USA > Illinois > Lee County > History of Lee County, together with biographical matter, statistics, etc. > Part 37
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EDMUND R. TRAVERS, physician and surgeon, Amboy, seventh child in a family of ten children by Richard H. and Harriet (Walsh) Tra-
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vers, was born in the county of Cork, Ireland, March 7, 1832. His father was a shipowner, and carried on a business in coal, grain and live stock ; besides this he kept a farm of 200 acres, which he had cul- tivated. In 1842 he emigrated to London, Canada, where he bought 200 acres of land and prepared a home for his family, who came the next year. His death occurring shortly after, the mother was left with the care and education of a large family, and notwithstanding she had some property it was not sufficient for the demands which she foresaw would accumulate, so she engaged in giving private lessons in English, French and music, until all her children that had not previously done so had completed their studies. Two of the older sons were physi- cians. John T. was a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of London, England, and Richard W. of the Edinburgh Medical College, Scotland, and also a graduate of Rolf's Medical School of Toronto, Canada ; both these are now dead. The subject of this sketch began the study of medicine under the tutelage of his brothers when but six- teen years of age, and attended his first course of lectures at Rolf's Medical School. Having become delicate in health, in 1856 he sought improvement in a change of climate and travel and went south ; but he did not relax his studies, and while in New Orleans attended a course of medical lectures by Dr. Stone. In 1858 he matriculated in the medical department of the University of Michigan, from which he was graduated in 1861. He then attended the General Hospital at Toronto, Canada, for one year, after which he immediately began prac- tice with his brother John T., who was located at Port Huron, Michi- gan, opening an office in Port Sarnia, just opposite, in Canada. About this time his brother Charles H., who was a druggist in Port Huron, raised a company for the war, but the enrolled men not being accepted, he, along with other officers, were sent to Detroit, where they were regularly drilled and instructed. Returning again to Port Huron he enlisted in Co. E, 5th Mich. Inf., was elected captain, and with his command joined the army of the Potomac. He was mortally wounded at the battle of Fair Oaks. Dr. Travers was on the point of entering the Union service as a surgeon when a sudden and severe illness pros- trated him and defeated his object. His sister, Mrs. Harriet Merrigold, a pious and very estimable lady, was living in Amboy, where she had resided almost from the beginning of the town ; through her influence the doctor was induced to settle here, which he did in September 1863. Since that time he has made Amboy his home, and has practiced his profession with eminent success. He is surgeon for the north division of the Illinois Central railroad, and in a like capacity has charge of the Lee county farm and poor-house. He holds membership in both the Illinois State Medical Association and the American Medical Associa-
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tion. On May 17, 1864, he was united in marriage with Miss Esther Scott, daughter of Thomas Scott, of Mendota. They have had four children : Martha, Edmund, George and Mary. The last only is liv- ing. In politics Dr. Travers is a democrat. He is a member of the Episcopal church, and holds the office of junior warden. Mrs. Travers, who was formerly a Presbyterian, is now a communicant in the Con- gregational church. The doctor belongs to the fraternities of Masons, Odd-Fellows and United Workmen.
WARREN H. BADGER, junior member of the firm of H. E. Badger & Son, Amboy, was born in Corning, New York, in 1847, and is the oldest child of Henry E. and Catherine (Clark) Badger. He received a good English education at Mount Morris and Evanston, and was bred to a mercantile life. He has been in partnership with his father since 1872, in milling and farming, and also in one of the leading gro- cery houses in ' Amboy. In 1874 he was married to Miss Emeline Green, of Elizabeth, Jo Daviess county, Illinois. She was born in 1851. Their three children are Henry H., Frances E. and Arthur. Mr. Badger is a Mason and a republican.
ISAAC EDWARDS, liveryman and ice dealer, Amboy, is a native of England, having been born there in 1828. In 1850 he arrived in America, and at once went to railroad building at Elgin, Illinois. This he followed five years. In 1853 he settled at Amboy, and graded seven miles of the Central railroad, under three contracts. Since 1855 he has been in the livery and ice business. In 1869 he again began taking contracts for railroad grading, and has also been engaged at that more or less every year till the present. His real estate comprises 580 acres of farming land, valued at $14,500 ; and twenty city lots, sixteen build- ings, worth $10,000. Mr. Edwards is a republican, and has run three times for the office of county treasurer,-first in 1877, and twice in 1879. In the last year he ran as an independent and was elected over W. H. Bryant, the republican nominee. The board of supervisors questioned the sufficiency of Mr. Edwards' bond, though his bonds- men were several of the most wealthy farmers in Lee county ; an on reference of the case to the state's attorney, he held that they could not accept a new bond after the first of December; and as they had assem- bled at the latest moment, no time remained for him to make a new one. A second election was ordered ; Mr. Edwards and Josiah Little were the candidates, and the latter was elected. Mr. Edwards has been mayor of the city six years, township collector four terms, and is serving his sixth term as supervisor. He was married in 1853, to Miss Elizabeth Saul. Their living children are William John, John Henry, Isaac Frank, and Arthur. They have buried an infant, Albert, Elizabeth, and Sarah Jane.
