USA > Illinois > Lee County > History of Lee County, together with biographical matter, statistics, etc. > Part 41
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JACOB LUCE, farmer, Amboy, was the youngest of the three sons
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.
of Israel Luce. He was born in Florida, Montgomery county, New York, September 18, 1805, and was reared a farmer, which occupation he has followed all his life. His great-grandparents emigrated from Holland, and his grandparents from New Jersey to New York. Israel Luce was a soldier in the war of 1812; he was wounded, lost his health, and died in consequence of his service in the army, and his sons were bound out. The subject of this notice was married Jannary 9, 1828, to Miss Sarah Covenhoven, who was born November 12, 1805. She was the mother of four children : James C., John H., Emma L. and Josephine. The latter married John Y. Henry, and is now dead. In 1845 Deacon Luce settled at Crete, in Will county, Illinois, and in 1855 moved to Amboy township, and bought a farm opposite where he now lives. He was bereft of his wife February 16, 1857, and on January 23, 1859, he celebrated his marriage with Mrs. Celia Maria Forbes, daughter of Jacob Gilde. Her first union was productive of two sons, John C. and Arthur S. Their father was David C. Forbes.
· The elder of these enlisted in 1861 in Co. D, 34th Ill. reg. ; he served through the entire war, fought in several hard-contested engagements, and was finally killed at the battle of Bentonville, North Carolina, as the last echoes of the war were sounding. Arthur volunteered in either the 51st or the 53d Ill. Inf., when but sixteen years old, and after a brief service died, as was supposed, while on his way to the hospital at St. Louis. Deacon Luce and his first wife united with the Baptist church in 1832, and he has held the office of deacon forty-five years. He assisted with liberality to erect the First Baptist church of Amboy, and he has been for many years a man of recognized influence, not only in the worshiping society to which he belongs, but also in the community at large. He was assessor in Will county, and since he came here was for a long time overseer of the poor. In politics he is a republican.
JASON CHAMBERLAIN, deceased, was the youngest son of Joshua and Nancy Chamberlain, and was born in the town of Petersham, Worcester county, Massachusetts, September 6, 1811. When he was eleven years old his father moved his family to Steuben county, New York, and being wealthy, bought a tract of several hundred acres of land. Mr. Chamberlain celebrated his first marriage with Miss Mary Ann Goodrich, about 1836. She became the mother of six children : George W., Cyrus (died in infancy), Sylvester, Mary O., Lucy G. and Harry R. (died in infancy). Her death occurred in May 1846, and Mr. Chamberlain married Sally, relict of Freeman Whited, September 12, 1847. She was born at Penn Yan, Yates county, New York, December 23, 1818. Her parents were David J. and Dorothea (Morse) Bennett, and in her father's family were but three children,
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two brothers and herself. By her first husband Mrs. Chamberlain had three children : David J., Lester B. and William M. David enlisted in the 13th Ill. Vols. at the outbreak of the war and was in the service until October 6, 1861, when he died in hospital at St. Louis. In 1856, when seventeen years old, Lester died of fever in New York. Corne- lia A. and Elvira F. were the children of the second marriage. The first is the wife of Henry Putnam, of Taylor county, Iowa, and the second is Mrs. C. C. Morgan, of Sterling. In 1856 Mr. Chamberlain moved to Illinois and settled in Whitesides county, where he bought a farm of 160 acres, to which, in time, he made additions. In 1867, owing to the death of his brother-in-law, Deacon Cyrus Bryant, who had left an aged and lonely widow, and to his own failing health, Mr. Chamberlain came to Amboy to reside. After his settlement here, under the ministry of the Rev. M. T. Lamb, he was brought to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and was baptized into the fellowship of the Amboy Baptist church. After his conversion Mr. Chamberlain lived a prayerful life, and by his deep, earnest solicitude for the interest of the church and the extension of Christ's kingdom, he gave precious evi- dence of the witnessing of the spirit and of God's grace in his heart. So, in the practice of the lowly virtues of hospitality, a genial and sunny temper, tender sympathy and warm affection, held to the true course by depth of principle and firmness of conviction, he grew in strength and power, and proportion to the excellent stature of christian nobility. When the hour of dissolution came he remarked to his pastor that "it was all settled; to go or to stay would be all right; God's will be done;" and in great peace he fell asleep in Jesus. Death came to him on December 21, 1880, at the age of sixty-nine, when he had "Grown ripe in years and old in piety." Deacon Bryant, another soldier of the cross, whose godly life and veteran service had stamped upon his brow the seal of divine peace and usefulness, was one of the organizers of the Amboy Baptist church, and a deacon of more than forty years' standing. He was a very liberal supporter of the gospel at all times. At Monteray, Schuyler county, New York, he nearly built a Baptist church, and on his death he gave by will $100 to the Baptist Publication Society of Chicago; $100 to the Home Mission Society ; $100 to the Foreign Missions; and $100 to the Bible Union Society. Mr. Bryant and Mr. Chamberlain were life members of the Bible Union. Mrs. Bryant still lives, in her eighty-third year, in a most pitiable and helpless physical condition by reason of fracture of the hip joint.
