History of Effingham county, Illinois, Part 39

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892? ed
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, O. L. Baskin & co.
Number of Pages: 650

USA > Illinois > Effingham County > History of Effingham county, Illinois > Part 39

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EFFINGHAM CITY AND DOUGLAS TOWNSHIP.

Sixty-second Regiment, and was First Liou- tenant, serving until August, 1863, when he resigned his command on account of contin- ued illness, and located in St. Louis, where he was connected with the Globe-Democrat and other papers between two and three years. Ho had the cholera in St. Louis in 1866, when he returned to Effingham and engaged as a compositor for Haddock, of the Republican, for a few months. In Feb- ruary, 1867, he went to Kinmundy, Ill., and started the Telegram, and continued it five months, and, in October, went to New Or- leans, where he remained until spring, when he returned and edited the Effinghamn Demo- crat, which was sold to Mr. Bradsby in 1868. He continued to aid for awhile in its publi- cation, and, in the fall of 1869, he was nomi- nated for County Clerk of Effingham County, where he has since served, being elected three times, without any opposition from the other party. He was married, in Ohio, in 1849, to Lavina A. Dille, of Fairfield County, Ohio. They have one daughter living.

W. I. N. FISHER, deceased, was a phy- sician, born in Mifflin County, Penn., August 31, 1814, son of George and Barbara (Shep- ard) Fisher, parents of five children-two sons and three daughters. Our subject re- ceived his education in his native county, and, at an early age, began teaching school, at the same time pursuing his own studies at every opportunity. He afterward traveled quite extensively in New York, made excur- sions ou the lakes, and finally went to Ohio and attended college at Cuyahoga Falls, that State. November 9, 1839, he removed to Terre Haute, Ind., where he continued his studies. He came to this State in 1841, and was married to Miss Sarah A. Turney, born in Coles County, this State, November 17, 1842. Our subject pursued his studies under Dr. Miller, and shortly commenced to prac-

tice himself. In March, 1844, he moved to Shelbyville, this State, where he followed his profession till 1848, when he came to this county, and, January 1, 1860, moved into Effingham City, where, the war breaking out shortly afterward, he was active in forming companies, and was himself a member of the Fifth Cavalry. Company L, and servod nine months, when his health failed. compelling him to return home. He was County Super- intendent of Schools, devoting his leisure moments to the study of the sciences of all branches, of which he was intelligibly con- versant. He was a member of the Mothodist Episcopal Church, and in politics a Demo- crat; was also an honored member of the Ma- sonic fraternity, and died January 28, 1873. Mrs. Fisher is still living in Effingham. They had one son, John G., born August 30. 1843, and died August 10, 1845.

LEWIS FITCH, jeweler, Effingham, was born in Leroy, Genesee Co., N. Y., June 22, 1844. He came to Michigan with his parents when four years old, and resided in Almont, that State, where he learned the trade of jew- eler with his father, and started in business for himself at the age of twenty-one, at Al- mont, and continued there until 1869, and then went to South Haven, Mich., where he remained until 1871, when he removed to Casey, Ill. He was at the latter place until 1879, when he removed to Effingham, where ho has since conducted a good business, lo - cated at present in the post office lobby, where he carries a full stock of clocks, watch- es and jewelry. He has had twenty years of active experience in the business, and em- ploys an able assistant. Our subject enlist- ed, in August, 1862, in the Fifth Michigan Cavalry, and served until the close of the war, in the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac, under Kilpatrick and Sheridan. He was mustered out at Detroit, July 3, 1865.

BIOGRAPHICAL:

MRS. MARY A. FLEMING, Effingham, is the daughter of Jonathan Wright, who was born in Trenton, N. J., November 20, 1790. He was the son of an English Quaker, who was the son of a distinguished noble- man, who came from England and was an in- timate friend of William Penn, coming with one of the early colonies brought to New Jer- sey by Penn. The grandfather of Mrs. Flem- ing was David Wright, who married a Miss Elizabeth Cleaver, a lady of German parent- age, of great wealth. He (David) owned an iron foundry in New Jersey, which burned and left him in moderate circumstances. He had six sons and three daughters. The old- est son became a merchant, and the next four learned trades, and the youngest son inherit. ed the farm. Jonathan, the fourth son, fa- ther of our subject, under the stress of these reverses, and at the advice of his father, learned the trade of brick-layer in Philadel- phia, Penn. An aunt, Mrs. Theodosia Craig, was a sister of David Wright, and was very wealthy, and bequeathed to each of her neph- ews and nieces $1,000 each to those who came West, to be invested in Western lands; and Andrew Ridgeway, afterward a Quaker minister, and a cousin of the Wright broth- ers, was appointed agent to make these pur- chases. He selected the first prairie land he came to in this State, now known as Ship- ley's Prairie, in Wayne County, three miles south of Fairfield, Ill. He bought these lands while this State was yet a Territory, and paid a much higher price than it sold for soon after. The lands were bought in Mrs. Craig's name, and she deeded each one about half a section. Jonathan Wright and An- drew came in 1820, with their families, and settled on their lands, David Wright and the three Ridgeways having come in 1819. Jon- athan brought subject, seven years old, and her sister Susan, three years old, who after-

