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 13
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Mr. Cargill is a man of fine natural abilities, and of cultivation, enjoys the respect and confidence of his acquaintances, and his bus- iness talents are of a high order.
J. M. ESTEP.
Mr. Estep is a native of St. Clair county, Illinois, was born Dec. 14, 1819, removed to Menard county, in 1820, and to Mason county, in 1833, being thus not only one of the first settlers of Mason county, but one of the very first in central Illinois. In
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1820, when James Estep, the father of J. M., moved to what is now Menard county, the present great State of Illinois had but few white inhabitants. It had but just been admitted as a State into the Union. The Estep family were originally from North Caro- lina. The writer made the acquaintance of the elder Mr. Estep more than twenty years ago, or about three years before his death, and a pleasant personal acquaintance has existed with the sons since that time, and it is with much pleasure that we record the very excellent qualities of mind and heart in all.
The Estep family have ever been among our most reliable and substantial farmers, and best citizens, making the golden rule their law, in practice as well as in theory.
J. P. HUDSON.
Mr. Hudson was born in 1805, in Oxford, Mass., removed to Illinois, and settled in Macoupin county, in 1838; from there he re- moved to Pike county, in 1844, and to St. Louis in 1845, but re- turned to Matanzas, in Mason county, and after a residence there of seven years, removed to his farm, about five miles east of Havana, and to Havana in 1857.
After residing in Havana about nine years, he removed to Mason City, where he still resides, and is serving the people of that city very acceptably as justice of the peace. Mr. and Mrs. Hudson (formerly Miss A. Harrington, of Worcester county, Mass.,) were married in 1832, and have four children, two sons and two daughters.
The oldest son is also a resident of Mason City, engaged in a mechanical business. The youngest is a resident of Fort Dodge, Iowa, and is engaged in the practice of law. He is a graduate of Michigan State University, at Ann Arbor, Michigan. The oldest daughter is the wife of R. J. Onstot, Esq., book and news dealer, in Mason City, and the youngest, a very competent and efficient teacher, in the schools of Mason City.
Mr. Hudson has the credit of introducing the first McCormick's reaper ever used in Mason county, and sold the same to Mr. Wm. Ainsworth, of Lynchburg.
Mr. Hudson has been more than usually fortunate. He has not grown rich, and has never been poor,
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"But has held fast that golden mean, And lived most happily between The little and the great; Felt not the wants that pinch the poor, Nor plagues that haunt the rich man's doors, Embittering all his state."
But most fortunate has he been in rearing a pleasant intelligent family. Education and refinement, with good tastes, and social position that is not the lot of all.
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JAMES K. COX.
James K. Cox was born in Henry county, Virginia. in 1797, and emigrated to Tennessee in the year 1810, and from there to Illi- nois, in 1819, and settled in Madison county. From there he re- moved to Morgan county, in 1822, and to Mason county, where Manito now stands, in 1851. He was one of the proprietors of that town. He died there, in 1863.
R. M. COX,
Son of James K. Cox, was born in Morgan county, Illinois, in 1831. He came to Mason county with his father, in 1851, and has always been engaged in farming. He was married, in 1853, to Miss A. Malony, daughter of Mr. A. Malony, of Coon grove, is a well-to-do farmer, has made his business a financial success, and- promises to live long for the enjoyment of the good things of this world, and the abundance that surrounds him.
O. C. EASTON.
Mr. Easton is a native of Butler county, Ohio, where he was born August 17, 1829. He removed to Mason county, July, 1856, and engaged in the business of house and sign painting. In Sep- tember, 1852, he married Miss Angia, daughter of S. R. and M. Pierce, who also removed to Havana, in the fall of 1857. After being engaged in the business before stated, in Havana, for a num- ber of years, he received the appointment of Postmaster, March
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1, 1865, in which position he served near two years, and was re- appointed, after the office had another occupant for the brief period of seven months. He also served as city clerk, in 1870. After a residence in this city of many years, Mr. and Mrs. Pierce removed to Waverly, Nebraska. Here, Mrs. Pierce died, June 11, 1876, aged seventy-five years. Mr. Pierce survives her, and is aged seventy-four years.
