History of Lee County, together with biographical matter, statistics, etc., Part 39

Author: Hill, H.H. (Chicago) pbl
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, H.H. Hill
Number of Pages: 910

USA > Illinois > Lee County > History of Lee County, together with biographical matter, statistics, etc. > Part 39

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FRANK J. MERROW, marble dealer, Amboy, son of Asa J. and Mary C. (Norton) Merrow, was born in Bangor, Maine, in 1852. His

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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.

ancestors were early settlers in the colonies. His great-grandfather, Isaac Norton, was a merchant by occupation and a native of Vingard, Maine. He moved from there to Industry, and at a later period to Starks, in the same state, where his life closed after over twenty years of painful suffering from cancer in the face. He had one brother, Benjamin. Mr. Merrow's grandfathers, William Norton and Stephen Merrow, were revolutionary soldiers; the former was a captain, and was wounded in action; the latter a farmer by occupation, and lived at Chapliain, New Hampshire, where his son Asa J., father of our subject, was born ; after several years he removed to Dover, in the same state, and died there. Mr. Merrow began his trade of working in marble when seventeen years old, and served an apprenticeship of three years in Oldtown, Maine. Early in 1869 his parents came west, settled in Amboy two years, and then moved to Clear Lake, Minnesota, where his father died June 26, 1880, aged seventy-one years and nine months. In January, 1870, he arrived in Amboy, where he resided a short time, and then located at Ashton in the marble business. In the fall of 1877 he removed to this city, where he deals in headstones and monuments, and executes a fine class of work.

JOHN H. LONG, farmer, Amboy, son of Michael and Margaret (Long) Long, was born in Canada in 1829. His maternal grandfather, Joseph Long, was a soldier of the revolution. His grandfather on his father's side moved to Canada after the war, and there Mr. Long's father was born. In 1848 he immigrated with his parents to Sublette township, where his father entered land. Mr. Long worked during that year for Col. Dement, who was at the time receiver of the land office, and in 1850 he began farming on his own account. About that time he hauled potatoes to Chicago and peddled them out by the peck and half bushel at twenty-five cents per bushel. In 1850 he married Miss Sarah Jane Fessenden, daughter of William and Sally (Spafford) Fessenden, who were early settlers in Sublette township, having arrived there from New England in 1837. Mrs. Long was born on Mount St. Pisgah or St. Helen, New Hamp- shire, in 1830. When the Central railroad was building Mr. Long worked with his teams at grading for $1.50 per day at first, and after- ward for the reduced sum of $1.37}. He hauled the most of the ma- terial for the railroad buildings at Amboy ; the door and window caps and sills from Mendota, and the brick from Brady's brick-yard in Pal- estine Grove, four miles from the town, where Dutcher & Wyman carried on the manufacture. Mr. Long owns 300 acres of .land, 200 of which his father-in-law entered, and on which the old settler's house, built from lumber hauled from Chicago, is still standing. Mr. Long's farm is worth $15,000. He is a republican, and belongs to the American

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Legion of Honor. Both he and his wife are members of the Baptist church. They have had nine children : Ellen J., now Mrs. Walter Scott ; Sarah M., now Mrs. Geo. W. Scott; Charles F., who married Miss Stella Wooster; Amanda E., wife of Frank M. Lamoile; John H. (dead), Samuel A., Dora E., Nettie M. and Emerson H.

BENJAMIN SMITH, freight conductor, Amboy, youngest son of Urial and Ruth Harriet (Ring) Smith, was born in New Gloucester, Cum- berland county, Maine, December 8, 1834. He was reared a farmer, and in 1847 went to Boston. After eighteen months he returned and lived in his native state until 1856, when he again went to Boston and worked a year for an ice company. Two years' residence in Maine succeeded, and in 1859 he removed west and settled with his family in Amboy. He had been married on June 22, 1855, to Miss Rebecca R. Farr, of Poland, in Mr. Smith's native county. She was the daughter of William and Anna (Ridlon) Farr, and was born October 6, 1833. From December 1859 until 1863 Mr. Smith was a brakeman on the Central, but at the last date he was advanced to conductor. In 1868 he removed to Livingston county, this state, where he had purchased a farm in Sullivan township, and gave his hand for a few years to the plow. But he could not subdue the enchantment of railroading, and so returned to the old employment, leaving his family to live upon the farm. In 1875 they removed to Chatsworth and lived a year, and the next spring came to Amboy, where they have since resided. Mrs. Smith belongs to the United Brethren church, and Mr. Smith is a re- publican, and a member of the American Legion of Honor. They have two daughters, Mary Ella, born in Maine, June 12, 1859 ; and Harriet, born July 27, 1861. Both graduated at the Amboy High School in the class of 1879.

