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 69

Author:
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : Brink, McDonough & Co.
Number of Pages: 458

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 69
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 69

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son county, and is now deceased ; Jacob H. Sanner, residing in Penn township ; William H. Sanner, who died in Madison county in his eighteenth year ; S. P. Sanner, one of the leading farmers of Bunker Hill township, Macoupin county ; Elijah Parish Lovejoy Sanner who died in infancy ; Edward B. Sanner, now farming in Penn township ; David G. Sanner, a resident of Penn township; Tillie W., now the wife of Hiram Johnson, of Penn township ; Shields H. Sanner, a farmer of Penn township ; Francis H. San- ner, who died in Madison county at the age of seven ; and John W. Sanner, who resides on the old homestead farm in Penn town- ship.

JOHN W. SANNER,

THE youngest child of Samuel and Barbary Sanner, and who is now living on the homestead farm in Penn township, was born in Madison county, Illinois, on the fifth day of June, 1856. He was about ten years of age when the family removed from Madison to Shelby county. He first attended the common schools, and in the fall of 1872 entered McKendree college, in which he was a student for three years. He left college to begin the study of law in the office of Gillspie & Happy at Edwardsville, Illinois, in the fall of 1875. On account of failing health he quit his legal studies in 1876 and came to Penn township to engage in farming. On the 14th of November, 1878, he married Carrie A. Newsham, of Ed- wardsville, Illinois, daughter of Major Thomas J. Newsham of that place. He is an active and uncompromising republican in poli- tics. He is engaged in farming, and owns five hundred and twenty acres of land in Penn township. On another page is shown an illustration of his farm in section twenty-one, formerly thre residence of his father. He has one child, Bessie. Both he and his wife are members of the Methodist church.

HIRAM JOHNSON.

THE history of the Johnson family in America dates back to four brothers of that name who emigrated from England early in the history of the New England colonies. Mr. Johnson's grandfather, Abraham Johnson, was born, lived, and died at Cornish, Sullivan county, New Hampshire. On the same farmi in the year 1808 was born John Johnson, father of the subject of this sketch. In De- cember, 1832, he married Miss Orrel Fletcher, daughter of Ebenczer Fletcher. She was born at Cornish, New Hampshire, in June, 1813. Her grandfather, whose name was also Ebenezer Fletcher, served in the war of the Revolution. He enlisted as a fifer at the beginning of the war. He was wounded at Ticonderoga, and taken prisoner by the British. John and Orrel Johnson were the parents of two children. The older resides on the old homestead farm at Cornish, New Hampshire, which has now been in the possession of the family for three generations. The younger, Hiram Johnson, was born at Cornish, Sullivan county, New Hampshire, on the twenty-second of February, 1835. He grew up to manhood in his native town, obtaining liis education in the common schools of Cor- nish, and in the Kimberly Union academy at Meriden, New Hamp- shire. Soon after reaching his majority he came west. In the fall of 1856 he began teaching in Madison county near Alton. He had charge of the school at Fosterburg, Madison county, for a number

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HISTORY OF SHELBY AND MOULTRIE COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.

of years. In April, 1861, a few days after the beginning of the war of the rebellion, he enlisted in Co. F. of the Seventh Illinois regiment. The company was commanded by Capt. Cummings. This was the first regiment mustered into the service at Springfield. During his three months term of service thie regiment was stationed at Alton, Cairo, and Mound City. After the expiration of his terni of service lie returned to Madison connty, and resumed teaching. In 1864 he again went into the army. About the first of September of that year he enlisted in Co. A. of the One Hundred and Forty- fourth Illinois regiment. This regiment was employed in garrison duty, and was mostly engaged in gnarding rebel prisoners at Alton, though part of the regiment was sent to St. Louis. He was sta- tioned at Alton, and was honorably discharged in August, 1865, the war having closed. He enlisted as a private, was made commissary clerk, then sergeaut-major, and afterward promoted to be second, then first lieutenant. On the twenty-seventh of September, 1863, he was married to Matilda W. Sanner, who was born in the northern part of Madison county, daughter of the late Samuel Sanner, who became a resideut of Peun township, Shelby county, in the spring of 1866, and died in April, 1880.

In March, 1866, Mr. Johnson came to Shelby county, and the following May settled on his present farm in section twenty, town- ship fourteen, range three, east, where he has since been engaged in farming. He owns four hundred acres of land. He has had five children : Edward B. ; John Samuel, who died on the ninthi of October, 1880, at the age of nearly seven ; Ada, James Dawson, and Nellie May.

