Commemorative portrait and biographical record of Kane and Kendall Counties, Ill. : containing full page portraits and biographicalsketches of prominent and representative citizens of Kane and Kendall Counties, together with portraits and biographies of the presidents of the United States, Part 101

Author:
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Beers, Leggett & Co.
Number of Pages: 1040

USA > Illinois > Kane County > Commemorative portrait and biographical record of Kane and Kendall Counties, Ill. : containing full page portraits and biographicalsketches of prominent and representative citizens of Kane and Kendall Counties, together with portraits and biographies of the presidents of the United States > Part 101
USA > Illinois > Kendall County > Commemorative portrait and biographical record of Kane and Kendall Counties, Ill. : containing full page portraits and biographicalsketches of prominent and representative citizens of Kane and Kendall Counties, together with portraits and biographies of the presidents of the United States > Part 101

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

E. S. Holland was born March 31, 1834, in Etne Prestegjeld, Bergens Stift, Norway, and came to this country, with his parents, in 1846. They located in Walworth County, Wis., but at the age of twenty our subject moved to Green County and located on Section 4, in the town of York. October 4, 1855, he married Johana Doro- thea Chantland (now deceased), who came to this country with her widowed mother in 1854. Mrs. Holland was one of a family of seven sisters and one brother, Lieut. I. W. Chantland, residing in Moscow, Iowa Co., Wis. Four of her sisters are in this country: Mrs. Stina Chantland, in Webster County, Iowa (she had five sons and two daughters; the eldest son, Peter, was lieutenant of Company E, Fifteenth Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers, is now sheriff of Webster County, Iowa, and has been for many years; Thomas and Andrew are farmers in Webster County; John and William are merchants in Mayville, Dak.); Mrs. Juditha Even- son, in Story County, Iowa; Mrs. Lena Kjerkhus,

in Iowa County, Wis. ; Mrs. Marie Weltzin, in Dane County, Wis .; one sister lives in Norway, Mrs. Susan Nassa. (All average eight children each.) The youngest sister, Dorothea, died in infancy. The brother has been married twice, but has no children. Mr. and Mrs. E. S. Holland lived on their farm in Green County, Wis., until December, 1866, when they moved to Kendall County, Ill., took a trip to Norway in May, 1873, and returned in September of the same year. Mrs. Holland died June 18, 1884, leaving a girl that she took when a little over a year old, who lost her mother. Her name is Sara Dorthina, and is now nineteen years old. She clung to Mr. and Mrs. Holland with a daughter's love, and refused to know any- one else as her parents. She still resides with Mr. Holland and bears his name. September 1, 1885, Mr. Holland married, for his second wife, Miss Christina Pedersen, born December 25, 1848, in Skien, Norway. She lost her mother, Margrethe Pedersen, when twelve years old. Mrs. Holland's father died in 1870, and in 1872 she immigrated to America, leaving a brother and sister in Norway. The sister came to this country in 1885, and re- sides in Chicago. Mrs. Holland lived three years in Milwaukee; then moved to Chicago, where she resided until her marriage with Mr. Holland. This marriage has been blessed with one child, Sigurd Randolph Marthinius, who was born Au- gust 29, 1887. Mr. Holland's father, Syver O. Holland, was born in September, 1799, and his mother, Mette (Tvedten), in August, 1804. His paternal grandparents were Ole and Madlin Hol- land, and his maternal grandparents were Amund and Ragnhilda Tvedten.

