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 93

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 93
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 93

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).

R. O. Lincoln was born in Genesee County, . N. Y., March 14, 1824, and is the third son in a family of nine children. The parents were John and Lydia Gifford Lincoln, former a native of Vermont, latter of New Hampshire. The names of their children in order of birth are as follows: Sylvester, Henry, Royal O., Turency, Elizabeth, John, Amaretta, Evaline and Helen. Henry, Eva- line, Sylvester and Royal O. came west. Sylves- ter is a resident of Beloit, Wis. The other brother and sisters remained in their native State. Henry is in Lee County; Evaline married John Sitts, and is also in Lee County.

Mr. Lincoln came to Little Rock Township from New York, in the fall of 1849, in company with his brother Henry, and purchased 244 acres of land, at $6.50 per acre. They paid down all the money they had, $500. That winter Royal O. returned by stage to his old home, in New York, but came back to his cabin next spring. The two brothers thus lived alone three years, when Royal O. purchased his brother's interest in the land, and became the sole possessor. November 9, 1853, R. O. Lincoln and Rebecca Cook were

united in marriage. She is the daughter of Amer and Mary Ann (Page) Cook. It was the lucky day of his life, when he exchanged the companion- ship and partnership of a bachelor brother for this blooming eighteen-year old daughter of a neighbor. To her, he is free to confess, he owes much of the success of his life. She is his worthy companion and helpmeet. She was born January 21, 1835, and became the mother of six chil- dren-five of whom are living, as follows: Effie, John H., Edgar, Alfred and Lemuel. Their whereabouts are as follows: Effie became the wife of F. E. Marley, editor and proprietor of the Plano News : John H. is probate judge in Hamilton County, Neb., also a banker and attorney at law; Edgar is a merchant at Sterling, Ill .; the others are attending school.

AMES M. SEARS is prominent in Kendall County as a prosperous farmer and stock man; is a native of the township where he resides, and is entitled to rank among the pioneers and old settlers. He was born on Section 14, in Little Rock Township, March 2, 1838, and is a son of Archibald and Susan (Hadden) Sears, the latter a daughter of Morris and Sallie (Nelson) Hadden.

When James M. was twenty-two years of age he quitted the home of his parents and went to work on his own account, on 106 acres of land he had purchased, in Section 11, and there he has made his permanent home to the present time. This land was originally a part of the Shonts claim. His experience soon convinced him that farming and "baching " was a lonesome way of getting along; so, on February 25, 1874, he was joined in mar- riage with Emily L. Cox, who was born July 28, 1853, a native of this township, the youngest child of John and Mary (Howes) Cox, who were pio- neers in Kendall County, coming from Mont- gomery County, N. Y., in 1844, to this county, and settling in Little Rock Township. Mr. Cox is living where he settled. Mrs. Cox died in 1881. He reared a large family, of whom the surviving are George, Joseph, Reuben, Levi, William, James M., Joshua; these are all in Hamilton County,

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Neb., except George, who resides in Buena Vista County, Iowa, and Joseph, who is in Arkansas City, Kas. John H. died in 1864. He served two and a half years in Company F., One Hundred and Twenty-seventh Illinois Infantry, and in this command Joseph also had served, and was sev- eral months in Andersonville prison.

Mr. and Mrs. Sears are the parents of five children, as follows: Susan M .; Delbert J. ; Arch- ibald G. ; Ora F. and Bessie M.

Mr. Sears has a splendid farm of 950 acres, in Sections 11, 12, 13, 14, and in 1 and 2. It is finely improved, and very advantageously situated. He feeds and handles a large amount of stock.

