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 17
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In 1853 he built a warehouse, and engaged in the grain trade, and has since been in dry goods and groceries in connection there- with, but always in grain, and has been quite successful, and has all the time been engaged in farming. He has four children- Henry, now living at Sny Carte; Mrs. Emily Sweney, proprie- toress of the Metropolitan Hotel, Jacksonville, Illinois; Irving, living on a farm near Sny Carte; and Albert F., Attorney at Law, Virginia, Illinois.
In 1870 his wife, the companion of his pioneer life and early successes, died of lung fever. He was married again in 1871. In 1872 the second wife died of typhoid fever. In 1873 he was mar- ried to Mrs. Mary A. Butler, of Bath. The death of his first wife was the first in the family for a period of over thirty years. Mr. Smith has served almost continually in township and school offices,
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and has been school treasurer for over thirty successive years. An amiable, pleasant, genial gentleman, enjoying the confidence of his numerous friends.
DR. A. M. BIRD.
Alfred Morgan Bird, of Mason City, Illinois, was born in Union- town, Pa., April 19, 1842, the son of Dr. M. and E. A. Bird, both of Fayette county, Pa. The ancestors of Dr. M. Bird came from England to Virginia.
The subject of this sketch was the fourth child of his parents. His mother is still living, being sixty-one years of age; his father died July 24, 1871, in his sixty-fourth year, at Princeton, Kentucky, where the family now reside. Dr. A. M. Bird received his literary education principally at the St. Louis High School and at Cumberland University, of Lebanon, Tennessee. Having selected the profession of medicine for a life employment, he be- gan the study of the same in Princeton, Kentucky. His health failing him, he was compelled temporarily to relinquish his studies and travel in the middle and western states until returning health enabled him to resume his studies, which he did in Leavenworth, Kansas.
He then attended Rush Medical College, at Chicago, Illinois, and here graduated. After visiting his friends in Princeton, Ken- tucky, he returned to the Prairie State, and began the practice at Greenview, Illinois, which was continued for one year, when he located in Mason City, and formed a co-partnership with Dr. Con- over, which was continued until Dr. Conover's death, since which time he has continued the practice alone.
He was married, October 23, 1873, to Mary, daughter of J. C. Bondon, D. D., late President of Lincoln University, Lincoln, Ill- inois. Dr. Bird enjoys a lucrative practice, which his rare abilities and abundant preparation fairly entitle him to, and we know of no reason why he should not continue to hold the high position in his profession for years to come, which he now so unostentatiously en- joys.
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
LORING AMES.
It is the privilege of few to experience the varied scenes that have made up the life of Loring Ames. The disadvantages of his youth made him energetic, and a close thinker. Of vigorous frame and active investigating turn of mind, his varied experiences were treasured for future profit. He was born in Berkshire county, Mass., Sept. 13, 1806, and is this centennial year at the alloted period of three score years and ten. When one year old, his parents removed to Bradford county, Pennsylvania. Books were then less plenty than now, and newspapers rare, but from slips and fragments of the latter, his letters were learned, and his educa- tion began. It was a great annoyance to his older sisters to in- form him of the names of the letters he found on bits of news- paper, for he must know them all. At the age of seven, he began school, walking one and a half miles to learn to read. In ISIS, he removed to St. Clair county, Illinois Territory, where he resided until 1823, during which period Illinois was admitted as a State of the Union. Desperate efforts were made to incorporate slavery in the original constitution of Illinois, and a large emigration being settled here from slave-holding States, it very nearly succeeded. It would be useless to say that Mr. Ames was active on the side of freedom. From St. Clair he removed to Adams county, in 1823, and from Adams to what is now Mason county, in 1836, or five years before the survey of Mason county.
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During his residence in Adams county he acquired a knowledge of the Indian tongue, one of the necessities of that day. In 1829, he run a flatboat, loaded with produce, to New Orleans, and his curiosity excited him to attend the slave marts in the southern cities. His strong anti-slavery sentiments here became stronger, if possible, than before, from his observation of the actual working of the system.