Mr. Syver O. Holland immigrated to America about the 15th of May, 1846, coming over on the sail- ing ship "Kong Sverre," of Bergen, Capt. Fisker, and landed in New York, after a voyage of forty- six days, bringing with him his family, consisting of wife, eight sons and one daughter. He located in La Grange, Walworth Co., Wis., where lie bought eighty acres of land, built a log-house, and died September of the same year. There the family lived together about seven years, when they began to spread, moving west to the counties of Dane, Green and Iowa, Wis. The eldest son, Ole

E. D. Holland

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Holland, was born December 2, 1829, and with his wife, Ingeborg, located in Primrose, Wis .; moved, in 1882, to Madison, Wis., where he died in January, 1885. He left a widow and five chil- dren, two children having died previously. The next eldest son, Edmund, born December 19, 1832, located in Primrose also, where he yet resides; he married Ingeborg Nelson, and had nine children, eight now living. C. S. Holland, born March 11, 1836, located in Perry, Dane Co., Wis., married Julia Hermondsen, and had ten children, six liv- ing. Syver Holland, born February 13, 1839, located in Primrose, Wis., married Martha Hal- vorsen, moved to Moscow, Iowa Co., Wis., where he joined the Holland brothers, who carried on a mercantile business in that place, and died there May 18, 1884; they had seven children, four now living. Bjorn Holland, born July 5, 1841, taught school, at Chicago, from 1862 to 1873; moved to Moscow, Wis., and joined the firm there, of which he was a member; is living at present on a farm that he owns in the town of Moscow, and carries on a mercantile business in Adamsville, Wis., under the firm name of Holland Bros. & Camp- bell; he married Gunhild Kjerkhus, and they had eight children, five living. Haldor Holland, born August 20, 1843, after serving three years in the army during the years 1862, 1863 and 1864, mar- ried Sophie Fjeld. became a member of the firm of Holland Bros., died in March, 1869, on a visit to relatives in Kendall County, Ill., from consump- tion, contracted in the army; his corpse was taken to Moscow, and there buried in the Norwegian cemetery, in the town of York, Green Co., Wis .; he left a widow and two children -- a son and a daughter, residing at present at Mount Horeb, Wis. Malachias Holland, born March 2, 1846, died the same year in Walworth County, Wis., aged six months. Rachel Holland, born March 28, 1831, married Rev. P. A. Rasmussen, of Lis- bon, Ill., May 6, 1855; Rev. Rasmussen was born January 9, 1829, in Stavanger, Norway, ordained on Palm Sunday, in 1854, by Dr. W. Sihler, at Fort Wayne, Ind., and has remained the pastor of the Norwegian Lutheran congregation, of Lis- bon, Ill., ever since; they had nine children, six now living: the eldest son, Rev. Gerhard Rasmus-

sen, residing in Rock County, Wis., married Miss Fanny Lehmann, daughter of Prof. W. F. Leh- mann, of Capital University, Columbus, Ohio; the second son, Olaus, a theological student, died May 5, 1885, at the age of twenty-five years; William and Henry, the other sons, are studying theology at Northfield, Minn. ; William married Inger Peter- son, of Lisbon Township, and they have one child, Rudolph Olaf; the eldest daughter, Mattie, mar- ried Rev. A. L. Huus, and resides near Water- ford, Wis .; Mathilde and the younger brother, Hal- bert, are yet with their parents; Lena Marie and Randolph died in 1887, former aged seventeen years, latter eleven.

Mrs. Syver O. Holland married Rasmus Jacob- sen, in 1848; moved to Primrose, Wis., in 1853, and to Lisbon, Ill., in 1873; had two children, Anna and Ingeborg; Anna married Ole K. Seim, in 1870, and died October 3, 1873, leaving two children, Carrie and Mattie; Ingeborg married Thor Hatteberg, and has six children, one son and five daughters. Mr. and Mrs. Jacobsen settled in the spring of 1879, at Lisbon, Ill.