GEORGE F. MORGAN, railroad conductor, Amboy, was born in Car- bondale, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, September 24, 1843, and was the youngest child of William J. and Barbara (Lewis) Morgan. His parents came from Wales when young. In 1858 Mr. Morgan left his home and reached Dubuque, and two years later went to braking on the Central. In the fall of 1864 he enlisted for one year as a recruit in Co. A, 11th Ill. Inf., and joined it at Memphis. When it was mustered out he was transferred to Co. H, 46th Ill. Inf., and was with this at Baton Rouge, Shreveport and New Orleans, and was mustered out at the latter place in October 1865. During most of the time he was on detached service at division headquarters, as clerk. After this he fol- lowed railroading on the Central, and selling groceries in Amboy, and in 1869 became a conductor. In 1868 he was married to Miss Joanna Badger, daughter of Simon Badger, by whom he has three children : Mabel R., born March 10, 1869; Simon C., September 11, 1872, and

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Maud E., January 9, 1873. Both parents are members of the Meth- odist church. Mr. Morgan is a republican, and belongs to Illinois Cen- tral Lodge No. 178, A.F. and A.M .; Nachusa Chapter No. 52, Dixon ; and Dixon Commandery No. 21.

ALBERT E. MERWINE, freight and ticket agent on the Rock Falls branch of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad, Amboy, is the son of Harris D. and Thurza (Morris) Merwine, and a native of Paw Paw in this county, where he was born in 1853. His parents emigrated from Pennsylvania about 1845. Mr. Merwine worked at farming and tending store for some years, and in 1872 accepted the position of sta- tion agent at Hinsdale, on the main line of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad. In 1873 he was transferred to Amboy. His marriage with Miss Irene M. Cole, of this city, was in September 1875. Carrie is their only child. Mr. Merwine is a republican, an Odd-Fellow, and a workman. His grandfather, Isaac Morris, was a drummer boy of 1812, and draws a pension.

RUSSELL W. ROSIER, deceased, youngest son of Sylvester and Electa C. (Reppley) Rosier, was born in Bennington, Vermont, December 17, 1829. His parents settled in Fond du Lac county, Wisconsin, about 1845, and two or three years afterward he went to work as a brake- man, and followed railroading the rest of his life. He was brakeman two years, fireman two more, and then was given an engine, and re- mained at that post until his death. On April 2, 1857, he was united in marriage with Miss Louisa Hinchcliff, daughter of Titus and Amelia (Davis) Hinchcliff, of De Soto, Jackson county, Illinois. She was born January 17, 1840. In October Mr. Rosier settled in Amboy. In 1859 he went to Tennessee and was engineer on the Nashville & Chatta- nooga railroad ; in a few months he was followed by Mrs. Rosier, and they established their home at Cowan Station, at the foot of the Cum- berland mountains, on the west side. They remained there until the cloud of civil war obliged them to take refuge in the north, and then returned to this city. Mr. Rosier reentered the service of the Central company, and never more tried a change. His death came February 7, 1881. His affiliations were with the Masons and the Engineers' Broth- erhood, and he was chief of division No. 72 of the last organization at the date of his death. Himself and his wife were members of the Methodist church, and he had filled the offices of steward and trustee. In politics he was a republican. Their only child was an adopted daughter, Emma May. Mr. Rosier was an industrious, reliable man, of few words but decisive action. He had strong domestic habits and attachments, and was known and respected for his christian kindness and benevolent disposition. His remains were interred in Prairie Re- pose cemetery.

