USA > Illinois > Macon County > Decatur > City of Decatur and Macon County, Illinois : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, volume II > Part 59
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fered a full professorship as head of the department of natural sciences, in which he remained until his election to the presidency of the Kansas State Normal School in 1882. For nineteen years President Taylor presided over the Kansas State Normal School. He found it with a small building and an attendance of four hundred students. When he left it in 1901 the attendance was over two thousand and the buildings were large and well suited for their use. Six or more years before he resigned the presidency of the State Normal, it had become the largest teachers' training school under state control in the world and had an international reputation.
The demands upon him for lectures were many and his vacations were largely spent in making lecture tours. Yet he found time to write articles for periodicals, religious and professional, to write books, and to do a multitude of things that seemed almost impossible for one so busy. One of his books, The Study of the Child, published by D. Appleton Company, belongs to the International Education Series. Over twenty-five thousand copies of this book have been sold. It has been translated into the Japanese and Spanish languages. He has also written the following named books: The Government of the State and Nation, Apple Blossoms, Civil Government in Kansas, The Church at Work in the Sunday School, Among Ourselves, being a joint author of the first two named.
To resign an assured life position as president of such an institution after all difficulties had been surmounted and the future promised more of ease in the enjoyment of a great work accomplished to respond to the call of his church and of the friends of his youth to return to Illinois and build from the founda- tion to the tower, a modern university was a most momentous and difficult decision and yet he had no hesitation in doing it as duty appeared clear.
President Taylor has served as president of several educational and relig- ious organizations, local, state and national. He was president of the Na- tional Council of Education in 1899. He was the organizer of the University Club of Decatur and its president for three years; of the Federation of Illinois Colleges, of which he was president for some years; and of the Presbyterian Brotherhood of Illinois, of which he is president. He is a member of the National Council of the Presbyterian Brotherhood of America and of the Relig- ious Educational Committee of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian church, being chairman of an important committee in each. He is also chairman of two important committees of the Illinois synod and a member of the board of directors of McCormick Theological Seminary. He was chairman of the edu- cational commission in charge of the Kansas state exhibit at the World's Fair in Chicago, and a vice president for Kansas at the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo. He was a member of the state board of education in Kansas for nine- teen years and for some time of the state text-book commission. He was awarded the degree of Ph. D. by his alma mater in 1882 and the degree of LL. D. by Cumberland University in 1906. As president of The James Millikin Uni- versity, he has in seven years built up an institution at Decatur, Illinois, which comprises eight schools with an enrollment of over eleven hundred students and a faculty composed of some sixty members. His success has amply confirmed the public judgment of his administrative powers.
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Governing without many set rules, he appeals to the highest instincts of honor. Severe he can be when severity is needed but in his severity there is an intuitive sympathy and an abiding hope that acts as an appeal. His faith in the ultimate triumph of the right cannot be shaken. He has often written "There is no longing of a noble soul that hath not somewhere its satisfaction." When others despair, he hopes and labors on; others may retire in defeat but he knows how to win a victory from defeat. His pride in the university, its cleanliness, its strength and its walls of brick and stone is always strong but never so marked as is his pride in the clean hearts and pure minds of the young men and women of his flock in whose mental and spiritual development he finds his supremest joy.
J. R. RACE.
The life history of J. R. Race constitutes an important chapter in the annals of Decatur and. Macon county inasmuch as he was one of the pioneer citizens who aided in planting the seeds of civilization and development here, and, moreover, as a merchant he figured for many years as one of the leading business men whose activities constitute a most potent element in the city's material growth and progress. At the present writing he is living retired, hav- ing withdrawn from active connection with commercial interests, deriving his income from judicious investments which include very extensive landholdings. He has now passed the eighty-second milestone on life's journey and is one of the most honored as well as the most venerable citizens of Decatur.
He was born in Hampshire county, Virginia, in December, 1828, a son of James W. Race, who removed with his family to Ohio, settling near Columbus, in the boyhood days of J. R. Race, who was there reared upon a farm and ex- perienced the usual hardships and privations that come with the development of a farm in a frontier district. His education was limited to the opportunities afforded in the subscription schools. The little schoolhouse had a puncheon floor and in one end of the room was a large fireplace for which the older boys had to supply the fuel in turn, hauling in the logs.
