USA > Illinois > Kane County > History of Kane County, Ill. Volume II > Part 79
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position has been proven by time, which has indicated that his attitude toward the question was the result of quiet but most thorough and comprehensive study. As a statesman he is always striving to build up for the benefit of the people and to insure a continuous national progress, believing that nations, like men, cannot stand still ; they must go either forward or backward; they cannot go backward without decay, therefore it is important that they go forward. This is typical of the entire career of Mr. Hopkins, which has marked a steady progress with constantly expanding powers, and there are few men whose lives are crowned with the honor and respect which are uni- formly accorded Albert J. Hopkins.
CHARLES N. KEITH.
Charles N. Keith, a resident of Aurora, Kane county, since April 1, 1907, was born on his father's farm in Ohio township, Bureau county. Illinois, November 29, 1857. His early education was obtained in the country school. At the age of seventeen he had one year's schooling at the Ontario Collegiate Institute in La Grange county, Indiana, the same school and under the same tutor his father had attended in his school days. Then for three years he attended the high school at Princeton, Illinois.
Mr. Keith early became interested in farm life and as a boy took an active interest in assisting his father in the work and management of the farm. He was alert to progress made in improved farm machinery and the advanced methods of cultivating the soil and harvesting the crops as well as in the breeding and raising of thoroughbred stock. He and his brother pur- chased the first twine binder brought into the township, also the first check rower attachment for planting corn. They also bought a half ownership in the first imported Norman stallion brought into their town. After leaving school in the spring of 1877 he remained with his parents on the farm until September. 1882, when he organized an excursion party of over three hun- dred people and accompanied the same to South Dakota, the most of whom took up claims and became residents of that territory. This marked the beginning of Mr. Keith's starting out in life independently. He located a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres in Spink county, Dakota Territory, which was the first land he ever owned. Mr. Keith purchased a newspaper and opened a real-estate office in Mellette, Dakota, and conducted a pros- perous and successful business. He became a prominent and influential factor in public life there and aided in shaping the policy of the territory in its formative period.
In the fall of 1883 Mr. Keith was elected a delegate to the Constitutional Convention at Sioux Falls, called by the citizens of the territory for the purpose of drafting a constitution and presenting a petition and memorial to congress for admission as a state. At that convention Mr. Keith was chair- man of one of its most important committees, that upon county and township organization, and a member of the legislative and printing committees. At this convention he was appointed chief census enumerator and at once
CHARLES N. KEITH
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appointed county enumerators to proceed to take the census of that portion of the territory afterwards admitted as the state of South Dakota.
On the 26th of November, 1884, Mr. Keith was married to Miss Eliza- beth Edwards, of Mendota, Illinois, daughter of Samuel and Aurelia (Par- metar) Edwards. In the fall of 1885 Mr. Keith sold out his business at Mellette and removed to Watertown, Dakota, where for a number of years he was special land examiner for the Dakota Loan & Trust Company. In 1890 the company made him manager of its business in Nebraska, where he spent the succeeding three years. In the fall of 1893 he returned to Bureau county, Illinois, having spent eleven years in the west. While he experienced some of the hardships and privations of pioneer life, he feels amply repaid by the lessons learned of the development and growth of a prairie country when touched by the first quickening impulses of civilization and its improvements under the magic hand of the pioneer. After returning to Illinois Mr. Keith ran his father's farm for two years. In July, 1894, he moved to Princeton. Illinois, and engaged in the real-estate, farm loan and insurance business, which, increasing from year to year, became extensive and lucrative.
April 1, 1907, Mr. Keith came with his family to Aurora, where he is also engaged in the buying and selling of real estate. For two years he was president of the Bureau County Chautauqua Association. He has always taken an active interest in political affairs and was for several years chairman of the Bureau county democratic central committee. He has been many times a delegate to state, congressional and county conventions and has twice served as chairman of county conventions. Since attaining his majority he has always given loyal support to the democratic party and its principles of gov- ernment as promulgated by Thomas Jefferson and strenuously advocated by the new and shining star of democracy-William J. Bryan.