The business qualifications of Mr. Easton peculiarly fit him for , the position he has so long and so satisfactorily filled. We have long since claimed to have the model Postmaster, whose patience in answering unnecessary questions is only equaled by his accom- modating disposition.
THADEUS WRIGHT
Was born at Deerfield, Mass., in 1760, and died at Wright's Corners, in Niagara county, N. Y., in 1847. He served through- out the Revolutionary war, and was a pensioner to the time of his death. He was but seventeen years old when he entered the army, and was the youngest of six brothers, who all enlisted in the army of the revolution, and one of these brothers (Isaac) was a member of Washington's Life Guards. Thadeus was the father of George Wright, the subject of the following sketch.
GEORGE WRIGHT, EsQ.
The following we copy from Havana Post of April 1, 1865:
"Another aged and respected citizen has departed 'to that bourne from whence no traveler returns.' The subject of this sketch, after having outlived his generation, and lived his day, which was protracted longer than life is commonly desirable, died of typhoid pneumonia at his residence in this city, on the 28th of March, 1865, aged sixty-eight years, eleven months and thirteen days. The death of the aged, unlike that of the young, suggests reflections that are usually interesting, whatever may have been the sphere of life of the deceased. The comparative length of the journey he has traveled, the number and the variety of the vicisitudes of his life, point a moral that, like a beacon of greater or less brilliancy,
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should serve instead of experience to those who are measurably to follow in the same pathway.
"The subject of this article was born in the town of Deerfield, Mass., April 15, 1796. About the year iSot the family moved to Chittendon county, Vermont, where he lived till he was eighteen years of age. At this time our country was at war with England, and, with others of his neighbors, he enlisted in the regiment known as the 'Green Mountain Boys.' We are not farther advised of his military adventures than that he took part with his regiment in the battle of Plattsburgh, and continued in this regiment until it was mustered out of the service.
"At the conclusion of the war he emigrated to western New York, when, in 1824, he married the lady who, though now well stricken in years, still survives him. Here, by persevering industry, he acquired a respectable property, but afterwards engaging as a contractor on the Erie canal, he had the misfortune to lose, through the rascality of his associates, his entire property. It can be said, to his honor, however, that he paid every farthing of his indebted- ness, and with the conscientious satisfaction that he owed no man, in 1845 he emigrated to Illinois, and settled in Fulton county. In [ $49 he moved to Havana, where he has since resided. Although he has taken no prominent part in the business affairs of this city, yet he has constantly been identified with them, and his fellow- citizens have frequently testified their confidence in his integrity and conscientious faithfulness in the performance of every duty in- trusted to him. Mr. Wright was one of the oldest A. F. and A. M. Masons in the Lodge at this city. Having been initiated into the mysteries of that sublime order at the age of twenty-one years, he continued faithful to its obligations till the Grand Master above called him from labor to rest, frequently oc- cupying the highest offices in the Lodge, and being an officer of this body at the time of his death. He was also identified with the Morgan trouble, and was a witness in the legal investigation made by Hon. William L. Marcy, of New York. It is needless to add that he remained faithful to the order, and lived to be grati- fied that its principles had triumphed over the malignant attacks of its enemies. His funeral was attended by the lodge in this city in a body, and he was buried with the ancient ceremonies peculiar to the order. When we have said that Mr. Wright was a good Mason, we have said everything that need be said as to his char-
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acter. His frailties were such as to be easily covered by the mantle of Christian charity, while his virtues, which were many, should be entered upon perpetual record."
Over twenty years ago we made the acquaintance of the subject of the above article, and gladly endorse the very full and impartial biography there given. Now, that over eleven years has elapsed since the above was written, we will add further, that Mrs. A. T. Wright, his widow, still survives, and, though far advanced in years, enjoys unusual health, and is an active and efficient exemplary member of the Methodist Episcopal church, a society that has long felt her influence for good.
ORLANDO H. WRIGHT.