OHN WILKINSON, who during his life was one of the most worthy farmers of Lisbon Township, was a native of Yorkshire, Eng- land, born December 18, 1816, and a son of Robert Wilkinson. He emigrated from his native land in 1850, located at Sturgis, Mich., remained there for about three years engaged in farming, and in 1854 removed to Kendall County, the pre- vious year purchasing the west half of the south- west quarter of Section 9, Lisbon Township, at a cost of $6 per acre. It was wild prairie land, with no improvements of any kind. He soon built a house, 16x22, into which he moved with his family, and this was always his home. The same summer he purchased eighty acres adjoining, at $9 per acre, and subsequently bought one hundred and sixty acres joining his first purchase on the east, paying $30 an acre for it. The last purchase made the homestead consist of 320 acres, which was never again enlarged, although he subsequently bought, in 1868, 120 acres on Section 12. He died at the homestead July 20, 1872; his wife died December

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7, 1882. He was married in March, 1839, to Mary Gargrave, by whom there were nine children, eight of whom lived to mature years, named as follows: George died on the homestead in young manhood, in 1864; James, Sarah A. and Mary J. reside on the old homestead farm, in Lisbon Township; John is a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and now resides at Salina, Kas., and was for many years a member of the Central Illinois Con- ference; Robert lives at Sheldon, Iroquois Co., Ill. ; William E. is a Methodist minister, a member of the Rock River Conference, and resides at Utica, Ill .; Melissa died on the homestead in 1879. The parents of the above named family were de- vout members of the Methodist Church from their youth, were among the founders of the first church societies in Lisbon Township, and during life took an active and earnest part in promoting the cause of religion. Mrs. Wilkinson was also a na- tive of England, born at Bulmer, September 28, 1814. James, William E. and Mary J. own the homestead which still consists of 320 acres, also retaining in the family the 120 acres on Section 12.

OHN MOORE. Of the prominent men of Kendall County, and of its early settlers and worthy and substantial citizens, is John Moore, who is the eldest and only male representative of his father's family living. He was born August 27, 1810, in the town of Vernon, Oneida Co., N. Y., and came west with his parents, Horace and Martha (Cody) Moore, arriv- ing November 8, 1835. The family consisted of seven persons. Horace Moore was born in Con- necticut about 1788, and was a son of James Moore, who had, by his wife, Esther, a family of nine children: Horace, Jarvis, James, Lucinda, Schuyler, Elizur, Esther, Martha and Warren. Those who came to Kendall County were Horace, Jarvis, Elizur, Martha and Warren, who settled in this county, but at a later date than Horace. All of the above settled within the boundaries of what is now Lisbon Township, and raised families, except Elizur; but some of them subsequently removed, Jarvis and Horace being the only ones who re- mained until their decease; Martha still lives

there. Martha Cody Moore, the mother of our subject, was a daughter of John Cody, of the New England States, who, when a young man, removed west to Oneida County, N. Y., then a wilderness, and there reared a family of whom Martha was one. Horace Moore started west when a young man with a companion. They shouldered their axes, and with knapsacks strapped on their backs walked out to Oneida County, N. Y., and com- menced clearing land for their livelihood. There he married his wife, Martha, and locating there engaged in farming. He reared a family and con- tinued there until he came to this country. He first came out in June, 1835, made his choice between the two rivers and staked out his claim (which place has since been incorporated within the bounds of Lisbon Township). He returned to New York, brought out his family that fall, and located on Sections 30 and 31, the land compris- ing over 800 acres. He here engaged in farming until his sudden death, in 1843, of inflammation of the bowels. He was a man of robust frame, of strong constitution, and had always enjoyed excellent health; he was highly respected, was a Whig, but gave little heed to political affairs. His widow survived him six years. John, the subject of this biography, was reared to farming pursuits, receiving common-school advantages, and remained with his parents until the time of his marriage. He and his brother, Horace, worked with their father until the land was fenced and substantial improvements were made, when the father gave each a quarter section of land, John having his on the northwest quarter of Section 31. John was first married to Sarah Tuttle, who died within two years after, leaving no issue. His second marriage was with Harriet M. Cody, of Westmoreland, Oneida Co., N. Y., a daughter of George C. Cody. They have had two children, named Eloise, who died aged five years, and John, who married Jennie L. Park, and now resides at the homestead. After the death of his father, Mr. Moore settled on the place he now occupies in the town of Lisbon, on land that fell to him from his share of his father's estate, and has since been a constant resident here. He and his brother first worked together, and shortly after they purchased

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a yoke of oxen, and with his father's two yoke they put the teams together and broke their ground. They also assisted their father in his work, and there never was a harvest but that they helped him through.

