USA > Illinois > Kane County > History of Kane County, Ill. Volume II > Part 69
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GRANVILLE JOHNSTON.
Granville Johnston is now living retired in Aurora in the enjoyment of success which was worthily achieved. He was born in Selby township. Bureau county, Illinois, December 10, 1855, and is descended from one of seven brothers who emigrated from Scotland and settled in Virginia when this country was still numbered among the colonial possessions of Great Britain. After a time the brothers separated, some going to the New England states and others to New York and Pennsylvania. General Bradley T. Johnston and General Joseph E. Johnston, of Confederate fame, were descended from the same ancestry. The paternal grandmother of Mr. Johnston was a Quaker who bore the maiden name of Jones and was a relative of the famous Lynch family of Lynch's Ferry, Virginia, which is now the city of Lynchburg. In the old Quaker cemetery four miles from that place are buried many genera- tions of the Jones and Lynch families.
Henry M. Johnston, father of our subject, was born in Campbell county, Virginia, December 18, 1814, and there spent his boyhood and youth. In early manhood he started out to make his own way in the world, traveling on foot across the Blue Ridge mountains to the Ohio river and covering on the journey a distance of forty miles per day. At Guyandotte he took passage on an Ohio river boat for Cincinnati and thence made his way to Xenia. Ohio. where he resided for four years. During that period he married Miss Mar- garet Long, a native of Greene county and a daughter of Henry H. and Mary (Walden) Long. The marriage was celebrated in January, 1841, and the following year Mr. and Mrs. Johnston, with their little child, made an over- land journey with team to Bureau county, Illinois, and established their home upon a tract of wild land of thirty-six acres in Selby township. Mr. Johnston had but twenty dollars at the time of his arrival but he possessed resolute purpose and unfaltering diligence and in the effort to achieve success moved steadily forward. As the years passed he prospered in his undertakings and his financial rating at the time of his death was fifty thousand dollars or more.
GRANVILLE JOHNSTON
MRS. GRANVILLE JOHNSTON
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In 1880 he removed to Morrison, Iowa, where he lived for five years and then returned to Princeton, Illinois, but later he and his wife made their home with their son Granville. The father was a man of retiring disposition but strictly honorable in all his business transactions and merited and received the high esteem of those with whom he came in contact. He died June 30, 1894, while his wife passed away February 28, 1898. Their children were: Francis M., residing in Lansing, Michigan; Joseph Z., who is living in Prince- ton, Illinois ; and James H., who died at the age of twenty-seven years.
Granville Johnston has practically spent his entire life in this state. He was reared to farm life, dividing his time in his boyhood between the public schools and the work of the fields. After attaining his majority he made preparations for having a home of his own by his marriage on the 8th of September, 1880, to Miss Sarah L. Ellis, who was born July 2, 1862, and is a daughter of Miletus W. and Mary (Coleman) Ellis. Her father, a native of Dover township, Bureau county, Illinois, was a son of Abbott Ellis, a native of Albemarle county, Virginia. Mrs. Johnston was born in the same house in which her father's birth occurred. He died October 27. 1881, in Castle Rock, Colorado, and his widow is now residing in Boulder, that state. They were the parents of five children but four of the number are now deceased.
Soon after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Johnston became residents of Grundy county, Iowa, where he purchased two hundred and forty acres of land at twenty dollars an acre. There he engaged in farming and was one of the progressive agriculturists of the community, introducing there the first steam thresher taken into the county. After ten years he disposed of his land in Iowa at a good profit and returned to Princeton, Illinois. He then bought a farm in the vicinity of that city and in connection with the management of his agricultural interests he also engaged in the real-estate business. He bought and sold many tracts of land on his own account and negotiated various realty transfers for others. In April, 1891, he removed with his family to Aurora, where he has also been well known as a prominent and successful real-estate dealer. His own holdings comprise two fine farms, one of two hundred and twenty-eight acres near Kaneville and the other three hundred and twenty-four acres in Blackberry township. It is his intention, however, to retire from active business life and he is now remodeling a fine stone residence which he recently purchased near Batavia. This house was built in 1844 from stone out of the first quarry opened near Batavia. It is situated on the Aurora & Elgin electric car line and overlooks the beautiful Fox river. It was for many years the home of Judge Samuel D. Lockwood, a former judge of the Illinois supreme court, who granted Abraham Lincoln permission to practice at the Illinois bar. The Johnston home, recently com- pleted, is one of the finest and most substantial dwellings in Kane county and there Mr. Johnston expects to find pleasure in his well earned rest from further labor.
