History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois, Part 68

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : O. L. Baskin
Number of Pages: 758

USA > Illinois > Montgomery County > History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois > Part 68
USA > Illinois > Bond County > History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois > Part 68

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).

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HILLSBORO CITY AND TOWNSHIP.

Hill, N. Y., the former born October 11, 1811; the latter, still living, was born February 29, 1806. Mr. and Mrs. Walsh are the parents of two children-Ada Irene, born September 3, 1873. and Mina M., born July 5, 1878. He enlisted. in New York City, April 16, 1861, in the Federal service, Fifth New York Volunteer Infantry, better known as Duryea's Zonaves; was commissioned Lieutenant early in 1863, and remained with the army during its term of service. He was taken prisoner during the seven-days' fight around Rich- mond. Va., and confined in the tobacco fac- tory prison on Carey street, Richmond, for twenty-six days, when he was paroled and exchanged; he took part in the battle of Fredericksburg. He is a supporter of the Republican party.

PAUL WALTER, livery business, Hills- boro, was born in North Carolina. Cabarras County, October 2. 1821. Nicholas Walter was born in Pennsylvania about 1790, and moved to North Carolina about 1809, and married Catharine Goodman, of that State. The father, Nicholas Walter, was in the war of 1812, and served during the war: partici- pated in the memorable battle of New Or- leans; he was a farmer and millwright, and died in North Carolina in 1825; parents raised four sons (subject, youngest son) and three daughters. Subject was educated at the common schools of North Carolina; began life as a farmer in this State in 1839, that being the year of his emigration; has fol- lowed farming and stock-trading the princi- pal part of his time since till the last few years; went to California in 1850, in search of gold; was there about six years in all, and came home about $45,000 winner. Being a liberal-hearted, whole-souled fellow, he in- dorsed freely for his friends, and was caught for upward of $40,000, which amount he paid

by selling his own property, never waiting for an officer to settle any of his transactions. This loss, coupled with some unprofitable in- vestments. reduced our subject again to mod- erate circumstances, as he had begun. In the late war, he volunteered in the First Illi- nois Cavalry. in Company E; subject was Captain of the company, under Col. Marshall; was captured at Lexington, Mo., by Gen. Price; was paroled and exchanged, and again entered the service, but was discharged by the Government on account of a violation of their oath, having taken the oath to enter the serv- ice no more during the rebellion; after the battle of Lexington, subject was offered the position of Major, an office he refused to ac- cept, preferring to stay with his company; he is a Democrat now in politics; member of the Masonic order: has taken all the degrees from Entered Apprentice to Knight Templar. Subject married, in this county, February 1, 1844, to Emeline Scott, who was born in North Carolina in 1827, but came to this State when quite young, in 1833, with her parents; she was a daughter of Alexander and Eliza- beth (Wood) Scott. Subject has eight chil- dren, four sons- George, Scott, Miller and James; and four daughters, Marcilla, Illi- nois, Susan and Estella; wife is a member of the Methodist Church; eldest son, George, was educated for a Presbyterian minister, but, on account of his health failing. was obliged to give it up.

E. L. WAGGONER, Hillsboro. E. L. Waggoner, the youngest son of Milton R. Waggoner; Sarah R. MeCollough, his mother, was born in Montgomery County, Ill., September 28, 1863. His boyhood days were spent principally in attending the coun- try school; at sixteen years of age, he attend- ed the school of Valparaiso, Ind., one year, and two years at Blackburn University; he

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then came to Hillsboro, Ill., and commenced in the mercantile business as a clerk, as he intends to make that his avocation through life. He and his brother have a very fine property in this county, and our subject

stands as high as any young man in the county, socially, and for his integrity and in- dustry, and manly principles, he has no su perior.

LITCHFIELD.

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CITY OF LITCHFIELD AND NORTH AND SOUTH LITCH- FIELD TOWNSHIPS.

DANIEL CUTTING AMSDEN, manufact- urer, and Secretary of the Litchfield Coal Company, born in Southington, Conn., Jan- uary 16. 1814, was, when three years old, removed to Manlius Square, N. Y. Here his father remained a winter, and, in the spring, removed to the site of the present village of Homer. After a brief residence of three years, he went to Cato, Cayuga County, and became a contractor on public works. When lie was twelve years of age, his parents locat ed in Erie County, and young Amsden was reared to farm labor, which, in character and severity of toil, is inappreciable to the pio- neers of a prairie region. Before attaining his majority, he drove stage into Buffalo, then little more than a hamlet, and also tried the rude hardships of a lumberman. Prior to his marriage, in 1841, to Miss Mary Beach, he had leased a hotel at Gowanda, Cattarau- gus County, which pursuit he afterward ex- changed for shop-keeping, and then farming. He was an ardent politician; hield several offices; declined to be Sheriff; and made money only to see it slip away in the financial reverses, which shook the credit of States and the nation, as well as the fortunes of individ- uals. In 1854, he removed to Berlin, Wis., and for three years was interested in regular mercantile pursuits, and did not improve his permanent fortunes. In May, 1857, he ar- rived in Litchfield, then a little village, witlı its few cheap houses, located as if sown by the wind, and of a general appearance to dis- sipate day-dreams or poetic fancies. Here he entered the employ of the foundry and

