Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Warren County, Volume II, Part 73

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Church, Charles A., 1857-
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 620

USA > Illinois > Warren County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Warren County, Volume II > Part 73

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deed being made to D. Mosher, L. H. Young and M. W. Hall as trustees. The present trus- tees in charge of the cemetery are J. R. Smith, C. M. Young, D. Mosher and Mrs. Irene Mof- fet. Mr. Young, secretary ; Mrs. Moffet, treasurer.

One of the first school houses in the town- ship, outside of Monmouth, was erected about 1835, on the southwest corner of Section 13. It was afterward moved to the north side of Section 12, where it was used for school pur- poses and also as a house of worship for the Talbot Creek Christian church until the erec- tion of their first church building near by, on the farm of David Morrow. After a number of years it was bought by Henry Sigafoos, who moved it to his place southwest of Gerlaw, where it was used for a while as a residence.

The latest reports on file with the County Superintendent show nine school districts in the township, with eleven frame and three brick school buildings. One new brick build- ing is in course of erection in Monmouth city. Three male teachers are paid from $60 to $100 per month, and forty-three female teachers from $30 to $70 per month. There were 1,188 males of school age in the township, of whom 817 were enrolled in the schools; and 1,124 females of school age, of whom 858 were en- roled. The school libraries numbered seven, with 850 volumes, valued at $815. The tax levy for school purposes was $40,250; the value of school property was $105,650; the value of school apparatus was $925; and the bonded debt for schools was $50,000.

The assessment roll for 1901 shows that there were then in the township 1,158 horses, 2,063 cattle, 30 mules, 169 sheep, and 2,052 hogs. The total value of personal property in the township was $2,012,945, and the assessed value of the same $408,780. The assessed valuation of lands was $370,000, and of lots, $634,325.

The population of Monmouth township in 1900, including Monmouth city, was 8,682, an increase of 601 over the figures of 1890. The population outside of the city was 1,222.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

ALBERT, CONRAD; farmer and stock- raiser; Monmouth township; is an influential Republican, an elder in the United Presbyterian Church at Eleanor, a member of McClanahan Post, No. 330, Grand Army of the Republic,

and one of the most respected citizens of his county. He was born near Frankfort, Ger- many, January 26, 1845, a son of David and Julia Jane Albert. His father, who was a weaver in Germany, became a farmer in New York State and, in 1872, bought land in Green- bush Township, Warren County, where he died in 1883. His wife died at the home of the sub- ject of this sketch in Monmouth Township, in 1895. Her children were named David, Con- rad, Philip, Henry, Libbie, Carrie and Phoebe. Philip lives in Norwood, David in New York, the others, with the exception of Conrad, in Greenbush Township. Libbie is Mrs. Whistler; Carrie (now deceased) was wife of Elijah Wood, and Phoebe is Mrs. Henry Taylor. Con- rad Albert was rearea and educated in Erie County, N. Y., and, in 1864, enlisted in Com- pany A, Ninety-eighth Regiment New York Vol- unteer Infantry, and guarded Confederate pris- oners at Elmira, N. Y., until he was honorably discharged from the service December, 1865. He came to Greenbush Township in 1870 and engaged in farming and stock-raising. In 1881, in Monmouth Township, he married Elizabeth Avenell, who was born on the farm on which they now live, a daughter of 'Thomas and Jane (Struthers) Avenell, pioneers in Warren County, of whom an account is given in a biographical sketch of Charles P. Avenell, else- where in this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Albert have children as follows: Mrs. Etta May Ramp, of Indianola, Iowa; Lena, Reuben L., Thomas, Willie, Katie Helen and Mary Margaret.

