USA > Illinois > Christian County > History of Christian County, Illinois > Part 65
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HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
Samuel, & Lawton
Is one of the representative farmers of Locust Township. He is the son of Edward and Mary Ann (Hinds) Lawton, who were born in Nottinghamshire, England ; were married in 1832; emigrated the same year to America ; lived in Canada till 1838, part of the time near Montreal, and part of the time near Niagara Falls; and then moved to Tusearawas county, Ohio, where they lived till 1853, at which time they settled in Locust Township in this county. His father was born in the year 1811, and his mother in 1813. Both are now living in Taylorville. The birth of Samuel C. Lawton occurred in Canada on the thirteenth of February, 1836. He was the next to the oldest, of a family of cleven children, of whom ten are now living. He was raised mostly in Ohio, being only eighteen months old when the family moved to that state. His opportuni- ties for obtaining an education were only of an ordinary character. He attended school only in winter, sometimes even missing part of that term, and in the summer worked on the farm. On coming to this county his father bought at three dollars an aere, two hundred and forty aeres of land, all of which with the exception of forty acres of timber, lay in section four of Loeust Township. They began improving this traet in the fall of 1853.
This was the first settlement made out on the prairie, in what is now Locust Township. The carlier settlers had kept elose to the timber. At that time the prairie to the cast lay all open and un- enltivated, and few dreamed that fine farms and costly improve- ments would ever mark the wide expanse over which roamed large numbers of wolves, deer and other wild animals. The Illinois C'entral railroad had not at that time been completed, although part of the grading had been done through the county. The town of Pana had not been surveyed, and Assumption had just been started. Mr. Lawton was seventeen years old when he came to this county. He did a fair share of the work in bringing the farm
into cultivation. On the eighth day of January, 1863, he married Irena A. Pullen. Mrs. Lawton was born in Pennsylvania on the tenth of July, 1838, and was the next to the oldest, of a family of eleven children. She has one brother living at Nokomis in Mont- gomery county, and three sisters, two of whom reside in this county ; the remaining sister lives in Texas. Her father, Elijah J. Pullen and her mother, Lydia Ann Smith, were both natives of New Jersey, and were married in that state. From New Jersey, they moved to Pennsylvania, where they lived two years, and about the year 1839 or 1840 came to Illinois. Her father was a car- penter by trade and settled at Springfield, where he lived till about the year 1844, when he removed to this county and settled on a farın, on the South Fork in Johnson Township. This is the farm on which John Dappard now lives, in section twenty-four, Johnson township. Deer and wolves were the only inhabitants of that locality, when the Pullen family moved there. Her father built a log-house and improved the farm, which he sold to Dappard. In 1866, her parents moved to Nokomis, where they have since resided. Mrs. Lawton is now one of the old residents of Christian county, and few now remain of those who were living in the county at thie time lier father settled on the South Fork.
In 1865, Mr. Lawton moved to his present location. He first purchased eighty aeres, and his farm, which is one of the best managed and finest in the township, now includes one hundred and forty acres. He has three children, Pauline C., Lydia A. M., and Almira I. Lawton. IIe is one of the enterprising farmers of Locust township. He has attended closely to his own business affairs and has taken no part in publie concerns, though he is a sincere and earnest republican in his polities. By his vote for Lincoln in 1860, he helped to eleet the first republicau president this country ever had.
SCALES
FARM RES. OF PHILIP EBERT, SEC. 6 ROSEMOND TP. (II) R. I W. CHRISTIAN CO., ILL.
FARM AND RES. OF S. C. LAWTON, SEC. 4, LOCUST TP., (12) R. I, W. CHRISTIAN CO.,ILL.
The Library of the University of Illinois
The Library of the University of Illinois
14.
CHILDREN IN THE YARD.
INTERIOROF BARN
SEDLAND CHINA
BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF FARM LOOKING WEST.
120 ACRES
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FARM & RES. OF JAMES LAWTON,
SEC. 4. LOCUST TP., (12) R.I. W. CHRISTIAN CO. ILL.