His home has been in Mason county since 1836, but in the anti- slavery organization, since 1829. He married, in 1833, to Elmira, daughter of Deacon Jones, the proprietor of the city of Canton, Illinois. He served in the Black Hawk war, first as a private, in Capt. G. W. Flood's company, and then as a Lieutenant, in the company of Capt. Pierce. of Col. Fray's noted regiment. He now resides near Topeka, Ill., on a farm, which has been his avocation
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most of his life. He became a member of the Congregational Church, in Quincy, Illinois, in 1831, is now with the Methodist Episcopal Church, in his vicinity, an honored member, and to the wisdom of his councils and experience, many have applied and been benefitted.
No eulogy or fulsome praise is necessary to comment the rigid anti-slavery sentiments of the subject of this sketch, in view of cir- cumstances like the following, which came under the writer's im- mediate observation: In 1852, five fugitives from bondage were seized at Sandusky, Ohio, without color of law, when a Mr. Rush R. Sloan appeared as their counsel. They were discharged, and fled to Canada.
Their southern masters sued Mr. Sloan for defending his clients, in a United States Court, and he was compelled to pay, in costs and damages, over five thousand dollars, for simply doing a pro- fessional duty to these poor, distressed negroes, fleeing for liberty. The great injustice done him had its effect to rouse the people of northern Ohio to a knowledge of their degradation to the slave power, and bore good fruit in the cause of universal liberty.
REV. WILLIAM COLWELL.
Mr. Colwell, once so prominently known in Mason county, is one who has served his term of usefulness here, and has gone to his reward across the river-
"Over the river, that cold, dark river,
To gardens and fields that are blooming forever."
He was born April 3, 1801, in Herefordshire, England; was mar- ried to Miss Susanah Bennett, of the same place, December 25, 1827. They emigrated to America in 1838, and settled in Cass county, Illinois, 'and from there to Mason county in February, 1841, and resided near Bath until the fall of 1842, at which time he removed to Quiver township, where he resided the remainder of his life. He died in April, 1861, from the effects of a kick from a horse. Mrs. Colwell is still living at Bloomington, Illinois, and is in the seventy-sixth year of her age.
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
When Mr. Colwell settled in Mason county his family consisted of one son and three daughters. The son, Rev. J. B. Colwell, is Pastor of the M. E. church, at Lincoln, Illinois. The youngest sister, Mrs. M. E. Day, is living near Maysville, Mo. Mrs. H. C. Kepford, second sister, resides at the old home, in Quiver town- ship, and the oldest sister, Mrs. G. C. Ringhouse, resides at Bloomington, Illinois, with whom the aged mother makes her home.
Mr. Colwell served in the ministry of the M. E. church for about forty years, and the result of his labors will only be known on that day when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed. He was a man of abilities and personal worth; a substantial citizen, and one whose opinions were looked up to in his neighborhood. He has rested from his labors.
DR. Z. T. MAGILL.
Born February 2, 1849, in Mason county, Illinois. The first years of his life being spent on a farm with his parents, William E. and Laura Magill, prominent residents, near Topeka. He at- tended the district school winters, assisting his father on the farm in the summers, until of the age of about twenty years. Having a desire to see the western country, he went to Canton, Missouri, where he attended the Christian University. In 1870 he returned and engaged in teaching, and afterwards attended college at Eure- ka, Woodford county, Illinois. Returning again to Mason county, he engaged in the study of medicine in Havana, and teaching school in the winter.
He then made a trip to Jewell City, Kansas, and afterwards en- gaged in teaching at Mt. Pleasant in that State. He again pursued his studies and attended lectures at Keokuk, Iowa, in the fall and winter of 1873-'74. He returned to Illinois and located at Easton, in Mason county, where he now resides. In 1876 he again atten- ded lectures, and graduated, and resumed his practice in partnership with Dr. Houghton of that place.
Dr. Magill is a young man of good abilities, devoted to his pro- fession, studious, and bids fair to rise in future experience.
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
DR. JOHN MARENBURG.
