Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Morgan County, Part 163

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913. cn; Short, William F., 1829- 4n
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1286

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HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY.

John Frank received his early mental training in the public schools of Jacksonville, and after- ward worked with his father in the dairy line, finally entering into partnership with him. They jointly and successfully conducted the dairy for twelve years, when John Frank en- tered the grocery business on his own account in a small store on Lafayette Avenue. In 1899 his trade had increased to such an extent that he erected and occupied a large two-story brick building on the corner of Lafayette Avenue and Prairie Street. In 1903 he opened a bakery in the same building. The best of modern machin- ery was installed for the purpose, and the equipment is conceded to be equal to that of any similar establishment in this section of the State. In this enterprise Mr. Frank has met with remarkable success, and the grocery trade has kept pace with it. Starting with a capital of only $200, in six years Mr. Frank has be- come a leading baker and grocer. He devotes himself very diligently to his business and fully deserves the ample measure of success which has attended his efforts.

In 1889 Mr. Frank was united in marriage with Mary Jane Smith, of Jacksonville, a daughter of J. C. Smith. One child, Paul, is the result of this union. Fraternally, he is identi- fied with the K. O. T. M. and the M. W. A.

FREEMAN, (Captain) Joseph Hewett, Super- intendent of the Illinois School for the Blind, Jacksonville, was born in Poland, Me., May 13, 1841, and is a son of Col. Joseph and Abigail (Gross) Freeman. The family traces its de- scent to Edmund Freeman, who was born in Devonshire, England, in 1590, and came to America in 1635, settling at Saugus, later named Lynn, Mass. Edmund Freeman, born in 1657, was, previous to 1692, associated on a committee with John Alden and Miles Standish. Joseph Freeman, great-grandfather of Professor Free- man, was Town Clerk of Duxbury, Mass., from 1779 until 1785.

Col. Joseph Freeman was a successful mer- chant, and his children enjoyed substantial edu- cational advantages. His son, Joseph H., at- tended the public schools, and in 1861 entered the Maine State Seminary, at Lewiston. In 1862 he enlisted for nine months in the Twenty. third Regiment Maine Volunteer Infantry, and was elected Second Lieutenant, his regiment being assigned to picket duty and engaged in

the defense of Washington. On returning from the army, he reentered the seminary, which had been merged into Bates College. Before and during his collegiate course, he taught school at intervals, and in 1864 was graduated from the preparatory institution.

In the spring of 1865 he reenlisted in the service and became Captain of Company H, Fourteenth Regiment Maine Volunteer Infantry, which he commanded until the close of the war. Then he returned to Poland, resumed his studies in Bates College, and taught during the winter of 1865-6. He received the degree of A. M. from Bates College and in 1866 removed to Leland, Ill., where he served three years as Principal of Schools. In the fall of 1869 he was chosen principal of the Brady School at Aurora, and in 1870 became Principal of the Public Schools in Polo, Ill., where he remained until 1874. In the fall of that year, he was called to Denver, Colo., to serve as principal of the High School there. After spending a year in that city, illness compelled his return to Maine.

While convalescing, Capt. Freeman taught in a private school at Unity, Me., but was soon offered the principalship of the Township High School at Streator, Ill., where he served one term. Before going to Streator he was reelected to his old position in Polo, which he filled from 1876 to 1879, serving also as Mayor of that city. In 1879 he served as President of the Illinois School Principals' Society, and in the year named was made Superintendent of the West Side Schools of Aurora, continuing in the latter position until December, 1886. At that period he was appointed Deputy State Superintendent under Dr. Richard Edwards, who, in one of the biennial reports, writes thus of Capt. Free- man: "Mr. Freeman entered upon his duties without previous experience relating to the same (his work as chief deputy), but by his energy, readiness and high executive ability, he soon made himself master of all that belonged to the work." In August, 1889, Capt. Freeman was called to the superintendency of the East Aurora schools, to which position he was seven times reelected. In 1896 he served as Deputy under State Superintendent Inglis, and at the latter's death in 1898, was appointed by Gov. Tanner as his successor, serving as such until January, 1899. He was also Deputy under Supt. Bayliss until July 1, 1902. He was Presi- dent of the Illinois State Teachers' Association

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in 1893, and President of the Illinois School masters' Club for two terms in 1897-8. Captain Freeman's retirement from the post of Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction, in 1902, was due to his appointment to his present posi- tion.

