USA > Illinois > Mason County > Centennial history of Mason County, including a sketch of the early history of Illinois, its physical peculiarities, soils, climate, production, etc. > Part 11
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JOHN W. PUGH.
It is with hesitancy that we approach the work of sketching the history of him whose name is at the head of this article. A man who delights in doing good to others in a quiet and unostentious way; that shrinks from publicity and notoriety; of deep religious character; that prefers that his right hand should not know what his left doeth; to give to the public our knowledge of his life is a pleasant and delicate task.
Mr. Pugh is a native of Pennsylvania, born in Luzerne county, August 5, 1824. He removed to Mason county, Illinois, in 1850; like many others, attracted by the fertility of the soil, healthful cli- mate, though at that time not possessing the advantage of churches, schools, etc., afforded at the present day. He has been engaged in farming, practically and successfully.
He was married in 1854 to Miss Sarah Apple, daughter of Major Apple, of Lewistown, Fulton county, Illinois, hence for twenty- two years they have together traveled life's pathway, on the bor- ders of which few have found more flowers or become less wearied. His official career is alike creditable to his head and heart. Seldom has the time arrived since his residence in this county that he was not trustee of town or school or both, as every good citizen is ex- pected to give his time freely to these non-paying but useful and indispensable positions. For nine years he has been a member of the county board of supervisors, and is the present incumbent, and one whose influence and judgment has much to do in the legis- lation of the affairs of the county.
He was elected to the legislature and served the last session, and his term includes the years 1874 and 1876. Here, as in the county board, his influence was felt, and his votes stand recorded credit- ably to himself and constituents.
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The year following his marriage, (1855) he united with the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he remained an honored and influential member till 1873, when he transferred his member- ship to the Presbyterian Church, in his immediate neighborhood, and for more convenient attendance. This transfer of Mr. Pugh of his church relations from one organization to another, is only an illustration of a very pleasant fact, which is this: That as educa- tion and intelligence increase, the partition walls between church organizations become lower, and the higher a man stands in ed- ucation and intelligence the sooner he is able to look over these walls, and they finally lose their dividing power, and the upper strata of intelligence and piety find themselves equally at home on either side of where the walls once stood, as they become invisible . and crumble away. It is not true that "ignorance is the mother of devotion," but it is true that ignorance is the mother of bigotry and superstition; and bigotry and superstition are the foundations on which rest the partition walls of religious organizations, which are fast disappearing. It is the pride and glory of this century that science and arts are moving forward to the annihilation of time and space; that educated intelligence is at the helm of civil government (the people); that the revelation of God's word and His works are in happy unison, and science and not ignorance is the handmaid of religion.
But we digress. We allude briefly to the usefulness of the sub- ject of this sketch in the Sabbath-school work and the benevolent enterprises of his neighborhood; and to enlarge on this topic is un- necessary; we will say, however, that he takes a great interest and pleasure in these commendable enterprises, and his duty is his great- est pleasure.
"May never wicked fortune trouble him; May never wicked men bamboozle him, Until his head's as old as old Mathusalem; Then to the blessed New Jerusalem, With fleet wings away."
J. P. WALKER, M. D.
Dr. Walker has been a prominent physician in Mason county for many years, noted for his skill and abilities in both medicine and surgery. He was born in Adair county, Kentucky, April 6, ,
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1826. The family from which he descended came to Virginia, when it was a young colony, from Londonderry, Ireland. The de- scendants, who are numerous, are spread over many of the western and southern States.
The subject of these notes removed with his parents, Joseph C. Walker and wife, to Illinois, and settled in Sangamon county in 1830, near a place now called Middletown, in Logan county. After residing there seven years he removed to Irish Grove, Menard county, where he died in 1841, aged fifty-six years. Dr. Walker then carried his mother back to Kentucky, overland, and remained there, laboring at four dollars per month for means to enable him to return to Illinois. On his return he worked on a farm, taught school, and, as well as he could, unaided, pursued the study of m'edieine. In 1846 he enlisted in Company F, Fourth Illinois Vol- unteers, under Col. Ed. Baker, and was at the seige of Vera Cruz and the battle of Cerro Gordo; was a second Sergeant in his com- pany. On his return to Menard county he was elected Assessor and Treasurer, and was then enabled again to resume the studies so congenial to his taste. So sanguine was he in the pursuit of the knowledge requisite to the profession of medicine, that he carried medical books in his knapsack during his service in the Mexican war. His acquirements were finally reduced to system under Dr. J. G. Rogers, of Petersburg, Ill.
