USA > Illinois > Kendall County > Genealogical and biographical record of Kendall and Will Counties, Illinois : containing biographies of well known citizens of the past and present > Part 15
USA > Illinois > Will County > Genealogical and biographical record of Kendall and Will Counties, Illinois : containing biographies of well known citizens of the past and present > Part 15
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After having spent his youth in helping his father on the home farm our subject came west at the age of twenty-two, and became a farmer of Fox Township, Kendall County. For nearly four years he worked for others, at the end of which time he established himself on his present farm. He has done much to raise the standard of education in his district, having served effi- ciently as school director for fourteen years and as school trustee for nine years. The principles of the Democratic party receive his stanch sup- port and he has been active in its local affairs, and has been a delegate to county and state con- ventions. Fraternally he is connected with Sun- beam Lodge No. 428, A. F. & A. M., in Plano; Sandwich Chapter No. 107, R. A. M., at Sand- wich; and Aurora Commandery No. 22, K. T., at Aurora. He was united in marriage, Febru-
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ary 10, 1874, with Miss Susan A. Whitfield, daughter of William Whitfield, whose biography appears in this work. They have two children, William G. and Nellie A. Their son is a grad- uate of the Yorkville high school and also attended the Indiana State Normal School at Valparaiso one year.
2 ETER CROOK. In every movement to ad- vance the welfare of Seward Township or the prosperity of Kendall County, Mr. Crook has always been interested. It may be justly said of him that he has contributed his quota to all worthy enterprises. Especially have both he and his wife maintained a deep interest in re- ligious work. They were charter members of the Congregational Church near their home and contributed to its maintenance liberally. Their connection with the church continues to the present. He was a member of the building com- mittee at the time of the erection of the church edifice and was also one of the largest contrib- utors to the same. He has been a trustee ever since the church was established and a deacon for more than half of that time, also has had charge of the singing. For many years he has been a teacher in the Sunday-school and one of its most faithful workers.
A native of Dukinfield, Cheshire, England, born August 28, 1837, our subject is a son of Lawrence and Mary Ann ( Brooks) Crook. His father, who was an overseer of looms in a cotton factory in England, visited Illinois about 1856 and bought land in Seward Township, Kendall County. In 1860 he brought his family to this place, and here he remained until his death, by accident, in 1866. Of his four children our sub- ject is the third and the only one now in Kendall County. When he was fifteen he began to learn the machinist's trade, at which he served a six- years' apprenticeship. However, the work did not agree with him, and he was obliged to seek a more healthful occupation. In 1859 he came to America and began to clear the land previously bought by his father. With his brother, who had preceded him a year, he helped to get the
land under cultivation and also erected needed buildings. After his mother's death he bought out the interests of the other heirs in the eighty acres, and has since been sole owner of the homestead. He has added to his holdings until lie now has two hundred and forty acres of well- improved land. He has put in not less than two thousand rods of tiling, so that the land is well drained. Besides raising farm produce he has engaged in dairying, in which he has been successful.
Politically Mr. Crook has always supported the Republican party. He has been delegate to local conventions and also, in 1900, to the state supervisors' convention at Quincy. In 1873 he was elected town clerk and appointed school treasurer, which latter office he held for twenty years, while the former position he filled for twelve years. In 1893 he was elected supervisor, in which capacity he served the next seven years. In no sense has he ever been an office- seeker. He never solicited a vote for any of- fice, so that his elections to responsible positions show the high esteem in which he has been held by his fellow-citizens. While he has given his attention closely to the management of his estate he has also taken various trips for pleasure and recreation, the most noteworthy of these being the visit by himself and wife, in 1898, to his old home in England, where he remained for four months, not only renewing the associations of boyhood, but also visiting many points of his- toric interest.
In 1862 Mr. Crook married Sarah Walton, who was born in Cheshire, England, and grew to womanhood there. They became the parents of five children, but their two daughters died while young. Their sons are: David C. and George L., who assist their father in cultivating the home farm; and John W., who operates a farm directly across the road from his father's place. Mrs. Crook is a daughter of George and Mary (Castle) Walton, of English birth, natives of Yorkshire. They had ten children, of whom Sarah is the eldest, and seven are now living. In 1840 Mr. Walton settled at Bellville, Canada, and his wife followed the next year. At this
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time the eldest child was seven years old, and she remained with her grandparents. Seven of the children were born in Canada, where the parents lived the balance of their lives.
