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 72
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 72
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ESTER TEEPLE, a son of P. C. Teeple, and recognized as one of the prosperous and enterprising farmers of Dundee Town- ship, is a native of Woodstock, Canada West (now called Province of Ontario), born in the year 1851. His life has been mostly spent in Illinois, and his early work was that of a handy boy on the farm. In 1874 he returned from a Western trip, and concluded to make Illinois his permanent place of abode. He purchased an interest in a lumber yard at Marengo, which he later sold on account of injuries he had received, and upon recovering purchased a similar yard at Huntley, in which he still holds an interest. In 1881 he sold part of his lumber yard, and removed to his present place in Dundee Township, which had formerly been occupied by his father. It is a stock and dairy farm, upon which are kept a lot of fine red polled cattle of imported breed.
In 1875 Mr. Teeple was married to Ada,
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daughter of David and Eliza (Collson) Mason. Five children have been born to them in the fol- lowing order: David, Hugh, Lynn (deceased), Kenneth and Constance. In political belief Mr. Teeple is a Prohibition-Republican, and is kindly spoken of by his neighbors and acquaintances as one who is interested in every public and private movement for the advancement of his town and county. Mrs. Teeple is a kind and loving wife and mother, and her home exhibits various evi- dences of her skill as an artist.
P. C. Teeple, his father, was born in Canada West, in the year 1809, and during his life was engaged in various occupations. While yet a young man learning the trade of a miller in his father's mill at Woodstock, C. W., at the outbreak of the Canadian Rebellion of 1837, he became a rebel officer, and served for a time in the cause, but at last had to seek refuge in the United States, set- tling, after some time, at Rockford, Ill. ; later he received from the Canadian Government a full pardon, and he returned to his native land to visit his aged parents. Thirteen years afterward he again came to Illinois, and in 1878 he departed this life at Marengo.
OHN B. MOORE is a well-known, prominent citizen of Geneva Township, and, like many in this country, he is a strong, self-made man who has won his way in life by his own ex- ertions. He was born in Clinton, Oneida Co., N. Y., July 26, 1815, his parents being Shubel and Betsey (Watson) Moore, who had emigrated from New England to New York, with their re- spective families, Miss Watson in 1793. Her father was a soldier in the Revolutionary army, shouldering his gun in defense of liberty when sixteen years of age, and was under Washington when the army evacuated New York City. He survived until 1840, when he departed this life at the age of eighty years.
John B. Moore, who was five years old when his father died, remained at home, helping, when old enough, his widowed mother, until he became seventeen years of age, at which time he com- menced to learn the carpenter's trade. In 1844
he joined the multitude of western bound home seekers to the State of Illinois, and made his first stop in Grundy County, where he bought Govern- ment land and improved a farm. In 1878 he came to Kane County, and here purchased the farm on which he has resided since. His first marriage was March 12, 1839, with Sophia Todd, a native of New York, born May 6, 1819. From this union were one son, Albert B., and one daughter, Adelaide. The son enlisted, in 1862, in the Ninety . first Regiment Illinois Infantry, was taken pris- oner by the raider, Morgan, and afterward ex- changed. Mrs. Moore died October 25, 1851, deeply mourned by her family and a wide circle of friends. She had been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church since reaching the age of thir- teen years. Mr. Moore was united in marriage, the second time, April 25, 1852, with Lucy Ster- ling, born May 31, 1831, in Michigan. Her par- ents, Samuel and Cornelia Sterling, removed to Illinois when she was four years old, and located in Geneva. This would make the date of their coming 1834, and therefore they are to be counted as among the earliest pioneers in the county. Mrs. Sterling taught the first school in Geneva. Mr. Sterling opened the well-known house of enter- tainment, the "Sterling House," which is remem- bered as being about the first house of the kind in Geneva, and also built and operated a sawmill. He was one of the wide-awake, progressive men of his time, and long occupied a prominent position in his adopted town. Mr. and Mrs. Moore have had nine children born to them, seven of whom are living, as follows: Shubel, Arabella, Frederick, Maria, Delia, Emery and John. The family attend worship at the Baptist Church. Mr. Moore is president of the Geneva Rock Spring Creamery Company.