machine shop company as book-keeper and general utility man. Until he came to Litch- field, his life had been a wide preparation for the success which has since dogged his steps. He had looked on fortune's smiles, and felt her frowns. His schemes had successively turned to ashes, and, past life's meridian, he came here, poor but resolute, to repair pre- vious disappointments. For ten years, he spared himself no toil or economy. Tall- he is six feet two in his stockings-thin, with joints of strength and great muscular powers, he made himself indispensable to his employ- ers. In 1865, he became by purchase, an equal partner in the foundry and machine shop, the firm being H. H. Beach & Co. The affairs of the firm were prosperous. Their shop was crowded with orders, and prices were good. In 1867, he was elected Mayor of the city, and his firm made the advances of money and credit which caused the open- ing of the coal mine at the eastern limits of the city- the solid foundation of its subse- quent prosperity. He was, in 1871, one of the original stockholders of the Litchfield Bank, and the next year was a heavy sub- scriber to the stock of the Car Works, and the same year was the Republican candidate for State Senator, and was not elected -an adverse majority of 1,200 was too great a barrier to be scaled. In 1875, the foundry and machine shop were sold to the Car Works Company, and Mr. Amsden gave his chief at- tention to coal mining. He now has a large and valuable interest in the mine here, in several mines in the famous block coal region

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of Indiana, and is a member of the firm of Beach. Davis & Co., bankers. He owns a comfortable interest in the Car Works and the Litchfield Coal Oil and Pipe Line Com- pany. and has bonds and a goodly balance to his credit at the bank. There has been no accident in his prosperity. If one would put money into ventures which should benefit himself while enriching the community. he must be able to bias public opinion in their favor and direct currents of business. If the affair prospers, it will be for the reason that success is as much of the man as of the cir- cuinstances. The following children have been born to Mr. Amsden: George W., Helen A. and John B. W. Mr. Amsden has become widely known as a man of influence in local affairs. Every politician of his faith seeks his counsel or co-operation. Himself seeking no office, he is a vigorous, racy specimen of a man grown wealthy by the homely arts possi- ble to all; of decision, industry and economy.

EDWIN K. AUSTIN, Litchfield, was born in the town of Becket, Berkshire Co., Mass., August 8, 1814; he received an academical education in his native State, and at the age of eighteen went to Kentucky, where he sold clocks for two years. From Kentucky he re- moved to West Tennessee, near Memphis, where he taught school. and also engaged in merchandising seven years, then removed to Northern Mississippi, where he taught pri- vate schools till 1861. He then moved North to Illinois, and settled on 120 acres of land in Montgomery County, near the eastern bor- der of North Litchfield Township, and after- ward added 120 acres more, which he farmed till 1866; in that year he sold out, with the intention of removing to the Southern States, but, owing to the changed relation of the races after the war, he abandoned the idea, and, in 1868, purchased 186 acres of land, on which he resides. In Fayette County, Tenn.,

July 20, 1845, he married Marian W. Haw- ley, a native of New York, born February 25, 1821; they have two children-Edwin M. and Laura T. Mr. Austin has taught school nearly seventeen years, which has seriously impaired his health.

ABRAM D. ATTERBURY was born in Grayson County, Ky., February 26, 1827; passed his youth on the farm, and, at the age of twenty was apprenticed to the blacksmith's trade in Harlan County, Ky. In 1850, he came to Illinois, alone, and has ever since lived in the vicinity of Litchfield, where, in the above year. he entered a quarter-section of land, at $1.25 per acre. He afterward en- gaged in breaking prairie land, where Litch- field now stands, for two years, with an ox team; farmed one year, then worked at his trade at Zanesville two years, and at Litchfield two years: bought out Jeffries, and he and F. G. Kessinger, now of Raymond. were the two blacksmiths of the place. In 1857, he settled on the quarter-section of land that he had first entered, where he has since resided, and, by the year 1862, had the entire 160 acres under cultivation. He has engaged largely in wheat- raising, with good success, and has added to his original purchase of land, until he now has 550 acres in this county, which he has acquired by his own efforts. In 1853, he married Mrs. Julia Ogle, of St. Clair County, Ill., widow of the late Joseph T. Ogle, by whom she had one child. Joseph T. Ogle, Jr., now a resident of this county. Mr. and Mrs. Atterbury are the parents of three sons- George W., James H. and Charles M. He is a member of the Methodist Church, of which he is District Steward and Trustee.

