USA > Illinois > Montgomery County > History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois > Part 66
USA > Illinois > Bond County > History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois > Part 66
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SOLOMON HARKEY, Hillsboro, was born in Iredell County, N. C., Decem- ber 26, 1806; son of Martin and Chris- tina (Mensinger) Harkey. Martin, who was a farmer by occupation, was born in North Carolina February 24, 1771, where he mar- ried October 9, 1794. In 1830, he left North Carolina and came to Hillsboro, where he died February 16, 1846. His wife, a na- tive of North Carolina, was born February 12, 1775, and died at her son's (subject's) house in Hillsboro, September 17. 1850. Solomon, the fourth of a family of eleven, re- ceived but very little education, the schools of that day being very inferior to those of
to-day. The school which he attended was a log cabin with an earthen floor, and the books studied were Dilworth's Spelling Book and Pike's Arithmetic, the Bible being the only reader. He began life as a tanner, and fol- lowed that business from April, 1829, to March 1833, in Edwardsville, Ill .; thence he removed to Hillsboro, where he followed the tanning business for ten years, when he abandoned it and became a farmer. He owns a fine farm of 653 acres in Hillsboro Township, a fine two-story frame residence, and five lots and five acres of land in the town of Hillsboro, besides about 200 acres in Wisconsin. He has been a noted horseman in his day, and has handled many fine ones. He made a specialty of draught horses. In Hillsboro Township, Mareh 31, 1831, he mar- ried Sophia Cress, born in North Carolina March 26, 1809, daughter of Jacob and Cath- arine (Bost) Cress, both natives of North Carolina. She (Sophia) came to Illinois with her parents about the year 1817, and died December 21, 1878. Mr. Harkey was again married October 30, 1879, to Mrs. Eleanor T. (McHenry) Evans, born July 11, 1826, daugli- ter of George McHenry. He has had nine children, four of whom are dead-William P., now in Yuba City, Cal .; Jacob M., Solomon S., Sarah C., wife of Benjamin Wilton; Vir- ginia T., Laura L. (deceased), Martha J. (de- ceased), Mary S. (deceased), and Daniel L. (deceased). During his business career he met with many reverses; in 1861, he lost $2,060 by the failure of a New York bank; in 1878, he lost $2,700 by the Farmers Me- chanics' Bank, of Hillsboro; and in Decem- ber, 1881, he lost about $2, 700 by the failure of Haskell Bros. & Co., of Hillsboro. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Church; he is a member of the I. O. O. F .; in politics he supports the Republican party.
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THOMAS E. HARRIS, County Superin- tendent, Hillsboro, was born in Massachusetts in 1815; son of Thomas and Abigail (Chapin) Harris, he born in Massachusetts, died in Vermont, and she, the mother of five sons and three daughters, was born in Vermont. Our subject is the second son; received a good education at the Public Schools: commenced life as a clerk in a wholesale dry goods estab- lishment in New York; went to England. lived in Manchester for three years. came from there to this State and commenced farm- ing, which business he still follows. He has been Township . Trustee for about twenty years: Supervisor of Butler Township three years, and was elected County Superintendent of Public Schools in December, 1877. an office he has filled acceptably to the present time. Mr. Harris was married in this county about 1842. to Hulda Ware, a native of this county, and a daughter of Obediah and Electa (Post) Ware. They have one daugh- ter, Julia, wife of Michael Robertson, of this county, and who now lives in Butler. Al- though Montgomery has a Democratic majori- ty of 500 or 600. yet our subject is a Repub- lican, and has no trouble in getting the po- sition he now holds, such is an evidence of his qualifications and popularity. He owns 200 acres of land in Butler Township.
