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 4
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 4
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The subject of this sketch was educated in thic schools of Plainfield. When he was twenty-one he started out for himself, renting a portion of his father's farm and afterward, when his father became too old to engage in manual labor, lic succeeded to the management of the homestead. On his father's death he purchased a part of the farm and has since bought the interests of the other heirs, being now the sole owner of the old homestead. Under his management the placc is kept improved and its buildings in good repair.
The Republican party receives his vote and he has been active in its rank. For a number of years he has served as school director and trustee. In 1862 he married Miss Harriet Platts, who was born in New York state and died in this town- ship in 1891. The children born of their union are named as follows: Sherman, a farmer in this township; Lillie J., deceased; Minnie, wife of George Tower; Nellie, Mrs. Meyers, of Joliet; George A. and Cora, who are on the old home- stead with their father.
HOMAS F. DEMPSEY, who has made his home in Troy Township since 1848, and for years has been one of the township's most successful farmers and stock-raisers, was born in County Kildare, Ireland, August 19, 1841, a son of John and Ellen (Shaughnassey) Dempsey. During the latter part of 1848 the fam- ily sailed from Ireland, in the good ship "Hot- tinger," and after a voyage of five weeks and three days, during which time they encountered two severe storms and werc wrecked, they arrived in New York. From there they proceeded up the Hudson River to Albany, then crossed the state on the Erie canal to Buffalo, going from that city via the lakes to Chicago. While on Lake Michi- gan a heavy storm arose, in which tlicir ship was wrecked and then towed into port at Milwaukce. From Chicago they came to Joliet on one of the first canal boats that made the trip to this point. Settling in this county the father took up a tract of land in Troy Township, which he bought at the land salc at Lockport in the spring of 1849. No improvements had been made on the land, and there was not a house between hcre and Jo- liet Mound. The family moved into a log cabin, in which openings had been made for doors and windows; thicse apertures they closed with blan- kets. All night the wolves howled ncar the little cabin, thicir crics being the only sound that broke the stillness of the lonely region. Growing bold, they caught and killed a fine dog of which the
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family were proud; but, fortunately, their en- croachments stopped on the outside of the house. Those early days were busy ones for the family, all of whom helped the father in his work of get- ting the land under cultivation and making needed improvements. He continued to reside on the same place until his death, in January, 1876, at the age of seventy-eight years. The mother died August 19, 1864, aged fifty-four years. She was the mother of seven children, viz .: Malachi, Thomas, John, Joseph, Mrs. Ann Ivans, Mrs. Bridget Riley, and David, of Des- Moines, Iowa. .
Owing to the need of his assistance on the home farm, it was not possible for our subject to attend school regularly, and he studied mostly at night, with the help of his father and mother. When twenty-eight years of age he went to Chi- cago, with only $3 in cash, but with energy, de- termination and good health. He secured em- ployment in butchering. Two months later he married. Economical and industrious, he was prospered and at the end of four years and seven months he had $2,800 in cash. He then re- turned to the home farm, as his father, who was growing old, needed his aid. The work was 11ot new to him, as from the age of thirteen years he had been actively at work on the homestead, mostly buying and selling cattle, although he also cultivated the land. When he returned he took hold as before and assumed the management of the one hundred and thirty-five acres in the place. Afterward he purchased other land and now has about four hundred acres, which repre- sents his energy and ambitious efforts. He has al- ways been a man of great energy and perseverance. Perhaps no term so well expresses his character as the word "hustler." He well deserves the prosper- ity he has gained. He is known as a thrifty, indus- trious and honest farmer, who manages his affairs in a systematic manner. In farm products his specialties are corn and oats, of which he annual- ly sells three and four thousand bushels, respec- tively. On his place, among other farm imple- ments, is a corn sheller with a capacity of over three thousand bushels daily, operated either by horse or steam power. He does the hauling to
Troy and Channahon for the two creameries, hauling from one to two thousand pounds a day. Cattle, horses and hogs are to be found on his place, his specialty being the breeding of Norman horses and good roadsters.