Following the removal of the family to Aurora their children became students in the schools of that city. The daughter, Viola, was born July 30, 1885, and after attending the Aurora high school completed a course of training in the Chicago School of Domestic Arts and Sciences and also a
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course of music in the Columbia Conservatory of Music in Aurora. She likewise studied bookkeeping in the Allen Business College, of Aurora, and she is now prominent in the social circles of the city, holding membership in the Galena Street Methodist Episcopal church and the T. H. E. Club. The son, Henry E., born November 11, 1886, was graduated from the West Aurora high school in June. 1906, and is now traveling salesman for the Olds Motor Works, of Lansing, Michigan, with office in Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. Johnston and their daughter are members of the Eastern Star and the White Shrine of Aurora, and Mr. Johnston has attained the Knight Templar degree in Masonry, belonging to Temple Commandery, No. 20, of Princeton. He has been an able and successful business man and financier, is a public-spirited citizen and in every sense of the word is a gentleman, occupying an enviable position in the social circles where intelligence is a necessary attribute to agreeableness. Both Mr. and Mrs. Johnston are lovers of social enjoyments and their home is always open for the reception of their many friends.
ANDREW MAGNUS.
Andrew Magnus, a leading contractor and builder of Elgin, who is also extensively engaged in quarrying cut stone, was born in Sweden on the 9th of November, 1839, his parents being Andrew and Anna ( Britta) Magnus, whom he accompanied on their emigration to the United States in 1852. The father was a farmer by occupation. Our subject first attended the public schools of his native country and continued his education in the academy of Elgin.
On putting aside his text-books he was apprenticed to E. F. Reeves, a mason contractor, with whom he continued until twenty-one years of age. In 1861 he went to California and there worked at his trade. but in 1865 returned to Elgin and took charge of Mr. Reeves' work on some large buildings for a year and a half. Subsequently he worked in Rockford and Chicago and also resided on a farm which he had purchased, for one year. Again returning to Elgin in 1874, he here established himself in business as a mason con- tractor and since that time has been prominently and successfully connected with the building interests of this city. He put up the greater number of the structures here and practically all of the important contracts were awarded him, including the erection of the Opera House block, Borden's Condensed Milk factory, the Fosgate Hotel, seven large school houses, etc., all of which were completed before the year 1890. During this time he was also engaged in the stonecutting business and in the coal and ice business but sold the latter enterprise to the Knickerbocker Ice Company in 1904. He likewise managed the South Elgin Stone Company and is still interested in the con- cern. Six or seven years ago he admitted his son-in-law. John S. Russell, to a partnership in the stonecutting business, and likewise became a partner of W. F. Hagel in the conduct of the South Elgin quarry. He now devotes his time to the business of quarrying cut stone and contracting, and is at
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present engaged on the construction of a large Catholic church at Decatur, Illinois. At the time of the erection of the First Baptist church in Elgin, in 1871, he acted as foreman, and from that early period to the present time has been continuously connected with the county's upbuilding and development along the most substantial lines.
On the 30th of May, 1871, Mr. Magnus was united in marriage to Miss Carrie G. Samuelson, a daughter of Charles and Inga Marie Samuelson, of Elgin. Their family numbers six children, as follows: Andrew Victor, who wedded Elizabeth McGraw, by whom he has two children, Harold and Orville; Anna, who is the wife of John S. Russell and has one son, Paul; Maud; Clarence; Ethel, the wife of Fred Adkins; and Harold.