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RUFUS H. MELLEN, postmaster, Amboy, was born in Massachusetts, February 5, 1818. His Scotch ancestors came to New England in the early days of the Massachusetts colony, and were a people noted for their great physical strength. Mr. Mellen obtained his education at the Wilbraham Academy, in his own town of Greenwich. He taught music and district schools, and traveled in New Jersey, when a young man, in the same employments. In 1842 he was married to Miss Laura E. Patten, and four children are the fruits of this union, viz : Ella Frances, Walter Clayton, Florence Virginia, and May Georgiana. In October, 1854, Mr. Mellen came to Amboy and selected it for his future home; and the next spring brought his family, and went to manufacturing lumber. In 1861 he was commissioned postmaster of Amboy, and has occupied the office until the present time. He began concurrently selling books and papers, and in 1864 took his son Walter into partnership. They have since added to their trade musical instru- ments and sewing machines. Mr. Mellen has been a member of the Congregational church since he was fifteen years old. He has been city clerk and alderman, and is a republican. Originally a whig, he cast his first vote for Harrison in 1840.
Among the leading business men of Amboy is LEMUEL BOURNE, who was born in Sandwich, Massachusetts, in 1830, and was the son of Benjamin and Lucinda Bourne. His remotest ancestor in this country was Richard Bonrne, who landed at Sandwich, from England, in 1620, and was a prominent man in the early history of the Massachusetts colony. Our subject was educated in the academies at Westbrook and Norway, Maine, and has been keeping books and merchandising from that time to the present. In the spring of 1854 he emigrated to the west, and the following winter came to Amboy as freight and station agent, and filled this position eight years; he then embarked in the drug and grocery trade in partnership with J. S. Briggs; at the end of three years he retired and bought ont Mr. Somes, and until 1872 was in company with B. R. Hawks in a general store. Since that date he has been without a partner. Mr. Bourne keeps a complete assortment of goods on East avenue, and is very favorably known throughout the country. In 1860 he celebrated his marriage with Miss Anna M. Smith, and by her has had five children : Anna L., Frank S., Frederick C., Alice A. and Helen A. His family are communicants in the Protestant Episcopal church, and he worships there, but is not a member. He has held the office of Alderman, and is a republican.
EVERETT E. CHASE, magistrate, Amboy, was born in Pawtucket (then Massachusetts, now Rhode Island), September 27, 1840, and is descended in a direct line from the Puritans. It was the intention of his parents to breed him to the law, but he objected with such persist-
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ence that the design was abandoned. He left home at sixteen, and in the spring of 1857 came to Amboy, where his brother, Newton S. Chase, was in business. He was deputy postmaster a short time under Sidney Reed; then he clerked for his brother, and next about a year for Alonzo Kinyon. In the spring of 1861 he was appointed deputy postmaster by R. H. Mellen, and filled this place till the spring of 1864, when he became a partner with Mr. Mellen in the book and stationery business. In the autumn of the same year he sold out to his partner, and enlisted in Co. H, 11th Ill. Vols,, and joined his regiment at Mem- phis. He served his time on detail doing clerical work, but aided in the taking of Spanish Fort, Fort Blakely, and Mobile city. He went with his command from there to Baton Rouge, and thence up Red River, when Gen. Canby received the surrender of Gen. Kirby Smith and his forces. Mr. Chase was mustered out at New Orleans in No- vember 1865. In 1867 he married Miss Mary Jacobs, daughter of John C. Jacobs; and next year went to work for the Central Railroad Com- pany in the superintendent's office, and remained there till 1875. He has been city elerk twelve years, and in 1877 was elected justice of the peace, and reëlected in 1881. He was a delegate to the state republi- can convention at Springfield in 1880. His first wife died in 1868, and in 1875 he married Mrs. Grace Wells, widow of Capt. M. W. Wells.