S. E. ALDEN was born in Hartford, Conn., December 15, 1819, and, when nine years old, moved with his parents to Madison County, N. Y. When fourteen years of age, he began learning the carpenter and joiner's

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trade with his father, and remained in Caze- novia. Madison Co., N. Y., till he was twenty- one years old. In 1843, he went to New York. where he worked as a journeyman until 1851, when he took the Panama route to Cal- ifornia, where he worked for a mining com- pany as machinist and pattern-maker: he also prospected for a time. and afterward engaged as contractor and builder in San Francisco and Marysville, Cal., where he remained in business thirteen months, at the end of which time he returned to Cazenovia, N. Y. In 1855, he left Cazenovia and came West to Litch- field, Ill. His first work in Litchfield was on the buildings of the Terre Haute & Alton R.R., on which he worked two years, during which time the present depot was erected; he then went into business on his own account as a contractor and builder, and constructed many of the first buildings of Litchfield; he carried on business in the city and county principally until 1878, when he became foreman carpen- ter for the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Rail- road, and remained in that position three and a half years; he built the Montgomery County Court House in 1865, and a Methodist Episco- pal Church at Hillsboro some time before. In Cazenovia, N. Y., in 1842, he married Cynthia H. Russell, born in Connecticut July 6. 1824, third daughter of Jesse and Mary (Andrus) Russell, natives of Connecticut, of Puritan stock, and parents of four sons and five daughters, all living save one: the Rus- sells were for many generations strict Pres- byterians and stanch Whigs; Jesse Russell, father of Mrs. Alden, a blacksmith. and very skillful in his trade, was a fifer in the war of 1812, under Gen. Jackson; in 1825, he made a trip to Western New York, purchased a farm and sowed some grain, but became dis- couraged and returned to his old home in Connecticut: in 1828, however, he returned with his family and settled at Cazenovia. N.

Y. Mr. and Mrs. Alden have four daughters. Mr. Alden is a descendant of one of the Pil- grim fathers; three brothers came over in the Mayflower by the name of Alden-John, Ezra, and one, name unknown, who died soon after landing: Ezra, the grandfather of our subject, was a well-to-do farmer, and lived at Greenwich, Mass .; he had six sons and three daughters; his second son, Samuel, the father of subject. was born noar Greenwich, Mass., in August, 1793; he was a carpenter and joiner by trade, and worked at it at Hart- ford, Conn., until 1828, when he moved to Cazenovia, N. Y., where he died in January, 1854; his wife, Fanny Andrus, born in 1791, died December 1, 1874; they were the par- ents of three sons and three daughters, of whom our subject. Samnel E., is the eldest. The Aldens were Presbyterians and Whigs.

LOUIS ALLEN, attorney at law, Litch- field, was born in Clinton County, Ill., in 1852: he passed his youth on a farm in his native county. At the age of twenty-one years, he entered the Mckendree College at Lebanon, Ill., and spent two years there. After teaching one term of school, he entered the Union College of Law at Chicago, Ill., in the fall of 1874, and graduated from it in June, 1876. In the fall of the following year, he located for practice at Litchfield, and has practiced in the conrts of this county ever since; for two years he was City Attorney of Litchfield. In 1879, he married Miss Sophie Bond, of Clinton County.

HENRY E. APPLETON, Vice President Litchfield Coal Company, Litchfield, was born in Hampshire, England, in 1828; he was raised on a farm, and, at the age of fourteen years, learned the trade of wagon-making near Southampton, England. He came to the United States in 1851, and located in Madison County, Ill., where he worked at carriage and wagon making until April, 1854,

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when he came to Litchfield with "Uncle Dick" O'Bannon, and here started the first carriage and wagon shop of the city, his place of business being the site of the market house. He carried on this manufacture until about 1867, he executing the wood work and Mr. Jefferis the blacksmithing. Mr. Apple- ton was connected with the engineer's depart- ment on the construction of the Wabash Rail- road while it was building. He became time-keeper for Jefferis, Amsden, Benton & Co., at the coal mines, in about 1870, and, some time later, became a member of the Litehfield Coal and Mining Company; since the organization of that company, he has held in it some official position, being several times its Assistant Superintendent, and now being its Vice President; for the last eleven years, he has given the coal mines his close attention. He is a member and also Vice President of the Litehfield Oil and Pipe Line Company. In 1853, at Ridgely, Ill., he mar- ried Miss Herndon, of Madison County, Ill. ; her death occurred in 1857. In 1874, he married a second time, the lady being Miss Alice Butt, of Litchfield, of English birth.

