USA > Illinois > Warren County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Warren County, Volume II > Part 64
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88
lington, Iowa, whence they afterwards moved to the vicinity of Danville, Iowa, where they are still living, aged respectively eighty-two and seventy-three years.
GODDARD, ROBERT; farmer and stock- raiser; Floyd Township (post office Galesburg) ; is a prosperous self-made man, prominent as a citizen and influential as a Methodist and as a Republican, who is a representative of the old Virginia family of that name. He was born in Floyd Township, August 18, 1844, a son of Francis P. and Margaret (Groves) God- dard. His father was born in Virginia, October 19, 1797, and died in 1882; his mother was born in Kentucky, February 16, 1802, and died No- vember 6, 1871. They emigrated from Ken- tucky to Illinois in 1836, Mr. Goddard having previously settled in the Blue Grass State, where he was married. They stopped a year in Knox County, then located in Floyd Town- ship, where he bought land in Section 12, on which he lived until his retirement from active life, when he removed to Abingdon where he died. He was successful in life, acquiring 483 acres of land and other property. His son Robert received a common school education, was brought up to farming and, at the age of twenty-three years, assumed the manage- ment of his father's homestead on which he has since lived. He owns 245 acres of land, on which are good buildings and all appliances necessary to successful farming. His upright character has endeared him to his neighbors and, for twenty-one years, he has held the office of School Director. He was married at Saluda, Knox County, November 17, 1867, by the Rev. R. Kinnie, to Mary E. Nelson, a na- tive of Knox County, born July 25, 1845, whose father died when she was a child, and who bore him a daughter named Mettie, who married Frank Williams, of Knox County. Mrs. God- dard died August 2, 1871, and Mr. Goddard married Mary Newkirk, born June 4, 1854, a daughter of Artemus Newkirk, who passed his declining years in Kansas City Mo. Mrs. God- dard died February 17, 1901, having borne her husband five children as follows: Alta, Artemus, Ada, Nellie and Robert. Alta married Charles Heady, of Floyd Township.
KENAN, KEZIA (UNDERWOOD); widow of the late Henry Kenan; Floyd Township (postoffice Cameron) ; is a daughter of John
905
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
Underwood, who was born in New York, in 1805, and a granddaughter of Isaac Under- wood, a native of England. Her mother was Cylena Halliwell, who was born in Summit County, Ohio, in 1806, a daughter of William Halliwell, an Englishman, whose wife was a Miss Cox, of Pennsylvania. Mrs. Kenan was born in Summit County, Ohio, January 21, 1846, received a common school education and taught school successfully from the time she was nineteen years old until she was nearly forty. She was married to Mr. Kenan in Cold Brook Township December 2, 1875, and bore him a daughter named Mary A., who is the wife of Roy Martz. Henry Kenan was born at Sandusky, Ohio, in 1826. His father was of Irish birth and his mother a member of a Hol- land-Dutch family. In 1848, when he was about twelve years old, he was brought by his par- ents to Illinois, where he married Indiana Ellis, who bore him children named as follows: Dow, Laban, Lodema, Emma, Alice, Addie, Almeda, Everet, John and James. He died January 8, 1887, leaving a fine property which included three hundred and twenty acres of good land and a large and comfortable residence, erected in 1885. Mr. Kenan was a man of sterling character and of a high order of business ability who won success in the battle of life by perseverance and by upright methods which endeared him to all who knew him. John Underwood, Mrs. Kenan's father, bought a farm in Cold Brook Township in 1848, where he pros- pered abundantly and lived out his days, dying November 24, 1885. His wife died in 1858. He was a local preacher of the Methodist church and was well known throughout Warren County, where he preached for about thirty years. His son, William Underwood, was chap- lain of a Union regiment during the Civil war, and is a prominent Methodist minister now laboring in South Dakota. Daniel Underwood, another brother of Mrs. Kenan's, served in the Fiftieth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, 1861-65, and fought at Fort Donelson, at Pitts- burg Landing and in many other important engagements. Isaac Underwood, Mrs. Kenan's grandfather, came to America early in the cen- tury and fought under the stars and stripes in the War of 1812-14. Mrs. Kenan, who is a woman of much culture and many accomplish. ments, is a devoted and helpful member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
MILWARD, FRANK S .; farmer and stock- raiser; Floyd Township; (postoffice Berwick) ; is distinguished in local history as having been the first man in Knox County to employ a trac- tion engine in threshing. He was quite ex- tensively engaged in threshing for a number of years, and is well known as a breeder of fine horses and is, at this time, the owner of a Percheron that weighs twenty-one hundred pounds and is valued at two thousand dollars. He is the proprietor of a fine farm of two hundred and ten acres, the nucleus of which was a fifty-acre farm in Section 34. This in- crease in his acreage and other evidences of his material prosperity bespeak the skill and energy with which he has carried on scientific farming. Mr. Milward was born in Delaware County, New York, November 15, 1869, and was given a common school education. His par- ents were Thomas and Hannah (Wayne) Mil- ward, who were born in England, the father in 1807. They were married in their native land and two of their children born there. On com- ing to America, Mr. Milward, who was a veteri- nary surgeon, located at Cooperstown, Otsego County, N. Y., where he practiced his pro- fession some years. Eventually he removed to Delaware County, New York, and engaged in farming and dairying. His wife died there in 1895. As soon as he attained his majority, Frank S. Milward left his eastern home for the west, going as far as Kansas but returning to Illinois, where he married and settled down to farming. He has erected fine buildings on his homestead, and it is supplied with every appliance necessary to successful operation. He is a Republican in politics, and is a member of the order of Modern Woodmen of America. He married in Floyd Township, October 31, 1889, Berdella Armstrong, and has two chil- dren named Mabel E. and Walter D. Milward. Mrs. Milward was born in Floyd Township, April 13, 1865, a daughter of John and Jane (Wooden) Armstrong, who came early from Indiana to Illinois.
