History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois, Part 69

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 69
USA > Illinois > Bond County > History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois > Part 69

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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has disbursed in wages three-quarters of a million, and reduced the price of fuel to two- thirds the previous price. Mr. Beach was active in measures to secure the Wabash Railroad, a railroad to Louisiana, Mo., and one to Springfield, III .; these two are not yet built, but the Jacksonville road, to which he also contributed, is in operation. In 1868. he became a member of the firm of Hagar & Seath, of Terre Haute, who desired to build a foundry and car works in that city: Mr. Beach was the banker, and, when the invest- ment became profitable, he retired; by his aid. Mr. Seath now writes himself one of the solid men of Terre Haute. In 1871, he took one-third of the stock of the Litchfield Bank, which, proving a better thing for its officers than for its owners, he aided to close out their interests, and founded on its site the banking house of Beach, Davis & Co., whose success was its own. and whose misfortunes were a result of the panic of 1873, which, however, passed with no loss of stability or public con- fidence. The removal of the car shops left vacant a series of buildings well adapted for car works. Mr. Beach and others conceived the design of forming a company to build cars. Two Eastern gentlemen offered to sup- ply the skill to operate the company, if other parties would supply the money; their offer was declined, and a home company organized, Mr. Beach subscribing one-seventh of the stock. The company nominally failed in a few years, paying only S5 cents on the dollar. Again his aid was implored, and, by his per- sonal assurances and engagements, the cred- itors were appeased; he also advanced thou- sands to J. B. L. Keating, the brilliant grain merchant, who, paying out a couple of mill- ions for grain, failed -- as men trading on bor- rowed capital usually do. In 1875, his firm sold their plant to the car works, and the securities taken shrank to half their former

value. He was called on to meet a vast amount of accommodation paper, and this, with other losses, scaled his fortune down to one-third its value in 1870; but he was an officer of the car works and the coal company. with a comfortable salary; he became the pro- prietor of a flouring-mill and elevator; he in- vested in the Indiana coal mines; he is the foremost man in the Oil and Pipe Line Com- pany. Although Mr. Beach began life with- out means or business connections, the en- terprises which are indebted to him for exist- ence, or for their prosperity, have at times disbursed wages at the rate of a third of a million a year. His agency in securing water-works for the city is treated of more fully elsewhere in this work.

R. F. BENNETT, physician and surgeon, and Mayor of Litchfield, was born in Shelby County, III., on October 2, 1839; he re- sided there until he was nineteen years of age; he received a good education from the Moultrie County Seminary at Sullivan, Ill .; he left school at seventeen and began teaching, continuing two years. At the age of nineteen years, he began the study of medicine with Dr. Henry, of Paradise, Coles County, where he continued two years, in the meantime attending two sessions at the Cin- cinnati Eclectic Medical College, from which he graduated in 1861, and, in the spring of the following year, he located in Litchfield for the practice of his profession, in which he has since been actively engaged. In Jan- mary, 1881, he formed a partnership with Dr. J. H. Tilden, and the firm has a large and Incrative practice. September 1. 1861. our subject married Miss Lizzie Storm, of Shelby County, III. He is now serving his second term in the Montgomery County Ec- lectic Medical Society as its President; he was also President of the State Eclectic Med- ical Society, and is now its Treasurer. In

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politics, he is a Republican. During 1880 and 1881, he was Mayor of Litchfield, and now serves his third term. being elected this third time by a large majority. Dr. Bennett is esteemed as a citizen, popular in politics and valued as a physician. Dr. Bennett has been blessed with two children-Harry, born June 12, 1871, and Mary, born May 10, 1876.

JOSEPHUS BARRY, deceased, was born in this county March 2, 1535, and married, December 29, 1858. Miss Mary M. Mc- Adams, settling on a farm of 160 acres, after- ward buying at different times, until he owned, at his death, 240 acres of land; his death occurred January S, 1877, his wife hav- ing passed over to the land of the hereafter July 4. 1868, leaving an only son, Charles Barry, who was born March 23, 1860, who took charge of the homestead on reaching his majority, and who married, February 25. 1880, Lucy J. Corlew, daughter of John Cor lew, of Montgomery County.

