USA > Illinois > Ford County > History of Ford County, Illinois : from its earliest settlement to 1908, Vol. II > Part 23
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In 1891 Mr. Kuntz was united in marriage to Miss Selma Schroen, a daugh- ter of B. and Wilhelmina (Pilsiek) Sehroen, who were natives of Germany and early residents of Livingston county, Illinois. Mr. Schroen followed the occupation of farming there for a long period but has at length retired from active life and he and his wife are now living in Chatsworth, Illinois. They were the parents of five children : Selma, now Mrs. Kuntz; Lena, the wife of John Kuntz, of Germanville, Illinois; Lizzie, the wife of Charles Falck; John ;
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and Charles. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Kuntz has been blessed with four children : Charles, Arthur, Gertrude and Lillian.
Mr. Kuntz is now and has been for a number of years a director in his school district, and the cause of education finds in him a stalwart and helpful .champion. In politics he is a republican and is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America. Ilis friends in the community are many and the fact that a large number of them have known him from his boyhood days to the present is an indication that his has been an honorable and upright career. While he has never sought to figure prominently in public office, he has never- theless manifested qualities of citizenship which are most commendable and his life record contains valuable lessons concerning the advisability of carrying out a given plan along business lines that will bear the closest investigation and scrutiny.
MRS. ELIZABETH (THATCHER) MeTIER.
No history of Ford county would be complete without mention of Mrs. Elizabeth (Thatcher) MeTier, who is the oldest lady living within its borders. For more than a half century she has been a resident of Illinois and since 1867 has made her home in Ford county. She is the widow of William McTier, who was born in New Jersey, October 23. 1808. The birth of Mrs. MeTier occurred in the same state, May 28, 1812, and she is therefore now in her ninety-sixth year. She was left an orphan when very young, after which she lived with her grandparents until she was twelve years of age and then started out to earn her own living. She worked for others up to the time of her marriage, which was celebrated in New Jersey.
Mr. and Mrs. McTier continued to reside in the cast until 1854, when they removed to Illinois, settling first in Canton. There the husband worked at his trade of wagon-making for a number of years or until 1867, when they removed to Ford county, where Mrs. McTier has since made her home. The death of her husband occurred on the 27th of June, 1886, and was the occasion of deep and wide-spread regret not only to his family but to many friends as well. Unto him and his wife were born eight children but only two are now living : J. B., who is a resident of Knox county, Illinois; and E. B. McTier, who is blind and makes his home in Piper City.
MRS. ELIZABETH McTIER
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Mrs. McTier derives a good income from a valuable farm of one hundred and twenty acres on section 14, Pella township. She also owns two nice resi- dences in Piper City, renting one of them, while she occupies the other with her granddaughter, who is acting as her housekeeper. Mrs. McTier now has six grandchildren, eleven great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.
Although Mrs. McTier is so well advanced in years she is yet quite active, retaining her physical and mental faculties in a remarkable degree. She is widely known in Piper City and Ford county, where she has now lived for more than forty years and throughout this entire period she has enjoyed the respect and esteem of those with whom she has come in contact, while her good deeds have closely endeared her to many. It is with pleasure that we present to our readers the life record of Mrs. McTier, the oldest lady of Ford county, and we join with her many friends in wishing that she may be spared to reach the one hundredth milestone on life's journey.
SAMUEL McELWEE WYLIE, M. D.
The name of Samuel MeElwee Wylie is well known in medical circles throughout America and is not unknown in foreign lands by reason of his con- tribution to medical literature, yet he has not sought the opportunity for winning fame or large financial snecess that is offered by the cities, preferring the quiet home life of Paxton, finding ample chance to exercise his professional skill in the practice which is accorded him in this locality. While the winning of success along honorable lines is at all times commendable, it has never been the chief motive in Dr. Wylie's professional career. A lover of scientific research, he possesses also the broad humanitarian spirit without which the physician and the surgeon never do their best work.