He began the practice of medicine in Athens, Illinois, in March, 1849, but in July, the same year, removed to Walker's Grove, Mason county.
On July 3d, 1849, he married Miss Martha E. Towne, who died in 1853. In 1854 he again married. The lady was Miss M. A. Walker, daughter of W. H. Walker, of Lancaster, Iowa. In 1857 he joined with others in laying out Mason City, and in 1859 made this his permanent home. In 1861, under the first call for volun- teers, he enlisted, and was made Captain of Company K, 17th Illi- nois Infantry, for which see roster of the 17th Infantry, in the Military department of this work. He was in the battles of Fred- ericktown, Ft. Donaldson and Shiloh. He then resigned and assisted in raising the 85th Illinois Infantry, of which he was appointed Surgeon, and afterwards Lieuntenant-Colonel, in which capacity he served till the battle of Chicamauga, when he returned to Mason City and resumed his practice. In 1865 it was proposed to erect a monument to departed soldiers, and Dr. Walker was made Presi- dent of the building association.
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
By his present wife a family of pleasant and interesting children have sprung up about them-eight in number-making lively their pleasant home in Mason City.
Dr. Walker is an active and enthusiastic member of his profes- sion, enjoying an extensive and successful practice, and, like all men who love their profession, is quite successful. Socially, we know Dr. Walker as a genial, pleasant gentleman; enjoying good health, he bids fair for a long life of usefulness in his labors to ben- efit his fellow-man.
JOHN A. MALLORY.
The gentleman whose name is at the head of these notes is not an old resident of Mason county, but one whose talents and abili- ties have prominently identified him in the political, the literary, the legal and the business interests of the county. The writer first met and became acquainted with Judge Mallory on his first arrival and settlement in Havana, in the year IS58, at which time he emigrated here from Tennessee, where he had resided for some years, though a native of Kentucky. Possessed of fine æsthetic taste, unusual mechanical ability, sound education and a taste for literature, it is not strange that we find him an artist, a printer, an editor or a painter. These varied talents he possesses in no small degree. He possesses poetical genius that deserves a notoriety that he does not care to admit. Below find a little production of his pen, thrown off without a moment's thought, July 4, IS59, and published in the Havana Gazette the same week :
" To-day's our Nation's Jubilee, Let every patriot's heart beat high; From North to South-from sea to sea, May its remembrance never die.
Baptized in blood, our fathers swore No more to bend the suppliant knee- No more to heed the Lion's roar,
HENCEFORTII TO BE FOREVER FREE!
That pledge of freedom which they gave, In 'Seventy-six, 'mid sword and flame,
Their children now should ever save
From tyrant's grasp or despot's claim.
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And shall traitor hands e'er sever The Union by which our fathers stood? No! may its links be bright forever, Binding firm our brotherhood."
The New-year following he was the successful competitor for a silver cup, valued at fifty dollars, for the best poem on the new year. The premium was offered in the city of Memphis. We have read the poem, and the letter awarding the cup, and asking by what means of conveyance it should be forwarded to him. The poem was a lengthy production, very meritorious, and we regret that we have never been able to obtain a copy, or, on the present occasion, to extract therefrom. On the breaking out of the rebel- lion he took active part in political affairs in behalf of the preserva- tion of the Union, and on the 27th of August, 1862, was mustered into the service in the 85th Illinois Infantry, in an official position, (for which see roster of S5th Ill., in another part of this book) which was filled with fidelity and credit. He resigned February 7, 1863. In 1865 he was elected to the office of Police Justice, to fill a vacancy, and afterwards re-elected for a full term; served with great acceptance in this position for five years, when he was elected County Judge in 1869, which position he filled with such fidelity and satisfaction that it needs no further comment than to state the fact that he was re-elected in 1873 by the largest majority · any officer ever received in Mason county.
These continued re-elections by increased majorities is a better and more eloquent commentary on his official acts than any in the power of the writer to undertake.
