USA > Illinois > Christian County > History of Christian County, Illinois > Part 67
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In the year 1838 he returned to Indiana. In 1839 he married Miss Corrina Aun Durkee, a native of Vigo county, Indiana, and daughter of Dr. John Durkee, one of the early settlers of Vigo county, and a physician who, in those early days, practiced exten- sively through the whole settled part of the Wabash valley. After his marriage he settled on a farm three miles from Terre Haute. His wife died in January, 1845.
After the discovery of gold in California, Col. Crawford was among the first to make his way across the Plains to the Pacific Coast. After traversing in safety the vast region intervening between the Missouri river and the Rocky Mountains, then regarded as an arid and inhospitable desert, which would always remain incapable of cultivation, he was seized with a severe fever at Summit Spring near the Summit of the Rocky Mountains. He happily recovered. He lay at Salt Lake City three weeks regaining his strength. On reach- ing the gold regions he undertook washing gold on the Rio de Las Cos Manos. He followed washing gold about a year and found it profit- able. The winter of 1850-1, he visited Oregon, ascending the coast as far as Astoria and the straits of Juan de Fuqua. He returned from California by way of the Isthmus of Panama, visiting various portions of Central and South America and the West India Islands, and stopping at Havana, Cuba, and in the city of New Orleans. On the fifteenth of October, 1851, he married Mary W. Kidder, who was born at Searsport, in Hancock county, Maine, on the twelfth of August, 1815. Her father, Nathaniel Kidder, was for a number of years a merchant in Boston, and removed to Oxford, Ohio, in the year 1829. Mrs. Crawford came to Terre Haute in 1850, where she made the acquaintance of her husband. Her grandfather, Nathaniel Kidder, was an Orthodox minister, who preached at Nashua, New Hampshire, for a long number of years, and died there at an advanced age. Her mother, Salla Atherton, was the daughter of Dr. Israel Atherton, an old practitioner of medicine at Lancaster, Massachu- setts.
In August, 1851, Col. Crawford purchased from John Gregg, of Philadelphia, about a thousand acres of land on Mosquito Creek, in the northern part of this county. He settled on this tract where he has since lived. Few improvements had then been made in that part of the county. His farm, which has been reduced by gifts to his children to five hundred acres, has of recent years been chiefly devoted to grazing purposes. Consequently, Col. Crawford leads a life of comparative ease, and as free as possible from the ordinary cares incident to the carrying on of a large farm. His two children, David F. and Henry C. Crawford, are married and settled on farins near their father. David F. served in the Union army during the war of the rebellion, a member of the Twenty-first Illinois-Gen. Grant's original regiment. He was in numerous battles, and was severely wounded at Stone River. He won for himself a record as a good soldier. The last seven months of his service were spent as a prisoner at Andersonville and other ports of Georgia, where he had ample opportunity to experience the hardships and privations of
life in the Southern prison pens, which will be remembered in sub- sequent history for their unparalleled barbarities. Col. Crawford and his wife also have an adopted daughter, Mary Bell Maxwell, who has lived with them since she was two weeks old. Her father, James Maxwell, died in the army during the war.
In early life Col. Crawford was a Whig. On the agitation of the question of slavery and its proposed extension into the territories, his natural sympathies made him a free soil man. He has been a member of the Republican party from its organization. He is a well-known resident of this county. His extensive travels have brought him in contact with many men of note. Among his rem- iniscences are treasured up many incidents relating to public men, who were in active life during his early manhood, and who have since been given their appropriate places on the roll of their coun- try's history. As a child he was of weakly growth, and gave little promise of a hardy constitution or a long life. By active exercise in his boyhood, he acquired a vigorous constitution, and few men could have stood so successfully the toils and travels which he has undergone. As a pioneer in the great West he was among the carliest. It is sixty-four years since his feet first trod the soil of Illinois-then a wild and uninhabited territory. He often made the journey from Terre Haute to Springfield when not a single set- tlement varied the monotony of the journey. Though a man who has traveled much by sea and land he is a farmer, and is well sat- isfied with his home and its surroundings, believing that all things considered, he lives in one of the most favored portions of his adopted state.
JOHN L. DRENNAN.