Dr. Wylie is one of Illinois' native sons, his birth having occurred in Oakland, Coles county, on the 15th of July, 1855, his parents being Dr. Jonathan Dixie and Agnes Isabel (Crawford) Wylie. A removal of the family to Paxton in 1868 enabled Dr. Wylie of this review to pursue his preliminary education in the common schools here and later he attended the Indianapolis high school and also Monmonth College at Monmouth, Illinois. His choice of a vocation fell upon the medical profession and in preparation therefor he matriculated in the Chicago Medical College, now the medical department of the Northwestern University, from which he was graduated with valedictorian
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honors as a member of the class of 1878. Immediately after winning his degree he located for practice in Paxton, where he has since made his home. He has, however, at different times studied in this country and also abroad, enjoying the benefits of instruction and hospital practice in New York. He has taken post-graduate work in the New York Polyclinic at different times from 1880 until 1888, and in 1890 he went abroad for post-graduate work in Europe, coming under the instruction of some of the distinguished practitioners of Berlin, Vienna, Munich and Leipsic. He also visited Paris and London in his professional capacity. The science of medicine has ever been a theme of deepest interest to him and he has carried his investigations far and wide into the realms of scientific knowledge. In 1900 he went with Dr. Senn, of Chicago, to Central America to study tropical diseases, especially leprosy and yellow fever, and at that time made a report to the secretary of state in regard to the diseases prevalent there which were liable to be met with in digging the Panama canal. In 1902, in company with Dr. Senn, he attended the Red Cross International Congress in St. Petersburg, Russia, and with him after- ward visited altogether two hundred hospitals in Russia, Turkey, Asia Minor, Egypt, and the principal cities of Europe, the trip consuming eight months. In 1906 he was a delegate from the American Medical Association to the International Medical Congress at Lisbon, Portugal, and subsequently visited hospitals in Spain, Italy, Switzerland and France.
Throughout all these years Dr. Wylie has written extensively for medical papers and addressed various medical conventions on many topies, but of all his writings the one which has awakened most wide-spread attention and won him the widest acknowledgment of his ability was an article on "Traction in- juries of arteries." This was the first article ever written on the subject. He searched libraries all over the world and never found anything bearing upon the subject except fifteen lines in Russia. This paper attracted world-wide in- terest and when it was read in Germany the profession elected him to follow- ship in the Royal Society of Surgeons of Germany. At different times Dr. Wylie has been offered prominent professsorships in Illinois and in the east, the latest being offered by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago and the Rush Medical College. He has always refused such honors, however, for he prefers to labor in Paxton and enjoy the quiet home life here offered.
On the 19th of June, 1879, Dr. Wylie married Miss Emily J. Bushnell, a daughter of Sherrell and Adeline Bushnell. Her father was a very prominent resident here and was the organizer of the First National Bank of Paxton. Mrs. Wylie has been a true helpmate to her husband and he attributes much of his success to her assistance and encouragement. Dr. and Mrs. Wylie attend the
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DR. S. M. WYLIE
MRS S. M. WYLIE
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Methodist church and he has attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite in Masonry. In politics he is a republican, actively interested in the party and its success, yet always refuses office. In professional lines he is connected with the County Medieal Society, the Illinois State Medical Society, the Mississippi Valley and the American Medical Associations, the American Association of Military Surgeons and the German Surgical Society. In his practice he has always made a specialty of surgery, in which he has gained distinction, manifesting skill and ability in that line that places him on a par with the eminent representatives of the profession in the different metropolitan centers of the country. He is everywhere received in professional ranks with the most cordial evidences of respect and appreciation. £ He has succeeded because he has desired to succeed and he is great because nature endowed him bountifully, and he has studiously, carefully and conscientiously increased the talents that have been given him.
THOMAS DORAN.
Among the citizens that Ireland has furnished to Ford county is numbered Thomas Doran, who follows farming on section 23, Pella township. He was born in County Carlow, Ireland, in 1848, his parents being Patrick and Margaret (Gain) Doran, natives of that land. The mother died in Pella township in March, 1896, at the age of seventy-six years, having long survived her husband, who passed away in Grundy county, Illinois, in the spring of 1867, one week after his arrival. He had previously followed railroading in Pennsylvania. and in other localities in which he lived carried on farming. At the time of his demise he was about forty-four years of age. The family numbered three sons: Edward, of Pella township; Thomas, of this review; and James, a blacksmith of Nebraska.
