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 49
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 49
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than the prairie, they decided to make St. Charles their home, and sending for their household effects, commenced keeping house in the block opposite the old Mansion House. From this date to April, 1851, the young man worked at various vocations, farming, wood-chopping, rafting logs on the river and coopering, which latter trade lie learned of A. C. McCall in the basement of the dwelling now occupied by Mr. Cooley on West Indiana Street, in the winter of 1848-49. In April, 1851, he entered the general store of James T. Durant, in St. Charles, as clerk. Mr. Durant was then post- master, and the young man kept the books of both store and postoffice.
August 7, 1853, he married Lucy C., daughter of Thomas Matteson. She was born in Ellisburg, Jefferson Co., N. Y., May 18, 1838. In 1854 he erected the front part of the dwelling now occupied by his family. In this house all his children were born. He continued in the store of J. T. Durant until August, 1855, when, in consequence of ill health, he withdrew from the business, and visited Minnesota, hoping to regain his health; but in September and October, following, he passed through a severe attack of dysentery, from which he did not fully recover for several years. In July, 1856, with his wife and child, he visited Minnesota a second time, and remained a number of months, returning to St. Charles in October. Angust 14, 1862, he enlisted as a private soldier in Company E, One Hundred and Twenty-seventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and was appointed second sergeant of the company, in Camp Doug- las. The regiment left Chicago on the 9th of November, following, and proceeded to Memphis, Tenn., where it went into camp for a short time. On the 26th of the same month, the command left Memphis with the expedition under Gen. W. T. Sherman, which went in pursuit of the Confeder- ate Gen. Price, going as far as Bowles' Mills near Holly Springs, Miss. In December the reg- iment accompanied Gen. Sherman's army down the Mississippi, and was present at the attack upon the northern defenses of Vicksburg, the latter part of the month. It also took part in the cap- ture of Arkansas Post, January 10 and 11, 1863. About Christmas, 1862, Mr. Durant was detailed as
clerk at regimental headquarters, but not liking the position, about January 10, returned to his com- pany. On the same day he was detailed as act- ing quartermaster-sergeant, receiving the regular appointment in July, following, from Lieut. - Col. Frank S. Curtiss, who had succeeded to the com- mand of the regiment. The One Hundred and Twenty-seventh Regiment was desperately engaged in the assault on Vicksburg, May 19, 1863, and performed its full share of duty during the long siege which followed. August 11, 1863, Sergt. Durant was granted a furlough, and visited his home, where he remained prostrated with sickness until November 3, following, when he started to rejoin his regiment, going by way of Cairo, by boat, on the Ohio River to Louisville, Ky., and thence by rail to Stevenson, Ala., where he found the regiment, November 17, 1863. Sep- tember 9, 1863, he was commissioned first lieuten- ant and regimental quartermaster, by Gov. Rich- ard Yates of Illinois, to take rank from July 11, 1863. He was mustered November 18, 1863, and from that date to June 5, 1865, performed the duties of quartermaster of his regiment, ac- companying it throughout the famous Atlanta cam- paign, of 1864, and in the great march to the sea, and thence through the Carolinas and Virginia to Washington, D. C ..
Returning home in June, 1865, he bought back his old home, which he had sold in 1862, and in 1867-68-69 was engaged in the insurance bus- iness as local agent for a number of companies, and as special traveling agent for the Ætna com- pany for Northern Illinois. In the spring of 1871, he was for several months engaged as local editor of the St. Charles Transcript, established by S. L. Taylor. During this period he wrote a brief history of St. Charles. In August of the same year he entered the service of Maj. Louis H. Everts, of Philadelphia, as surveyor and compiler of maps for county atlases, continuing about eight- een months, during which time he worked in Kane, Lee, Ogle and McHenry Counties, Ill., and in Rock and Walworth Counties, Wis. In the spring of 1873 he formed a copartnership with O. L. Baskin, and mapped Carroll, Noble and La Grange Counties, in Indiana, and Williams and
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Lucas Counties, in Ohio. In 1875-76 he had charge of the work of compiling a State atlas of Indiana, which was delivered in the spring of 1876.