ward married Mr. Thomas Loy. The father of Mrs. Fleming settled on his farm in Wayne County in 1820, and lived on his farm and worked at his trade about seven years, when he moved to St. Louis and lived a year. There our subject and her sister Susan went to a private school, taught by Prof. Lovejoy, who was afterward mobbed for printing an Abolition paper. They returned to the farm in Wayne County after six months, and, in December, 1834, came to this county with their father, who settled in Ewington, where he bought forty acres adjoining the town, and which had a mill on it. He kept a hotel . in Ewington, and was employed on the brick work of the State House at Vandalia, being a splendid workman. He was on a scaffold, when it fell from the second story, and he broke both ankles and received internal in- juries which caused his death two days after- ward, before any of his family could reach him, and he was buried near Ewington. His death occurred in 1835. He married Hattie Hutchinson, of Trenton, N. J., November 7, 1812. She was born November 20, 1792, and died September 27, 1855. They had nine children-Mary A., subject; Hutch- inson, died in New Jersey two years old; Susan, was the wife of Thomas Loy; George was for many years surveyor and farmer in this county; Henry H., farmer in this county (see sketch); Sarah E., wife of Mr. Burke, at Georgetown, Ill .; Emma A., died aged seven years; William (see sketch); Helen A., now Mrs. Col. Funkhouser. The father was raised a Quaker, and was an hon- est, plain and unassuming man. Our sub- ject, the eldest child of Jonathan Wright, was born in Trenton, N. J., August 23, 1813. She came to Wayne County, Ill., when seven years old. Her first teacher was A. C. Mackay who afterward lived in Bond County. Sep- tember 20, 1832, she married Isaiah Lacy, in

EFFINGHAM CITY AND DOUGLAS TOWNSHIP.

Wayne County, Ill. He was born in Louis- ville, Ky., March 1, 1809, and, after mar- riage, they settled in Maysville, Clay Co., Ill., where they kept a hotel until his death. which occurred one year and ten months after their marriage. He died July 3. 1834. They had one son, John H. I., born Septem- ber 16, 1833. now of Effingham; and a daughter, Hattie B., who died when three years old-December, 28, 1837. Our subject removed with her father to this county, and aided her mother in keeping a hotel at Ew- ington until her marriage with Samuel Flem- ing. He was born in Murfreesboro, Tenn. He came with his parents to Shelbyville. Ill., when he was a boy, and he carried the mail for some years in this State, and went to Nashville, Tenn., for some years, but returned to this county, and was married December 4. 1842. After marriage, he kept a grocery store for a few years at Ewington, and also kept a hotel called the Fleming House, and he conducted a livery stable at Ewington un- til 1857, when he moved to Effingham, where they rented a hotel of Presley Funkhouser for a few years. He entered the army in 1861, as a Veterinary Surgeon. He built the present Fleming House in 1861, which has been enlarged by additions from year to year, until it contains thirty rooms and all the conveniences of a modern hotel. Of their children, Mary E. was born December 4, 1843, wife of D. C. Hasseltine; "Sarah E .. born July 31, 1845, wife of Sidney Wade, of Effingham; Samuel J., born February 13, 1848; Z. A., born June 16, 1851, was mar- ried in St. Louis, September 18, 1871, to Mr. George Farnsworth. Their first and only daughter's name was Zohatta, born June 7, 1872: Hellena H., born Sep- tember 19, 1855, and died March 26, 1856; St. Clair W. and Engene U., born March 18, 1857.

SAMUEL J. FLEMING, livery man, Ef- fingham, was born in Ewington, this county, February 13, 1848. He came to Effingham when about ten years of age, at which time there was but one house on the west side of the Central Railroad, and he assisted his father in the stable. He was fireman on the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad during 1863-64. In 1865, he went into the livery business in Effingham, and has continued in that busi- ness ever since. In 1870, he began buying horses for the Southern markets, shipping from eight to ten carloads during the winter season, to Natchez, Miss., consisting of from 200 to 300 head. For the last ten or twelve years, he has been interested in the develop- ment of trotters. Has owned and trained Bay Frank, 2:33; Dixie, 2:29, Rowdy Boy, and at present owns Maud W., a promising trotter, and Allie F., a pacer of promise also, and a number of others which have made good records. Our subjeet is Superintendent of the Effingham County Fair Association. He was married, February 15, 1871, to Miss Belle Wagner, daughter of Isaae Wagner, of Green Castle, Ind. They have two children -a son and a daughter.