THIS gentleman, who has resided in Mosquito township since 1856, is a native of Kentucky, and was born in Caldwell county, in that state, Nov. 14, 1826. His grandfather, Jolin Drennan, was a. resident of South Carolina at the time of the revolutionary war, and served in the American army during the latter part of that. war. He moved from South Carolina to Kentucky about the year 1802, and settled in Caldwell (then Livingston) county, and was one of the pioneer settlers of that part of the state. He located there when it was almost a wilderness, and still inhabited by the In- dians. His father, Eli Drennan, was born in South Carolina in the year 1800, and, consequently, was only about two years of age wlien the family removed into Kentucky. He was raised in Caldwell county, and, upon reaching manhood's estate, married Margaret Mc- Dowell, who was also a native of Caldwell county, and who was descended from an Irish family which had settled some years be- fore in South Carolina, and moved from there to Kentucky at an early date.
John L. Drennan, the subject of our sketch, was the oldest of nine children born to Eh and Margaret Drennan. He was raised in Caldwell county, Ky.
The seliools of that part of the state, in his carly youth, offered only moderate advantages for obtaining an education, in addition to which he was obliged to remain at home to assist in the work upon the farm. The result was, he only attended school about three mouths altogether, and for what education he received, he was indebted entirely to his own efforts.
He lived at home until he was twenty-one years of age, and then fairly started in life on his own account. Continuing the same line of business, lic began farming for himself in Caldwell county.
Upon the 13th of March, 1850, he married Henrietta Wimber- ley, one of twelve children, who had been born in Trigg, but was residing in Caldwell county, Kentucky. Her ancestors had come
VIEW OF FARM FROM ILLIOPOLIS BRIDGE ON THE SANGAMON RIVER.
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THESTOCK FARM (350ACRES ) ANDRES. OF F. NORRED, IN SECS. 19 & 30, T.16,R.I,W. ( MOSQUITO . TP,) CHRISTIAN CO., ILL,
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from North Carolina to Kentucky at an early date. John L. Drennan lived in Kentucky until 1856.
The Drennan family were early settlers in Illinois, William and Joseph Drennan, uncles to his father, having settled in San- gamon county, this state, at a very early period ; and were among the first pioneer settlers, it being said that they planted the first corn ever grown in Sangamon county. Mr. Drennan's father came to Illinois about 1820-21 ; remained two years in Sangamon county, and helped build the first house in Springfield. He was not favor- ably impressed with the country, however, and returned to Ken- tucky in the fall of 1856. John L. Drennan mnoved with his fam- ily to Illinois, and settled in Christian county, near Mt. Auburn. Since 1864 he has been living upon his present farm, in sec. 22, T. 15 R. 1 W. Mr. and Mrs. Drennan have fourteen children, all liv- ing, viz. : Alfred M., Franklin P., John G., Adelia J. (now wife of John F. Cole), Laura E., Margaret Emily (who married Clayton Clemens), Henry E, George R., Henrietta Adel, Cora A., James L., Thomas M., Oscar W. and Charlotte O. Two of his sons reside. at Taylorville. Franklin P. has been connected with the offices of the county, and Circuit Clerk for the past four years, and John G., who is now a candidate for the position of State's Attorney, having received the nomination from the democratic party by a large ma- jority, and there is but little doubt that he will be elected.
In his politics Mr. Drennan has been a member of the democratic party all his life. His first vote for president was cast for Lewis Cass, in 1848, and he has voted for every democratic candidate for president since, with the exception of James Buchanan, in 1856, when he lost his vote by reason of his removal to this state at that time.
He has been one of the representative democrats of Mosquito township. In 1872 the democrats of Christian county made him their nominee for County Treasurer
Mr. Drennan is a man who has commanded the confidence and respect of the people, and has filled several positions with credit to himself, and to the satisfaction of the people of the township in which he resides He was assessor of Mosquito township for two years-during 1866 and 1867. He was elected a member of the board of supervisors in 1868, and served four consecutive years. He was again elected to this position in 1874, and again repre- sented his township on the Board for five successive. years. He has also filled a number of minor offices in the township, such as school trustee and commisioner of highways. He was one of the first to settle out on the prairie, in the south-west part of Mosquito township, and since his location there, has witnessed a vast amount of improvement around him.
ELIAS BRAMEL.