Mr. Magnus gives his political allegiance to the republican party, while his religious faith is indicated by his membership in the English Lutheran church. Fraternally he is connected with the Modern Woodmen. He is widely recognized as one of Kane county's most substantial and prosperous citizens and few, if any, residents of the community are held in higher respect and esteem than Andrew Magnus.
CHARLES FLOYD PHILLIPS.
During the last sixteen years this enterprising and resourceful market gardener and general farmer has been profitably engaged in the interesting industry of raising asparagus for the Chicago markets. He owns and culti- vates nineteen acres of very fertile and productive land in sections 31 and 32, Aurora township, the greater part of which is devoted to this toothsome aristocrat of the menu, and the yield is not only great in quantity, but also superior in quality, the output of the Phillips' gardens having a place in the first rank wherever it is known.
Mr. Phillips is a native son of Illinois, having been born near Oswego in Kendall county, on a farm then managed by his parents, whose history is given in the sketch of his brother, Edmund B. Phillips, elsewhere in this volume. When he was seven years old Mr. Phillips moved with the rest of the family to a farm half a mile west of Montgomery in this county, and this enabled him to attend the graded schools in Montgomery, which he did from 1881 to 1892.
On leaving school he at once began the industry which now occupies him and which he has followed ever since, although during 1896 and 1897 he was also associated with his brothers Edmund and Clarence in a laundry business in Chicago. In April. 1898, he enlisted at Springfield for the Span- ish-American war, in which his whole company. Company B. Third Illinois National Guard, engaged. The command was ordered to Porto Rico, where it continued in active service until January 22. 1899, when it was mustered out. Mr. Phillips returned to his home and again resumed his place in the business which his brother had managed in his absence. In addition to the culture of asparagus on a large scale, the Phillips brothers carry on extensive
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operations in the sale of threshing machinery and in baling and selling hay. They are successful in all lines of their business and are among the most enterprising men in the county.
At Aurora. May 9. 1900. Charles F. Phillips was married to Miss Mayme E. Stanton, the daughter of James and Ellen ( Morrisey ) Stanton, the former a native of Michigan and the latter of County Waterford, Ireland. The mother came to this country at the age of eighteen. and in 1873 was married to Mr. Stanton at Elkhart, Indiana. Their daughter, Mayme, now Mrs. Phillips, was born at Elkhart. November 25. 1875, and when she was but five years old moved to Kane county with her parents, who are now living in Aurora. The father has been employed for many years in the shops of the Chicago. Burlington & Quincy Railroad in that city.
In politics Mr. Phillips is a republican, and, although not an officeseeker. he takes an earnest and helpful interest in the affairs of his party. During the war in which he fought he was corporal of Company D. and he now keeps alive the memories and associations of the contest and his military life by membership in the Spanish-American War Veterans Association, being regular in attendance at the meetings and cordial in his interest in the pro- ceedings of the organization. His wife is a member of St. Mary's Catholic church in Aurora. She was well educated, being graduated from the East Aurora high school in the class of 1893. They have three children : Mildred Evelyn, born March 7, 1901 ; Marjorie Catherine, born April 20, 1902; and Donald James, born December 14, 1906. There are no better or more sterling citizens in Kane county than Mr. and Mrs. Phillips, and few, if any, are held in higher regard by the general public.
CARL AUGUST ANDERSON.
The Swedish people have done great things for every land in which they have colonized or settled extensively. In their own country the bounties of nature have been given stintingly, and what there are must be made the most of. Accordingly the inhabitants are taught, by both circumstances and training, the necessity for industry, frugality and thrift, beginning their lessons in this regard almost in their cradles. When they go abroad the national traits, which have characterized the race for centuries, are found to be the most valuable assets in the business of life, and they always bring excellent results. In this blessed land of ours, where nature is most prodigal and rewards every honest courtesy paid to her grace with lavish benefactions, Swedish industry and thrift have found at all times both a ready and a plentiful recompense, and in turn have shown themselves worthy in what they have done for the develop- ment and improvement of the region to which they have been applied. Carl August Anderson and his career in this country make up a case in point.