ULIUS A. FREEMAN, M. D. There is perhaps no physician in Kendall County who is better known than Dr. Freeman, of Millington, and certainly there are few who possess a broader knowledge of the science of therapeutics in all of its departments. His med- ical library is one of the most complete in Illi- nois, and he has made himself the master of its contents. At the same time he has utilized in his own practice such of its theories as seem to be sound, it being his aim ever to keep abreast with the development and progress of the profes- sion. The leading medical societies he has been identified with, among them the Illinois State Medical Society, the American Medical Associa- tion, the North-Central Illinois Medical Associa- tion, and the Aurora and LaSalle County Medi- cal Societies. In Masonry he also stands very high, being a thirty-second degree Mason, and a member of Hesperia Lodge No. 411, A. F. & A. M .; Oriental Consistory, Chicago; Sandwich Chapter, R. A. M., at Sandwich; and Com- mandery No. 10, K. T., at Ottawa, Ill. He is also a member of Lodge No. 162, I. O. O. F., at Newark, Il1.
The genealogy of the Freeman family is traced back several hundred years in England, where they were leading residents of Devon, and their coat-of-arms indicates their prominence. Dr. Freeman was born March 9, 1828, in Worcester, Otsego County, N. Y., being the eldest of the thir- teen children of Frederick R. and Lucy R. (Bee- man) Freeman. His father was born on the same farm as himself and was the youngest in the fam- ily of thirteen children of Elisha and Lydia (Reynolds) Freeman. The first male ancestor on American soil came to Nova Scotia in 1630. In the fall of 1828 the family moved to LaGrange, Ohio, where Dr. Freeman spent his youth and early manhood. He commenced the study of
medicine at Birmingham, Ohio, under his uncle, Julius Beeman, M. D., who died in Cleveland, Ohio, at the age of about nincty-two years. In the fall of 1851 he entered Central Medical College at Rochester, N. Y. Later he became a student in the American Medical College at Cincinnati, where he received the degree of M. D., in Febru- ary, 1855. Next he took a course in Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York City. In the winter of 1876-77 he attended the Chicago Medical College, from which he received an hon- orary degree. In 1878 he took a course of special study in the Post. Graduate College of New York City. He also took a post-graduate course in Chicago Medical College, now the medical de- partment of the Northwestern University; in the Chicago Polytechnic Medical School; the Post- Graduate College of Chicago; and in 1888 thic Post-Graduate College of New York, from all of which institutions he has diplomas. It will thus be seen that his course of study had been thor- ough and exhaustive. He has spared neitlier time nor money in his ambition to gain a com- plete knowledge of medicine, and certainly the science has no disciple more faithful or more in- telligent than he.
His first experience as a practitioner Dr. Frec- man gained at Newark, Ill., where he opencd an office in August, 1852. During the next few years he established his reputation for skill and broad professional knowledge and built up a large practice in the vicinity of his home. He remained in Newark until the spring of 1875 and then spent two and one-half years in Chica- go, after which he came to his present place of practice, Millington. He was married in Scp- tember, 1849, to Miss Lucy S. Spellman, of Pitts- ford, N. Y. They became the parents of eight children, but only three arc living, namely: Rev. Corwin Freeman, a minister in the Baptist Church; Vesper V., who lives in Trenton, Mo .; and Herbert H., of Pierre, S. Dak. Thic second marriage of Dr. Freeman took place in 1874, and united him with Mrs. Emma C. Cox, by whom he has one son, Harry E., who has adopted his father's profession for liis life work.
Any sketch of Dr. Freeman would be incom-
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plete were no mention made of his military ca- eleven years. Elizabeth, the oldest, was born in reer. At the opening of the Civil war he raised a company for the Eighth Illinois Cavalry and in August, 1861, went to the front as captain of Company K. This company he commanded un- til December of the same year, when they went into winter quarters. He then resigned and re- sumed his professional work. In August, 1862, he again went to the front as assistant surgeon of the One Hundred and Fourth Illinois Infan- try, and remained in that position until July, 1863, when he was obliged to resign on account of sickness. His next enlistment was in Sep- tember, 1864, when he became assistant surgeon of the One Hundred and Sixth New York In- fantry, with which he remained until the regi- ment was mustered out a few months later.