B ENJAMIN W. MORRIS, master mechanic of the Chicago & Iowa Railroad shops at Aurora, is a native of Jericho, Kane Coun- ty, born August 2, 1841, to John and Mary A. (White) Morris, who came from Long Island, N. Y., and settled at Jericho in 1837. The Mor- rises were of the old New York Knickerbocker stock, and the Whites of English and Scotch
John B Mouse. Touse
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ancestry. The elder Morris immediately took up a tract of land, which he improved and cultivated. He was a carpenter and bnilder, and in 1852 re- moved to Aurora, engaging in contracting and building, a business he followed to within a few years of his death, which occurred May 4, 1874. He had a family of three sons and three daughters, of whom the three daughters and two of the sons survive.
Benjamin W. spent his boyhood on the farm. When the family came to Aurora he attended the public schools in the city, and after 1859 he passed four years traveling in the West, returning to Aurora in 1863. He accepted employment in the locomotive department of the North-Western rail- road shops for one year, and was subsequently in the Eagle shops in Chicago, until 1867, when he became connected with agricultural machinery, and in that employment spent the following four years at Goshen, Ind., and Carondelet, Mo. He returned to, Aurora in 1871, and for some time was in the employ of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, and of the Hoyt Bros. Manufacturing Company. In 1874 he accepted a position with the Chicago & lowa Railroad Company, in their shops, as a day hand, and after a few years of faithful service was promoted to his present re- sponsible position-master mechanic of the shops at Aurora.
His mother, Mrs. Mary A. Morris, resides with him, and her surviving children are William, who is married and lives at Waverly, a carpenter and builder; Julia, now the wife of A. J. Case, of Waverly, Iowa: Jane, now the wife of William Wiley, of Seneca, Ill .; Benjamin W. and Mrs. E. P. Bryan, of Aurora.
L EONARD RUFUS BRIGHAM, M. D., of Aurora, was born July 11, 1819, at Madi- son, Lake Co., Ohio. where he lived until the age of twelve years, when his parents, Jonathan and Melinda (Davenport) Brigham, re- moved with their family to Hampden Township, Geauga Co., Ohio, where they bought and carried , on a farm. Jonathan Brigham had previously to
this conducted a hotel, and been postmaster at Madison for twenty years.
Until the age of sixteen Leonard R. attended select and other schools in the vicinity of his home, and afterward became a student at Farmington Academy, in Trumbull County, Ohio, remaining three years; he then, when nineteen years old, began the study of medicine at Thompson, Ohio, in the office of Dr. Tillottson. During the fol- lowing three years, in addition to his medical studies, he taught school each winter. When twenty-three years of age he became a partner with his preceptor, and established himself in practice.
In 1844 he was married to Eliza S. Fancher, and the following year became a student at the Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was graduated. He remained associated with Dr. Tillottson until 1846; then removed to Painesville, Ohio, where he practiced for three years; then formed a partnership with Dr. E. C. Thomas, and opened an office at Cleveland, Ohio, attending to office practice only for three or four years. Subsequently he traveled extensively for nearly two years, lecturing on anatomy, physiol- ogy, hygiene, etc., and over thirty years ago he lectured on those subjects at all towns in the vicinity of Aurora, with the intention of locating permanently at that point in the practice of his profession. Accordingly, in October, 1860, he did so establish himself, and so well were his public lectures appreciated in the city and vicinity that he immediately became busily employed in attending to patients: and from that date he has had one of the largest practices in the county, as well as one of the most successful. The Doctor's time is still constantly taken up with patients, but he confines himself, as far as possible, to city calls and his office practice. He is enterprising and public spirited in all affairs connected with the common weal. In politics, he is a Republican, and has served his vicinity as school director, etc. He is a member of the F. & A. M. lodge at Au- rora. He and his wife are members of the First Baptist Church of Aurora. They have had no children, but have reared Lida Vandegrift, now Mrs. Moses F. Wright, of Huron, Dakota; Cynthia
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Farnsworth, now the wife of T. A. Bissell, superin- tendent of the New York Central Railroad sleep- ing-car shops at Buffalo, N. Y., and a nephew, George B. Farnsworth, M. D., of Cleveland, Ohio.