THIS gentleman, one of the early settlers on the Mosquito prairie, is a Kentuckian by birth. The family from which he de- scended is of English extraction. His grandfather, Jonathan Bramel, was born in England, and on his emigration to America settled in Maryland. His father, Elisha Bramel, was born in Maryland, and when a young man went to Kentucky and settled in that state. This was about the year 1812. About 1815, he mar- ried in Mason county, Kentucky, Rebecca Moran, who was also born in Maryland, the Moran and Bramel families having emi- grated from Maryland to Kentucky together, and settled in Mason county. Mr. Bramel's birth occurred in Mason county, March 17, 1820. He was the third in a family of eight children. When about seven years old his father moved to Harrison county. The part of Kentucky in which his father lived was thinly settled, and
the neighbors few and far between. In consequence the children were afforded very poor advantages in the way of obtaining an edu- cation. When he was a boy there was no school within a reasona- ble distance at which he could attend. The only schooling he received was for about two months after he became of age. Mr. Bramel lived at home until he was twenty-one, and then turned out in the world on his own account. He went to Paris, in Bourbon county, and learned the business of a stone mason, and afterward the trade of a stone cutter. He worked at his trade for fifteen or sixteen years, and at it saved enough money to buy a farm of two hundred aeres, in Harrison county, in the year 1843, and on which he moved, but still carried on his trade, obtaining other help to carry on the farming.
His first marriage occurred November 3, 1844, to Eliza Ash- craft, of Harrison county, Kentucky. Her death took place Jan. 18th, 1849. He was married again August 12, 1851, to Dorinda Dodson, who was born and raised in Harrison county, Kentucky. In 1852, Mr. Bramel removed to Illinois, and purchased eighty acres of raw prairie land, in section 34, town. 19, range 1 west, and twenty aeres of timber. Mr. Bramel began farming on this tract, and has been farming in that part of Christian county ever since. He now owns three hundred acres of land in sections 34 and 35, and is known as one of the substantial farmers of Mosquito township. Mr. Bramel was among the first to locate on the Mosquito prairie, on which there were only one or two houses on his coming to the county. Herds of deer were a common sight on the prairie, and the country gave little promise of developing into the rich agricul- tural country which it has since become. Mr. Bramel has ten children living : Columbus, now living in La Bette county, Kansas, Lucinda, wife of Lysander Whaley, of Mosquito township, Sallie A., who married Adam Whiteside, of Macon county, Benjamin, Oscar, now farming in Mosquito township, Robert, Thomas, Ira, Richard and John Wilmer.
In his politics, Mr. Bramel started out in life as a believer in the old Jackson democracy, to whose principles he believes that he has adhered pretty closely all through his life. His first vote for president was cast for Van Buren, in 1840, and he has voted for every democratic candidate for president from that time until now. Both Mr. and Mrs. Bramel are members of the Christian church. Mr. Bramel is a man who has been respected for his many good qualities as a eitizen and a useful member of the community. As a man he is self-made. He began life with nothing on which to rely except his own energy, and from a young man beginning life with- out a dollar, has risen to a position of comparative independence, and takes rank with the prominent farmers of Christian county.
WILLIAM ARMSTRONG.
THIS gentleman, one of the old residents of this part of the state, is a native of North Carolina, and was born in Orange county, of that state, May 1, 1806. The family from which he is descended is of Irish descent.
His great-grandfather was born in Ireland, came to America, and settled in North Carolina, while it was yet a colony of Great Britain. His grandfather, William Arınstrong, was born in Northi Carolina, about the year 1736. He served in the Continental army during the whole of the Revolutionary war, and participated in several battles, being twice taken prisoner by the British. His father, James Armstrong, was born in North Carolina, was raised in that state, and married Mary Allen, who was also a native of Orange county, N. C., and came from a family of English descent.
Mr. Armstrong's grandfather, George Allen Armstrong, moved
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from North Carolina to Tennessee, at an early date, and settled on the site of Nashville, where there was only a fort to mark the spot where now stands the capital of the state. He married Jennie Lapslie. His son, Wm. Armstrong, uncle of the subject of this sketeh, accompanied him to Tennessee, and was accustomed to say that he buried nearly thirty men, who had been picked off by the Indians, within a short distance of this Nashville fort. Mr. Arm- strong's father also accompanied him to Tennessee, but afterwards returned to North Carolina.