A. HARTLINE, boots and shoes. Hills- boro, born in North Carolina October 3, 1845 : his parents are natives of North Caro- lina : his father, who was a farmer and a blacksmith by trade, died there in 1874 ; his mother, who is now about seventy-five years of age, is still living in her native State. Our subject, the fifth of a family of seven sons, received a limited education in Iredell County, N. C., and remained with his father on the farm and in the blacksmith-shop till he was seventeen years old ; he then learned the shoe making trade, which he has since
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followed. Beginning without any means, he has, by industry and economy, worked up a good trade in custom work, and in addition carries a good stock of ready-made goods : he owns a neat store and a comfortable two-story brick residence in Hillsboro. He married in Hillsboro, October 5, 1870, Mary Ann Sharp. born in North Carolina, daughter of William Sharp, a native of that State, who died near Hillsboro. Mr. and Mrs. Hartline are the parents of five children-George Flora, Jessie. Bertie and Grace. He en- listed. in 1864. in Company E, North Caro- lina Infantry. and served under Gen. McCray till 1865, when he was captured near Peters- burg, Va., and kept a prisoner till the close of the war. He and his wife are Methodists; in politics, he is a Democrat.
JAMES HAYNES, County Treasurer, Hillsboro, born in Morgan County. III .. Sep- tember 25, 1843 ; son of John and (Harriet) Seymour. John, who was a farmer by occu- pation. was born in Indiana about the year 1815 : he lived in Kentucky, principally, till he was fourteen years old, when he moved to Illinois, and settled in Cass County for a few years ; thence he removed to Morgan County, thence to Montgomery County, where he settled permanently in 1854 : his wife was born in North Carolina about the year 1819 ; she came to Illinois with her parents when quite young, and is still living. James, who is the eldest of a family of five sons and two daughters, attended school in Montgomery County, and afterward at McKendree College, at Lebanon, and the Soldiers' College at Ful- ton, Ill. He followed farming till 1877, when he was elected County Treasurer, an office which he still holds. In 1862, he en- listed as private in the Federal army, Com- pany F. One Hundred and Twenty-second Illinois Infantry. In the battle of Tupelo, Miss., July 14, 1864, he lost his right arm ;
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he was captured next day and held a pris- oner till the elose of the war, during which time he was imprisoned in the following places: Mobile, two weeks; Cahaba, Ala., four months; Macon. Ga .. two and a half months; Andersonville, one month; Selma, Ala .; Meridian. Miss. ; Vicksburg and St. Louis. From St. Louis. he was released, and having reported at Springfield, III., was dis- charged in the spring of 1865. He is a Methodist: in politics, he supports the Dem- ocratie party.
GEORGE B. KING, lumber merchant, etc., Hillsboro. born in Rowan County, N. C., September 21. 1824; came to this county in 1867; son of James King, born in Surrey County, N. C .. in 1798: farmer; served last two years in the war of 1812; was in nine months in the same war. in the early part, as a substitute for another party, when only about sixteen years of age: he served also in the regular army some time after the close of this war. Subject has now in his possession a white vest that was made by a Freneh lady for his father, at St. Louis, during the war; he died in North Carolina. December 26, 1825. Elizabeth (Barringer) King, subject's mother, born in Cabarrus County, N. C., Jan- mary 27, 1799, and died in Hillsboro, Ill., August 7, 1870. Subjeet's parents raised one son and two daughters. He was edu- eated in North Carolina and Virginia; farmed and taught school for a start in life; although he learned no trade. yet he possessed sufficient natural genius to adapt himself to almost any kind of work; was in the habit of making his own shoes, harness, lay brick, build ehim- neys, etc. When he first came to this place. in 1867, he taught school and worked at the carpenter's trade at intervals, and finally in August, 1872. he began in the lumber busi- ness, which he still follows. Subjeet was conscripted in the Confederate service, in
March, 1863. remained there till the follow- ing June, when he was taken sick and sent to the hospital; after becoming able, he was sent on to rejoin the army, took a different route and came to Ohio; remained about one year, and then came on to this State. Re- publican now in politics. Member of the I. O. O. F. Was married in Hillsboro, Ill .. March 29, 1872, to Miss Lydia A. Dilworth, born in Grant County, Ky., June 5, 1849; a danghter of Absalom H. Dilworth, born in Guilford County. N. C., July 25, 1815: lived several years in Kentucky, and then came to this State, where he still lives. He (Mr. Dil- worth) married Elizabeth Work, born in Guilford County, N. C., December 13, 1823; was brought to Kentucky, when only nine years old, by her parents, and settled in Grant County, where she died August 15, 1861. Subject has one son-Charlie D., born Mareh 26, 1879, and one daughter- Nellie D., born June 22. 1881. Subject is a member of the Lutheran Church. Owns six lots in town, two Iumber yards, nice two-story frame residence, ete.