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AMBOY TOWNSHIP.

MICHAEL EGAN, bnilder, Amboy, was born in Kilrush, county of Clare, Ireland, September 26, 1821. He received a fair education. His father, John Egan, was a mason, and from him he learned the same trade, beginning when fifteen years old, and serving an appren- ticeship of seven years. He was employed largely on government works. In the spring of 1846 he arrived in New York city and went to work for Matthias and Freeman Bloodgood, contractors, on a bonded warehouse. At the end of twenty months he removed to Springfield, Massachusetts, and worked at his trade seven years for Capt. Charles McClellan. In the last place he became a naturalized citizen. In the winter of 1852-3 he was employed by J. B. Wyman to come west to work on the Illinois Central. He arrived in February, and commenced on bridges and culverts south of La Salle, and in June following came to Amboy and began the erection of the railroad buildings, whose con- struction he superintended until the last was finished. From that time till the present he has been in the employ of this company, except during the four years between 1876 and 1880. He is now their in- spector and purchasing and disbursing agent for cord-wood and eross- ties. Mr. Egan has been alderman several terms and mayor twice, director of the public schools and secretary of the board of education, and a foremost actor in the public business of the community. His family are Catholics, and the first services of this church, in Amboy, were in his house. His first marriage was in 1844, with Miss Ellen Morrissy, daughter of John and Bridget Morrissy. Her death was on January 27, 1869, when about forty-five years of age. She was the mother of eleven children, as follows: Bridget (dead), Susan (dead), John, Ellen (dead), Peter, Michael Francis, Alfred, Joseph, Mary, Benjamin and Teressa (dead). He was married a second time in 1872, to Mrs. Helen (Stewart), widow of James Barrie. Her children were Lizzie, Robert, and Jemima. By the last marriage there are two living children, Ellen and William A. S.

BRYANT B. HOWARD, general foreman of the Illinois Central rail- road shops at Amboy, was born in Chicago September 13, 1836, and was the third child of Leonard and Caroline Esther (Smith) Howard. His father was a contractor, and came to Chicago from Buffalo, New York, in 1836, and built the first brick building ever erected in that city. In 1853 Mr. Howard went to learn the machinist's trade, and soon after completing it came to Amboy, arriving August 3, 1856. He was at once employed in the Central shops, and in 1858 he took charge of the Roundhouse as foreman; in 1866 he was promoted to general foreman of all the shops, and has since filled that position. He was married January 3, 1860, to Miss Mary Kaley, who was born in 1838, in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, to which place her parents had

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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.

emigrated from Switzerland about 1836. Four children have been born to them, viz : George, Josephine, Fannie and Maud. Mr. Howard has been alderman one term ; he is a member of Illinois Central Lodge No. 178, A.F. and A.M., Friendship Council No. 567, A.L.H., Re- form division No. 555, Sons of Temperance, and is a prohibitionist in politics.

EDWARD S. REYNOLDS, carpenter and joiner. Amboy, son of Hat- field and Lydia (Salsbery) Reynolds, is a native of Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, and was born there August 18, 1827. He was reared on a farm, but learned his trade before he became of age. In Septem- ber, 1853, he was married to Miss Mary E. Dean, and the next De- cember removed to Illinois and located for the time being at Bing- hamton. Mr. Reynolds erected one of the two first houses in Amboy, and in August, 1854, occupied it with his family, and claims to have been the first to move into the place after it was laid out, though this point is disputed by Dr. Bainter, who makes the same claim for him- self. He was one of the first board of aldermen after Amboy became a city, and was a charter member of Illinois Central Lodge No. 178, A.F. and A.M. His first wife died in 1867, and in 1871 he took Miss Mary A. Fairman in marriage. He has two sons by his first wife, Edgar W. and Charles L., and by the second, William G. Mrs. Rey- nolds is a communicant in the Methodist Episcopal church, and Mr. Reynolds, who was formerly a whig, is now a republican.