Mrs. Charles N. Keith was born near LaMoille, Illinois, where she attended the country school and later entered the high school at Princeton, Illinois, where after taking a five years' course she graduated in 1877, and then for five years taught in the East Side school at Mendota, Illinois, and afterward for two years in the Princeton high school. For three years she was a member of the board of education in Princeton. In both Watertown, South Dakota, and Princeton, Illinois, where she resided many years, Mrs. Keith was a leader in literary and social circles. She is a member of the Society of Colonial Dames of America by right of lineal descent from Gov- ernor William Bradford, the second colonial governor of Massachusetts. She also belongs to the Daughters of the American Revolution and served as regent of the Princeton chapter.
Mr. and Mrs. Keith have one daughter, Lillian, now Mrs. Harrison H. Heater, of Aurora, Illinois. She was born in Watertown, South Dakota, January 27, 1886. and on November 26, 1907, she was married to Mr. Heater, also a native of Bureau county, Illinois, where he was born April 7, 1884. Mr. Heater is secretary of the Usona Manufacturing Company, of Aurora, Illinois.
Charles N. Keith is the son of Melvin J. Keith and Betsie ( Perkins) Keith. His father was born in Ontario county, New York, June 8, 1828.
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When about ten years of age he went to La Grange county. Indiana, with his parents, and in the fall of 1847, then nineteen years of age, he came to Bureau county. In September, 1896, they moved to the village of Dover. 31. 1856. M. J. Keith married Betsie Perkins, also a native of the Empire state. For a period of forty years they lived on the farm in Ohio township, Bureau township. In September, 1896, they moved to the village of Dover, in the same county. Here the mother died September 27, 1908, aged eighty- six years. M. J. Keith was county clerk of Bureau county from 1873 until 1877. He was a man whose interest in and knowledge of public affairs was above the ordinary. A man widely known for his intelligence, for business integrity and for his sociability and hospitality. He has held many public offices and positions of trust in the county in which he lives. Charles N. Keith has one brother, Wilbur F. Keith, born October 12, 1859, and a sister, Helen, now Mrs. C. D. Bowlus, of Los Angeles, California.
Samuel Edwards, father of Mrs. Keith, was born October 11, 1819, in Skaneateles, New York, and went to Bureau county in 1842. where he settled and established a nursery near La Moille. He became widely known through- out the state for his advanced ideas and knowledge of his chosen profession and for his writings and public addresses upon horticultural subjects. He was a charter member of the State Horticultural Society and also of the Northern Illinois Horticultural Society and at various times held all of the offices of these societies. He was appointed by Governor Oglesby one of the first trustees of the Illinois State University at Champaign, which office he held for eight years. He gave much of his time to the organization and improve- ment of this institution. From 1874 until 1876 he was county treasurer of Bureau county. Samuel Edwards was of old Puritan stock, the son of Abner and Fanny ( Cleveland) Edwards. He was married May 19. 1842, at Cin- cinnati, Ohio, to Aurelia M. Parmetar. To this union were born seven children, all of whom are now deceased but Mrs. Charles N. Keith. Mr. Edwards died at Mendota. Illinois, January 24, 1898, aged seventy-eight years. Mrs. Edwards died February 13, 1872, aged forty-eight years.
GEORGE W. ROBINSON.
Throughout his entire business career George W. Robinson has been prominently identified with the commercial interests of Kane county and is today proprietor of the leading mercantile establishment of Elburn.
A native of Kane county, he was born in Virgil township. August 18. 1851, and is a son of William H. and Miriam ( Pattee ) Robinson. In the paternal line he traces his ancestry back to George Robinson, of Rehoboth, Massachusetts, 1660. The coat of arms of the family is a shield on which are three stags and is surmounted by a stag. the motto being Loyal au mort, (Loyal to the dead). Our subject is now vice president of the society organized to perpetuate the genealogy of the family, and its members held their annual reunion at Niagara Falls in the summer of 1908. He visited the ancestral home which once belonged to his great-great-great-
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grandfather at Westminster, Vermont, and from a piece of an oak beam in the old house he had a chair constructed, the back of which is made from a spinning wheel used by his great-grandmother.