ALFRED BLACKWELDER, whose por- trait appears in this work, was born in Cab- arrus County, N. C., near Concord, July 17, 1811. He started from his home, October 4, 1834. on horseback, and came through to Ill- inois, reaching Union County in twenty-one days, where a sister lived, and he remained there until April, 1835, when he came to Hillsboro, where he found the Circuit Court in session in a log house. (He has helped to build three court houses since that time.) His earthly possessions, when he arrived here, were a small sorrel horse and $10 in money: he worked for $10 per month for three years, working first for Judge Roun- tree, who held all the county offices, office- holding patriots being scarcer in those good

old days than at present. He married, April 19, 1837, Miss Joanna Scherer, daughter of Frederick Scherer, of North Carolina, who came to this State about 1833. Mr. Black- welder rented land until about 1840, when he bought eighty acres at $5 per acre, unim- proved, in South Litchfield Township; he built on it a small frame house, and lived there about sixteen years, when he sold his farm to secure a larger tract for his growing boys, and, by exchange and purchase, secured 240 acres in the same locality, farmed it six years, and made great improvements upon it; when the Indianapolis & St. Louis Railroad was built, E. B. Litchfield, through his agent, Maj. Huggins, bought this land at $20 per acre, and part of it became a portion of the town site of Litchfield. Mr. Blackwelder then bought of James Turner 180 acres, and of John C. Reed 240 acres, and these two tracts comprise the 420-acre farm of our sub- ject, inclusive of his 100 acres of excellent timber. Very little or no improvements were made upon his land when Mr. Blackwelder purchased it, but he has so persistently and intelligently managed his possessions that it is at present in a high state of cultivation, and every acre is inclosed with fences. Since 1878, Mr. Blackwelder has relinquished the active management of his farm to his three sons; he has eight children living and mar- ried; four died when young; those living are Daniel Monroe, William Riley. Minerva C. (now Mrs. Robert Morrison), Jacob Francis, David Alexander, John Martin, Harriet Louisa (now Mrs. Gideon Davis), Samuel Richard. All Mr. Blackwelder's sons are residents of Montgomery County, and all of them farm- ers; both sons-in-law are also residents of Montgomery County, and farmers. Mr. Blackwelder is a member of the Lutheran Church, and filled for twenty years the office of Deacon, or Elder, holding membership with

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his denomination for over fifty years. . Mr. Blackwelder has always been a Democrat, casting his first Presidential vote for Van Bu- ren. His wife died January 31, 1876, being in her sixtieth year; they had been married almost forty years. The old gentleman says that, when the State road was laid out from Edwardsville to Taylorville, they plowed two furrows all the way through. Mr. Blackwel der has always been in favor of anything that might redound to the credit of his county, and is a man who has won and retained the respect of all.

JAMES F. BLACKWELDER, physician, Litchfield. The Blackwelders were origi- ually from Germany, and settled in North Carolina before the Revolutionary war. The family name signifies "black forest." Peter Blackwelder was born near Concord, Cabarrus Co., N. C., in 1810, and came to Illinois in 1832, accompanied by a cousin, Alfred Black- welder; they settled in Hillsboro, and came all the way on horseback. They purchased land, and Peter at one time owned a half- seetion in North Litchfield Township: by trade. he was a carpenter, and, in addition to this, he engaged in farming. He was a Lutheran, and was the first Superintendent of the Sunday school organized at the Long Branch Schoolhouse. This was long before the city of Litchfield was planned and laid ont. He was a quiet, unassuming, worthy man, and, politically, was a Free-Soil Demo- crat. He married Mrs. Nellie Wagoner, daughter of Frederick Scherer, of this county; she bore him four sons and three danghters, all of whom are living except the youngest daughter, who died in infancy. Peter Black- welder died in 1855, and his wife in 1853. They were the parents of our subject, Dr. James F. Blackwelder, who was born in Montgomery County, Ill., in what is now North Litchfield Township, on August 2, 1841; he