FREDERICK FLOOD, Superintendent of water supply Vandalia Railroad, Effingham, was born on the high seas and has been told that his birth occurred on board an English man-of-war or transport on British waters about 1820 or 1830. His father, Daniel, was a Captain of the Forty-second British Regi- ment on foot of Highlanders, all over six feet tall. His father was six feet four inches. His mother, who was a lady named Kate Cole, died when subject was very small, on the Plains of Abraham, where she is buried. Subject was left in the care of a French no- bleman called Sir Biongeon, and was taken to L'Islet, Quebec, Canada, where he was kept until about the age of twelve years, when

BIOGRAPHICAL:

he ran off and went to the city of Quebec, and there got aboard a vessel-steamer Alli- ance-and, being too little for the work, was put off near Three Rivers. He next stowed himself on board the ship George H. Thomas, and was not found until in mid ocean, and was taken to Liverpool and got the position of cabin boy on another vessel and came back to the coast of Maine, United States, and stopped in the village of China, where he went to school, working two days in the week, and going to school four days in the week for two years. He then yielded to his desire for the ocean and went on a brig on an Arctic expedition commanded by Capt. Allen; went np Davis Strait to a point where, during part of the year, the sun never sets for several months. He returned to Liverpool and went to Africa, touching at Cape of Good Hope, Calcutta and Australia, and then he took a French transport to Algeria and again visited Sidney, Australia, and from there shipped to Boston, Mass., on the bark Iowa. He then left the sea and went to work on the repairs and construction of the Boston & Maine Railroad, and came West in 1853, where he worked on the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad for nineteen years, and was first located at Lebanon, Ill., for about two years, Olney five years and Sandoval for twelve years, all this time on the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad as foreman of water supply. In 1872, he came to Effingham, and has since been foreman of water supply of the Vandalia Railroad, and has charge of this department for 167.5 miles, which have sixteen tanks. He aver- ages 100 miles travel per day. He was married in Maine-the first time to Har- riet Ware, in about 1856. She died in about two years after their marriage, and he mar- ried a second time to Miss Zella H. Roy, of Caseyville, Ill., January 31, 1860; had ten children by this marriage; six are living-

Harriet, wife of Frank Conway, of Topeka, Kan .; Katie, Julia, John, Letty, Bonnie; four died in infancy; the three youngest were born in this county.

BENTON FORTNEY, druggist, Effing- ham, was born in Watson Township, Effing- ham County, on a farm, June 16, 1854; his parents moved to Effingham in the spring of 1855, where he has since resided. At the age of ten, he entered the old Effingham Ga- zette office, then published by Hays & Bowen, and worked about two years as " devil." He then entered the employ of S. W. Little, and worked one year in his orchard. He then worked two years in Mcclellan & Nodine's brick yard, and in the spring of 1869, he en- tered the drug store of John Jones to learn the business, and remained there one year, and was afterward with Mr. Pape for five years, and, in the fall of 1876, he made a tour west, visiting Texas, Colorado, Kansas, Arkansas and Missouri, remaining four months, when he returned and bought a stock of drugs at Windsor, Shelby Co., Ill., and at once removed it to Shumway and conducted the drug business there seven months, when he sold out and came back to Effingham and took charge of the present store, then owned by W. W. Simpson, and run the store about six months, when he formed a partnership with J. W. Funkhouser and opened a drug store at Prairie City, Ill., which he run for seven months and sold out and returned to Effingham, entering the employ of S. W. Os- good as book-keeper for a short time. In December, 1879. he took charge of the pres- ent store for Hon. E. N. Rinehart, and has since conducted it for him, having entire charge of the business. Our subject was mar- ried, in May, 1880, to Miss Ella Van Dyke, of Majority Point, Ill. ; they have one daughter.

COL. JOHN J. FUNKHOUSER, mer- chant, Effingham City, was born in Summit

EFFINGHAM CITY AND DOUGLAS TOWNSHIP.

