USA > Illinois > Douglas County > Historical and biographical record of Douglas County, Illinois > Part 32
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Germany in 1754. Her father came to Indiana from North Carolina with his parents in 1806. Mrs. Barnes was educated at the seminary at Washington, Indiana, and remained at home until her marriage to Jesse Coombs, a farmer of Clark county, Indiana, who died December 8, 1853. After the death of her husband she at- tended and taught school until 1855. when she began the study of medicine for which, from early childhood. she had a natural inclination and talent. After preparatory study in the of- fice of Dr. Joseph Hostetler. she attended lec- tures at and graduated from the Eclectic Medi- cal Institute of Cincinnati in 1857. then settled in Clark county, where she practiced till her marriage to Dr. Barnes. Since coming to Illi- nois she has constantly practiced until quite recently and has an eminent standing profes- sionally and socially.
JAMES S. REEDER.
James S. Reeder was born March 4. 1840, in Darke county, Ohio, and came with his parents in 1856 to this locality, where he en- gaged in farming. He enlisted August, 1862. in Company G. Seventy-ninth Illinois Infantry, and served three years. At the battle of Stone River. December 31, 1862, he was wounded and taken prisoner: after being in the enemy's lines twenty-seven days he was exchanged, and participated in the battles of Liberty Gap and Chickamauga: at the latter. September 19. 1863. he was captured and taken to Richmond prison. thence to Andersonville. Charleston, South Carolina, and Florence, making seven-
teen months in all spent in prison. At the close of the war he returned and engaged in farm- ing. lle was married December 2. 1865, to Mary M. Kelly, who was born in Winchester, Indiana. Ile resides in Arthur.
J. B. RIGNEY, M. D.
J. B. Rigney, M. D., was born in Paoli, Or- ange county, Indiana, and is the son of Will- iam 11. Rigney, who held the offices of sheriff, treasurer and collector. At about the age of sixteen he, with his family, moved to Terre Haute, Indiana, and for three years resided on a farm. Finding rural pursuits distasteful, he turned his attention to medicine. Ile com- menced his studies under Dr. James II. Sher- wood and continued with him for three years, when he went to Chicago and attended the Rush Medical College, from which he gradu- ated in 1863. He then enlisted as hospital steward, serving until January. 1866, when he returned and practiced medicine eleven miles south of Terre Haute, and in 1867 came to Arthur, where he has since resided. In 1868 he married Miss Ora F. McDonald, of Mat- toon.
JOHN WHITAKER.
John Whitaker was born in Vigo county, Indiana, March 12, 1833, and is the son of William and Elizabeth ( Taylor) Whitaker. who were natives of Kentucky. His father was
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born in 1803 and died in 1846. John Whitaker came to Douglas county in 1856, located on section 13, Bourbon township, where he bought a farm of eighty acres, on which he lived five years ; this property he then sold and purchased eighty acres later on. At present he owns in all two hundred and forty acres ; this farm he has improved with buildings at a cost of about two thousand dollars. He has been township com- missioner for about five years. 111 1860 he married Hannah Davis, who was born in Vigo county. Indiana. She died and he subsequently married Mrs. Yeager, of Arcola. In 1898 they commenced the construction of the Douglas hotel and on April 19, 1899, it was swung open to the general public. This hotel is by far the best in every way of all other public inns in the county.
WILLIAM B. CHANDLER.
William B. Chandler, a well-known stock buyer of the county and a resident of Bourbon township, was born in Douglas county, Illinois, March 6, 1852. He is a son of Lemuel Chandler ( for the ancestry of the family, see sketch. ) When yet a boy, William B. Chand- ler entered the University of Illinois at Cham- paign and was graduated therefrom with a de- gree of B. S. in the class of 1876. In 1885 he served in the capacity of clerk to the Indian commission at Yankton and continued in this capacity for four years. He then went to Pueblo, Colorado, where he engaged success- fully in the practice of law for three years. On account of the sickness of his father and busi- ness interests at home, he returned in 1892,
since which time he has been quite extensively engaged in farming and stock buying.
In 1883 Mr. Chandler was united in mar- riage to Miss Belle Augusta Bailey, of Tus- cola. They have no children. Our subject is a Democrat in politics and the only office he ever held was that of town clerk of Bourbon township soon after he reached the age of man- hood. Mr. Chandler is well and favorably known throughout the county, is a man of good business ability and devoted to the highest and best interests of Douglas countians.
WV. D. REED.