ISAAC N. BARRY, farmer, was born in Hillsboro Township. Montgomery County. December 19, 1837, and, after receiving a fair education, began farming on eighty acres of land, with sixty acres in timber, which his father purchased for him in 1859-60; it was partly broken, and he has so added to his farm that he has at present 200 acres, princi- pally in grain and for grazing. In 1868, he married Miss Margaret A. McAdams, daugh- ter of Thomas McAdams, of this county, but of Kentucky nativity; he has one son and two daughters living, and one son and one daughter dead. Father John Barry was born in Barren County. Ky .. in July, 1806; his wife was Elizabeth Robinson, who had one son, Wilson, who came to Montgomery County in 1830, locating five miles south- west of Hillsboro, where he passed his days; he served as Justice of the Peace two terms; he was an Old-School Baptist and a

Democrat; he was for many years owner of the Pepper Grist-Mills, which stood on part of his estate; he died March 6, 1876, in his seventieth year; his wife died June 8. 1868: they had a family of nine children, all of whom grew to maturity except one: they were Wilson, Susan J., Elizabeth A., Josephus. Isaac Newton. John Robinson, William Scott. Palmyra C. and Sarah A.

STEPHEN R. BRIGGS, deceased, was born near Zanesville, Ohio, in 1812, and. when twelve months old, his father moved to Illinois, making his home at Edwardsville over two years, when he moved to the terri- tory of this county in the spring of 1816. Our subject lived in this county until his death, on May 13, 1872; he entered several tracts of land in North Litchfield; his origi- nal home was eighty acres three and a half miles from the present city of Litchfield: he was in the ranger service, and crossed the Western plains, being over sixty days on the way, and a portion of that time was fed on half rations. At one time. Mr. Briggs was the owner of 500 acres of land; he was con- sidered a very successful farmer, being un- fortunate only in giving his name to friends as surety, and in consequence being obliged to liquidate the debts of others during the latter part of his life. For eleven years, he was Associate Judge of this county, acting with the Democratic party until the war, when he joined the Republican ranks, holding that the Democratic party had drifted away from him. In 1839, he married Miss Paulina W. Wood, daughter of James Wood, of Sanga- mon County, Ill. : she was born in Virginia in 1823, and died on May 18, 1881; they had a family of ten children, seven of whom are living. James M. Briggs is the oldest living child, born in Montgomery County, Ill., on October 4, 1842; he obtained a fair common school education by attending school in the

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winters, after the corn was gathered in. On attaining his majority, he began farming on the homestead, and, after the war, owned land in that vicinity. In 1876, he came to his present place, and here engaged in the ice trade, erecting in that year a building with a capacity of 2,000 tons, being eighty-four by sixty feet, twenty feet high, and located on the reservoir; this ice building is to be con- nected by a side-track with the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railroad. Since his com- mencement. he has done an excellent retail business in the city of Litchfield. In 1877, he married Miss Crilla Brandle, who bore him one son.

ROBERT BRIGGS was born May 10, 1824, on the place now belonging to Green Bandy's heirs, in this township, son of Rob- ert and Polly (Lockhart) Briggs. Robert Briggs, Sr .. was born in Pennsylvania, and emigrated to Ohio at a very early day. finally coming to Illinois. During the troublous Indian times, he took refuge in a fort at Ed- wardsville. and there joined old Capt. Sam Whitesides in excursions against the red devils at Rock Island; the Indians, according to the old gentleman, seemed to be as thick as the grass on the prairies. They remained in the fort about two years-mother and three children -the husband going out to hunt with others for provisions. The grandfather of our subject was also in the fort, and was a great hunter and Indian fighter. Robert, on leaving the fort, about 1814, settled on Lake Fork, near where Walsh- ville now stands, but a man named Baker entered the land over Robert's head, thereby dispossessing him of all the improvements he had put on the land; he then settled on land now belonging to Bluford Bandy's heirs, upon which he built a cabin and commenced raising corn; he sold his crops in St. Louis. He raised ten children. Robert, our subject,

remained at home until he was twenty-six years of age, when he married, October 9, 1849, Miss Penelope Petty, of Tennessee. Having entered forty acres of land near where Raymond now stands, he lived there a few years, when, his parents becoming old and feeble, he went to take care of them, all the other children having left home to do for themselves. Mr. Briggs moved to his present place March 4, 1861, and has since lived there. He has two children, and one dead. Pleas- ant and Burd, his two sons, are at home.

H. L. BENEPE, proprietor Phoenix Hotel. Litehfield, was born in New Philadephia, Ohio, in 1834, but was raised in Wayne · County, where he lived, receiving his educa- tion in St. Joseph College, in Somerset, Ohio. In 1858, he came West and settled in Colum - bia. Boone Co., Mo., where he engaged in the manufacture of plows and wagons, and the livery business, until 1874. during part of that period constructing large contracts of macadamized streets in the city of Columbia. He next came to Litchfield and bought his present hotel. naming it the Phoenix, after having renovated and repaired it from top to bottom: he has conducted it ever since. ex- cept during a period of fourteen months, when he rented it to look after other inter- ests; he has the only three-story hotel in the city, and his house contains thirty-five rooms and three sample rooms; he is located near the Indianapolis & St. Louis depot, and runs a free omnibus to all the railroad depots: an obliging landlord and a good house make the Phoenix a hotel a fair reputation.