HENRY CHAPIN, farmer, Amboy, was born in New York in 1824. He was the fifth child of Aretus and Anna (Rice) Chapin, who emi- grated from Vermont to New York. He was reared a blacksmith, went to his trade at fifteen, and worked at it forty years. In the spring of 1845 he came by the lakes to Illinois, and settled in Oswego, Ken- dall county. Here he was married on the 1st of May 1850, to Miss Adelia L. Butler, sister to C. M. Butler and Mrs. C. W. Bell, of Am- boy. She came from Michigan to Illinois in 1844. In 1852 he settled in Lockport, Will county, and in the fall of 1855 in Amboy. He erected the first blacksmith shop on the east side of the railroad, and the second in the town, and in the course of time combined with cus- tom work the manufacture of wagons and carriages. After forty years of intensely earnest, driving work at the forge, he called forth the fare- well echoes of his anvil in September 1879. He owns three farms ag- gregating 400 acres, and valued at $13,000. These tell the story of his toil. Both Mr. and Mrs. Chapin are members of the Methodist church, and the former was one of the building committee who had the erec- tion of the new edifice in charge. In politics he is a republican. Their children are Frank H., Addie G. and Ella May.

FLAVIL F. NORTHWAY, farmer and stock raiser, Amboy, is a native

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of Steuben county, New York, where he was born May 4, 1844. His parents, Francis H. and Minerva (Stewart) Northway, removed west in the autumn of 1844, and settled on the S.E. ¿ Sec. 3, T. 20, R. 10, two miles north of Amboy. He enlisted in October, 1864, in Co. C, 7th Ill. Cav., Col. Graham. He served his time in Tennessee, Mis- sissippi and Alabama, scouting and doing guard and garrison duty, and was mustered out in October, 1865, at Huntsville, Alabama. He was married in 1873, to Miss Olive S. Tracy. Two children have been born to them : Daisy M. (dead), and Guy. Mr. Northway owns the old homestead on which he was reared, which is valued at $8,000. This was swept by the great tornado of 1860. The buildings were blown to atoms. The family, seven in number, escaped with their lives, but were more or less injured. This storm killed one-seventh of all who were in its track. Mr. Northway is a democrat.

There are two TRUDE families in this country, one of French and the other of English extraction. The former is the one to which we refer in the present sketch. John Trude, the founder of the name in America, was impressed into the French navy at the age of eleven and was held until he had performed eleven years' service. On his return home he could learn nothing of his family, and as the Marquis Lafay- ette was preparing to depart for America, he joined him as an adven- turer, enlisting in the cause of the colonies. After his arrival upon our shores he fought at Brandywine and other places, and at the close of the war settled at Horseneck, Rhode Island, where he married an American woman named Baker. Here they had a son, William B., born June 21, 1790. He married Betsy Eldridge, who was born the same year in Washington county, New York, and whose father bore arms at Crown Point, Bennington, Stony Point, and Saratoga. This couple are buried at St. Charles, Kane county. Mr. Trude was aged seventy- seven at his death, and his companion sixty-three. William E. Trude, their son, is a locomotive engineer, and resides at Amboy. He was born December 29, 1831, in Lisbon, St. Lawrence county, New York, and reared on his father's farm. In 1852 he came west, and in March, 1855, settled in this place in the employ of the Central company. On July 6, 1858, he was married to Miss Candace Rolf, of his native town, who was born December 25, 1835. Her mother died June 9, 1839, at abont thirty-five years of age, and her father in 1879, aged eighty-six. Two sons have blessed their union : Fred W., born July 19, 1859, who graduated at the Amboy High School in the class of 1877, and married March 24, 1881, to Miss Josephine McCormack; and Frank, born April 3, 1868. Mrs. Trude is a member of the Methodist church. Mr. Trude is a Mason, a workman, and a member of the Engineers' Brotherhood.

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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.