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HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
Z. F. BATES.
MR. BATES was born in Sangamon county, on the 12th day of January, 1836. The family from which he is descended is of English origin, and on first coming to this country lived in New England. His father, Oliver Bates, was born in the state of New York, and was there married to Charity Buckman, who was a native of the state of Vermont. His father was engaged in farming in St. Law- rence county, in New York, and in the year 1833 emigrated to Illi- nois and settled in Sangamon county, at Farmington, ten miles west of Springfield. The subject of this biography was the fourth of a family of six children. From the age of fifteen he was away from home-mostly employed in handling stock and other similar occupations. In 1860 he went to St. Joseph, Missouri, and during the next two years that place was principally his home, though he also spent considerable time at Savannah, in Andrew county, Mis- souri. Part of the time he was also in Kansas. He came back to Illinois in 1862, and lived in Sangamon county till 1867, and then came to this county and settled where he now lives, on the north half of section 30 of Locust township. He located on raw prairie land. He now owns four hundred and twenty acres of land, one hundred and twenty of which lie in Johnson township. On the 13th of October, 1868, he married Mrs. Joanna S. Ellis. Her maiden name was Murry, daughter of Jeremiah H. Murry of Rosemond township. She was born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, and came to this county in 1856. She was married on the 2d of June, 1865, to William H. Ellis, who died on the 22d of Feb., 1866. Mr. and Mrs. Bates have four children living, Charles B., Roxanna C., Mary M. and Josephine S. Their second child, Libbie A., was born on the 22d day of March, 1871, and died on the 16th of January, 1872. Mrs. Bates has also a son by her first marriage, William J. Ellis. Mr. Bates has always been a democrat in politics, and is one of the leading members of his party in this part of the county. He served two ternis as Justice of the Peace in Locust township, and also for four or five years was a member of the Board of Supervisors.
DR. J. S. C. CUSSINS.
DR. CUSSINS, the present Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, was born in Muskingum county, Ohio, March the 24th, 1851. His grandfather was one of the early settlers of Muskingum county. His father was Samuel Cussins, and his mother's maiden name was Jane Careins. His mother's family had settled at an early date in Ohio, and was connected with the St. Clair family, so that the subject of this sketch was named James St. Clair C. Cussins. He was the next to the youngest of a family of five children. In 1863, his father moved to this state and settled at Decatur, where he died in 1872. The Dr. was in his thirteenth year on coming to Illinois. He laid the foundation of a good education in the public schools of Ohio and of Decatur. In 1869, he entered the Illinois Industrial University, at Champaign, and was a student in that in- stitution for three years. He there, of course, enjoyed excellent educational advantages, and left the University within a few months of the time when he would have graduated. He had begun teach- ing school at the age of sixteen, and after leaving Champaign he taught school in Macon county for about three years and a half. He began the study of medicine with Drs. Moore and Barnes, leading physicians of Decatur, in the year 1873, and afterward entcred Rush Medical College at Chicago, from which he graduated in the spring of 1877. During the succeeding summer he practiced in connection with his preceptors at Decatur, and in September, 1877, located at Owaneco, where he has since followed the practice of his profession with merited success. He was married to Miss
Ella Lord in January, 1878. She is the daughter of Thomas Lord, of Macon county, where she was born and raised. In the spring of 1879, Dr. Cussins was elected a member of the Board of Supervi- sors from Locust township. He became one of the active members of the Board, and on its organization in the spring of 1880 was made its chairman. Since February, 1879, he has carried on the drug business at Owaneco. He is a democrat in politics, and is a man who has made many friends during his residence in this county.
J. C. HUNTER.
MR. HUNTER has been in the mercantile business at Owaneco since 1874. His ancestors were early residents of Pennsylvania. His grandfather, James Hunter, lived in Somerset county in that state, and afterwards became one of the early settlers of Tu carawas coun- ty, Ohio. His paternal grandmother was a Stewart, and of Scotch- Irish descent. His father, John Hunter, was born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, and was a child on the removal of the fami- ly to Ohio. He subsequently removed to Hamilton county, in the same state, and married Mary W. Day, who was born in Hamilton county. J. C. Hunter was the second of a family of ten children by this marriage, and was born in Hamilton county, Ohio, within six miles of Cincinnati, on the twenty-third of July, 1846. He ob- tained his education in the common schools of the part of the state in which he was born and raised. When eighteen years of age he enlisted in the Union army, and served during the war of the rebel- lion. He was enrolled in Company C., 138th regiment Ohio in- fantry, on the first day of May, 1864. His regiment was attached to the Army of the Potomac, and he saw his first service at Arlington Heights, opposite Washington, and from there his regiment was sent down with the forces to operate against Richmond. During the summer of 1864, his regiment was stationed on the Appomattox, and from there was dispatched to the Peninsula, where he was at- tacked with typhoid fever and confined in the hospital six weeks. He was mustered out in September, 1864, and returned to Ohio. From Ohio he came to Richland county, in this state, to which his father had moved with his family. Mr. Hunter was married in Richland county on the third of April, 1872, to Agnes M. Robin- son, daughter of J. P. Robinson. While in Richland county he was farming, teaching school, and for one year carried on the mer- cantile business at Fairview. In the spring of 1874, he came to this county and began the mercantile business at Owaneco, in part- nership with H. Craver. Since 1876 he has been carrying on the store alone. He has been Post-master at Owaneco ever since he established himself in business in the town. In politics he has been a republican. He is known as one of the representative business men of this part of the county, and a merchant .of enterprise and liberality.