He was born in Sweden. September 7, 1875. the son of Nicholas and Enge Augusta Anderson, who were actively and successfully engaged in farming in that country. The father was a zealous member of the Lutheran
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church and after a long life of usefulness surrendered his trust a few years ago at the behest of the great Disposer. The mother is still living in her native land crowned with the respect and good will of all who have the pleasure of knowing her. They were the parents of five children: Anton, who lives in Sweden: Carl A .: Lotta, who is the wife of Martin Carlson, a farmer ; Hilda, married to John Enorkson, also a farmer; and Caroline, who is living with her mother.
Carl A. Anderson received his early education at the public schools and at the age of fourteen went to work for himself, serving as a farm hand for four years. When he was eighteen he emigrated to the United States and located at Elburn, in this county, where he has ever since had his home. He worked as a hired hand until 1905, when he purchased a dairy outfit compris- ing thirty-five cows with the money he had saved from his earnings. He is living on a rented farm, but is carrying on a profitable and agreeable business, and is also keeping the farm in good condition and making it more and more productive year by year. He has occupied this farm for two years, and it al- ready shows marked improvement under his careful and skillful management, while his cows are far above the average in quality and appearance. Many of his neighbors, who are also engaged in dairying, use milking machines, but Mr. Anderson sticks to first principles, using hand milking yet, as he believes he can get better results and take better care of his stock by that process.
He gives due and intelligent attention to public affairs, voting the repub- lican ticket on all occasions and doing his part to help the cause of his party and its candidates along, although seeking nothing in the way of public office for himself. In fraternal relations he belongs to the Masonic order, being a devout and loyal Master Mason, and in religious faith he is a Lutheran. He meets all the requirements of his daily life with a serene and constant spirit, performing every duty with fidelity and discharging every obligation in full measure.
MRS. HILDA LIND.
This estimable, enterprising and self-reliant lady, the widow of the late Charles J. Lind, owns and lives on a farm of two hundred and thirty-seven acres of excellent land in Sugar Grove township, which is farmed by her two sons under her direction. The farm was purchased by her husband in 1901, and he at once took possession of it, moving his family from Bureau county, Illinois, and establishing them on it. He has been actively engaged in farming in Bureau county for a number of years and had been successful in his undertaking. His advent into Kane county was, therefore, warmly wel-
comed by the people and looked upon as an event of importance and benefit to the township in which he settled. But the year after his location on this farm he died, leaving his widow with four children to care for and rear.
The two sons, Conrad F. and Arthur C., are now grown to man's estate, and carry on the farm in conjunction with their mother. The two daughters, Agnes J. and Esther C., are also living at home. The latter was grad-
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uated from the West Aurora high school in June, 1907. While the other children in the family did not have the opportunity to complete the high-school course, all obtained a good common-school education, and the sons attended a business college. They give credit to the community in which they live by their intelligence and mental development.
Mr. Lind, their father, was a public-spirited man and gave close and care- ful attention to public affairs. He voted the republican ticket, but, although devoted to the success of his party, and doing his share of the work necessary to secure that. in business and the other relations of life he considered neither party nor creed, but estimated all men by the worth they exhibited and asked no other gauge for himself.
ANDREW HASSELL.
Born and reared in the land of Gustavus Adolphus and Charles XII, whose mighty armies were for years the terror of Europe, and whose triumphs in art and science, physical and metaphysical, are the pride of the world. Andrew Hassell (born Anderson) inherited the spirit of his people and has laid its best contributions and achievements on the altar of our country, which has long been also his. His life began in Sweden, March 26, 1861, and he is a son of Samuel and Anna B. (Johnson) Anderson, having for sufficient reason which involved nothing of unmanliness or wrong on his part, changed his name to Hassell. Both father and mother were also natives of Sweden and prosperous farmers there. Both are now deceased, and their remains were laid to rest in their native land. They were the parents of four children, their offspring, in addition to the subject of this brief review, being Anna L. Anderson, who lives in Sweden; John M. Hassell, a machinst residing at Batavia, Illinois; and James B. Hassell, a prosperous painter at River Forest in this state.