In time J. R. Race began farming on his own account and was identified with agricultural interests in Ohio until 1854, when he drove across the coun- try with horse and buggy in search of a location. On that trip he visited Macon county, which greatly pleased him with its natural advantages, and in 1855 he returned to take up his permanent abode here. He then disposed of his horse and buggy for five hundred and fifty dollars. He first came to the county in 1854 and invested in swamp land at twenty-five cents per acre, securing a half section. In 1855 he made another investment and sold his first land for thirty dollars per acre. In the year of his first visit to the county and also in the year in which he took up his permanent abode here he entered land, in this way secur- ing seven hundred and twenty acres, some of which he has since sold for three hundred dollars per acre. He has always regarded real estate as one of the saf- est investments and as his financial resources have increased he has added to
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his holdings from time to time until at the present writing, in 1911, he owns more than thirty-six hundred acres of valuable farm land.
In the fifty-six years of his residence here Mr. Race has witnessed many changes, the appearance of the county having undergone a complete transforma- tion, owing to the work of improvement, development and cultivation that has been carried steadily forward. When he arrived there were no mills through the county and farmers had to go to the little hamlet of Decatur to have their grist ground once or twice a year. Not only did Mr. Race become identified with agricultural interests but also was one of the first merchants of Decatur. His entire life has been a very busy one and until the time of his retirement he had few leisure hours. When in Ohio he had worked for wages in the em- ploy of neighboring farmers, receiving less than twenty dollars per month for his services. From that sum, however, he saved between sixteen and seventeen hundred dollars that constituted his capital upon his removal to Illinois. In all of his business ventures he has displayed sound judgment and keen dis- crimination. He has continuously studied conditions and thus has been able to make very wise investments in property, being now one of the most extensive and prosperous landholders of the county, his farms lying north and east of Decatur. He became, perhaps, even more widely known through his mer- cantile connections, remaining for many years one of the leading representa- tives of commercial interests in Decatur. The store which he erected on Merchant street in 1865 was destroyed in a recent large fire that caused so much damage in this city, his loss being ten thousand dollars. The store had a depth of one hundred and forty feet. For a considerable time J. R. Race was associated in his mercantile activities with his brother, James M. Race, under the firm style of J. R. Race & Company. This was continued until 1889, when the business was reorganized under the name of the Race Clothing Manufactur- ing Company, the output, including overalls, duck coats and shirts. Not only were a large number of operators employed in the factory but also five traveling salesmen were upon the road introducing the output to the trade. The Race Clothing Manufacturing Company maintained a continuous and prosperous ex- istence until 1904.
In 1857 Mr. Race was united in marriage to Miss Mary Wolgamot, a native of Maryland and a daughter of a prominent money loaner of Springfield, Illi- nois, and a very influential man of that city. At his death Mr. Race was made administrator of his estate. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Race were born two daugh- ters and a son: Mrs. Edith Vance, of Los Angeles, California, who has two children, Margaret and a baby girl born in 1910; and Ella and Arthur, at home. The wife and mother passed away August 5, 1905, her death proving an ir- reparable blow to the family, where as a loving wife and mother she was held in the most tender regard.
In 1870 Mr. Race erected his present residence, a commodious and substan- tial brick dwelling which, standing in the midst of spacious and well kept grounds, is an ornament to the city. He still holds his membership in the Decatur Country Club. He has practically retired from all connection with business affairs save that he occasionally passes upon someª question relative to the disposition of his investments. He is a remarkably well preserved man
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to whom has been accorded the precious prize of keen mentality through the evening of life. His activity has been a potent force in Decatur's upbuilding and the county's advancement, and his work of vital worth in the promotion of the city's best activities and consequent prosperity. He has lived to witness the transformation of Decatur from a small village into a city of metropolitan proportions and interests, and the public accord him prominent recognition among those who have been instrumental in bringing about this result.
CHARLES BELL SMITH, M. D.
