a prominent man; he died Oc- tober 16, 1883. On February 16, 1853, the devoted wife and inother died, leaving the son to the care of her husband, the daughter having died in infancy. On December 31, 1854, the father married again, the only child by this marriage being Mrs. Spink. The father dicd in Havana, Illinois, November 25, 1859. Mrs. Spink's mother, Virginia Derry, was born February 14, 1832, in Virginia, and was a daughter of Jacob and Mary A. S. Baggett, both natives of the Old Dominion, the latter having been born near Alexandria, Virginia, on September 20, 1808, and died September 21, 1890. The couple were married March 14, 1834, and reared eleven children, eight of whom are now living, there being also thirty- four grandchildren and twenty-nine great- grandchildren. Virginia Derry's grand par- ents were Townsend and -- (Howard) Baggett, both natives of Virginia, who, as far
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as known, lived and died there, surviving to an advanced age.
Mr. and Mrs. Spink have seven children: Marcus L., born in Havana, July 21, 1877; John C., born in the same place, January 7, 1879; Ernest O., born January 23, 1881; Fay R., born February 21, 1884; Earl M., born March 16, 1888; Flossie M., born Janu- ary 8, 1890; and Wallace, born January 31, 1892.
Mr. Spink belongs to the Republican party, casting his first vote for General James A. Garfield, for President. The citizens of Chandlerville have honored him with official positions several times. He served two terms as Treasurer of the village and is a member of the School Board. He is a promi- nent member of the Woodmen, and attends the Congregational Church. Mrs. Spink is an earnest member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.
It is eminently fitting that a person who wields the influence of an editor slionld be of high moral character and possess the courage to express his honest convictions, both of which are characteristics of the subject of this sketch, and as such he deserves the commendation which he so widely receives.
DWIN M. ANDERSON, member of the County Board of Supervisors and pre- sident of the Rushville Village Board, first saw the light of day in Louisburg, Greenbrier county, Virginia, April 1, 1837. His father, James L. Anderson, was a native of Scotland, " the land of cakes," and the home of Robert Burns, the greatest amatory poet the world has ever known. The grand- father of our subject was also a native of Scotland, in which historic land he passed
liis entire life. His widow, however, came to America, and spent her last years with her son, James L., in Rushville. She reared four children, of whom our subject's father was the only one to cross the Atlantic to America. When a young man he learned the trade of a silversmithı, and upon his arrival here lived for a short time in North Carolina, thence going to Louisburgh, Virginia, where he mar- ried. In 1848 he mnoved with his wife and infant child to Illinois, coming via the Ohio, Missouri and Illinois rivers to Erie, Schuy- ler county, thence by teain to Rushville. He followed liis trade for a short time and then founded a weekly newspaper, which he con- ducted successfully for eight or ten years. During this time he studied law and was ad- tnitted to the bar, and for a time was asso- ciated in practice with Judge Bagby. He resided here until his death in 1865. His wife, and the inother of our subject, was Maria W. Moore. Her parents were Samuel and Jane (Matthews) Moorc, natives of Vir- ginia, as was also their daughter Maria. The latter passed away February 21, 1872. James L. Anderson was formerly a Whig, but later became a Democrat. He was a man of inore than usual ability and strength of character, and served several years as Police Magistrate and Probatc Judge. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, and served as Grand Secretary and Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the State, a distinction conferred upon him by reason of his intelligence and high character. His four children were named Edwin M., Bessie, Edgar and Porter, the two latter being deceased.
Edwin M. Anderson was reared and edu- cated in Rushville, and resided here continu- ously until 1862, when in July of that year he enlisted in Company C, One Hundred and Nineteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and
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served until the close of the war. He par- ticipated in the Red River campaign under General Banks, and with the movements at Nashville under General Thomas. He was engaged in all the arduous duties, campaigns and battles participated in by his regiment, passing through it all with gallantry and patriotism until he was discharged in August, 1865. Upon his return home he secured employment as bookkeeper for the firm of Little & Ray, and remained in their employ continuously for fourteen years, since which timne he has not been engaged in active busi- ness. Socially he is a member of the Rush- ville Lodge, No. 9, A. F. & A. M., and of Rushville Chapter, No. 184, F. A. M. Po- litically he has always affiliated with the Democratic party. He was elected one terin as County Treasurer, and handled the finances of the county in an able and creditable man- ner. He had served several terms as a mem- ber of the County Board and as a member of the building committee appointed to super- vise the construction of the county court- house. He has shown himself eminently qualified for any office within the gift of his fellow-citizens.