W. D. Reed, the assessor of Bowdre town- ship, was born on the old Reed homestead in the same township March 14, 1852, and is a son of the gallant B. Frank Reed, who fell at the battle of Chickamauga, and for whom the G. A. R. Post at Tuscola is named, and whose portrait adorns this page. He was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, and emigrated with his father, Daniel, to Edgar county, when he was but eight years old. Daniel Reed founded the old tavern or road house at Hick- ory Grove between Newman and Indianola. He volunteered in the Civil war and became captain of Company D. First Illinois Regiment. He was united in marriage to Catherine, a daughter of William Barnett, who lived in Camargo and was one of the early settlers.
W. D. Reed has been assessor of Bowdre township continuously for five years. He was married in 1874 to Ida L., a daughter of J. H. Bagley. They have had five children, of
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whom Ward, Clark, Fred and Mary are liv- ing, and Mand is dead. Mr. Reed is a stanch Democrat in politics, as was also his father, Captain Reed.
WILLIAM BRIAN, SR,
William Brian. Sr., was born May 6, 1806, ir Ross county, Ohio, and in 1837 he came to Coles, now Douglas, county ; he entered about one thousand acres of land when coming here. and has owned as high as three thousand acres. He had learned the blacksmith's trade in Ohio, and followed it about twenty years here. On one occasion, when shoeing a Methodist preach - er's horse, he nailed the shoes on with the toe- corks behind. The preacher remonstrated with him for doing so: his reply was, "The devil takes after these Methodist preachers, and I thought I would make him take the back track." He was married October 1, 1829. to Anna Lewis, who was born in Pike county, Ohio, May 4. 1805. They had nine children, six of whom are here named : Thomas, James, Mary (wife of R. E. H. Westfall), William T., Tay- lor W. and Samuel. His death occurred a few years since.
JOHN W. KING.
John W. King, of Newman, who has for several years been prominent in the politics of the county, and at present is associated with the Newman bank, was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, October 13, 1841. Ile is a son of
David .A. and Jane Elizabeth ( Mitchell ) King. who were natives of Clark and Montgomery counties, Kentucky, respectively. His father, who was born in 1818, followed the occupa- tion of farming, removed from Kentucky to Champaign county, Illinois, in 1855, and there his death occurred in 1896. His mother died in 1882, aged fifty years. His paternal grand- father. Robert Cass King, was a native of Vir- ginia, and his maternal grandfather, John W. Mitchell, was also born in Virginia, in Culpeper county.
John W. King was reared on his father's farm and attended the public schools of the neighborhood. In 1862 he joined Company G. Seventy-second Illinois Volunteers, as private, and served three years and four months, part of the time as a non-commissioned officer. After the war he entered the state normal school, where he remained for three years. Leaving there he at- tended Bryant & Stratton's Business College at Chicago, where he remained one year. He then taught school for some years in Cham- paign county, when, in 1872, he came to New- man, and for three years held the principalship ot the Newman schools. In 1875 he was elect- ed to the office of county superintendent to fill a vacancy, which he held up to the next gen- eral election in 1877. when he was re-elected and served up till 1881. In April of the latter year he resigned to accept the appointment of postmaster of Newman, which position he held under the administrations of both Garfield and Arthur. At the expiration of his term he ac- cepted the position of bookkeeper in the New- man Bank, which position he held up till 1890. In that year he was elected county clerk, and was re-elected in 1894. serving in that office
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up until 1898, when he re-entered the Newman Bank. In 1872 Mr. King was united in mar- riage to Miss Kate C. Fry, of near Cham- paign. They have five children : Blanche, Earl G., Katie W., Roscoe W. and Harry T. Mr. King has been collector of Newman township some four or five terms ; is a member of nearly all the secret societies, is trustee of the Meth- odist Episcopal church at Newman, and a stanch Republican in politics. Both as a soldier, officer and citizen Mr. King has been faith- ful in the discharge of his regular duties and the performance of any special work assigned to him.
THOMAS W. ROBERTS.
Thomas W. Roberts, the bright young law- yer of Tuscola, attorney for the I. D. & W. R. R. Co. and city attorney, has from the hum- ble walks of life pressed his way to the front and to-day stands among the leading and most successful lawyers at the bar.
