USA > Illinois > Henry County > History of Henry County, Illinois, Volume II > Part 101
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in the gift of the people, although, considering the high regard in which he is held by his fellow citizens, there can be little doubt as to the loyal support he would receive.
HARRY BROADBENT.
Harry Broadbent is one of the young farmers and stockmen of Cornwall township whose industry and enterprise are meeting with well deserved success. He was born on the place where he now resides January I, 1886, and is a son of Robert and Jane (Winters) Broadbent. The father was a native of Yorkshire, England, and was about thirty years of age when in 1855 he emigrated to America. . After landing at New York he came to Henry county, whither his brother Wil- liam had come the year before, and here he worked by the month until able to engage in farming on his own account. Then he rented the farm on which his son Harry now lives and the next year bought eighty acres for thirty dollars per acre. He was frugal, energetic and a good business man, so that every year brought a substantial increase in his income, and as he was able he invested his money in farm property until he owned at one time six hundred acres in Henry county and two hundred and forty acres in Arkansas. As these large landholdings represented the results of his labor after he came to this country, he had no reason to regret his decision to establish a home here. A large circle of friends mourned his loss when on the 23d of June, 1908, he passed away. He had espoused the cause of the democracy upon becoming a citizen of this re- public but never sought public office.
Before coming to this country Robert Broadbent had married but his wife died in England, and he crossed the Atlantic alone. In 1856 he wedded the woman who became the mother of his children. She was a native of Manchester, England, where she grew to womanhood and married Mr. Modd, by whom she had two children. Later she became the wife of Edward Gash and they had four chil- dren, while by her union with Mr. Broadbent three children were born. Hannah, the oldest, became the wife of August Schuetts and they had one child. After his death she married Albert Schuetts, and they are now living near Stuttgart, Ar- kansas. Robert Irvin, living in Cornwall township, wedded Miss Otte Paxton and they have two children. Harry is the subject of this sketch. The mother died in December, 1906.
The days of his youth passed busily for Harry Broadbent, for in addition to attending the district school he devoted all his spare time to farm work, so that before he reached man's estate he was thoroughly familiar with agricultural pur- suits. Upon the death of his father he inherited two hundred and forty acres of land, a part lying on section 24, Cornwall township, which is his home, and the remainder on sections 18 and 19, Annawan township. The soil which is rich and arable, is devoted to general farming in which Mr. Broadbent has engaged, also as pasturage for the stock he raises. He has shown good business judg- ment in the conduct of his affairs and his labors are fittingly rewarded.
On the 13th of August, 1908, Mr. Broadbent was united in marriage to Miss Letha Marietta Hull, a daughter of Jacob H. and Frances Alma (Grubbs) Hull.
MR. and MRS. ROBERT BROADBENT
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She was born in Brooklyn, Iowa, September 22, 1887, and with the exception of three years spent her early life in her birth place. At the age of seventeen she came to Atkinson to live and there met Mr. Broadbent.
Politically Mr. Broadbent is a democrat, although he is in strong sympathy with the principles of the prohibition party while his religious faith is manifested by his membership in the United Brethren church of Fairview, to which his wife also belongs. Both are closely identified with church and Sunday-school work and in their lives exemplify the teachings of Christianity. Actuated by a laudable ambition, he has already met with well deserved success and a profitable future un- doubtedly awaits him.
JOHN F. WILLARD.
Among the men that came to Henry county in pioneer days, subdued the wil- derness and laid the foundations for business development through the utiliza- tion of the natural resources here afforded, was numbered John F. Willard, and as one of the honored early settlers we present his history to our readers, many of whom well remember him as a man of sterling worth. He came from Weath- ersfield, Connecticut, in the fall of 1836. His birth there occurred June 18, 1805, and in the place of his nativity he was reared and educated. Having arrived at years of maturity he wedded Mary A. Wells.
