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 56
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 56
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In the days when the political sentiment of the county was di- vided between the Whig and Democratic parties, Mr. Friedley was a Whig. He cast his first vote for President in the exciting canı- paign of 1844, for Henry Clay, the great champion of the principles of the Whig organization. From early boyhood he was opposed to slavery, and believed in the inherent right of freedom which every man possesses. When the great fight began over the question of ex- tending slavery into the Territories, and the Republican party sprang into existence, he was one of the first to connect himself with the new organization, and he has been a warm Republican from that day to the present. He has taken an active and influential part in politics, and has been one of the leaders of the Republican organization in Shelby county. For eight years he represented Moawequa township in the board of supervisors. The Republican party made him its candidate for sheriff of Shelby county ; but of course it was impossible to overcome the customary heavy demo- cratic majority. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as is also Mrs. Friedley. He has been a temperance man all his life, and has never given a vote in favor of the licensed sale of intoxicating drinks. He is a member of Shelby Lodge No. 274
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of the order of Odd Fellows, and of Moawequa Lodge of Masons No. 280.
His success in life has depended much on his own energy and his natural qualifications as a good business man. His accumulations are the result of perseverance and industry ; he possesses a mind keen enough to judge accurately of the character of business invest- ments, and has managed to take good care of the results of the industry of his earlier years. Besides his own business, he has been called on to transact considerable business for others, and has been engaged in the settlement of several estates. In connection with one estate of which he was administrator, he acted as guardian of the seven minor children ; and in other ways the confidence of the people in liis business ability has been frequently expressed ; he is a good type of tlie self-made man. He came to Illinois with a reso- lute heart and willing hands as his only aids in the quest for fortune. But while his own resources were all lie had on which to rely, he remembered with gratitude the friends of the early part of his career in this county, who gave him their confidence, extended to him credit, and assisted him in many material ways. He considers also that he has been fortunate in associating himself in business with capable and reliable men. His partners who at different times he has had in various enterprises have invariably been men in whose integrity and ability he has had entire confidence. Al- though he has been active in the accumulation of wealth, still he has used it with a liberal hand. He has surrounded his family with the comforts of life, and his means have always been open to the appeals of charity and the demands of benevolence. He is known as a public-spirited citizen, and has been among the fore- most in all enterprises calculated to benefit the community of whichi he is a member. In all his business transactions, extending over a long series of years, there rests against him no imputation which could affect his character as a gentleman, as a straightforward and honorable business man. His name deserves a place in this work as a man who has been intimately connected with the development and growth of the material resources of Shelby county.
VALENTINE SNYDER,
Now engaged in the banking business at Moawequa, is a native of Christian county, and was born in Prairieton township near the Shelby county line, half a mile west of Moawequa, on the 28tli of October, 1844. His parents, Michael Snyder and Margaret Kautz, were among the early settlers of that part of Christian county. The subject of this sketch was the fifth of a family of eight children. He was raised in the neighborhood where he was born. He at- tended school as he had opportunity in the log school-houses in the Flat Branch Timber. The nearest school was three miles distant. He afterward attended two terms in a seminary at Mt. Zion in Ma- con county. During the winter of 1866-7 he was a student at Eastman's Commercial College at Chicago. In the fall of 1867, in partnership with George Kautz he began the mercantile business at Moawequa under the firm name of Snyder & Kautz. Business was carried on in that manner for four years and a half. For one year he carried on the store on his own account and then formed a partnership with his brother, William J. Snyder. He continued the mercantile business till 1873. In 1874 with George A. Kautz and J. M. Friedley as his partners he engaged in the banking busi- ness at Moawequa under the name of V. Snyder & Co. This was the first bank ever established at Moawequa, and the business has
STOCK FARM & RESIDENCE OF E. M. DOYLE SEC.34, T. 14, R.2, (MOAWEQUA TP.) SHELBY CO.IL.
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HISTORY OF SHELBY AND MOULTRIE COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.
been carried on uninterruptedly from that time to the present. Mr. Friedley retired from the firm in July, 1880.