AVENELL, CHARLES P., farmer and stock- feeder, Monmouth Township, Warren County, Ill., is a leading citizen who has been Supervisor of his township, was a mem- ber of the building committees who had in charge the erection of the Warren County Court House and also the brick school house at Cedar Hill; is a mem- ber of George Crook Post, No. 81, Grand Army of the Republic, at Kirkwood. In 1874 helped organize the Second National Bank of Mon- mouth and since its organization has · been a director. He was born in Monmouth Town- ship, February 8, 1845, a son of Thomas and Jane (Struthers) Avenell. His father was born in England, December 31, 1820, a son of Charles and Eliza Avenell, who with their seven children came to the United States in 1837 and settled in Herkimer County, New York,

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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.

whence, in 1844, they removed to the vicinity of Mineral Point, Wis. Charles Avenell died in Iowa County, Wis., in 1877, aged ninety- two years, his wife dying at the same place in 1880. They had children as follows: Charles, who died on the home farm near Mineral Point, aged eighty-nine years ; Mrs. Eliza Baxter, who died at Mineral Point in 1887 ; Thomas, who was the father of the subject of this sketch ; John and William, twins, of whom the first mentioned dieu at Storm Lake, Iowa, February, 1901. William, who was a member of Captain Stapp's Company of Warren County in the Mexican War, still lives in Washington; Joseph, who died in Wisconsin, in 1900; Jacob, who went to Pike's Peak in 1859 and died in New Mexico in 1861; and Hannah, who married Charles Weston of Richmond, Wis. Thomas Avenell began active life as a poor boy, came to Warren County, Ill., in lo41, where he bought eighty acres of unimproved land in Spring Grove Township. This he sold in 1857 in order to buy the northeast quarter of Sec- tion 6, Monmouth Township, which was only partially improved, and where he farmed suc- cessfully until his death, which occurred Janu- ary, 1894, his wife, the mother of Charles P., dying in 1884. He married in Warren County, January, 1844, Jane (Struthers) Brown, who was born in Rockbridge County, Va., a daugh- ter of William and Jane (Lindsay) Struthers, natives of Scotland, who settled in Virginia and afterwards removed to Ohio, where they both died. Mrs. Avenell's first husband was John Brown, who came with her to Warren County in 1836 and died at Sugar Tree Grove, in 1842, leaving two children-the Rev. Will- iam Brown, of Fowler, California, and Thomas Lindsay Brown, who was drowned in Cedar Creek in 1858. Thomas and Jane Avenell had children as follows: Charles P .; James S., of Hale Township; John B., who died in infancy; Elizabeth Jane, who married Conrad Albert, of Monmouth Township. Mr. Avenell was married a second time, on June 2, 1885, to Miss Kather- ine Donahue, who still survives him, residing on the old homestead. He became prominent as a farmer and stock-grower and was influ- ential as a Republican, holding several town- ship offices.

Charles P. Avenell received a common-school education and entered Monmouth College in 1862. In 1864 he enlisted in Company A, One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Regiment, Illinois

Volunteer Infantry, for one hundred days. His regiment was mustered into the United States service at Quincy, and served in the Army of the West, being stationed at Fort Leaven- worth, Kansas, where Mr. Avenell did garri- son duty and helped to guard prisoners until honorably discharged, October, 1864. Return- ing to Monmouth Township, he began farming and has become one of the extensive stock- feeders of Warren County, owning 440 acres of land in Section 6, Monmouth Township; Sec- tion 31, Spring Grove Township, and Section 36, Sumner Township, which he helped to im- prove. In politics he is a Republican and he and his wife are charter members of the United Presbyterian Church at Eleanor. He married, in Monmouth Township, June 6, 1866, Helen V. Law, who was born in Ohio, January 27, 1845, the daughter of James and Mary (Skinner) Law, natives of Pennsylvania and Ohio respec- tively. In 1849 they settled in Monmouth Township where Mr. Law became prominent as a stock-shipper, feeder and farmer, having shipped the first car of stock by rail from Mon- mouth in 1855. Mr. Law died in 1884, and Mrs. Law in December, 1899. Mr. and Mrs. Avenell have had four children: Robert L., who is en- gaged in cattle ranching at Semitropic, Cal .; Thomas William, who died in 1888, aged fifteen years; James Frank, who is orange ranching at Naranjo, Cal., and Helen J., wife of H. P. Clark. Following are the names of Mrs. Aven- ell's brothers and sisters: Robert, of Ring- gold, Iowa; Mary, who married Doctor Horne, of Mount Ayr, Iowa; Sarah, and William, of Monmouth; Samuel, a resident of Mercer County; Charles, Marcia, Lucy and James, who are deceased.