Thomas W. Roberts was born in Owens- burg. Green county, Indiana, May 1, 1866, and soon thereafter came with his parents to Doug- las county, and located at Camargo, where young Robert attended school until sixteen years of age. In 1882 his father removed to Tuscola, and there the young man learned the tinner's trade. But that was only a means to an end, and in 1886 he was appointed to a clerk- ship in the treasury department at Washington, where he worked day time and attended school at night, and for four years continued in the preparatory department of Georgetown Univer- sity, after which he took a four-years' course in the law department of the same institution 19
and was graduated in 1892. Mr. Roberts was at once admitted to the bar of Illinois, and en- tered upon his chosen profession, becoming the partner of the late C. WV. Woolverton (see sketch), with whom he continued until the death of his associate in 1895, since which time Mr. Roberts has continued in the practice alone. He is attorney for the I. D. & W. R. R. Co. in Illinois, attorney for the Corn Belt Building & Loan Association, attorney for the bank of Baughman, Bragg & Co. and this along with his other practice makes him a very busy man.
Mr. Roberts is a son of Henry Clay and Anna Elizabethi ( Sleet) Roberts, both natives of Kentucky. Henry Clay Roberts came to Douglas county in 1870, and here resided for some years ; later he removed to South Dakota, where he at present lives. He was a member of the Ninety-seventh Regiment, Indiana, in the Civil war, volunteered in 1861, and was mus- tered out in 1865. Thomas Roberts (grand- father ) was one of the carly Virginia settlers in Boone county, Kentucky, as was his grand- father Sleet.
In June, 1888, Mr. Roberts wedded Mrs. Jennie Sharp, a daughter of R. H. B. Madison, of Tuscola. Two children have blessed their union : Irene Elizabeth and Ralph Henry. In Masonry he is a Knight Templar, a stanch Democrat in politics, and is popular and influ- ential in the county.
WASHINGTON D. BOYCE.
Washington David Boyce was born at the foot of Blue Ridge near Leesburg, Lee county, Virginia, in the year A. D. 1802 and died in
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Camargo township in February, 1882. He Mr. Butler is a man of unimpeachable character was among the first settlers in that township, and known to be a truthful and conservative man, we have the fullest confidence in his state- ment . where he entered forty acres of land. He es- tablished the first blacksmith shop at the vil- lage of Albany.
ROBERT McKAIG.
Robert McKaig is one of the pioneer set- tlers of Tuscola township, who came in 1857. He and his wife are members of the Presby- terian church and highly respected in their neighborhood.
J. T. BUTLER.
We copy from a recent issue of the Tus- cola Review :
"J. T. Butler, of this city. secretary and manager of the Corn Belt National & Loan Association, had received intelligence from his brother in California, that he had struck a gold mine of unparalleled richness, and that our fel- low citizen was a half owner in the new won- cler.
"The editor knowing that Mr. Butler was a man who shunned notoriety and would be loth to give out information that would bring him into such prominence as an article of this kind necessarily will, approached him on the subject. He was at first disinclined to talk on the subject, but learning that it had become generally known throughout the city, he con- sented to make a statement, in order that the public might get the facts and facts only. As
"The following facts have been given us by Mr. Butler, and his host of friends in this city are happy to know that he has suddenly become, or will soon become, the wealthiest man not only in Fuscola, but probably in the state of Illinois.
"He states that he has a brother, Dr. Thom- as Butler. a prominent and reputable physician of San Diego, who has been in the gold regions of that and other states for thirteen years, and who has always prospected more or less. About three months ago his brother visited the great Dewey mine in what is known as the "Grape- vine" district, sixty miles east of San Diego. This range of mountains is probably a spur of the San Barnadino range and are called the Vulcan mountains. The Dewey mine is a late discovery and was recently capitalized at one million dollars. It is regarded as a wonder."
WILLIAM T. BRIAN.
William T. Brian, one of the old and favor- ably known citizens and a member of one of the pioneer families of the county, was born in 1845 in Douglas county, and is a son of Will- iam and Anna Lewis Brian, who were born in the same county. William Brian ( father) lo- cated in what is known now as the Brian neigli- borhood in about the year 1843, where he en- tered a large tract of land at one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre, and adding to that
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later considerably more at thirteen dollars per acre. At the time of his death, in 1888, at the age of eighty-one years, he was one of the biggest land owners in the county. Lewis Brian was his paternal grandfather. His ma- ternal grandfather, John Lewis, settled in the same neighborhood, from Ohio, in an early day and is buried at the Hickory Withe cemetery.
William T. Brian was married in 1868 to Miss Sarah Bundy, a daughter of Caleb Bundy. The latter was born in North Carolina and set- tled early in Douglas county, three miles north and one-half mile west of Tuscola. Mr. and Mrs. Brian have one child, a daughter, Ellanor, who is the wife of John Lathrop. Mr. Brian owns at present eight hundred and sixty-two acres of land, lying in one body, and is one of the biggest tax payers in the county. He is a stanch free-silver Democrat and is universally respected by all who know him.