Mr. Snyder was married on the 14th of September, 1870, to Miss Lillian Snow, a native of Green county, Illinois, daugliter of Thomas Snow. He has five children by this marriage, Clarence Elmer, Karl Roscoe, Ralph Waldo, Lillian Irene, and Mattie May. In his political opinions he has always been in sympathy with the Re- publican party. His first vote for President was cast for General Grant in 1868. He has always been a staunch supporter of the Republican organization, although in local elections he believes in supporting the best man for the office irrespective of political affili- ations. He is one of the energetic and enterprising business men of Moawequa. Since 1867 he has been closely identified with the business interests of the place, and is well known as a gentleman of high personal character and an honorable and capable business man.
E. M. DOYLE
Is of Irish and English descent. His grandfather, Martin Doyle, emigrated from the north of Ireland to America with two brothers about 1750. At Braddock's defeat in western Pennsylvania, he became separated from his brothers and never heard of them after- ward. He settled in Virginia and married a woman named Webb. He was a soldier in the revolutionary war, afterwards moved to Tennessee, and thence to Kentucky, settling there soon after the time of Daniel Boone, when the country was yet full of the Indians. He died in Logan county, Kentucky. John Doyle, father of the subject of this sketch, was born in the Blue Ridge part of Virginia, about 1783. His early life was spent in Tennessee, where he was in the employment of Andrew Jackson. He was one of the body of troops raised in Tennessee to reinforce Jackson during the war of 1812-14, and took part in the battle of New Orleans. He was married in Lincoln county, Kentucky, to Cassandra Harvey, a native of Kentucky. John Doyle lived four miles west of Russell- ville, Logan county, Kentucky, till his death, which occurred three or four years ago, at the age of ninety-three. He was an old Whig, and during the rebellion a strong union man. The rebel forces several times during the war tried to compel him to take the oath of allegiance to the Southern Confederacy, but the old man bravely refused, preferring even death to renouncing his loyalty to his country
Ewing M. Doyle was the fourth of nine children. He was born near Russellville, Logan county, Kentucky, September fifteenth, 1815. He went to school but little, never more than three weeks at a time. There were then no free schools ; schooling cost eight dollars a quarter; his father had a large family, and wanted the assistance of all his children, able to work, to relieve him from an embarrassed financial situation, and consequently he liad to get liis learning at home. He learned to read and spell at night by the flickering light of a brushiwood fire, an older brother generally being his teacher. In the year 1831, then in his sixteenth year, he came to Illinois, and for one year worked for an older brother, who had settled in Fayette county. He was in the vicinity of Vanda- lia till the fall of 1835. Vandalia was then the capital of the state, and among the members of the legislature was Abraham Lincoln, who boarded with Dr. Stapp, now living at Decatur, by whom Mr. Doyle was employed, and he and Lincoln ehopped wood together many an evening after the legislature had adjourned its sessions. For about three years succeeding the fall of 1835, he
was employed in driving stage near St. Louis. His first route was between St. Louis and Marine, east of Edwardsville, and then afterwards on the St. Louis and Springfield line, between Elwards- ville and Carlinville. At that time there were no railroads. All the travel was carried on by stages, and the driver of a stage was quite an important personage.
On the twenty-ninth of May, 1836, he married Mary Dickens, who was born in Wilson county, Tennessee, and was then living in Madison county. He quit the stage business about 1838, and was in the employment afterwards of Samuel Sanner, who then lived north of Edwardsville, and of Dr. Lathey at Alton. In 1839 he began farming north of Edwardsville, and in 1840 moved to a farm in Macoupin county, four miles and a half south of Bunker Hill, on which he lived three years, and then bought sixty acres of land in the same neighborhood, on which he resided a number of years. It required all his capital to get possession of these sixty acres. Hc traded off everything excepting an axe and a hoc. There was no other improvement on the place except a cabin. Some of the rails with which to fence it he carried a quarter of a mile on his back. He owed a hundred dollars on the land. To add to his other troubles, he was sick a great part of the time with chills and bilious fever. He finally succeeded in getting the place in culti- vation, paid off the indebtedness, erected a good house and barn, and entered cighty acres adjoining. In 1859 he sold this farm, and moved on a farm of two hundred and ten acres four miles north of Bunker Hill. He there becane involved in the payment of some security debts, and had made himself liable for a considerable sum of money for building the Methodist church at Bunker Hill, and he finally concluded to move to a new country. Hc came to this county in 1863. His capital consisted of thirteen hundred dollars, two teanis, and three cows. He bought four hundred and twenty acres, only a small portion improved. He now owns a farm of two hundred and forty acres free from all incumbrance, a picture of which is shown elsewhere. His first wife died in 1859. His present wife, Helen Brewer, was born at Upper Alton, September fifth 1838, daugliter of William Brewer, who came from Virginia to Illinois, and settled near Brighton. He has seventeen children : Elizabethi, wife of Lewis Hail, of Kansas ; Benjamin F., of Moa- wequa township; Alexander P. H., of Kansas; John L., of Flat Branch township; Isabel A., wife of William Whitworth, of Moa- wequa township ; Julia and Ewing M., who are deceased ; James C. T., George R., and Charles W., of Moawequa township; Mary H. and William A. residing at home; Coloma C., deceased; and Martin Reuben who resides with his father; Cora E., Camilla, and Edith are deceased. The last seven names are those of children by his present marriage Benjamin, A. P. H., and Jolin served in the war of the rebellion, enlisting in 1863. The two first were in the Forty first Illinois, and were in Sherman's march from Atlanta to the sea John was in a Missouri regiment.