With a nature that could never be content with mediocrity, Charles Bell Smith has forged ahead in his professional career, his comprehensive knowl- edge of the principles of medicine and surgery and his ability as displayed in practice winning him a prominent position in the ranks of the medical profes- sion in Decatur. His father, William B. Smith, is a well known agriculturist of South Wheatland township and it was upon the old home farm there that Dr. Smith was born March 18, 1872. He was called Charles Bell, the latter name being given in honor of the Rev. Bell, a Presbyterian minister, whose denominational faith has also found an adherent in his namesake. The boy was reared to the age of sixteen upon the home farm and his preliminary education was acquired in the district schools and supplemented by a year's study in the high school of Decatur. He afterward engaged in teaching in Oreana, Argenta and Cherry Grove but his ambition was in the direction of other professional activity and he regarded the work of the schoolroom merely as a preliminary step to other labor.
He read medicine under the direction of Dr. M. H. Farmer and afterward entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago, the medical depart- ment of the University of Illinois, from which he was graduated with the class of 1895. He afterward served as assistant surgeon on the Mexican Central Railroad at Tampico until December of that year, when he located for practice in Decatur and soon afterward received the appointment of county physician here. In March, 1896, he opened an office for the regular practice and on the expiration of the term of his office as county physician in 1897, like many an- other young physician, he started out in search of a better location, spending a few years at different points. Deciding at length to locate in Ohio, he began practice in Toledo, where he remained for six years. He then returned to his native county and once more located in Decatur in March, 1906. He feels per- fectly satisfied with the city as a location and has been accorded a large gen- eral practice, in the care of which he has displayed marked ability, energy and enterprise. He keeps in touch with the advanced thought of the profession through his membership relations with the Decatur Medical Society, the Illi- nois State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He is now examining physician for the Modern Woodmen camp, for the 'American Star Equity Insurance Company and other fraternal organizations.
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HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
On the 18th of August, 1897, in Chicago, Dr. Smith was united in marriage to Miss Clara Louise Evans, a native of Portage, Wisconsin, and of Welsh descent. Her literary education was obtained in Whalen's Academy at Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, after which she entered the Women's Medical College of Chicago, pursuing there a four years' course, but on account of illness she did not graduate from that institution and the following year entered the Illinois Medical College, in which she spent a year, so that she was graduated in 1895- the same year in which her husband completed his course. During that time she acted as assistant in gynecology to Dr. Fred Byron Robinson and Dr. Wil- liam Rittenhouse, two eminent members of the profession. She practiced in Chicago for two years and was then married. This union has been blessed with two children, Harold Clair and Chester Paul, aged respectively eleven and ten years and now students in the public schools. Mrs. Smith does not engage in active practice now, giving her attention to the duties of the household and the care of her children. The words of praise which her husband speaks of her as wife, mother and as a physician indicate something of the contentment and good cheer which are prevailing elements in their pleasant home, which is situated at No. 1305 North Edward street.
The Doctor and his family are members of the Second Presbyterian church and his political allegiance is given to the democracy. He has no time nor in- clination for political office, however, preferring to concentrate his energies upon his professional duties, which he discharges with a sense of conscientious obligation that makes him an able and successful practitioner.
WILBUR CAMPBELL WOOD, M. D.
The ability of Dr. Wilbur Campbell Wood as a practitioner of medicine and surgery is demonstrated in the liberal patronage accorded him and in the ex- pressions of regard on the part of his fellow practitioners. This is an age of specialization in which the highest degree of skill is attained by those who con- centrate their energies and efforts upon a particular branch of practice. In accordance with this tendency of the times Dr. Wood has become a specialist in gynecology and abdominal surgery and his research and investigation along those lines are constantly promoting his efficiency. He was born in Decatur in 1866 and is a grandson of a pioneer physician, B. C. Wood. Two of his uncles, E. W. and D. N. Moore, were also numbered among the early medical prac- titioners in Decatur. His parents were George M. and Minnie E. (Edmundson) Wood, whose family numbered four children.
