USA > Illinois > Iroquois County > History of Iroquois County, together with Historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources > Part 49
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119
443
HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
time's inutations in that community, the coming, the going, the grow- ing up and the passing away ; always a trusted, honored member of the society of that quiet little village. With a view to increasing his skill in the healing art, after graduating he attended clinical lectures in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he also matriculated both in the University of Pennsylvania and Jefferson Medical College. But Dr. Blades' taste's were not met in a country physician's life, accordingly he entered the office of George B. Joiner, Esq., in 1855, as a law student, and began the practice of law three years later, having been admitted to the bar. As a practitioner he was always successful. Being a fluent, merry speaker, his addresses to juries were almost irresistible, and with all his mind took strong hold upon principles of law, lifting him to the front rank in the profession .. As far back as 1864, Wilson S. Kay, a very able lawyer, of the Iroquois county bar, became his law partner, and the firm of Blades & Kay was not dissolved until the senior mem- ber was transferred from the bar to the bench. During those long years there existed between the two men a professional and personal confidence that is rarely seen. Since his admission to the bar, Judge Blades has had but little of strictly private life, in one capacity or an- other, much of the time filling some responsible office. In 1856, and for two years afterward, hie edited the Iroquois "Republican," and he has been heard to say that no work was more congenial to him. The republican party was then in its infancy, the editor was in the lusty strength of early manhood, and the moving events of those hot years lent zeal to his crisp and pungent talent, and the products of his pen went flying through the republican press of the country. In 1856 the republican convention, held at Joliet, for the legislative district com- posed of Will, Du Page, Kankakee and Iroquois counties, nominated him for member of the state legislature. He was elected, and again in 1861. In 1862 he was commissioned by Gov. Yates surgeon of the 76th reg. Ill. Inf., and went to the front, doing service at the siege and fall of Vicksburg, and elsewhere in the southwest. At Jackson, Mis- sissippi, then occupied by the rebel Gen. Johnson, he was violently attacked with dysentery, from which he did not recover in eighteen monthis, and was forced to resign in the spring of 1864. For months his health was so precarious that his death would not have occasioned surprise. In 1864 he was chosen a Lincoln elector, but infirm health prevented his taking a part in the canvass. In 1868 he was a. candi- date for congress, being defeated by Gen. J. H. Moore in the nomina- tion convention. In 1869 he was appointed assessor of internal revenue by President Grant, and held the office four years. In 1877 he was elected one of the judges of the eleventh judicial district, and at the
444
HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
recent election was again chosen for a term of six years. Judge Blades is a man of strong convictions, of the utmost candor, and a lover of books. He possesses the natural and acquired qualifications to sit in judgment between men, and between the people and individuals. He is one who will hold the scales of justice with steady hand, and as one who, unmoved by passion or prejudice, will bring experience and learn- ing to bear in joining law with equity. Judge Blades was married in 1854 to Miss Jennie King, of Illinois, and by this union they have three children.
Edward Matthews, biographical writer, Papineau, emigrated from Kingston county, Canada, to Iroquois county, Illinois, in 1864. He was born in the former place August 20, 1839. His parents were Adam and Harriet (David) Matthews, and with them he spent his- youth, engaged in the duties of the farm and attending school. In the latter pursuit, though his advantages were quite limited, he yet, by an extensive general reading, obtained a good practical education, which to one with sound judgment and a quick perception of the realities of life is equivalent to that usually obtained in the best high schools and colleges. In December, 1861, he married Miss Mary Knox, a native of Canada. He then engaged in farmning for himself. In 1864, his wife dying, he came on a trip to Illinois, and after a stay of a few months, liking the country, he decided to make this his future home. Accordingly, in the spring of 1865, of he arranged with an insurance company of Freeport to act as their agent for the counties of Kanka- kee and Iroquois, and in this business he contined nntil October 31, 1866. At the date last named he married Mrs. Maria Jones, widow of Mr. Henry Jones, whose portrait appears in this work, and daughter of Thomas Sammons, Esq., one of the early sheriff's of Iroquois county. She was born in Montgomery county, New York, February 10, 1833, and came with her parents to this county in 1836 or 1837. After the marriage of Mr. Matthews to Mrs. Jones he engaged in farming and stock-raising, which business he followed until the death of his wife, which sad event occurred March 4, 1876. Mrs. Matthews was one of the truly great and noble women, and her loss was to him the severest affliction of his life. He has one child : Maxwell Adam, born Septem- ber, 1873. After the death of his wife Mr. Matthews rented his farm to others, and engaged in more congenial business. He is engaged at present as indicated at the head of this article, and with what success the readers of the townships of Papineau, Beaver and Martinton will be able to judge. Suffice it to say that to Mr. Matthews the editors of this work acknowledge their obligations for the very complete and painstaking manner in which the work has been done.