In politics, Capt. Freeman is a Republican, and has been mentioned favorably in connec- tion with the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. He is a devoted member of the Congregational Church, in which he serves as Deacon. For the past twenty-five years he has been a valued member of Aurora Post No. 20, G. A. R., having served as Commander for three years. He was formerly of the Masonic Order in Polo, and was Master of Mystic Tie Lodge. He is now a member of Harmony Lodge, A. F. & A. M., of Jacksonville, and Aurora Com- mandery No. 22, K. T., and has served as Cap- tain General, Generalissimo and Eminent Com- mander.

Mr. Freeman was married August 25, 1867, to Mary A. Stone, of Unity, Me. To them six chil- dren have been born, of whom four are living, viz .: Grace, who is in her sixth year as teacher in the Springfield High School; Joseph Edwin, who is practicing law in New York City; Perley L., who is connected with the office of the Con- solidated Gas Company in New York City, and Harry, who is in his junior year in Illinois College.

Mr. Freeman has been interested in several successful business enterprises, being one of. the ten men who located the Scraper Works in Aurora. Several years ago, he became inter- ested in the milling firm of Burns, Treat & Com- pany, of Lemars, Iowa. Their plant was de- stroyed by fire in 1884, and the business was then reorganized under the name of the Plymouth Rolling Mill Company, capitalized at $50,000. Mr. Freeman has since been a stock- holder of the company, which is doing a large business. He has also invested in farms and other property.

Capt. Joseph H. Freeman is a clear and con- vincing speaker, and is much in demand on public occasions. His work as an educator has received high commendation from prominent sources, and he is in possession of formal testi- monials from boards of education and other public bodies, attesting in emphatic terms to the value of his labors in this direction. Though he has been a resident of Jacksonville for a

comparatively brief period, he has become inti- mately identified with the social, fraternal, edu- cational and religious interests of the city, as his strong characteristics and worth have found ready recognition among people of intelligence and culture. He is an earnest worker, retain- ing the energy and ambition of young manhood, and, as the head of one of the greatest philan- thropic institutions of the Middle West, has found a sphere where his splendid attainments can be best applied.

FRENCH, Charles S., farmer and banker, Chapin, Ill., was born on his father's farm east of that place March 25, 1851, and is a son of Samuel and Martha (Fox) French. (An ex- tended sketch of his father's career will be found elsewhere in this volume.) After com- pleting his education in the public schools, he began agricultural operations on a portion of his father's farm, to which he has added from time to time, until he now possesses about 600 acres, all of which, excepting a small timber tract, is under a high state of cultivation. He has carried on general farming and stock- raising successfully, and has come to be ranked as one of the most successful agriculturists of Morgan County.

Mr. French is regarded as one of the public spirited and enterprising men of Morgan County, and has always exhibited a deep interest in those affairs pertaining to the ad- vancement of the community in which he re- sides. He is a strong Republican, and has been actively interested in the success of the men and measures of his party. At various times he has filled local offices, and for some time was a member of the Chapin Village Board. A stanch worker in the cause of temperance, he has been one of the leaders in the fight against the maintenance of saloons in Chapin, which for several years has been successful. He was one of the founders of the State Bank of Chapin, of which he is Vice-President.

On December 31, 1874, Mr. French married Adelia A. Anderson, a native of Bethel, Mor- gan County, and a daughter of Alexander An- derson. The latter was born in Owensboro, Ky., removed from that State to Ohio, and in 1838 came to Illinois, locating near Meredosia, Morgan County. In 1840 he purchased a por- tion of the Troy farm two miles west of Chapin, where he spent the remainder of his life. In

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politics he was a strong and active Republican. Mr. and Mrs. French have had three children, as follows: Rena Mabel, who first married Leonard L. Masters (now deceased), now the wife of J. J. Sheppard, principal of the High School of Commerce, New York; and Clarence Anderson and Laura Frances, both deceased.

