USA > Illinois > Shelby County > Combined history of Shelby and Moultrie Counties, Illinois : with illustrations descriptive of their scenery and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers > Part 52
USA > Illinois > Moultrie County > Combined history of Shelby and Moultrie Counties, Illinois : with illustrations descriptive of their scenery and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers > Part 52
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He began the study of the law at Sullivan in 1857, and in 1858 was admitted as a member of the bar. On the 20th of November, 1860, he married Nancy, daughter of Robert Parker; she was a resideut of Jasper county, Indiana, where the marriage took place. From 1862 to 1864 he acted as deputy circuit clerk, and had the entire management of the office. In 1864 he was the Democratic candidate for prosecuting attorney for the judicial district con- prising Macon, Moultrie and Piatt counties The district was strongly Republican, and he was defeated by a few votes. In 1867, on the adoption of township organization, he was elected the first member of the board of supervisors from Sullivan township, and the first chairman of the board. He was re-elected in 1868 and 1869, and each term served as chairman. He was also a member of the board in 1876 and 1877.
In 1870 he was elected to represent Moultrie county in the twenty-seventh general assembly. This was the first session of the legislature after the adoption of the new state constitution. A re- vision and remodeling of the laws became necessary, and the legis- lature was in session the greater part of the time for two years. He was elected county judge iu 1877. In addition to the practice of the law he has been engaged in farming. He has five children. He has been an active Democrat in politics.
188
HISTORY OF SHELBY AND MOULTRIE COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.
Alper A Spreyper
CAPTAIN Alfred N. Smyser, whose death occurred in January, 1880, was one of the old and prominent citizens of Moultrie county. He was born in Cynthiana, Harrison county, Kentucky, on the 27th of November, 1828. The Smyser family in this country had its origin from three brothers, Matthias, Jacob, and George, who came to America in the year 1736; the name was then spelled "Schmeiscer." Two of these brothers settled in Erie county, Penn- sylvania. From Mathias Schmeiscer this branch of the family is descended. George and Matthias took part in the war of the Revolution, one of them as an officer. George Smyser, grand- father of Captain Smyser, emigrated from Pennsylvania to Ken- tucky at an early period. Samuel Merritt Smyser, his father, was born in Kentucky, and married Rebecca Frazier, a native of the same State; her uncle, Captain Frazier, was a soldier in the Revo- lution; he commanded a company of soldiers at an engagement at Brattleboro, Vermont. It is said that the vigor and bravery he displayed attracted the attention of the British commander, who gave orders that his troops should direct their fire at his person ; he fell in that engagement mortally wounded. Samuel M. and Rebecca Smyser, in company with two or three other families, re- moved to Moultrie county, Illinois, reaching their destination on November 1st. Their route was through Indianapolis, then a small straggling town, made up of a few houses lining a single street. The place of their settlement was on Whitley Creek, in section 10, of township 12, range 6, then in Shelby county, now in the south part of Moultrie. Their neighbors on Whitley Creek were, at first, only four or five in number.
He received a common school education ; though the schools in general were inferior, some of the teachers were men of much intel-
ligence and education. The schools were two miles, and two and a half distant. He attended school in winter, and in summer worked on the farm; his education was improved in after ycars by general reading. April 15th, 1847, he married Isyphena Edwards, daugh- ter of John Wayne Edwards and Polly Hardy; she was born in Barrei county, Kentucky, on the 19th of March, 1827; the Ed- wards family had resided in North Carolina before making their home in Kentucky, in Hart county, where Mrs. Smyser's parents were born ; her mother's brother, James G. Hardy, was lieutenant-governor of Kentucky. Mrs. Smyser's parents moved to Whitley Creek in the fall of 1830, and were about the fourth family to scttle in that locality. The preceding settlers were con- nected with the Whitley family from whom the creek received its name. After his marriage Captain Smyser began the arduous task of clearing up a farm; he gave his attention to farming in the summer, and in the winter taught school ; he had a strong, natural taste for music, and frequently taught the singing classes held in the district school-houses in the winter season. In 1854 he had his first suit at law; his attorney was Abraham Lincoln, then a practicing lawyer on the Illinois circuits.