BLOSSER, JOHN P .; farmer; Monmouth Township; is an influential and well-known citizen who is active as a Republican and as a Methodist, and is a member of Monmouth Lodge, No. 37, A. F. & A. M. He was born in Adams County, Ind., in 1855, a son of John and Margaret (Martin) Blosser, natives of Ohio. His father, who was a farmer, was a pioneer in Adams County, and died there in 1855, and his widow married John H. Baird, and about 1859 removed to Kosciusko County, where Mr. Baird, who was a farmer, died about 1873 and Mrs. Baird, November, 1895. John and Margaret (Martin) Blosser had children as follows: Mrs. Hannah Horton, of Indiana;

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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.

Daniel S .; Mrs. Mary Bennett, and James of Kosciusko County, and John P. Mrs. Baird bore her husband one child, Fred Baird, of Indiana. John P. Blosser attended public schools and was taught the mysteries of farm- ing in Kosciusko County, Ind., and, in Febru- ary, 1871, when sixteen years old, came to Hale Township, Warren County, Ill., where he worked by the month at farm labor. Later he worked in Lenox Township for E. Z. Paul, eleven years. In 1899 he bought his present farm of 103 acres of Sarah Martha Brooks, and is winning success as a farmer and stock- raiser. He married, in Monmouth, in 1898, Sarah E. Burkholder, who was born in Penn- sylvania, a daughter of Jacob and Martha Burkholder. For information concerning Mrs. Blosser's family, the reader is referred to a biographical sketch of J. C. Burkholder, which is included in this work. Mr. and Mrs. Blosser have a daughter named Mary Esther. While he was a citizen of Lenox Township Mr. Blosser filled the office of Constable.

BROOKS, CHAPMAN V .; farmer; Monmouth township; is an honored pioneer of his county, was the first superintendent of schools in Mon- mouth, has made liberal donations to Mon- mouth College, is a life member of the War- ren County Library Association, and as a citi- zen and a Republican, has long been a leader in public affairs. He was born in Jefferson County, N. Y., November 22, 1822, a son of Joseph and Clarissa (Ford) Brooks, na· tives respectively of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Joseph Brooks was a son of another Joseph Brooks, also a native of Massachusetts, who served the cause of the American colonies two years in the Revolu- tionary war, and who settled and died in Jef- ferson County, N. Y. The second Joseph Brooks was an American soldier in the War of 1812. His wife died in New York in 1830, and in 1851 he joined his son Chapman V. in Monmouth Township, where he died in 1875, aged sixty-four years. The following are the names of his children: Anna Jeannette, died in Illinois; Joseph Russell, in New York, and Lavina, in Illinois; Edwin, formerly of War- ren county, lives in Iowa; Mrs. Clarissa White lives in New York. Chapman v. Brooks was reared in Jefferson County, N. Y., and, after receiving a common school education, worked his way through Dickinson College, as a dis- trict school teacher, as a singing school teacher

and otherwise, graduating in 1849. He came to Monmouth in 1850, and taught several schools in the county, and was the first super- intendent of schools at the county seat. He cleared, improved and owns a farm of one hundred and sixty-seven acres, which he bought in 1850, of Peter Butler. He married in Penn- sylvania, in 1850, Mary Jane Weakley, who was born in that state, a daughter of James Weak- ley, and who died in 1863, after having borne him children as follows: Joseph, of Mon- mouth; Priscilla (Mrs. McGinnis) of Mon- mouth; Willis James, of Iowa; Albert, a farmer in Henderson County. In Warren County, in 1866, Mr. Brooks married Julia Thompson, who was born at Columbus, Ohio, a daughter of James and Elizabeth Thompson, who passed their declining years in Warren County. By his second marriage he had a son, Milton, who lives at Centralia, Ill. Julia (Thompson ) Brooks died in 1894, and Mr. Brooks' present wife was Mattie Randall, a native of Illinois, who, before her marriage, was a successful teacher. Mr. Brooks has filled the offices of Supervisor and Highway Commissioner, and has done much toward the improvement of roads round about Monmouth. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church and was, for a time, Superintendent of its Sunday School.