Mr. Doyle was first a democrat and voted for Van Buren in 1836. He became a strong republican, and in 1856 voted for Fremont. He joined the Presbyterian church when a boy in Kentucky, and united with the Methodists on coming to this state. His influence has been cast on the side of morality and virtue. He has been a warm temperance man. He began life with no capital, having only thirty-seven and a half cents when he started out for himself in Vandalia. His accumulations have been the result of hard work. He has followed farming, and has traded considerably in stock, and has succeeded in every occupation he has undertaken. His personal honesty has never been placed in question. IIc can Low look back with satisfaction over a life which, though laborious; has been profitably spent.
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HISTORY OF SHELBY AND MOULTRIE COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.
A le le ampour
WAS born on Lick Creek in Sangamon county; of this state, on the 22d of July, 1819. He was the third child born of white parents in Sangamon county, and is now supposed to be the oldest white man living who was born in that county. The Campbell family is of Scotch origin. His grandfather, Jeremiah Campbell, emigrated from Scotland to South Carolina, and fought in the war of the Rc- volution under Gen. Francis Marion, and afterward cmigrated to Tennessee. He was raised in that state, and enlisted in a body of troops raised in Tennessee for service in the war of 1812, and was appointed ensign. He came to Illinois, and in Madison county married Levina Parkinson, who was also descended from a Scotch family, and was born in Carter county, Tennessee. In the spring of 1819, soon after their marriage, they moved to what is now San- gamon county, and settled on Lick Creek. They were among the carly pioneers of that part of the state. They died in Sangamon county on the place where they originally settled.
The subject of this sketch was the oldest of six children. He was raised on Lick Creek. The schools which he attended werc of the pioneer character common to that early day. The schools were subscription schools, held in log school-houses with puncheon floors and slab benches. His father was a man considered in those days well-off, and had built a good school-house of hewn logs on his own farm, where Capt. Campbell principally attended school. The teachers were sometimes men of considerable ability. Among those to whom he went to school were Daniel McCaskill, John Calhoun of Kansas notoriety, and Rowan Morris, all men of thorough educa- tion. It was considered essential to thoroughly understand arith- metic and surveying. By dint of perseverance, Capt. Campbell obtained a substantial education, and after he was grown, taught
school several terms. August 3, 1838, he married Polly Foster, daughter of Peyton Foster. She was a native of Kentucky. After his marriage he went to farming on his own account, and improved a good farm on Lick Crcek.
On the 10th of June, 1846, he enlisted in Co. D. Fourth regiment Illinois infantry, for service in the war with Mexico. The regi- ment was commanded by Col E. D. Baker. From Alton, the regiment went to Jefferson Barracks, and after drilling therc a few weeks proceeded to New Orleans and thence to Mexico. They as- cended the Rio Grande to Camargo; from that point marched back to Matamoras, and then to Victoria, where they were placed under Gen. Scott's command. Capt. Campbell was present at the bom- bardment of Vera Cruz, and took part in the battle of Cerro Gordo. He had enlisted as a private, was elected lieutenant, and the cap- tain dying at Tampico, he was left in command of the company, which position he retained till the expiration of their term of en- listment. The regiment reached Illinois on its return in about a year from the time of leaving the state.