He gave up farming and moved to Sullivan, in September, 1857, and engaged in the mercantile business till 1860. In the general financial crash of that year he went down with many other unfor- tunate men who sold on credit. In November, 1861, he was elected clerk of the county court ; in August, 1862, he was enlisted in the war for the preservation of the Union, and was elected captain of company C, 126th Illinois Volunteer Infantry. During the greater part of his service he was on detached and special duty; he acted as adjutant and aid-de-camp to General Steele; he took part
"WALNUT GROVE FARM" THE PROPERTY OF JOSEPH. T. HARRIS, SEC. 16, T. 14, R.5, SULLIVAN TP. MOULTRIE CO.ILLINOIS.
189
HISTORY OF SHELBY AND MOULTRIE COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.
in the siege of Vicksburg and the capture of Little Rock; he re- turned home in the spring of 1864, and closed his term as county c'erk, his youngest brother, Hugh F. Smyser, having had charge of the office during his absence in the army. From 1865 to 1869 he was engaged in the real estate, insurance, and loan business. In November, 1869, he was again elected eounty clerk.
He was a mau of progressive ideas and public spirit, and largely to his efforts Moultrie county is indebted for her railroad facilities In 1868 he was instrumental in securing a charter for the Decatur, Sullivan, and Mattoon Railroad; a construction company was formed, but very little was done in furtherance of the project till 1870, when he was elected president of the company, and the work was pushed through to completion. One of the first locomo- tives to reach Sullivan bore the name of Alfred N. Smyser, in honor of the first president of the company; he was also a member of the first board of directors of the Bloomington and Ohio River, afterwards the Chicago and Paducah railroad company ; he assisted in organizing the Moultrie county agricultural board, and for seve- ral years was its president. From 1872 till the time of his death he was engaged in the real estate, loan, and insurance business, which, by his industry he made quite lucrative. His desire to help his fellow-man led him to go on commercial paper liere and there as security until in 1877 and 1878 he was almost crushed finan- cially by paying the debts of other people. In July, 1846, he be- came a member of the Christian Church, and at the time of his death was one of the most faithful and energetic workers in the organization, taking great delight especially in Sunday-school work. He possessed by nature a good constitution, and in early life ex- celled in athletic exercises; his health was injured by his service in the army. After a sickness of nearly two years he died on the 20th of January, 1830; he had six children,-William H. Smyser, now editor of the Champaign Times, and also one of the proprietors of the Sullivan Progress; Katie E, who married John Duncan, (her death occurred on the 5th of February, 1880, and that of her hus- band the previous 23d of December), Lucretia Frances, who died at the age of two years and three months, Mary Josephine, now Mrs. John F. EJen, N. O. Smyser, and Samuel Edward Smyser.
ALVIN P. GREENE,
A MEMBER of the Moultrie county bar, is a native of Carroll county, Ohio, and was born on the third of September, 1839. His grandfather, Edward Greene, was a resident of county Antrim, Ireland. His father, James Greene, was born in Ireland, near the city of Dublin, in the year 1800. His grandfather emigrated to Ameriea with the family about 1812, and settled in Belmont coun- ty, Ohio. Both Mr. Greene's father and grandfather were mem- bers of the Society of Friends, and formed part of a Quaker colony which settled at an early date in Belmont county, Ohio, near Wrightstown. James Greene was raised in Belmont county, and in Columbiana county married Martha V. Preston, who also be- longed to a Quaker family. She was born in Virginia, near Lynchburg. Her father, Peter Preston, on account of his religious views, liberated his slaves in Virginia and moved to Ohio.
The subject of this sketch was raised in Carroll county, Ohio. The Athens Manual Labor University at Albany, Athens county, Olio, offered him a chance to obtain an education. In this institu- tion the students had an opportunity to pay for their board and tuition by labor. After spending two ycars there, he attended the Damascus Academy in Columbiana county, Ohio. He had reached the age of twenty-one at the time of the breaking out of the war
of the rebellion. After spending the winter of 1861-2 in Canada, in the spring of 1862 he was appointed by President Lincoln dis- patch agent, the duties of which position would have taken him to Europe, but before he received his commission, enlisted at Philadel- phia in the Sixty-eighth Pennsylvania regiment, otherwise known as the Scott Legion. He served with this regiment till the close of the war as a non-commissioned officer. The regiment was in the Army of the Potomae, and took part in the severe battles which marked the progress of the war in Virginia Among the engage- ments in which he was present was the second battle of Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietamn, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Get- tysburg, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court-House, and Peters- burg. He was at Appomattox at the time of Lee's surrender, the - last great event of the war.