John F. Willard was reared to the occupation of farming and when he came to Henry county he turned his attention to general agricultural pursuits and after- ward entered the nursery business, establishing a nursery in which he produced and sold stock of various kinds, including trees and shrubbery. He also con- ducted a greenhouse and his business interests grew and developed along that line, his becoming one of the important industries of the district. The latter part of his life was devoted entirely to raising fruit and he became widely known as a leading horticulturist of the community. In connection with Mr. Little he built the first log cabin in the neighborhood in which he established his home and there in that primitive dwelling he experienced all of the hardships and privations inci- dent to the pioneer settler who with resolute purpose overcame all difficulties and obstacles that confronted him in order to make a home in a hitherto unsettled re- gion. He recognized the richness of the western prairies and as the years passed he prospered in his labors. His death occurred September 23, 1874, while his wife survived him for about four years, being called to her final rest on the 24th of September, 1878. He was a lifelong Christian and a devoted member of the Con- gregational church, in the work of which he took active and helpful part, serving as deacon of the church and as superintendent of the Sunday school. His busi- ness probity, his reliability in every relation of life and his kindly and considerate spirit were qualities which have made his memory cherished and honored among all who knew him.
Mr. and Mrs. Willard are still survived by a daughter, Mrs. Sarah Adeline Mowitt, who yet resides in Wethersfield. She had four children, three of whom are living. Mary, the eldest, is the wife of A. F. Mulholland, of Wethersfield,
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who is with the National Tube Company, and their children are four in number : Mary Ruth, Frederick A., Susan Margaret and. Herbert M. John P. Mowitt, a farmer now residing at Grinnell, Iowa, married Miss Sarah Bruce, of that state, and they have three children : Gaylord W., Wiley A. and George W. Gay- lord T. Mowitt, also living in Grinnell, Iowa, where he represents the United States Express Company, wedded Mary James of that state and has two chil- dren, Donald and Willard.
Mrs. Mowitt has a brother William O. Willard who was born November 2, 1840, in Wethersfield and was there reared. He remained a resident of his na- tive town until 1869 when he removed to Grinnell, Iowa. For years he conducted a nursery business there but at the present time he is the owner of a farm largely devoted to the cultivation of fruits. At the time of the Civil war he enlisted, in 1861, with the boys in blue, Company F, One Hundred and Twenty- fourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, with which he served for three years, and at the expiration of his term he reenlisted and continued with the army until the close of the war. He participated in the siege of Vicksburg and in other import- ant engagements, but on account of illness was taken from the ranks and was assigned to the duty of carrying mail for a year. He married Emma Shaw and unto them were born five children : Frank, who is now superintendent of schools in Seattle, Washington, who is married and is the father of Donald, Dudley, and Dougherty Willard; William, who is the teacher of science in a college in Lincoln, Nebraska, and is married and has one child; Henry, a practicing physi- cian of Deer Lodge, Montana; Ruth M., who is the librarian at Grinnell, Iowa; and Faith Ella, who is residing in Seattle, Washington.
Such in brief is the history of the Willard family which for seventy-three years has been represented in Henry county. Only four years had elapsed after the Black Hawk war when John Willard and his wife arrived in Wethersfield and there were still many traces of Indian occupancy in various parts of the state. The great, broad, rolling prairies of Illinois were largely unbroken by the plow- share, but the land was naturally rich and fertile and responded readily to the labors of the agriculturist. As the years passed he bore his full share in the work of general progress and improvement and maintained a place as one of the representative and honored pioneer residents of the county.
WILLIAM LAMB, SR.
Among the many European countries which have contributed stalwart sons to the upbuilding of this land is Scotland, and one of these Scotchmen is William Lamb, Sr., who, though not permitted to live long in this republic, had a wife, sons and daughters who have rendered valuable service to the nation and to An- nawan, Illinois, in particular. He was born in Selkirk, Scotland, in 1813. In the old country he and his father, who also bore the name William, were engaged in what is here known as the nursery business. The older man did not come to this country, preferring to pass his days in the land of his birth. The younger man came to the United States in 1848 or 1849, and after spending a few years in
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Boston came west to Illinois, settling in Morris, where he filled the position of station agent. In 1854 he removed to Annawan, there also obtaining the posi- tion of station agent, which he held for two years, or until his death. His body was buried in Annawan. On becoming a citizen of this country Mr. Lamb gave his political support to the republican party, while his religious allegiance was given to the Presbyterian church, of which he had been a stanch adherent from his childhood. From his church society in Scotland he had received a beautiful silver plate bearing his name and the place of his birth. This his son, Robert H. Lamb, has in his possession, and he in turn will bequeath it to his son, it being under- stood that the plate is to remain in the family as an heirloom.