Dr. Wood of this review pursued his education in the public schools of Decatur, passing through consecutive grades to his graduation from the high school with the class of 1884. He then pursued a course in the Illinois College of Pharmacy in Chicago and at different times has been connected with the drug business at Decatur, Springfield and Tuscola, Illinois. He prepared for the practice of medicine and surgery as a student in the Northwestern Univer- sity of Chicago, from which he was graduated on the 13th of June, 1895. He
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HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
put his theoretical training to the practical test in an active service of eighteen months as interne in the Mercy Hospital of Chicago and subsequently spent two years in charge of the hospital of the Illinois Steel Company of that city. In 1899 he returned to Decatur and is now serving on the staff of St. Mary's Hos- pital in this city. He is also examining physician for several old line insur- ance companies and in his private practice he is making a specialty of gynecology and abdominal surgery, in which connection he has gained distinction as a most successful practitioner. He belongs to the Decatur Medical Society, the Central Illinois District Medical Society, the Illinois State Medical Society and the American Medical Association.
In 1898 Dr. Wood was united in marriage to Miss Marion Dimmick, of Washington, D. C., and to them have been born two sons and a daughter: Wil- bur Stuart, Annetta Lois and Robert Allen. Fraternally Dr. Wood is connected with Ionic Lodge, No. 312, A. F. & A. M., and with the Knights of Pythias. His religious faith is indicated in his membership in the First Methodist Epis- copal church and his political endorsement is given to the men and meas- ures of the republican party. He is neglectful of none of the duties of citizen- ship nor of his obligations to his fellowmen, but his attention is chiefly given to the practice of his profession, which is constantly growing in volume and im- portance.
ALFRED L. GIDEON.
The contemplation of a long life of labor, crowned with honorable retire- ment, is a matter of satisfaction to all. One feels that this is but the just re- ward of diligence intelligently directed. Mr. Gideon is numbered among De- catur's citizens to whom has been vouchsafed this period of rest. For many years he carried on business as a carpenter but is now living retired at No. 1249 North Water street.
He was born in Champaign county, Ohio, in 1826, a son of Henry Gideon. His youthful days were passed in the Buckeye state but when seventeen years of age he traveled across the prairies with a wagon and yoke of oxen, pass- ing through Decatur en route to Sangamon county, Illinois. There he estab- lished his home and remained until 1850. He began learning the blacksmith's trade in that county and remained there continuously with the exception of one year, which he devoted to service as a soldier in the Mexican war, becoming a private under General Winfield Scott. After being mustered out he returned to Sangamon county, where he resided until 1850, when he located at Mount Pulaski, Logan county, where he followed the blacksmith's trade for twelve years, and then turned his attention to carpentering. Later he began contracting on his own account, being thus identified with building operations at that place until 1877. In that year he removed from Logan county to Macon county and has since been a resident of Decatur. He became connected with farming in- terests in this part of the state and is still the owner of a fine farming property of two hundred and forty acres in Douglas county, from which he derives a substantial annual income.
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HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
Mr. Gideon has been married three times. He first wedded Elizabeth Clark, who died leaving a son, David, who is a graduate of medical schools of Cin- cinnati and of St. Louis and is now a practicing physician of Sumner, Illinois. His present wife, whom he married on the 8th of July, 1902, was formerly Mrs. Cora B. Hayes, a lady of natural refinement, who presides with gracious cour- tesy and hospitality over his home.
Mr. Gideon ranks high in Masonry, holding membership with Mount Pulaski Lodge, A. F. & A. M .; Macon Chapter, No. 21, R. A. M., of Decatur; and Beaumanoir Commandery, No. 9, K. T. He has ever been an exemplary rep- resentative of the craft, portraying in his life the beneficent spirit of the order, which is based upon mutual helpfulness and brotherly kindness. In all of the varied relations of life he has ever commanded the good will and confidence of his fellowmen and in business affairs he has been found thoroughly reliable and trustworthy as well as energetic and enterprising. These qualities brought him success and now enable him to live retired with capital sufficient to enjoy all of the comforts of life.
JOHN W. SMITH.