In March, 1876, Mr. Durant again engaged in the service of Maj. Everts, taking charge of county history work, commencing at Pittsburgh, Alle- gheny Co., Penn., and continuing through Mer- cer and Lawrence Counties in the same State; Oakland, Kalamazoo, Ingham and Eaton Coun- ties, Mich .; Jefferson, St. Lawrence and Oneida Counties, N. Y., and Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin Counties, Mass. He returned home in December, 1880, and in May, 1881, established the Valley Chronicle in St. Charles, which he still continues. In May, 1883, at the earnest solicitation of Capt. A. T. Andreas, he proceeded to Yankton, Dak., and took charge of the work of compiling a historical atlas of that Terri- tory. In the preliminary work he copied from the surveyor-general's records at Yankton and Huron 1,400 township maps for use in the work. He visited the Black Hills, and gathered sta- tistics of its mining and other industries, and wrote a full history of the region, including a care- fully prepared chapter on the geology of the hills, and also compiled the general history of the whole Territory, and much of the local history. During his absence in Dakota his eldest son, P. A. Durant, had charge of the Valley Chronicle. Upon the completion of the Dakota work he returned to St. Charles, and resumed the management of his paper, in which he has published a history of the One Hundred and Twenty-seventh Illinois Infan- try. Since he became a resident of St. Charles he has at various times held the offices of township and city clerk, and also adjutant of the local Grand Army Post. Mr. Durant in his younger days enjoyed no higher privileges of acquiring an education than those afforded by the common dis- trict schools of his native State. His mother, who was a fine English scholar, was also a teacher both before and after her marriage, and the son had the advantage of her experience and knowledge. He was always a close student of history, and never let pass an opportunity to gratify his taste in this direc- tion. Whatever of excellence his literary produc-
tions may possess, he feels is due primarily to his mother's teaching, and his later pursuits of tastes and habits implanted and cherished as a natural consequence of such teachings.
Mr. Durant has a family of six children: Pliny A., for several years engaged with his father in literary pursuits, now of Aurora, Ill .; Samuel W., Jr., connected with him in the newspaper business, and city marshal of St. Charles; Clara M., now Mrs. W. S. Alverson, and Alice C., Harvey L. and James B., living at home.
A NSON WILSON ROOT takes prominent rank among the leading influential business men of Elgin. He is senior partner of the firm of Root & Heidman, proprietors of the Stone mills. He was born in Middlebury Township, Genesee Co., N. Y., December 20, 1823, and is a son of Dr. Anson Root, whose ancestors were early settlers in New Hampshire. Ephraim Root, the father of Dr. Anson Root, was a soldier and officer in the Continental army in the war for In- dependence. Dr. Anson Root was a surgeon in the army and in the War of 1812. He married Lu- cinda Wilson, a native of Vermont, who with her father came west in 1838. Dr. Root died in 1866, after a long and useful life, venerable in years and full of honor. In 1845 he built the first grist- mill in Elgin on the site now occupied by the stone mills. After his death Anson W. took charge of the mills, where he is engaged at this time.
He grew to manhood in his father's Elgin home, and in 1847 went to Beloit, Wis., where he resided the following twenty years, and grew to be one of the leading business men of the place. He was president of the board of aldermen of Beloit, was alderman nine years, sheriff of the county, and served a long time on the board of education. He filled very acceptably a number of other minor positions; was assessor eight years. Closing out his business in Beloit, he returned to Elgin, where he has since made his permanent home, and has added by his care and forethought to the great progress of the town and vicinity.
Anson Wilson Root and Elizabeth Hines were married in Washtenaw County, Mich. She sur-
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vived but a short time, dying in 1856, and was buried in Beloit Cemetery. Of this marriage was one son, William Anson Root, a resident of Beloit. Mr. Root next married Harriet B. Parmelee, by whom were two daughters: Ida L., who became the wife of R. E. Linkfield, on the staff of the Minneapolis Tribune, and Alice (wife of F. E. Wolcott, private secretary to the president of the land department of the Chicago & North-Western Railroad. Mrs. Root is a member of the Baptist Church. Mr. Root has served Elgin on the board of supervisors, and on the board of education. He is a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity, and of the I. O. O. F.
H ARLOW HOOKER, a highly respected citizen of Kane County, is a native of Can- ada, born in what is now the Province of Quebec, April 11, 1818. He is the fifth in a family of twelve children (eleven of whom lived to be men and women, and one died in infancy) born to Gustavus A. and Permelia (McArthur) Hooker, natives of Massachusetts and Vermont, respectively. The ancestors were of English and Scotch descent. The parents of Harlow moved into Canada in an early day, where they were married in St. Andrews, and lived on the farm that he took up when a young man, until their deaths. Gustavus A. Hooker was a paper manu- facturer by trade, and for several years he engaged in that occupation in Canada, at St. Andrews.