At his death Mr. Lamb left a widow and nine children. Mrs. Lamb bore the maiden name of Margaret Muir Bowie and was a daughter of John Bowie, a linen draper in the old country, who was a man of wealth and refinement and was able to give his children the very best advantages in the way of education and culture. His children have now all passed away but during their lifetime they were highly respected in their respective communities. Mrs. Lamb was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, January 26, 1816, and in that city not only received a good education in the common branches of English instruction but also in the Latin and French languages. She attained a high degree of proficiency in the latter, being able both to speak and write it fluently, and after coming to Annawan for several years had a class of twenty or more to whom she gave French lessons. She was also tal- ented and educated in music as well, was an accomplished pianist, and when she came to America with her husband brought her own piano with her. The in- strument is still in existence and is valued highly partly because of its rosewood case which in these days is quite a rarity. Music always made a subtle appeal to Mrs. Lamb that diminished not at all with her advancing years, for on Saturday evening, three nights before her death, she seated herself at the piano and played as she had on every Saturday evening for many, many years. She was eighty- four at the time of her death and during the last thirty-four years of her life was the postmaster at Annawan. The duties of the office she had assumed Decem- ber 20, 1866, and had administered actively until within four years of her death, though during all this period she had the invaluable and devoted assistance of her daughter, Miss Joanna Lamb, who is now the postmaster.
Mrs. Lamb was one of a family of eleven children and was the mother of nine. Seven of these were born in Scotland, one in Boston and one in Morris, Illinois. The three eldest daughters received their education in the old country, as did the youngest son who was taken to his mother's home on a visit when he was nine years of age and left there to attend school. Catherine Tate, the eldest of the family, became the wife of Joseph Stevens. Both are now deceased but their four children survive: William T., a farmer of Annawan, Illinois; Mar- garet, unmarried, who makes her home with her brother; Charles, a freight conductor whose home is in Annawan; and Lottie, who is unmarried. Mary Roe, the second of Mrs. Lamb's children, was a teacher in the schools of Henry county and in her early womanhood married Theodore Smith. Both are now dead. William Lamb, Jr., was a baggageman on the Rock Island Railroad. He died in 1855,at the age of twenty-one years, and was buried by the side of his parents in Annawan. Margaret became the wife of John L. Dow, who died
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some years ago in Davenport, Iowa. She now lives in Des Moines, Iowa, and is the mother of two daughters and two sons: Mary Ella, the wife of Charles Posche, of St. Joseph, Missouri; Jennie, the wife of Hugh Shuler, of Des Moines, Iowa; Lyford T., who lives in Davenport, Iowa, and has one son, Courtney ; and Josiah H., who lives in Winterset, Iowa, and has two children, Margaret Isabella and John Lyford. Isabella, the fifth of Mrs. Lamb's chil- dren, married Caleb F. Swoyze and lives in Annawan. They have four chil- dren : Ella, who is the wife of G. A. Mallory, of Annawan, and has two chil- dren, Catherine and Isabella ; Roy, unmarried, engaged in cement work; Jessie Rae, who married Harry M. Dewey and lives in Camp Grove, Illinois, where her husband is engaged in the elevator business; and Robert Lamb, who lives at home.
Joanna, the sixth child of Mr. and Mrs. Lamb, received her education in Scotland, but from her mother obtained her knowledge of music and culture. From the time Mrs. Lamb entered upon her duties as postmistress in 1866, until her death in 1900, Miss Joanna Lamb was her able assistant and then filled out the moth- er's unexpired term. When her nephew, Lyford L. Dow, was appointed to the office Miss Lamb continued to do all the work and to draw the pay through his term of four years, and then upon the failure of his health was herself ap- pointed to the position in 1905. She is now serving her second term, to the great satisfaction of all the community, and from half past five in the morn- ing till six in the evening her sunny smile greets the people as they come for their mail; almost daily for she never has a full holiday except Sunday. She is painstaking, intelligent and energetic, and while these qualities have won appre- ciation from her patrons, her unvarying kindness to her mother and her filial care of her gained for her their affection and admiration. The comfortable home on State street, in which she has her rooms, she inherited from her mother ; the greater part of the house, however, she rents to a family.
