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 53
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 53
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The subject of this sketch obtained his education in the old-time log school-houses, with split poles for benches. On the 12th of April, 1846, he married Louisa Ewing, daughter of Reuben Ewing. one of the pioneer settlers of Moultrie county, representative in the legislature and one of the commissioners to locate the county seat. After his marriage Mr. Elder went to farming near Sullivan, where he has since improved several farms. From 1854 to 1858, he was a resident of Dallas county, Iowa. In 1870, he be- came interested in the banking business at Sullivan, which his father had commenced the preceding year. The Merchants' and Farmers' Bank has maintained an excellent reputation as a solid financial institution. He has also been engaged in dealing in real estate and trading in stock. He was formerly a Whig in politics,
voted for Taylor in 1848, and has been a Republican since the or- ganization of that party. He has been a shrewd and successful business man, and is now one of the old settlers and representative business men of Moultrie county. He has two children, James W. Elder, now in the hardware business at Sullivan, and Lena Elder.
CHARLES L. ROANE,
Now the oldest dry goods merchant at Sullivan, is a Virginian by birth. He was born in Loudon county, of the Old Dominion, on the 3d of October, 1820. The Roane family was of Englishı origin, and settled in Virginia at an early period. His father, James Roane, was born in Virginia, and married . Mrs. Mary Bartlett, whose maiden name was Taylor. She was a native of Virginia. Her father, Col. Timothy Taylor, was a Pennsylvanian by birth. He belonged to a Quaker family, though he himself was not con- nected with that society. During the war of 1812, he commanded a regiment raised in Loudon county. The subject of this sketch grew to manhood in his native county. His home was in a large Quaker settlement, and his education was principally obtained in a Quaker school in the neighborhood. Part of the time he was engaged in surveying, and also for a while taught school. In the year 1850, then thirty years of age, he went to West Virginia, and for about four years was employed there in surveying. He came to Illinois in 1854, and became a resident of Sullivan. In 1855, he entered the county clerk's office, and after serving as deputy two years, in 1857 was elected county clerk, and filled the office for four years. In January, 1862, after the expiration of his term as county clerk, he purchased a stock of goods of Judge James Elder, and bc- gan the mercantile business. He has carried on business in the same store at the south-east corner of the square for the last twenty years, and is well-known as a business man to the people of Moultrie county. He was married on the 12th of August, 1856, to Lucy P. Garland, of Sullivan daughter of N. A. Garland. Mrs. Roane was born in St. Louis, but her early years were spent in Bedford county, Virginia In his political opinions Mr. Roane has been a Republican since the dissolution of the old Whig party. As a business man and a private citizen, he has always stood high in the community, and his name finds mention here as one of the representative men of Moultrie county.
W. J. MIZE.
THIS gentleman, editor and one of the proprietors of the Sullivan Progress, is a native of Bloomfield, Davis county, Iowa, and was born on the twenty-fourth of January, 1846. His father, Robert Mize, was a Kentuckian. His mother, Martha A. Williamson, was born in Ohio. Her ancestors came to that state from Connecticut. Mr. Mize obtained his early education at Bloomfield. His mother was a woman of excellent education, and to her instruction her children are indebted for a great part of their literary acquirements. When Mr. Mize was fifteen, his father moved with the family to Champaign county, Illinois, and afterward resided in Fountain county, Indiana, and in Moultrie, Macon, Wayne, and Marion counties of this statc. The family first came to Moultrie county in the fall of 1862, and returned from Marion county to Moultrie in the fall of 1866. At the age of sixteen Mr. Mize took charge of. a school in Marrowbonc township. For one year he was a salcs- man for a St. Louis drug house, and also for a short time ran a saw- mill. He was also principal of the schools at Sullivan. In the
FARM &RESIDENCE OF J. A.STRAIN SEC 21, T.14 R.4(MARROWBONE TP) MOULTRIE COUNTYILL.
MAPLE GLITHE
APLE HOUSE
MAPLE HOUSE HOTEL SULLIVAN, ILLINOIS . THE PROPERTY OF E.L. SHEPHERD.
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HISTORY OF SHELBY AND MOULTRIE COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.
summer of 1870 he went to Missouri, and the succeeding winter to California. He was a year in California, during which he spent considerable time in the mines, and was also engaged in teaching. His school was on the coast, one hundred miles north of San Fran- cisco, and his pupils embraced all nationalities, even including half- breed Indians. His school district was seven iniles in breadth by twelve in length.