Thomas Doran spent the first eight years of his life in the land of his nativity and in 1856 crossed the Atlantic with his parents to Hamilton, Ontario. A year later they removed to Oil Creek, Crawford county, Pennsyl- vania, where they resided until 1867. In the meantime he worked as a switchman on the railroad and then removed to Morris, Grundy county, Illinois. A year later he came to Piper City, arriving in Ford county in 1868 and since that time he has lived in Pella township, making his home for thirty years upon his present farm. This district was to a large extent unimproved,
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there being only four or five houses in Piper City at that time, while much of the land was still uncultivated, awaiting the awakening touch of the agricul- turist to bring forth bounteous harvests. Mr. Doran seenred one hundred and twenty acres of land on sections 22 and 23, Pella township, for which he paid twenty-five dollars for the first eighty aeres and twenty-seven and a half dollars for his second tract of forty acres on section 22. Ilis residence is situated on section 23 and all of the improvements upon the farm have been placed there by Mr. Doran, who is practical and progressive in his methods and a man of unfaltering diligence and perseverance. What he undertakes he carries forward to successful completion and he forms his plans readily.
In 1874 was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Doran and Miss Anna Milligan, a native of New Jersey, who in early girlhood came to Illinois with her parents, William and Alice (Taggert) Milligan, who were born in Ireland and became early settlers of Ford county, Illinois, where both the father and mother spent their remaining days. They had a family of five sons, while Mrs. Doran was their only daughter. By her marriage she has become the mother of twelve children : Patrick, now living in North Dakota; William. a resident of Piper City ; Margaret, the wife of John McGuire, of Pella town- ship; Alice, the wife of George Carter, living at Streator, Illinois; Edward, whose home is in North Dakota; Anna, who died at the age of five years six months and two days; Archie John, at home, Elizabeth, who is a nurse in Chatsworth Hospital; Irene, at home; Lawrence and James, upon the old homestead farm; and Thomas, of Brenton township.
In politics Mr. Doran is an independent democrat, usually voting for the men and measures of the democracy, yet never seeking nor desiring office, nor does he consider himself hound by party ties. His religious faith is that of the Catholic church. From early age he has been dependent upon his own resources for a livelihood and whatever success he has achieved or enjoyed is attributable entirely to his own labors.
FRANK L. REISING.
Frank L. Reising, who located on his present farm in the spring of 1888. now owns one hundred and sixty acres of land, eighty aeres on section 20 and eighty on section 17. Brenton township, which is well kept, constituting one of the model farms of the locality and all of the improvements have been placed
MR. AND MRS. FRANK L. REISING
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upon the farm by the present owner, whose life of intense and well directed. activity has brought him the measure of success that he is now enjoying.
He was born in Cazenovia, Woodford county, Illinois, August 28, 1857, and was therefore in his ninth year when, in 1866, his parents removed to Brenton township, Ford county. He is a son of Peter and Elizabeth (Rossman) Reising, who were natives of Byrne, Germany. The father, who was born in October, 1830, went with his parents to Ohio in 1837 and afterward accom- panied them on their removal to Woodford county, Illinois. For many years he successfully carried on general agricultural pursuits and is now living retired in Chatsworth, Illinois, in the enjoyment of the rest which he has truly earned and which he deserves. His wife also survives and is now seventy- four years of age.
In their family were nine children: Kate, the wife of John Holdfelder, of Chicago; Frank L., of this review ; Peter, living in lowa; George, a resident of Brenton township; Mary, the wife of Frank Burger, of Iroquois, Illinois; Anna, the wife of Mike Rosenberger, a resident of Livingston county, Illinois; Gertie, who is at home with her parents; Ida, the wife of John Herr, of Chatsworth, Illinois ; and Edward, a resident of Chicago.