Son of the subjects of the above, was born at Lockport, N. Y., April 22, 1828, and made the west his home on the removal here of his parents, as stated above, in 1849. He chose the profession of law, and was admitted to the bar; his license bears date March ist, 1852, and bears the signatures of S. H. Treat and Lyman Trumbull. Mr. Wright has ever been noted for his legal abilities, sound judgment, and has inherited from his parents a large amount of that conscientious integrity that has so eminently marked their lives; but stand clear of the witticisms that are in inexhaustible store in his fertile brain. He was united in marriage Nov. 6, 1849, with Miss Harriet M. Parmelee, and an interesting family now adorns and enlivens their present home. The best commentary that can be made on the business and legal abilities of Mr. Wright is to state that since of legal age he has been in the service of the town- ship, the county and the state, as a justice of the peace, notary pub- lic, county school commissioner, etc., etc .; all filled with fidelity and credit to himself and friends. He represented his county in the Constitutional Convention in 1867, and was an active, influential member of that body, which gave us the present admirable consti- tution, which was adopted in 1870. He is now and long has been city attorney, which, like all other positions he has occupied, is ably and creditably filled.
It is a pleasure to record him socially a gentleman, popular and unassuming; kind and courteous to all. Independent in his opin-
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ions, with due deference to the opinions of others, with prospects of many years of future usefulness in the community in which he resides.
HORACE A. WRIGHT, EsQ.
Brother of O. H., and consequently son of George and A. T. Wright, was born at Lockport, N. Y., April 14th, 1839; came with his parents to Illinois in the fall of 1847, and to Havana in the spring of 1849. First went to school in the old school house that stood in the present court house square. Thomas A. Gibson, now of Forest City, then teacher.
Like most boys, we find Mr. H. A. Wright prepared to do and doing such things as presented themselves to him. In IS55 we find him carrying mails to the town of Delavan once a week, among the beautiful prairies, covered with corn and grass, that lie between here and that town. In 1856 we find him deputy post- master in Havana, a position he was compelled to relinquish on account of health. In 1857 we find him in the banking house of Messrs. Rupert, Haines & Co., in this city, where he remained until it closed in 1860. He is then employed as deputy circuit clerk, in which position he has been such an indispensable necessity to the business of the office, that with one brief intermission, he has been permanently engaged there to the present time.
On July 3, 1860, he married Miss Josephine Parkhurst, daughter of Mr. Winslow Parkhurst of this city. A bright, intelligent lit- tle family have grown about them and enliven their pleasant home. A long personal acquaintance compels us to record him a prompt, upright, capable man, of strict business integrity, and a pleasant, genial gentleman. Enjoying good health, he bids fair for many years of usefulness in the community in which he resides.
ABEL W. KEMP.
As will be seen by the following communication, the gentleman whose name is above was an early inhabitant and an old citizen of Mason county, and very prominently identified with its business
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interests. We addressed him at his present home, Sparta, Wiscon- sin, and received the reply copied below:
SPARTA, WISCONSIN, June 26, 1876. J. COCHRANE, EsQ. :
Dear Sir :- In answer to yours of the 14th inst., I would say that I was away from home when yours was received, as an excuse for the delay. I was born August 26, 1802, at Fitchburgh, Massachusetts, and removed to Havana in 1835.
For any further information I send you an address given at my golden wedding, two years ago, from which you may find some- thing that may be useful to you in getting my history.
Yours truly,
A. W. KEMP.
The address referred to above is so good that we will give it entire, as it would not bear abridgement:
REMARKS OF W. H. SPENCER, AT THE GOLDEN WEDDING OF MR. AND MRS. KEMP, OF SPARTA, ON THE EVENING OF AUGUST 26TH, IS74.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Brothers and Sisters, and Friends, all :
Somewhat more than fifty years ago, a young man in Troy, New York, a little under the medium size perhaps, with blue eyes, florid complexion. and hair the color of Rufus of England, might have been seen, like Roger Sherman or President Wilson, when a boy, sitting on a shoemaker's bench, plying his trade. Perhaps, if you could have observed the young man, you might have detected an abstracted, a wandering look in his eyes, while he drove the awl and drew the stitches. You must forgive him if occasionally he forgets to wax the thread, or tips over the box of shoe pegs, or fits the heel to the toe of the boot, for he is thinking, as young men are wont to think, that it is not good to be alone, and his thoughts are away in sweet communion with a dark-eyed maiden of 17 summers, whom he believed would divide his sorrows and double his joys, would fill his soul with perfect peace, and his home with light and love. The thought grew upon him; haunted him day and night, until he said to himself, I must have, I WILL have Sarah Hagarty for my wife, for I do love her with all my might, mind and strength. How this young man managed to communicate his feelings to Miss
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Sarah is not a matter of history. Suffice it to say, that he found some means of telling her the secret of his heart, as young men are apt to do.