After returning from California he taught two terms in the New- tonia Academy, in south-west Missouri. April 19th, 1873, he re- turned to Sullivan. He had begun learning the printing business in Iowa, when a small boy, and during the summer of 1873 worked as a compositor on the Sullivan Plaindealer. November, 1873, in partnership with William H. Sinyser, he purchased the Sullivan Progress, with which he has since been connected. In April, 1879, he and Mr. Smyser also became interested in the Champaign Times which is now published under the firm name of Smyser, Mize & Co. Mr. Mize has retained entire charge of the Sullivan Progress, and has succeeded in making it one of the best papers of central Illinois. He is a staunch democrat in politics, and is the present secretary of the State Democratic Central Committee. For several years he has been chairman of the Moultrie County Democratic Central Committee.
A. E. D. SCOTT,
WHO since 1877, has served as treasurer of Moultrie county, is a native of the county, and was born in the present Whitley town- ship, on the twenty-third of December, 1848. He is descended from a Scotch-Irish family. His great-grandfather, Andrew Scott, was born in Scotland, emigrated to America, and settled in Penn- sylvania. He removed to Kentucky in the year 1782, when liis son, Arthur, was five years old, and settled in the present Bourbon county. He was one of the pioneer settlers, making his home in the state in the time of Daniel Boone. Mr. Scott's grandfather was named Arthur Scott. His father, Andrew Scott, was born on the seventh of September, 1803. He was raised in Kentucky, and in the year 1829 came with the family to Illinois, and settled on Kickapoo, in Coles county. In 1832 they removed to Whitley creek. Andrew Scott served through the Black Hawk war. On the twenty-eighth of June, 1839, he married Martha J. Waggoner, daughter of Amos and Narcissa (Jay) Waggoner. Her parents were both born in Rutherford county, North Carolina, and emi- grated from that state to Illinois in April, 1828, and settled on Whitley creek, and were among the first families to make their home in that part of the county. Andrew Scott was a mason by trade. He was the contractor and builder of the first court-house, and of the seminaries at Shelbyville and Sullivan He served for several years as county commissioner, and assisted in laying off the original town of Sullivan. He removed to Missouri in 1855, and died in Sullivan county of that state in 1857.
The subject of this sketch was the fifth of a family of nine children. He was seven years of age at the time of the removal of the family to Missouri. In the fall of 1864 his mother returned with the family to Illinois. He had little opportunity of attending school in Missouri The progress of the war made the part of the state in which they lived unsettled and dangerous. After coming back to this state he attended the seminary at Shelbyville during the winter of 1867-8 and of 1869-70. He was a student at the Jack- sonville Business College in 1871-2 and 1872-3. In March, 1873, after quitting school, he entered the circuit clerk's office (his uncle, J. H. Waggoner, then being circuit clerk). where he remained till the fall of 1877, when he was elected treasurer of Moultrie county.
He was re-elected in 1879, and has filled the position with satisfac- tion to the people of the county. He was married on the seventhi of September, 1876, to Sarah E. Baker, daugliter of Joseph Baker, one of the early citizens of Moultrie county. By this marriage he has had two children, sons, of whom one is now living. In his politics Mr. Scott is a democrat, and one of the active supporters of the democratic party in Moultrie county. He is kuown as a gen- tleman of enterprise and public spirit, and as one of the representa- tive young men of Moultrie county.
.
DR. J. W. COKENOWER.
DR. COKENOWER, now principal of the public schools of Sullivan, was born in Shelby county on the 13th of August, 1850; his father, Michael Cokenower, was born in Pennsylvania, and came to Illinois and settled south of Shelbyville about the year 1820. Dr. Coken- ower's mother, whose name before marriage was Thomson, was also connected with one of the early families of Shelby county ; she was the daughter of John Thomson, one of the pioneer settlers. The subject of this sketch was raised in the southern part of Shelby county ; after attending the seminary at Shelbyville he entered Westfield College, in Clark county, where he completed his literary education. After finishing his studies he received a State teacher's certificate. In 1870 he took charge of a school in Shelby county, and part of the time since has been engaged in teaching in Shelby and Moultrie counties, and at Altamont, in Effingham county. While teaching he began the study of medicine ; he attended lec- tures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Keokuk, Iowa, from which he graduated in the spring of 1877, and subsequently entered the Kentucky School of Medicine at Louisville, from which he received a diploma in the summer of 1880. Since the fall of 1879 he has been principal of schools at Sullivan. Under his vigorous administration the schools of Sullivan have reached a high state of efficiency, and Dr. Cokenower has justly secured an enviable reputation as a thorough and able teacher. In the future he proposes devoting his attention exclusively to the practice of his profession. He is a republican in politics.