WILLIAM BICKERDIKE
WAS born in Yorkshire, England, on the nineteenth of October, 1838. His father was John Bickerdike, and his mother Hannah Briggs. He was the seventh of a family of nine children, composed of seven boys and two girls. In the spring of 1843 the family emi- grated to America, and settled on a farm in Pike county, in this state, where the subject of this sketch was principally raised. When he was twenty years of age, he began farmning for himself in Pike county. He accumulated sufficient money to buy eighty acres of land, and was married on the twentieth of August, 1865, to Mary A. Duscubury, who was born in Harrison county, Ohio, on the twelfth of May, 1840. Her father's name was Samuel Dusenbury,
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HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
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and her mother's maiden name was Susan Swallow. Her father lo- cated in Pike county, in this state, in 1853, moved to Christian county in 1865, and is now farming in Pana township. Mr. Bick- erdike, in 1870, became a resident of this county. He now owns a farm of 160 acres, in section twenty-five of township twelve, range one west. He has four children named Charles Louis, Cora Eliza- beth, James Arthur and William Watson. He is a man who has attended closely to his own private business affairs, and has taken no active part in politics. He is an adherent of neither political party, but occupies an independent position, generally voting for the man
whom he considers best fitted for the office, without regard to his polities. His mother died in Pike county, in March, 1876, and his father a year afterward, in March, 1877. Four of his brothers served in the Union army during the war of the rebellion, all of them in Illinois regiments. One of them, George Bickerdike, was a member of the second Illinois Cavalry, and was killed in an en- gagement at Holly Springs, Mississippi. Three others were in the seventy-third Illinois regiment. Two of his brothers reside in Polk county, Wisconsin, and the remainder of his brothers and sisters now living are in Pike county, Illinois.
KING TOWNSHIP.
S situated in the extreme south-western part of Christian county, and comprises an area of territory twelve miles long by three miles wide. It is composed of the east half of township 11-4 and 12-4, and contains thirty-six square miles or 23,040 acres of rich productive prairie; it is drained by Bear Creek, Prairie Fork, and Clear Creek, whose waters flow north and north-east, and empty into the South Fork of the San- gamon. King is bounded on the north by South Fork, east by Bear Creek and Ricks townships, south and west by Montgomery county.
The Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific railway enters (T. 11-4 in the south-east corner of King) on section 13, and leaves the town- ship on section 34 at Harvel. A portion of the village of Harvel is platted on section 34 of this township. King originally formed a part of Bear Creek precinct. The lands were originally surveyed by the U. S. authorities about the year 1819. But for many years, even after the organization of the county, it remained compara- tively unsettled. Being remote from any market, it was unin. viting to the tiller of the soil. But as the wave of emigration reached its borders, its soil too in later years was subdued and covered with farm-houses, together with those adjuncts of civiliza- tion,-churches and school-houses.
On the adoption of township organization in 1866, it formed a separate township and was named King, in compliment to the King family who were early residents. An election was held April 3, 1866, for its officers. Wm. A. Potts was chosen first Supervisor. Thos. F. Potts and Jesse J. King were elected first Justices of the l'eaec.
A lake or large swamp lies in the south-east part of the township, in parts of sections 35 and 36, classed under the head of swamp lands.
The land in the north half of the township is owned by various persons, and is thickly settled, whilst that on the south side is mostly owned by large land speculators. These lands are occupied by tenants on lease.
King contains no town within its borders. Pahner, Morrisonville, and Harvel are the towns nearest to it, where most of the marketing is done. This township voted $5000 in aid of the " Decatur and E. St. Louis Railroad," now called Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway. At the presidential elcetion in 1876, it cast a total vote of 192-indicating a population of nearly 1000. In 1870 the census showed a population of 413.