But the course of true love does not always run smooth. Sarah, like Clara Peggotty, was "willin'," and Abel, like Barkis, was anx- ious, but one day when Abel mustered up courage to go up to Sarah's father and say, "Mr. Hagarty, I love your daughter Sarah, may I have her for my wife?" the old gentleman, forgetting, per- haps, that he was once a boy, or for some reason best known to himself, replied, "No! not as long as the sun rises in the East can you have her!"
Abel had no notion of changing the course of the sun to please the old man, but he had no notion, either, of giving up Sarah, and as Sarah had no notion of giving up Abel, Sarah and Abel private- ly resolved to give up the whole world, if necessary, rather than give up each other. The result was that Sarah's father was not invited to a certain wedding which took place just fifty years ago this very day, at the house of one of Sarah's married sisters in Schenectady, N. Y., where the name of Sarah Hagarty was changed to Sarah Kemp, and Abel Wheeler Kemp and Sarah Kemp have proved that their love was true, for since they clasped hands and vowed to love each other and live together, a half cen- tury has rolled round, and still the bond of union is unbroken, yea stronger, than when first knit, fifty years ago. It is in honor of this fact that we come, a band of brothers and sisters, to offer this semi-century couple our hearty congratulations, with our hopes that many more years may see that bond unbroken.
And the twain, when made one, started out in life. I believe they lived for a short time at Troy, N. Y., and afterwards at Watertown, in the same State. He followed the trade of shoe- maker, at which he had served an apprenticeship of seven years. History does not inform us what kind of shoes he made. If his leather was as sound as his religion, I think his customers never grumbled of pasteboard stiffening, pan-cake inner soles and split- leather uppers, sold for best quality French calf. A sound religion cannot possibly make and sell shoddy shoes for A No. 1. As Mr. Kemp attends the services of the First Independent Society of this place, of course, we must believe that he always did turn off first- class work.
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But the wife, in the meantime, was proving herself a valuable help-mate, for her deft fingers and good taste applied themselves to millinery work in a shop of her own, and thus she added her shilling to his, until shillings made dollars, and dollars made hun- dreds.
In this place four children was born to them-James and Daniel, living in Minnesota, both present on this occasion; Mary, now Mrs. Simpson, and another daughter, Elizabeth, who died in Illi- nois.
In 1833 Mr. Kemp and family left Watertown and went to Canada, thence moving, in 1835, to Illinois, on to a farm in the bottom lands of the Sangamon river, near Havana, Mason county.
In those times it was very fashionable to get the ague and keep it, and so Mr. Kemp's family, one and all, immediately joined the company of shakers, and we are told that their faces were of the color of lemon peel, and their teeth did chatter, chatter, as unceas- ingly as old Goody Blake's, in the melancholy cynic poem. There were no doctors in the neighborhood, which, perhaps, accounts for the fact that they all survived the shakes. In one respect, how- ever, this family did not follow the fashions, for at that time, when the houses were all made of logs, and windows were holes in the wall, perfectly innocent of glass, what did this Mr. Kemp do but fly right in the face of public opinion by purchasing four panes of glass and putting them in the aforesaid holes in the wall. Is it any wonder that his humble neighbors pronounced it one of the vanities of civilization, and looked upon his house as a proud man's castle, and upbraided them as being wickedly extravagant, "big feelin,'" and "sort o' stuck up like?" After viewing this case on all sides, I am, however, disposed to acquit Mr. Kemp of all shame or blame, from what I know of the vanity of women, it is my deliber- ate conviction that Mrs. Kemp herself was at the bottom of that extravagant idea of getting glass for the windows, and I dare say, if you could have looked inside the house you might have detected other similar innovations on the customs of her green-eyed neigh- bors.
On this farm they had a hard time of it. I believe that he worked at his trade a part of the time and worked on the farm the remainder. But working at anything, with ague fits and fevers alternating, was extremely discouraging. As they had no wagons, everything must be hauled on sleds, even in summer time. Flour -20
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must be brought from St. Louis at great expense, and all kinds of groceries was so dear, that the cost of supporting a large family there ate a big hole in the sack of earnings stored away.