H ERBERT Z. BERRY, of Aurora, is the fifth son of Thomas E. and Ann (Pierce) Berry, and was born in Medina, Ohio, No- vember 7, 1855. His father, who was born in Ireland in 1821, came to America when about nineteen years of age; and his mother, whose birth occurred in England about 1829, was fifteen years of age, when, with her parents and other members of the family, she immigrated to the United States. Thomas E. Berry and family lo- cated at Aurora in about 1857, this town having since been their abiding place. His wife died April 5, 1881, and of their eleven children four sons have gone to join the great majority on the shores of the silent land. The surviving children, who are all residents of Aurora, except the seventh son, Doc. A., who lives in Chicago, are O. Adel- bert, Herbert Z., Thomas G., Doc. A., M. Ger- trude, William H. and Bertram. The first two named are married, and all, with their father, are respected citizens.
Herbert Z. Berry was educated in the Aurora public schools, and in 1868 commenced work in the Herald printing office in that city, being connected with it for three years and two months. When Dudley Randall established his well-remembered paper, the Illustrated City Life, Mr. Berry was his principal assistant. When, after a period of ten months, the material in the office passed into the hands of the Beacon proprietors, Mr. Berry was tendered and accepted a situation in the latter establishment, where he has since remained, a faithful workman, with progressive ideas. For the past twelve or thirteen years he has held the re- sponsible position of superintendent of the Bea- con's mechanical department.
November 10, 1880, he was married to Miss Martha W. Hoyt, of Aurora, daughter of A. J. and Caroline Hoyt, residents of the city for many years. Mr. Berry has won the enviable reputation of being prompt and reliable in all matters per-
taining to his business, and he has been a not un- important factor in assisting the Beacon establish- ment to maintain its deserved popularity, both as a newspaper publishing office and as a job print- ing office. Politically, Mr. Berry is a Republican, and his zeal in the cause is ever manifest when there is a necessity for hard and determined labor.
B ENJAMIN GEORGE, one of the success- ful and leading farmers of Sugar Grove Township, Kane County, now a resident of the city of Aurora, was born in Sharon, Windsor Co., Vt., November 30, 1825, his parents being Ebenezer and Betsy (Kibling) George, and his ancestors among the pioneers of New Hamp- shire. His father was from near Manchester, and his mother from Keene, in that State. The fathers of both his parents served in the War of Independ- ence, and transmitted to their posterity unsullied records as good citizens of the country they had fought to preserve.
Mr. George grew to manhood in Orange Coun- ty, Vt., and was reared to farming. In 1856 he and his young wife came west and selected a loca- tion in Sugar Grove Township, Kane Co., Ill., where for many years he resided, actively engaged in farming, in the meantime doing a profitable bus- iness in farm transfers. He selected his location in the belief that Aurora was destined to become a prosperous city, and thereby enrich the surround- ing country.
Mr. George formed a marital union with Mar- ca, the daughter of Hiram Robinson, of that lo- cality. They have not been blessed with children, but have an adopted son, Herbert Robinson, whom they reared as their own. He is now a farmer and stock raiser in Dakota. Mr. and Mrs. George are attendants of the New England Congregational Church. While a resident of Sugar Grove Town- ship he rather avoided public office, but served the township creditably for several years as its super- visor; he also served upon the school board of his district for several years. and was an important factor in the establishment of good schools there. Although possessed of an ample competence, he is still an active worker in the field of business. He
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is unostentatious in his habits, and meets all peo- ple on the same plane. He has lived to see the estimate lie made of the future of Aurora when he first took up his residence in Kane County fully verified, and the faith which led him to invest means in her inanufacturing and banking interests has been amply justified by results. In 1884 Mr. and Mrs. George left the farm and removed to the city of Aurora, where they occupy a handsome res- idence on Downer Street.