HOMAS J. PHILLIPS. The list of Ken- dall County pioneers includes the name of Mr. Phillips, the well-known retired farmer and wagon-maker residing in Newark. He de- scends from Revolutionary ancestry and Pennsyl- vania pioneers. His grandfather, Thomas Phillips, who was born in Northumberland County, and died in Erie County, Pa., had eight children, viz .: John, James, Thomas, David, Hannah, Eleanor, Betsey and Polly. Of these, James, our subject's father, was born in Northumber- land County, Pa., November 12, 1768, and for years followed the blacksmith's trade and kept a tavern. At Lancaster, Pa., in 1798, he married Catherine Funk, who was born in 1776, and whose father, Henry Funk, a miller, ground flour for the Continental army. By his marriage ten children were born: Betsey, John, Benjamin, Henry, Martha, Jacob, David, Ann, James D. and Thomas Jefferson, of this sketch. In 1827 James Phillips took his family to Erie County, where his brother, John, had previously settled. He remained there until his death, August 18, 1844. His wife survived him many years, dying at Aurora, Ill., in 1863.
Of the children forming the parental family, one son, Jacob, died in infancy, and another at
1799, and married Frederick Hyatt, of Prescott, Wis .; both are deceased. John, who lived in Fox Township or in Big Grove Township from 1834 to 1849, laid out the town of Newark in 1836, in connection with George B. Hollenback, and gave it the name of Georgetown, which it bore until 1843; he died in 1849. Benjamin, who was a cabinet-maker and carpenter, settled in Aurora in 1835, and died there in 1867. Henry, who came to Illinois in 1834, built the fourth building put up in Ottawa, the site being that now occu- pied by the Clifton house; in that building he followed the blacksmith's trade. In 1850 he went to California overland, and remained there until 1854. The year 1855 found him in Story Coun- ty, Iowa, where he died about 1873. Martha died, unmarried, at fifty-eight years of age. Ann married James Phillips in Pennsylvania and came to Illinois in 1834, settling in Earl, LaSalle County, where she died April 7, 1896, aged eighty-two years. James D. came to Illinois, but returned to Pennsylvania, and died at Union City, January 25, 1892, aged seventy-six years. Two of the brothers, Benjamin and Henry, started west in the fall of 1833, and went down the Ohio River to Louisville, Ky., where they spent the winter. In the spring of 1834 they came up the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers to Ottawa, where Benjamin remained a short time and built a few houses. Henry settled there, but subsequently located in Earl.
The subject of this sketch was born in Lancas- ter, Pa., October 28, 1818. In April, 1838, he started to join his elder brothers in Illinois. Af- ter a journey of three weeks he reached Illinois and visited his brothers in Newark and Aurora, and for six months he worked in the latter place. He then came to Fox Township, Kendall Coun- ty, where his brother John had taken a claim in 1836. This claim his brother offered to share with him, if he would assist him until the land came into the market. The offer was accepted. John was a wagon-maker and Thomas served with him for three years, receiving forty-five acres of land. He then began for himself, rent- ing the little farm and following the wagon-
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maker's trade until 1857, when he came into pos- session of a farm on section 34, Fox Township. The latter place remained his home five years. Next he bought the Washburn farm in Mission Township, LaSalle County, and engaged in farm- ing there until the fall of 1877, when he moved to Newark, his present home.
During early days Mr. Phillips experienced all the hardships of frontier life. Until the Q Rail- road was built, he hauled produce by wagon to Chicago. In those days thirty cents was a fair price for wheat and three cents was considered good for dressed pork. Mr. Phillips recalls that on one occasion he and others had hauled their pork to Chicago. All were paid $3 per hundred for the pork, except Thomas Finnie, who had the best hogs in the country and was paid $3.25. The latter, elated at the price paid, slapped Mr. Phillips on the shoulder and exclaimed, "Oh! Phillips, we are on the road to prosperity now, when we can get $3 for our pork.
The first vote of Mr. Phillips was cast for Martin Van Buren, and he continued to vote the Democratic ticket until the slavery question came to the front, when he espoused Republican prin- ciples. It is a notable fact that he and his father have voted at every presidential election, his father having voted for George Washington and at all subsequent elections to that of Van Buren, while our subject has voted at all subsequent elections. At the solicitation of his friends Mr. Phillips consented to serve as justice of the peace. He was also assessor of Fox Township eleven consecutive years, and in that position the amount of assessable property perceptibly in- creased under his discerning eye.