BRUNER, ARNOLD TRUMAN, Chairman of the Board of Supervisors of Warren County (P.O. Gerlaw), was born in Warren County,Ill., April 7, 1843, a son of Peter and Sally Clay- comb) Bruner, both natives of Breckinridge County, Ky. Peter Bruner was a son of Peter and Hettie (Elder) Bruner, natives of Ger- many, who have seven sons and three daugh- ters, eight of whom are living, and one of whom, Archibald Bruner, died May 28, 1896, and one daughter, Clara Bruner, died April 3, 1902. Sally Claycomb was a daughter of Frederick and Mary (All) Claycomb, her father being a native of Germany, and her mother of Scotland. Peter Bruner came to Warren County in 1836 and settled in Coldbrook Town- ship, where he married two years later. In 1839 he removed to Monmouth Township, where he spent the remainder of his life. He died July 25, 1886.

Arnold T. Bruner has spent his entire life in Monmouth Township. After leaving school he engaged in farming, to which his life has been devoted, with the exception of the years

957-18

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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.

spent in public office. He has been a stanch Republican from the day he attained his major- ity, and cast his first presidential vote for Lin- coln in 1864. For eighteen years, by successive re-elections, he held the office of Road Com- missioner, and has served as Assistant Super- visor about twelve years. In the fall of 1886 he was elected Sheriff of Warren County, which office he filled four years. In 1900 he was elected Chairman of the Warren County Board of Supervisors, and continued to occupy that position until the fall of 1902, when he was elected to the office of Sheriff of Warren County. Fraternally he is a Mason. Mr. Bruner has shown himself to be possessed of an admirable public spirit and many of those who know him best declare that he is log- ically in line for further political preferment.

BURFORD, C. M .; farmer and stock-feeder; Monmouth Township, is a successful, well- known citizen, who takes a public spirited view of all questions affecting the interest of the county. With his wife he has labored zealously and helpfully for the maintenance of the good work of the United Presbyterian church. He was born on the farm on which he now lives, in 1865, a son of Amos and Margaret (Ken- dall) Burford. His father was born in Penn- sylvania, October 19, 1828, a son of Jeremiah and Eliza (Montgomery) Burford, natives of that State, who came early to Illinois. Jere- miah Burford died in Fulton County in 1873, his wife in 1864. Their son Amos was reared and educated in Pennsylvania and came to Warren County in 1857. In 1860 at Monmouth, he married Margaret Kendall, a native of Erie County, and a daughter of Robert and Anna (McNair) Kendall, who were born in Erie County, Penn., coming in 1852 to Monmouth Township, where Mr. Kendall bought a prairie farm, which with a timber tract, he improved into a fine agricultural property, on which he died in 1881, his wife in 1869. After his mar- riage, Amos Burford settled on the farm which is now the home of the subject of this sketch, where he and his wife lived until his retire- ment from active farm life and their removal to Monmouth. He several times filled the of- fice of Assistant Supervisor and was a Road Commissioner twenty-seven years. His wife bore him five children, three of whom are liv- ing. His sons, William R. and Frank A., are farmers and stock-raisers in Monmouth Town-

ship. His daughter Anna, who became Mrs. Williams, died in Monmouth Township in 1883. C. M. Burford received a common school edu- cation, was reared to farming and was a stu- dent in Monmouth College. Afterward he en- gaged in farming, and has become prominent as a stock-feeder and shipper. He married, in Monmouth Township, in 1893, Ella M. Mickley, who was born in Pennsylvania, the daughter of Jacob and Anna (Arendt) Mickley. Politically he is a Republican, but is not particularly ac- tive in party work and has never been a seeker of office for himself.