He has always been a republican in politics, and one of the leaders that organization in the northern part of the county. He has taken an active interest in public affairs and the people of Penn township liave elected him to several public positions. He has acted as assessor of the township and school treasurer. The second year after the organization of Penn township he was elected a member of the Board of Supervisors, and has since served a number of terms in the same office He is a gentleman of excellent business ability, and has discharged the duties of these positions with credit to him- self and satisfaction to the people of his part of the couuty. In 1878, the republicans of the county made him their nominee for county judge, but it was not expected that he could be elected to the position in the face of the nsnal heavy democratic majority. He is a progressive aud enterprising farmer, aud his connection with the public business has made him well-known throughont the county.

G. M. THOMPSON.

MR. THOMPSON is now one of the oldest residents of Penn town- ship. His father, George Thompson, was a native of Ireland, and spent his early life in that country and in England. When he was about nineteen years of age, he emigrated to America, and first inade his home in Mifflin county, Peunsylvania. He was married in Huntingdon county, Peunsylvania, to Isabella Gardner, and settled on a farm in that county, where he lived till the time of his death. The subject of this sketch was the fifth of ten children, con- sisting of eight daughters and two sons. He was born in Hunting- don county, Pennsylvania, on the twenty-ninth of May, 1809. His opportunities for obtaining an education were limited to the common schools, which in that day offered scanty advantages for obtaining an education, in comparison with those of the present time. He, however, attended school as he had opportunity, and secured the

elements of a good business education. He was brought up on a farm, and his occupation has been that of a farmer all his life. On the twenty-sixth of November, 1832, he was married to Eliza Baird, who was born and raised in Center county, Pennsylvania. He came into possession of the old homestead farm in Pennsylvania, on which he lived till he came to Illinois. He came from the farm, on which he was born and raised, to his present home in Penn township From his early manhood he has always desired to come West. He came to Illi- nois in 1858, and in the fall of that year bonght a half section of land in section three of township thirteen, range three, east. To this place he moved with his family in the spring of 1859, arriving in the township (then Pickaway) on the seventh of April. At that time there were few improvements in that part of the county. There

· were no settlements in the north nearer than the Sanner farm four iniles distant ; on the east the nearest improvement was three niiles away ; he had a ueighbor living within two miles and a half on the south, and three miles on the West There was then little prospect of the prairie being entirely brought under cultivation for many years. Game was pleutiful, and lie could stand in his door yard and see frequent herds of twenty-five deer. In a short time, how- ever, the deer disappeared from the country. He has bought and sold considerable laud since coming to the connty, and now owus four hundred acres in his home farm. His sons own land in the same neighborhood. He has been a successful farmer. At one time he was quite largely eugaged in the sheep business. He has had nine children. The oldest daughter, Margaret Jane, is the wife of Joseph Travis, and now resides in Kansas. William Wallace, the oldest son, enlisted in the Seventh Kansas Cavalry, during the war of the rebellion, and while in the service, died at Fort Riley, Kansas. George Washington died in boyhood, and the next son, Lemuel, of typhoid fever, at the age of about twenty-three. James, who is now farming in Penn township, was in the army during the late war, and took part in Sherman's march from Atlanta to the sea. Edwin enlisted in 1862, in the Fourteenth Illinois Regiment, was captured by the Confederates, while on picket at Savage Station, Tennessee, was confined in Andersonville prison about a year, aud died after he was taken out, and about to be exchanged nearly at the close of the war. Samuel and Alton, the youngest sons, are farm- ing iu Penn township. The youngest daughter, Mary E., is the wife of John Stewart of Penn township. Mr. Thompson was originally an Old Line Whig. His first vote for President was cast in 1832, for Henry Clay. Andrew Jackson was the successful candidate at that election. He has never inissed votiug at a presidential election from that time to the present. He remained a whig till that party approached dissolution, and then joined the republicans, whose principles on the subject of slavery and other questions he believed, represented the cause of humanity. He voted for Fre- mont in 1856, for Lincoln twice, and afterward for the successive republican caudidates. He has been a strong republican, though in local elections, he has often supported the man, whom lie considered best fitted for the office, without regard to politics. He has been assessor of the towuship three tinies, and for two years represented the township (then Pickaway,) on the board of supervisors. He has beeu a liberal and progressive citizeu, and has done what he could to assist in the development and improvement of his part of the county. His land is rented out to his sons, who live in the neighborhood. Since the age of twenty, he has been a member of the Presbyterian church, as is also his wife. He was an elder in the church, with which he was connected in Penusylvania, and in coming to this county, assisted in the organization of the West Okaw Presbyterian church in Penn towuship, of which for many years he acted as elder.