The first land entered in King township as appears on the county records is as follows: T. 11-4, Sept. 18, 1851, JJames McKinney,
S. E. half of N. W. quarter, Sec. 35, 40 acres; Nov. 28, 1851 James E. Happer, N. E. quarter, Sec. 1, 160 acres. T. 12-4, Oct. 17, 1851, Arthur Bradshaw, W. half, (lot 2), N. W. quarter, Sec. 3, 40 70 acres ; Nov. 18, 1851, Henry Parrish, (lot 1), N. W. quarter, Sec. 3, 80 acres ; E. half, (lot 2), N. W. quarter, Sec. 3, 40 17 acres ; W. half, (lot 1), N. E. quarter, Sec. 3, 40 acres. Nov. 18, 1851, Wm. Clower, S. W. quarter, Sec. 3, 160 acres, and S. E. quarter, Sec. 3, 160 acres.
The following is a list of township officers:
Supervisors .- W. A. Potts, elected 1866, re-elected '67 and '68 ; Wm. Wells, 1869 ; Chas. H. Van Dike, 1870, re-elected '71 '72 '73 and '74; F. F. Potts, 1875; G. W. Lowrance, 1876; D. H. Jack- son, 1877, re-elected '78 and '79; J. J. Carey, 1880.
Assessors .- T. F. Clower, 1876 ; John C. Clower, 1877, re-elected '78, '79 and '80.
Collectors .- Samuel Lemmon, clected 1866 ; C. H. Van Dike, 1867, re-elected '68 and '69 ; O. H. Parrish, 1870; J. H. Kent, 1871; D. H. Jackson, 1872 ; E. L. Van Dike, 1873 ; G. N. Albin, 1874; C. K. Doyle, 1875; Israel Morton, 1876; J. S. Morton, 1877 ; J. M. King, 1878 ; J. S. Morton, 1879; Henry McGee, Jr., 1880.
Town Clerks .- G. N. Albin, 1876, re-elected each succeeding year up to 1879; I. S. Morton, 1880.
Commissioners of Highways .- E. L. Van Dike, 1876; W. Wells, D. L. Whight and R. H. Shiffet, 1877 ; Jesse Hanon, 1878 ; T. C. Morton, 1879; R. H. Shiflet, 1880.
Constables .- C. C. Young, clected in 1876; William Spratt and A. J. Nash, 1877 ; W. S. Lorton, 1879; C. C. Young, re-elected 1880. Justices of the Peace .- Thomas F. Potts, elected in 1866, removed, and Jesse J. King, '66; W. A. Potts, '67 ; W. A. Potts and Stephen Alexander, '70 ; John A. Curry, '72; Jesse Hanon and John A. Curry, '73; John A. Curry and A. May, '77.
As King is the most recently settled township in the county there are few old settlers living in it. Capt. Jesse Hanon, son of Martin Hanon, the first settler of Christian county, was born in 1830, and is among the oldest native-born citizens of the county. He, how- ever, has lived in King township but a few years. His wife, Missouri A. Minnis, became a resident of this county in 1833. Among the leading farmers may be mentioned J. H. Adams, M. F. Cheeney, W. A. Potts and Hatten Gaskins. A lithographic view of the farms and residences of Mr. Adams and Mr. Gaskins can be seen on another page of this work. The inhabitants of King are an intelligent, energetic and thrifty class of people, and in a few years they will make this section one of the best and most produc- tive agricultural districts of the county.
FARM & RESIDENCE OF J. H. ADAMS. SEC. 22, KING TP, (II) RANGE, 4, CHRISTIAN CO., ILL.
SCENES
ON THE FARM
FARM AND RESIDENCE OF LANSING ADAMS, SEC. 30, TOWN, II, RANGE 3, CHRISTIAN CO., ILL.
The Library of the University of Illinois
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
Jesse Hamon
MARTIN HANON, Capt. Hanon's father, was the first settler in Christian county. He first settled in Illinois, in the eastern part of the state, near the Wabash river, in the year 1812. In 1818 he came to what is now Christian county, and made a settlement near Taylorville. A full account of his coming to this county is found in its appropriate place in the history of the pioneer settlements. His home was in this county from 1818 till his death, which oc- curred near Sharpsburg, on the 5th of April, 1879, when he was only a month less than eighty years of age. He was a man of temper- ate and abstemious habits, had inherited an excellent physical consti- tution, and in his old age enjoyed unusual physical and mental vigor. When about forty-eight years old, while working with a carpenter's adze, he seriously wounded his knee, and lamed himself for life. Previous to the occurrence of this accident he had never taken a particle of medicine from a physician. He was a man who had acquired a marked character for honesty and integrity, and who enjoyed the confidence of his friends and neighbors in no ordinary degree. He was modest in deportment, and though frequently solicited to occupy public office (for which he was well qualified by his education and natural ability) he invariably preferred the quiet of private life, and always refused. At every election he voted the
democratic ticket. In his carlier life he adhered to the theological doctrines of the Old School Baptist denomination, but gradually drifted into a belief in Universalism. He was married in Kentucky, to Sarah Miller, who died in 1861. By her he had ten children, - five of whom are still living, viz. : Jesse Hanon, of King township, the oldest son; Susan Hanon, now residing in Barton county, Kansas, the wife of G. R. Sharp, of Sharpsburg ; Cyrena, who mar- ried Seth Mason of Sharpsburg; and Elijah A. Hanon, who now lives at Larned, in Pawnee county, Kansas.