Robert Henry, the seventh child, was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He received his education in Scotland, his mother having taken him with her when she made a visit to her old home and left him there. He is now a hardware merchant in Kewanee, Illinois, and the father of two children, William Camp- bell and Theresa Marie, by his marriage to Miss May Cronaw, of Kewanee, where her parents still live. Ellen J., the youngest of this large family, was educated in the schools of Annawan and after graduating from the high school here taught for six years in the primary room. She married David A. Jones and lives in Moline, Illinois, where her husband is a real-estate agent. They have three children : Luella, who is unmarried; Mary Roe, who is the wife of George B. Dobson, a civil engineer of Des Moines, Iowa, and the mother of one child, John; and Robert, who at the age of eighteen is a student at Mount Vernon, Iowa.
Mr. and Mrs. Lamb were proud of their birthplace and perhaps no one at the time of death commanded greater respect than did Mrs. Lamb for, being left with a large family, by industry, great economy, and many sacrifices she was able to give them all an education. They in turn assisted her, so that her closing years were passed in very comfortable circumstances. Having been reared in affluence, and even luxury, the hardships and privations of her life in
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this country were something unforeseen by her, and yet she fulfilled her duties without a murmur or a vain regret and felt duly rewarded in the devotion of her children and the admiration of her friends. She returned twice to her native heath, once in 1857, when she took her two youngest children with her and left her son to be educated and then in 1876 when she went alone. On each occasion she remained one year.
Miss Lamb, who is the present postmaster and for more than forty years has handled the mails in Annawan, is also a woman highly regarded in this community. Her service is most efficient, and this has won admiration, but her sunny disposition and bright smile and her devotion to her aged mother have made her beloved among those who have come to know her.
CHARLES E. STURTZ.
In no profession does success depend as largely upon individual effort and merit as in the practice of law. Comprehensive knowledge of the principles of jurisprudence and ability to correctly apply its principles to the points in litiga- tion are the concomitants of success and these are based upon a thorough and careful preparation of each case. Charles E. Sturtz, for sixteen years a prac- titioner at the Kewanee bar, seems to possess all of the attributes necessary to success for he has won in the courts many notable forensic combats. Pennsyl- vania numbers him among her native sons, his birth having occurred in Somer- set county, Pennsylvania, not far from Cumberland, Maryland, on the 9th of November, 1864. His parents, Charles and Catherine (Kennell) Sturtz, were also natives of the same county and were representatives of old families of the Keystone state. In 1869 they left the east and came to Illinois, settling near Sterling, Whiteside county, where they have since made their home, the father having engaged in farming throughout the intervening period, until 1902 when he moved to Sterling where he is now residing.
Charles E. Sturtz acquired his preliminary education in the common schools of Whiteside county and later attended Dixon College, after which he engaged in teaching school in Whiteside county for four years. The hours which are usually devoted to recreation and pleasures were given by him during that period to the study of law under the direction of Mannahan & Ward, attorneys of Sterling. He also took his Blackstone with him on pedagogic expeditions and feeling the necessity of further general knowledge as a preparation for a professional career, in the fall of 1887 he entered Knox College at Galesburg and was there graduated in 1891, the degree of Bachelor of Science being at that time conferred upon him. In the periods of vacation he continued to pur- sue his law studies and after leaving Knox College he entered the law depart- ment of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, winning the Bachelor of Law degree in 1892. The same year he was admitted to the bar and his pre- liminary professional experience was gained during the year which he spent in the law office of Otis & Graves at Chicago. In 1893 he came to Kewanee, where he has built up an extensive practice of an important character. His
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mind during the entire period of his course at the bar has been directed in the line of his profession and his duty. He has argued many cases and lost but few. No one better knows the necessity for thorough preparation and no one more industriously prepares his cases than he. His analysis of the facts is clear and exhaustive; he sees without effort the relation and dependence of the facts and so groups them as to enable him to throw their combined forces upon the point they tend to prove. His handling of his cases is always full, comprehensive and accurate; he examines a witness carefully and thoroughly but treats him with the respect which makes the witness grateful for his kindness and forbear- ance; toward the court he is always courteous and deferential; and while his devotion to his clients' interests is proverbial he never forgets that he owes a still higher allegiance to the majesty of the law. In 1903 he was elected states attorney and has been elected three times since so that he is the present incum- bent in the office. He had previously served as city attorney, having been elected in 1894, 1895 and 1896 for terms of one year each, while in 1899 he was reelected for a two years' term.