445
HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
Isaac Amerman, real estate and collection agent, Onarga. In the seventeenth century three brothers named Amerman came from Hol- land with the early Dutch colonists and settled at New Amsterdam. The maternal ancestors of the subject of this sketch were descended from John Alden, who came over in the Mayflower. His mother, Charlotte Peck Knapp, was a native of Martha's Vineyard. Mr. Amer- man was born in New York city, February 23, 1822. When seven years old he went to live with an elder brother in Montgomery (now *Fulton) county, New York. He attended the Johnstown Academy until fourteen, when he returned to the city and was apprenticed to the harness maker's trade. After serving four years at this he went into the wholesale grocery business as a clerk, which he followed until his marriage with Margaret B. Conklin, March 23, 1843. At this time he formed a partnership with Francis Hobbs-firm of Hobbs & Amer- man-in the wholesale butter trade. After three years he engaged alone in the harness business, and a few years subsequently was employed as a clerk in the office of Morton & Bremner, manufacturers of spring bal- ances and steel ornaments. In 1855, quitting this last situation, which he had held six years, he emigrated west and settled in St. Joseph, Ber- . rien county, Michigan. His residence of three years there was spent in running a saw-mill and in an unsuccessful attempt to clear a farm out of the forest, in both which occupations he met with several acci- dents, narrowly escaping fatal injuries. His strength not being equal to such muscular employments, in 1858 he removed to Onarga, in this county, and located on a farm six miles southeast of the village. In 1865 he opened the "Amerman Collection Agency" in Onarga. The business transacted by this agency has made it widely known, and Mr. Amerman's promptness and skill in the discharge of all his duties have been rewarded with the confidence of the public. He has been justice of the peace since January, 1866, notary public ten years, tax collector seven or eight years, secretary of the agricultural society the first ten years after its organization, and was several years secretary of the Iro- quois County Bible Society and of the Onarga Auxiliary Bible Society. Since 1861 he has been in communion with the Presbyterian church, and for several years a member of the Masonic and Good Templar lodges of Onarga. In politics he was first a whig, but on the disap- pearance of that party joined the republicans. His family has num- bered eleven children, six sons and five daughters: William C., Eme- line S., Margaret A., Peter, Albert M., Richard M. (dead), Charlotte M., Helen D., Francis G., Philip M. and Charles (dead). William enlisted in Co. D, 113tlı Ill. Vol., in August, 1862. He was severely wounded in the head at Arkansas Post. Mr. Amerman was a captain
446
HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
in the famous New York Seventh Regiment, and commanded his com- pany in the noted Astor Place riot, May 10, 1849.
Jolin B. Robinson, president of Grand Prairie Seminary, Commer- cial College, and Conservatory of Music, Onarga, was the youngest child of Adin and Jane (Anderson) Robinson, and was born at Osceola, Warren county, Ohio, April 11, 1834. His parents were of Scotch descent ; his father was born in Maryland in 1787, and his mother in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1792. They moved to Clark county, Ohio, and settled on a farm near New Carlisle when he was four years old." At the age of twenty he prepared for college at tlie new Carlisle Academy, and entered the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, in the sophomore class, early in 1858; graduated from both the classical and biblical schools in 1860. This was an eventful year in his per- sonal history. He was licensed to preach ; became principal of the Mount Washington Seminary, near Cincinnati, and celebrated his mar- riage with Miss Emily A. Morris, daughter of Judge David H. Morris, of Miami county, Ohio. Her mother's name was Elizabeth Reyburn. In 1865 he was elected president of Willoughby College, then in the bounds of the Erie conference. In 1869 he accepted the like position in Fort Wayne College, Indiana. In 1871 he was called to the presi- dency of the New Hampshire Conference Seminary and Female Col- lege, Tilton, New Hampshire, and in 1877 became president of Grand Prairie Seminary, Commercial College, and Conservatory of Music, at Onarga, Illinois. During his residence in New England he was a member of the New Hampshire Lecture Bureau, and traveled and lec- tured extensively in that state, and in Vermont and Massachusetts. He continues to lecture on scientific and educational subjects in con- nection with his labors as an instructor. In 1875 he published " Infi- delity Answered "; in 1876, " Vines of Eschol," and the same year, "Emeline; or, Home, Sweet Home," a poem. On the same day, in the year 1879, two universities, the Indiana Asbury and the Illinois Wesleyan, conferred on him the degree of doctor of divinity. Dr. Robinson's father was an authorized minister in the Baptist churchi, and was distinguished for his piety and benevolence. The doctor lias a family of five beautiful daughters. Since he reached man's estate his pen and voice have found constant employment in aiding to direct public opinion on religious, political, and other general questions, as well as to encourage a love for the finer and nobler qualities which bless and adorn the lives of humanity.