Frank L. Reising was largely reared in Brenton township and early became familiar with the duties and labors that fall to the lot of the agricul- turist, working in the fields when not busy with the duties of the schoolroom. He has continuously lived in this township with the exception of two years spent in Chatsworth. In the early days he could drive across the country to Chatsworth without fences or buildings to impede his progress. There were no roads and the entire countryside was largely undeveloped, while the priva- tions and hardships of pioneer life were to be endured. The labors of the early settlers, however, have wronght a marked change and transformed Ford county into one of the richest agricultural districts of this great state. Mr. Reising has resided on his present farm since the spring of 1888 and here now owns and cultivates eighty acres of rich and productive land on section 20, Brenton township, and eighty on section 17. It is now a well improved property and its present excellent appearance is due to the labors and energy of the owner.
In 1879 Mr. Reising was married to Miss Mary A. Westerhausen, who was born in La Salle county, Illinois, in January, 1860, a daughter of William and Mary Westerhausen, who were natives of Germany. The mother is still living and now resides with Mr. Reising. The father, however, has passed away. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Reising have been born seven children: Alfred G., William F., Ford J., Agnes C., Dora, Clarence E., and Stephen.
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Mr. Reising is a communicant of the Catholic church at Piper City and his political endorsement is given to the democracy. He has never desired nor sought office, however, preferring to concentrate his energies upon his business interests and his careful control and development of his farm has made him one of the substantial agriculturists of this part of the state, with a valuable property from which he derives a gratifying annual income. For more than four decades he has made his home in this county and has therefore been a witness of almost its entire growth and development. The facts which have shaped its history are largely familiar to him and he has rejoiced in what has been accomplished for the improvement of the county along substantial lines.
CARLTON I. REMSBURG.
After a long, active and honorable career Carlton I. Remsburg is enjoying the fruits of his former toil in well earned case in a comfortable home in Thaw- ville. Ile is also one of the few remaining citizens who engaged in service in the Civil war. He was born in Frederick county, Maryland, April 6, 1845, a son of Solomon and Mary Remsburg. The father was likewise a native of Maryland but for many years was engaged in farming in Bureau county, Illi- mois, but his later years were spent in honorable retirement and he passed away in Ohio, Bureau county, at the advanced age of seventy-nine years. He was twice married. By his first union there were two sons: Isaiah, who served in the Civil war as a member of Company 1, Twelfth Illinois Infantry, and is now living retired in Ohio, Illinois; and Carlton I., of this review. By the second union there were three children, one of whom died in infancy, while the living members are : Anna, who first wedded JJames Ruff and after his death became the wife of W. S. Wilson, who is a banker of Ohio, Ilinois, and George, who is a farmer and stock-raiser of Bureau county, Illinois.
Carlton I. Remsburg was but an infant at the time of his mother's death. Ile was reared in the home of his father, assisting in the work of field and meadow during the summer seasons, while in the winter seasons he pursued his studies in the common schools. He was a lad of fourteen years when the father removed with his family to Bureau county, Illinois, and there the son lived to the age of nineteen years, when, his patriotie spirit being aroused at the outbreak of the Civil war, he believed it his duty to go to the front in defense of the Union and in January, 1865, enlisted at Princeton, Illinois, as
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a member of Company A, One hundred and Forty-eighth Illinois Infantry. The regiment was ordered to Quincy and later to Camp Butler, whenee they were sent to Nashville and was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland under General Thomas. They were then ordered to Tullahoma, Tennessee, on guard duty. The regiment afterward did guard duty at Me Minnville, Tennessee, and subsequently returned to Nashville, whence they were mustered out of service on the 5th of September, 1865, and were honorably discharged at Springfield ten days later. With the exception of six weeks, during which which time Mr. Remsburg was ill in the Cumberland Hospital at Nashville, he was always found at his post of duty.
Returning from the war Mr. Remsburg eventually located on a farm situ- ated on section 3, Lyman township, Ford county, comprising one hundred and thirty-seven acres of good land. and here throughout a long period he was engaged in general agricultural pursuits. In his work he always followed the most systematic and progressive methods so that he won success in his chosen field of labor and in 1898, feeling that he had acquired a competence sufficient to enable him to spend the remainder of his years in ease, he took up his abode in Thawville, where he erected a comfortable seven-room cottage, and he and his estimable wife are now living retired, surrounded by a host of warm friends.