Capt. Jesse Hanon was born on the South fork of Sangamon river, seven miles north-west of Taylorville, on the 14th of April, 1830. With one or two possible exceptions, he is now the oldest born citizen living in Christian county. In childhood he had only limited advantages for obtaining an education. He attended school altogether about thirteen months, part of which time was at so early an age that the schooling was of no real benefit. Previous to the con- mencement of the town of Taylorville, his father had moved to a farm now within the present limits of the town, and Capt. Hanon well remembers the building of the first house from which Taylor- ville dates its growth. He learned to plow on ground now taken up by the residence portion of the town. He lived at home till his
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HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
marriage to Miss Missouri Ann Minnis, when he went to farming for himself in Taylorville township.
At the breaking out of the war of the rebellion he enlisted in Co. A, 115th Illinois regiment. He was mustered in at Camp Butler, at Springfield, on the 13th of September, 1862, as 2d Lieut. The same fall his regiment was ordered to Kentucky, and was stationed at Covington, Lexington, Richmond, and Danville, in that state, in succession. In February, 1863, the regiment moved to Nashville, and subsequently assisted in constructing the fortifications at Frank- lin. On the resignation, at this place, of the adjutant of the regi- ment, he was appointed acting adjutant. He had been promoted to 1st lieutenant, while in Kentucky. After spending two or three weeks of the summer of 1863 in the hospital at Nashville, he rejoined his regiment at War Trace, Tennessee, and was placed on staff duty as the provost marshal of the 1st Brigade of the 1st Di- vision of the Reserve Army Corps, under Gen. Gordon Granger. The brigade was commanded by Col. Champion, and afterward by Gen. Whitaker. He was in the battle of Chickamauga, on the 20th of September, 1863, and was taken prisoner by the Confede- rate forces. He was a prisoner in the Southern Confederacy for seventeen months and ten days, during which time he was an in- mate of the rebel prisons at Richinond, (where he was confined in the notorious Libby prison); at Danville, Virginia, Macon, Georgia, Savannah, and Charleston, South Carolina, where he was placed by the rebels under fire of the Union guns, to prevent the Federal forces from bombarding the town; at Columbia, South Carolina, and Charlotte, North Carolina. He was exchanged at Wilmington, North Carolina, and after reaching the Union lines returned to Christian county. After remaining at home three weeks he reported for duty at Camp Chase, in Ohio, and after remaining there for a time, rejoined his regiment at Nashville, Tennessee. On the 11th of June, 1865, he was mustered out at Nashville, and re- ceived his discharge at Camp Butler, on the 23d of the same month he had been promoted Captain, his commission dating from the 20th of September, 1863, the date of the battle of Chickamauga, in which he was captured.
On returning to Christian county he resumed farming. For the last ten years he has been a resident of King township. He held the office of School Commissioner, and for two terms served as Jus- tice of the Peace, once in Taylorville township, and once in King township. He formerly was a member of the democratic party, but during the war he became a republican. He is a man of ori- ginality and liberality of thought. His views on religious subjects are advanced and progressive. While he accepts the Scriptures as a historic statement of facts, which undoubtedly transpired, and are as correct as any records written at such times, and under such cir- cumstances, could well be, still he regards the books of the Old and New Testaments as purely human, and not different from any other literary productions. Their authors doubtless considered them- selves inspired, but their inspiration was simply that of Shake- speare and Milton and Dante. If God had actually spoken face to face with man he thinks it probable that He would have warned and commanded them against some of the great evils of society, such as slavery and polygamy, instead of giving minute instructions con- cerning the useless details of the old Jewish ritual. He is an earnest believer in the principles of morality, and is a strong advo- cate of abstinence from intoxicating liquors, and of temperance in every respect, but controverts the theological ideas which enter into the belief of orthodox churches. He is a sincere admirer of that great sentiment of Thomas Paine-" The world is my country, and to do good my religion."
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