Mr. Moore hauled the first rails from Big Grove that came on the prairie, and dug the first post hole within several miles of this place. In hauling his timber from the grove he had to set rails on end, on the prairie, to work his passage across through the high grass. Several years later, Mr. Moore engaged in mercantile business at this place, first associating with Miles Hill. After several months he bought his partner's inter- est and took in his brother Horace; this partnership lasted about twenty years, they doing a large busi- ness. This was the first store in the place, and the owners at first hauled their goods from Chicago in wagons. The store has since been carried on by his son and James M. Willard. Mr. Moore is yet interested in farming, but is retired from active business. He is 'one of the large landholders of this county, and has several hundred acres in the township and in other localities.

HOMAS NADEN, a substantial farmer and representative citizen of Lisbon Town- ship. was born in Derbyshire, England, January 25, 1823. When he was quite young his parents moved from the agricultural district in which they lived to Lancashire, in the manufacturing establishments of which locality the twelve children of the family were soon em- ployed. John, the eldest son, immigrated to America, and wrote back such glowing accounts of the country that his father, Samuel Naden, and all his family, emigrated, and, after an ocean voy- age of nine weeks, arrived in Big Grove Township in 1846. Samuel Naden died October 18, 1848. aged sixty-three years. Martha Naden died No- vember 22, 1866, aged eighty years.

Thomas Naden, the subject of this sketch, served an apprenticeship of seven years at block printing in a calico factory. Having finished his apprenticeship he worked as a journeyman for about a year, during which time he accidentally

fell into a tank of boiling liquid, resulting in such serious injury, especially to one of his legs, that he was confined to his bed for nine months. Afterward, in 1868, because of injuries received at that time, which has required dressing twice a day since the accident occurred, his leg was am- putated. He came with his father's family to Big Grove Township, and worked for $12 a month, his father's family receiving the benefit of his wages until 1848. After this his earnings were devoted to his own use. In 1850 he rented the Clark Hovenhill farm, working it three years. In 1853 he moved on to the north half of the southeast quarter of Section 14, Lisbon Township, unim- proved land that he had purchased at $5 per acre, in 1851. In 1869 he purchased eighty acres ad- joining, for $40 per acre, paying for it promptly before his notes, which he had given for the same, had become due. He took the contract for carry- ing the mail from 1871 to 1875, between Yorkville and Minooka, via Plattville, at $750 per year; and, having purchased another forty acres in the north- west quarter of Section 13, he moved on to the same in the fall of 1883, where he has since re- sided. '

He was married March 25, 1851, to Mary Jane Bedford, who was born August 25, 1831, in Cheshire, England, a daughter of William and Sarah (Wood) Bedford, who emigrated and set- tled with a family of five children in Seward Town- ship, in 1849. The five children were named, Richard, now a merchant of Keokuk, Iowa; Will- iam, a justice of the peace and present supervisor of Seward Township; James, a physician in Chi- cago; Thomas, a soldier in the regular army, and, through being paralyzed, is a pensioner, living withı his mother, in Seward Township; and Mrs. Mary Jane Naden. William Bedford, the father of the above family, died August 2, 1862.

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Naden have had born to them twelve children, eleven of whom are living, named as follows: Martha E., now Mrs. Frank Manly, of Plattville; Matthew W., married to Eliza- beth H. Williamson, and living at Plattville; Sarah J. is the wife of Henry J. Willie, of Hoopeston; Thomas R. married Alice Heap, and Philip H. married Sarah Clayton, both residents of Seward

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Township; Mary H. is now Mrs. Almond Gar- graves, of Dakota; Harriet is the wife of Harry G. Day, of Lisbon Township; James S., Rebecca J., Frank E. and George C. are living with their par- ents. Lloyd A. died, aged sixteen months.