JOSEPHI B. GRAVES, dealer in agricultural implements, carriages and wagons, Amboy, son of William and Sarah M. (Foster) Graves, was born in Broome county, New York, in 1838. His father having died two years before, in September 1852 his mother moved with her family to Illinois, and lived one year in Kendall county ; then they came to Lee and settled in China township. Mr. Graves was married in 1862 to Miss Mary E. Eastwood, and two children have been born to them, William F. and Cora May. In the fall of 1868 he quit farming and located in Amboy in his present business, in company with Joseph Himes. In 1876 he bought out his partner's interest. His wareroom, a pleasant and commodious one, stands on the corner of Main street and Adams avenue. He owns a farm of 80 acres in Nachusa township, worth $3,000. He is a Mason, an Odd-Fellow, a workman, a democrat, an alderman, and a member of the board of education of Amboy.
DWIGHT W. SLAUTER, lumber and coal dealer, Amboy, only son of Ambrose E. and Louisa (Bristol) Slauter, was born in Berkshire county, Massachusetts, October 28, 1841. In the spring of 1855 his father em- igrated with his family to Amboy, and here our subject got his school- ing, and learned the cabinet trade with J. D. Weddell. After the death of the latter he worked for C. D. Vaughan two or three years, and then for the railroad company in the wood department of the ma- chine shop seven years. In 1870 he quit this employment and united
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with J. H. Ives, under the firm name of Ives & Slauter, and purchased the business of Merigold & Arnold, lumber merchants. They rented the old stand from their predecessors five years, and then bought the Marston property adjoining, and added grain and coal to their business. They have since leased the grain department. Mr. Slauter was married in 1864 to Miss Ella F., daughter of R. H. Mellen, who was born May 6, 1845. Both are members of the Congregational church. Mr. Slan- ter is a republican. He has traveled some for pleasure and improve- ment, and has applied himself to his business with industry, and his start in life is due to his own exertions.
CURTIS M. BUTLER, humber merchant, Amboy, was born October 14, 1817, in Brockville, Canada, while his parents had gone there tem- porarily from their home in Jefferson county, New York. He was reared a farmer, and 'in 1836 he emigrated to St. Clair county, Michi- gan, where he bought a piece of government land in the dense woods and cleared and improved a small farm. In 1838 his father, Abijah Butler, who was born February 25, 1793, joined him with his family, and on the 2d of April, 1842, was stricken down and died. His mother, Clarissa Dowd before marriage, whose birth was on the 8th of Novem- ber, 1792, lived until July 5, 1845. In 1843 Mr. Butler removed to Oswego, Kendall county, Illinois, and continued to live by farming. In 1855 he set up in the lumber trade in that town, and the next year changed his place of business and residence to Amboy, coming here without means. He has followed this with success ever since, and now owns two farms of eighty aeres each, valued at $6,000. Mr. Butler was married in 1853 to Miss Sarah M. Atwater, daughter of David and Mary (Mckenzie) Atwater, who was born July 6, 1825, and reared in Broome county, New York. They have had three children ; Frederick H., Della (dead), and Blanche. Mrs. Butler's ancestry were English and Scotch ; the latter was on the maternal side. Her grandfather At- water went from Hebron, Washington county, New York, as a volun- teer, and fought at the battle of Bennington. Her grandfather MeKenzie was an officer in the French and Indian war. He was sent out on a scout and never returned. Mr. Butler is a republican in poli- tics, and he and his wife have been members of the First Congrega- tional church of Amboy about fifteen years. He has been mayor of the city three terms.