REYNOLDS, JOHN R .; farmer and stock- raiser; Floyd Township; (postoffice Berwick) ; is descended from the Reynoldses, of South Carolina and the Reeds of Kentucky, his par- ents being Samuel and Ann Jane (Reed) Rey- nolds. His father was born in South Carolina in 1802, and died in 1889; his mother, born
906
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
near Frankfort, Ky., in 1808, died in 1892. Her parents were John and Catherine (Wyet) Reed, and her mother was born near Edinburg, Scot- land. Samuel Reynolds removed from his na- tive state to Kentucky in 1814 and lived near Maysville, until he emigrated to Park County, Ind., where he married. He came to Illinois in 1837 and settled in Section 27, Floyd Town- ship. He prospered in a business way and be- came a large land owner and, at the time of his death, was a member of the Christian Church. John R. Reynolds was born in Park County, Ind., April 3, 1832, and received a public school education. He began active life for himself at the age of twenty-one, and about 1855 bought a farm in Floyd Township, by subsequent pur- chases increasing his real estate holdings to 820 acres. In politics he is independent and is not without considerable local influence. He is a liberal supporter of all interests of the Christian Church. He married, in Floyd Town- ship, in 1854, Elizabeth Armstrong, then twen- ty years old, a daughter of John Armstrong, a pioneer in Illinois in 1835. After the death of his first wife, who lived only about a year after their marriage, he married Maria Harbet, who was born in Illinois, of Virginia parentage. His present wife was Miss Delilah B. Ball, daughter of Doctor Ball and Letitia (Weld) Ball. Doctor Ball was born in New York and settled early in Michigan, where he practiced medicine for half a century; his wife was a native of Delaware County, N. Y. Mr. Rey- nolds' second wife bore him seven children: Theodore C., Laura B., Ella E., Dora A., Clem- ent E., Austin C. and Ernest R.
RIGGLE, ROBERT H .; farmer and teach- er; Floyd Township, (postoffice Cameron) ; represents two most useful callings which have, in a broad way, been more potent in advancing our national interests than any other two that could be named. He was born in Washington County, Penn., April 9, 1841, and received a good common school education. His parents were John and Jane (Hooper) Riggle, natives of Washington county, Penn., who lived out their days there. His father was born in 1798, his mother in 1808; the former died in 1866, the latter in 1880. His grandparents in the paternal line were Abraham and Catharine (Reed) Riggle, who were born in Virginia, the first mentioned near Winchester. Mr. Riggle's mother was a daughter of Thomas and Mary
(Steen) Hooper, of Pennsylvania birth. Robert H. Riggle came to Illinois in 1859, when he was eighteen years old, with two years' ex- perience as a school teacher in Pennsylvania, and took a school in Spring Grove Township. He taught in several townships of Warren County for about thirty years, meantime, in 1872, purchasing his present farm in Section 5, Floyd Township. October 19, 1865, in Cold Brook Township, he married Minnie J. Whit- man who has borne him three children: Archie W .; Lizzie M., who married Clark E. Hart, of Abingdon; and John T. Mrs. Riggle was born in Cold Brook Township, February 7, 1848, a daughter of John T. and Martha (Shelton) Whitman, who died in 1896 and 1894, respectively. The Whitman family, con- sisting of Mrs. Riggle's grandparents and her father, then a mere boy, came from Barren County, Kentucky, to Mason County, Ill., in 1830, where her grandfather Whitman died soon afterward, and, in 1831, Mrs. Whitman and her seven children settled in Section 28, Cold Brook Township. Mr. Riggle is a Demo- crat and has served his fellow-townsmen several terms as Justice of the Peace. He and his wife are generously helpful members of the Christian Church. They passed five months of the year 1898 in California.