TENANT HOUSE

TENANT HOUSE.

RES.OF SAM! THOMPSON SEC.4, T.13, R.3.

RES.OF JAMES THOMPSON SEC 4 T13.R 3.

RESIDENCE AND SCENES UPON THE STOCK FARM OF G. M . THOMPSON, SEC. 3 &4, T.13,R.3. (PENNTP.) SHELBY CO.ILL.

STOCK & GRAIN FARM OF E.B. SANNER SEC.20,T.14,R.3, E.(PENN TP.) SHELBY CO.ILL.

HISTORY OF SHELBY AND MOULTRIE COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.

259

Edward B, Sanner

IN the work of developing the agricultural resources of Penn township, the Sanner family have borne an important part, and among the rest credit should be given to the gentleman whose name stands at the head of this sketch. When the members of this family came to the township in 1866, they found the prairie lying open and uncultivated, and in transforming it into a fine farming section they have done their full share. Edward B. Sanner was born in Madison county, Illinois, on the 29th of April, 1839. His father, Samuel Sanner, had emigrated from Pennsylvania to Illinois six years before. He was born in Northumberland county, Pennsyl- vania, and in that county married Barbara Paul, a native of Vir- ginia. After farming in Madison county, in this state, from 1833 to 1866, he moved to Shelby county, where his death in April, 1880, brought to a close a long and honorable career. A history of his life is elsewhere given.

The subject of this sketch grew to manhood in Madison county. In the district school about a mile from his home, he laid the foundation of a good business education. He attended regularly in the winter from the time he was old enough to go to school till he became of age. In the summer season he helped with the work on the farm. While his father believed in hard work and that boys should be kept from idleness, he was at the same time a firm friend of learning, and gave his children a good chance to acquire an edu- cation which should fit them for all the necessary business transac- tions of life. At one time his father proposed to send him to college, at Lebanon, Illinois, but some pressing farm work intervened to make it necessary for him to stay at home. He was living in Madison county during the war of the Rebellion. He was anxious to go into the service, and at one time made up his mind to enlist

Naomic P Sanner

in a regiment of Zouaves, but on account of some of his other brothers being already in the army, he was obliged to stay at home and assist with the work on the farm. On the 15th of November, 1865, he married Naomi Pierson, who was born in 1840, at Jack- sonville, Morgan county, Illinois. Her parents, Dr. Daniel C. Pierson, and Naomi C. Nixon, were natives of the State of New Jersey. They emigrated to Illinois in 1833, and settled at Jack- sonville. Her father was a physician and practiced medicine several years previous to his removal to the West. Mrs. Sanner was living at Bunker Hill at the time of her marriage.

In the spring of 1866, Mr. Sanner accompanied the rest of the family from Madison to Shelby county, and in the fall of that year settled on a half section of land purchased from the Illinois Central Railroad Company-the west half of Section 20 of township 14, range 3, east. At that time there were few settlements on the prairie in the northern part of Penn township, then a part of Picka- way township. Part of the land was wet and gave little promise of developing into a rich agricultural district. He went to work with energy and soon succeeded in improving his farm and bringing it under good cultivation. He has a fine body of land. On another page a view of his farm and residence is shown, with the buildings recently erected and others which he proposes to build within a short time. Mr. and Mrs. Sanner have been the parents of seven children. Their names are : Willie, Albert Hattie, Clifford, Ruth, Fannie and Samuel. Fannie, the next to the youngest child, died at the age of twelve weeks.

In his political affiliations Mr. Sanner has always been a member of the republican party. He was brought up to believe in the wrong and injustice of slavery. He became old enough to take an

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HISTORY OF SHELBY AND MOULTRIE COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.