HRIST. J. HUSS is a retired farmer, living in Beardstown, and was born near Westphalia, Prussia, March 11, 1827. He came of respectable German par- ents and was the second of the family to come to the United States, coming from Bremer-Haven on a sailing vessel,, which was forty-two days on the water. He landed in New Orleans and came thence up the Illi- nois and Mississippi rivers to Beardstown, making the trip in nine days. He had a brother, August, now deceased who had
come to Beardstown in 1845, being the first to come to the country. Our subject was fifteen years old when his father, Henry, a farmer, died, having been engaged on a farın in Prussia, Germany; for forty-nine years. He was seventy-two years old when he died, and was a Lutheran in religion- The maiden name of his wife was Caroline Andres, and she survived her husband some years, dying in Prussia at the age of seventy- two. She was a life-long and faithful mein- ber of the German Lutheran Church. Christ. is the only member of the family now living in this county. A sister, Charlotta, wife of Henry Backman, lives on the old farm in Germany.
Our subject came here in 1849 when a young man twenty-three years of age. He worked one year on a farm as a laborer. In 1850 he began teaming in Beardstown and iu 1861 he sold out this business and bought a good farm, where he afterward did a large stock business in connection with grain farming. In 1890 he retired to the city of Arenzville, where he lives in comfort, enjoy- ing a well-earned fortune, which he obtained by his own efforts, as sisted by his good wife.
He was married in Beardstown to Miss Mary Bronkar, who was born August 29, 1833, in Hanover, Gerinany, and came to the United States in 1848 with her parents, who settled in Cass county, where they lived and died. Her father, Ernest Bronkar, was a successful farmer and lived to be eighty years of age. His wife lived to be sixty- five. Her maiden name was Mary Kelver. They were members of the Lutheran Church.
Mr. and Mrs. Huss are parents of eleven children, four died young, an infant, Ed- ward, William, Sr., and William, Jr. The living are, August, married Mary Kuhl- man and is a farmer in his county; Henry
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is a shoemaker and dealer in the firm of Fish & Huss, married to Minnie Coblones; Christian, dealer in agricultural implements and groceries, married Mary Hurbert; John operates his father's farm in this county, and married Amelia Buck; Minnie is the wife of Peter Hems, a farmer in this county; George is a farmer of this county, and Lizzie is at home.
This is one of the large and most respect- able families in the county.
ENRY C. FUNK, a well-to-do farmer and stock-raiser of township 17 north, range 11 west, section 14, near Vir- ginia, Illinois, was born in this precinct February 13, 1860. His parents were Con- rad and Frederica (Steiner) Funk. The fa- ther was born in Hesse-Darmstadt, Ger- inany, December 26, 1832, and his mother in Texas, December 5, 1839. They were married in Beardstown, Illinois, July 28, 1857. Conrad came to Cass county in 1842 with his inother, his father having died on the ocean. They came directly from Europe to Arenzville, where they rented for a short time, afterward removing to this precinct, where Conrad purchased a farm, having at the time of his death 1,150 acres of land, all except 304 acres being in Monroe precinct. He died upon the farm where our subject now resides, March 8, 1888. His wife still resides at the old homestead where her un- married children live.
They had eight children, who are as fol- lows: Willis Conrad died in childhood; Henry C., our subject; Louis A. resides up- on a farm near; Rosa, Mary, George, Emma, and Frank, living at home. This whole family has enjoyed good educational advantages and have an excellent home.