ROWE, E. W .; merchant; Cameron, Warren County; is a progressive and prosperous busi- ness man, whose honorable and enterprising methods have made him popular over a con- siderable territory. Mr. Rowe was born in In- diana, August 16, 1828, and was educated in the common schools. His parents were Joseplı and Elizabeth (Plymale) Rowe. His father was born in North Carolina in 1790, and died in 1864; his mother, born in Virginia in 1791, died in 1876. Joseph Rowe came from Indiana to Illinois in about 1831 or 1832 and served as a ranger in the Black Hawk War. After the war he located near Knoxville, where he had as good a farm as there was in Knox County at that time and where he reared his children. Eventually he sold his farm and lived in Knox- ville for some years until he bought another farm near Cameron which he disposed of finally to remove to Cameron, where he built a house which was his home during the re- mainder of his life. He was a man of influence in the community and early filled the office of County Commissioner and was for many years
4
907
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
a Justice of the Peace. Elhanan W. Rowe re- mained with his father until he was twenty- one years old, then went to Iowa where he staid two years, later he became a clerk in a store and eventually acquired an interest in a mer- . cantile business which he retained some years until he removed to Iowa and again engaged in farming. Two years later he sold out his agricultural interests and again went into trade at Cameron. A part of the village of Cameron lies within the borders of Cold Brook Town- ship and Mr. Rowe has several times been elected Assessor, Town Clerk and Road Com- missioner in that township. He has been mar- ried three times. Mary Ann McFarland, his first wife, born in 1829, a daughter of Jere- miah McFarland, a Kentuckian, who was an early settler and farmer in Warren County, bore him a daughter whom they named Flora E .; both are deceased. Margaret Fox, his sec- ond wife, was born in Pennsylvania, a daughter of Benjamin and Eliza Fox, who settled in Floyd Township and lived long at Cameron. She bore him eight children: Elmer, Eli A., James E., Ward, Guy, Irene Maud, Millie and Alonzo C .- the last two mentioned of whom are deceased. His present wife was Laura M. Foster whom he married at Monmouth, July 30, 1895. In politics he is a Democrat and he is a communicant of the Christian Church.
SHELTON, JAMES MASON; farmer and stock-raiser; Floyd Township (postoffice Cameron); is a representative of old families which have long been prominent in Virginia and Kentucky. Samuel Shelton, his great- grandfather, was born in Louisa County, Va., November 3, 1758, and died May 28, 1833. He married Jane Henderson who was born at Han- over, Va., March 19, 1758, and died September 11, 1841. David R. Shelton, his grandfather, was born December 23, 1792, and died in Ken- tucky, March 16, 1847. He married Patsey Haley, who was born June 12, 1795, and died November 30, 1833. Samuel T. Shelton his father was born in Barren Couny, Ky., in 1821, and died in 1893. Eliza Moore, who married Samuel T. Shelton and became the mother of the subject of this sketch, was born in Virginia. in 1824. Mr. and Mrs. Shelton were married in Warren County, June 16, 1846, and their son, James Mason, was born in Floyd Township,
February 2, 1852, educated in common schools near his home, early taught the science of farm- ing and stock-raising, instructed in the creed of the Methodist Church and taught the principles of the Republican party, with which he has acted politically since he attained his majority. David R. Shelton fought in the War of 1812, his father, Samuel Shelton, in the War of the Revolution. The former arrived in Illinois,, November 24, 1837, bringing his family of twelve persons and their portable belongings in a big Kentucky wagon drawn by an ox- team led by a span of horses. "We crossed the river at Beardstown," wrote one of the party, "the weather being rainy, turned to snow, mak- ·ing travel tedious. We finally reached a log- cabin that had been vacated for us. It was called 'ketch 'em all,' and measured about six- teen feet by sixteen, and was primitive in the extreme. We lived in it two years, then settled in Floyd Township." Samuel T. Shelton was, for thirty-five years, a Christian minister and married eighty-seven couples. He served many years as Justice of the Peace and was several times elected to the State Legislature. James Mason Shelton remained on the homestead un- til he was twenty-one years old, when he settled on a farm near Utah, whence he removed to his present farm in Section 9, Floyd Township. He has achieved success as a farmer and stock- raiser, has been a School Director and has . several times been elected constable. His first wife was Julia A. Sales, who was born in Canada in 1857. His present wife, whom he married in Danville, Iowa, August 1, 1894, was Addie L. Kelly, who was born, May 28, 1867, a daughter of William and Sarah (Daimoth) Kelly. He has had born to him children as fol- lows: Laura M., Clark C., Clarence A., Samuel T., Mary Edna, Beulah Grace and Jessie M. Samuel T. is dead.