Though now well-to-do, Mr. Phillips has met with his share of reverses. In religious matters he was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church from nineteen years of age until the Con- gregational Church of Newark was organized, when both himself and wife united with it, and he served on its official board. After some years, however, the organization practically disbanded, and since then he and his wife have attended and supported the other churches. The temperance cause has in him an earnest supporter, but he is
not a believer in the third party. When he was a boy liquor was almost as plentiful as water. It was to be seen in almost every home and on al- most every table. Notwithstanding this fact he has ever been strictly opposed to its use. Not only has he refrained from its use, but he has also shunned tobacco in every formi, and has in- sisted that in his family and among his hired help, profane language should never be used. As a consequence his sons grew to manhood in surroundings that were most uplifting, and they have become as strict as their father in their ad- herence to temperance principles and upright living.
February 15, 1844, Mr. Phillips was married to Louisa P., daughter of Cornelius and Harriet (Bailey) Courtright, the wedding being solem- nized in the log cabin home of the bride at New- ark. She was born in Wilkesbarre, Luzerne County, Pa., January 27, 1829. Her parents were natives of the same county, her father born May 28, 1803, and her mother December 2, 1805. The former was a tanner and currier by trade. In May, 1839, he started via the lakes from Buf- falo to Chicago, thence traveling to LaSalle County within five miles of Ottawa, where an old neighbor had settled a year before. In August the parents, with their six children, came to Kendall County and spent the winter in the old hotel at Newark, owned by Nelson Messenger, which stood on the site of the present store of Pleuss & Miller. Thirty-two members of differ- ent families wintered in that old hotel. In the spring of 1840 the family selected a location in town, buying a lot now owned by Myron Reyn- olds, and there building a log cabin. Later he took up government land in LaSalle County, in what is now Northville Township, selecting eighty acres on which he built a house and spent a season. He then sold out and bought a farm between Millington and Sheridan, residing there until 1878, and then returning to Newark, where he died September 7, 1894. Both he and all of his sons espoused the Republican cause, and in religion adhered to the Methodist Episcopal Church. His first wife, the mother of Mrs. Phillips, died March 22, 1851, and afterward he
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married Mrs. Susanna Lutyens, the widow of Artemus Lutyens. Of his first marriage eleven children were born, Mrs. Phillips being the eldest. It is a noteworthy fact that all of these eleven are still living, their ages ranging from fifty-one to seventy-two years. John M. is living in Min- neapolis; Roxana, widow of Peter Misner, lives at Sandwich, Ill .; Horace P. is engaged in the livery business at Downer's Grove, Ill .; Lydia B. is the wife of John Ruble, of Hanson County, S. Dak .; Benjamin B. drives a stage between New- ark and Millington; Harriet A. is the wife of Peter McKay, of Pasadena, Cal .; Caroline A. is the wife of Robert Abbott, who is engaged in the produce commission business at Davenport, Iowa; Cornelius C., a retired farmer, lives in Sandwich, Ill .; Charles O. has been a physician at Somonauk, Ill., for many years; and Chester O. resides in Minneapolis, Minn.
In all of her husband's work Mrs. Phillips has been his counselor and assistant, and much of his success is due to her co-operation. She is a lady of benevolent disposition, interested in the moral and social upbuilding of the community. Besides, she possesses considerable ability as a writer. For some years she has acted as local correspondent for various papers, a position for which she is well qualified. In her housekeeping arrangements she has always been very methodi- cal, keeping an account of expenses during al- most all of their married life. In addition, she lias recorded facts of local interest in a diary. Thus she is an authority for local events of the past sixty years. Both Mr. and Mrs. Phillips retain to an unusual degree their inental and physical vigor, and both have remarkable mem- ories of events and dates connected with the past. Their golden wedding was appropriately cele- brated iu 1894, at which time more than seventy relatives and old friends gathered at their com- fortable home and joined in extending congratu- lations and best wishes.
The family of Mr. and Mrs. Phillips consists of eleven children, viz .: Jefferson, who died at four years of age; Quincy and Milton, wlio died in infancy; Carson E., a civil engineer in Spring- field, Mo .; Ida R., wife of Sylvanus Fowler, of
Aurora, Ill .; Leslie S., who for eleven years was employed in the Minneapolis postoffice and died March 26; 1898, leaving a wife and son; Thomas L., who is the inventor of the Aurora feed grind- er and resides in Aurora, Ill .; Carrie L., who died at thirteen months; Minnie J., wife of J. C. Seaton, of Somonauk, Ill .; Louise, wife of Alfred Harding, of Aurora; and Charles B., who is pro- prietor of a job printing establishment at Aurora that is one of the largest in the state, outside of Chicago.