As his father, Mr. Dempsey supports Demo- cratic principles. For fourteen years he served as justice of the peace, for two years held the of- fice of supervisor, and was also school trustee for many years. He is a member of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Minooka. In Octo- ber, 1869, he married Nora Kenney, whose father, Michael, was engaged in farming in Troy Township and later removed to Joliet. Mrs. Nora Dempsey died in 1884 and was interred in St. Patrick's cemetery in Joliet. The second marriage of Mr. Dempsey, in October, 1896, united him with Josephine Burns, of Chicago. By his first marriage he had ten children, of whom Lennie and Josie are deceased. . Ervin and John reside in this county; Alice is the wife of John Cudahy, of Manhattan; Thomas, Jerome, Robert, Bernard and Edward assist their father at home and relieve him of much of the work of managing the farm.
OHN I. EVARTS, cashier and owner of the Plainfield Bank, was born in Yorkville, Kendall County, Ill., February 18, 1866. His father, Jeremiah, a native of Georgia, Vt., born in 1836, received his education in the acad- emy of his home town. When twenty-one years of age he came west, which he believed offered greater opportunities for a young man than did his own state. He secured a position as teacher in Kendall County and his work was so satis- factory that he was soon given a more important place, becoming principal of the Plano school. At the outbreak of the war he resigned as prin- cipal and went to the front as lieutenant of a company of volunteers, serving for two years, when illness obliged him to resign his commis- sion. His service was one that reflected credit
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GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
upon his loyalty to the country, as well as his personal bravery .. A year after his return he was elected clerk of Kendall County, and this office he held for twenty-four years, meantime making Yorkville his home. He was so promi- nent and influential that many desired him to be- come a candidate for congress and he therefore allowed his name to be presented before the Re- publican convention, where he came within four or five votes of receiving the nomination. In 1888 he moved to Plainfield and established the Plainfield Bank, which he conducted until his death, February 3, 1893. His success was en- tirely the result of his own industry and wise judgment. While his residence in Plainfield covered only a few years, yet he became well known, and took a leading part in enterprises calculated to advance the welfare of the people. Through his honorable methods of transacting business he gained the confidence of the com- munity. In Yorkville, where for so long a time he made his home, he was a very influential citi- zen. For a quarter of a century he was con- nected with the Masonic blue lodge there and he also held membership with the Grand Army post there. His father, Tod Evarts, traced his ancestry to one of two brothers, surveyors, who assisted in surveying much of Vermont and in return were given by the government a large grant of land in that state. Hon. William M. Evarts, United States senator from New York, was a cousin of Jeremiah Evarts.
The marriage of Jeremiah Evarts united him with Emma Custin, who was born in Unionville, Olio, and now makes her home with her only child. In religion she is of the Congregational belief. The subject of this sketch received his education in the Yorkville schools and the Aurora high school, supplemented by a course in the Illinois University at Champaign, where he was a student for two years. He was eighteen when he received an appointment in the United States railway mail service, and during the seven years he retained the position he had a run from Chi- cago to Burlington, on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, being on the fast mail train. He accompanied his father to Plainfield and en-
tered the bank in 1892. On the death of his fa- ther he and his mother were planning to sell the bank, when a petition was brought to him, signed by one hundred and fifty leading citizens of this section, asking him to continue the business. Feeling that, with so strong a support, he could not but succeed, he decided to continue, and the results have proved the decision was a wise one. He is a bright, capable young business man, and his business career, though yet but begun, is a credit to him. He is trusted and honored, and the confidence reposed in him has never been be- trayed. Fraternally he is connected with the Woodmen, the Sons of Veterans, and Plainfield Lodge No. 536, A. F. & A. M., the chapter, commandery and council of the Masonic order at Joliet.
HOMAS WHITE. Those who best knew Mr. White most fully appreciated his worth of character and his breadth of intelligence. His success in life indicates that he possessed business qualifications of a high order. Though he began without means, and had little to assist him in getting a start, lie nevertheless became well-to-do, acquiring the ownership of valuable property both in this county and in Nebraska. At the time of his death he owned three hundred and twenty acres here and six hundred and forty acres in Nebraska, and he also owned a good home in Joliet.