After the expiration of his time of service he returned to Ohio. In September, 1865, he entered the law department of the Michi- gan University at Ann Arbor, from which he graduated in March, 1867. A short time afterwards he was admitted to the bar of Illi- nois at Chicago. In April, 1867, lie came to Sullivan. He became editor of the Moultrie Union Banner, the name of which was changed to the Okaw Republican. James F. Hughes, now of Mat- toon, was his partner, both in the newspaper and law business. In 1868 he was appointed United States Internal Revenue Assessor for the counties of Moultrie, Piatt and Douglas. On the abolition by Congress of this office he began the active practice of the law, in which he has since been engaged. Since 1874 he has been Master in Chancery. His wife, to whom he was married in April, 1872, was formerly Miss Mattie Johnson, of Vernon, Indiana. He has always taken an active interest in politics. His father was one of the early republicans, and original free-soilers of Carroll county, Ohio, and was the first man in East township of that county to cast a vote for the free-soil ticket. Mr. Greene has always been a repub- lican. His first vote for president was cast for Lincoln in 1860. He was for several years chairman of the Moultrie County Repub- lican Central Committee. In 1872 he was the unanimous choice of Moultrie county for the republican nomination for representative in the legislature, but to preserve harmony in the district withdrew from the contest. He was a delegate to the Republican Na- tional Convention at Chicago in 1880. An idea of his position and views as a republican can best be conveyed by stating that he was one of the three hundred and six who adhered to the last in their support of Grant, for whom he cast thirty-six ballots.
JOSEPH T. HARRIS.
AMONG the prominent farmers of Sullivan township, may be men- tioned the name that heads this sketch. He was born in Pickaway county, Ohio, March 10th, 1824. His father, Thomas Harris, was a native of Maryland, and emigrated to Ohio about 1820. He raised a family of eight children, four sons and four daughters. In 1843, he came to Illinois, and settled near where the subject of our sketch now lives, and resided in the county until his death in 1851. Joseph T. Harris grew up on a farm, and has made farming his life occupation. What he has in this world's goods, he gained by hard work and economy. For a number of years he worked for different farmers by the month, and now by the fruits of his in- dustry has one of the best stock farms in the vicinity in which he lives. This farm contains 440 acres, a view of which may be seen in another part of this work. Mr. Harris has been twice mar- ried and raised a family of ten children, seven now living. In po- litics he has been a staunch Republican since the organization of the party.
190
HISTORY OF SHELBY AND MOULTRIE COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.
WILLIAM KIRKWOOD, who was elected in 1879 and 1880 Mayor of Sullivan, is an Ohioan by birth. He was born in Ross county, Ohio, on the fourth of November, 1836. He was the second of a family of seven children. His father, James Kirkwood, was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and was raised in Franklin county, of the same state. His mother, whose maiden name was Ann J. I. Young, was a native of Ireland. His parents moved from Pennsylvania to Ohio in the fall of 1834, and settled in Ross county, within five miles of Chillicothe, in which vicinity Mr. Kirkwood's early years were spent. In the year 1857, when he was twenty, h's father moved to Illinois, and settled in Moultrie county, five miles south-west of Sullivan. Mr. Kirkwood had obtained his early education in the district schools of Ohio. After coming to this state he attended school at Sullivan and Shelby- ville. Hc secured the means with which to prosecute his studies by teaching school. He took part as a soldier in the war of the
rebellion. He enlisted in August, 1862, in company C, of the One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Illinois regiment. For one year his company was detailed for service in the artillery. His regiment was in the siege of Vicksburg, and took part in the capture of Little Rock, Arkansas. In the fall of 1865, after his return from the army, he was elected county surveyor, and held that position two years. In 1871 he engaged in the grain business at Sullivan, as a member of the firm of Baker, Dodson & Co. His present part- nership with W. C. Gilbert, was formed in 1874. He was elected a member of the first board of aldermen under the new city charter of Sullivan. He was elected Mayor of Sullivan in the spring of 1879, and was re-elected in 1880. He is Democratic in politics. He is one of the enterprising and progressive business men of Sul- livan. He is widely known throughout the county, and his genial disposition and accommodating manners have made him many friends.
191
HISTORY OF SHELBY AND MOULTRIE COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.