Thomas Naden, our subject, an active man in his township, bas filled the office of road commis- sioner for nine years; is the owner of 200 acres of valuable land, and is universally respected. He is independent in politics, but was originally one of the "old Free-Soil " party.

T HOMAS J. PHILLIPS is a grandson of Thomas Phillips, a soldier in the Continent- al army during the Revolution, and who settled in Northumberland County, Penn., near Sunbury. By his wife, Mary, he had the fol- lowing named children: John, James, Thomas, David, Hannah, Eleanor, Betsey and Polly. John married, raised a family, and died at Phillips' Corner, Erie Co., Penn. (he was an early settler and a prominent man there; was one of the canal commissioners; was paymaster of the army under Gen. Harrison, was a representative of his county; a life long justice of the peace, and for many years postmaster); Thomas removed to Qhio, and settled near Mansfield; David removed to Erie County, and thence to this county in 1846, and died in the town of Newark; Hannah married Nathaniel Wilson, and settled in Erie County; Eleanor married John Hunter, and settled in the same county; Betsey married Andrew Sterling, and moved to Crawford County, Penn. ; and Polly mar- ried Beryl Tracy, of Erie County. James, the father of Thomas J., was born November 12, 1768, in Northumberland County, Penn .; was a black- smith, and when a young man engaged at his trade in Lancaster, where, in 1798, he married Catherine Funk, born in 1776, a daughter of Henry and Magdalena Funk. Henry Funk was a miller, ground flour for the Continental army, and was at one time a wealthy man, but subsequently sold his mills and property for Continental money, and afterward became poor by the depreciation of that currency. He died in Pennsylvania. After his marriage James Phillips kept on at his trade,

and also conducted a tavern; he had ten children born to him, whose names, according to birth, are Betsey, John, Benjamin, Henry, Martha, Jacob, David, Ann. James D. and Thomas J. (our subject). In 1827 James Phillips with his family moved to Erie County, where his brother, John, had preceded him several years. There he re- mained until his death, which occurred in August, 1844. His wife died in Aurora, this State, in January, 1863. Our subject was born at Lancas- ter, Penn., October 28, 1818, and when eight . years of age removed with his parents to Erie County, Penn., where he remained until nineteen years of age. He then came west, to this State, in April, 1838, where he has since resided. The first year he came he worked six months in Aurora ; then went to Fox Township, where his brother, John, had taken a claim in 1836, but having a large family, and having been burned out, he offered to share his claim with our subject if he would live with him and assist him until the land came into market. John was a wagon-maker near Newark. T. J. accepted this offer and remained with his brother three years, receiving forty- five acres of land. He then began for himself, and, having fully learned the wagon-making busi- ness with his brother, rented his little farm and followed wagon-making until 1851, when he aban- doned it. Subsequently he traded his land for an- other farm in Fox Township, on Section 34, where he resided five years, and then purchased the Washburne farm, in 1869, in Mission Township, La Salle County, located thereon, and engaged in farming until the fall of 1877. At that time he came to Newark, where he has since resided; has 160 acres of land in Mission Township and town property in Newark, and is well-to-do.

February 15, 1844, he married Louisa P. Court- right, born at Wilkesbarre, Penn., January 27, 1829, a daughter of Cornelius and Harriet Bailey Courtright. Mr. and Mrs. Phillips have seven children living, viz. : Carson E., a civil engineer at Springfield, Mo .; Ida R., wife of Sylvanus Fowler, of Aurora; Leslie S., a druggist at Mount Vernon, Dak .; Thomas L., with the Plano Manufac- turing Company; Minnie J., at Somonauk, wife of J. C. Seaton, a drug clerk; Mary Louisa, wife of

This I Phillips

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KENDALL COUNTY.