Mr. White was born in Lincolnshire, England, September 23, 1830, a son of Thomas and Eliza- beth (Veasey) White, natives respectively of England and Scotland. His father, who crossed the ocean to Canada, settled in the United States about 1850 and spent his last days with a son in Ohio, but died in Lake County, Ill., at sixty years of age. Of his ten children only one sur- vives. The subject of this article learned the miller's trade in England and came to the United States in 1852, settling near Cleveland, Ohio. About 1855 he proceeded to Dupage County, Ill., where he began to till rented land. In 1863
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GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
he came to Will County and soon bought a farm in the town of Peotone, where he remained for four years. After residing in Naperville one year, he removed to a farm in Manhattan Town- ship in 1869, buying two hundred and forty acres and at once beginning its improvement. A few years later he bought an eighty-acre tract adjoining. For seventeen years he made his home on that place, but in 1886 rented the farm and removed to Gage County, Neb., where he purchased a section of land and carried on farm- ing and stock-raising on an extensive scale. In 1889 he retired from active labors, returned to this county and built a residence in Joliet, where his last days were spent.
In England, in July, 1851, Mr. White married Miss Kitty Reason, who survives him, making her home in Joliet. They became the parents of six children, but three are deceased. The older of the surviving sons, William, was born in Du- page County, Ill., in 1859, and grew to manhood in this county, but since 1882 he has resided in Nebraska. He is now proprietor of a general mercantile store at Table Rock, Neb., and is a leading business man of his town. He married Jennie, daughter of George Andrews, of Joliet, and they have three children: Leroy, Earl and Mildred. The other children of Mr. and Mrs. White are Fannie, who resides with her mother, and John Thomas, an attorney of Joliet.
OHN E. BUSH came to this county in 1860 and has been engaged as a grain dealer in Joliet since 1864. During the early days of his experience in the grain business, the farmers from a radius of twenty miles in this and sur- rounding counties brought him their grain, and, as he made his shipments by canal, he was able to pay two cents more than could those who shipped by railroad. His shipments, amounting to almost one-half million bushels per annum, were made in his own canal boats and in those hired from other parties. After a time the rail-
road, in order to gain the trade, began cutting rates and finally gave a better price that the canals could give, so the latter ceased to be a medium of transportation, and all shipments were made by rail. In 1871 Mr. Bush built an ele- vator on the Michigan Central road, corner of Washington street and Eastern avenue, at a cost of $25,000, and containing good improvements, including steam power. This building still stands. In 1880 he built the River block, on Exchange street, which was three stories in height and 60x95 feet in dimensions. Water power was furnished from the canal. It was in this block that the Bates Machine Company started in business, and it was also used by other manufacturing companies. On Desplaines near Jefferson street he had an elevator which he used until it and the business block were condemned and removed by the drainage board in 1897.
The Bush family originated in Scotland and was later represented in the north of Ireland. Early identified with American history, several of its members took part in the Revolutionary war. Stephen Bush, a native of Connecticut, settled at Orwell, Vt., where he engaged in farm- ing. During the war of 1812 he went to the ' front and fought for American interests. His son, Stephen N., who was born at Orwell, re- moved to Whitehall, Washington County, N. Y., where he owned and cultivated three hundred acres of land and also carried on a meat market. In 1862 he came to Illinois and bought a farm in Will County across the Washington street bridge, over Hickory Creek, a part of which land is now in Brooklyn. In later years he sold seventeen acres of his property for a fair ground, and after- ward the remainder of the land was sold and sub- divided into city lots. He then bought one hun- dred and sixty acres west of the city. He died in Joliet in 1885, when eighty-five years of age.
The wife of Stephen N. Bush bore the maiden name of Salome Morse and was born at Cornish Flats, N. H., being the daughter of a miller who died at Whitehall, N. Y. She died in 1858. Twice married, by her first husband she had two sons who settled in Will County, Ill., in 1856, both of whom volunteered in the One Hundredth
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GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
Illinois Infantry during the Civil war and served until the close of the rebellion. One of them, W. W. Bartlette, who was captain of his com- pany, died in Salina, Kans., and the other, R. F., who was first lieutenant of the same com- pany, is now living in Salina. To the marriage of Steplien N. and Salome Bush four sons and one daughter were born, two of whom are de- ceased. John E. is the oldest now living and the only one in Joliet. His brother, H. F., who served in the One Hundredth Illinois Infantry, is now engaged in the hardware business in Hono- lulu, Sandwich Island.