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The first six years of Mr. Armstrong's life were spent among the sterile hills and flint roeks of his native county. In 1812, his father moved with the family to Tennessee, and settled in Williams county, 20 miles from Nashville. It was here that Mr. Armstrong grew to manhood. His father being a man in good circumstances, Wm. Armstrong obtained all the education offered by the schools of that country. He was married there to Martha Oldham, a na- tive of Virginia. Mr. Armstrong first visited Illinois in 1836, and being determined to settle in this state, he entered land in what is now Logan county, and in 1837, brought his family to Illinois, and settled in Sangamon county, near the town of Mechanicsburg, and continued to live there until 1865, and then moved to his present farm in Christian county. His first wife died, January, 1836, be- fore his removal to Illinois. His second marriage occurred June 15, 1837, to Statira Fickland, a native of Montgomery county, Kentucky; his marriage took place in Sangamon county. The farm on which Mr. Armstrong now resides, was improved by his son, Leander Armstrong, now dead, and was one of the earliest improved farms upon the prairie in the south-west part of Mosquito township. Mr. Armstrong has had ten children, of whom six are now living, namely, Mary E., John A., James I., Ann M., married to D. W. Housley of Grove City, Wm., David C. His oldest daughter is living in Jasper county, Missouri, the wife of John H. Spurgiu, and all the other children are living in Christian county. Three children of Mr. Armstrong's died in Christian county, all grown, viz: Leander, April 14, 1866, George White, Nov. 26, 1868, Emina, Feb. 17, 1873, Edwin A. having died in infancy, Jan. 4, 1834. Mr. Armstrong had three sons serving in the army during the war of the Rebellion : John A., James I., and Leander ; John A. serving in the 3d cavalry, James I. in the 73d, and Leander in the 114th; the first named enlisted in 1861, and served until he be- came incapable of active duty on account of rheumatismn. James I. and Leander served from 1862 until the close of the war. Leander contracted a disease while in the service, from which he died as above stated.
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Mr. Arinstrong was born in a slave-holding country, and his father was a slave-owner after the manner of the country in which he lived, but the subject of our sketch at an early age became im- pressed with the evils of the system, although he himself owned slaves, and as soon as an opportunity offered determined to move to a free state. He was a whig while that party lasted, and voted for its candidates always in opposition to the democratic party. His sentiments on the question of slavery, led him to attach himself to the Republican party on its organization, and he voted for Fremont in 1856. He is still a republican, and was a stanch Union man during the war.
Mr. Armstrong is a man who is much respected for his many good qualities as a citizen. For four years he was Associate Judge of the County Court, in Sangamon county. At the age of 18, in 1824, he became comected with the Methodist church, of which denomination he has ever since been a member.
Mr. Armstrong owned a section and a half of land in Mosquito township, and hus given all his children a good start in life. His
four sons are now farming in this township, and are all married. Three of them are living upon the same section (30) as their father.
SAMUEL BETZ.
THIS gentlemau, who has been living in Mosquito township since November, 1867, is a native of Pennsylvania, and was born in Huntingdon county of that state, March 29, 1831. His father was John Betz, and his mother Rebecca Beyer. The subject of our sketch was the oldest of seven children. When a child one or two years of age, his father moved with the family to Medina county, Ohio, where he lived three or four years and then went to Summit county, Ohio, where Esquire Betz was principally raised. The part of Ohio in which he lived had good schools, which he attended pretty regularly when a boy, and gained a good education. After becoming of age he worked by the month for a couple of years in Summit and Cuyahoga counties. The summer of 1855 he spent in Wisconsin. October 7, 1855, he was married to Catharine Weid- man, who was born and raised in Summit county, Ohio, where his marriage took place. In the spring of 1856 he went to Wisconsin, and went to farming for himself in Sauk county of that state. He lived in Wisconsin seven and one half years. His father died in February, 1863. And his five younger brothers were in the army at the time, so that his mother wrote to him to come back to Ohio and take care of the old homestead ; consequently he went back to Ohio in the fall of 1863, and lived there until the fall of 1867, when he came to Christian county and settled in Mosquito township, where he has since been engaged in farming. He learned the car- penter's trade in Ohio, and has followed that to some extent here. He has had nine children, of whom all but one are living. Their names are Clara Emma, wife of John A. Delamar; Charlotte Rebecca, William Arie, who died at the age of nearly thirteen ; Alice Florence, Ida, Rosa, John Harvey, Mary Catharine and Charles Samuel. Esquire Betz has been one of the representative citizens of Mosquito township since his residence there, and has been known as one of the public-spirited and liberal members of the com- munity. In his politics he has always been a member of the old democratic party, casting his first vote for president for Franklin Pierce in 1852, and supporting every democratie candidate for president since. For a number of years he has filled the office of Justice of the Peace in Mosquito township. He is a member of the Odd Fellows, and also a Mason.