HENRY H. KEITHLEY, Deputy County Clerk. Hillsboro, born in Indiana, November 26, 1844; came to Litchfield, Ill., in 1857; son of Seth M. and Anna Theresa (Miller) Keithley, he, a mechanic, born in Kentucky, October 18, 1812, went to Indiana, with his parents. when quite young; moved to Litch- field in 1857, where he still lives and owns twenty acres within the limits of that town; she. born in Maryland November 13. 1508, died at Litehfield, Ill., November 22, 1869. Subjeet is the oldest son of a family of two sons and three daughters: got his education at Litehfield and Springfield: was a painter for four years, Deputy Postmaster at Liteh field for two years, elerked in a drug store there for two years: moved from there to Hillsboro in December, 1873. when he was
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appointed Deputy County Clerk, by George M. Raymond, County Clerk, an office he still fills satisfactorily. Mr. Keithley was mar- ried in Hillsboro, September 8, 1875, to Miss Camilla Brown, born June 7, 1853, who has borne him one child-Amy R. Subject en- listed September 3, 1864, in the Federal army, and served as private and Corporal nn- til the end of the war. He is a Methodist, a Republican, is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and owns a niee residence in East Hillsboro.
JUDGE EDWARD LANE, attorney, Hillsboro, is a native Ohioan and was born in Cleveland March 27, 1842, to John, born April 15, 1803, and Catharine (Berry) Lane, who were also natives of Ohio, and 'died in the " Forest City " about 1850, at about the same time, the father having been a merchant of that city. Both families were of Irish extraction, and possessed of a marked shrewdness and energy. The orphaned family consisted of two sons, the eldest of whom died at about eighteen years of age, being four years the senior of Edward, who came to Hillsboro in the spring of 1858, and engaged in work upon a brick yard, at which he con- tinned about three years, then began going to school, working at the same time for his subsistance. In the fall of 1863, he began reading law in connection with sehool-teach- ing, and was admitted to the bar in the fall of 1864. He immediately began the practice of his profession in Hillsboro, where he has built up a large and remunerative practice, and stands in the front rank of the legal pro- fession of Montgomery County. In 1869, he was elected for a term of four years to the office of County Judge. In 1870, October 31, he was married to Miss Tucie Miller, born June 19, 1848, a native of Lawrenee- ville, Ill., and daughter of Samnel K. and Margaret Miller. By her he had two ehil-
dren -- Bessie and Guy C. He is a member of the Masonic order, and with his family, belong to the Lutheran Church. In his po- litical sentiment, he is Democratic.
E. F. LEAK, miller, Hillsboro, was born in Philadelphia. Penn., July 22. 1847, son of Thomas and Mary (Walker) Leak. Thomas Leak was born in England in 1806; emi- grated to America while quite young, and died in Newark, Del., in 1872; he was a painter, a sailor, and finally a farmer. His wife was born in England in 1817, and died in Jerseyville, Ill., in 1873. Our subject is the third son of a family of five sons and one daughter. He received a common school education in Delaware, and learned the mill- ing business, in which occupation he is still engaged. He began the business with very moderate resources, but has been successful, and now owns a comfortable frame cottage in Hillsboro. He married, in Philadelphia, in April, 1873, Esther Comly, a native of Delaware, daughter of Samuel and Miss (Sanders) Comly. Samuel Comly, whose parents were Quakers, was born in Pennsyl- vania. Mr. and Mrs. Leak are the parents of three children-Edward, Della and Bertha. He is a supporter of the Republican party, and a member of the Knights of Pythias.