HOMAS WELCH is remembered as one of the very early settlers of Kendall County. He was a native of the Emerald Isle, and came to America when a young man, landing at Quebec, Canada; from thence he came to New York State, and shortly afterward located in Little Falls, Herkimer County. Thomas Welch landed in Quebec with a cash capital of just 10 cents. In Herkimer County he hired as a farm hand at $10 a month, and in this way worked ten years, during which time he was married to Margaret Smith, who was born there in March, 1806. In this place two of Mr. Welch's children, Mary and Jane, were born. Mary became the wife of Whiting H. Toombs, and lives in Kendall County. Jane is the wife of Orson Thorpe, of Iowa. There were ten children in this family, all living. The others, after those named above, were Daniel, now of Plano, Ill. ; Horatio, who lives in Kansas; Margaret, who is now with her mother on the old homestead, where are also the sons, John and Thomas; Julia mar- ried Harvey Toombs, and is a resident of Clinton County, Ill .; Hannah married E. S. Mack, of Kendall County, and Edward A., who was born on the old homestead, in Little Rock Township, Ken- dall County, August 21, 1841. At the end of his ten years in New York he had saved up $1,000. With this he came to Illinois and purchased a land claim in Sections 3, 4 and 9, Little Rock Town- ship, for which he paid $500. He made his im- provements on Section 4, and here he worked and

lived the remainder of his life, and died October 18, 1886. He was born in 1798, in County Cork, Ireland. His venerable widow is still living on the old homestead, aged eighty-two years.

His son, Edward A., was reared on his father's farm, and August 11, 1862, enlisted as a soldier in Company F, One Hundred and Twenty-seventh Illinois Infantry, and in this command served three years and two days. He returned to the peaceful pursuits of the farm in his native township when mustered out of the service, and October 30, 1866, he was united in marriage with Mary, who was a daughter of Robinson Doty, of Aurora. She died May 10, 1870, leaving two daughters, Estella and Luella. October 4, 1875, he was married to Alice M., second daughter of Walter and Lavangy Gray Loucks, both of Montgomery County, N. Y. This family immigrated to Illinois in 1838, and located in Oswego Township. Mr. Loucks was born October 4, 1815, and died in March, 1886, aged seventy-one years. Mrs. Loucks survives. She was born August 13, 1817. Four of their children grew to full life: Elizabeth; Alice M. (now Mrs. Welch), born May 3, 1843; Peter, born in 1839, and Ella. The last named died at the age of twenty- six years.

OHN D. MORRIS. This gentleman has suc- cessfully spanned the reach from the farmer's boy to that of one of the prominent business men of the city of his adoption. He has carved out, unaided, his pathway, by energy and integrity. He is a native of Farmingdale, Mon- mouth Co., N. J., born September 21, 1841, the son of Samuel-Morris.

John D. Morris was reared on his father's farm, and in early manhood commenced learning the car- penter's trade. Passing successfully his appren- ticeship, he worked as a journeyman, and soon be- came a prosperous contractor and house-builder, which he followed until 1878, when he established his present business, that of a news, book and sta- tionery dealer, to which he added notions, toys, and a full line of drugs and medicines. He carries a large and well-assorted stock. and has a prosper- ous and growing trade in the city and vicinity, and

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is naturally well adapted to retain his many cus- tomers by his urbanity and promptness in antici- pating and supplying the public wants.

In addition to his store, he has stock in the Plano Manufacturing Company, of which he was one of the active helpers in its organization. He is also a stockholder in the Plano Steel Works.

In December, 1870, he was united in marriage with Jennie Strickler, a daughter of Maj. Strick- ler, of Iroquois County, a pioneer and one of the founders of the town of Milford. To this mar- riage are three children: Effie, Mary and Jesse. The family is highly esteemed by the community.

W HITING H. TOOMBS was born in Erie County, N. Y., October 22, 1832, and is a son of William and Alta Toombs, who came to Illinois with their family, and located in Little Rock Village, where William en- gaged in brickmaking and hotel business. He sold out his business in that place, removed to Du Page, Will County, and afterward came to Wayne, Du Page County, where he spent the re- mainder of his days, and died February 12, 1884. His wife, Alta (Smith), is a native of Geneseo Coun- ty, N. Y., and a daughter of Whiting Smith, whose given name was conferred upon the grandson. The children of William and Alta Toombs were six in number, and born in the following order: Mar- tin, Sarah, Whiting H., Harvey, Harriet and Franklin. Martin is a resident of California; Sarah married Dr. Sedgwick, and is in Sandwich; Harvey is in Clinton, Ill., and Franklin lives in St. Charles.