interest in politics during those exciting times when the question of the extension of slavery agitated the nation. He was prompt to array himself on the side of what he believed to be the party of right and freedom. . His first vote for President was given to Abraham Lincoln, in 1860, and he has sustained the principles of the Republican party during the twenty years of its subsequent control of the administration of the country. He is a man who stands well in his part of the county. He is an energetic and in- dustrious farmer, and one whose agricultural operations have been made profitable by his industry. He possesses a good head for busi- ness, and has accumulated considerable property since he has been engaged in farming on his own account. He is a man of thrifty habits, gives his personal attention to all the details of his farm work, and believes in carrying on agriculture according to the most modern and improved methods. In the fall of 1880, he erected a new barn which appears in a view of his farm on another page, and when he completes his new residence he will have one of tlic most convenient and valuable farms in Penn township. To such men any county is indebted While their own immediate object may be the advancement of their own interests and the accumulation of property, yet every acre of land which they bring under cultivation is a contribution to the material resources of the county, adds to its taxable wealth, and is thus a benefit to the com- munity at large. As far as physical appearance goes, Mr. Sanner is a splendid specimen of the western farmer. He stands six feet five inches in height, is of a muscular build, and weighs in the neighborhood of two hundred pounds. He is a fair type of that stalwart race of farmers who have made the wild prairies of Illinois to blossom like a rose, and who have brought the state to the fore- most rank as the leading agricultural section of the Union.

SHIELDS H. SANNER.

THIS gentleman, wlio has been engaged in farming in Penn town- ship for a number of years, is a native of Madison county, Illinois. His birth was on the 16th of October, 1847. His father, Samuel Sanner, was born in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania; fol- lowed the trade of a saddle and harness maker in that state for about six years; in 1833 emigrated to Madison county, Illinois ; and in 1866 came to Penn township, Shelby county, where he died in 1880. Mr. Sanner's mother, whose name was Barbara Paul, was a native of Preston county, now a part of West Virginia. She is still living in Penn township. The subject of this biography was the tenth of a family of twelve children. His early education was obtained in the district school in the neighborhood of his home in Madison county. After he was old enough to be of much service he spent his summers in working on the farm, and in the winter went to school. He acquired the elements of a substantial English

cducation.

One winter he was a student in Blackburn Uni-

versity, a Carlinsville, Illinois. He was in his nineteenth year at tlic time of the removal of the family from Madison to Shelby county. The greater part of Penn township was then un- cultivated prairie, and the township itself, then a part of Pickaway, contained few inhabitants. Mr. Sanner lived at home till his mar- riage to Miss Lucretia R. Frazier, which took place on the 1st day of January, 1872. She was the daughter of A. B. Frazier, then a resident of Penn township.

After this event Mr. Sanner went to farming on his own account, on section 24 of Penn township. After living there three years he nioved to Bethany, Moultrie county, where in partnership with his brother-in-law, E. C. Frazier, he opened a hardware and agricultu- ral implement store. He was in business at Bethany from the fall

of 1875, to January, 1878, when he returned to Penn township, and settled on his present farm in section 22. His first wife died May 29th. 1878. His present wife, to whom he was married on the 14th of February, 1879, was formerly Miss Cornelia J. Green, a native of Licking county, Ohio. Her father, Joseph Green, was a native of the state of New Jersey; came to Pennsylvania when a boy ; and when about twenty-one to the state of Ohio, where he married as his second wife, Electy Clutter, Mrs. Sanner's mother, who was born in Pennsylvania. Her father moved to Pickaway township, Shelby county, in 1867, and died in December, 1876. Her mother died in Ohio. A view of Mr. Sanner's farm in Penn township, ap- pears on another page. He was brought up to believe in the doc- trines of the republican party, and is one of the strongest supporters to be found in Penn township-onc of the few republican localities in Shelby county. Hc cast his first vote for president, for Gen. Grant, in 1868, and has voted the republican ticket from that time to the present. He has had five interesting children, whose nanies arc as follows : Paul Simpson, Frances Estelle, Margaret Grace, Louis Ross, who died in infancy, and Lina H. The last is by his present marriage. Mr. Sanner is one of the younger farmers of Shelby county, and is known as a progressive citizen. Heis a mem- ber of the Methodist church.

ORSON SWEET.

ORSON SWEET, who has been engaged in farming in Penn town- ship since 1858, is a native of Geauga county, Ohio, and was born on the nineteenth of February, 1849. His grandfather, Lewis Sweet, lived in Connecticut, and was a soldier in the Continental army during the war of the Revolution. He afterward removed to Ohio, and was one of the first settlers of Ashtabula county. He afterward moved to Geauga county, and was the second settler in the town of Russell. Daniel W. Sweet, father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Ashtabula county, and was a smail boy when the family moved to Geauga county, where he married Phy- lena Millard. Daniel W. and Phylena Sweet were the parents of eleven children, of whom only two are now living, Orson Sweet, and a brother who resides in Ohio .. Orson Sweet was raised in Geauga county. His father was a carpenter and farmer, and still resides in Ohio. He obtained his education in the common schools. On the seventeenth of July, 1858, he married Ervilla Pelton, daugh- ter of Gustavus S. and Lydia (Bailey) Pelton, who was born in Geauga county, Olio, on the twenty-fifth of January, 1841. Her father was born in the town of Gustavus, Trumbull county, Ohio, and afterward settled in Geauga county, where he is still living. After his marriage Mr. Sweet was employed on a farm and in a box factory at Russell, Ohio. He had from boyhood been eni- ployed in some kind of a mechanical occupation. Thinking that they could better their circumstances by coming west, Mr and Mrs. Sweet settled in Penn township, Shelby county, arriving on the fifteenth of October, 1868 In 1872 he purchased the farm he now owns, consisting of one hundred and sixty acres, and situated in section thirty-three, township fourteen, range three, east. They have had one child, Sallie Iona, now the wife of Jacob L. Fryar, who is farming in Penn township.