Harlow Hooker came to Illinois in 1839, and in October he located on his present farm in Section 16, St. Charles Township, on which he has a pleas- ant home. Politically he is a Republican- Pro- hibitionist. He has held various offices, among others having served as member of the school board for thirteen consecutive years. In 1846, at St. Charles, Ill., he was united in marriage with Miss Sybil M. Balch, of Vermont, born at Athens, Wind- ham Co., November 22, 1819. Her parents, Nathaniel and Sarah (Bennett) Balch, also natives of Windham County, Vt., resided in their native place on a farm given the former by his parents, until after the birth of their twelve children (eleven of whom married, and one died in childhood),
when they came west in 1851, locating in Kalama- zoo, Mich, where they made their homes during the remainder of their lives, Mr. Balch dying in his seventy-eighth year, and Mrs. Balch in her ninety- sixth year. Mrs. Hooker, the eighth born in the family, comes of Welsh and English ancestry, her maternal grandfather served as a soldier in the Revolutionary War. Mr. Hooker's ancestors can be traced back to the landing of the ship "Mayflower;" his grandfather also was of Revolu- tionary fame, having served as drummer boy at the battle of Bunker Hill.
Mr. and Mrs. Hooker's children were Adelbert H., born October 4, 1847, died August 26, 1860; Adolphus N., born February 22, 1849, married Emily Parker, November 5, 1873 (he is in South Chicago, in the employ of Brice & Co., lumber dealers); Celon I., born May 7, 1853, married Jennie M. Pickering January 21, 1880, and in 1887 moved to Kansas (he is a farmer by occupa- tion); Emmarilla A., born November 23, 1854, married October 10, 1877, to Robert Stewart, a miller, of St. Charles; Lydia A., born August 21, 1857, married I. S. Kingsbury, October 10, 1877, a farmer, of St. Charles. Mr. and Mrs. Hooker are connected with the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he serves as trustee. Mrs. Hooker is a Christian lady, and is a member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the Ladies' Foreign Missionary Society and the Ladies' Aid Society.
P ETER VAN NOSTRAND, a native of New Jersey, was born in Somerville, Somerset County, June 7, 1813. He is one of the old settlers of Kane County, and now re- sides in his pleasant farm home, within the city limits of Elgin, retired from a long and useful life as one of the business men of the county, both as a merchant and as a farmer. In social circles this family is much honored, and in church and religious work, generally, Mr. and Mrs. Van Nostrand are among the most useful.
Mr. Van Nostrand is the son of Isaac and Anna (Hoff) Van Nostrand. The Hoffs and Van Nos- trands were old families in America, and were descended from a line of ancestors noted for their
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Peter Van Nostrand
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resolute devotion to the spiritual liberty and per- sonal rights of men, both in the New World and in remote ages in the Old World; on the paternal side of Dutch extraction, and on the maternal side of French-English descent; a long and sturdy race of people of eminent respectability in the walks of life. One of the annts of Mr. Van Nostrand, on the father's side, a few years ago celebrated by a great family reunion her hundredth birthday at Clinton, Wis.
Of the children of Isaac Van Nostrand there are now surviving only the subject of this memorial sketch and his sister, Catharine, who married Ezra Mathewson, and is residing in Birming- ham, Mich. His mother, Mrs. Anna Van Nostrand, died in Elgin, at the home of her son, in the year 1853. The father died in 1837, in Seneca County, N. Y. The family removed to New York when Peter was thirteen years of age, and settled on a farm, and, after the father's death, he, being the eldest of the children at home, was called upon to assume the place of responsible head of the younger members of the large family. Six years (1843) after his father's death he removed with his mother's family to Illinois. After reaching the State he spent some time in traveling over the northern and central portions of it in search of the most eligible point for a future home. He fixed upon Kane County, and purchased the land on which he now resides, never supposing then that it would be in time a part of the corporate limits of the city of Elgin. He did not at once make his home on the land he purchased, but located at Udina, where he remained for nearly six years. He then removed , to the village of Elgin, and here for about twenty- five years carried on merchandising. Under his care and protection the younger members of the family were reared and educated, receiving the best advantages the country at that time afforded. He soon became one of the prosperous merchants of Elgin. He has been a supporter and member of the Congregational Church from the time the society met in a room where there were neither pews nor pulpit to the present, with its large and fash- ionable congregation and fine church edifice. After a long and prosperous career in Elgin Mr. Van Nostrand sold out his business, and was about
one year engaged in settling up the affairs of his commercial labors, when he removed to his farm, already mentioned. During all his years of com- mercial life he carried on his farm, and was suc- cessful with it.