D. F. BRISTOW,
THE proprietor of the Sullivan elevator, was born in Franklin county, Kentucky, May the first, 1840. His grandfather was onc of the pioneer settlers of Kentucky. He made his home in that state when settlers were few in number, and incurred great danger from the attacks of the Indians. His father, Samuel Bristow, was born in Franklin county, Kentucky, in the year 1798. He was raised in the same part of the state, and married Ann Long, who belonged to a Virginia family which settled early in Kentucky. The subject of this sketch was the seventh of a family of eleven children. He was raised on the Kentucky river, a short distance below Frank- fort, the capital of the state. In the spring of 1860, then in his twentieth year, he came to Illinois, and remained two or three years with a brother in the southern part of Moultrie county. He then returned to Kentucky, where lie remained till 1865, and then the family emigrated to Moultrie county, where his father died. In 1867 Mr Bristow was appointed postmaster. of the Whitley Point post-office, and held that position for six or seven years. Hc was also employed in the grain business at Summit by the firm of I. & D. D. James. In 1875 he came to Sullivan to manage the grain business for D. D. James, who then carried on the elevator. In
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HISTORY OF SHELBY AND MOULTRIE COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.
1878 he went into the grain business on his own account, and Janu- ary, 1880, purchased the elevator at Sullivan, known as the Moul- trie couuty clevator. He lias since been occupied in this business, and is favorably known in Moultrie county as a business mau. He was married on the twenty-eighth of October, 1880, to Miss Adda Ewing, daughter of the late Judge Ewing, of Sullivan, one of the pioncer settlers of Moultrie county. In his politics Mr. Bristow has always been a democrat, though he has taken no active part in politics, and has devoted his attention to his own business affairs. As one of the representative business men of Sullivan, this brief sketch of his history appears iu these pages.
W. C. GILBERT.
W. C. GILBERT, who has been in the grain business at Sullivan, in partnership with William Kirkwood for the last five years, is a native of Livingston county, New York, and was born on the 14th of November, 1843; his father, Eralsamond Gilbert, was also a native of the State of New York, and his mother, Keziah Leaven- worth, of Connecticut. The subject of this sketch was the third of four children ; he was raised in the town of Fowlerville, Livingston county. Obtaining his preliminary education, he went to Oberlin, Ohio, where he had an uncle living, and became a student in Ober- lin College ; he was compelled to return home in about a year on account of ill-licalth. In August, 1862, he entered the army, en- listing in company K of the 8th New York Cavalry, in which he served till the close of the war. His regiment formed a part of the Army of the Potomac, and was under Generals Pleasanton, Custer, and Wilson, and other division commanders: it took part in the raids under Sheridan in the vicinity of Richmond. He was taken prisoner at Dumfries, Virginia, on the Potomac, below Washington, in March, 1863, and for several weeks was an inmate of the Libby prison. From 1865 to 1869 he was engaged in the grain business in Chicago; the latter year he went to Kansas, and for about two years and a half was in the stock business in Cherokee county, in that State ; lie afterwards returned to Chicago, and in 1875 came to Sullivan, where he formed a partnership with William Kirkwood to carry on the grain business. He was married on the 14th of November, 1878, to Nancy E. Watson, of Douglas county, Mr. Gilbert is known as a capable business man. He has always been a republican in politics; he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Knights of Honor.
J. II. WAGGONER,
FOR sixteen years circuit clerk of Moultrie county, was born in the present Whitley township, then a part of Shelby county, Sep- tember 1st, 1832. His ancestors were of German origin, and re- sided in North Carolina. His father, Amos Waggoner, and his mother, Narcissa Jay. were born, raised, and married in Rutherford county, North Carolina. They came to Illinois and settled on Whitley crcek in 1828 Mr. Waggoner was raised in that part of the county. In 1850, when he was eighteen, his father moved with the family to Sullivan, and died in 1854. Amos Waggoner was a man of good natural ability, though like most of the early pioneers he was self educated. He served two or three terms as justice of the peace, and at the time of his dcatlı was associate judge. When abont twenty-two Mr. Waggoner took charge of a school aud taught three terms. In the spring of 1858, in partnership with his brothers, lie purchased the Sullivan Express, which had been cstablished the
preceding fall, and was the first newspaper published in Moultrie county. He was connected with this paper till 1860. In 1861 he was elected assessor and treasurer of the county, and served two years. In 1864 he was elected circuit clerk, and was re-elected for three terms, thus filling the office for sixteen years in succession-a longer period than any other county officer has held position in Moultrie county. Since the expiration of his last term as circuit clerk his time has been devoted to the abstract business. He was married on the twelfth of February, 1858, to Laura E. Henry, daughter of Elder B. W. Henry, one of the early ministers of the Christian church. Mrs. Waggoner was born in Shelby county. He has seven children by this marriage. He has always been a democrat. For more than twenty years he has been a member of the Christian church at Sullivan. He is now one of the oldest citi- zens of the county, there being few persons now living, who were residents of what is now Shelby county, at the time of his birth.