Henry grew to manhood npon the farm and received his education in the common schools. He now owns 360 acres of good land, which he rents. He furnishes all the seed and gets one half the grain. The girls have good farms and the brothers are equally well off. The voters of the family are Democrats. The parents were members of the Lutheran Church and the whole family is prominent, and possesses the confidence and esteem of all who are fortunate enough to know them. George Edward is not ınar- ried, and is of a roving spirit, having visited many of the cities of the West. Early in life he developed a fondness for fire-arıns, and is now one of the best rifle-shots in the country. He has given numerous exhibitions of his skill at target practice, shooting glass balls, etc., and has always come out best in com- petition with local authorities. He was born November 13, 1868, on the farm where his mother and family live and which is his home.
JOHN G. KENDRICK, of Elkhorn town- ship, was born in Lebanon, New Hamp- shire, February 18, 1828. He is a son of Stephen and Martha (Gerrish) Kendrick. Stephen came to Illinois in 1841 with his wife and two children, his possessions being an ox teain and $50 in cash. He first rented in this county and bought forty acres of land, where he died when eighty-four years of age. Stephen's father was a merchant of Lebanon, New Hampshire, and died there a very old man. Stephen's wife was named Thankful Howe, and she died when an old woman. The father of our subject was one of eight children, and his mother one of seven chil- dren. She was born in New Hampshire, and
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died at the home of her son, aged sixty-one years.
John remained at liome until married, and went to the district school with James A. Garfield. He learned the trade of a black- smith and wagon maker. After he married hc rented a farm near his father, and there lived until 1872, when he moved into his own house, and now owns 300 acres. He carries on mixed farming and has been very success- fnl. He is a Republican in politics.
He was married in 1850 to Mary Jaques, born in Allegany county, New York, April 14, 1843, daughter of Samuel and Effie (Fa- gort) Jaqnes. They were New Yorkers, who came to Illinois in 1841. Mrs. Kendrick is one of twelve children. Mr. and Mrs. Ken- drick have three living children: Edward R., Fred W. and Emma. The boys are on the land their father owned. They are mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Mr. Kendrick is a Class-leader, and the whole family are very active in Sunday-school work; in fact Mr. Kendrick is active in every good work, especially temperance work, and has organized several temperance societies. No inan in the county has been more active than Mr. Kendrick in placing it in the position it now enjoys. He has a grand record for local temperance and church work, and is highly s teemed throughout the county.
AMES M., BENJAMIN R., AND WILL- IAM B. WILSON are farmers of Elk- horn township, where they have been residents for a long time. Their father, John S. Wilson, was born in New Jersey, May 15, 1817. He was the son of Reuben Wilson,
who was of English parents and a successful farmer of New Jersey. (See sketcli of George W. and F. M. Wilson.) Reuben Wilson re- moved to Ohio and resided there a few years, and in 1829 he visited Illinois on horseback, and was so pleased with the country that he cmigrated to Illinois in 1833, and settled in Adams county. He entered sixteen sections of Government land, 10,240 acres, part of which was included in the township of Quincy. Soon after his arrival in this State he was taken quite sick, and was rendered lielpless until his death some three years later. He married Susan Carver, of New Jersey, and of Holland parents. She died about two years after her husband. John Wilson was about sixteen years old wlien lie came to Illinois with his parents. At that time Adams was but little settled, and Quincy was only a vil- lage, although it served as the market place for the farmers for many miles around. He was the pioneer teacher for Adams county and also Brown county, and as there were no districts all were taught in the subscription school in a little log house. The teacher was obliged to board around among the people. He was married November 30, 1843, to Miss Elizabeth J. Adams, born in 1827, daughter of Mr. Benjamin Adams, Sr. They had six children, namely: Benjamin B., born No- vember 3, 1844; Perlina, born December, 1846; Pernita, born March 25, 1849; James M., born May 26, 1851; Dora E. was born February 5, 1854; William B., born Novem- bei 4, 1859. Mr. Wilson bought land in sec- tion 5, and built a log-cabin, in which all of his children were born, and where he lived until the day of his death, on April 22, 1875. His wife died in 1892.