Township, this county, March 18, 1835; he spent his youth on a farm, and lived on it until I851, when he entered a storo which his father started in Ewington, and remained there un- til 1857 as clerk. In 1857, he came to Effingham and opened a store of his own. At that time the town had not over seventy- five people, and his was the third store started. He kept a general store until the war broke out. He enlisted August 2, 1861, in the Twenty-sixth Illinois Infantry for three years, and he went out as Captain of Company A. His regiment was under Gen. Pope in Northern Missouri and his company and one other was in an engagement at Salt River Bridge. Capt. Funkhouser was de- tached from his regiment in January, 1862, and came home and raised and organized the Ninety-eighth Illinois Volunteer Infantry at Camp Centralia, and went out as Colonel of the regiment and joined the Department of the Ohio at Louisville, Ky., and was assigned

to Gen. Dumont's forces. His regiment marched 1,050 miles in Kentucky and was in three engagements in that State-Perryville, Elizabethtown, Muldrose Hill and Hartsville, Tenn., and many other skirmishes. Subject was at Stone River and in a heavy skirmish at Hall's Hill, and McMinville, Deckard, Hoover's Gap, Winchester, Tenn., Harri- son's Landing and at Chickamauga, where he was wounded, September 20, 1863, by a minie ball, which passed through both thighs, fracturing one femur. He was taken from the field in his own 'ambulance, and ta- ken to Chattanooga, from thence to Steven- son, Ala., and by rail to Nashville, where his wound was dressed on the fourth day. He remained in Nashville eight days, when he came home, where he remained until Febru- ary, 1861, when he rejoined his regiment at Chattanooga, Tenn., and was ordered from there back to Nashville, where he took charge

of the cavalry depot, and in May following, he was ordered to Columbia, Tenn., and took command of the post and the line of defenses on the line of Chattanooga & Nashville Rail- road, having charge of 6,000 men. He made application to take command of his old regi- ment, in June, 1864, but the army Surgeon declared him nufit for duty in the field or in- valid corps, and, in July, 1864, he resigned and came home and has been in the mercan- tile business here ever since, except about four years, which he spent as contractor on the Springfield Branch of the Ohio & Mis- sissippi Railroad. He helped to raise the subsidies along the line of the narrow gauge railroad in the county, and was President of it for three years during its building, and is still a Director. In ISS2, he built and opened his present store, at the corner of Jeffer- son and Third streets, a two-story brick, 45x60 feet on ground, double storeroom, occupied with general stock. Col. Funkhonser was married, in 1854, to Miss Helen A. Wright, daughter of Jonathan Wright, of this county ; they have four children living. The Colonel and his wife were born on the same day, on the same section (34, of Summit Township). The father of our subject was Presley Funk- houser, born in Green County, Ky., Novem- ber 30, 1811. moved to Saline County, Ill., with his parents, in 1814, and from there to White County, in 1820, and to this county in 1829, where he farmed during his life. He was for many years Justice of the Peace and Associate Judge, and, in 1844. was elect- ed to the Legislature and re-elected two terms. He was elected to the State Senate in 1860, and was a member on his fiftieth birthday, November 30, 1861. He was mar. ried, in Clay County, in 1829, to Nancy Bishop, and had thirteen children, of whom there are three sons and two daughters still living. The mother died March 14, 1873;

BIOGRAPHICAL:

she was born in McMinnville, Tenn., in 1812.

WILSON L. FUNKHOUSER, farmer, P. O. Effingham, was born on a farm in Summit Township, this county, February 14, 1841; he worked in a store and on a farm from boy- hood; at fourteen, his father removed to Ewington, handling stock, buying and ship- ping to Chicago. At twenty-two years of age, our subject began farming the old home- stead, which he still owns, and operated it himself until 1878, when he entered the em- ploy of S. W. Osgood as general foreman of his business, having charge of the men work- ing in the timber, and is still in the employ of Osgood & Kingman. He was married, in 1863, to Miss Carrie Sprinkle, daughter of Michael Sprinkle, of Watson Township; she was born in this county and her father is one of the earliest settlers here; they have six children living.

JUDGE T. J. GILLENWATERS, re- tired. P. O. Effingham, whose portrait ap- pears in this work, was the seventh son of a family of ten children, three boys and three girls older and three younger. He was born on the 5th day of March, 1805, in Hawkins County, Tenn. On the father's side of Eng- lish descent, and on the mother's of Irish parentage. His father, Thomas Gillenwa- ters, was born on the 3d of February, 1771, and he married Polly Wilkins, of the Wil- kins family of Sparta, S. C., on the 5th day of August, 1794. The grandfathers, Gillen- waters and Wilkins, were here, partakers in the American Revolution, aud during that war a fort was established on the Wilkins farm in South Carolina. Judge Gillenwaters grew up a farmer boy on his father's farm, and at ten years of age went to his first school. a log schoolhouse with a dirt floor three miles from his father's residence. Here he learned his alphabet, and between ten and nineteen