JOHN J. McLEAN, Circuit Clerk and Re- corder, Hillsboro, was born at Metuchin, Middlesex Co., N J., April 4, 1849, and came to this State when fourteen years old, with his parents. He was the son of Martin and Mary (Cary) McLean. Martin was born in Ireland in November, 1819, and eame to the United States in 1847, and lo- cated in New Jersey, remaining till 1862, and moved with his family to this county, where he still lives. He is a farmer, and owns 500 acres of as good land as is in the county. Mary Cary, his wife, was born in Ireland in 1812; was married there; eame to the United
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States one year prior to her husband, and died July 9, 1879. Our subject is the oldest of a family of three; received his education partly in the East and partly in St. Louis, where he graduated from Bryant & Stratton's Commercial College. He also took a classical course at the Christian Brothers' College, St. Louis, but did not graduate. In Bois D'Arc Township. Montgomery County, Oct. 10, 1877, he married A. Amanda Thomas, who was born there October 10, 1855, danghter of Samuel R. and Mary E. (Dayton) Thomas. He was born in Greene County, Ill., May 2, 1829; is still liv- ing; she born in 1831 at the same place: still living. Subject has two sons -- William Ralph, born July 17, 1879, and Edgar M., born March 21. 1881. Mr. McLeon taught school for a year, and was afterward elected County Treasurer of Montgomery County, and served two years. He next engaged in real estate and abstract business from 1875 to 1880, when he was elected Circuit Clerk, an office he still holds. He owns a nice two- story brick residence in Hillsboro, besides abont 480 acres of land in Montgomery County, and a valuable set of abstract books worth. probably, $10,000. He is also an inventor, having patented what is known as McLean's File Cabinet for court papers. This is an invention that promises to be very valuable to the patentee.
GEORGE W. MICHAEL, hotel proprietor and farmer, Hillsboro. was born in North Caro- lina July 30, 1827, son of Jacob and Annie (Lontz) Michael, both natives of North Caro- lina. Jacob was born about the year 1798. He is a farmer by occupation and still living in his native State. His wife died in Indiana about the year 1872. They were the parents of twelve children, nine sons and three daugh ters: six of the sons deceased. Our subjeet received but a limited education in North Carolina. He learned the house-carpenter's
trade, and has followed it the greater part of his life. He came to Illinois March 18, 1881, and settled in Hillsboro, where he lias conducted a hotel since that time. He mar- ried, in North Carolina, October 20, 1857. Belzora Hedick, a native of that State, born July 5, 1833, daughter of John and Barbara (Cansler) Hedick. John Hedick, who is a
farmer, was born in North Carolina, March 30, 1795. His wife, also a native of North Carolina, was born February 12, 1804. Mr. and Mrs. Michael have had six children, four of whom are living -- Thomas J .. who married Miss Teenie Nichols, of Hillsboro; John T .: Jeunie, wife of John Goodman, and Emma H. During the war, Mr. Michael served in the Confederate army, Company E, Fourth Cavalry, Deering's Brigade, Stewart's Cav- alry, participating in the battles of Manassas and others of less importance near Peters. burg. Richmond, etc. On one occasion, he and a comrade, by coolness and strategy, suc- ceeded in capturing nine federal soldiers. Seeing the importance of a good education, Mr. Michael has endeavored to give his chil- dren all the advantages in that direction within the reach of his ability. He and all his family are Lutherans. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity; in politics, he is a supporter of the Democratic party.