A social, pleasant and genial gentleman, he has made many strong friends; an active politician of the "straitest of the sect," a democrat, a member of the County Central Committee of that party, also of the State Central Committee.
If there is one fact more than another that stands forth pre-emi- nent and conspicuous where there are many strong points, as a tall mountain peak rises high in the blue vault of heaven, and is promi- nent, though surrounded by other mountain peaks, it is his record as a judicial officer. That record is without blot or blemish. His decisions do not in the least indicate his individual opinions, but the law and the testimony. When the surging waves of treason were lashing against the columns of the colossal Accropolis of the nation's glory, though a southern man by birth and education, he
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felt it to be his duty to unite with the Union army. When an odious law is to be enforced, he executes his duty to the letter of the statute, thus hastening its repeal.
HENRY C. BURNHAM.
The Burnham family is descended from an ancient English an- cestry. The historical publications of Norfolk county, England, enables the family to establish an unbroken line in that country, down through the lapse of centuries to the year ISIS, and living men of the name still in England carry the line of succession to still later dates. The coat-of-arms seems to have existed since the eleventh century, without modification.
By increase and inter-marrying they became scattered over Eng- land, and prominently identified with Church and State, and, finally, it became engrafted on American soil. The origin of American Burnhams is traceable to three brothers, John, Thomas and Robert, sons of Rupert and Mary (Andrews) Burnham, of Norwich, Nor- folk county, England, who came to America in 1635. Robert es- tablished himself at Dover, New Hampshire.
John Burnham acquired large tracts of land, and became a very wealthy and influential man. His grandson, Ebenezer, moved to Windham, Conn., and became the ancestor of a numerous progeny. ' He purchased a farm in 1734, located in Hampton, where, until re- cently, was the old Burnham homestead. In the third generation from him, or the sixth from John Burnham, Festus Burnham was born, on the 25th of April, 1796, and was married, in IS23, to Lora, daughter of Daniel Clark. Their children were Lora Ann, Henry Clark, and Marina, only two of whom are now living, Lora Ann, widow of James Ashley, and Henry C., the subject of this sketch, who was born at Hampton, Conn., Jan. 30, IS26, and who, being the only son, stands at the head of the seventh genera- tion of his own family. He was educated at home, and furnished with the advantages of high schools and acadamies abroad. At the age of nineteen, he settled in Champaign county, Ohio. Here he engaged in teaching, but afterwards went into a store, in Wood- stock, Ohio, as a partner. This business proved too confining for him, and he returned to Connecticut to regain his health. Here he met, in the meantime, Miss Angeline Currier, who was at one
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time a pupil of his school, and they were married, Dec. 16, 1847. She was born in Betheny, Genesee county, New York, Dec. 16, 1825, whither her family had removed from New Hampshire. After recovering his health, Mr. Burnham came to Illinois, in the fall of 1852, and first stopped at Clinton, Illinois, and then went to Mt. Pulaski, Illinois, and finally to his present locality. Mr. Burn- ham's abilities and education fit him for any official position in the gift of the people. His integrity and habits have made him a con- spicuous member of the community. Being averse to office, he has not been an office seeker. Our first acquaintance with him was in 1856, at which time he was a member of the county court of Mason county, a position of responsibility that his sound judg- ment abundantly qualified him to fill with acceptance. Like all other good citizens he has served a full share in the service of the township and school offices. In times gone by, he has been guilty of feeding and bidding Godspeed to the fugitive from slavery, with which this government was then accursed. In 1856 he was a Re- publican, and one, of twenty-five, who voted for Fremont, out of a poll of three hundred. Though ardently attached to the cause of the union, and ever opposed to slavery, he is now devoid of hos- tility to those who were our late opponents, and believes in spread- ing the broad mantle of charity over the short-comings and mis- doings of the past.
Henry C. Burnham is fortunate beyond the common lot of humanity, in being surrounded by all that makes life pleasant. He can traverse his own broad acres, and say :
"Earth has no gentler voice to man to give Than, come to Nature's arms, and learn of her to live."
GEORGE A. BONNEY.
