USA > Illinois > Douglas County > Historical and biographical record of Douglas County, Illinois > Part 22
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ion county, Illinois. He died at Oklahoma City while a juryman of the United States court in the Indian Territory, April 15, 1891. His wife returned to Vermilion county, Illi- nois, and died July 3. 1893.
Miles Hunt, the father, departed this life in Logan county at the home of his youngest son, Alonzo, in Oklahoma Territory, on De- cember 14, 1893. James D. Hunt, his son, now resides in Oklahoma county, that Territory. Miles Hunt's wife died April 10, 1895, in Lo- gan county, Indian Territory, and is at rest by the side of her husband. Bezelleel and Henry C. Hunt both enlisted in the Sixty- ninth Indiana Regiment in 1862. Henry C. was wounded at the battle of Richmond, Ken- tucky, and Bezelleel, remaining with him, was taken prisoner, but was paroled. Both were afterward married, but first studied medicine and became M. D.'s. Henry lives in Mont- pelier, Blackford county, Indiana, and has a lucrative practice. Bezelleel died in Douglas county, Illinois, in August, 1869, leaving a widow, whose maiden name was Branham. Sarah J. married Leander McMillen, of Penn- sylvania, who was also a physician. He died leaving one son, Bennett H. The widow after- ward married a man of Vermilion county, Il- linois, Benjamin Dickson by name. There were seven of Miles Hunt's children who taught school, viz .: O. P., William T., Henry C., B. T., J. C., A. L. and Sarah Jane. (See new history of Indiana by the Hon. W. 11. English. )
Our subject, O. T. Hunt, received a com- mon-school education, unlike the common schools of the present day, as in his early boy- hood schools were secured by subscription. His father would pay the tuition of five
scholars and send but one or two in order to secure a teacher. Often men with no children to send to school would pay the tuition of a scholar to induce some one who could read and write to teach. The old elementary spelling book was the text book, with some reading in it, with the stories of "the man's ox that had been gored by his neighbor's" and the "boy in the apple tree." The primary class constituted the A B C divisions ( with the al- phabet torn from the spelling book and pasted on a paddle to protect and preserve it ). When one had mastered the old elementary spelling book, grammar and arithmetic, writing and geography were studies the parents could choose from, any or all of them. The old En- glish reader was indispensible, and all who had thoroughly mastered the spelling book must read in it, which was not suitable to the condition of the children. As well had them enter the Latin class of to-day, as there was not half of the words the children knew the meaning of, while the facilities of to-day are much improved as the child climbs step by step and is expected to master every study. Yet we are pained to see the graduate who, parrot-like, can only repeat what he has thor- oughly committed-"Polly wants her break- fast." The greatest trouble, we think, espe- cially in the common schools, is with the teach- ers. A chikl recites well when it recites by rote or has committed the language of the author. This is no test, only of memory; it does not show that the student has any thought of his own, or that he understands the recita- tion he recites. Hence, while life at best is short, the main object should be in teaching anything to stimulate and draw out of the child all the reasoning powers, and you have
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laid a foundation that is everlasting when the child has learned that the first and great step in an education is for one to think for himself.
Now as to the subject. O. T. Ihmt's mother was a daughter of Hugh M. Botkin, of Scotch descent, a native of Tennessee, who settled near Winchester, Indiana. in an early day, with his family, where many of his de- scendants are now living. William Botkin, one of his sons, owns and lives on the farm his father first settled on in Indiana. When O. T. Hunt arrived at manhood he taught his first school in Huntsville, Randolph county, his own brothers and sisters attending the school, and he says they gave him more trouble than all the rest of the scholars, and if it had not been for his father he expects he would have had to give up the school; but be- tween them they settled down to business. He commenced the study of law when only twenty years old, read Blackstone's Commentaries, and in 1855 he bought Kent's Commentaries, Parson on Contracts, Greenleaf on Evidence and Gould's Pleading. In 1856 he went to Vermilion county, Illinois, and taught school, sindied at his spare times his text-books, and taught school in that State over two years, lle returned to Randolph county in 1858 and en motion of Judge Jeremiah Smith he was admitted to the Randolph county bar to prac- tice law. He then went back to Ilinois and married Eliza J. McDowell on September 1, 1859, and returned to Randolph county, In- diana, where he and his wife both taught a winter term of school. In the spring they went to Illinois, where he rented a farm near Indian- ola, in Vermilion county, and in 1862, when Lincoln revoked the order of Gens. Hunter and Fremont, saying he did not have the constitu-