BURKHOLDER, J. C .; farmer and stock- raiser; Monmouth Township; is a representa- tive of an old American family which has been prominent in America since John Burk- holder came from Germany, unmarried, to Pennsylvania, and fought in the Revolutionary War for the liberty of the colonies. He mar- ried in Pennsylvania and became the founder of the American family of Burkholder. His son Jacob married Sarah Esther Cline and they were the parents of Jacob Burkholder, who married Martha McMillen and became the father of J. C. Burkholder of Monmouth Town- ship, who is the owner of a gun which his great- grandfather brought with him from Germany and used effectively in fighting Indians at Fort Du Quesne, Penn. Jacob Burkholder, grand- father of J. C., was a farmer and lived out his days in Pennsylvania. His son Jacob was born in 1825 and became a blacksmith and wagon- maker. He served through the Civil war as a member of a Pennsylvania regiment and, in 1867, emigrated to Monmouth, where for a time he worked as a blacksmith. Later he farmed and shod horses in Spring Grove Town- ship, where he died July 4, 1881. His wife, who was born in 1825, died at Monmouth in 1896, leaving four children as follows: Mrs. Lydia Miner, of Abingdon, Ill., Mrs. Mary Nor- man, of Monmouth; Mrs. Sarah Blosser of Monmouth Township, and J. C. Jacob Burk- holder had one sister, Mrs. Betsey Horner, who came to Warren County in 1853 and died there in 1881. J. C. Burkholder attended the public schools in Spring Grove Township and from his childhood assisted in carrying on the work of the farm until he found employment as a clerk in the grocery store of Cable and Wright, at Monmouth. Later he was a clerk in the grocery of Hawkins & Galbraith, and

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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.

after some years he bought the business which he continued under the firm name of Burk- holder & Spicer until he sold it in order to buy the Rankin farm in Monmouth Township. Eventually he sold the Rankin farm and bought the J. S. Murray farm, which consists of 240 acres, and has improved it and provided it with good buildings, and is one of the successful farmers and stock-raisers in his part of the county. In politics he is a Republican and he has filled the office of Assistant Supervisor of his township. He and his wife are members of the Presbyterian Church of Monmouth. He married, in Mercer County, Ill., in 1876, Ella A. Mclaughlin, who was born there, a daughter of J. R. and Jane (Lossie) Mclaughlin, na- tives respectively of Pennsylvania and Ohio, who settled in Mercer County, in 1854, where Mr. Mclaughlin who is a farmer, still lives. His wife died at their home near Alexis. Mr. and Mrs. Burkholder have had five children: Harry J., James R., and Mrs. Hattie Mc- Creary, of Spring Grove Township; Mattie, who died in 1889, and one who died in infancy.

BUTLER, RALPH; farmer; Monmouth Township; is a grandson of Peter Butler, who came from Kentucky to Warren County with a team in 1829, and took up land in Cold Brook Township, where he lived from 1829 to 1853. He commanded a company in the Black Hawk War and attained prominence as a farmer and surveyor. Peter Butler, who married a mem- ber of the Kentucky family of Murphy, became a large land-owner in Warren County and gave 160 acres of land to each of his ten children. In 1853 he went overland to Oregon and found- ed the town of Monmouth, and he and his wife both died in Oregon. Their son Ira lives in Oregon, aged ninety-two years; William and Joseph are dead; James lives in Kansas; Isaac lives in Oregon; John, who was the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Kentucky in 1818, and was eleven years old wlien his father came to Cold Brook Township. He mar- ried in Monmouth Township, about 1840, Eliza Smith, who was born in Kentucky, January, 1818, a daughter of Godfrey Smith, who was born and died in the Bluegrass State, and whose widow and family settled in Monmouth Township in 1833, where Mrs. Smith died. Af- ter his marriage, John Butler located on a farm of 160 acres in Monmouth Township, most of which is now the home of his son Ralph,