Mr. Bonney was born in the State of New York, in the year 1810. His ancestors settled in Massachusetts, during the colonial period. His grandfather was a Colonel, commanding a body of State troops, at Springfield, Mass., in an engagement there during what is popularly known as the whisky insurrection.
Col. Bonney's family consisted of nine children. Luke, the sec- ond son, was united in marriage with Eunice Hinman, and re- moved to the State of New York, in 1802. Their family con-
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compile an early history of Mason county, better than myself. With its more recent history you yourself are well acquainted.
The best part of my life-that portion which should be given to active business enterprise, was spent in Havana. It was not as fruitful of desirable results as I wish it had been, for if I had the ability, which I do not assert, I certainly had not the pecuniary means to build up a new town in a new country. When at the age of twenty-six years I landed in Havana from the steamer "Aid," the last boat up the Illinois river for the season of 1835, Major Osian M. Ross, was living at Havana, a man of means and large experience, and proprietor of the town, ready and willing, to expend money, time and influence in building it up. He promised much which I have no reason to doubt he would have fulfilled had he lived, but death removed him and left more than half of Havana the property of an estate with minor heirs, nearly one-half of the town being sold to a Peoria firm (whose names do not occur to me at this moment) one of whom soon died, and their portion became also involved in the affairs of another estate, with no one connected with either try- ing to build up the town, but both trying to draw from it a support to live elsewhere.
Daniel Adams and Abel W. Kemp and their families landed at the same time, all of us having started, with Orin E. Foster and wife (the late Mrs. E. Low) from Demorestville, in Upper Canada, to settle somewhere in the great west, and in a warmer climate than Canada. Mr. Adams, on a return trip to Canada, on business, lost his life by a ruffianly mate on an Ohio river steamboat, near Louisville, Kentucky. You know Mr. Kemp's present residence.
You ask the place of my birth: I was born in Benson, Ver- mont, on the 14th day of February, ISog. Benson, Whiting and Middletown, Vermont, were respectively my home until my 18th year, when my father removed to Watertown, New York, where I was a clerk in the extensive store of L. Paddock, until my 22d birthday. I was offered a partnership in Demorestville, Canada, with Mr. James Carpenter, who had been in business there a num- ber of years, and was well established. I accepted, and became a member of the firm of Carpenter and Rockwell.
In 1835 I sold out my interest in the firm to my partner and life- long friend, and took my savings and started to seek my new home in the great, and the then, far off west.
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Of the time and the money which I spent from my slender means for years, to make' Havana and Mason county desirable to live in, it does not become me to speak. Havana seems to me yet more like home than anywhere else I go or live; not because there is no other place equal to it in this part of the country, but because I lived there so long, and because there are so many much less de- sirable places.
My official positions have been few and unimportant, with per- haps the exception of County Judge, in which I tried to serve the good people of Mason county honestly and faithfully to the best of my ability, for one term. But "that was the day of small things," when one man and one clerk, partially assisted by two others, did so much work for so little pay, and when the county court thought a prompt discharge of duty and economy in county. expenses were cardinal virtues, and when taxes were but a fraction of what they are now; and yet the county had the same public buildings it now has, and county orders were as good as gold. Times have, indeed, changed.
Hoping that success may attend your efforts to publish a history of Mason county and Havana, from their earliest settlement.
I am truly yours, .
N. J. ROCKWELL. J. COCHRANE, EsQ., Havana, Ill.
JAMES M. HARDIN.
In the preparation of this work there is no more pleasurable duty to perform than to record the biography of those "square built," men who are physically, morally and intellectually described by the above term, and of which Mr. Hardin furnished a marked ex- ample. Free from all pride, show and pretense, whose sense of duty, is his law, whose word is his bond, the stay and foundation of any government is in the conscientious integrity of the masses composing "the people."
Mr. Hardin was born in Maryland, Dec. 12, 1819, and in his earlier years his education was to labor, and not in books, having received but six months schooling previous to his removal to Illi- nois, in 1839, and only three months after that time.
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His parents not being in affluent circumstances, he worked dur- ing the summers, thus laying the foundation of his present fine con- stitution, and, in the winters, when farm labor was not to be ob- tained, he applied himself to mental improvement, with eminent success.
I often see the great misfortune many young men are compelled to endure, the misfortune that they were not born poor men's sons, and to earn their own subsistence.