FRENCH, Samuel, (deceased), for many years one of the most widely known and highly re- spected agriculturists of Morgan County, was born in Loudon, N. H., November 9, 1812, and died at his home east of Chapin January 25, 1879. His parents were Samuel and Susan (Tilton) French. In Halstead, Essex County, England, was born on March 13, 1603, Lieuten- ant William French, the founder of the family in America. He came to this country in 1635 and settled in Dunster Street, Cambridge, Mass., the property of which he became the owner comprising the present site of Harvard Uni- versity. Samuel French, the subject of this brief sketch, emigrated to Illinois in 1837, locating first at Alton. During his two years' residence there he was variously engaged, dividing his time between the hauling of goods from Alton to Meredosia and the operation of a small dairy. Though he worked hard to attain the success which he had been led to believe was so easy in the West, he became discouraged with the outlook, and had almost decided to return to his home in New Hampshire, when he was prompted to come to Morgan County, about the richness of whose land he had heard so much. Coming to the western portion of the county in 1839, he soon secured employment, and by 1841 had saved enough money to enable him to pur- chase of a Mr. Barton a farm near Chapin, on which his son, Arthur L. French, now resides. Still heavily in debt, he commenced to im- prove the place and rid himself of the incubus of debt. The success which met his efforts may best be judged by the statement that, at the time of his death, he was the proprietor of about 1,000 acres of generally fertile and highly cultivated land. Upon this property he resided during the remainder of his life, and became widely known as a successful farmer and stock- raiser-a man who kept fully abreast of the most advanced thought in agricultural science.

Mr. French exhibited a deep and abiding in- terest in all matters pertaining to the general welfare of the community in which he lived.

Reared a Whig, he was a strong Antislavery man, and, upon its organization, naturally iden- tified himself with the Republican party, voting for General John C. Fremont in 1856, despite an overwhelming public sentiment against that candidate in his locality. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was one of the first and most liberal contributors of his means toward the support of the Union cause, and served as Cap- tain of the "Wideawakes" during the existence of that organization. Throughout his entire life he embraced every possible opportunity to as- sist in the promotion of worthy enterprises of a public nature, for he was a thoroughly public spirited and progressive citizen. He was an es- pecially stanch friend of education, and, asso- ciated with Mr. Moody and J. D. Cooper, erected the first schoolhouse in his section of the county. For many years he served as a mem- ber of the School Board, and always endeavored to secure the best possible instructors, regard- less of the question of remuneration. On but one occasion did he permit his name to be used as a candidate for political office, when he ac- cepted the nomination for Representative in the Legislature, but, on account of the overwhelm- ing Democratic majority in the district he was defeated at the polls. In religion he was a member of the Congregational Church at Joy Prairie, to whose support he was a liberal con- tributor.

Mr. French was first married June 2, 1835, to Nancy S. Thompson of Concord, N. H., who died in 1849. Their children, all of whom are now deceased, were as follows: Frederick, Frederick T., Charles F., and Laura A. The latter became the wife of Henry J. Atkins, and left one son, Herbert F. Atkins, now a resident of Jacksonville. On April 17, 1850, Mr. French was united in marriage with Martha Fox, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, and a daughter of Rev. John Fox, a minister of the Methodist Protestant Church. They became the parents of two sons-Charles Samuel and Arthur Lin- coln, both of Chapin. Mrs. French died Janu- ary 28, 1891.

GAILEY, Byron Sinclair, M. D., physician and surgeon, Jacksonville, Ill., was born at Pren- tice, Morgan County, Ill., November 9, 1873, the son of Dr. Watson W. and Mary E. (Sinclair) Gailey. His father, for several years a resident of Morgan County, was born near New Castle,

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Pa., in 1842. During the Civil War he served as Surgeon with the Seventh Army Corps, Army of Virginia. He was graduated with the class of 1863 from Philadelphia University of Medi- cine and Surgery. Removing to Morgan County in 1864, he first taught school in the Mauvais- terre District in order to obtain sufficient funds to enable him to open an office for the practice of his chosen profession. His first location for practice was in Jacksonville, where he remained until 1866, in which year he settled in Pren- tice. Since 1877 he has been established in Ashland, Ill. He has come to be regarded as one of the most successful practitioners in Cass County.

Dr. Byron S. Gailey received his preparatory education in the public schools of Ashland. En- tering the medical department of the Univer- sity of Michigan at Ann Arbor, he was gradu- ated therefrom in 1895 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He has also had the ad- vantage of post-graduate work in Chicago, New York and Vienna, in each of those cities con- fining his research to diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat. Since his location in Jackson- ville, May 1, 1897, he has devoted himself to practice in this special department of medicine and surgery, and although a comparatively young man, has already established a reputation as an expert in this direction. For some time past he has been in charge of the eye and ear work at the Illinois Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. Dr. Gailey's sole fraternal connec- tion is with the Masons and Elks. He was united in marriage September 29, 1898, with Anna P. Smith, of Island Grove, Sangamon County, Ill., a daughter of John P. Smith, now a resident of Jacksonville.