Dr. Marenburg was born in 1816, of a noble fumily, in Styria, a province of the Empire of Austria, at the castle of Marenburg, the hereditary family property since the time of Rudolph of Hals- burg. In his eleventh year he was sent to the military academy of Weiner-Neustadt, and remained there eight years as a student; and after completing his extended studies, entered the army as a first lieutenant in a regiment of infantry, and was advanced in a short time to a captaincy. He left the army in 1842, tired of the monotony of the service, and went to Vienna, where he followed his natural inclination for scientific and literary studies. The med- ical science especially attracted his attention, and made him a con- stant attendant of the lectures at the renowned Josephinium, a medical academy at Vienna.
The revolutionary year 1848, ended his pursuits and brought him into politics, taking an active part in siding with the people against the absolute government of the country. The final over- throw of the revolutionary party and the capture of Vienna by Field Marshal Windishgrady, compelled him to fly for his life and leave the country and his home. He went to Schleswig-Holstien and entered the army against the Danes, but had to leave again after the suppression of the war by Austrian troops. He went then to England, and from there to New York, in 1851 ; practiced med- icine in Baltimore, Cincinnati and Covington, and finally landed in Petersburg, Illinois, in 1855, where he remained until 1870, when he removed to Havana, where he has remained to this time, actively engaged in the practice of his profession. He is of the Homæpathic school of medicine, and among our most successful practitioners. His services are often called for in adjoining coun- ties. His family is two adopted daughters, very pleasant and edu- cated young ladies, who enliven his pleasant home, on Orange street, Havana, Illinois, and whose taste in the ornamentation of the grounds make it one of the best in the city.
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
JAMES M. SAMUELS.
Mr. Samuels was born in the State of Virginia, July 27, 1809; emigrated to Kentucky at the age of six years, and from there to Mason county, in 1834. In 1838 he married Miss Matilda Taylor, daughter of John Taylor, an old resident of Cass county, Illinois. His business since his marriage has been farming; before that time he followed the trade of a plastsrer.
Mr. Samuels' practical business abilities have made all his under- takings and investments so many successes, and his broad acres in the central part of Mason county, will fully corroborate this state- ment. From times long past his neighbors have kept him in the office of justice of the peace, school and township officer; and there is little hope of his release.
A few years ago he laid out the town of Easton, in the central part of the county, about cqual distances between Havana and Ma- son City. It is pleasantly situated, in the richest agricultural re- gion in the world, and is very rapidly improving. It is no narrow policy in its proprietor that has been the cause of its success, but the reverse. A stranger visiting Easton is first impressed by the fine class of buildings of which it is composed. There is now in process of construction a fine school edifice, of which the citizens may be justly proud. It is an excellent grain market, has excellent facilities for handling grain, and large amounts are brought and shipped from that point. There are several stores doing a lucra- tive business in this prosperous town; also a number of first-class mechanics. Mr. Samuels, as will be seen by the date of his arrival, was one of the very first settlers, and space prohibits those inter- esting details so full in the life of all our pioneers. Mr. S. is yet a healthy, robust man, and good for many years of his characteristic usefulness in the community where he resides.
PULASKI SCOVIL.
The subject of this sketch removed from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Warren county, Illinois, in 1834, and in Mason county in 1836, and is consequently one of the very earliest residents not only of Cen- tral Illinois, but also of Mason county, with whose interests he has
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been so largely identified. He was at the city of Canton the day following its destruction by a hurricane, in 1834. This region of Illinois was then a hunting ground for the Indians. The sign of the milliner and dressmaker was not on every cross-street. The resources of the country were varied. There was a large propor- tion of deer and Indian, and very little white man.
These original old settlers of Illinois knew what good brandy was as well as though each were proprietor of a wholesale liquor store. Little did they dream that in forty years the most of them would still be living, in affluence and wealth, and where the deer roamed unmolested would be traversed by the iron horse, and as far as the eye could reach a vast sea of growing corn and yellowing grain would form the landscape, dotted with grove and orchard, and the homes of contented prosperity.
Household goods were landed from the steamer or emigrant wagon, and the men bossed the job of building a cabin.
One principle was that the poor Indian had no rights that the white pioneer was bound to respect. There were a few of the old settlers who died off, but for each several pairs of twins would be born, and the population increased as rapidly from emigration as from natural increase.
The Indians did not wear as good clothes as the average white settler, and there was a jealousy; but we have no record of the white man putting on style over the Indian, as is common be- tween classes of the present inhabitants.