JAMES HARRISON VANHISE.
J. H. VANHISE, who has been a citizen of this part of the state since 1841, is a native of Virginia, and was born in Shenandoah county, of that state, on the 3d of January, 1814. On his father's side he is of low Dutch descent. His ancestors emigrated from Holland and settled in New Jersey at an early period. His grand- father was named Abraham Vanhise. He was born in New Jersey, and resided in that state during the Revolutionary war. During that war he served in the Continental army as wagon master, and thus did his part toward securing the independence of the thirteen colonies. After the Revolution he moved to Virginia, and settled in the Shenandoah valley. Mr. Vanhise's father had in his posses- sion an old musket which was carried by a comrade of Abraham Vanhise through the Revolution. Mr. Vanhise also has a purse which his grandfather carried in the Revolution. James Vanhise, father of the subject of this sketch, was born and raised in Shenan- doalı county, Virginia, and married Nancy Winstead, who was of English descent. James Harrison Vanhise was the second of a family of eight children, and the oldest who grew to maturity. His oldest brother died in childhood. Of the seven who are still living, five reside in this state, once in Iowa, and one in Kansas.
In 1818 the family removed from Virginia to Ohio. Mr. Vanhise was then four years of age. He has no recollection of his early home in Virginia, with the exception of one circumstance : While his mother was washing on the banks of the Shenandoah river, he got beyond his depth in the stream, and his mother rescued liim from drowning. He remembers nothing of the long journey from Virginia to Ohio. On reaching the latter state they settled in Fair- field county, and in that locality he was, principally, raised. He was brought up on a farm. The chance for obtaining an education in those days was poor in contrast with those of the present time, but he was naturally quick to learn, and obtained what was then considered a good education. Reading, writing and arithmetic were the only branches then taught. Grammar and geography were unknown. At twenty-one he became an apprentice to the trade of a joiner and cabinet maker, at Circleville, Pickaway connty, Ohio. After serving an apprenticeship of three years he worked at his trade two summers at Lancaster, Ohio. The business not agreeing with his health, he quit and went to teach- ing school. His first school was in the old school-house in which he received his first lessous in boyhood, He taught there for eleven successive terms. After his marriage he also taught three winters in addition. He was married in Fairfield county, Ohio,
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THE RUINS OF MOULTRIE COUNTY'S FIRST COURT HOUSE. AS IT APPEARED IN 1874
FARM RES. OF ROBTH. SHARP SEC.16, T.14,R.5,SULLIVAN TP. MOULTRIE CO. ILL .
A
BUROAK, 6 FT. DIAM
STOCK FARM & RES.OF PERRY SEX-SON SEC.7, ASHGROVE TP. (11) SHELBY CO ILL.
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HISTORY OF SHELBY AND MOULTRIE COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.
February 25th, 1838, to Sarah Dillsaver, who was born in Fair- field county, on the 30th of December, 1817. Her father, Henry Dillsaver, and her mother, Susan Neff, were from Pennsylvania, and were among the pioneer settlers of Fairfield county.
He determined to emigrate to a western state where he could find cheap land and secure a home. Times were hard in Ohio, and the prospects for a poor man were not very promising. He left Ohio in the fall of 1841, and on the 14th of October landed in what is now Moultrie county, then included in Shelby county. He en- tered eighty acres of land on the west Okaw, in section 25 of town- ship 13, range 4. He put up a cabin on this tract and went to work in the timber to make an improvement. With the exception of two years, from 1876 to 1878, when he lived in Sullivan, he has resided there ever since. He bought additional land, and now owns 280 acres, in sections 19, 24 25 and 30, of township 13, range 5. He carries on geueral farming, and has one of the most productive and reliable farms in Moultrie county Mr. and Mrs. Vanhise are the parents of three children ; Cordelia, now the wife of Alexander Ward, of Shelby county ; John Wesley Vanhise, who is engaged in farming in Moultrie county ; and Martha, who married Simon T. Gallagher, of Shelby county. In his politics Mr Vanhise was first an old line Whig. He voted for Harrison, in 1810. His views on the slavery question made him a Republican on the foundation of that party, and he has been a Republican ever since. He has been elected to seve- ral township offices, some of which he has held for several years in succession. He possesses good business ability, and what he has ac- complished is the result of his own industry and energy. A picture of his farm residence appears clsewhere.