TINKHAM, WILLARD; farmer and stock- raiser, Floyd Township (postoffice Cameron) ; is animated by that virile New England blood which has contributed to the currents of en- lightenment and material progress which have flowed through the remotest regions of our country. Benjamin Tinkham, his grandfather, was born in Athens, Windham County, Ver- mont, and married Sarah Hills, a native of New York. Their son Jasper N. Tinkham was
908
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
born in Floyd Township, May 13, 1843, and died April 12, 1901. He married Lodema Kenan, also a native of Floyd Township, who was born in 1845 and died in 1870. She was the daughter of Henry and Indiana (Ellis) Kenan, who were born respectively in Ohio and In- diana. Willard Tinkham, son of Jasper N. and Lodema (Kenan) Tinkham, was born in Floyd Township, October 21, 1867, and was educated in the common schools near his father's home. In 1836 Benjamin Tinkham came by wagon from Vermont to Illinois via Canada and Detroit and across the State of Michigan and a portion of Illinois, his journey consuming six weeks. He settled near Mon- mouth, and later in Floyd township, and helped to break the prairie. Jasper N. Tinkham enlist- ed in Company A, Eighty-third Regiment Illi- nois Volunteer Infantry, which under com- mand of Colonel A. C. Harding and later un- der that of Colonel Smith, did gallant work under General Thomas. He participated in many engagements, one of the most notable was that of Fort Donelson; and he was honor- ably discharged from the service and mus- tered out at Chicago, July, 1865. He then mar- ried and began farming in Section 2, Floyd township, where he lived until 1897 when he removed to Cameron, where he died. Willard took up the struggle of life for himself when he was eighteen years old. He has prospered as a stockraiser and now owns 145 acres of good land in Section 15, in Floyd township. As a Republican he has considerable influence, has been tax collector two years and road com- missioner three years. He is a member of the Christian church and of the Cameron Lodge, No. 786, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He married in Floyd township, February . 18, 1892, Effie Overfelt who was born in Cold Brook Township, September 19, 1869, a daughter of C. A. and Mary Jane (Bradley) Overfelt. Her father was born in Missouri, her mother in Illi- nois and her grandfather and her grandmother Overfelt, natives of Virginia, were pioneers of Missouri. Her father fought four years in the Civil war on the Confederate side under Gen- eral Hood, and after the war settled in Cold Brook Township, but eventually returned to Missouri and is now farming in Monroe County that State. Mrs. Tinkham has borne her hus- band three children: : Ralph N., Charles Russell and Willis M.
CHAPTER XLIII.
GREENBUSH TOWNSHIP.
(Township 8 North, Range 1 West.)
Greenbush township is at the extreme south- east corner of Warren County. Although geographically nearest to the frontier at the time that the limits of Warren county were defined by the Act of 1825, no portion of Greenbush township was taken for settlement until 1830, two or three years after settlements had been made in other townships. Many of the farms are still occupied by the families of the pioneers who first took possession by patent. The township is well watered and drained by Nigger creek, which enters at the northwest corner and flows across the town- ship, and by Little Swan creek which enters on Section 19 on the west and joins Nigger creek on Section 16. There is much tillable land in the thirty-six square miles, as well as an abund- ance of timber. The Quincy branch of the Chi- cago, Burlington and Quincy railroad passes across the southeast corner of the township, but there is no railroad station within its limits.