The ranks of the Civil war veterans are fast becoming decimated as one by one they respond to the final roll call, but among those who yet survive to enjoy the fruits of peace for which they so valiantly risked their lives is num- bered John W. Smith. He is, furthermore, a representative of a family bear- ing a remarkable war record, five sons and the father all having responded to their country's call in her great hour of need, serving during the long and sanguinary struggle and returning at last to their home safe and uninjured. His military service alone would entitle Mr. Smith to a prominent place in this record, but he is also deserving of mention because of the place which he won for himself in industrial circles of Decatur during the period of his active con- nection with business interests here.
He traces his ancestry back to Captain John Smith, of England, whose son, the grandfather of John W. Smith, became the founder of this branch of the Smith family in America, locating in Virginia in early days. He served in the Mexican war under General Harrison and died at Nashville, Tennessee. The maternal grandfather, George Stevens, was born in Indiana and in that state spent his entire life.
Edwin D. Smith, the father of our subject, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, February 2, 1811. He was a carpenter by trade and came to Illinois in 1865, locating in Woodford county, where he remained until 1880. That year wit- nessed his arrival in Decatur and here he made his home for ten years, being closely identified with the business interests of this city during that period. In 1890 he removed westward to Kansas and there passed away, his remains being laid to rest at Wichita. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Elizabeth Stevens, was born in Carroll county, Indiana, and in 1848 was called to her final rest. Edwin D. Smith had enlisted for service in the Union army at the
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time of the Civil war, acting for nine months as deputy provost marshal at Plymouth, Indiana. He held membership in Dunham Post, No. 141, G. A. R., at Decatur.
John W. Smith, whose name introduces this record, was born in White county, Indiana, on the 6th of July, 1842, and was a little boy of six years when his mother passed away. At that time he left home and lived with different families until twelve years of age, when the necessity of earning his own liveli- hood caused him to seek work as a farm hand, working in that capacity for various farmers of the locality for about six years. With no chance for attend- ing school during the period of his boyhood and youth, Mr. Smith supplemented this lack of tuition by hard study during the hours when not busily engaged at farm labor. In the school of experience, too, he acquired that broad knowl- edge which comes from close observation and contact with the outside world and which, supplemented by an extensive course of reading in later years, more than compensated for the earlier education denied him.
Mr. Smith worked at farming until eighteen years of age, when he learned the marble cutter's trade, which he followed successfully in Plymouth, Indiana, until the outbreak of the Civil war. At that time the spirit of patriotism which had been aroused within him by the attempt of the south to overthrow the Union caused him to put aside all personal interests, and on the Ist of December, 1861, at Plymouth, he enlisted as a member of Company D, Forty-eighth Indiana In- fantry, for a term of three years. At the end of that term he was discharged at Huntsville, Alabama, on the Ist of January, 1864, with the rank of corporal, and on the same day reenlisted as a veteran for another three years, becoming a member of the same company and regiment. The regiment had been made up at Goshen, Indiana, under Colonel Eddy, and they first proceeded to Paducah, Kentucky, and thence to Pittsburg Landing. The first battle in which the regi- ment participated was during the siege of Corinth. There had been many skir- mishes throughout the state which finally led up to the great battle of Corinth, one of the most destructive of the war, in which the regiment lost a great num- ber of men. Prior to this engagement Mr. Smith was confined to the field hos- pital with lung fever and was later transferred to the hospital at Evansville, Indiana, where he remained for several months. He was given leave, how- ever, to join his regiment at the time of the battle of Corinth and remained with it until it started on the campaign to Vicksburg. He then returned to the hos- pital and there remained until the siege of Vicksburg was begun, when he again joined his regiment and was constantly under fire throughout that long engage- ment. He was then taken to the hospital at Vicksburg on account of illness. where he remained while his regiment was at Memphis, Tennessee. Rejoining it at Corinth, he remained with the regiment throughout the remainder of the war, participating in many important engagements, including the battles at Savan- nah, Georgia; Missionary Ridge; Raleigh, North Carolina ; and many skirmishes. He remained on active duty until the close of hostilities and was honorably dis- charged at Indianapolis, Indiana, on the 15th of July, 1865. He took part in the grand review at Washington, D. C., the greatest military pageant ever wit- nessed on this continent, being a member of the Third Division of the Fifteenth
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