tional right to free the slaves of the south, Hunt concluded to raise a company. Ile called two or three meetings and secured quite a number of names near Indianola, in Vermilion county, Illinois, and went to Danville and reported to Governor Yates. At this time George W. Cook, of Catlin, Illinois, learning of the mat- ter, went to see llunt, as he had quite a mim- ber of men enlisted, and they consolidated and were made Company K, of the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Regiment of Illinois Vol- unteers. Cook was made captain of the com- pany, O. T. Hunt, first lieutenant, and Frank- lin Crosby, second lieutenant, and O.T. Harmon, colonel of the regiment. The latter lost his life at the charge of Kenesaw Mountain, after which Hunt commanded the company ( hence the appellation "Captain"), and the Captain played major. The regiment was mustered in at Danville, Illinois, on the 3d day of Sep- tember, 1862, and served during the war. The regiment went with Sherman to the sea ( Sa- vannah, Georgia), thence to Richmond, and the muster-out rolls were made out at Wash- ington City, D. C. They were dated June 9, 1865, but were not delivered to the men until the latter part of June, when the regiment was paid off at Chicago and disbanded. Hunt bought a Peter Schutler lumber wagon in Chicago and returned to his family in Vermilion county. His wife, a daughter of John B. McDowell, a native of Kentucky, inherited of her grand- father, David Yarnell, one hundred acres of land in Douglas county, Illinois, and Hunt improved the same, and through their ccon- omy and industry added thereto three hun- dred and fifteen acres of land, making a total of four hundred and fifteen acres of land in Douglas county. After Oklahoma Territory
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was opened up he went to that country and bought two claims of George Grant and his brother, or one half-section, within ten or twelve miles of Oklahoma City. But he claims his environments and the war spoiled a good lawyer. He was commander of the MeCowan Post, of Camargo, Grand Army of the Republic. That order growing weak, he surrendered the charter and joined the Frank Reed Post, of Tuscola, and is also or has been a member of the Grange. But he is opposed to secret political organization, as he says the Knownothing party of 1852-1854 killed the old Whig party, and any party that will not bear the light of day and free discussion is dangerous to a free and independent govern- ment. He is a Stephen A. Douglas Demo- crat, as are the rest of his father's family, while all his near relatives are Republicans, or have been. He takes a lively interest in poli- tics and the success of his party, making the race twice for state's attorney and once for county judge with credit to himself.
a native of New Jersey. born September 16, 1764, and fought under Andrew Jackson at the battle of New Orleans. Ilis wife, Abi- gail, was born August 28, 1767. johr Rose, his maternal grandfather, was an early settler near Clarksville, Greene county, Pennsylvania. and owned a distillery, and in the words of Mr. Heaton was a great inventor, as he could draw five kinds of liquor out of the same bar- rel, and neither he nor any of his sons were ever known to be drunk either. He and his five sons were also opposed to drinking; in that early day there were no organization known as the Prohibition party, but princi- pally Democrats and Whigs. William Hea-
WILLIAM HEATON.
William Heaton is one of the old land- marks of the county. For over half a century he has been an active and successful man of ton's father grew quite wealthy for that day, but lost it by going on other people's bonds. Hle removed to New Washington, Ohio, where he died. His mother died in Greene county. affairs, and at the age of eighty-three is still attending to business. He was born in Greene county, Pennsylvania, July 24, 1817, and is a son of Samuel and Margaret ( Rosc) Icaton, who were also born in Greene county, Penn- William Heaton received a moderate edu- cation in his younger days and worked hard on the farm. In 1838 he married Mary sylvania. His grandfather, John Rose. and President McKinley's grandmother were cousins. William Heaton (grandfather ) was Hedge, a daughter of Jacob Hedge, of Greene
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county. Jacob Hedge was a good citizen, a good farmer, but never had opportunities to sit in the state Legislature. William Heaton's wife died in 1886. To them were born seven children. His second and present wife is a most agreeable companion for him in his okl age. She is a consin of his first wife. Mr. Heaton has been a very successful trader and has probably bought and sold more land than any man in the county. For several years he kept a land office at Des Moines, lowa, and paid twelve thousand dollars out of his own pocket toward the removal of the state capital from lowa City to Des Moines. He laid the foundation for the Adair County Bank at Greenfield, Iowa, which is now owned and managed by his son, D. D. Heaton. He is now passing the sunset of life near the Pleas- ant Ridge church, in North Newman town- ship, where he still enjoys life, and appreciates a good story as well as he ever did. While in lowa he was a political disciple of James B. Weaver and E. Il. Gelette, serving as delegate to conventions and in other ways adding strength to the cause. He hopes to live to vote for William J. Bryan this fall. In the neigh- borhood in "which he resides he is something of a political freak, as nearly everybody around him believes most devotedly in an honest dol- lar and the constitution.