CHARLES BALLWEG. dealer in liquors. Litchfield, was born in Baden, Germany, on February 15, 1843, and came to the United States with his parents when he was nine years old; in the summer of 1852, his par- ents located in Adams County, Penn., and he received his education in the Abbottstown,

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Penn., schools; in the spring of 1863, he came to Minnesota, and was a dealer in liq- uors: he kept a restaurant in St. Paul in 1864 and 1865; he went thence to Winona and represented a wholesale liquor house of that city, traveling in the Western States two years, when he located in Rochester, Minn., where he remained until the fall of 1872, being a dealer in liquors and keeping a billiard hall. In 1873, he came to Litch- field and engaged in his present business, which is the wholesale and retail sale of liq- uors; he carries on business on the corner of State and Ryder streets, and does a prosper- ' ous business. He was a dealer in grain in the firm of Ballweg & Gilmore, and had the mill elevator from 1575 to the summer of 1876, when Gilmore retired, and our subject continued in the business for several years. In politics, he is a prominent Democrat, hav- ing been a member of the Central Committee of the county, and of the Congressional Com- mittee; several times he has been a delegate to the Congressional and State conventions.

J. R. BLACKWELL, grocer, Litchfield, was born in Fayette County. Ill., in Feb- ruary, 1844, the city of his birth being Van- dalia, the old capital of the State, where he lived abont ten years, when he moved thence to Hillsboro, Ill., at which place he lived with his uncle, the Hon. J. T. Eecles; in June, 1861, at the age of sixteen years, he en- listed in the Eighth Illinois Volunteer In- fantry, under Col. Richard J. Oglesby, his company being B, under Capt. Sturgis; under the call for three-months' volunteers, he served three months, during which time the regiment was quartered at Cairo, Ill .; on July 5, 1862, he re-enlisted, at Hillsboro, in the One Hundred and Seventeenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, in Company B, under Capt. R. McWilliams; he participated in the campaign from Vicksburg to Meridian, Miss.,

in the Red River campaign, in Arkansas and Tennessee, in the Nashville and Fort Blakely campaigns, the Tupelo and Price campaigns, in the campaign against Hood in Middle Tennessee, and in the Mobile cam- paign; thence to Montgomery. Ala., where the regiment was at the close of the war; in all, his regiment marched 2,187 miles. trav- eled by rail 778 miles, and by water 6,191 miles; they captured two stand of colors and 442 prisoners of war; Mr. Blackwell never was wounded, taken prisoner, off duty. nor in the hospital; he was mustered out on July 5, 1865, and would have veteranized if the war had continued; on his return from the army. he studied law with Maj. McWilliams, of Litchfield, where he located for practice, be- ing admitted to the bar in 1867; he practiced his profession here four years; from 1969 to 1877, he served as Postmaster of Litchfield. and went out under the general order of Pres- ident Hayes that no re-appointments be made when there was a contest and the incumbent had served eight years: the largest number of names ever signed to a petition was sent to the department from this place, in- dorsing him and asking for his re-appoint- ment: the petition contained the indorsement of Senator R J. Oglesby. Gov. Beveridge and Congressman Gen. J. S. Martin, the petition - ers numbering 1,500. He was Alderman from the Second Ward two years, and was defeated for Mayor in 1878 by a small majority; in that year, he engaged in mercantile business at Benton, Ill., continuing about two years, when he returned to Litchfield and here en gaged in the grocery business; he has now a model grocery, on Kirkham street, called the "Wabash Store, " and is doing a leading bus- iness. In 1866, he married Miss Hattie, daughter of Rev. P. P. Hamilton, of Litchi- field; she died in 1878; to them were born three children, two girls and one boy. He re-

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married, in 1879, Miss Alice, daughter of Rev. Hngh Corrington. Robert Blackwell the father of our subject, was born near Shelby- ville, Ky., in 1802; he learned the trade of printing at Hopkinsville, Ky., and, when a young man, came to Illinois, locating at Kas- kaskia in 1815, at which place he became editor of the first paper ever printed in the State; it had been established shortly before the time of his arrival, by Mathew Duncan, who was also from Shelbyville, Ky .; the pa- per was styled the Illinois Intelligencer. Mr. Blackwell became public printer of the new State, and was at one time State Auditor; he was twice elected to the State Senate from that district in Illinois. When the capital was removed from Kaskaskia to Vandalia, he removed there, and resided there thirty years, during which time he was engaged in mer- cantile business, being a long time the part- ner of William H. Browning, late of Chicago; he died in 1870, leaving one son and two daughters by his second marriage, their mother being a sister of Hon. J. T. Eccles, of Hillsboro. He was three times married, his first wife, who bore him no children, be- ing a sister of Dr. Stapp, of Decatur, Ill .; his widow, née Miss Mary Slusser, from Ohio, lives at Vandalia; his demise leaves a vacancy felt by the public, and one not easily filled.