where he died in 1864, his wife in 1858. He was a Democrat and he and his wife were members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The following facts concerning their children will be of interest: Lavina married William Grounds, of Creston, Iowa; Kurastus, was a soldier in the Civil War and is now a farmer in Iowa; Granville died in November, 1902; Isaac is farming in Nebraska, and P. Frank, of Napa, Cal., is in the fruit business. Ralph Butler was reared on the family home- stead in Monmouth Township and educated at a near-by public school. He inherited thirty- three acres of the old homestead and bought the remainder and is farming and feeding stock successfully on a well improved farm of 183 acres. Politically he is a Democrat, and he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Monmouth. He married, in Monmouth Township, in 1882, Floy Tracy, who was born in Warren County, a daughter of Hanson and Harriet (Sherwin) Tracy, Pennsyl- vanians who settled early at Monmouth, where Mr. Tracy taught the first public school. Eventually Mr. and Mrs. Tracy became farmers in Roseville Township and they are now resi- dents of Chicago. Besides Mrs. Butler, their children are Robert and Wm. E., of South Da- kota, Platt Tracy, of Chicago, and George Tracy, a printer, now in the Philippine Islands. Mr. and Mrs. Butler have children named as follows: Grace, French, Ralph, Marion, Edith and Arthur.

COBB, EUCLID N .; proprietor of the Cedar Hill Jersey farm; Monmouth Township; is a member of the Farmers' Institute of Warren County, the Illinois Dairymen's Association and the Jersey Cattle Club. He is aiso a director of the Farmers' Institute for the Fourteenth District, and lectures each year before farm- ers institutes and writes on subjects connected with dairying for Hoard's Dairyman, Wallace's Farmer at Des Moines, Coleman's Rural World at St. Louis and the Jersey Bulletin, the offi- cial organ of the Jersey Cattle Club of the United States. At this time he is ably filling the office of president of the Farmers' Institute of Warren County. He built the first creamery in South Dakota and put in operation the first separator in Warren County, where now, through his efforts, forty are in use, and for twelve years organized dairy farms and estab- lished herds of Jersey cattle in Illinois and

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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.

near-by States. It is probable that there is no one more familiar than he with dairy institute work in the Middle West. Mr. Cobb has been in the dairying business all his life, and pub- lishes in book form dairy and stock matters. He was born on a dairy farm in waukesha County, Wis., in 1855, a son of Nathan and Ellen (Parker) Cobb, natives of New Hamp- shire. Nathan Cobb was a professor of higher mathematics, who, in 1828, went to Milwau- kee, where he taught until 1856, when he died. His widow lives in Madison, Wis. Euclid N. Cobb grew to manhood in daily touch with the dairy business and was educated in Wisconsin. After he became of age he was a dairyman in Illinois and Kansas unlul 1898, when he began running the Cedar Hill Jersey farm, the suc- cess of which is due entirely to his knowledge and enterprise. It was the first farm in Warren County to use a separator and the first that had a silo. It has a herd of about forty cows and the same number of young cows are kept on " hand. The stock is all registered and is being constantly improved anu much is raised for the market. During six months of the year butter is made and, during the remainder of the year, milk is furnished to manufacturers of ice cream. The Cedar Hill Jersey butter is well known in the markets and has been awarded premiums at exhibits at State and county fairs in Illinois, Missouri and Texas. Mr. Cobb married, in Winnebago County, Ill., in 1876, Ella Deming, who has borne him children named as follows: Nellie, Jennie, Nathan, Curtis, Virgil, Ina Emma, Grace, Ella and Euclid N. Cobb, Jr.

DOWNER, W. B .; farmer and dairyman; Monmouth Township, is a member of a pioneer family of Warren County, who has witnessed and participated in the later development of the County and is one of the prominent and in- fluential citizens. He was born in Monmouth Township, in 1853, the son of Avery and Eliz- abeth (Webb) Downer. Avery Downer, the father, was born in New York, February 28. 1817, a son of Robert Downer, who married a member of the old New England family of Cobb. Robert Downer and his wife both died in New York and there Avery Downer was rear- ed and educated. The latter came to Warren County in 1845 and, for a time was employed by A. C. Harding. He bought land in Hale Township, which he soon sold, and in 1851 he

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Warren County, Volume II, Part 73

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Church, Charles A., 1857- Publication date: 1916 Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 620

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Church, Charles A., 1857-
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 620