Little misunderstandings sometimes grew up between the first settlers and the Indians, but these had their redeeming features. They kept the women from gadding about they neighborhood, and it kept the men at home at night. One of the objects of this work is that the recollections of the "long ago" be revived; that these primitive times be lived over again in imagination; that old men and women call up reminiscences of pioneer history and early times. But we digress.
Mr. Scovil bought sixteen quarter sections of land on the mili- tary tract, paying for them with land warrants of the soldiers of 1812. The Indians of that region were the Sacs, of Iowa, who were trading and hunting between the Illinois and the Mississippi rivers. He was one of the twelve voters in Havana precinct, a copy of the poll-book of which is given on another page, and was the cotemporary here with Ross, Krebaum, Rockwell, Kemp,
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Andrus, Foster and Low, and others referred to in this work. He bought at one time eight quarter sections of O. M. Ross. It was mostly prairie, and no timber; was very much chagrined and de- sired to exchange for timber. Ross proposed to him to exchange timber land therefor at an advanced price. He had a box of jew- elry and watches with him (he had been engaged in the manufac- ture of these in the east,) which Ross proposed to exchange land for. They made the trade. Mr. Scovil considered that Ross had overreached him in the sale of the prairie land, determined to get even, so he billed the watches and jewelry to him at double their value, and bought eight more quarter sections, paying thereon but one hundred in money. They went to Lewistown in a boat, got the titles arranged, and returned.
During the first two years he sent to Cincinnati for all provis- ions except the corn meal, which was manufactured at Beardstown. The first corn he could buy in Havana was one thousand bushels from a Mr. Reese, where Virginia now is, and then twelve hun- dred bushels from James Walker, at Walker's Grove. He raised his first corn on the farm now owned and occupied by Ruben Hen- ninger, east of Havana. He tried to sell it in Havana. He could get ten cents a bushel in dry goods, but no money nor groceries; consequently did not sell, but gave to the early settlers in the neigh- borhood to gather and haul away. Among those thus benefitted were Ruben Henninger, Sr., whose son now owns the farm then owned and occupied by Mr. Scovil. His fine peach crop was dis- posed of in the same way.
The first business engaged in was a steam saw-mill with Frank Low, the deputy sheriff, when this was a part of Tazewell county, and the first sheriff of Mason county, and at this time President of the First National Bank of Havana.
They finished building the mill, Mr. Scovil furnishing means far beyond his expectations. He ultimately bought out the interest of Mr. Low, and run it in his own exclusive interest. William Krebaum, then a young man, was in the employ of Low & Scovil, in the mill, and is still a resident of Havana. About this time he took a contract to furnish a thousand dollars worth of timbers for the Meredosia and Jacksonville Railroad, then in contemplation, the first in the State. The mill machinery not being heavy enough, it was run with loss; consequently, new machinery became a neces- sity, which he went to St. Louis and purchased, after which the
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mill was run with profit instead of loss. He then undertook heavy contracts for timbers for building purposes in the city of St. Louis. This was in the year 1840 and 1841, when Mason county was set off from Tazewell and Sangamon. Mr. Scovil, Judge Rockwell, and others, were signers of the bond to build the Ha- vana court house. Mr. Scovil was furnishing the timber. Bath did not want a court house at Havana, and late one night, after a hot discussion on the county seat question, the mill burned down. It stood on ground where the Brown warehouse now stands.
When he left the farm east of Havana, he removed to Water- ford, Fulton county, and run a mill there for some years. In 1854 he settled where his present beautiful home now is. Mr. Scovil was born in Harwington, Litchfield county, Conn., in 1808; went to Geneva, New York, and engaged in business, and in six years thereafter to Cincinnati, and engaged in silversmithing, and was remarkably successful. He started the first manufacturing shop in that city in 1832, and his successors are still in the same business in that place. He has always been so fully and constantly immersed in business that he has refused all official positions. His pleasant home is near Teheran, in town 20, range six.
He has rafted logs and lumber on the Illinois river when the bars were so covered with grass that he was compelled to wade in the water to his arm-pits to clear away the grass so that his raft could pass over.