Lucas Emory Pearce, physician and surgeon, Onarga, was born in Champaign county, Ohio, March 31, 1835. He was the second son of Harvey C. and Beulah (Barritt) Pearce. His father was a farmer,
447
HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
and he spent lris early days at tlre plow. He received his literary education at Delaware College, Ohio. From the age of sixteen to twenty-four he taught school ; meanwhile spending his leisure in pri- vate medical reading. He celebrated his nuptials witlı Elizabeth Frances McCollum, May 20, 1858. In 1862 he entered Starling Med- ical College, Columbus, but did not finish his course before beginning practice. A short time was spent in his profession in Ohio, when he located in Benton county, Indiana, where he resided three years. After this he removed his family back to Champaign county, continuing to reside there and practice until 1876. In 1868-9 lre attended lectures again at Starling Medical College, graduating February 26, 1869. He united with the M. E. church at fifteen ; was superintendent of Sabbath schools in his native county many years ; was made a life member of the missionary society, and a local preacher, and regularly ordained a local deacon. In 1876 he removed and settled in Onarga, this county, where he has built up a very large practice, which is constantly increas- ing. He has an interesting family of four clrildren : Frank, Mary, Harvey and Sadie. The doctor's grandfather, Thomas Pearce, was a soldier under Washington, and, as such, shared in the glory which crowned the American arms at Yorktown. He served also in the war of 1812. His mother's father, Abner Barritt, was a captain of the revolution, and fought at Bunker Hill and other places. He was a . pioneer settler in Champaign county, Ohio, where he formed the ac- quaintance of the celebrated Indian chief, Tecumseh, who used to visit him frequently.
Andrew C. Rankin, physician and surgeon, Loda, is the son of Rev. John Rankin, a Presbyterian minister of note, and was born in Ripley, Ohio, June 22, 1828. He received a part of his literary education at Ripley College, of which his father was at the time president, and fin- ished his course of study at Felicity, Ohio. In 1848 he began studying medicine under Dr. A. Dunlap, of Ripley, and was with him tliree years. He next attended two courses of lectures at Starling Medical College, Columbus, Ohio, and graduated in March, 1852. He located in Ross county, Ohio, one year, and then went to Atlanta, Logan county, Illinois, where he practiced till 1856. From there he removed to Lawrence, Kansas, spending two years in the border war, accom- panying John Brown, and serving in the double capacity of soldier and surgeon. In the latter part of 1858 he returned to Illinois, and settled at Loda. In 1862 he entered the army as assistant surgeon of tlie 88th Ill. Vols. He resigned after one year and reentered the army as sur- geon, and had charge of several hospitals. The principal of these was the United States general hospital at Camp Nelson, Kentucky, which
448
HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
had some fifteen hundred beds and required abont fifteen assistants. He served about four years in the army and then returned to Loda and resumed his practice. On October 1, 1852, he married Susan Houser, who was born in Ohio, December 25, 1830. There are two children by this union : Ellen, wife of W. H. Copp, of Loda, and Louie Q., wife of Edwin Slocum, of the same place. Dr. Rankin has held offices of trust and responsibility, and given satisfaction to the people. He is well known both for his integrity as a man and his skill as a physician and surgeon. He is a member of the Presbyterian church, and a repub- lican in politics. His father, now about ninety years old, has spent an active and useful life in the ministry. He still preaches occasionally. He was pastor of one church forty-five years, and wrote the call for the first anti-slavery meeting held in America. A portrait of Dr. Rankin appears in this work.