Andrew Hassell attended the state or public schools in his native land until he was fifteen years of age, then worked on a farm four years for a compensation of sixty crowns per year, less than sixteen dollars in our money. At the age of nineteen he came to the United States and took up his residence at Batavia, Illinois, where he immediately went to farming. In 1906, with money he had saved, he bought one hundred and sixty acres of land in Minnesota. But he did not remain in that state, preferring to make his home in Illinois. He, accordingly, came back and located on a rented farm which he still occupies and manages.
In 1883 he was married to Miss Gusta C. Lilja, like himself a native of Sweden. Her father was a well-to-do painter, who died some years ago. His widow is still living in Sweden. Mr. and Mrs. Hassell have five children : Albert B., Franz S. L., Harold J., Alden W., and Ruth A. C., all of whom are living at home.
In this land of boundless opportunity Mr. Hassell readily found what he sought-profitable employment for his capacity and industry and an open
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door to prosperity; and, knowing well how to use his chances, he has won substantial progress and made himself comfortable for life. Like the great bulk of his countrymen, too, who have come to this land of freedom and high appreciation of diligence and ability, he has not been satisfied to merely push his own fortunes forward, but has helped to make the wilderness teem with the fruits and fragrance of civilized life, and has also taken his place and borne well his part in promoting, defending and improving our civil and political institutions, and augmenting all the elements of our industrial and commercial greatness. He has performed with fidelity and intelligence all the duties of citizenship in the land of his adoption as he did in that of his birth, and in his way has exemplified the fact that new countries grow great and prosperous in proportion as they are liberal in reference to immigra- tion and naturalization. America owes more than she can estimate to the thrifty elements of her population from foreign countries, and to none more than the good Swedes who have helped so materially to expand her material, intellectual and moral forces.
GEORGE H. MOODY.
George H. Moody, who is numbered among the substantial citizens of Kane county, is engaged in the conduct of a creamery in Virgil township. He was born in New Hampshire, November 30, 1850, one of the three child- ren of Daniel and Mary Ann (Rollins) Moody, the other members of the family being Eliza J., deceased, and Ella M., the wife of John S. Murphy, a druggist of Pontiac, Illinois. The father was born in Gilmanton, New Hampshire, May 3, 1818. He was engaged in farming in the east, but owing to poor health sought a change of climate, coming thence to Roscoe, Illinois, where he continued in agricultural pursuits for three years. He then removed to Nebraska, where he entered land from the government and remained for three years. He, however, was dissatisfied with life in the west and returned once more to this state, locating in McLean county on a farm which he cultivated until his demise, which occurred in November, 1872, when he was fifty-four years of age. He was a republican in his political views, while religiously he was a Methodist. The mother, who was likewise a native of New Hampshire, is also deceased, her remains being interred at Fairbury, Illinois. The great-grandfather, John Moody, was captain of a company in the Revolutionary war.
George H. Moody was but a young lad at the time of the parents' removal from the east to Illinois. During the winter months he attended the district schools of McLean county, while in the summer seasons he assisted in the various tasks of the home farm. At the early age of fifteen years, owing to his father's poor health, he put aside his studies and assisted largely in the care and management of the homestead property until he had reached the age of twenty-three years, when his father passed away, after which the son assumed full management of the farm. After a time he went to Wisconsin
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where he was engaged in farming for two years, but in the spring of 1880 he returned to Illinois and since that period has been engaged in the manu- facture of butter and cheese in Virgil township. In the fall of 1882 he purchased his present factory, situated within a mile and three-quarters of Richardson, on the township line between Burlington and Virgil. Since he purchased the building he has added many improvements, the plant being operated with steam power. It has cement floors and an excellent sewerage system and all its appointments are modern in every particular. He is engaged quite extensively in the manufacture of butter and cheese, handling a large amount of milk daily, and his products find a ready sale on the market, where they command the highest prices, owing to their excellent quality.
Mr. Moody's study of the political questions and issues of the day has led him to give stalwart support to the republican party, but he has never been active as an office seeker, finding that his time is amply occupied with his private business affairs. He possesses untiring energy and his close application to business and his excellent management have brought to him the high degree of prosperity which is today his.
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