SAMUEL H. McLEAN, physician, Hills- boro, is a native of Montgomery County, where he was born, near Hillsboro. April 12, 1849, to Robison and Emily (Barry) Mc- Lean, he a native of Greensboro, N. C., and came to Montgomery County at about twenty. one years of age, or in about the year 1841. Here he engaged in stock-raising and farm- ing, which he followed until his death, which occurred in January. 1876. Emily, the mother of our subject, was born in Barren County, Ky., and came with her parents when but a child to Montgomery County. She is
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still living at an advanced age. Our subject is the second of seven living children. He received the meager advantages of the dis- triet sehools until seventeen years of age, when he spent two years at the acadamy at Hillsboro, and the years 1871-72 were spent at the University at Lincoln, Ill. In the fall of 1872, he entered the Eclectic Medical In- stitute at Cincinnati, graduating therefrom in the spring of 1874. He immediately com- meneed practice at Donnellson, Montgomery County, where he remained three years. In the spring of 1577, he came to Hillsboro, where he has since resided, in the practice of his profession, and built up a large and lu- crative practice. Since his professional ea- reer in the county, he has held the offices of Secretary, President and Vice President of the County Medical Society, and has been twice appointed as delegate to the State Med- ical Association, of which he is a member. He was married, September 19, 1876, to Miss Lina Kerr, a native of Ohio, and daughter of Robert Kerr, now of Montgomery County. He is Republican in politieal sentiment, and with his family, belongs to the Methodist Church.
WARREN M. NEFF, blacksmith. Hills- boro, was born in Clark County, Ohio, in 1848; son of William H. C. and Susan (Huff- man) Neff. William H. C. was a farmer, and was born in Clark County, Ohio, in 1825; removed to Montgomery County in 1854, where he died the following year. His wife was born in Ohio, in 1830; she married twice, the second husband being James White, of 1 Montgomery County. Warren, our subjeet, has two sisters and three half-brothers. He received his education, chiefly, in Hillsboro, and worked on the farm till he was twenty years old. when he learned the blacksmith's trade, which he has followed ever since. He | began life with little or no means, but by | Tupelo, storm and capture of the works of
industry and economy, and strict attention to business, he has built up an extensive trade, and is the owner of considerable prop- erty. He owns a blacksmith shop and lot adjoining, a house and lot in the south end of Hillsboro, and eighty-three aeres of land in East Fork and Fillmore Townships. In Hillsboro, November 17, 1875, he married Elmira A. Stout, born in Indiana, in 1855, and died in Hillsboro, December 4, 1880. Mr. Neff is a Republican, and a member of the I. O. O. F. and the A., F. & A. M.
GEORGE WILLIAM PAISLEY, attor- ney, Hillsboro, was born in this county in 1838; son of Joseph Paisley, born in North Carolina in 1797, and emigrated to this State in 1822, and spent first two years in Bond County, thence to this county, where he spent the remainder of his life. He died on his farm here in 1857. In 1837, he was married to Martha A. Allan, a native of Ken- tueky, born near Lexington in 1815, and is still living with her son, subject, in this county. Parents raised but one son, subject, he being by the second wife. There are two half-sisters living by first wife. Our subjeet was educated at the Hillsboro Academy. He was admitted to the bar in 1870, having read law off and on some several years previous. He began life as a farmer, at the death of his father, which he followed for four or five years. He was next County Surveyor, being elected in 1865, an office he filled for two years. He next engaged in mercantile bus- iness, some two years. He held the office of Master in Chancery from 1868 to 1869; was elected to the State Legislature in 1880, a position he now holds; enlisted in 1862 in the One Hundred and Twenty-second Illinois Infantry as a private, and was afterward elected Orderly Sergeant, and served three years; participated in the battle at Nashville,
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Blakely, at Mobile, Ala., besides several minor engagements; was never captured nor wounded during the war; belonged to the command that followed Price through Mis- souri and a portion of Kansas, in 1864, a clistance of about 600 miles; left Jefferson Barracks on the 2d of October and got back to St. Louis on the 18th of November: Dem- ocrat in politics. He was married in Ma- coupin County. this State, on the 5th of June, 1872, to Maggie M. Middleton. She was the daughter of Rev. John and Sibilla (Galbreath) Middleton; wife was born in 1846. Our subject has five children, all daughters, viz .: Anna, Ethel, Georgia, Maggie and Susie. His wife is a member of the Reformed Pres- byterian Church, commonly called Covenant- ers, her father being a minister of that church. Subject owns about 1,000 acres of land in this county.