ROBERT H. SHARP
WAS born in Wilson county, Tennessee, October 2, 1820. His father, Ezekiel A. Sharp, was a native of North Carolina. The family is of Irish descent. E. A. Sharp was a child of three years of age when his father, Ezekiel A. Sharp, Sr., emigrated to Tennes- see. This family came to Tennessee when it was a wilderness thinly settled, and endured all the hardships and privations incident to a pioneer life in that state. It was here where E. A. Sharp, Jr., was brought up ; upon arriving at the age of maturity he married Jane Lansden, of Wilson county, Tennessee; they had six children born to them. In 1834, Mr. Sharp with his family emigrated to Illinois, and settled in what is now Marrowbone township of this county. He had the misfortune to lose his wife the following year ; he re- sided in the vicinity where he first settled, and followed the life of a farmer until his death in the year 1846. The subject of our sketch was fourteen years of age when his father came to this state; his ad- vantages for receiving an education were very limited, as he never attended school after coming to this state. At the age of twenty he was united in marriage to Miss Milbra Thomason, a daughter of Richard Thomason, one of the early settlers of Fayette county, Illinois. They have raised a family of ten children, eight now living; their names are as follows : Elizabeth J., now deceased, who was the wife of John W. Kirkbride; Sarah C., now the wife of James L. Riggin ; William A. ; Susan E., the widow of Alexander Norris ; Mary F., now the wife of William Rhodes; Joseph A. ; Martha A., now the wife of Z. T. McMahan ; James H., now de- ceased ; Amazetto and Walter C. Immediately after Mr. Sharp's marriage in 1841, he came to where he now lives in Sullivan town- ship and purchased forty acres of raw prairie land; he began im- proving this tract, and by adding forty after forty lie now owns one hundred and sixty acres. Mr. and Mrs Sharp started out in life
unaided, and by industry and economy they have gained a pleasant home, a view of which may be seen elsewhere in this work. In the early settlement of the county, Mr. Sha p rode as constable for six years, and at that time traveled to all parts of the county, and in consequence became acquainted with nearly every resident of the county. In politics he has been a life long democrat, and has always taken a decp interest in the success of the party. Such is a brief sketch of one of the old and much respected citizens of Moultrie county.
JOHN H. DUNSCOMB,
WAS born in Trumbull county, Ohio, on the 8th of June, 1839; his father. Orren H. Dunscomb, was a native of Vermont, and emigrated to Ohio, in the year 1803, settling at Weathersfield, in Trumbull county; he was one of the early pioneers of Ohio; he married Sophia H. Gray, a native of Trumbull county. Mr. Duns- comb was the fourth of a family of six children; he was raised in his native county, and obtained. a good education in the common schools; his mother died in 1851 and his father in 1855. In the latter year, then seventeen years old, he came to Illinois. For a year or two he was employed by the month in Moultrie county, and in 1857 began teaching school in Lovington township. In 1859 he went to Texas, and was a resident of that State at the time of the breaking out of the rebellion. Against his wishes he was obliged to enter the confederate army; he served with a regiment on the frontier, where there were few chances of getting away, but in March, 1865, succeeded in reaching Mexico, where he remained till after the close of the war, July, 1865; he returned to Moultrie county and resumed teaching, in which he was engaged every win- ter till 1873, when he was elected treasurer of Moultrie county on the independent farmers' ticket; he was re-elected in 1875. After closing up the business of the treasurer's office in 1877 he became Treasurer and Agent of the Moultrie County Co-operative Associ- ation, and took charge of its store at Sullivan, which he has since successfully managed. September 22d, 1867, he married Jane E., daughter of Samuel and Eliza Mitchell; he has six children by this marriage. His father was one of the early members of the free-soil party, and he himself is a republican. For two years he has been chairmau of the republican county central committee ; he was elected justice of the peace in 1872, and served till his election as county treasurer. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Besides the co-operative store at Sullivan, he carries on a store of his own at Cushman station.
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