It was on the 12th of December. 1869, that Mr. Remsburg was united in marriage to Miss Sarah A. Hauenstein, who was born in Indiana, July 23, 1849. Her father was born in Switzerland. June 21, 1822. and followed farming as a life work. He wedded Susan Kindle, a native of New Jersey, and to them were born two daughters and one son: Mary. the wife of James Goodrich, a resident of Thawville; Sarah, now Mrs. Remsburg; and Joseph, who wedded Minnie Taylor and resides at Dwight, Illinois. Both Mr. and Mrs. Hauenstein were members of the Episcopal church, in the faith of which they died, the mother having passed awey at the age of forty years, while the father, surviv- ing for several years, passed away in Ford county in March, 1880, when he had reached the age of fifty-eight years.
Mrs. Remsburg acquired her education in the common schools and was trained to the duties of the household, so that when she assumed the duties of a home of her own she was well qualified to take charge of the same. She has proved to her husband a valuable assistant and with him is now enjoying a well earned rest. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Remsburg have been born two daughters and a son. Josie is now the wife of Charles Kingsley, who operates her father's farm in Lyman township. To them were born two daughters. Helen Ruth and Iva Marie, but the younger died in infancy. Blanche, the second
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daughter, is the wife of Walter MeNeil, of Thawville, by whom she has a daughter, Carrie. £ Harold S. wedded Miss Alice Wilcox, of Thawville, a daughter of L. B. Wilcox, who is mentioned on another page of this work.
Mr. Remsburg has always given stalwart support to the men and measures of the republican party and cast his first presidential ballot for General U. S. Grant. He has never been active in politics, however, the only public office he ever held being that of school director, in which he served for nine years. ITe is a member of Piper City Post, G. A. R., and at one time served as its com- mander, while in 1892 he was sent as a delegate to the state encampment which convened at Springfield. He has lived in Ford county throughout a long period and with its growth and development has intimate knowledge. He has gained many warm friends in this section of the county and is well and favorably known in Thawville, where he now makes his home, deriving a good income from his excellent farming property of one hundred and thirty-seven acres.
GEORGE STOCKDALE.
George Stockdale is a representative of the farming interests of Ford county and is also serving as a member of the board of county supervisors. Ile was born in Yorkshire, England, February 9, 1851, his parents being Wil- liam and Frances (Coates) Stockdale, both of whom were natives of Yorkshire, the former born in 1822 and the latter in 1819. The father was a farmer by occupation and resided in the place of his nativity until 1871, when he crossed the Atlantic to the United States, settling upon a farm near Bloomington, Illinois. For a long period he tilled the soil and in the careful management of his place developed an excellent farm, which year by year brought him a good financial return. In later years he has lived retired and at the present writing, in 1908, makes his home with his son George. He is a republican in politics and interested in the questions and issues of the day but has never been an office seeker. His wife died in 1884 at the age of sixty-five years and was laid to rest in the Bloomington cemetery. They were the parents of five children, of whom four are yet living: Thomas, of Bloomington, Illi- nois; George, of this review; Elizabeth, the wife of Christopher Doner, of Bloomington, Illinois; and Rose, who became the wife of John Mann and also makes her home in Bloomington, Illinois.
GEORGE STOCKDALE
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George Stockdale was reared to his twentieth year in Yorkshire, England, and acquired his education in its public schools, but ambitious to enjoy better business opportunities than could be obtained in the home neighborhood, he crossed the Atlantic to the United States in 1871, landing at New York city in company with his mother and sisters. He had no funds with which to provide for their immediate wants and for a week or more, while waiting for transportation to Bloomington, he and his mother were sent to Ellis Island, where Mr. Stockdale shoveled coal for their board. When funds reached them they continued their journey westward to Bloomington, Illinois, and in that locality George Stockdale began his career as a farmer. He was employed at farm labor until 1876, when he came to Ford county and settled on the Sullivant estate. Here he has been identified with agricultural interests for the past thirty-one years and is now farming four hundred acres of land which is a part of the Sibley estate. The neat and attractive appearance of the place indicates his careful supervision and practical and progressive methods, he being widely known as one of the leading farmers of the county.
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