SAMUEL PAISLEY, farmer, I'. O. Hills- boro, was born in North Carolina in the year 1811, on the 6th of July. John Paisley, his father, was born in Pennsylvania, on the 10th of August, 1763, and was taken to North Carolina in infancy and remained there until sixty-four years of age, and was a farmer by occupation. He emigrated to Illinois in 1828, and settled in Montgomery County, and commenced farming. He entered 160 of land and bought 120 acres of unimproved land, on which he put all necessary improvements, and raised a large family of children. He married in North Carolina in the year 1791, to Miss Jane (Rankin) Paisley. She was born in North Carolina in the year 1771, and of Scotch-Irish descent, and was the mother of twelve children. our subject being the eleventh child, and was raised on the farm and assisted his father in his boyhood days. He was educated in the common schools of the coun- try. and by observation and energy has a good practical education. He commenced
business for himself as a farmer; went into the Black Hawk war, at the age of twenty-one years, and served three months: came back to this county and purchased forty acres of land with the money he received for his serv- ices, and has added to it until he has reached the handsome estate of 414 acres, the most of which is good tillable land, with all neces- sary improvements. He was married Sep- tember 1, 1842, in this county, to Miss Clar- issa Fuller; was born in Clark County, Ohio, January 11, 1821. Moses Fuller, her father, was born in New Brunswick, in 1787, and died November, 1879. Elizabeth Prillaman, her mother, was born in Virginia, in the year 1778, and was inother of nine children, eight living. The wife of subject was the seventh child. and she is the mother of five children, one deceased. Their names are as follows: Moses F., in the war three years, was in sev- eral battles, entering the service at seventeen years of age; Lucinda C., Nettie, William C., Lanra J., deceased. They are members of the Presbyterian Church. Identified with the Republican party. William Paisley, his paternal grandfather. was in the Revolution- ary war, and was wounded at Guilford through the wrist. Mrs. Paisley, the mother of Rev. Samuel Paisley, said that she had no rec- ollection of her parents, they having been killed by the Indians, and her mother died soon after. She never spoke of her captivity at all.
JOSEPH POLLARD, hotel proprietor, Hillsboro, was born in St. Louis January 22, 1856; son of Daniel and Mary (Phalan) Pol- lard. Daniel Pollard was born in Ireland and emigrated to America at the age of twenty- two. He settled first in New Orleans, but afterward moved to St. Louis, where he was married Angust 15, 1850. He followed steamboating for several years, and was after- ward employed on the police force in St.
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Louis. He died at Little Rock. Ark., in 1867. Of his seven children. three sons died prior to his death, and were buried in St. Louis. Since his death, one son and one daughter have died, and been buried in Litchfield, Ill. The remaining two are Joseph (our subject) and Margaret. His wife. Mary Phalan, was born in Ireland in 1826. She came to Amer- ica with some friends, when she was seven- teen years of age, and stopped for a time in New Orleans, then moved to St. Louis. Since the death of her husband. she and her son, the subject of this sketeli, have been engaged in the hotel business. They first kent hotel in Butler, where they stayed nine years; thence they moved to Raymond, remaining there four years, and finally located in Hills- boro, in June, 1879. Here they ran the old American Hotel for two years and a half, after which they moved to their present house, the City Hotel, where they have met with an extensive patronage. Our subject, his mother, and sister, are Catholics. He is a supporter of the Democratic party.
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