William H. Robinson, our subject's father, was born in Westminster, Vermont, January 14, 1806, and was married in 1831 to Miss Miriam Pattee, whose birth occurred in Thornton, New Hampshire, on the 14th of June, 1810. It was in 1838 that they came to Illinois and took up their residence near Elburn in Kane county, where the father entered one hundred and sixty acres of land from the government and also purchased thirty acres additional in Virgil township. Upon that place he continued to make his home until his death, which occurred September 1, 1872, and his wife passed away March 22, 1866. Both were earnest and consistent members of the Baptist church, in which he served as deacon for several years. He was the first justice of the peace in Virgil township; also served as postmaster of the village of Virgil; for several years filled the offices of treasurer, assessor and commissioner of his township; and also county coroner, being appointed to that position by Governor French, one of Illinois' earliest governors.
Unto William H. and Miriam (Pattee) Robinson were born eight chil- dren : William W. and George M., both deceased; Martha J., the wife of J. P. Harndon, of Nevada, Iowa; Ellen M., the wife of R. R. Kimball, also of Nevada; Alfred Alonzo and Addie, deceased; George W., of this review ; and Miriam L., the wife of B. G. Richmond, of Elburn. After the death of the mother of these children the father married Louisa Burbank.
George W. Robinson received a good district-school education, attending the country schools during the winter months and assisting his father in the labors of the farm throughout the summer season. At the age of sixteen years he assumed the management of the farm in company with his mother, owing to his father's ill health. He spent the years 1874 and 1875 in Fair- field, Iowa, where he was engaged in the sale of musical instruments, and he then returned to Elburn, where he obtained a position as clerk in a general store. In the spring of 1877 he formed a partnership with C. A. Read in a general mercantile business, but at the end of a year he sold out to Mr. Read and returned to the farm, which he carried on for three years. Mr. Robinson spent the winter of 1881-82 with his wife in Los Angeles, California, and on his return to Elburn in 1884 formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, B. G. Richmond, in the coal, grain and implement business, which connection was continued for five years. Selling out at the end of that time he again toured the western state. In the spring of 1891 he became a member of the firm of Robinson & Kendall, proprietors of a general store at Elburn, which they have since conducted. Mr. Robinson has earned for himself an enviable reputation as a careful man of business.
On the 3d of October, 1877, Mr. Robinson was united in marriage to Miss Emma F. Kendall, who was born in Blackberry township, this county, March 2, 1857, a daughter of L. D. and Mary Kendall, who were early settlers of that township, where they continued to make their home until their deaths. Prior to her marriage Mrs. Robinson taught in the Elburn high school for three years. She is an earnest worker in the Congregational church.
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The republican party has always found in Mr. Robinson a stanch sup- porter of its principles and he has taken a very active and prominent part in local politics, serving as a delegate to the state convention at Peoria, which nominated Governor Yates, and also a delegate to the convention which nominated Governor Deneen in 1904. as well as other state conventions. For ten years he was a member of the village board of Elburn, being president of the same for three ternis, and he gives his active support to all enterprises which he believes will prove of public benefit, promoting either the moral or material interests of his town and county. He is preeminently public spirited and progressive and he is held in the highest regard by all with whom he comes in contact either in business or social life. He attends the Congrega- tional church and affiliates with the Modern Woodmen of America.
STANLEY W. MERRICK.
Stanley W. Merrick, following the occupation of farming in Blackberry township, and also serving as township collector, is a young man of enter- prise and progressive spirit. He is well known in the community where he resides and the circle of his friends is almost coextensive with the circle of his acquaintances. He was born at Elburn, this county, July 21, 1880, a son of Benjamin E. and Elenor (Westgarth) Merrick. The father was one of the early settlers of this part of the county and experienced all of the hard- ships and privations incident to pioneer life. He was a native of England and in early youth emigrated to Canada, where he resided until 1865, when he removed to Bay City, Michigan. He afterward went to Chicago and was living in that city during the great Chicago fire, being a witness of many of the thrilling scenes which accompanied that great conflagration. In 1877 he removed from Chicago to his present home in Elburn. He has followed the occupation of painting during his residence in Kane county. Politically he is independent. He believes in progressive citizenship, but not in biased partisanship, and through his ballot he supports men and measures rather than party.