Winslow Woods, retired, Onarga, was born in Barnard, Windsor county, Vermont, March 30, 1799. He was the third son of Panl and Mary (Winslow) Woods. His ancestors were English. The Winslows he can trace back as far as 1530, Gov. Winslow, of Plymouth Colony, of whom he is a lineal descendant, being a member of this family. His grandfather, Jonathan Woods, settled in New Braintree, Massachusetts. The farm which he improved has never passed out of the family, and is the only one in the township which was never mortgaged. His uncle, John Woods, was an orderly sergeant in the revolutionary war, and singularly enough refused further promotion or to receive a pen- sion. He wintered at Valley Forge. Mr. Woods was county surveyor of Windsor county from 1822 to 1834, when poor health obliged him to quit his farm, and he left the state. He had been constable, collector and special sheriff, the latter an office in which the incumbent was em- powered to do business anywhere in the state. He now located at Tolland county, Connecticut, where he resided twenty years, engaged in manufacturing. On September 17, 1853, he arrived in Iroquois county, and settled on a farm of 320 acres in Stockland township. In the spring of 1860 he removed to Onarga, where he has continued to live until the present time. With his residence here he began the bnsi- ness of claim attorney, which lie still carries on to some extent. He has held the office of supervisor, and for thirteen years held one or more of the following offices : justice of the peace, notary public and police magistrate. He has done a large business as guardian, and has liad as many as twenty orphan children under his charge at one time. He is now eighty-one years of age. His portrait appears in this work. On March 10, 1824, he and Lydia Newton were united in marriage. She died February 14, 1869, and is buried in the cemetery at Onarga.
449
HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
There were two sons by this marriage: Henry C., born April 20, 1829, and Lucius P., born March 12, 1831. They were both liberally edu- cated, and served in the army with distinction. The latter was thor- oughly educated in this country for the practice of medicine and sur- gery, and after a few years devoted to his profession he went to Europe, spending a year in some of the best medical schools, and in the hospi- tals on the continent. On the breaking out of the late civil war he was commissioned surgeon of the 5th N. Y. Cav., and by successive promo- tions rose to prominence in the medical branch of the service. He was surgeon of the cavalry corps field hospital ; surgeon-in-chief, first brig- ade, third division, cavalry corps; surgeon-in-chief, third division, cav- alry corps, and after he was mustered out, January 3, 1865, served at headquarters, third division, same corps, under contract, as acting staff surgeon from that date to March 3. He was in eighty-seven battles ; was greatly distinguished as a surgeon and highly respected as a man, and died at Winsted, Connecticut, May 30, 1865. The resolutions of the officers of his old regiment, passed after his death, declare that "he added to rare professional skill the most untiring industry," and that "to the refinement of a gentleman he added social and{christian virtues rarely equaled." The other son, Henry C., enlisted at the outbreak of the war as a private in the 1st Ill. Cav., and was captured with Mulli- gan's force at Lexington, Missouri, in 1861. Subsequently he was a captain in the 11th Ill. Cav., Col. R. G. Ingersoll ; was promoted to major, and commanded the regiment after the capture of his colonel. He served on the Atlanta campaign in the engineer corps, and was discharged after the fall of that city. He superintended work on a portion of the railroad bridge across the Mississippi at Burlington, and across the Missouri at Omaha, and afterward followed the same business farther west. He died suddenly at Kansas City of heart disease and pneumonia, March 3, 1879. His remains are interred at Onarga.