There is one bright oasis in this desert time that I must call at- tention to. However much the ague shook them, we may offer laus Deo that it did not shake the religion out of them. As proof of this, I may adduce this fact, that one time while here Mrs. Kemp, and I think, Mr. Kemp, also, went ten miles to a camp meeting, and that, too, riding after an ox team. Now, a man or woman who will do that will unquestionably be saved. They might have walked, no doubt, but for the sake of religion they were willing to sacrifice ease and comfort, and ride.
Happy the day when they decided to quit this ague farm. It happened in this wise. Mr. Kemp was preparing to build a new house on the old ground, determined, apparently, to fight it out on that line, if he shook all his life. But when the foundation was laid Mrs. Kemp came to look at it, and it seemed to her that she was looking at her grave. With sallow face and chattering teeth, she admonished him that she could not survive another year on that old, billious farm, and begged him to kick the dust of it off his feet, and pitch his tent where she should direct. Like a good, obedient husband, he did just what he ought to have done-he left his farm and saved his wife; he followed where she led.
Riding over the prairie several miles from the site of the first farm, she pointed to a spot, and said: "There, Abel, is where I want my house." He alighted and drove a stake there, bought the land of the government, and built his house on the very spot, in the midst of one hundred and twenty acres of rich soil. From that day the ebbing tide in his fortune stopped, and the flow set in. Health, that had been so long a stranger, returned, and prosperity smiled upon them. The moral is, be sure you get a wife of sound judgment, and then implicity obey her.
After remaining several years on this farm, he moved into the little village of Havana, where he kept a hardware store in connec- tion with a foundry. I believe it was here that he was first made justice of the peace. While holding this office it does not appear from the records (so far as I have examined them) that he ever ac- cepted any bribe, or was engaged in any "ring" speculations, in which respect he departed from the custom of many in these latter days.
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While in Illinois, N. J. Kemp and Frances (now Mrs. John M. Palmer) were born, making in all eight children, three of whom are not living, John, Elizabeth and Sarah, all of whom died in Illinois.
In 1865, Mr. and Mrs. Kemp came on a visit to their children, (Mr. and Mrs. Simpson) in this place, and very naturally fell in love with our beautiful village, and decided to make it their future home. Here they moved, and for nine years have lived, surround- ed by affectionate children and a host of friends.
In religious belief, Mr. Kemp and wife are Universalists, and for many years have been constant readers of the New Covenant, but as they are unsectarian, every liberal movement in religion receives their sympathy, by whatever name it may be called, while their charity is broad enough to love and receive the truth which dwells in all faiths.
Mr. Kemp has been a member of the I. O. O. F. for twenty-five years. He is therefore a veteran in our ranks-the patriarch of the family. No one is more regular in attendance at the lodge than he, and this week he has shown his interest as well as physi- cal vigor, by riding fifteen or twenty miles to attend the funeral of a brother.
If he enjoys the social intercourse and hearty hand-shakes which he receives there, let him be assured that every member of that lodge feels a welcome in his heart whenever the white hairs crown- ing the venerable form of Father Kemp, are seen entering the old lodge room. May he long live to be welcomed there !
Mr. and Mrs. Kemp:
DEAR FRIENDS-One word to you and I am done. Fifty years, with winged feet, have glided by since you, a young man of twenty-two, and you, a maiden of seventeen, clasped each others hands, and with hearts full of love, vowed to live in love together till death should sever you. Nobly and well have you kept your troth. We honor you for it. In the sunshine of prosperity you have rejoiced together. When sorrow has come with her heavy clouds, you have bowed your heads and wept together. When hard trials have borne down heavily upon you, you have not des- paired nor deserted, but resolutely joined hands and struggled uni- tedly against them until the storm has past. When sickness has cast its shadow over your household, and death its deeper shadow,
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we have seen you mingling your tears in the shadow of a common sorrow. For fifty long years you have been faithful, fond and true to each other as you promised to be fifty years ago to-day. For your fidelity and devotion we honor-from our deepest hearts we honor you. And more, we congratulate you.
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