REDERICK LLEWELLYN BARTLETT, M. D., is a son of Abner R. and Esther (Gage) Bartlett, natives, respectively, of the towns of Hartford and Litchfield, N. Y. Abner R. was a fellow student of the Rev. E. H. Chapin, of the city of New York, in the study of theology, and for several years officiated as a minister of the Universalist Churches of Poughkeepsie, N. Y., Bath, Me., and Waukegan, Ill. He was also, while stilla young man, assistant editor of the Maga- zine and Advocate, a Universalist publication, at Utica, N. Y. He first came to Illinois in 1847, and after stopping at Chicago for some months revisited to the East, and in 1850, with his wife and son, Llewellyn, returned to Illinois, and located at Waukegan, becoming pastor of the Universalist congregation of that place. He had been, low- ever, for a long time giving much attention to the reading and study of medicine, and in 1851 became a student in the Homoeopathic Medical College, Cleveland, Ohio. After completing his course at college, in 1852, he removed with his family to Aurora, and began the practice of medicine. In the course of the next two years he again attended the medical college at Cleveland, and was gradu- ated. During one year he filled the chair of pro- fessor of physiology in that college, and subse. quently the same professorship in the Homœopathic Medical College of Missouri, at St. Louis, for one year. With these exceptions, he was a resident of Aurora twenty-eight years, in the constant practice of his profession, trusted and respected not only as a reliable physician, but as a citizen and gentle- man. From the time of his location in Aurora the demands upon his skill and attention to his
professional duties kept him actively occupied the greater part of his time, becoming eventually one of the most successful practitioners in the city. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity, an Eminent Commander in the Knights Templar, and a Prelate for many years. He was descended from an English family who settled in New York during the colonial days. He died December 26, 1880, and is buried in the West Aurora Cemetery. His wife died in 1867, and lies by his side.
Frederick Llewellyn Bartlett, the only child of the above, was born in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., December 16, 1843, and came with his parents to Aurora in 1852. He obtained his literary educa- tion in the West Side Aurora schools. At the age of twenty years he began reading law in the office of Wagner & Camfield, of that city, and a year afterward attended the law department of the University of Michigan, where he was graduated in March, 1866; from thence he became a student at the Homoeopathic Medical College of St. Louis, and in February, 1868, received a diploma from that college as a graduate in medicine and surgery. Having thus thoroughly qualified himself, he returned to Aurora, began the practice of medicine with his father, and has successfully continued his professional life to the present time. Dr. Bart- lett is one of the most actively employed physicians in the city, and has well earned his present high reputation as a ripe scholar, deeply versed in his profession, both as a practitioner and a skillful sur- geon. Although constantly occupied in attending to the cares of a large circle of patients, he has also given some time to the service of the public generally. He was elected mayor of the city in 1877, and served his term satisfactorily; he also served one term as city physician, and has taken an active part. generally, in promoting the educa- tional interests of the town. He has been for the past ten years a member of the board of education, serving five years as its president; he was connect- ed officially with the old Aurora library for many years, and, upon merging that institution into the Free Public Library, he was one of the pro- moters of the project and organizers of the association as it is now. He became a director of the library board and has served as such since its
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incorporation. He is a member of the A. F. & A. M., and served for six years as District Deputy Grand Master of the Fourth Masonic District of Illinois. In politics, the Doctor is a Republican, and has served as chairman, on various occasions, of the Republican City Committee. He was mar- ried May 31, 1870, to Arvilla A. Carter, and they have one son, Frederick Abner.
H ENRY RANG. This gentleman stands well among the many skilled mechanics and workmen of Aurora. He is employed in the building department of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. He was born near Wassertrudingen, in the kingdom of Bavaria, October 3, 1838. He is a son of Conrad Adam and Eva Margaret (Hoffecker) Rang. His father was a manufacturer of a superior quality of pot- tery, and a gentleman of varied business qualifi- cations and of more than ordinary accomplish- ments. Henry spent his boyhood days at his home, and attended the local schools of the vicinity, gathering his first lessons of life, and laying the foundations on which, as a man, he was destined to build his after life. At the early age of fifteen years he bade farewell to the scenes of his child- hood, to family and friends, and set sail for the New World. On May 21, 1853, he landed in the city of New York. In this place he did not linger long, but continued his journey direct to Aurora. On July 4, following, he found his first employment . with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company, which was then in process of build- ing the connections that would make it a continu- ous railroad line from Chicago to Burlington. When he had become proficient in the humblest capacity of work, he was advanced, and became a party of the gang of bridge builders. Here he worked hard and learned rapidly, and his regular promotions followed until he reached his present important place.