He was first married in New York in 1832, to Sarah Jerome; had six children. She died in 1839. His second marriage was to Olive Cross, in 1841; had two children, both of whom died in infancy. She died in 1844. The third marriage was in 1846, to Anna Boardwinc. Troubles intervened and they were divorced. She is still living. Had by this marriage one son, Frank Scovil, who made a good record as a soldier in the late war. With this third wife he lived seven years. The fourth marriage was with Mrs. Caroline Scovil, widow of Julius Scovil, a brother of our sub- ject. She had four children by her former marriage. These were cared for most tenderly by Pulaski, their uncle and now stepfather. This marriage occurred in 1854. The fifth marriage was in 1862, to Hannah Jones, of Mason county. They have five children, a most happy and interesting family, models of neatness, propriety and kindness.
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
In the relation of all these vicissitudes, these ups and downs, these profits and losses, these deaths and separations, Mr. Scovil has no word of blame or censure for any living creature; no harsh word for any who has done him wrong, but "charity to all and malice toward none," is exemplified in his words and in his daily life. He is advanced in years, but active and in good health, and happy, but we cannot imagine that any man could be otherwise surrounded by the fields and groves that lie adjacent to his resi- dence, which is very nicely situated on one of our beautiful prairie elevations, near a splendid grove of native forest trees.
DR. J. W. ROOT.
Was born in 1845 in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, and removed to Illinois in 1851. Served in the war of the rebellion three years. He afterwards commenced the study of medicine, and attended two courses of lectures at McDowell's College, St. Louis, Mo. He then located in Leesville, Mo., and engaged in practice. After- wards attended lectures at Rush College, Chicago, and engaged in practice at the town of Bruning, Schuyler county, Illinois, and from there came to his present location at Kilbourn, in this county, where he enjoys a lucrative and successful practice.
DR. N. S. PHILIPS.
Was born in Clark county, Kentucky, in IS25; emigrated to Illi- nois in 1829, and located at the town of Griggsville, Pike county, Illinois. He served in the Mexican war, and participated in the battle of Buena Vista. He attended a course of lectures at Jack- sonville, and located for practice in Chambersburg, Pike county, Illinois. Removed to Mason county in I851, and then removed to Schuyler county, Illinois. He also served in a St. Louis hospital as a physician, and is now having a lucrative and successful practice at Kilbourn in Mason county.
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
GEORGE W. ELLSBERRY, EsQ.
The subject of this sketch was born at Bethel, Ohio, February 21, 1846. When a mere boy his tastes inclined to science and liter- ature, which has increased with his years. In his boyhood days he made the best possible use of such educational advantages as the public schools of his native town afforded and the limited means of the family would allow. No time was wasted in truancy, but his business was the improvement of his mind. He never, as he grew older, learned that a season of sowing wild oats was necessary or essential to make a man. During the first years of the late war he was a junior member of a literary club of his native town, some of whose older members had entered the army. At the time when the sanitary commission was soliciting aid, this organization deci- ded to give an entertainment in aid of that enterprise. The pro- ject was well received, and an immense audience assembled. George, then but a boy, had been selected to deliver the opening address, but being hardly seventeen years old, he entered upon the task un- aided and with many misgivings; however, being in thorough sympathy with the work and spirit of the occasion, and this being his first extemporaneous address, he had his fears. The sequel re- lieved him. He was loudly applauded and warmly congratulated. He thus early gave evidence of forensic eloquence that has charac- terized his later and maturer efforts.
When a little over seventeen he received from the county exam- iner a teacher's certificate, and soon acquired a reputation as a teacher, enjoyed or merited by few, and pursued that profession in his native county till the spring of 1867, when he came to Mason county on a visit to friends. By the time he had concluded his visit he had become so attached to the country, its pleasant and en- terprising people, and prosperous growth of his locality, that he decided on a permanent home in Mason City. He first engaged in the real estate business and as a salesman; then he devoted two or three years to the study of law, and in the winter of 1870 was admitted to the bar. As an attorney he has been a strict observer of the rules of professional integrity and honor, never soliciting pat- · ronage or encouraging litigation.
He has occupied several important official positions under the municipal government of Mason City. It is superfluous to add
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