Whiting H. grew to manhood in his father's family, and with his parents came to Will County, Ill. In 1852 he made the long overland trip to California, at that time being twenty years of age. He worked there in the mines and in a lumber camp, where he remained three years, when he re- turned to his old Illinois home, and purchased 100 acres of raw land in Du Page Township, Will County, paying $15 per acre. He put this in good cultivation, 'and remained here fifteen years, when he sold out and removed to Little Rock Township, Kendall County, in March, 1869, and purchased a

quarter section of land of George Davis, in Section 31. To this he added purchases, and now owns a farm of 320 acres, finely improved. It is admira- bly suited for farming and stock raising, in which line Mr. Toombs has become a noted and success- ful operator. He has made every improvement in building and division fences, needed in his specialty of raising fine stock, and now owns some excellent thoroughbred horses and Poland-China hogs. He handles the Norman Percheron and roadster horses : in his stable is the fine imported stallion "La Touche," and he has colts of the famed Mark Dun- ham horse "Success." His Poland China breed of hogs are as fine as can be found in the country, and are bred with intelligent care.

Mr. Toombs was married to Mary Welch, who is a daughter of Thomas Welch, one of the very respectable old pioneers, of Little Rock Township. To Mr. and Mr. Toombs have been born two sons and two daughters, as follows: Seymour, Willie, Hattie and Mary. Hattie married Horace Gris- wold, and is in Iowa; Seymour has a family, and is cultivating one of his father's farms. The other two are with their parents.

A ARON LYE. The Lye family came from Somersetshire, England, where Aaron was born February 29, 1803: He was married at Bristol, England, June 25, 1825, was the head of the family that came to America in 1832, and at first located in Wayne County, Penn., where he spent the next four years farming. He married Sarah, a daughter of Thomas Ann, and in 1836, with his wife and children, removed to Ken- dall County. Aaron was the son of Thomas Lye, who was a carpenter. Aaron was a harnessmaker and saddler by trade, but when he arrived in Ken- dall County he rented farm land, and purchased, in 1842, forty acres in Section 2, on which he lived and farmed until his death, December 12, 1847. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a Whig in politics, and an Abolitionist in principle. His wife was a native of the same place in England, born August 2, 1800, and died at the old homestead February 12, 1888. They had eight children, as follows: Jane, George,

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Maria, Tom, Amanda, Henry, Elizabeth and Alva L. Of these, George was killed when fifteen years of age, by falling from a wagon, which ran over him; Jane is in Philadelphia, unmarried; Maria married Almon Brewster, had five children, and is now deceased; Henry died, a soldier in the army, July 3, 1863, at Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, (he was a member of Company F, One Hundred and Twenty-seventh Regiment, Illinois Infantry; he was in the battle of Arkansas Post, and was a fearless and faithful soldier); Amanda married William Thorpe, and resides in Sherman County, Neb .; Elizabeth married James Healy, and resides in Kane County; Alva L. is also a resident of Kane County.

Tom, after the death of his father, resided on the old farm with his mother, until 1864, when they sold the place and purchased the farm he now owns, in Section 2, consisting of 100 acres, and seven and one-half acres in Big Rock Township, Kane County. He also owns eighty acres in Jas- per County, Ind. He has not married, and con- tinues to reside at the old homestead.