The brothers have always resided on the old homestead, and have been engaged in farming. They have received a good educa-
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tion, and they are extensive readers, putting into practice the ideas they receive from their papers. Their farmn is one of the best and most improved in the county.
OHN H. TUREMAN .- Mr. Tureman' father, in the year 1827, emigrated to what is now Cass county, with his family, which then compriscd a wife and seven chil- dren. He purchased from a man named Myers a claim to a tract of Government land, and some time later, as soon as he could ob- tain the money, entered the same direct from the Government. It is the same that is now owned by the subject of this sketch. There was then a log cabin on the place, having in it neither sawed lumber nor nails; the boards on the roof were rived by hand and held in place by weight-poles; those of the floor were split and one side hewed smooth,-called " puncheons," about six feet in length. The chimney was built of earth and sticks on the end and outside of the building. And it was in this humble abode that John H. Ture- man was born. The family occupied this dwelling about four years, when Mr. Ture- man erected a story-and-a-half frame house,- one of the first frame dwellings in the county. The lumber for this structure was all sawed by hand, as there was no sawmill in the country. A platform was constructed, on which the logs were rolled, and two men operated the saw, what was called a " whip saw," one man standing above, the other below. The father was a resident of this place until his death, in June, 1835, when he was aged about fifty-two years. His wife survived him many years, dying in 1868, aged seventy-nine years. Her maiden name was Elizabeth Harbold, and she was born in
Pennsylvania, of Germany ancestry. Until seven years of age she spoke no other lan- guage than the German, and after moving from Pennsylvania there was a period of twenty-one years during which time she did not even see a German-speaking person.
Following are the names of the twelve chil- dren in the above family: Eliza, the wife of William Carr; Ann, who married James Cook; David, George, Leonard, Catherine, who married William Patterson; Arsenoin, who married Cabel Patterson; John H .; Elizabeth, the wife of James Allison; William A .; Tracy; and Virginia, who married George Davis. Of the foregoing, Catherine, John H., William and Virginia are living.
Mr. Tnreman, our subject, was born and has passed his entire life on the place he now owns and occupies and has therefore lived longer on one place than any other person now residing in the county. He has a very retentive memory and relates many interest- ing incidents of pioneer days, illustrating the contrast between the peculiarities of those days and the present. He was in his sixth year when his father died, and he remembers how he seemed to be his father's favorite, for his father often took him along on his travels, thus widening our subject's experience and the scope of his pleasures. Their grain and other products were all marketed at Beards- town, much of it being drawn there with ox teams.
On one occasion they camped over night a short distance from that place, which was then the principal market for this part of Illinois. There were then many campers there, some having come from Jacksonville, Springfield, and Decatur for merchandise. It was on one of these return trips that the elder Tureman drew the second load of mer- chandise that was ever taken to Virginia, the
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goods being for Dr. Hall, who, at the time, kept the only store in the place. On another occasion he took a carding-machine to Jackson- ville, and on this trip they stopped on the way at a distillery to quench their thirst, distilleries being then very nnmerons and their products pure and cheap. The people subsisted principally upon wild game and produce of their own raising. Deer, wild turkey, prairie chickens, etc., were abundant. Bread was considered a great luxury, Corn meal was the principal breadstuff in use, sometimes exclusively so for long periods.
For several years there were no gristmills other than horse-mills in this part of the conntry, and often the inhabitants had to grate their corn on a perforated tin grater, or pound it in a mortar. The first gristmills started were operated by horse-power. When but a boy our subject used to take a sack of shelled corn on the back of a horse to mill, where he often had to wait all day for his grist. When he was abont fourteen there was a water-power mill at Arenzville, to which he took grists.
His father was a true friend of popular education. He hired a teacher, giving him a room in his own house. But in those days " licking" and learning went together, and John came in for his share of the " lickings." His sister, Mrs. Cook, took pity on him, and on one occasion lined his jacket with card- board made of brown paper, which was placed under his clothes, as a protection against the customary rongh usage of the "schoolmaster."