Benjamin E. Merrick was married to Miss Elenor Westgarth, who was born in Westmoreland county, England. Their children are : Elsie, deceased ; Roy C., a lawyer who resides in Chicago; Harry E .. who is employed by the telephone company in Chicago; Genevieve, who resides in Pittsburg. Pennsyl- vania; Kenneth R., who is attending school in Chicago; and Stanley W., of this review.
The last named was a pupil in the graded schools of Elburn until seven- teen years of age. He then learned the painter's trade, which he followed successfully until 1904, in which year he took up his abode upon the farm that is now his home. He is diligent and persevering in his work and the success that he has enjoyed is attributable entirely to his own labors. He knows that industry is the basis of all prosperity and accordingly he has put forth earnest effort, that he may make advancement in the business world.
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On June 25, 1902, Mr. Merrick was married to Miss Florence Woodman, a native of this county and a daughter of Freeman Woodman, a farmer by occupation. Mr. and Mrs. Merrick have had a daughter and a son : Alice D., who was born November 18, 1903, and died March 5, 1904; and Wesley B., born July 25, 1906. The parents attend the Methodist church and are highly esteemed in the community, where their many good traits of heart and mind have won for them the friendship of the majority of people with whom they have been brought in contact.
Mr. Merrick is independent in politics, but his fellow townsmen, recog- nizing his worth and ability, have called him to office and he is now serving as township collector, discharging his duties with promptness and fidelity.
WILLIAM G. SAWYER.
William G. Sawyer started upon the journey of life at Dundee, this county, January 24, 1841, his parents being George E. and Abigail ( Blake) Sawyer, the former a native of Bradford, Vermont, and the latter of Ply- mouth, New Hampshire. They were married in Plymouth in 1837 at her father's home and the same year started westward, traveling with all their earthly possessions in a wagon drawn by one horse. They drove the entire distance and on reaching their destination Mr. Sawyer purchased a claim from the original owner, just west of Dundee. For this he gave all of the cash he had, so that when the transaction was completed the land and his wagon load of goods constituted his entire possessions. The place com- prised one hundred and sixty acres. Upon the farm George E. Sawyer built a house and began the development of the fields. For many years he was actively and closely associated with agricultural interests and when too old to longer continue in the work of the fields he and his wife removed to Carpentersville where their last days were passed. In the meantime he had prospered in his undertakings and had added one hundred and twenty- five acres of land to his original tract. He placed the management of the farm in the hands of two of his sons, William G. and Henry G. The former was born on the old homeplace, while the birth of Henry occurred in Elgin.
William G. Sawyer relates many stories of the struggles with poverty
and hardships which his parents experienced in pioneer days. On one occasion Mr. Sawyer had to leave the farm and go to Elgin to work at the carpenter's trade that he might gain money with which to carry on the improvement of his place. As the years passed, however, his industry and determination triumphed over hardships and difficulties, and he became the owner of a valuable farming property, which in his later years returned to him a gratifying income.
In his boyhood and early youth William G. Sawyer worked on the home farm, early becoming familiar with all the duties and labors that fall to the lot of the agriculturist. At nineteen years of age he left home and secured a clerkship in the store of J. A. Carpenter at Carpentersville,
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where he remained for six years. At the expiration of that period he and his brother purchased the business, which they continued under the name of Sawyer Brothers for four years. They then sold an undivided half interest, H. G. remaining in the business with the partner. W. G. Sawyer went to Huntley, Illinois, where he established a flaxmill and manufactured straw into tow for upholstering and for paper. He started the business in 1870, later admitted a partner and built up an extensive enterprise. In 1880, however, he sold out and his partner removed the business to Charles City, Iowa. Mr. Sawyer then turned his attention to the grain and milling busi- ness, and with a partner has also conducted a warehouse, which they are still carrying on. He and his brother Henry have been interested as part- ners in a financial way all of their lives. In 1874. when the Star Manu- facturing Company at Carpentersville was organized, they, having sold their interest in the store, took a third interest in the business and thus became connected with the manufacture of agricultural implements. Since that time Henry Sawyer has been president during much of the period, while W. G. Sawyer has been treasurer most of the time. The business was started with a capital of ten thousand dollars and they at present employ one hundred and twenty-five men. The brothers are also connected in the operation of the old home farm of two hundred and eighty-five acres, which they conduct as a dairy farm, and they own a ranch of twenty-one hundred and twenty acres in Cherry county, Nebraska. In 1893 W. G. Sawyer came to Elgin and in 1893 built his present home at No. 806 Highland avenue, where he has since resided, while Henry Sawyer makes his home in Carpentersville.