HERBERT A. MILLARD, painter, Amboy, is the son of Ira and Lo- rinda (Cargill) Millard, who moved to this place from La Salle county, Illinois, in January 1856. His father was born September 5, 1817, and his mother in Windham, Greene county, New York, September 3, 1829. The maternal grandfather of the latter was Amos Parker, a revolutionary soldier, who served seven years, and had the distin- guished honor of saving the life of Gen. Lafayette at Yorktown. The latter, in giving orders for an assault, had directed that not a gun should be fired, but this soldier discovered a British sharpshooter drawing aim on Lafayette, and he hastened to bring him down in spite of orders. When the general visited this country in 1824 he sent to Mr. Parker, who was living in Augusta, Oneida county, New York, to meet him at Utica, in the same county, and he did so. During the revolution Mr. Parker lived at Wallingford, Connecticut, but in 1793 moved to New York, and here Mrs. Millard's mother, Elizabeth Parker, was born on August 9 of that year. She was three times married : first to Abram Cargill, next to Riverius Wilcox, and last to Calvin Chipman, a vet- eran of the war of 1812. In 1838 she removed with her second husband to La Salle county. She died in Amboy April 14, 1881, in her eighty- eighth year. Mr. and Mrs. Millard were married in 1849. After their settlement here the former was some time engaged in trade in a feed and flour store. They had the following children : Ida E., born Sep- tember 10, 1850, married April 13, 1870, to Wm. C. Miner, of Mus- kegon, Michigan ; Noble J. B., born September 17, 1852 ; Herbert A., born January 23, 1859, married Miss Jennie Spencer July 25, 1880 ; Clarence A., born August 20, 1863; Ira Adelbert, born March 18, 1868, and an infant born and died March 17, 1856. Besides these ehil- dren of their own they reared Stephen Z. Hartley, a nephew of Mr. Millard, from the age of four till he was eighteen years old. He learned the shoemaker's trade, and the printer's trade in the Amboy " Journal" office, and was a promising young man. In November, 1862, he enlisted in the 17th U. S. Inf., and in the following March was sent to Fort Preble, Portland, Maine, where he died on the 17th of the next April from small-pox.

ALEXANDER H. WOOSTER, farmer, Amboy, born in Owego, Tioga county, New York, April 6, 1829, was the son of Calvin and Hannah (Matson) Wooster. His ancestors were early settlers in Connecticut. Mr. Wooster was graduated at the high school at Cleveland, Ohio, about 1846, and bred to mercantile life. On December 9, 1851, he was united in marriage with Miss Ruth Harding, of Freedom, La Salle county, Illinois, and by her has had four children : Charles H., Stella A., wife of Charles F. Long; Anna, now Mrs. D. C. Badger, and Wm. L. In the spring of 1855 Mr. Wooster came to Amboy, and on his ar-

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AMBOY TOWNSHIP.

rival set up in a general merchandise business with A. E. Wilcox, and continued it subsequently with his brother David G. Wooster and others. After a few years he moved to a farm adjacent to the city lim- its on the northwest, where he now resides ; this comprises 204 acres. Mr. Wooster is a member of Illinois Central Lodge, No 178, A.F. and A.M., and has occupied the master's chair in that lodge nine terms. He was first installed in December 1869, and served five years in suc- cession, and after an interim of two years came to that position again four years more. Both himself and wife are members of the Baptist church of Amboy.