In his political opinions he has always been a republican. His first vote for President was cast for Abraham Lincoln in 1864, and he has been a strong supporter of the republican party from that tinie to the present. He is connected with the Methodist Church. He is one of the best class of citizens of Penn township, and has served six years as commissioner. He is well qualified as a me- chanic, is apt at handling tools, and the buildings on his farm have been constructed in a great part by himself.

RESIDENCE & STOCK FARM OF DAVID G. SANNER, SEC. 23, T.14, R.3, (PENN TP.) SHELBY CO.IL.

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HISTORY OF SHELBY AND MOULTRIE COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.

261

David & Sanner

DAVID G. SANNER, one of the representative farmers and large land owners of Penn township, is a native of Illinois, and a worthy son of the state on whose soil he has always lived. 'He was born in Madison county, on the sixteenth of May, 1842. His father, Samuel Sanner, was a native of Northumberland county, Pennsyl- vania, and his mother, Barbara Paul, of Preston county, West Vir- ginia. The family emigrated from Pennsylvania to Illinois in the year 1833, and settled in Madison county, nine miles north of Ed- wardsville. Elsewhere will be found a biographical sketch of Mr. Sanner's father, who came to this state possessed of but little means, and who by his industry, energy, and superior business manage- ment, accumulated a competence. He became a resident of Penn township in 1866, and died in the spring of 1880, leaving behind him a good name as an honest man and a useful citizen.

The subject of this sketch was the eighth of a family of twelve children. His early boyhood days were spent in the same neighbor- hood in Madison county, where his father settled on coming to this state. His educational advantages were confined to the common schools. Good schools had been established in Madison county, which afforded ample opportunities for instruction in the fundamental branches. As was the custom he worked on the farm in summer, and in the winter time when farm work was slack and the days short, was a student in the old country school-house, where he mas- tered the mysteries of reading, writing, and arithmetic-the three particular branches with which it was considered every man should be thoroughly familiar. Mr. Sanner gained a good business educa- tion. His father was a man who was a firm believer in the doctrine of raising children to habits of industry, and consequently in early

boyhood he learned what it was to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. It may be said, to Mr. Sanner's credit, that this was a lesson he has never forgotten, and that he bears to this day the rep- utation of an active and constant worker, and an energetic and in- dustrious man.

He was living at home during the war of the rebellion. He started to enlist during the first part of the war, but from some cir- cumstance remained at home till the fall of 1864, when he enlisted in Co. A, of the One Hundred and Forty-Fourth Regiment, Illinois Infantry. His company was commanded by Capt. George W. Carr. He enlisted on the third day of September, 1864. He was mustered in at Alton. He had supposed that the regiment would be employed on active service in the field, but it was retained instead at Alton to perform garrison duty, though part of the regi- ment was sent meanwhile to Missouri. He enlisted as private, but was afterwards detailed for service in the regimental band. He was stationed at Alton during the winter of 1864-5. The succeed- ing spring brought the war to a close, and on the fourteenth of July, 1865, he was mustered out and honorably discharged at Springfield, and returned to the farm. The next year, the spring of 1866, the family mnoved from Madison to Shelby county, and settled in Penn township. Mr. Sanner was living with his father on section twenty-one till his marriage, which took place on the twenty-eighth of April, 1870, to Miss Mary E. Frceland, then a resident of Milam township, Macon county, daughter of David J. Freeland. Her father was born in North Carolina, left that state when a boy of fifteen, and came to Moultrie county, Illinois. He was engaged in farming in Coles and Moultrie counties, and then

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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 69

Author: Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia : Brink, McDonough & Co. Number of Pages: 458

Author:
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : Brink, McDonough & Co.
Number of Pages: 458