In 1864 W. G. Sawyer was married to Miss Augusta A. Davis, who was born at Gorton, New York, in 1842 and in 1853 came to Dundee, Illinois, with her parents. Unto them have been born three children: Alice, the wife of F. E. Pearsall. of Batavia, Illinois; May, the wife of M. A. Rice, of Elgin; and Florence, at home.
Mr. Sawyer is interested in many affairs and movements which have bearing upon the welfare of the county in many ways. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Old People's Home of Elgin, and has served for several years as assistant supervisor, yet has never solicited a nom- ination or a vote. In politics he is a stalwart republican and while residing at Huntley he filled the office of supervisor in McHenry county for seven or eight years.
ALBERT G. KENT.
By both the place and the circumstances of his birth and training was Albert G. Kent, who resides a little south of Elburn, in Blackberry township. well prepared for the battle of life and the strenuous experiences through which he has passed. He was born and reared in the state of Pennsylvania. that great hive of human industry in which almost every occupation known among men finds abundant and fruitful expression, and was made an orphan
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at the early age of seven years by the untimely death of his father, in conse- quence of which the management of the home farm devolved largely on him. Through these conditions he learned even in boyhood the value of useful labor, and acquired the self-reliance and resourcefulness which come from responsibility.
Mr. Kent is a native of Greene county, in the Keystone state, where his life began on March 13, 1860, and is the son of Hiram and Nancy ( Whitlach) Kent, who were also Pennsylvanians by birth and the parents of two children : Harriet, who is the wife of Samuel Hiller and lives in her native county ; and the subject of this brief review. The father was a well-esteemed citizen of Pennsylvania and a prominent member of the Order of Odd Fellows.
The son attended the public schools near his home when he had oppor- tunity, but his education was acquired mainly in the thorough but exacting school of experience. In 1873, when he was but thirteen years old, he heard the voice of the great middle west calling for volunteers to aid in conquering her wilds and developing her resources, and promising ample reward to all who had enterprise and push, and, heeding the call, he determined at once to join the mighty industrial army and bear his part in the conquest. Accord- ingly he moved to Iowa and, locating at Clarinda, conducted a livery barn in that town five years. At the end of that period he moved to Aurora, Illinois, where, in his own emphatic and picturesque language, he "went broke." But his native force of character bore him over all difficulties and he began life again, working by the month for a time. He then started farming on his own account and prospered to such an extent that a few years ago he was able to retire to his present comfortable home and devote himself to several specialties which he had long had in mind. One of these was raising superior breeds of live stock and fowls, especially hogs, chickens, turkeys and geese. His favorite breed of hogs is the Poland-China, of which he has now a fine drove that holds a high rank in his part of the state, and specimens of which have taken first prizes at a number of county and state fairs. It is his purpose to make exhibits of his stock in this line at the coming state fairs of Illinois and Iowa this fall, and it is almost a certainty that he will again take the first prizes. In poultry he has favored the white Plymouth Rock and Minorca breeds of chickens, and the white Holland breed of turkeys, with both of which he has been very successful. He is now experimenting with the African goose, a very large variety, resembling the wild goose in appearance, but possessing intelligence beyond all other strains of the goose tribe.
Mr. Kent has been married twice. By the first marriage he had one son, who is now a leading physician and surgeon at Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. To prepare the doctor for his profession was a severe tax on the father's financial resources, but he made the necessary sacrifice and struggled gladly, for he is an earnest believer in education and ever willing to do all he can to promote the cause for both an individual student in whom he is interested and for the public in general. In 1896 Mr. Kent solemnized his second marriage, uniting with Miss Lizzie Kennedy, who was born in Ireland and came to America when she was but seven years old. Two daughters have been born
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