Alfred Harding, a druggist at Newark; and Charles B., a printer. Mr. and Mrs. Phillips are both members of the Congregational Church. He is a stanch Republican, and has filled several offices of trust, including assessor (eleven years) and justice of the peace (eleven years), and has distinguished himself as an excellent and worthy citizen. Mrs. Phillips is a woman of intelligence and refinement, and is a correspondent for the local press.

H ON. LEWIS STEWARD. This gentleman has perhaps been more prominently identi- fied in promoting the manufacturing indus- tries and agricultural interests of Kendall County than any other one man, that has ever lived within its limits. The city of Plano may almost be said to be a child of his creation; and, were it not for his foresight and management, it would doubtless have been to-day a country cross-roads with its postoffice and one or two stores, while the present site of its great factories that furnish work for an army of men, would now be open fields, where prairie chickens with their broods might roam in quiet. He is the son of Marcus and Ursula (Hol- lister) Steward, both of whom died in Plano, for- mer in 1872, latter in 1882. The subject of this memoir was born in Wayne County, Penn., Novem- ber 20, 1824, the first of a family of nine chil- dren. When he was twenty months old he learned the alphabet at the knee of his mother, a woman of excellent education and literary culture, who, in the midst of her toiling life, read a great deal, her facile pen contributing occasionally to the pub- lications of the day. His father was a farmer, and when Lewis had reached the age of three and one- half years, he went alone the long road to the primitive schoolhouse. Thus the boy received his first lessons in life, the rural and rugged surround- ings being softened only by the tender solicitude that was always about him beneath the humble roof of his father's house.

When he was thirteen years old the family hitched up their teams and started on the long and tiresome journey to Illinois, reaching Kendall Coun- ty, in May, 1838. They made their way to the neigh- borhood of Evans' place, the first settlers in what is

Little Rock Township, on pre-empted land that is now a part of the homestead of Mr. Steward. The Stewards were in better pecuniary circumstances than the average of the first settlers of the country. They had some means besides good teams, wagons and household goods. But it was close, hard work for even the most fortunate, as they had to build everything from the foundations they themselves made. In this toil the son was soon the chief help of his parents and the younger children. He attended the winter school as soon as one was provided in the new settlement, and while the teachers in those days, in their contracts to teach, only agreed to go to the " Rule of Three," Lewis Steward, within one term, passed beyond his teacher, and in a little more than two months had gone entirely through the arithmetic. These schools were the only ones he ever attended as a scholar, but in after years, a liberal course of read- ing, combined with a retentive memory, has made him one of the best-informed men of his time. Mr. Steward is not large of stature, a little less than six feet tall, and weighing about 180 pounds; com- plexion slightly swarthy, with dark hair, and dark restless, piercing eyes; and now at sixty-three years of age he is as springy and alert in movement as a young man; and is characterized by those rapid movements that are an indication somewhat of his natural and irrepressible energy.

It is, however, much more in his mental than his physical characteristics that he is one of the men of mark of his times, and by which he will long be remembered. He has not been a politician, and yet few men have been so potent a factor in the politics of his times. The people of Illinois and of the Union came to know "Lew " Steward. He had not advertised himself; never sought office, and made no claim to oratory; never wrote a book, nor made a demand for recognition upon even his neighbors. And no private citizen of Illinois has received more marked attention than he has from all classes of eminent Americans; famous divines, distinguished literary men, and leading politicians everywhere have courted his acquaintance. In 1875 he was nominated by the Granger and Democratic State Conventions as their candidate for Governor of Illinois, and, after an exciting and close election,

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Commemorative portrait and biographical record of Kane and Kendall Counties, Ill. : containing full page portraits and biographicalsketches of prominent and representative citizens of Kane and Kendall Counties, together with portraits and biographies of the presidents of the United States, Part 101

Author: Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Beers, Leggett & Co. Number of Pages: 1040

Author:
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Beers, Leggett & Co.
Number of Pages: 1040