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His other brothers having left home, young Tureman found himself at the age of fifteen with the management of the farm devolving upon him. Being industrious and possessing good judgment, he was successful from the start. In the course of time he bought the interest of the other heirs in the homestead,
and he has also purchased other tracts of land. The home farm contains 400 acres; another farm, in Logan county, also contains 400 acres. Mr. Tureman's life has not only been characterized by industry and enterprise, but also by generosity and public spirit. In 1884 he erected the opera-house in Virginia,-a handsome, well built structure, 64 x 120 feet in dimensions, two stories high besides base- ment, and was, at the time it was erected, the finest, building in any town of its size in the State of Illinois. He is also a stockholder and a director in the First National Bank in Virginia.
Politically Mr. Tureman was originally a Democrat. In 1876 he voted for Peter Cooper, but, previous to this, a revolution in his political creed had occurred, which had its incipiency in the first issue of greenbacks by the Government. He accepted these as safe inoney, because it had the stamp of the land, was a creation of the law, and conse- quently was good, and would remain so as long as the Government by which it had been issued was solvent. In this he was an original greenbacker. At this time, or per- haps a little later, Mr. Tureman began to realize the drift of the old party he had left; saw that the famous Kansas and Nebraska bills were shallow pretenses of democracy, championed by Douglas and other pro-slavery leaders to ultimately carry slavery into all the nnorganized domains of the Government. This after-light caused him many doubts about clinging to the fortunes of a party bent upon fostering slavery in the free Territories from 1856 to 1864. From the latter date on, he has not been in harmony with either of the old parties, the financial policy of the Republican party being particularly distaste- ful to him in all its collateral branches. He wants no dollar redeemable in another dollar,
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no specie base to hoodwink and give the appearance of security to a currency, whichi is as good without a promise to redeem in specie as it is with a promise to redeem and without the specie with which to do it.
Socially he is a member of the Morgan and Cass County Pioneer Society, of which he has served botlı as president and vice-president.
He was married December 5, 1851, to Mary J. Davis, a native of Cass county. Their two children are Parthena and John F. The former is the wife of Hugh W. Harrison, of Belleville, this State, and has one child, namned Zoe. John F. married Mary Cald- well, and he is engaged in the grocery busi- ness in Virginia.
ICHARD S. BLACK, an intelligent, progressive and highly esteemed citizen of Mound Station, Illinois, and repre- senting one of the best families of Schuyler county, was born in Woodstock township, this county, May 28, 1832.
His father, Richard Black, was a native of Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, where he attained to manhood. Of an adventurous and progressive disposition, he removed from his native county to Hancock county, Ken- tucky, in an early day. The spirit of emi- gration, however, was too strong for hini to resist, and after a few years' sojourn in Ken- tucky, we again see him moving Westward. His second settlement was made in Dubois county, in what was then Indiana Territory. In 1826, he again moved toward the setting sun, moving by team overland to Schuyler connty, Illinois, accompanied by his wife and four children. Arrived at his destination, he purchased of Willis O'Neil a claini to the land which is now the site of the city of
Rushville. On the organization of Schuyler connty, this claim was selected as the county seat, and it was consequently taken from Mr. Black, the county afterward reimbursing him in part. Thus deprived of his home, he re- moved five miles southward, near the present site of Bethel Church, where he bonglit a tract of patent land. He erected on this a log cabin sixteen feet square, for the roof of which he rived clapboards, and split puncheon for the floor, while he made his chimney of sticks and clay, called in those days a " cat- and-stick chimney." He, later, built an ad- dition, making a double log cabin with an entry between, at that time a very pretentious residence, where lie dwelt until his death, in 1853. The maiden name of his second wife was Elizabeth Fowler, a native of Jefferson county, Kentucky. She reared eight chil- dren, two of whom were her husband's by his foriner marriage. These children were: Elizabeth, William, Isaac, Cecelia, John L., Richard S., the subject of this sketch; Aus- tin S., and Monroe. The devoted wife and mother survived her husband and spent her declining years in comfort with her son Isaac.
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