JOHN ALEXANDER FREELAND.
JOHN A. FREELAND, now the oldest resident of Sullivan, was born in Orange county, North Carolina, February 22, 1818. He is descended from a family of Scotch Irish origin. James Freeland, his great-grandfather, emigrated from the north of Ireland to America, first settled in Pennsylvania, and in 1755, settled in Orange county, North Carolina. During the Revolutionary war, the British general Cornwallis, camped on his farm just before the battle of Guilford Court-house. His oldest son was one of the force raised to protect Hillsborough, the Whig capital of the state, from the British, and was killed in its defence. Mr. Frecland's grand- father's name was John Freeland, and his father's name James Freeland. The latter married Janc Strain, who was born in Orange county, North Carolina, and also belonged to the same Scotch-Irish stock. Her father, Alexander Strain, moved to North Carolina from Pennsylvania.
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The subject of this sketch was the oldest of a family of eleven children. His education was obtained in the " old field schools" of North Carolina. Good academies were in existence near his home, but being the oldest son he was obliged to remain at home and assist in obtaining a support for the family. A great part of his education was obtained by his own efforts. In February, 1836, when he was eighteen, his father removed with the family to Maury county, Tennessee, and settled on Duck River, forty miles south of Nashville. He accompanied the family to Tennessee ; in April secured a school and taught during the summer. In the fall the rest of the family came on to Illinois, bat Mr. Freeland remained behind to finish his term of school. He was also for a time sick with the ague. On the first day of January, 1837, he set out for Illinois. A steamboat carried him from Nashville to Paducah but he was unable to proceed further by river on account of floating icc. Crossing to the Illinois side he started on foot, disabled and crippled as he was, for this part of the state. The journey was partly made on crutches, though he obtained a chance to ride a portion of the way. At the post-office at Shelbyville, he first became acquainted with John Perryman, with whom afterward for many years he was associated on terms of strong friendship. For two years after coming to the county he taught school in the north-eastern part of Shelby county, and afterward two years in Macon county, south of Decatur. While in Macon county his marriage occurred, (on the 11th of November, 1841,) to Mary Law, a native of Wilson county, Tennessec. He subsequently taught school on the Marrowbone, and on the organization of Moultrie county in 1843, he was elected county clerk and recorder. He was the first person in the county to fill those offices. He held the office of recorder till the adoption of the new constitution made the circuit clerk ex officio recorder. He was re-elected several times county clerk, and occupied that position for fifteen years.
In his political views he was in harmony with the Whig party, in the days when the old Whig and Democratic organizations ap- pcaled to the support of the people. The first vote he ever gave was in August, 1840, for Charles Emerson as representative in the legislature, and David Davis as state senator. Both were defeated. His first vote for President was cast for Harrison, the Whig candi- date, in November of the same year. He was opposed to the ex- tension of slavery, and was one of the men who assisted to form the Republican party in this part of the state. In May, 1856, at a thinly attended meeting held at Sullivan, he was selected to repre- sent Moultrie county in the Bloomington convention, which may be said to have given birth to the Republican party in Illinois. He has been a steadfast Republican from that time to the present. His physical misfortunes prevented him from serving in the war of the
Rebellion, but there was no lack of patriotism in the family, and two brothers volunteered. One, William Thomas Freeland, was lieutenant and acting captain of a company in the Forty-Ninth Illinois regiment, and died in the hospital at St. Louis, from wounds received at the battle of Shiloh. In 1872, Mr. Freeland received the Republican nomination and was elected representative in the Twenty-Eighth General Assembly for the district embracing Moul- trie, Coles and Douglas counties. He served during both the regu- lar and called session, and had the pleasure of assisting to elect to the United States Senate, Gen. Richard J. Oglesby, with whom he was acquainted when he began his career as a young lawyer at Sullivan.
He has had two children, James Law Freeland, who died in in- fancy, and Rosannah Jane, now the widow of Ebon T. Cox. He has been a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church for many years. He was one of the original members of the church of that denomination at Sullivan, and in it holds the position of elder. From the age of twelve years he has had only the partial use of his limbs, and has suffered this disadvantage through life. He belongs however, to a long-lived family, his grandfather and great-grand- father having died at the age of eighty-four, and his father at the age of seventy-eight. He is now one of the oldest citizens of the county, and few persons are better acquainted with the incidents connected with its early settlement.