JOHN PALMER.
Turis gentleman has been living in Mosquito township since 1875; is a native of Ohio, and was boru in Washington county of that state, Feb. 12th, 1824. His father, Jabez F. Palmer, was a native of Vermont, and descended from a family who had settled in North Carolina at an carly date. His grandfather, Joseph Palmer, was one of the first settlers of Ohio, and among the carly pioneers who settled about Marietta, the oldest town in the state. Mr. Palmer's wife's name was Lydia G. Brown, daughter of Samuel Brown, who was also one of the first pioneers of Washington county, Ohio, and settled eight miles from Marietta, one of the first to locate at any distance from the town. Mr. Palmer's uncle, John Brown, was known throughout that part of the state as one of the early aboli- tionists, and most zealous advocate of freedom for the black racc.
The Brown family were from New Hampshire. Mr. Palmer was born sixteen miles west of Marietta, in the town of Water- town, now Palmer township. He attended the common schools and obtained the elements of a good English education. He was raised
A SCENE ON ONE OF THE FARMS OF M. STAFFORD, (MOSQUITO TP) CHRISTIAN CO., ILL.
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HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
on a farm. November 28th, 1847, he married Lydia E. Dutton, a native of Hockingport, Athens county, Ohio. Mr. Palmer was farming in Ohio till the spring of 1860, and then moved to Mason county, West Virginia, on the Ohio river, opposite Gallipolis, Ohio, where he was engaged in farming through the war, and was also part of the time occupied in taking care of government horses.
In 1866 he moved to the Ohio side of the river. The death of his wife occurred February, 1868, and then Mr. Palmer went to Missouri. For four or five years his home was in Sedalia, and he also for a year lived in Cooper county. In the summer of 1873 he was most of the time in Kansas, and afterward lived for a few months in Bates county, Missouri. In March, 1875, he married Mrs. Martha L. Sprague, whose maiden name was Gage, who was born in New Hampshire, and came to Washington county, Ohio, when a child of five years of age. She married Jonathan Sprague, and settled in Mosquito township. Mr. Palmer has one son, James A. Palmer, now living in Athens county, Ohio, engaged in the mer- chandizing business at Coolville. In his politics Mr. Palmer was formerly a whig, but has been a republican since the organization of that party. He voted for Fremont in 1856, the first national candidate of the republican party. He has thoroughly sympathized with the aims of the republican party during the whole of its exist- ance.
WILLIAM MORGAN
Is a native- born citizen of Christian county. His birth dates Sep- tember 4th, 1838. His father, John Morgan, was a native of Kentucky, and was a son of Lambert Morgan, of Virginia. Lam- bert Morgan emigrated to Kentucky at an early day. He was in the war of 1812, and was at the battle of New Orleans. In about 1820 he settled in Indiana, where he lived until 1832. He then came to Illinois. When the family arrived at Vandalia, John Mor- gan, who was then about eighteen years of age, concluded he would remain in that place. His father continued his journey, crossed the Illinois river at Beardstown, and settled somewhere in the mil- itary tract, where he lived a number of years. He afterwards moved into Davis county, Missouri, where he died in 1874. John Morgan remained in Vandalia a short time, and then went to St. Louis, where he was employed by " Billie" Wiggins to work one of his ferry-boats. He afterward went to Beardstown, and then to Springfield, and finally came into what is now Christian county, where he was married in 1834 to Miss Nancy Watkins, a native of Tennessee. Her father was an early settler in the central part of Illinois. After Mr. Morgan's marriage, he settled down.to farm- ing. He now lives in Mosquito township. He has been twice married. His second wife was a Mrs. Allen, who, before marriage, was a Miss Lucinda Loyd, of Kentucky. There have been six children born by this union, one now deceased. The subject of our sketch was the only child by his father's first marriage. John Morgan is a man of the true pioneer type, and delights in telling anecdotes of the early times.
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