was educated in the Lutheran College build- ing. which was then known as Hillsboro Academy. In 1861, he began the study of medicine under Dr. I. W. Fink, of Hillsboro, where he read until he entered the St. Louis Medical College, taking his first course in 1863. The following year, he entered the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery, from which he graduated in June, 1864. A few days later, he entered the army of Gen. Sherman, and was assigned to duty at Mar- ietta, Ga., as Acting Assistant Surgeon in hospital service, and for four months served there and at Atlanta, Ga. He was next As- sistant Surgeon for the Thirty-second Illinois Infantry, and followed its fortunes on the memorable march to the sea; he continued until mustered out, at Washington, D. C., in 1865. On his return from the army, he practiced at Hillsboro, Ill .. for some three years, and at Moro, Madison County, for about the same length of time. In June, 1871, he located permanently at Litchfield, where he has built up a large and lucrative practice. He is a member of the Montgom- ery County Medical Society, of which he has been Secretary, and has also a membership in the District Medieal Society. The Doctor has two sons.

DANIEL M. BLACKWELDER was born in Montgomery County, near Hillsboro, Feb. ruary 27, 1839, and was raised to a life of farming, attending, in the meantime, the schools in his seetion. At twenty-one years of age, he began farming for himself. In 1861, he married Miss Helena Cress, a native of North Carolina. He bought ten acres of timber land, and lived for nine years on the homestead, during which time he added to the original purchase until his tract con- tained 125 acres. Mr. Blackwelder has of late years paid considerable attention to fine stock-raising, principally sheep and hogs.

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He has served nine years as School Director, and seven years as Commissioner of High- ways; takes much interest in all improvements and in educational matters; he has two sons.

HENRY HARRISON BEACH, manufaet- urer, Litehfield, of Connecticut ancestry, is a native of Otsego County, N. Y., whenee he was removed by his parents in his early child- hood, to Erie County, same State. At the age of fourteen years, he entered a machine shop as apprentice, and, at a general shop at Rochester, completed his training. Continu- ing three years in the machine shops, he then ran an engine on the New York Central Rail- road, and a construction train on the Great Western Railroad of Canada, and then be- came foreman of the shops of the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana road. In 1854. when twenty-five years old, he was appointed Assistant Master Mechanie of the Michigan Southern shops at Adrian. Three years later, Dyer Williams, the Master Mechanie, and Henry A. Angel, the owner of a foundry, to- gether with our subject, visited the village of Litchfield, where they decided to build a foundry and machine shop, Mr. Beach to be the manager, and resident, and business part- ner. Mr. Beach, at this time, had become an accurate and accomplished machinist; he possessed a social disposition, good health. courage and hopefulness. These qualities constituted almost his entire capital. In August, 1857, the foundry was put in blast, and his machine shop, containing a few pieces of second-hand machinery and lathe engines, was ready for business. At this hour, the panic began: his venture appeared about to collapse; for, in a sparsely inhabited region, where the people were wedded to rustic im- plements and the soil, he was obliged to create a demand for his wares and labor; he had no rival shop between Alton and Terre Haute; various small loans made on the ' The coal company, of which he is the head,

"street" delayed a catastrophe, and, when ruin seemed only a few days away, he bought, on credit, a portable mill for grinding corn, and, placing it in the loft of his machine shop, began the manufacture of Indian meal for the St. Louis market: by the profits of this humble enterprise, he tided over the first winter and spring, until the complete removal to this point of the railroad shops created an active demand on the resources of his shop and foundry. In 1860, Mr. Angel retired from the firm, and a couple of mill engines had established Mr. Beach's reputation as a builder of steam engines. In 1865, Mr. Williams ceased to be a partner, and a third interest in the concern was sold to D. C. Amsden, on the usual terms of payment, and the firm was theneeforward H. H. Beach & Co. Mr. Beach was married, in 1866, to Elizabeth Gage; he has been blessed with one child. Estelle H. At length, the private and industrial welfare of the city de manded cheap fuel at its doors, and in 1867 his firm bought real estate, and, with Best & Sparks, millers, guaranteed a large bonus for sinking a coal shaft. The experiment of seeking for coal at this point was a bold one. as no coal-field was known to exist nearer than twenty miles; the prospector failed. and a coal company, with a capital of $20, - 000, was formed, his firm being the largest stockholders: the company collapsed when its capital was exhausted, and the mine was not ready to raise coal; a second one, with a cap- ital of $10,000, was organized, to continue the work, and again his firm was its chief sup- porter. When this company, burdened with a debt of $22,000, was unable to put the mine in working order, his firm, with a few indi- viduals, assumed the debt, and advanced the funds to develop the mine. Three years' work and $50,000 were required to open it.

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History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois, Part 68

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892? Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Chicago : O. L. Baskin Number of Pages: 758

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : O. L. Baskin
Number of Pages: 758