WILLIAM M. BEINDORF, manufacturer, Litchfield, was born in Prussia, Germany. in the city of Essen, on January 24. 1838. When but ten years of age, he came to the United States with his mother and settled in La Fayette, Ind. In his seventeenth year. he began to learn the machinist's trade in the shop of Joseph Habler, where he served three years' apprenticeship and one year as jour- neyman; he then entered the employ of the La Fayette & Indianapolis Railroad Com- pany, in the machine department, where he remained two years, removing thence to Fort

Wayne. Ind., where he worked two years for the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railroad Company. In 1863, he came to Litchfield, where he worked in the railroad shops seven years, and afterward engaged his services to H. H. Beach & Co., remaining with them two years. After the organization of the Litch- field Car Manufacturing Company, he worked for them a year. In 1875, he opened his present machine shop in Litchfield, whichi has been in active operation ever since; he employs five hands in the manufacture of threshing engines and wagons of superior quality, and in doing a general repairing business. In Fort Wayne, Ind., in 1863, he married Miss Kate D. Myers, who is the mother of his three children.

JAMES W. BUTTS, plasterer, Litchfield, was born in Greenbrier County, Va., now West Virginia, in 1844, and lived in that place until 1862. His first service was in the Fiftieth Virginia Infantry Regiment, White's division, under Joe Johnston; he was sixteen years old when he enlisted, and in the regiment mentioned he served eighteen months; he fought in the Confederate army in the battles of Fort Donelson, Five Oaks, Williamsburg, Malvern Hill and Gaines' Mill; he was capt- ured by the Illinois troops in the seven-days' fight at Malvern Hill, and taken to Washing- ton, D. C., whence he was sent to Camp Chase, where he took the oath, in August, 1862, and enlisted in the Forty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry in November, same year; his regiment was assigned to duty in Ken- tucky, and he fought in the battles of Somer. set, Ky., Knoxville, Tenn., and in other minor engagements, until June 29, 1863. when he was honorably discharged on account of disability. He then located in Columbus, Ohio, where he recovered, and he again en- listed, this time in the Thirteenth Ohio Vol- unteer Cavalry, in July, 1864, and joined the

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Army of the Potomac, and participated in the battle of Harper's Ferry, the siege of Rich- mond, and in all battles up to the surrender of Lee; he was in the Third Brigade of the Second Division of Sheridan's Thirteenth Cavalry Corps, and was mustered ont at Co- lumbus, Ohio, July 21, 1865. Among his many engagements were the battle of Boy- den's Plank Road, Stony Creek, Five Forks, Farmersville and Appomattox; he was wound- ed in the arm at Dinwiddie Court House on March 31, 1865, by a pistol ball. After the war, he began business as clerk in the wood- yard of Lane & Early. and remained with them six months. He removed to Iroquois County, Ill., and settled on a farm near On- arga, where he engaged in farming until 1869, when he came to Montgomery County, Ill., and lived at Butler and at Hillsboro, working at various employments until 1873, when he located in Litchfield and learned the plasterer's trade, working one year with G. W. Jackson and two years with John K. Mil- nor. Completing his trade, he worked as partner of Mr. Milnor two years; since that, he has been a contractor for himself, work- ing from two to three other men, with good success. In 1873, Mr. Butts married Miss Jennie Allen, of Litchfield.

WILLIAM E. BACON, real estate agent, Litchfield, was born in March, 1821, in On- ondaga County, N. Y., where he lived until he was thirteen years of age, when he spent two years in Michigan, at a branch school of Michigan University, of Monroe, going thence to New York State again, where he acted as clerk in Cazenovia for a time, and then went into mercantile business at Fabius, in his native county, as the partner of Elisha C. Lichfield, a relative of his, who was a Di- rector of the Michigan Southern Railroad, and through him obtained the position of Paymaster on the railroad, which he held