C HARLES M. MORRIS, one of the successful Plano business men, was born in Monmouth County, N. J., March 28, 1846, and came to Illinois with his parents when eighteen years of age. The family were farmers, and en- gaged in this business when they reached Illinois. The youth had only the advantages of a farmer's boy, and before he was twenty years of age he en- gaged to learn the carpenter's trade, which he fol- lowed for some years after gaining his majority. In 1874 he began merchandising, opening in Plano a grocery store in partnership with his father. This firm continued prosperously until his father retired from active life, and the son has since been alone in that business. He has prospered far bo- yond the average, and has now the leading trade in his line in his town. In the fall of 1887 he started his present boot and shoe store in a separate build- ing from his grocery store, and this too is, though a young business, giving flattering promises of success. Mr. Morris is one of the stockholders of the Plano Steel Works.

In December, 1874, he was joined in marriage with Amelia Zellar, who is a native of Kendall County. She is the daughter of Joel and Lydia Robbins Zellar.

Mr. and Mrs. Morris have one child, Lulu. Mr. Morris is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and of the I. O. O. F. Society.

HOMAS B. SWIFT. Three brothers, Thomas B., Samuel and Joseph, sons of Thomas Swift, came as pioneers to Ken- dall County, prior to the Government land sales. They were all farmers, and industrious and thrifty men. Thomas Swift married a remarkably fine Quakeress lady, whose name was Irene Bron- son, who bore him ten children, eight of whom grew to mature life, in the order of their births, as fol- lows: Lancelot, Sallie, Joseph, Betsey, Samuel, Thomas B., Jane and Nathaniel. All these mar- ried and reared families, except Samuel, who had no issue. Lancelot remained in his native State, New York; Betsey, now Mrs. Brace, resides in Aurora; Jane is Mrs. Henry Bogart, in Michi- gan; Sallie is Mrs. David Eldridge, of Schoharie County, N. Y .; Nathaniel is in Minnesota, a min- ister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His son, Polymus, is a prominent minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Thomas B., Joseph and Samuel, as already mentioned, became farm- ers in this county.

Thomas B. was born in New York, April 6, 1812, and came to Illinois in 1837, where he mar- ried Eunice Tenney. To them were born five children, three dying in infancy, the others being Chester M. and Lester C. In his native place, Thomas B. Swift was a tanner, by trade, but did not follow this after coming west. He purchased land in Sections 11 and 12, on which he resided until his death, August 4, 1847. His widow sub- sequently married Mr. Bennett, of Plano.

The second son of Thomas B. Swift, was Les- ter Cass Swift, who now resides on the old family homestead, where he was born, November 25, 1845. He was nineteen years old when he be- came the responsible manager of the farm. He is an enterprising man, and has been largely in-

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terested in all matters tending to benefit agricult- ural interests. He has exercised a good influence in introducing improved breeds of stock, and has purchased many thoroughbred animals, including horses, cattle and hogs. Of late years he has made a specialty of breeding a strain of trotting horses. He has put upon the market some noted high steppers, which have commanded in their sales high prices.

N OAH EVANS. This family name is prom- inent in the early settlement of Kendall County. In many respects David Evans, Noah's father, was one of the finest types of the genuine Western pioneer. He was a native of that proverbially poorest of the poor localities in the United States-Ashe County, N. C. He had grown to manhood, and, although in a hard struggle for something to eat, he married and had three children. One of his neighbors became a soldier in the first expedition in the Black Hawk War, in 1831, and when he returned to Ashe Coun- ty he was telling his old friends of his war ex- periences in the "Eelenoy Country." David Evans was deeply interested, and he finally asked his friend to tell him if that were not a better country than Ashe County, and if so, what spot was the best he saw. 'The old soldier told him all about it, and gave him a mental map of the coun- try at the "Eelenoy" River, and "Fox River." and then up Rock Creek, or, in other words, told him of the spot Evans found and made his home in what is now Little Rock Township, Kendall County.