WILLIAM B. STUART, attorney, Amboy, was born in Ireland in 1806, and emigrated with his parents to America in 1812, and settled. in Canandaigua, Ontario county, New York. His father volunteered at once in the 15th New York regiment, served through the war, and was engaged in several actions. When Mr. Stuart had grown to manhood his father gave him a saw-mill and 200 acres of land in
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Canada, and in 1833 he went there to live, and was married to Miss Mary Johnson. In the patriot war, 1836-8, Mr. Stuart participated with all the enthusiasm of his Irish nature. He commanded a com- pany of lancers at the battle of Short Hills, December 19, 1836, had his horse killed under him, and was wounded in the ankle. Two weeks afterward he was captured at Gravelly Bay and confined with John Van Norman, who had been taken prisoner at Checkered Sheds. On the 17th of March they managed to escape, but the latter was retaken, to undergo the toils and anxieties of a second escape, when he rejoined Mr. Stuart at Buffalo. They then came together to Illinois, Van Norman direct to Dixon, while his partner remained in Chicago until autumn, when he came to Lee county also, and made a claim at Frank- lin Grove. Mr. Stuart lived at this place and at Dixon nine years, engaged in all kinds of business, and practicing law somewhat. He opened at the county seat the first meat market in Lee county. He furnished $1,000 capital, and a man named Gaylord attended to the business. He was soon in the condition of the Dutchman who sup- plied money in partnership with a Yankee who furnished experience- at the end of a year Gaylord had gone with the money, and Stuart
had the experience. In 1847 he moved to Rocky Ford and improved four farms in May township. The next year he built the first frame house, and about twenty-five years ago the first brick house, in the township. At one time he carried on a large speculation in land. He was the first supervisor in May township, and held that office several years. He was commissioned justice of the peace first by Governor Ford, and has been an incumbent of the position continuously to this date. He commenced doing business in real estate and practicing law in Amboy as soon as the place was started. In 1854 his family came to town tolive, but after some time they resided quite as much on the farm in May township as here. Mr. Stuart has suffered heavy losses six times from fire. His first wife died in 1875, and was the mother of fourteen children, as follows : Hamilton W., Francelia A., Marietta, Eliza Jane, a young lady of education and rare beauty, who was thrown from a horse and received mortal injuries ; William H., James H., John B., Francis M., Charles F., Melissa (dead), Ida E., Emma J., and two which died in infancy. William and James were soldiers in the 75th Ill. reg. and fought at Perryville and Crab Orchard, and else- where. In 1879 Mr. Stuart was married to Lydia A., widow of Jesse G. Baker. In 1829 his parents, James and Ann (Markey) Stuart, emigrated to Almont, Lapeer county, Michigan, where they lived many years and died, the former at the age of eighty-four.
ANDREW W. SPAFARD, book-keeper and cashier for the Illinois Cen- tral Railroad Company at Amboy, was born in Livingston county, New
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York, June 23, 1827. His parents were Thomas L. and Almira (Baldwin) Spafard. In 1838 the family removed to Washtenaw county, Michigan, where his father is still living. Until 1855 Mr. Spafard was most of the time engaged in farming; at that time he moved to Chicago, and in March following to Amboy, where he was book-keeper in the master mechanic's office. In May, 1858, he returned to Chicago, and was employed in an agricultural warehouse, and in February, 1860, he moved back to Amboy and has since resided in this place, and occupied his present position in the office of the superin- tendent of the north division of the Central railroad. He was mar- ried in 1850, to Miss Lucinda Z. Chipman, of Lima, Washtenaw county, Michigan. She was born December 28, 1828. They have one son, Frank S., ticket agent and operator at Warren, Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Spafard are members of the Congregational church at Am- boy. He has been a Mason about a year, and belongs to the American Legion of Honor. He is a stalwart republican.
EPHRAIM A. WILCOX, deceased, was born in Fredonia, Chautauqua county, New York, in 1811. He removed to Lucas county, Ohio, and engaged in mercantile pursuits, and during his residence there was married, in 1836, to Miss Sabra E. Arnold. In 1838 he settled at the place known as Freedom, in La Salle county, this state. Here he be- came converted, and was baptized into the fellowship of the Baptist church of Harding. In 1854 he removed to Amboy, and formed a partnership with A. H. Wooster, and was numbered with the earliest business men of the place. He at once took rank as an upright, high- minded and public-spirited citizen, and when the town was incorporated he became president of the first board of trustees. . Mrs. Wilcox, who" had been a communicant in the Baptist church since she was fourteen years of age, united with her husband and assisted with much zeal in the organization of the Baptist church of Amboy, and were enrolled among its constituent members. Mr. Wilcox was elected deacon, and he adorned this responsible office to the close of his life. He was always a liberal contributor to the support of the gospel ; a man of quiet manners, meek though social disposition, and his home was the abode of peace and hospitality, and a pleasant retreat for his christian brethren. He died November 2, 1878, greatly respected, and was buried in Prairie Repose cemetery. The Rev. Thomas Powell, of Ot- tawa, a close personal friend, preached his funeral discourse from Thes- salonians iv, 13, 14. Mrs. Wilcox was an exemplary christian lady, honored and beloved by an extended circle of friends. She went to rest on March 19, 1878, aged sixty-one years. The Rev. Powell preached her sermon from Job xiv, 14.
JOHN GUNNING, painter, Amboy, was born in New Jersey in 1833.