Peter Van Nostrand and Elizabeth Wallin were married in Elgin, April 18, 1856. She is the daughter of Dr. C. C. Wallin, at that time of Chicago, now of New York. Her mother was Dorothy Strongetharm. [As learned by a very old letter discovered a few years ago, the name orig- inally was Strong-in-arm.] Dr. Wallin was a leading physician of Berrien County, Mich., four- teen years, and eventually retiring from the practice moved to Chicago, where the firm of C. C. Wallin & Sons founded the mercantile and manufacturing house that is still in existence, one of the prominent institutions of that city. Mrs. Dr. Wallin was daugh- ter of Thomas and Maria (Hollis) Strongetharm.
Mrs. Peter Van Nostrand was born in Otsego County, N. Y., April 4, 1834. When she was two years of age her father, Dr. Wallin, removed to Berrien County, Mich., where she passed the days of her infancy and young womanhood. In her father's family were five children, all living, as follows: Thomas Strongetharm, in Chicago, a member of the mercantile house founded by his father; Franklin B., also of the same firm, with residence in Grand Rapids, Mich .; Alfred, a law- yer, in Fargo, Dak., and Charles Edwin, in Salt Lake City. Mrs. Van Nostrand is the only daughter.
To Mr. and Mrs. Van Nostrand have been born three sons and three daughters, in the order fol- lowing: Charles, born May 25, 1857, mar- ried, and a resident of Chicago, engaged in mer- chandising; Grace, born April 19, 1859, married Charles Blish, whose parental home is in Delaware County, N. Y .; Franklin, born August 30, 1861; Julia, born February 15, 1864; William, born March 1, 1866, in Chicago, with his uncle, and Lois, born September 2, 1875. Franklin, who is engaged in putting np electric towers, and Julia and Lois are at home with their parents, in their comfortable home, on St. Charles street, Elgin. Mr. Van Nostrand, for one of his years, retains to a remarkable degree his mental and physical fac- ulties unimpaired. Always of robust health and
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vigorous constitution, he is strong, active and cheery, enjoying life and his well-merited promi- nence in the community, surrounded by his affec- tionate family and a circle of sincere friends and acquaintances. Among those with whom he has lived and carried on all the time numerous and important business transactions, now for a longer period of time than is a generation, he is best known; and by those who know him best he is held in highest esteem. As a son, brother, husband and father his domestic life is to be judged; and in this, the highest duties in life that can come to the young man starting in the race of existence, he surely is entitled to the high seat of honor. In person he is strongly built, about five feet ten inches in height, with dark hair and dark blue eyes.
OHN W. WILCOX was born in Colebrook, Litchfield Co., Conn., April 2, 1811. When he was thirteen years of age his parents, John and Anna (Kellogg) Wilcox, removed to Broome County, N. Y., where the father died aged sixty-seven years, and was followed by the mother some years later. Mr. Wilcox experienced in his young life all the privations of the pioneers of New York State, it being comparatively a wilderness where his family settled. He obtained his education studying by the aid of the light from a burning pine knot. November 22, 1835, he married Miss Sallie E. Stowell, born in New York, May 24, 1810. Four children were born to them: Vernon O., November 7, 1836; Allen R., April 21, 1839; Mary, January 31, 1841, and Emma, January 21, 1849.
In 1850 the family came to Illinois, and the following year they purchased a farm in Section 17, Plato Township, on which they settled. De- cember 29, 1865, Mrs. Wilcox passed from earth, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. June 4, 1867, Mr. Wilcox married Mrs. Mary (Mc- Taggart) Marble, a native of Scotland, born in June, 1829. Her parents, Robert and Jeanette (Murchy) McTaggart, when she was a child, came to America and settled in Canada, where, when she was but seven years of age, she was left an orphan. She was adopted by a family named Hen-
derson, and lived with them in Toronto. In 1850 she married William Marble, by whom she was the mother of two children, both of whom died dur- ing their infancy. Mr. Marble's death occurred in Plato Township in 1855. In 1883 Mr. and Mrs." Wilcox came to St. Charles Township, and settled on their present farm of 142 acres of well- improved land located on Sections 7 and 8. They are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which Mr. Wilcox is steward. He is a Republican, and has held various positions of trust and honor, among them commissioner of highways, assessor, and member of the board of public schools.