In the fall of 1832, he loaded his four-horse wagon with his wife and children and entire earth- ly goods, and started overland on the long journey across rivers, mountains and the eternal solitudes, to find a new home. A remarkable fact is that in all the long journey there was hardly a single twen- ty miles of the way in which he did not pass over a region of country far superior to his native Ashe County. But he never hesitated, never halted in pushing on resolutely, determined to reach the spot he had fixed in his mind before starting. The details of the voyage, and their success in mak-

ing the first settlement in what is now Kendall County, starting from North Carolina in the fall of 1832, and stopping to winter near the Fort of Mag- nolia, and reaching their final point of destination the following year, in the spring of 1833; together with the further details of David Evans' struggles and triumphs in the new country, would surely make one of the most interesting chapters in the ear- ly history of Illinois. He was a remarkable man, and, by nature, one of the best-equipped, natural pioneers of any of the bold, adventurous spirits who came to Illinois. He was a natural all-round mechanic, working in wood, iron and leather, and, for a long time, he had to do all the mechanical work that was necessary to be done. The family made their own clothes, and he made wagons or mended his old ones; fixed the old-fashioned wood- en plows, and made the family shoes.

Noah, his son, was born in Ashe County, N. C., January 23, 1827. The father, David, was born November 10, 1798, and was a son of Barna- bas Evans, of Welsh extraction. David married Betsy Hoppers, who was born August 1, 1795, and was a daughter of Daniel Hoppers, whose ances- tors came from Holland. David Evans died on the place where he settled, July 28, 1847. Of his children the eldest was Lewis, who was born Feb- ruary 7, 1821, and who made a farm in Little Rock Township, where he spent his life, and died, leav- ing one son, Charles, who was a soldier in the late war, in the Thirty-sixth Illinois Infantry, and one daughter, Nancy, who married. Robert Dixon, and resides in Minnesota. The daughter of David Evans, Sophia, was born March 30, 1822. She married Chauncy Carr. She died, leaving one son, Warren D. Carr. June 18, 1852, Noah Evans was married to Elizabeth M. Swift, who was born No- vember 22, 1829, in Schoharie County, N. Y., and is a daughter of Joseph and Susan McCain Swift, Mrs. Swift being a daughter of Charles and Nancy Wadsworth McLean. The following were the children in the Swift family: Elizabeth M., Irene, Eunice and Joseph. Irene married William Ken- drick, of Little Rock Township; Eunice married James Humes, of the same place; Joseph resides in Dakota. Mr. and Mrs. Noah Evans have five children, as follows: Lodoeski, married George C.

curand

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Sanderson, of Plano; Lenora, married to Charles Rentow, of the same place; Estella is the wife of Frank A. Ryther, of Chicago; Jewell is the wife of George Faxon; and Frank L. is employed in the Plano manufactory. Noah Evans, the sub- ject proper of this sketch, learned the trade of a blacksmith when a young man, and worked at the same business in Little Rock Township for some years; but several years ago he gave up the black- smithing business and returned to the old home- stead in Little Rock Township, which he owns and where he has since resided, engaged in farming pursuits. The farm consists of 230 acres of fertile land, finely improved.

M ICHAEL BROWN .* Among the early settlers of Big Grove was Michael Brown: He was born December 1, 1802, at Mullin- ahone, County Tipperary, Ireland, where his father, John Browne, was for many years a parish

schoolmaster. Nothing is known of his father's father except that his name was Andrew Browne. The name of his mother's family is supposed to have been Meagher. His mother died when he was a boy. He had a brother Andrew, who died in youth, and a sister Anna. He learned to read at his father's school, but on the death of his mother the home was broken up, and the boy Michael had to shift for himself. The first money he earned was spent in the purchase of a copy of "Robinson Crusoe," and he retained through life a fondness for reading. In June, 1824, he went to England and Wales, where he remained about three years, hiring out as a laborer at the Monmouth collieries, and engaging in other humble occupations. He was married, November 11, 1832, to Nancy Ben- nett, the ceremony being performed by a priest named O'Brien, at the house of the latter, about two miles from Mullinahone.

In April, 1834, Mr. and Mrs. Brown took pass- age to America by sailing vessel from Waterford, and they were on the ocean about seven weeks. Off the Newfoundland coast the vessel sprung a leak, and there was a prospect of its going to the bottom. With great difficulty repairs were ef-

fected, however, and land was reached in safety.