Mr. Rang was married in Aurora to Margaret Muschler, a native of Wurtemburg, Germany. She had come to America in 1854, and was living in Aurora with her family. Of this marriage there came three sons and three daughters. The living
are one son and the three daughters, as follows: Maggie, wife of William Fickenscher, professor in the German Lutheran private school, Buffalo, N. Y .; Charles H., locomotive engineer; Bertha and Pauline are small, and are attending the schools of the city. The two sons who died in infancy were John Henry and August Ferdinand. Mr. and Mrs. Rang are members of the German Lutheran Church, Mr. Rang having been one of the church officials for many years. He has served with ability and fidelity the Tenth Ward as alder- man. He is a foreman in the Chicago, Burling- ton & Quincy Railroad shops, and is a man who commands the confidence and respect of his fellow citizens in an eminent degree.
M OSES C. GATES has been one of the honored citizens of Kane County for thirty-three years. He was born in Hart- ford County, Conn., December 24, 1823, son of Samuel and Lucy (Cowdery) Gates, natives of the same place. The parents were married De- cember 31, 1818, about the time that Illinois became a State. To this union were born five children, Moses C. being the third child. Samuel Gates was born June 7. 1793, and was twenty-five years of age when he was married. He was a farm- er by occupation, and enjoyed the confidence and esteem of his acquaintances to an unusual degree; also noted for his integrity of purpose, and broad and liberal judgment, as well as for his patriotism, which was manifested in the War of 1812, when he shouldered his musket and took his place in the front ranks to defend his country. During his life he was called, by the suffrage of the people, to various places of responsibility and trust, and here, as everywhere, he discharged even the most diffi- cult duties to the satisfaction of the people. He died, almost on the spot where he was born and had lived all the days of his life, September 16, 1864, aged seventy-one years. His wife and faith- ful companion, who was born November 25, 1800, preceded him to the other world April 1, 1862.
Mr. Gates, the subject proper of this memoir, was reared upon his father's farm, having more opportunities to learn the arts of industry and econ-
1
MelGates
PHOTO BY D. C. PRATT.
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omy than the theories of school literature. Sep- tember 1, 1847, he married Philura, daughter of James and Amarilla (Miller) Banning, and they had one child, Philura A., born June 12, 1848, who married Almon J. Smith, and had two sons and two daughters (one daughter is now de- ceased). Mrs. Philura Gates died June 21, 1848, and Mrs. Smith died March 14, 1878. June 10, 1851, Mr. Gates was married in Livonia, N. Y., to Louisa C. Jaques, who was born August 22, 1831, and died February 14, 1855. In 1854 he removed to Illinois, and located on his farm, which he purchased in partnership with his brother, in Campton Township. On October 17, 1858, oc- curred his third marriage, when he wedded Miss Margaret Cochran, the worthy and accomplished daughter of Richard and Nancy (Sillyman) Coch- ran. The marriage ceremony was performed at Maple Park, Kane County, by Rev. Gay. Mrs. Gates' parents were respected citizens in their native State, where they passed their lives, the father being a carpenter and joiner by trade. Mrs. Gates was born in Pennsylvania, October 12, 1829.
In the spring of 1856 Mr. Gates sold his inter- est in the farm to his brother (the partner), came to Blackberry Township, purchased 200 acres of land on Sections 6 and 7, settled upon it, and resided there until recently, a prosperous farmer. Both himself and wife attribute each to the other the credit of their success in life. Together they have prospered in this world's affairs, and now in the quiet of their comfortable home in the village of Elburn, surrounded by appreciative neighbors and friends, they are passing the decline of their lives, and reaping the fruits of a past well spent.
OHN T. DOWNEY. This young man is a good example of what may be accomplished in any line of business by a steady, persistent course of action. He is a native of Aurora, Ill., born December 1, 1851, his parents being Patrick and Elizabeth (Faulkner) Downey, who made for themselves a home here, and gave to their family as good advantages as their circumstances would permit. The father was a native of Ireland, a shoemaker by trade, and the mother was a native
of Bradford, Yorkshire, England. They had two sons and two daughters.
John T. Downey, at the age of sixteen, sought employment in railway business, and procured the position of brakeman on the Chicago & North- Western Railway, in which capacity he served for several years, and on various railway lines. Dur- ing his apprenticeship he did service on the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railways. Having a desire to go further west, and making several changes in the Western States and Territories, his promotion was necessarily slow, but his knowledge of his business in all its functions increased so that, upon his return to his native county, in 1876, and accepting work with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, he was, in a short time, pro- moted from the position of brakeman to that of con- ductor, and February 4, 1887, he received promo- tion to passenger train work, a position in which he has proven himself eminently efficient.
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