STRODER M. LONG.
Stroder MeNeal Long, who was the sec- ond president of the Bank of Newman, Illi- nois, was born in Fayette county, Ohio, Oc-
tober 6, 1840, emigrated with his parents to the state of Illinois in 1848 and located on a farm nine miles north of Paris, in Edgar county. He is a son of Andrew and Margaret (Mark) Long, who were natives of Ohio. He worked on his father's farm in the summer and attended school in the winter until 1860, when he commenced an academic course at Paris, Ilinois. In the year following the Civil war broke out, and he enlisted in Company E. Twelfth Illinois Infantry. After three
months' service, on account of a severe spell of sickness, he was honorably discharged and returned home. He engaged in farming and school teaching until the spring of 1867, when he moved to Douglas county, where he pur- chased eighty acres of land on South Prairie, three miles south of Newman. He remained here until 1880, making farming and stock raising a specialty. He represented Sargent two terms on the county board of supervisors, 1878-79. In 1884 he was elected a member of the Thirty-fourth General Assembly of the
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state by a large majority in the district. His Garnet A., wife of William McGee, of Mat- fidelity to party as well as to the people's in- toon, Illinois; Cecile R. and Fay E. reside with their mother. Mrs. Long and children own seven hundred acres of land, one hundred and twenty acres of which lies in Edgar coun- ty, also other valuable city property. She has recently completed one of the most imposing and beautiful residences in Newman. terest, luis sterling integrity and rectitude of purpose, won for him the appointment by the Republican caucas a member of the advisory committee that directed the party on all polit- ical questions. He was a member of the com- mittees on education, farm drainage, house contingent expense, state and municipal in- debtedness and canals and rivers. When he retired from the house of representatives at the close of the session he had made a host of friends and few enemies. In 1898 he was again nominated by his party of the fortieth JOSEPH S. WILLIAMSON. senatorial district, but his death occurred be- Joseph S. Williamson, one of the leading farmers and most favorably known citizens of Douglas county, was born August 22, 1840, near Muncie, Indiana. He is a son of Peter fore the election. In the spring of 1888 he succeeded I. N. Covert as president of the Newman Bank, which position he held most acceptably to all parties concerned up to 1898, the time of his death. He was one of the pro- moters of the organization of the Newman Building & Loan Association, and was one of its prominent and ruling directors. He was also a charter member of Templestone lodge, No. 76, Knights of Pythias, and an enthusi- astic worker in that order. Mr. Long was a shrewd business man, straightforward, up- right and capable. During the World's Fair he was a member of the board of congress from Illinois.
In 1872 our subject married Mary E. Pound, of Newman, Illinois. She is a daugh- ter of Jolmn M. and Rosalinda ( Kester) Pound, the former born in Clark county, In- diana, and the latter in Shelby county, Ken- tucky. To Mr. and Mrs. Long were born five children : Mabel M., wife of Henry A. Wine, of Indianapolis, Indiana; Potter P., married and residing on his farm south of Newman;
Williamson and Rosana, his wife. His father was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, and his mother it: Germany. His paternal grandfather, Joseph Williamson, was a native of New Jer-
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ser, and his maternal grandfather, John by his careful study of the political principles Adams Shaffer, came from Germany.
Joseph S. Williamson was reared and edu- cated in Muncie. In early life he taught school during the winters and worked upon the farm in crop time, after which he spent three years with a New York dry-goods firm. In 1865 he came to this state and located in Tus- cola, where he was successfully engaged in the mercantile business in partnership with the late C. W. Calvert for six years. In 1870 he re- turned to Indiana and located at Mount Sum- mit, where he was engaged in mercantile busi- ness. In 1876 he returned to Douglas county. where he has been engaged in agriculture and stock raising on the present farm, containing one hundred and sixty acres, and which is one of the best improved farms in the county. He has been twice married. Ilis first wife, Miss Rebecca lee, who died in 1875, was a daugh- ter of Colonel Jesse Ice, of the war of 1812. and Sarah Ice, whose maiden name was lick- man. There were born to their marriage five children. The living are: Jesse Peter. Fran- cis Eugene and Joseph Alva. Deceased : James and Andrew. His second wife, Miss Frances R. L. Kinsey, is a daughter of the late Joseph Kinsey and Josina, his wife, who was also a daughter of the above Col. Jesse Ice. To their marriage were born six children. The living are: Pearl May, Harry K., Earle W., William 1 .. and Mira Marie. De- ceased. George 1.