AMES PLATT. None of the farmers of Seward Township, Kendall County, is more deserving of success than Mr. Platt. Through all of his active life he has been known as an in- dustrious, efficient and energetic farmer, and the prosperity that has come to him is the result of these qualities. He personally oversees every detail of work connected with the farm, managing the various hands and the ten horses that during the busy seasons are engaged to assist in the work. He raises each year about six thousand bushels each of corn and oats, for all of which he finds a ready sale in the market.
In Hewton Moor, near Manchester, England, Mr. Platt was born August 13, 1848. His father, Thomas Platt, came to America in 1858 and set- tled in Kendall County, Ill., buying one hun- dred and sixty acres in Seward Township, about five miles southwest of our subject's present resi- dence. From the time of coming here until his retirement from active work he gave his attention closely to the improving of his land, and even now, though eighty years of age, he personally superintends his own farm. In politics he is a Republican. Prior to leaving England he mar- ried Anna Bostic. Of their union seven children were born, four now living, James being the only one now living in Kendall County, with the ex- ception of William, a farmer of Seward Town- ship, and during the Civil war a soldier in the Eighty-ninth Illinois Infantry.
The education of Mr. Platt was begun in Eng- land and continued in district schools in Kendall
.
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County. When twenty-one years of age he be- gan farming on shares, operating thirty acres and also running a corn sheller. For five years he continued in that way. He then bought forty acres and rented the balance of the land (one hundred and twenty acres), owned by his wife's father, which property he cultivated for three years. On selling out he bought eighty acres south of the road where he now resides, paying $40 an acre for the same. Three years later he sold it for $52.50 per acre. He then bought one hundred and sixty acres where he now lives, pay- ing $53 an acre. The land was fertile, but there were no improvements on the place. At once he started to put it in better condition. He erected all the buildings now to be seen, and also put in several miles of tiling, having now on his two farmns seven miles of this improvement. All in all, the place is now as finely improved as any in the township. About 1890 he bought one hun- dred and sixty acres adjoining, for which he paid $65 an acre. Besides raising farm products he gives some attention to the stock business. On his farm are some cattle and a large number of Poland-China swine. He is fortunately situated in regard to markets, having three at about equal distance from his farm, Minooka, Bird's Bridge and Caton Farm.
The marriage of Mr. Platt united him with Ellen J. Skinner, September 13, 1868. They have two children, viz. : Fremont, who is a farmer in Seward Township; and Luella, wife of Albert Brown, also of this township. The father of Mrs. Platt, William Skinner, was a native of Cambridgeshire, England, and came to the United States when twenty years of age. In 1842 he settled in Cook County, Ill., where he took up government land and improved a farm. The tract that he improved is now in the very heart of Chicago. In 1856 he came to Kendall County, after a short sojourn in Will County, and bought a farm on section 8, Seward Township, giving $600 for the eighty-acre tract, a yoke of oxen and such few improvements as were on the place. A few years before his death he sold that property and bought a tract just east, where he remained until his death, in August, 1868. He
was a Republican and held some of the township offices. By his marriage to Sarah Bennett hehad eight children, of whom Mrs. Platt is the only one living in Kendall County. Mr. and Mrs. Platt are active members of the Congregational Church and she holds office as president of the Ladies' Aid Society. Politically Mr. Platt is a Republican, and on that ticket he has been elected path master and school director. He carries insurance in the Mutual Aid Society. He is a man of high character and deservedly stands among the foremost farmers of his township.
ERNELL B. LARSON, who is an enter- prising business man of Millbrook, Kendall County, was born in Vos, Norway, June 25, 1859. His father, Lars O. Bolstad, was a stock- buyer in the town of Bolstad, and adopted that name as his own. In 1875, crossing the ocean to the United States, he settled in Kendall County, Ill., where at once he became interested in farm- ing. In 1886 he removed from the farm to Mill- brook, Fox Township, where now, at the age of eighty years, he is living in retirement from busi- ness cares. His wife is about the same age as himself. Of their ten children six are living, namely: Carrie, wife of Ole Starkson, of Roches- ter, Olmsted County, Minn .; Ole B., whose sketch appears on another page; Nels B., of Chicago; B. B., our subject; Christina, who married Da- vid Galofson and resides in Portland, Ore .; and Belle, who is the wife of August Galofson, and lives in Marshfield, Ore.
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