GALLAHER, (Rev.) William Green, (deceased), Presbyterian minister, was born in Roane County, Tenn., February 27, 1801, a son of Thomas and Mary (Green) Gallaher, both na- tives of Pennsylvania. James, father of Thomas, located in the wilderness of Eastern Tennessee between 1810 and 1820. Thomas came to Illi- nois in 1833, locating in Sangamon County, where he died in 1843. Early in life William G. Gallaher was a teacher. In 1823 he entered Greenville (Tenn.) College, and afterward studied theology under the instruction of his older brother, Rev. James Gallaher, and Rev. Frederick A. Ross. In 1827 he was licensed to

preach by the Presbytery of Holston, Tenn. His health became impaired and for two years he traveled through the South, a portion of the time as a missionary. At Winchester, Ky., he preached for two years, and in the fall of 1831 he located at Cincinnati as copastor of the Third Presbyterian Church, of which his brother, James, was pastor. In that city, March 12, 1833, he married Sarah Kautz, and in the same year removed to Sangamon County, Ill., locating on a farm near Berlin. Soon after- ward he became pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Pisgah, Morgan County, and con- tinued in that pastorate for thirty-one years, donating his entire salary to the various chari- ties of the church, and supporting himself and a large family by the successful management of his farm and other business enterprises. Mr. Gallaher was deeply interested in the cause of education, and served for many years as Trus- tee of the Jacksonville Female Academy and of Blackburn University. His death occurred in Jacksonville, Morgan County, Ill., December 8, 1881.

GIBSON, G. C., farmer and stockman, resid- ing on his well-improved farm on Section 20, Township 14, Range 9, Morgan County, was born in Township 13 December 3, 1850, the son of John M. and Mary (Davidson) Gib- son. The paternal grandfather, James Gibson, and his wife, Hannah, were natives of Tennes- see and came to Morgan County in the spring of 1830. James Gibson entered 240 acres of Government land soon ofter reaching the county, which he farmed during his life, and at his death, in the winter of 1855-6, left five chil- dren, of whom John M. Gibson, the father of G. C., was second. He bought the old home- stead, but later sold it and purchased another farm in the neighborhood, on which he died in 1890. His widow, who survives him, was born in 1829, and makes her home in Jacksonville.

G. C. Gibson attended the district school and later was a pupil at Whipple Academy and Illi- nois College, at Jacksonville. His home has always been on the farm, and at the age of twenty-five he commenced his career as an inde- pendent farmer. He devoted thirteen years of his early manhood to teaching, an occupation for which he was well fitted, being a man of broad intelligence, good memory, patience and perseverance.

Ralph Repsoldo.

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Mr. Gibson was married December 24, 1875, to Lavinia Carlile, daughter of H. and Anna (Cooper) Carlile, and they became the parents of four children, all of whom are living: Ed- win H., who is principal of the High School at Bloomfield, Ind .; Hattie M., who is a graduate of De Pauw University and resides at home; Willis Stanley and Charles R., students of the university named. For two terms (1893-99) Mr. Gibson was a member of the Board of County Commissioners; and has been a mem- ber of the School Board several terms, Clerk of Road District six years, and was a Census Taker in 1900. He moved to his present farm of 120 acres in 1877. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Court of Honor, and a Republican in politics.

GILLETT, Philip Goode, LL. D., for thirty- seven and a half years Superintendent of the Illinois Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb, Jacksonville, Ill., was born at Madison, Ind., March 24, 1833, and died at his home in Jacksonville October 2, 1901. He was generally recognized as one of the highest American authorities on the education of the deaf. He was the son of the Rev. Samuel Trum- bull and Harriet Ann (Goode) Gillett, the latter a descendant of John Goode, of Whitby, England, a Virginia colonist of the seventeenth century, through Philip Goode, who emigrated from Prince Edward County, Va., to the Miami valley, Ohio, in 1805.

The record of the Goode family has been traced back to the close of the tenth century. In the reign of Ethelred II, in the year 988 A. D., Goda, Earl or Thane of Devon, a Saxon, com- manded the inhabitants of that shire in a fight with the Danes. He was the first of the family mentioned in the historical records in England. The line from Richard Gode, who lived in the fourteenth century, is as follows, down to Har- rlet Ann Goode, who was a representative of the sixteenth generation; Richard Gode; Wil- liam Gode; William Gode; William Gode; Wal- ter Gode; William Good or Gode; Walter Goode; Richard Goode; Richard Goode, born in 1580 and died in 1650; John Goode, the immi- grant from Whitby, born in 1620 or 1630; Samuel Goode, born about 1655 to 1658; Samuel Goode, born In 1700; Robert Goode, born 1720- 30; Philip Goode, born March 15, 1777; Harriet Ann Goode, born August 24, 1813. John Goode,