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His father died before his recollection, and he found his way to Massa- chusetts, where he worked in a cotton factory, and when older on shoes. In the spring of 1853 he came west, and got employment from the Central Railroad Company as a painter, and has been in their service all the time since except one year, when he was in the Orient House with his father-in-law. In 1860 he began and has since continued to work in the Company's shops in Amboy. On May 15, 1854, he was married in Chicago to Miss Amanda Skinner, daughter of John L. Skinner, who was born September 1, 1835, at North Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Mr. Skinner arrived here in the autumn of 1852, be- ing employed at the time on the railroad. He was one of the first men to make a beginning in the new town, and bought two lots-the first sold-on the corner of Main street and East avenue, where he erected the Orient House, the only hotel, except the Passenger House, ever built in the city. At the outbreak of the war he opened the first enrolling office in Amboy. He was one of the foremost men for sev- eral years, and died of paralysis May 9, 1875, at the age of sixty-six years. Mr. and Mrs. Gunning have been the parents of four children : Louisa A., Elrena L. (deceased), Carrie E. and George M. Mrs. Gun- ning belongs to the Episcopal church, and Mr. Gunning is a vestry- man. He has been alderman five years, and is a democrat.
WILLIAM HENRY MCGRAW, locomotive engineer, Amboy, settled in this city in the fall of 1856, and has been in the employ of the Central Railroad Company continuously since. He began by firing two years, then worked in the shop and switched in the yard until July 5, 1859, when he took an engine and ran a freight train five years; from that time till now he has had a passenger. Mr. McGraw was married to Miss Jane Mooney, February 15, 1863. Mrs. McGraw was born in the county of Wexford, Ireland, October 28, 1842, and emigrated to this country in 1859. The first year she lived in McLean county, Illinois, and then came to Amboy. Mr. McGraw was born in Schoharie county, New York, of John W. and Jane (Chilson) McGraw, April 19, 1831. He served an apprenticeship to the miller's trade, but did not work at it afterward. In 1850 he came west to view the country, and the next spring returned to Albany and worked till fall on the Hudson river, when he came again to Illinois and commenced as brakeman on the Chicago and Galena Union railroad, the first built west from Chicago. His run was from that city to Rockford, to which the road had only been extended. In June, 1852, he changed to the Illinois & Michigan canal and remained until some time the following year as captain of a boat. From this time to the autumn of 1856, when he came to Amboy, he was a mate on an Illinois river steamer.
IRA S. SMITH, butcher, Amboy, was the eighth child and third son
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of Clement and Lucy (Farnham) Smith, and was born in Grafton county, New Hampshire, in 1829. He had four brothers and six sisters, all born, like himself, at Enfield. His parents were natives of the same state. Clement Smith was born at Bridgewater, March 23, 1794, and Lucy Farnham at Enfield, April 20, the same year. The parents of the latter were Jonathan Farnham and Hannah Choate, who were born respectively at Newburyport in 1758, and in East Enfield about the same time. The celebrated advocate, Rufus Choate, belonged to this family. Mr. Smith's grandparents on both sides lived to be over ninety years old. His father emigrated from near Portsmouth, when a young man, to Enfield. The country in northern New Hampshire was at this time very wild. He served on the northern frontier in the war of 1812. Our subject at the age of eighteen left home for Boston, where he was clerk in a store four years. In 1851 he made a trip to California, remaining only one year, and then returning to Boston. In November, 1852, he came to Springfield, Illinois, and on April 19, 1853, was married to Miss Lizzie Pearl. She was born February 8, 1831, and was the youngest child in a family of four sons and three daughters, all born at Porter, Oxford county, Maine. Mrs. Smith's parents were Benjamin and Susan (Otis) Pearl. The former was born at Porter, and served in the war of 1812, and the latter was born at Gilmanton, New Hampshire, March 1, 1793. When Mr. Smith settled in Springfield he began railroading on the Great Western. On December 21, 1854, the engine " New England," which he was firing, exploded, killing the engineer and throwing him 200 feet, breaking his shoulder and several ribs, and scalding and dangerously injuring him. He was several months recovering, and it was two years before he regained the full use of his body. In 1857 he removed to Lee county, Iowa, and bought land and farmed. When the county adopted township organization he was the first supervisor in his township of Lee, which had formerly, as a precinct, been called Badger. In 1863 he moved to Bureau county, Illinois, and the next year to Amboy. Here he worked ten years for the Central company on engine repairs, and in 1874 started in the butchering business. He has been collector, alderman and school director, and is a Mason and republican. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have two sons, Winslow and Edgar O., born respect- ively August 31, 1855, and August 31, 1861.
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