ASA B. SEARLES, farmer, Amboy, born at Cincinnatus (now Pitcher), Chenango county, New York, January 27, 1810, was the next to the last in a family of six children by Elihu and Ruth Ann (Hawley) Searles. The children were named Harry, Abram, Lemuel, Asa, David and Pamelia. The mother had three children, Polly, Phebe, and Fanny, by a former marriage. Three of Mr. Searles' uncles, Gideon, Abram, and Isaac Hawley, were soldiers of the revolution ; and Lemuel Hawley was a sea captain in the service of Stephen Girard, and died of yellow fever at Philadelphia. His father was in the military service in the last war with Great Britain, and died at Sackett's Harbor; and William Morgan, of anti-Masonic celebrity, brought young Searles the first tidings of his father's death. At the age of twelve he was bound to Edmund Meigs, of Tinkertown (now Hobart), to learn the cabinet trade, but being the youngest apprentice in the shop was made to do all the drudgery, and was so ill-treated that after staying a year and a half he ran away, and at length found a home with his brother Harry, at Marathon, and lived with him until he was sixteen, getting in the meantime but half a term's schooling. Going now to South Bain- bridge, he lived there four or five years, and attended school where his brother Lemuel taught. Joe Smith, the coming prophet, was a fellow- pupil, with whom, uncle Asa says, he had many a wrestle; but young Smith was a large, strong fellow and could handle any of the boys. He was lazy, but kind-hearted, had a large brain and a good deal of ability. The whole family of Smiths, including the mother, were bony, stout-built persons, and in a little while they had all settled in that neighborhood. At nineteen Mr. Searles began teaching school and piloting on the Susquehanna river. This last business he followed six years ; he contracted heavy jobs of rafting and floating logs and lum- ber; employed as many as 200 men; and cleared $3,000 in spite of. some large losses. On September 19, 1832, he was married to Patience Stockwell, of Bainbridge. He left that place August 19, 1837, with a two-horse team, accompanied by thirteen persons, and arrived at Pales- tine Grove October 11, and entered the land and settled where he 24

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lives. Altogether Mr. Searles entered sixteen "eighties," and bought, besides, 200 acres in May township. At this time the land office was at Galena, and Col. Dement the receiver. The land about Palestine Grove did not come into market until the fall of 1844, but in the vicin- ity of Dixon it was placed on sale a few years earlier, on petition of Father Dixon. Mr. Searles took no little personal interest in the set- tling up of the country, and entertained land-hunters in large numbers, and drove about the wild prairies with them days upon days in the un- wearying labor of showing claims. In 1848 he laid out the village of Binghamton. He erected a hotel bearing the name of the place; and a store in which he traded nearly two years. We have not the space to recount the numerous activities with which his name has been asso- ciated, but in short he has been a live man, from whose gettings many have profited more than he, a result which may be charged with equal justice to his generosity and his convivial habits. He was appointed postmaster about 1840, by Amos Kendall, and kept the office at his house ; again he was commissioned under Polk, and the office was kept in his store at Binghamton. He resigned, and Warren Badger suc- ceeded only a short time before the removal to Amboy. Mrs. Searles died December 19, 1846; and in 1852 Mr. Searles married Miss Am- anda Headlee, by whom he has five sons: Lemuel B., Frederick D., John Henry, Frank Leslie, and Levi Headlee. Lemuel went with Gen. Custer to Dakota in the 7th United States cavalry, and served sixteen months. Mr. Searles has been coroner; and he assessed Amboy the first time that service was ever performed.

MRS. CAROLINE A. BARTLETT, widow of William C. Bartlett, Am- boy, was the daughter of Hosea and Clementine Vinton, of North Woodstock, Connecticut, where her English and Scotch ancestors set- tled in the earliest days of the colony, when the people of the neigh- borhood had to work in gangs of twenty or thirty to be prepared to resist the Indians, and at night went four miles together to the fort on Muddy Brook. In 1847 Mrs. Bartlett was united in marriage with Dan- ford Bartlett, who was killed at Hartford, Connecticut, October 6, 1852. He was assisting to load a boiler on a car, when it accidentally rolled over him, crushing him to death. On October 18, 1854, she celebrated her second marriage, with William C. Bartlett, who was a native of Edinburgh, New York, where he was born November 23, 1824. His father died when he was a lad, and at the age of thirteen his mother started with her family for Racine, Wisconsin, but died on the way. Orphaned at this early age, he now lived with his brother James and with his sister, working on a farm until he was eighteen, when he apprenticed himself to the carpenter's trade, and followed this the rest of his life. He came to Amboy in the fall of 1853. Immediately on

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History of Lee County, together with biographical matter, statistics, etc., Part 39

Author: Hill, H.H. (Chicago) pbl Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, H.H. Hill Number of Pages: 910

Author: Hill, H.H. (Chicago) pbl
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, H.H. Hill
Number of Pages: 910