the founder of the family in America, first set- tled in the Barbadoes between 1643 and 1650, and came to the Colony of Virginia some time prior to 1660. Samuel, his son, was born on the Barbadoes Islands between 1655 and 1658. and accompanied his parents to Virginia. His son, Samuel, was born in Henrico County, Va., about 1700, and afterward lived in Prince Ed- ward County, Va. Robert, son of the second Samuel, also a resident of Prince Edward County, was born between 1720 and 1730. Philip, father of Harriet Ann Goode, was born in Prince Edward County, March 15, 1777, and died at Campbell Courthouse, Va., September 24, 1824. He married Rebekah Hayes.

The Gillett family was founded in America in 1630. On May 30, 1630, the ship "Mary and John" arrived at Nantucket, Mass., from Eng- land, with 140 passengers, the congregation of the Rev. John Washburn and the Rev. John Maverick, who had been chosen their ministers at Plymouth, England, at which point they had gathered from Devonshire, Dorsetshire and Somersetshire. This colony first settled at Dor- chester, Mass., and in 1635 removed to Windsor, Conn. Among them were two brothers, Jona- than and Nathan Gillet. Dr. Philip Goode Gil- lett was descended from the former, the line being as follows: Jonathan, Jonathan, Jr., Thomas, Jonah, Simeon, Simeon, Jr., (who mar- ried Salome Palmer, a daughter of John Smith of Connecticut). Their youngest son was Sam- 'uel Trumbull Gillett, who was born in Madison County, N. Y., February 19, 1809. The latter first spelled his name Gillet, in accordance with the style adopted by his forefathers.

The Goode family presents a long roll of pa- triots who served their country in the Indian wars, the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Civil War. In church and state and all the professions the family name has been car- ried high. Samuel Trumbull Gillett entered the United States Navy as a midshipman, and was graduated at the head of a class of sixty, which embraced Admirals Dahlgren, Briggs, Glisson and Rowan, and Captain Semmes of the "Alabama." Resigning his naval commission, hc entered the ministry, and for more than half a century was prominent in the Methodist Episco- pal Church. He was the father of four sons: Philip Goode; Francis Trumbull, Paymaster in the United States Navy; Simeon Palmer (the only survivor), Commander in the United

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States Navy, President of the Citizens' National Bank of Evansville, Ind .; and Dr. Omer Tousey Gillett, late of the medical faculty of the Iowa State University.

Dr. Philip Goode Gillett was graduated from Asbury (now De Pauw) University in 1852, and became a teacher in the Indiana Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb, with the expectation of studying medicine later; but the needs of the deaf so impressed him that he decided to make their education his life work. When called to Illinois, April 26, 1856, his en- gagement was "on trial." As no other engage- ment was ever made with him he continued there "temporarily" for over thirty-seven and a half years.

When he assumed the duties of Superintend- ent of the institution, Dr. Gillett was but twenty-three years of age, and some who were inclined to doubt his capacity at the time styled him "that boy who has come to run the deaf and dumb." Only 22 out of 107 pupils and only two teachers remained. How well he succeeded in the difficult task of creating and organizing a new corps of officers and teachers, winning public confidence and gathering old and new pupils, is shown by the report of the Board of Directors, December 26, 1856, which states that "the institution opened this session with the largest number of pupils it has ever had-109." The report goes on to congratulate the State on having secured a man of such vigor, accomplish- ment and especial fitness for the difficult posi- tion. That this congratulation-renewed by succeeding boards again and again during his long administration-was well deserved then, and always continued to be, was evidenced by the high opinion of others engaged in the same work when, at the World's Congress Auxiliary of the Columbian Exposition, he was chosen presiding officer of the World's Congress of In- structors of the Deaf, an appointment later ap- proved by the unanimous vote of the Conference of Principals . of American Institutions for the Deaf. Twenty-two pupils when he took charge -a few short of six hundred in 1893! For many years the enrollment in the Illinois Insti- tution exhibited the largest aggregation of deaf persons in the world. And Dr. Gillett did not permit the institution in his care to excel in numbers alone. It was among the first to afford methodical manual training; the first to recog- nize the fitness of educated women for this

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Morgan County, Part 163

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913. cn; Short, William F., 1829- 4n Publication date: 1906 Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1286

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913. cn; Short, William F., 1829- 4n
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1286