Mr. Williamson, while a resident of Tus- cola, was identified with the board of educa- tion, a member of the board of allermen, and. though never an office seeker, has filled many other positions of honor and trust. In all these public capacities he has been faithful, and
of our country and his deep interest in educa- tion has proved his devotion and interest in the common welfare of the people. For some time his health has not been good and the past winter he and Mrs. Williamson spent in Florida in search of health. Socially Mr. Williamson is agreeable and companionable and has many friends who appreciate his worth as a neighbor and Christian gentleman.
CALEB GARRETT.
Caleb Garrett, son of Isam and Mary ( Puckett ) Garrett, was born in Clinton county. Chio, on the 6th of July, 1816. In 1819 the family moved to Randolph county, Indiana, and, in 1823. to Vigo county, in the same state,
where they remained until the final removal to Illinois. Whilst in the former state, the residence of the family was generally on the
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Fort Harrison prairie and about four miles south of Terre Haute. Caleb was about seven years okl when the family resided near the latter place. He was educated at a subscrip- tion school; his father being a man of educa- tion, he progressed under home instruction and learned rapidly. In 1830 his mother died in Vigo county, Indiana, and for several years thereafter Mr. Isam Garrett and his two sons, Caleb and Nathan, kept house for themselves. In these days Caleb drove an ox team for L. Il. Scott ; he worked in the corn field for twen- ty-five cents a day, and made fence rails at from twenty to thirty cents per hundred. averag- ing one hundred and fifty for a day's work. lle went into the printing business at the office of the Western Register in Terre Haute under Judge Amery Kinney and John W. Osborn, the proprietors of the office. Mr. Garrett re- turned to farming for awhile, and also worked as a carpenter and builder under Dr. Thomas Parsons, and having finally resolved to think and act for himself he returned to his favorite pursuits, farming and stock-raising, making sttccess in them the object of his future life. lle was for several years a tenant of Chauncey Rose, the well-known millionaire, for whom at the outset he worked at the ordinary occupa- tion of a farm hand, during which time he made thousands of rails at the then usual very small compensation ; and here began between the two men a warm personal regard, which was only terminated by the death of Mr. Rose. In 1833. in the company of George Jordan, the father of I. L. Jordan, of Tuscola, and of Levi Westfall, an uncle of R. E. H. Westfall, of Garrett town- ship, and also with a Kentucky friend, Mr. Garrett passed through this portion of Illinois, partly to indulge his love of adventure and
partly to look up a location for a future home. The trip began at Terre Haute, by Baldwin's store, in Edgar county, Sadorus Grove, and into Springfield. Beardstown and Quincy, then a wild, sparcely settled country. Mr. Garrett returned to Terre Haute by way of Meredosia, on the Illinois river, to Springfield and Decatur. From 1833 to 1839, pursuing his natural bent for exploration and adventure, he followed flat- boating down the Wabash, the Ohio and the Mississippi to New Orleans. The boats, made generally by the owner, were from eighty to one hundred and twenty feet long, and were laden to the gunwale with corn, pork and other produce. In 1840 he started from Terre Haute bound for New Orleans per steamer, and upon reaching the Wabash rapids they were run upon the rocks by a drunken pilot. Garrett and two others hired a skiff, and, crossing the river to Mt. Carmel, Illinois, they chartered a hack and repaired to Evansville, at which point they took the large river steamer Louisiana with two companions, one bound for the mouth of the Cumberland, the other for the Tennessee. After a tedious voyage he arrived at New Or- leans, took a steamship and passed out to the gulf, and after a very stormy passage arrived safely at Galveston. He went thence to Hous- ton, and there failing to get a conveyance, started on foot through Texas. He arrived at a house where he was offered and accepted the use of a pony. The next day he was pre- sented with a horse by a Dr. Heard, and pro- ceeding got into the vicinity of hostile Indians. lle became for the nonce a Texas ranger, in which capacity he experienced considerable fighting with the Indians. In Travis county, Texas, Mr. Garrett married Miss Irene Puck- ett, a daughter of Thomas Puckett. With her