John H. Atwood, Principal of Onarga Commercial College, Onarga, was the youngest son of Charles Rice and Martha Chandler (Sherman) Atwood, and was born in Barre, Worcester county, Massachusetts, November 24, 1838. In the spring of 1839 his father emigrated with lıis family to Illinois, settling on Rock river, between Dixon and Sterling, where he preempted a claim. Here he was attacked with typhoid fever, and died Angust 14. His mother, being left alone with three children, suffered many privations; after much sickness in the family, and losing her personal property by fraud, she returned in destitute circumstances to her father's, in Massachusetts. The subject of this sketch remained with his grandfather until he was nine years old, when he went to live with his uncle. He worked on the farm 29
450
HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
summers and went to the district school winters till he was fourteen, when he began to manage for himself. His first step was to get a place where he could work for his board and attend a high school. He averaged six months each year, and at the age of seventeen began teaching. Being advised by friends of the advantage of having a trade, he learned dentistry, but having no taste for the business abandoned it, and again started to school determined to get a liberal education. With an unfaltering purpose he adhered to this resolution eleven years, going to school and teaching by turns, and working on the farm, or in the palm-leaf shop during vacations; privately pursuing his studies with zeal when out of school. He took a regular course of study at both Colton's Commercial College, Springfield, Massachusetts, and at the Massachusetts State Normal School, at Westfield, and in the latter penmanship. The devotion with which he pursued this favorite object led him to decline an offer of partnership with his instructor, with a guaranteed income of $1,200 a year. In 1865 he came west for liis health, taught school five months, and bought a farm near El Paso. He was married at that place March 29, 1866, to Martha Jane Park- hurst. They have four children. The next fall, being tendered the principalship of the west side graded school in El Paso, he accepted it, and a little while after sold his farm. Teaching there two years, he moved then, in the fall of 1868, to Onarga, to take the same position in the graded school in that place. He filled that post till 1870, and was then employed one year as teacher in Grand Prairie Seminary. The next year he was appointed principal of the commercial depart- ment. Before entering upon this new field of instruction, he prepared himself with a special course of study in Bryant & Stratton's Commer- cial College. Two years later he took another course at Dyhrenfurth's. Prof. Atwood has conducted this school with acknowledged success. For completeness, thoroughness and practical value, the course which is here provided has no superior anywhere. The professor is known to be a man of untiring energy, and the private care and attention which he gives to individual students, and the special interest he im- parts to all the work, and displays for the success of his classes, with every other advantage of the course, have given the Onarga Commer- cial College a growing and substantial reputation.
Samuel H. Harper, farmer, Onarga, was born in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, March 20, 1814. He was the fourth child in a family of six children. In 1817 his parents, Samuel and Mary (McCoy) Har- per, moved and settled near Columbus, in Franklin county, Ohio. He received such an education as was afforded by the district schools of that day. In the fall of 1837 he and they, together with several
451
HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
others (twenty-one altogether), emigrated to this county, and arrived on Middle Spring creek, in the present township of Onarga, where tliey settled October 2, 1837. This arrival, including the few who had previously come, was the foundation of a pioneer community which, for social and religious character, is not often equaled. The only survivors of the party are Mr. Harper, Diana Harper, Thomas M. Pangborn and wife, Ransom B. Pangborn, Cynthia Lowe (wife of Hiram Lowe), Almira Root and Nelson Skeels. Mr. Harper married Miss Mary Lehigh, April 16, 1839. She was the daughter of Experi- ence Lehigh, whose portrait is given in this book, and was born in Mason county, West Virginia, May 22, 1820. Her parents settled and lived in Vermilion county, Indiana, several years before coming here. They have had ten children, eight of whom are living: Harriet L. (dead), George W., Alexander, John (dead), Alvira, Harriet Experi- ence, Florence Ella, Margaret J., Eva and Eddy. John enlisted in Co. D, 113th Ill. Vol., August 15, 1862. He fought at the battle of Arkansas Post ; was acting quartermaster sergeant of a colored regi- ment, and in September, 1864, was captured near La Grange, Tennes- see, and no tidings of him have ever reached his family. Alexander served a term of three years also in the same regiment. Mr. Harper has been a trustee of Grand Prairie Seminary since it was built. He and his wife have been members of the Methodist church about forty years, and Mr. Harper has been steward and trustee most of the time since. His father was a soldier of 1812. Mr. Harper is one of the substantial and respected citizens of Onarga township.
Thomas M. Pangborn, farmer, Onarga, oldest child of John and Miranda (Miller) Pangborn, was born in Keene, Essex county, New York, June 1, 1806. His progenitors were early English settlers in this country. Several of his ancestors were enrolled as yeomen soldiery in the revolution. Each, his father and his mother, had an uncle confined by the British in some of the Wallabout prison-ships (these were the Stromboli, Scorpion, Hunter, Falmouth, Scheldt, and Clyde), sisters to the Old Jersey, truly and graphically denominated by outraged humanity and public judgment, "The Hell." In 1816 Judge Pangborn's father emigrated with his family to Franklin county, Ohio, where they made or cleared two farms. On March 15, 1832, the subject of this sketch was married to Miss Jane Harper, a sister to our much esteemed fellow-citizen, Samuel H. Harper. They have had six children-two sons, who died in infancy, and the four daughters fol- lowing: Triphenia, who was born November 4, 1834, married to Elkanalı Doolittle, and died July 22, 1868; Emily, born December 21, 1838; Mary Ann, born April 19, 1841, wife of Charles Haven ; and
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.