On his first removal to Illinois, in 1839, he located in Greene county; was married in 1842. He located in Mason county, in 1845, on Field's Prairie, near the village of Kilbourne, where he now resides.
For thirty-eight years he has been identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church, and one of its substantial columns.
Mr. Hardin's religious views partake of the same general char- acteristics as his business matters, that is, whatever he finds worth doing at all, is worth doing well. Now, being advanced in years, possessed of a competency of this world's goods, enjoying general good health, few men have greater reason to anticipate a pleas- anter future, or more years of permanent enjoyment for some time to come.
ORRIN E. FOSTER.
The subject of these notes was born in the State of Vermont, and settled in Havana in 1835. He was one of the colony comprising Adams, Rockwell, Kemp, and others referred to, in the sketch of Kemp and of Rockwell in this book.
On the location of Mr. Foster in Havana, he engaged in the business of hotel keeping, and ultimately bought a farm three miles northeast of Havana, where he resided to the time of his death, which occurred December 17, 1843, at the age of thirty-two years, one month and ten days.
Mrs. Foster was born in New York. They were married be- fore their removal to Mason county, in 1835, and survived her first husband many years. She leaves four children by her first hus- band-Judson R. Foster, grain dealer, of the firm of McFadden, Low & Co., of this city, George H. Foster, Mrs. Jacob Wheeler and Mrs. Nash, of this city.
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By her second marriage, with Mr. Low, there are two sons, Mr. Anson Low, of the grain firm before named, and Mr. Rufus Low, of this city. Mr. J. R. Foster and the Messrs. Low are among the substantial business men of Havana.
WASHINGTON H. CAMPBELL.
Was born in Bath, Mason county, Illinois, on October 12th, 1847, where he resided until he was ten years old. His father, having been elected County Judge, removed to Havana. In 1858, his father, having been elected to the Legislature, removed his family to Lincoln. He was steady in attendance at school until he was twelve years of age, when he entered a dry goods store, acting as clerk and cashier. He remained in this employment for two years. He then entered the high school, and pursued his studies for near three years. He then became a student in Jonathan Jones' Com- mercial School, St. Louis. After completing the commercial course, he entered his father's store, in Lincoln, and remained there as book-keeper until the fall of 1866. He entered Lincoln Univer- sity at the opening of the institution. He remained there until June, 1868, completing the junior year. During these two years he was always at his post; was a faithful student and an earnest Amasagascian, and took part in several of the public entertain- ments given by his society. He then, with his parents, moved to Mason City, where he engaged in banking with his father, and keeping up his studies. In the fall of 1869 he entered the Law Department of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and spent one year there. He was very successful in the Moot and Club courts, and was elected Judge of one of the best club courts in the University.
In the summer of 1870 he entered the law office of Hon. Luther Dearborn, Havana, Illinois. He formed a co-partnership with Mr. Dearborn soon after being admitted. He has been admitted to the United States District Court, and also to the United States Circuit Court, in which courts, as also the several adjoining Circuit Courts and State Supreme Court, he has a large and increasing practice. Mr. Campbell kept up his studies in the course prescribed by Lin- coln University, and in June, 1872, the degree of B. S. was con- ferred upon him, and he graduated as a member of the class of 1869.
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He addressed the Alumni Society, June, 1873. He is destined to be- come one of our ablest lawyers.
During the spring of 1876 Mr. Campbell married Miss Libbie, daughter of S. C. Conwell, Esq., of this city, and resides in their pleasant home, on the hill, near the residence of his law partner, L. Dearborn, Esq. Perhaps few other cases have occurred in which three generations have been so prominently identified with a county's interests as have P. W. Campbell, G. H. Campbell and W. H. Campbell. The son, father and grandfather have been thus identificd.
S. D. SWING.
Mr. Swing was born in Bethel, Clermont county, Ohio, in IS21; moved west in 1840, and located in Mason county, southeast of Mason City, at a place called Swing's Grove. He here engaged in farming until 1858. September 15, 1842, he married Miss Mary Sykes, daughter of Edward Sykes, who settled in Mason county in 1837. Miss Mary Sykes is referred to in another part of this work as the teacher of the first school in Mason county.
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