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he left Texas in an ox wagon loaded with pecans and dry hides. They arrived at Hous ton and took a steamer to Galveston, and thence to New Orleans, and by the Mississippi to Evansville, Indiana, landing March 5. 1841 ; they shortly after arrived in Vigo county, that being the county in which his wife was born. Mrs. Irene Garrett has always been remarkable for an open-handed liberality toward her less fortunate neighbors, which dispensed generally from her own private means earned her the blessings of the poor. In Vigo county Mr. Garrett returned to farming and stock-raising. during which time, about 1842, he was elected to the Indiana state legislature, and at the succeeding term was re-elected. In 1845 he made his second trip to Illinois, and in 1846 bought land in the west part of Tuscola town- ship, near the present farm of William Brian. l le finally sold this land and located in the forks of the creek on section 3. township 15. range 7. He also selected one hundred and sixty acres of land, being lots 2 and 3 in the north- cast quarter of section 3. township 15, range 7, and hewed a set of walnut logs for a home. In 1856 Mr. and Mrs. Garrett revisited Texas. including a long trip in a carriage by Price's Springs and Brazos Falls in Cherokee county. where he examined lands: thence to Palestine and Marshall, from which place they went forty miles to Shreveport, Louisiana, thence by steamer to the mouth of Red river, and by a similar conveyance to Evansville, Indiana. reaching home November 8, 1856, which was then Coles county. Ile then began improving his lands with orchards, barns and dwellings. Mr. Garrett's lands in Garrett township at one time covered nineteen hundred acres. In 1875 he sold these lands and reinvested in Tuscola
township, having concluded to settle in Tus- cola City. He was the first supervisor of Gar- fett township, which had been instituted with the other townships in 1868, and he was also a member of the first grand jury in Douglas county. Mr. Garrett always took a deep in- terest in all the public affairs of Douglas county.
WILLIAM HOWE.
History first relates of William Howe, grandfather of the late William Howe, as a native of Virginia. Whether this is correct, we are not able to say. But he afterward emi-
grated to Kentucky when it was yet a wilder- ness. Ile formed a member of Daniel Boone's first colony and participated in the dangers incident to "the dark and bloody ground." His son, George W. Howe, was born in Kentucky and there married AAngeline Hildreth, a native
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of that state, but of English descent also, and in Bourbon county, Kentucky, William Ilowe, Jr., was born on November 23, 1829.
In 1832 George Howe and family emi- grated to the southeastern part of Missouri. On the breaking out of the Black Hawk war he joined the forces sent against the Indians, and was supposed to have been killed by them near Galena, Illinois, for no word came from him afterward. The mother then moved with her children, five in number, back to hier okl home in Kentucky in 1835. Here she stayed for three years, when she and her family moved to Vermilion county, Illinois, arriving there on the 6th of April, 1838. Mr. Ilowe was at this time nine years oldl. He continued with his mother for almost two years, when he was in- dentured to the service of William J. West, who resided on a farm in Sargent township. It was in the spring of 1840 when he first came to West's and he remained with him nine years, till in his twentieth year. in the spring of 1849. During this time his board was the only com- pensation he received for his service. He was
signed to school about thirteen months, but , rived August 27, 1850. at Nebberville, only out of this he only received about nine months' regular schooling, and this was scattered over a long period of years so as to be of but little service. The good general education he pos- sessed was principally picked up by his own ingenious industry. After his term of service with Mr. West had expired he worked a year by the month, still having his headquarters at West's. At this time the excitement conse- quent upon the discovery of gold in California was spreading over the country. Mr. Howe, as we have seen, comes from an adventurous race of men, his earlier ancestors having fought gallantly for King George, while his later ones
had many a skirmish with the Indians, his father dying by their hands, and led by the same spirit of adventure and hardihood he deter- mined to try his fortunes in the new El Dorado. In March, 1850, in company with West and others, eleven in all, he started overland for California. Before starting all promised that unless in case of illness none should be allowed to ride, and on all that long and rough journey Mr. llowe kept his place by the side of the oxen. The spring of 1850 was one of deep mud and high water, so their journey was made doubly difficult. The party passed through Quincy and across the state of Missouri, fol- lowing very nearly the same route now traversed by the Hannibal & St. Jo railroad. The Missouri river in the southwest corner of the state of Iowa was crossed; the northern route was taken, through the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains; north of Salt Lake; by the Oregon trail to the Soda Springs; then over to the St. Mary's river, down which they traveled to the Sink. The Sierra Nevadas were crossed by the Carson trail, and the party ar- losing, in accomplishing the journey, one man, who died of disease and whom they buried by the way. The men went to mining gold in this region. Mr. Howe remained nine months, dur- ing which time he got together a considerable quantity of gold dust. The Klamath excite- ment then came up and he joined a party to go to Oregon. His experience here was very ad- venturous, but there were no flattering results. In company with two others, he was robbed by a party of Modoc Indians. He lost about twelve hundred dollars, including everything he had, even to a greater part of his clothing. Ile returned to the mines on the Yuba river
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