F RANK H. REESE, senior member of the well known Dundee firm of Reese & Lemke, dealers in dry goods, groceries, hats, caps, etc., and one of the rising young business men of the place, was born in Cook County, Ill., February 22, 1863. His ancestors were of German descent, his grandparents coming to America about forty years ago, making a home in Cook County. The paternal grandmother now resides in that county, aged eighty-nine years. Conrad Reese, the father of Frank H., was a shoemaker, which trade for a number of years he followed, and then established himself in the Spring Mills, at Dundee, where he re- mained until 1870, when, having received an in- jury, from which he never fully recovered, he had to withdraw from labor. In 1871 he passed away from earth, the direct cause of his death being brain fever. He was a member of the Lutheran Church. The mother, Sophia (Stein- wart) Reese, remarried in 1875, and this husband died in 1877. She now lives in Dundee. By her first husband she had eight children: Carrie, Louis, Frank H., Henry, Sophia, Henry 2d, August and Emma, all now deceased except Frank H .; and by her second husband she has one child-Louise.
Frank H. Reese was but a lad when he began life's battle for himself. For one year he labored in the woolen factory at Dundee, and then for eighteen months was clerk for C. F. Hall. Later, he spent some time in the store of Norton & Batt.
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In 1883 he formed a partnership with L. J. Schroeder, and so continued until 1886, when the partnership was dissolved. A few months later, August 9, 1886, he associated with him as partner his brother-in-law, H. C. Lemke. The firm are progressive business men, and merit well the promising success of their enterprise. In the fall of 1887 they built and finished a new two story brick store, 20x110 feet, with plate glass front, into which they moved December 1, 1887, and now have one of the finest stores in town.
In 1884 Mr. Reese was married to Carrie Lemke, who became the mother of one child, which died in infancy. They are members of the Lutheran Church, and are accounted among the best people in the vicinity.
P LINY A. DURANT, son of Samuel W. and Lucy C. (Matteson) Durant, was born at St. Charles, Kane County, Ill., May 21, 1854. His ancestry was originally from New England, on the sides of both his parents, although his grandfather, Thomas Matteson, was for many years a resident of the State of New York. Samuel W. Durant came to Illinois from Spring- field, Vt., and settled in St. Charles, in October, 1845. In 1853 he married Lucy C. Matteson, a native of Jefferson County, N. Y., who had come to the Fox River Valley with her parents, in 1842. Her father, Thomas Matteson, died at Grinnell, Iowa, in 1873, aged eighty-five years. Pliny A. Durant is the eldest in a family of six children. Until he was seventeen years old he attended the west division public schools at St. Charles, having in the winter of 1870-71 taught in the "Thatcher schoolhouse " in Virgil Township, also a portion of the following winter in the Sholes district, in Burlington. For three months in the spring and summer of 1872 he was engaged as clerk in the mammoth store of Hannah, Lay & Co., at Trav- erse City, Mich. In the fall of the same year he entered the office of the St. Charles Transcript, published by Tyrrell & Archer, remaining with them until the following spring, when he entered upon a career of map making and historical work, which was continued until October, 1880. At that
time, having become personally acquainted with Hon. W. S. George, managing proprietor of the State Printing Office, at Lansing, Mich., and pub- lisher of the Lansing Republican, he secured a position as principal proof reader in that establish- ment. May 27, 1881, he severed his connection with the Lansing institution in order to return to St. Charles and assist his father in the publication of The Valley Chronicle, just established. It is a source of great pleasure to him to know that Mr. George, who was one of the ablest newspaper men in the country, and is now deceased, parted with him regretfully, and with the most earnest wishes for his success in the new venture. After nearly a year of home newspaper work Mr. Durant en- gaged with W. H. Beers & Co., of Chicago, in the compilation of historical publications in Ohio, re- turning to the paper in the spring of 1883. For most of the time until early in July, 1885, he had full charge of the Chronicle, but at the latter date began an engagement of several months with War- ner, Beers & Co., publishers, resigning it in the latter part of November to accept a position on the staff of the Aurora Beacon, having previously re- moved from St. Charles to Aurora. He was con- nected with that widely known paper until April 2, 1887. when he assumed charge of the historical work for Kane County, appearing in this volume. He entered the employ of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, at Chicago, December 3, 1887.
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