years of age, he got the sum total of his edu- cation in school. The entire time thus snatched from his young life of hard farm work was about six months. The only things taught in the school was to read, write and cipher; no grammar, no geography, no any- thing else. The diligence he here used is well indicated by the fact that he progressed in his arithmetic to the double rule of three, and in this school that was the graduating point. His mind thirsted for knowledge, and when he had passed the limits of this country cabin his eagerness to go on is made manifest by his proposition to his father, namely, that if he would then send him to school for three years. he would waive any and all claims upon him for all future time; not only this, but that when he had the advantage the three years of school, he would commence life for himself and soon repay the outlay thus incurred. His father's reply to this told the story: "I wish I could, son, but you are a good stout boy now, and I am not able to either spare you or the money to educate you." This ended the ambitious boy's hopes in that direction. When fifteen years old- sixty-two years ago-he joined the Method- ist Church, and commenced that Christian, though just and liberal life, that has character- ized him ever since. His father and mother were members of that church, and to his mother-that sweetest name that ever came from human lips-he attributes all this, the best blessing of his life. Although his father was a man of broad and just judgment and lib- real views-a man that loved his family and was kind and gentle always-yet it was not that mother's tender love and care that twines in such eternal affection and love around the child's heart. An incident of his child life tells this better than we can: It was the occasion of his first oath. He had been talking to a schoolmate, and before

EFFINGHAM CITY AND DOUGLAS TOWNSHIP.

aware himself what he was saying, the mild oath was out; it shocked his cousin, his lis- tener, as well as himself. His cousin told the boy's mother about it. His mother looked at him as a pained expression passed over her face. The boy cried and begged his mother's pardon and beseeched her not to tell his father. She took him tenderly in her arms, forgave him and promised not to " tell father," only asking that if she did all this ho would never swear again. He made the promise, and to this day has kept it sa- cred. His youthful days were given to that ceaseless round of toil that attends farm life, having but few playmates or associates except his brothers and sisters. He grew up to the fullest requirement of that command that man shall earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. It was in this respect, perhaps, that his education suffered the most-that is, the absence of that variety of young associates and the leisure to mix with and receive and give that best part of youth's education, that comes of contact of young mind with other minds of near the same age. But he was fortunate in the home influences that sur- rounded him. The patient kindness and in- dulgence of his father is told in the circum- stance that the Judge can now recall but a single time when his father punished him. This was for disobedience in going to swim in a pond near the house, after strict orders had been given not to do so. The great temptation was not resisted, and the old gen- tleman happening to catch him in the act, broke off the first twigs within reach and ac- celerated tho lad's movements toward home. The punishment was not severe, but, at the moment, was well calculated to frighten a child not accustomed to the lash. On the 27th day of November, 1827, he was married to Dinah Farnsworth, in Green County, Tenn. He formed her acquaintance in the summer

of that year as he was returning from a visit to relatives in South Carolina. He had stopped at the Farnsworth mansion for break- fast. When he beheld the girl, he made some excuse to stay until after dinner, and by dinner time he concluded to stay till next day, and before that time had expired he was in doubts as to whether he would ever go home again. He stayed a week and started a "markin school," but says : "I didn't charge her anything." He commenced house- keeping at once after marriage, in a house on his father's farm that he had built the year before. There were two rooms in the house. Here he lived one year and farmed, and here the oldest child, Jane was born. On the 3d of March. 1829, he took the now little family, moved to near Brennenberg, Meade County, Ky., where they stopped and raised a crop, and in the fall sold it and moved to Vermillion County, Ind. While here, the second child. Mellissa, was born, March 29, 1830. In 1831, moved to Coles County, III., and improved a small farm eight miles south of Charleston, near the village of Farming- ton. Here the third child, Malinda, was born, March 1, 1832. He raised two crops here and on the 9th of March, 1833, moved to Effingham County and purchased the Fan- cher farm, just this side of Ewington and here he lived and farmed and milled and helped build churches and schoolhouses and worked and prospered and gathered around him family and friends for the next twenty years. His restless desire for changes that so marked the first few years of his married life was over, and in his new home he had settled down to a contented and an industrious life. In this farm home, where he resided for twenty years. excopt two yoars in Ewington, his other children were born, namely, George Thomas Gillenwaters, October 31, 1833 ; Elizabeth, January 18, 1836; Dinah, April

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History of Effingham county, Illinois, Part 39

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892? ed Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Chicago, O. L. Baskin & co. Number of Pages: 650

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892? ed
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, O. L. Baskin & co.
Number of Pages: 650