five years, after which he became Chief Clerk in the Superintendent's office, under General Superintendent Samuel Brown. In 1856, he resigned, in order to come here, where he learned the shops of the Terre Haute, Alton & St. Louis Railroad were to be located, his informant being Mr. Litchfield, who was one of the originators and builders of the road, and the man for whom the city was named. Mr. Bacon came to Litchfield in October, 1856, and established the first lumber-yard and planing-mills, conducting a prosperous business two years. Selling out, he became the real estate agent for Mr. Litchfield. dis- posing of property at this point, at. Gillespie and at Pana; he also prepared the first ab- stract of titles for this city. In 1872, he became Secretary of the Litchfield Car Man- ufacturing Company, which position he re- tained until August, 1880, when he devoted his entire attention to real estate. Mr. Ba- con is a practical surveyor; he has taken an active interest in the affairs of the city since its organization, having been its first Mayor, and re-elected to that position, since which time he has served as Alderman. The fa- ther of our subject was a native of Vermont, and a distinguished physician and surgeon, who died in New York. William E. Bacon is the youngest son.

JOHN CALDWELL, farmer, P. O. Litch- field, was born in County Derry, Ireland, on March 16, 1837, and came to the United States with his parents in the following year; they settled on a farm near Staunton, Ma- coupin Co., Ill. Our subject was raised on a farm, and in his boyhood attended a few terms of subscription school in the school- houses of the primitive sort. Until 1868, he worked the old homestead of his father, and then came to Litchfield, where he pur- chased twenty six acres of land, on which he built a substantial brick building; his pur-

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chase lies in the northeastern corner of the city limits, in Burr's Addition; in addition to this property. he owns and operates several other tracts of farming lands in the vicinity. He married Miss Amelia S. Aughinbaugh in 1861; they have had six children, all of whom died when quite young. Mr. Caldwell is a Presbyterian. The father of our subject, Mr. Hugh Caldwell, was born in Ireland in 1805. and came to the United States in 183S, farm- ing in Macoupin County, Ill .. until the close of the war. From 1866 to 1882, he served as Postmaster at Staunton, Ill. During the war, he was Deputy Provost Marshal.

T J. CHARLES, Superintendent of Schools, Litchfield, was born in San Fran- cisco, Cal., May 9, 1855, and, when eleven years, came to Litchfield, where, in the pub- lic schools, he prepared for college: in 1873, he entered Westminster College, at Fulton. Mo., and took a three-years' elective course. In 1876. he began teaching in the public schools of this county, continuing two years, when he became teacher of the high school department of the Litchfield schools, holding that position one year, at the expiration of which time he was elected Superintendent of the Schools, which position he still retains. The city schools include twelve departments and enroll 825 pupils.

WILLIAM CAMPBELL, Postmaster. Litchfield, was born March 17, 1843. in the county of Monaghan, Ireland. his parents being Scotch Protestants. He was but four years old when he came to the United States with his widowed mother and her six other children. She resided seven years in New York City, where she acted as dressmaker and forewoman of a large manufacturing es- tablishment; she died in 1865. In 1856, Mr. Campbell came to Illinois, being then thirteen years old: he made his home with Philo Judson, of Evanston, this State, for

one year. In 1857, he went to Carlinville, where he engaged his services as clerk to G. W. Woods; he continued a year, and then removed to Franklin, Morgan Co .. Ill., where he lived three years with Abram C. Woods, and clerked in the store two years of that pe- riod. the remainder of the time working on the farm. In July, 1862, he enlisted in the One Hundred and First Illinois Infantry, Company H. for three years, and served his entire time; his regiment was assigned to the Army of the Mississippi, and. during 1863, the company to which he belonged was as- signed to marine duty on the gunboat La Fayette, which ran the blockade at the siege of Vicksburg and silenced the batteries at Grand Gulf; late in 1863, they were trans- ferred to the Army of the Cumberland. and their battles were the midnight fight at Look- out Valley, Missionary Ridge, Lookout Mount ain and Sherman's march to the sea; in the first battle at Resaca, Ga., Mr. Campbell was wounded in the neck by a Minie ball, on May 14, 1864; passing beneath the jugular vein, it lodged in the tissues of the neck, and was removed on the following day; he was sent to Jeffersonville, Ind., where the wound, which had been badly neglected, healed so rapidly that in June he went on duty as a hospital nurse; he left the hospital service from choice, and, on July 10, started back to join his regiment, which he did on the 18th, and. two days later, engaged in the battle of Peach Tree Creek, where he was wounded twice early in the fight by some Minie balls which struek his ankle. crushing the tibia bone, and produced a flesh wound in the thigh, passing out; he was consequently disabled, and lay in the hospital until July, 1865, when he was discharged. He returned to Jackson- ville and entered school for the winter. In the spring of 1866. he became a clerk for his old employer, G. W. Woods, at Carlinville.

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History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois, Part 69

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