The township was organized and the first election held April 4, 1854. David Armstrong acted as moderator of the meeting, and the officers chosen were: Supervisor, Major John C. Bond; clerk, F. H. Merrill, assessor, A. W. Simmons; collector, William Shores; highway commissioners, J. Butler, R. M. Simmons, H. H. Hewitt; justices of the peace, John C. Bond, L. L. Ury. The present officers are: Supervisor, W. W. Hatch; town clerk, A. H. Wingate; as- sessor, F. E. Burridge; collector, Wyatt S. Hall; highway commissioners, A. L. Wingate, G. W. Franklin, Archie McGown; justice of the peace, J. M. Hendricks. Those who have served the township as supervisors to the present time are John C. Bond, 1854; Levi Lincoln, 1855; John C. Bond, 1856-67; A. W. Simmons, 1868-71; L. M. Green, 1872; Danford Taylor, 1873-74; A. W. Simmons, 1875-76; L. M. Green, 1877; A. W. Simmons, 1878-83; Israel Spurgin, 1884; A. W. Simmons, 1885; Israel Spurgin,
A. La. Mingate
909
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
1886; James C. Johnson, 1887-90; O. Darnielle, 1891; Oscar McMahill, 1892-97; W. W. Hatch, 1898-1902:
Roland Simmons and his family were the first to make their home in Greenbush township, coming from Morgan county in 1830 and set- tling on Section 6. Quite a number of Indians were in the neighborhood then, living in wig- wams a little way southwest of where Green- bush now stands, but they were not trouble- some. On the opening of the Black Hawk war in 1832, Mr. Simmons was compelled to take his family back to Morgan county for safety. He then returned and joined the Rangers and assisted in driving the Indians across the Mississippi, after which the family returned. Mr. Simmons was a Kentuckyan. He lived here twenty-eight years, and reared a large family, dying at the home place in 1858, and his wife a number of years before. The first recorded death in the township was that of a young child of this couple. The only town- site in the township is situated on a portion of the tract of the original Roland Simmons homestead. Jesse W. Bond, Sr., and William Trailor, with their families, came in soon after Mr. Simmons, and during the same year, mak- ing claims on Section 19. They were active and valuable citizens, and accumulated fine prop- erties, which were enjoyed by them and their children. Mr. Bond was the father of Major John C. Bond. He died in 1842, and his wife. in 1848, and both were buried in the family burying ground on the old homestead, where six generations of the Bond family are now rest- ing. Major Bond came in 1832, and was promi- nent in the pioneer history of the township. He was the first justice of the peace in the south part of the county, having been elected in 1835, and as such he performed the first marriage ceremony in the township, uniting Moses D. Hand and Elizabeth Crawford in the holy bands on December 23, 1835. Major Bond was also a county commissioner from 1838 to 1842. and a member of the board of supervisors for several years. He was an officer in the state militia, serving in Colonel Butler's regiment. The major was born in Alabama, where his sons W. G. and Jesse W. were born, then came to Morgan county, Ill., in 1826.
James Simmons came to the township in 1833 from Madison county, Ill., settling on Sec- tion 5. His house was the third one in that part of the county. With him was his wife and 909-15
seven children, and the couple were blessed with four more born in 'Greenbush township. Mr. Simmons died in 1873. F. G. Snapp also came from Kentucky in 1833. Amos Pierce and his son Clement came from Vermont in 1834, taking adjoining claims. Three years later Amos Pierce brought his family here, and it was his home until his death in 1872. The son Clement removed to Roseville township in 1845. William H. Pierce came from Vermont in 1835, locating in the village of Greenbush, where lie taught school for about a year. He then bought land in Berwick township and en- gaged in farming. Charles Stice came in from Henderson county in 1834, settling in the vil- lage of Greenbush (then Greenfield), where he was the first postmaster. He later moved to Swan township where he died in 1869. He was the father of Supervisor D. A. Stice of Swan.
After these pioneers came John Young in 1836, who still resides at Bushnell; Peyton A. Vaughn in 1837 from Kentucky, and still liv- ing in the township; Thomas Moulton, Aaron Powers, William McMahill, Jesse Looney, John Wingate from Maine in 1839, Col. John Butler and his sons John A. and Vincent W. from Ohio in 1839, and James B. Smith who after stopping in the township a short time started for Oregon but died on the way.
In 1851 the township had a visitation of cholera, which resulted in twelve deaths in the neighborhood within a week or ten days. The dead were Lawson H. Walker, Abner Walker, Mrs. Julia Luster, Jos. Sisson, Rollin Ransom, Charles Bruth, Abijah Roberts, Lafayette Rate- kin, George Tally, Jacob Perkins, Sullivan Os- born, and A. J. Willey. There were a number of deaths at the same time at Monmouth. A destructive tornado also did great damage in the township May 22, 1873, coming in from Swan township.
The first school in the township, as far as known, was opened by a young man named Desbro in a log school house southeast of the present village of Greenbush. The latest re- ports filed with the County Superintendent of Schools show that there are now nine districts in the township, all with frame buildings; one male teacher receiving $40 a month, and eleven female teachers receiving from $30 to $45 a month; 107 males and 111 females of school age, of whom 91 males and 97 females were en- rolled in the schools; there were three school
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.