At Whitehall, N. Y., our subject was born November 5, 1835. He prepared for college in Whitehall Academy, and in 1856 entered Will- iams College at Williamstown, Mass., from which he graduated in 1860, with the degree of A. B. During the same year he came to Illinois and se- cured a clerkship in a Joliet grocery. Two years later, on the organization of the First National Bank, he became a stockholder and director and entered the bank in a clerical capacity. In 1864 lie resigned his position in order to engage in the grain business, but he still retains his stock in the bank and has been one of its directors from the first. He owns property in Joliet and a farm in the county. In 1872 he laid out the Bush addition to Joliet, on Richards and Hickory streets, and in 1895 he made a subdivision of property on Jasper street. Bush Park originally belonged to him and is named in his honor.
The first wife of Mr. Bush was Cornelia, daughter of George Woodruff, late president of the First National Bank. She was born in Joliet and died here in 1876, leaving two children. The son, George Woodruff Bush, who was educated in the University of Michigan, is a member of the hardware firm of Bush & Handwerk, in Joliet. The daughter, Jennie C., who was educated at Vassar, has spent most of her time abroad since leaving college. The present wife of Mr. Bush was Bella G. Kenyon, who was born at Thomp- sonville, Conn., and accompanied her father, Johını Kenyon, to Illinois, settling on a farm at Tamarack, this county. For a time she was principal of the East avenue high school of Joliet.
Three sons were born of this marriage, namely: John K., who is a member of the class of 1900, University of Illinois; Edward M., a member of the high school class of 1900; and Ralph H.
At the time of the erection of the courthouse Mr. Bush served as assistant supervisor for two terms. He was also school inspector for two terms, and filled the position with the greatest efficiency. At one time he was a member of the board of trustees of the old Chicago University. In politics he is a stanch Republican. He is connected with the Williams College Alumni As- sociation and the Delta Kappa Epsilon Society. For many years he has been chairman of the board of trustees in the Eastern Avenue Baptist Church and was an active member of the building committee at the time of the erection of the church. He also served for years as Sunday- school superintendent. In 1885 he was largely instrumental in starting a Sunday-school at Three Points mission in Joliet, and ever since then he has acted as its superintendent. He possesses qualities of a high order and is a gentleman of kind heart, sanguine temperament, whole-souled and liberal-minded, one who easily wins and re- tains the confidence of associates, and whose in- tegrity has won for him the respect of his ac- quaintances.
HILIP I. CROMWELL, M. D., of Wilming- ton, one of the leading physicians and sur- geons of the county, was born at Lake George, Warren County, N. Y., July 12, 1848, a son of James and Sarah C. (Bradshaw) Crom- well. He was named after his grandfather, Philip I. Cromwell, who for years made his home at Carlisle, N. Y., where he was proprietor of a hotel and a prominent man in public affairs. For years James Cromwell, M. D., carried on a general practice at Lake George, meantime gain- ing recognition as the most skillful physician in the town. In the latter town he died in 1874, when he was sixty-four years of age. Wherever he made his home it was his custom to identify himself with movements tending toward the ad-
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GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
vancement of local interests. In religious belief health-restoring. In this hope he was not dis- he was an Episcopalian and for years served his church as an elder and senior warden. His wife survived him for years, dying at Lake George at the age of eighty-one. Their six children were as follows: Edward, who enlisted in the Civil war and was killed at the second battle of Bull Run; John B., of Denver, Colo .; Philip I .; James J., who is the only representative of the family now at Lake George; Mary E., wife of Jerome M. Hubbell; and Ellen B., who married Thomas N. Conant and lives at Dekalb, Ill.
The education of our subject was received prin- cipally at Glens Falls, N. Y. From an early age he manifested an interest in medical pursuits and as a boy determined that he would some day be a physician. With this object in view, in 1867 he entered Albany Medical College at Albany, N. Y., from which he graduated in 1870. Dur- ing the following year he held a position as phy- sician to the Albany city dispensary. Afterward he joined his parents at Lake George. After about one year he located at Cleveland, N. Y., where he established himself in practice. It was his belief, however, that he could succeed better in the west, and he therefore decided to come to Illinois. In 1874 he opened an office at Dekalb, Ill., where he remained for fourteen years, but the demands of his constantly increasing practice finally undermined his constitution and a com- plete change of climate was rendered necessary. In 1887 he went to Colorado, hoping that the genial air of the mountain regions would prove
appointed. During the two years he remained in that state he engaged in practice at Sterling and also served as coroner of Logan County. On his return to Illinois in 1889 he settled at Wilming- ton, where he has since built up a very large practice. It has always been his aim to keep abreast with the developments made in the sci- ence of medicine, and to this end he reads cur- rent medical literature and keeps in touch with various medical societies. He is a member of the Desplaines Valley Medical Association and the Illinois State Medical Society.