On the 16th of September, 1892, Mr. Sturtz was married to Miss Allie C. Price of Neponset, Illinois, a daughter of Joseph Price, now residing in Kewa- nee. They have two daughters, Zola May and Katherine. Mr. Sturtz is prom- inent in Masonry, having attained high rank in the order and is also a member of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of the Elks and Knights of Pythias and his political allegiance has always been given to the republican party since age conferred upon him the right of franchise. He has served as secretary of the board of education for several years, his membership on the board covering altogether a period of nine years. His devotion to the public good has been evidenced in many ways and he is known as a progressive citi- zen, whose labors in behalf of Kewanee in the sixteen years of his residence here have been far-reaching, effective and beneficial.
GEORGE E. TROLINE.
George E. Troline, an energetic and successful agriculturist of Galva town- ship, makes his home on section 30, where he owns a fine farm of one hundred acres. His birth occurred in Galva township, Henry county, Illinois, on the 22d of October, 1861, his parents being Eric and Christine (Olson) Olson, both of whom were born at Helsingland, Sweden. The paternal grandfather, Eric Sundell, passed away in that country when about eighty years of age. His wife, Mrs. Betsy Sundell, died in early womanhood. Their children were four in number. Peter Hast, the maternal grandfather of our subject, was a farmer by occupation and died of pneumonia when fifty-two years of age. In 1812 he served as an officer in the war in Sweden, in which country his demise occurred. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Miss Olson, died while making the ocean voyage from Sweden to the United States, at which time she was about fifty-one years of age. She was the mother of three daughters and a son, namely: Brita, Anna, Christine and Eric.
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Eric Olson, the father of George E. Troline, crossed the Atlantic to the United States in 1846 and became one of the pioneer settlers of this county, taking up his abode with the Bishop Hill colony and assisting in dividing the lands. Each settler received twenty-two acres and he remained with the colony until it was disbanded. Subsequently he purchased sixty acres of land in Galva township and made his home on that farm until called to his final rest on the 25th of June, 1899, when he had attained the age of eighty-two years and seven months. He was engaged in the manufacture of brick and made the brick for nearly all of the buildings in Bishop Hill, and was also head man in the timber and sawmill business. The period of his residence in this county covered more than five decades and he was well known and highly esteemed within its borders as a most respected and worthy citizen. In religious faith he was a Lutheran. He was twice married and his first wife, who bore the maiden name of Betsy Olson and whom he wedded in 1840, passed away in 1847. They had two chil- dren, one of whom died in early life. The other, Catharine, is now the widow of August Livine, who for four years loyally defended the interests of the Union as a soldier in the Civil war. In her girlhood days she underwent all of the hardships and privations of pioneer times while living in the Bishop Hill colony with her parents, and in 1871 she removed to Clay Center, Kansas, where she once more experienced the vicissitudes of life in a sparsely settled and undeveloped region. She still makes her home at Clay Center. The second wife of Eric Olson and the mother of Mr. Troline of this review passed away on the 14th of June, 1905, at the age of eighty-one years, seven months and twelve days. For several years she acted as head nurse in Bishop Hill. By her marriage she became the mother of four children, of whom our subject is the only survivor, the other three having died in infancy.
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