He was farming in Sangamon county till 1851, and then moved to Shelby county, and settled in Section 4 of township 13, range 2, the present Flat Branch township. He improved a farm of four hundred and ten acres, on which he lived till 1856, and then moved to Moawequa. When he settled in Flat Branch township he opened a store on his farm, which he carried on till the town of Moawequa was started, when he undertook the mercantile business in that place. He has since been farming in Moawequa township.
He volunteered during the first year of the war of the Rebellion. In October, 1861, he entered the service as captain of Co. E., Thirty-Second regiment Illinois volunteers, commanded by
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FARM & RESIDENCE OF T. M SMITH, SEC.33, T. 14, R.2, MOAWEQUA TP. SHELBY CO.ILL.
RESIDENCE OF CAPTAIN A.C.CAMPBELL, MOAWEQUA . SHELBY CO.ILL.
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HISTORY OF SHELBY AND MOULTRIE COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.
Col. John Logan. He served three years with the Army of the Tennessee. During the latter part of the war his regiment formed part of the Seventeenth corps. He was in Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama and Soutlı Carolina, and took part in the battles of Fort Donelson, Shiloh, the siege of Corinth, Coldwater, the engagements around Vicksburg, Jackson, Kenesaw Mountain and the various actions which took place on Sherman's celebrated march from Atlanta to the sea. He was mustered out in February, 1865.
The death of his first wife took place on the 9th of January, 1858. On the 17th of June, 1859, he married Jennie Hurt, a native of Montgomery county, Ohio. He has six children ; John P., now re. siding in Kansas ; Elzira E, who married James W. Clark ; Sarah C., the wife of Edward Segar of Indianapolis ; Leonard W., living in Kansas; Alfred C. and George W. His political inclinations have always made him a member of the democratic party. Since 1840, when he cast his first vote for President for Martin Van Buren, he has voted the straight democratic ticket. For two terms he served as justice of the peace. In 1880, lie received the demo- cratic nomination for member of the legislature from the Thirty- third Senatorial district, comprising the counties of Shelby, Eff- ingham and Cumberland, and was elected by a flattering majority. He is connected with the Masonic order, and is now the oldest charter member of Moawequa lodge, No. 180.
THOMAS MIDDLETON HUGHES.
MR. HUGHES, editor of the Moawequa Register, is a native of Wales, and was born on the twenty-ninth of May, 1824. His ances- tors had lived in Wales for several generations. His father, Thomas Hughes, followed the sea, and had become a citizen of the United States before the birth of the subject of this sketch. His inother, whose maiden name was Margaret Hughes, was born at . Llandidno, near Conway, Wales. When Mr. Hughes was about nine, the death of his mother occurred at Liverpool. When eleven or twelve, he accompanied his father to this country. His home for several years was at Providence, Rhode Island, where most of his early education was attained. At fourteen he went to sea. He shipped as a cabin boy, and afterward became mate. He made . frequent voyages to different points on the Atlantic coast. He has crossed the Atlantic in all seventeen times. During the intervals of his employment as a sailor, he learned the printing business at Providence, and about 1849 devoted himself altogether to the latter occupation. For several years he was employed by Morton and Griswold, of Louisville, Kentucky. He also worked for Harper Bros., of New York, and after their establishment was burned out, was employed by the American Tract House and other offices in New York till 1856, and then went to Nashville, Ten- nessee, to take charge of the press department of the Southern Methodist Publishing House. He held this position for more than a year, having charge of twenty or thirty power presses. He after- ward took charge of the Baptist Publication House. He then went into business for himself at Nashville, and began the publication of the Parlor Visitor and the Baptist Family Visitor. He next went to Murfreesboro', Tennessee, where he published the Aurora, a monthly magazine, and the Southern Dollar Weekly. Returning to Nashville in 1858, he began publishing the Commercial Evening Bulletin, a daily, and also carried on a job printing office. During the presidential campaign of 1860, he published in Marion county, East Tennessee, the Sequatchie Herald, a paper devoted to the sup- port of Bell and Everett. Previous to the war his position was
that of an anti-secession democrat. After the inauguration of the rebellion, he left his wife with her parents in North Carolina, went to Richmond, and from 1862 till the close of the war was engaged in publishing the Southern Punch, and a daily paper called the Evening Courier. After the close of the war he became a resident of Raleigh, North Carolina, where he first held the position of foreman in the Field and Fireside office, and afterward purchased a half interest in the Biblical Recorder, the organ of the North Carolina Baptists. For one year he published the Ridgeway Press at Ridgeway, North Carolina, and in the fall of 1869 went to Charlestown, West Virginia, and started the Kanawha Daily News, afterward enlarged and called the Kanawha Daily. The latter paper was published by a joint stock company, and Mr. Hughes had charge of the business management. The removal of the state capital to Wheeling caused the failure of the paper as a conse- quence, and Mr. Hughes lost all his means. After having charge of a job office in St. Louis for a couple of years, in March, 1787, he became the editor and proprietor of the Mowequa Register.