Always believing in protection of home indus- tries, Dr. Cromwell naturally found himself in accord with Republican principles. However, in 1896, when his party declared for a gold stand- ard, he, being in sympathy with the movement looking to the free coinage of silver, allied him- self with the silver forces. Both as mayor and as alderman he has been active in advancing the welfare of Wilmington and promoting its inter- ests. He is interested in secret society work and is connected with the Masons and Odd Fellows. His first wife, who was Catherine Hallagan, and whom he married in 1874, died in 1891, leaving four children, namely: Edward G., a physician and surgeon at Henry, Ill .; Harry D .; Clinton B., who is teaching school at Custer Park, this coun- ty; and George B., who is in the United States navy. The present wife of Dr. Cromwell bore the maiden name of Adeline Hudson and was united with him in marriage in 1898.
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Dorrance Dibill.
GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
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HON. DORRANCE DIBELL.
ON. DORRANCE DIBELL is directly de- scended from the families of Baldwin, Lord, King, Ward, Strong and Waite, who lived in Connecticut and Massachusetts prior to 1800. His Puritan descent is evident from the maiden names of his grandmother and great-grandmother, Patience Baldwin and Submit Lord, and is also shown by the following given names found on his family tree between the years 1650 and 1750, viz. : Desire, Unity, Relief, Prudence, Thankful, De- liverance, Increase, Experience, Silence, Record, Remember, Mercy, Hopestill and Mindwell.
On his father's side he is fifth in descent from Jolın Dibell, who was born in Connecticut in 1702, and who died at Mount Washington, Mass., August 1, 1773. The ancestors of John Dibell are believed to have come to Massachusetts from England in the year 1635. They afterwards re- inoved to Connecticut. In 1757 the family settled at Mount Washington, in the southwest corner of Massachusetts, and members of the family still live upon and own part of the farm then bought. The branch from which Dorrance Dibell de- scended removed to Hudson, N. Y., and then to New Durham, N. Y., about 1789, and from there about 1817 removed to Ashtabula County, Ohio, where members of the family still reside.
On his mother's side lie is the eighth in de- scent from William Ward, whoin 1639 (nineteen years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock) was living with his family at Sudbury, Mass., when the proprietors of that plantation made a first division of their lands in which he shared. Tradition says he was born in Eng- land. He afterwards removed to Marlborough. He suffered great losses in King Phillip's war, when his buildings were fired, his cattle destroyed
and one of his sons was killed. The dwelling house of one of his sons was used as a garrison in that war. The widow of William Ward settled his estate at Boston before the tyrannical colonial Governor Andros, who also acted as judge of probate. Gen. Artemus Ward of Boston, another distant relative, was commander-in-chief of the forces of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, and was the first person appointed a major-gen- eral in the army of the Revolution; was appointed a member of the continental congress, but did not take his seat, and was twice a member of congress under the Federal Constitution. Several of Mr. Dibell's kinsmen of the Ward name were members of the "General Court," and held other places of trust in their primitive communities. One uncle, William Ward, D. D., spent most of his active life in Assam, India, as a missionary. A great uncle, Elihu W. Baldwin, D. D., was first president of Wabash (Ind.) College.
Dorrance Dibell was born February 16, 1844, at Wooster, Wayne County, Ohio. He is a son of Rev. Jonathan Baldwin Dibell, of Kingsville, Ashtabula County, Oliio, and Louisa (Ward) Dibell, of Ellington, Tolland County, Conn. His father was a Baptist minister. In 1850 his par- ents removed from Ohio to Will County, Ill., where they lived almost continuously until his father's death, September 10, 1881. His father had unusual purity, sincerity and strength of character, was greatly respected and had a wide influence in Will County, especially in Homer, New Lenox and Frankfort. After his death, the mother, with her daughter, Julia Louisa, made her home with her son Dorrance in Joliet, where she resided until her death, October 17, 1885. Julia met a sad and untimely death at a railroad
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