Mr. Brown's first residence in America was in a large log house on the farm of the Rev. Mr. Hal- lock, a Methodist, at a place then known as Cole- man's Corners, about seven miles from Brock- ville, Canada, and a mile or two from the St. Lawrence. He resided in that house a year or more, and there his eldest son James was born July 5, 1835. He then removed to a small log house in the same neighborhood, on land owned by a man named Hitchcock, where he remained until his removal to Illinois, in 1843. The Hitch- cock cabin was in the woods at the foot of an over- hanging rock. Its roof consisted of poles scooped out like troughs, and placed slanting side by side, an inverted trough covering each crack. During the Canadian Rebellion of 1837 Mr. Brown went away, to avoid being drafted into the British serv- ice. One night, while his wife was alone with her children in the backwoods cabin, four or five neighboring women came to stay with her, saying that they might as well all die together, if there was going to be war. They could distinctly hear the cannonading at the "Windmill," many miles away.

. While Mr. Brown resided in Canada his serv- ices were in demand as a farm laborer, espe- cially in the harvest field of Richard Coleman, and in the threshing of grain with the flail. He worked one winter in Coleman's flouring mills, at Smith's Falls, many miles from home, and also found employment across the St. Lawrence, in Jef- ferson County, N. Y., at the Rossee lead mines. In his absence his good wife would busy herself in caring for the cows, sheep and pigs, in knitting or spinning, in making straw hats or maple sugar.

Early in November, 1843, Mr. Brown, with his wife and four children, arrived at Chicago by way of the Great Lakes. He put up at a "tavern," in front of which was a large slough, where perhaps now stands some princely residence or place of business. But he wished to withdraw from the city and make his way into the country. He and his little family were accordingly brought out from Chicago in a lumber wagon by Josiah Seymour, who had settled on the hill east of Newark, and had gone into Chicago to trade. Seymour charged

* The name is spelled Browne by some of the family.

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$5 for his services. He was a stranger to Mr. Brown, and the latter did not know exactly where he was going. At length the family was safely landed at a small frame house on the prairie, in the south edge of the township of Fox, where Isaac Anderson now resides. The house was oc- cupied by Albert P. Brewster and Josiah Fosgate, then bachelors. To their great satisfaction, Mrs. Brown took charge of their domestic affairs, and the bachelors no longer made their own "flap- jacks " and hasty pudding. Brewster is now in Kansas, and Fosgate in Rockford, Ill.

Mr. Brown at once hired out to Burr Bristol as a farm hand at $10 a month. When he had worked for Bristol about three weeks, namely, on the 7th of December, 1843, he met with a terrible accident. He was feeding a threshing machine, and the straw carrier becoming clogged, he climbed up to relieve it, walking on the top of the machine. On his way back he slipped, and the cylinder lacerated his right foot and leg, fracturing the ankle. He was not drawn into the machine, but jumped or fell to the ground. He was then placed upon a sled and carried home to Brewster's and Fosgate's, a dis- tance of four miles, where the limb was amputated above the ankle by Dr. Griffin Smith, although it seems as if it might have been saved. The settlers far and near sympathized with the new-comer in his misfortune, and assisted him and his family in various ways. In this connection the Misners and many others are kindly remembered by the family. In February, 1844, the neighbors got together and built for Mr. Brown, a log house, twelve feet square, on the Big Grove Prairie, two and a half miles east of Newark, and three-quarters of a mile from Brewster's and Fosgate's, and the future oc- cupant was just beginning to hobble around on crutches. In March he occupied this log house, and made a claim of the forty acres on which it stood. In those days of struggle and misfortune his wife and his boy, James, were of inestimable service. After a while the forty-acre tract was paid for, then another, and another at $1.25 an acre. He then purchased a Mexican War land warrant, and thereby became the owner of 160 acres in Macon County, Mo., which he afterward deeded to his fourth son, John, He bought also, at an early day,

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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 93

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