OLIVER H. PARKER.
Oliver 11. Parker, grain buyer at Hayes and Humboldt, and a son of Lines L. Par !: er, of Bowdre township, was born in Vermilion county, Ilinois, in the year A. D. 1860. He resides with his family in Tuscola. In 1881 he was married to Miss Angie Wallace, a daughter of Joseph and Mary Ann ( Breezley) Wallace. Joseph Wallace was a pioneer set- tler in Bowdre township. To Mr. and Mrs. Parker were born four children: Burt I., Fred Earle, Minnie Pearle and Everett Dewey. Mr. Parker is one of the substantial business men of the county.
THOMAS CRUZAN.
Thomas Cruzan was born in Douglas county January 15. 1836, and is a son of the two oldest citizens now living in the county who were born in it. He is a son of Robert Cruzan and Jane Crawford, who settled earlv in the Brown neighborhood, coming from ln diana. Our subject owns two hundred and forty acres of land.
CALEB GARRETT.
Among the oldest residents of Douglas county, is Caleb Garrett, of Tuscola. His an- cestors early made their home in America, his father's great-grandfather. John Garrett by name, and an Englishman by birth, having set- tled in Virginia. He had a son. John Garrett. and a grandson, Welcome Garrett, who was the grandfather of the subject of our sketch. Wel- come Garrett was born in Virginia, and when a young man moved to Surry county, North Car- olina. He served in Tennessee during the In- dian wars prior to the Revolution. He mar- ried Phoebe Sumner, a Pennsylvanian by birth. The Garretts were a strong, vigorous race of men. Joshua Garrett, a brother to Welcome, was killed at the battle of Brandywine, during the Revolutionary war. Lewis, another broth- er, was shot by the Tories before enlisting. William was with Marion in South Carolina through the war, and after the conclusion of the struggle died of disease contracted in the ser- vice. This William Garrett was a man of pow-
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erful build and of great strength. He weighed two hundred and forty pounds, and was called the strongest man in the state of North Caro- lina.
Welcome Garrett became a member of the society of Friends. In 1824 he moved to Wayne county, Indiana. He died in Hamilton county of that state, at the age of eighty-four. 1som Garrett. Caleb Garrett's father, and the son of Welcome Garrett was born in Surry county, North Carolina, in 1796. In 1814 he married Mary Puckett, and the same year moved to Clermont county, Ohio. After a residence there of a year he went to Clinton county. Ohio. where his son Caleb was born. In 1819 he moved to Randolph county, Indiana, and in 1823 to Vigo county of the same state, where he lived till his removal to Illinois, with the ex- ception of part of the year 1839, when he resid- ed in Texas.
on his instruction. His father was a man of considerable education, and under his care he learned rapidly. According to Isom Garrett. his father, obedience to his parents was one of his marked traits. His mother died in 1830, and for a period of nine years succeeding this event, the father and the sons, Caleb and Nathan, kept house for themselves, and did their own cooking, besides attending to their usual occupations. During part of this period Mr. Garrett was in the employment of Chaun- cey Rose, of Terre Haute, and now one of the wealthiest and most liberal citizens of Indiana. Hle drove an ox team for Lucins H. Scott. now of Philadelphia. He dropped corn for twenty- five cents a day, and split rails at from twenty- five to thirty cents a hundred, averaging one hundred and fifty for a usual day's work. For a long time he worked for a wealthy Scotch- man, William Walker, at six dollars a month. At twenty-one he was probably the strongest man in all the country round. Although full of life, he had no intemperate habits. He was a favorite in the community. "He could do as big day's work as anyone," says his father, "and at a country frolic could play a tune on the fiddle second to none."
The date of Caleb Garrett's birth, in Clinton county, Ohio, was the 16th of July, 1816. He was consequently seven years old when the family moved to Vigo county, Indiana, in the vicinity of Terre Haute. His early opportuni- ties for securing an education were very limit- ed. One of the schools which he attended was about three miles and a half from his father's In the period from 1834 to 1839 he made several trips down the river on a flat boat, and thus became well acquainted with the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The greater part of one winter he remained in New Orleans. On a re- turn trip at one time with Captain Shallcross, of Louisville, he was stuck in the ice near Pa- (lucah, Kentucky, and the men were reduced to two crackers a day. On this same trip, in residence near Honey Creek bridge. Here school was sometimes kept for three months in the year, an unusually long period at that day. Another school was afterward established near- er home under the care of Joel Butler, of the state of New York, which for a time afforded excellent advantages. The next school he at- tended was taught by one Joel Thayer, an ex- cellent teacher, but so confirmed and inebriate . coming home, he walked from Evansville to that the children soon discontinued attendance Terre Haute through snow eighteen inches in
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depth Out of the forty boatmen who started at the same time, only Mr. Garrett and a com- panion succeeded in going through, the others falling behind and giving it up before they had gone far.