His marriage occurred at Louisville, Kentucky, in 1850, to Miss Mary Bobbitt, a native of North Carolina. He has had three chil- dren, of whom two are now living. In his politics he has always been a democrat. While living in the South he was opposed to secession, and favored the preservation of the Union. His long experience in the printing business entitles him to the distinction of now being one of the oldest printers and publishers in this part of the state. For thirty years he has been connected with the Baptist Church, in which he has been a lay preacher. He is an active member of that denomination, and has labored for the ad- vancement of its interests. In connection with Dr. J H. Phillips, of Shelbyville, he is occupied in publishing the Illustrated Baptist Weekly. He is known as an able journalist, and as a public speaker, and both in the church and in the field of politics, has achieved considerable reputation.
HENRY F. DAY,
Now the oldest business man at Moawequa, was born at Birming- ham, England, March 7th, 1835. His father, John Day, was a prominent business man of Birmingham. When he was fourteen his father died, leaving a widow and five children. In December, 1849. he left England in a sailing vessel arriving at Boston, Janu- ary 24th, 1850. He made the voyage unaccompanied by any friends or acquaintances. He liad attended school at Birmingham and secured a good education. Immediately after reaching Boston he obtained a situation as clerk in a book-store, and then became one of the book-keepers for Nash, Callender & Co. In 1854 he engaged in the insurance business in New York. He revisited England the latter part of 1855, and returned to America in the spring of 1857. At Chicago he mnet Tom Ponting, who suggested that he would find a good business opening at Moawequa. He reached that place in May, 1857, and in February, 1858, began the mercantile business, which he has since carried on. When he camne to Moawequa it was a small place with few business houses, and with its subsequent prosperity and business growth lie has been closely identified. June 3d, 1862, he married Louisa M. March, of Jacksonville, Illinois, daughter of Edward and Harriet March. He has eight children. He carries on two stores at Moawequa-a gen- eral dry goods, grocery, and agricultural implement store and another for the sale of clothing, furnishing goods, and articles of men and boys' wear. His career illustrates what may be accom- plished by energy, enterprise, and careful business management. He is a good type of the self-made inan. He began business with
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HISTORY OF SHELBY AND MOULTRIE COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.
a small capital, and has reached among the solid and substantial business men of Shelby county. IIe is connected with the order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Honor, and the Independent Order of Foresters, and has held important positions in the councils of these societies. In each he is now the highest officer in Shelby county, and for many years has been prominently connected with the Grand Lodge of the Knights of Honor. He has maintained an excellent reputation as a capable and enterprising business man, and his name deserves a place in this work as one of the representative citizens of Shelby county.
DR. ANDERSON P. HOXSEY,
WHO has practiced medicine at Moawequa since 1868, is a native of Macoupin county, and was born at Carlinville on the 26th of July, 1840. The Hoxsey family was of Irish and Scotch origin ; his father, Tristram P. Hoxsey, was born in Christian county, Ken- tucky, in the year 1808, and when a boy nine years of age came with the family to Illinois; they settled on Silver Creek, in Madi- son county, in 1817, the year before the admission of Illinois into the Union as a State. Dr. Hoxsey's father left home when about eightcen, and settled in what is now Macoupin county. He was living at Carlinville in 1829, the year the county was organized, and was appointed the first county clerk, and, in addition, per- formed the duties of circuit clerk and recorder; he served as county clerk till 1837, and as circuit clerk till 1841. In 1847 he left Carlinville and went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he was en- gaged in the stock business. In 1850 he removed to Hillsboro', Montgomery county, and carried on the mercantile business there, and was postmaster; he died on the 25th of September, 1855. Dr. Hoxsey's mother was Elizabeth Melvina Anderson, a native of the State of New York; she came to Illinois in the year 1818, when six years old, and settled at Marine, in Madison county.
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