W. H. SHINN.
W. H. SHINN, prosecuting attorney for Moultrie county, is a native of Pike county of this state, and was born on the eleventh of February, 1849. The Shinn family is of Scotch origin, and sprang from three brothers who emigrated from Scotland to America. .
Mr. Shinn's grandfather, John Shinn, was born in New Jersey, and moved to Cincinnati about the year 1822, and after living there nine years settled in Pike county, Illinois, near the present town of Griggsville. At that time there were few settle- ments in that part of the state, and he was one of the early pioneers. There were no schools or churches; the nearest post-office was Alton ; and the settlers were destitute of many of the ordinary conveniences of life. John Shinn was a local preacher in the Methodist Church, and did much toward upbuilding the interests of the denomination in that part of Illinois. When Peter Cart- wright first came to Pike county, he held his first meeting in the log cabins of the Shinns, and Mr. Shinn's grandfather frequently accompanied him in his itinerant labors.
Clement L. Shinn, father of the subject of this sketch, was born at Camden, New Jersey, in December, 1815. He was about seven when the family moved to Cincinnati, and sixteen when they came to this state. He grew up to manhood in Pike county, and married Catharine Hollins, who was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and was a child of tender age when her parents moved to Pike county, Illinois. On the breaking out of the rebellion he enlisted in the Seventy-third Illinois regiment infantry, and served over a year, till discharged on account of disability. He took part in a number of engagements. Hc held a commission as second lieutenant. He moved to Moultrie county in December, 1864, and now resides near Summit, in Whitley township.
W. H. Shinn was the youngest of two children. The early years of his life were spent in Pike county. In 1862, at the age of thir- teen, he enlisted as a drummer boy in the Sixty-eighth regiment, Illinois infantry. He was in the service five months. He accom- panied his regiment from Camp Butler, Springfield, to Washington.
192
HISTORY OF SHELBY AND MOULTRIE COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.
The Sixty-eighth was the first Illinois infantry regiment to make its appearance at Washington, and was reviewed and frequently visited by President Lincoln, several of the officers and men having been his personal acquaintances. The regiment was afterward sent to Alexandria, Virginia, then to Fairfax Seminary, and was at Fort Lyon at the time of the second battle of Bull Run. The regi ment soon afterward returned to Illinois, and was mustered out at Camp Butler. Mr. Shinn obtained his early education in the public schools of Griggsville. He was in his fifteenth year when he came to this county. During 1867 and 1868, he was a student at McKendree College at Lebanon. In 1872 he went to St. Louis, and for five months was weigh-master in the Old Broadway stock yards. The winter of 1872-3 he spent in Texas, returning to Illinois in the spring, and beginning the study of law with James W. Craig at Mattoon. January, 1877, he was admitted to the bar, and began practice at Sullivan. Previous to his admission to the bar he had acquired in the office of Mr. Craig, then prosecuting attorney, a familiarity with criminal law, and during his practice in Moultrie county has justly earned an excellent reputation in this field of legal learning. In November, 1880, he was elected prosc- cuting attorney. He is a Democrat in politics. In 1878 he received the Democratic nomination for representative in the legislature from Douglas, Coles and Moultrie counties, but withdrew from the race of his own accord, to preserve harmony in the party. He was married in February, 1877, to Cora R. Randolph. By this mar- riage he has two children. Mr. Shinn is a gentleman of energy and fine natural talents, and during his practice at the Moultrie county bar, has made rapid progress in his profession.
WILLIAM ELDER.
WILLIAM ELDER, who is engaged in the banking business at Sullivan, is a native of East Tennessee, and was born on the 17th of May, 1824. His grandfather, William Elder, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and an carly resident of East Tennessee. His father, James Elder, married Didama French, a native of North Carolina. The subject of this sketch was the oldest of six children. In the spring of 1834, when he was ten years of age, his father moved with the family to this state, and first settled in Mor- gan county, on the site of the present town of Waverly. He re- mained there during the summer, but not being able to obtain cheap land, in the fall cainc to what is now East Nelson township, Moul- trie county. Mr. Elder's father subsequently moved to Sullivan, and for several years carried on the mercantile business. He was a man of considerable prominence. Before the organization of the county he acted as justice of the peace ; for several years was county judge and also served as representative in the state legislature. He died in 1870.
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