In 1840, on the day succeeding the exciting presidential campaign of that year in which Mr. Garratt voted for General William Henry Har- rison, he took a steamer for New Orleans on his way to Texas. The steamer stuck fast in the rapids below Terre Haute, the pilot became intoxicated, and Mr. Garrett, in company with two other young men bound for points south, procured a rough spring wagon in which they journeyed from Mt. Carmel to Evansville on the Ohio river, when the three took a steamer and continued their voyage. One of his com- panions left him to go up to the Cuinberland and the other up the Tennessee river. At New Orleans he secured a passage on a steam- ship for Galveston. Texas. When out on the Gulf of Mexico the vessel encountered a ter- rific gale, and for seventy-two hours the ship and crew were in danger of going to the bottom. At Galveston a steamer was taken for Houston. But the steamer stuck fast on the bar, and for a day or two the passengers had time to amuse themselves by fishing in the shallow water for oysters. Mr. Garrett was aiming to make his way first to Independence. in Washington, county. To this point he trav- eled on foot, with the exception of thirty or forty miles before reaching the town, when he had opportunity of riding. At Independence he obtained a mustang pony, and continued his journey to Austin City. The route led two hundred miles through a frontier country in- habited by hostile Indians, At Austin City, on
his arrival, the Congress of the Republic of Texas was in session. Texas had then achieved its independence from Mexico, and formed a separate republic, of which Lamar was presi- dent. Sam Houston was one of the prominent members of the Congress. Mr. Garrett re- mained several weeks in that section of the country, and was frequently in attendance on the sessions of the Congress, on one of which occasions he heard Houston deliver his speech on sectionizing and selling the lands of the Cherokee Indians. Mainly for the purpose of seeing the country, he joined a surveying party, and was absent for some time on the exposed frontier. On his return a company was organ- ized for a buffalo hunt and general exploring expedition, which Mr. Garrett joined. still ani- miated by a desire to see something further of frontier life before he should leave Texas. The party consisted of nine men and two boys. They were attacked by a party of Indians, between thirty and fifty in number. The horse of a young man named Osburn was shot under him, the rider having received a spear wound in the back. The unfortunate man, after being knocked insensible with his own gun by the In- dians, was scalped within sight of the remain- der of the party, and left for dead on the field. He was afterward rescued. and finally reeov- ered from his wound. The whole party effect- ed their escape to a block-house.
Mr. Garrett's visit to Texas had for its end an object different from any yet described in a record of these incidents. On the 20th of De- cember, 1840, he had been married to Irene Puckett, a native of Vigo county, Indiana, but who at that time resided on the Colorado river. twelve miles below Austin City. He had pre-
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viously been acquainted with her in Indiana. In February, 1841. he. with his wife, set out on his return home. In company with three or four others they journeyed by an ox team to Houston, where they took a steamer, and ran down the Buffalo Bayou, and thence across the bay where the vessel struck an old ship anchor, tore off part of the planking, and was in danger of sinking. Remaining some days in Galves- ton. they took passage on the steamer New York for New Orleans. From here they pro- ceeded up the Mississippi and Ohio to Evans- ville, Indiana, and there took stage for Terre Haute, at which place they arrived on the 5th of March. 1841.
Mr. Garrett now engaged in farming and stock raising, at first renting a farm five miles south of Terre Haute. He was soon called up- on, however, to discharge other duties. In Aug- ust. 1842. he was chosen to represent the coun- ty of Vigo in the Indiana Legislature. He took his seat in December. 1842, and served the fol- lowing winter. The next year he was re-elect- . ed, and served another session, performing his duties with credit to himself and satisfaction to his constituents. He was only twenty-six at the time of his first election. Like his father be- fore him. Mr. Garrett was a Whig, and it was as a candidate of the Whig party that he was elected to the Indiana Legislature. At the con- clusion of his second term of office he declined a re-election, and devoted himself more assid- uously than ever to farming and stock raising. He bought a small farm six miles south of Ter- re Haute, but sold it after making improve- ments upon it. He continued to reside in In- diana till 1849. His business operations were attended with success. He desired to invest his
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