CURTIS F. BRIDGMAN, farmer, Amboy, was born in Bainbridge, Alleghany county, New York, in 1836. He had the following broth- ers and sisters : Lewis, Sally, Emily, Edgar, Otis, and Emily. The latter died in 1868; Otis in 1864. The parents were Reuben and
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.
Cynthia (Dort) Bridgman. In 1840 this family settled in Amboy township, and during the first three years of their residence lived on a claim which is now part of the farm belonging to the Shaw heirs. They then took up their home where Mr. Bridgman is living. He has eighty acres, worth $3,500. The father died in 1866, and the mother in 1871. Mr. Bridgman was married November 7, 1866, to Miss Rebecca Blocher, daughter of John M. Blocher. She was born May 28, 1849. Their two sons John and Adna, were born respect- ively on November 29, 1869, and January 11, 1871. Both parents belong to the Episcopal church of Amboy. Mr. Bridgman is a repub- lican.
SETH W. HOLMES, farmer, Amboy, eldest son of James W. and Elizabeth (Curtis) Holmes, was born in Charleston, Montgomery county, New York, July 17, 1805. He was reared a farmer, and was married to Miss Mary Hill January 21, 1830. In 1846 he removed to this township and entered and settled on his present homestead, the E. ¿ of S. W. ¿ Sec. 9. Mr. Holmes is a republican, and a member of the Free Will church at Inlet Grove. Mrs. Holmes was a communicant in the same denomination while in the east, and brought her letter west, but by reason of bodily afflictions and infirmities has not united with any society here. They have reared seven children, as follows : Mary Jane, wife of Cyrus Bridgman ; Dimmis H., Isaac A., James W., Warren H. (dead), Alimira, deceased wife of Lee Cronkrite, and Jacob C. James volunteered September 26, 1861, in Co. I, 46th Ill. reg., and fought at Fort Donelson and Shiloh ; was in the siege of Corinth, battle of Hatchie, and siege of Vicksburg, where he was wounded in the foot and taken prisoner May 25, 1863, and paroled June 1. He was discharged on account of his wound December 29, 1863, at Jefferson barracks, St. Louis. His marriage with Miss Elizabeth Banker was on July 8, 1874. In politics he is a republican.
GEORGE D. BAIRD, farmer, Amboy, youngest son of James and Louisa (Chamberlain) Baird, was born June 24, 1844. In 1858 Mr. Baird came west with his parents and settled one mile north of Amboy ; in 1874 he sold the little farm which he owned there and moved to his present home, three miles north of the city, where he has 120 acres valued at $6,000. This farm was in the track of the great tornado of 1860. The one occupied by Mr. Baird at that time was taken in an arm of the hurricane, and was on the out- skirt even of that, but no damage of any consequence was done, and the only evidence of force was the moving of his granary three fect. Mr. Baird was married February 4, 1872, to Miss Jennie Smith, who was born in England March 1, 1853, and emigrated to this country in 1856. Their little boy, Henry, was born February 12, 1881. Mr. and
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Mrs. Baird are members of the Baptist church, and he is a republican. His parents died in this township at the following dates: his father, April 27, 1865; and his mother, March 24, 1877.
NATHANIEL BURNHAM, farmer, Amboy, was born in Greenfield, New Hampshire, April 16, 1836. His parents were Nathaniel and Mary (Wilder) Burnham. He was on his father's farm till he was fourteen ; the next three years he worked in a cotton factory, except an annual term of three months that he attended school. In February 1854 his father moved with his family to Lee county, and settled in Amboy township, where he died September 19, 1871. His mother died May 14 of the previous year. Mr. Burnham has made farming his principal business, though at different times he has turned his atten- tion to other affairs. He owns 310 acres of choice land three miles north of Amboy, worth $15,500. He bought 120 acres of this from C. C. Cochran in 1852, and the remainder since. He was married June 6, 1872, to Miss Helen A. Deming, daughter of C. W. Deming. Mrs. Burnham was born in Watkins, New York, in 1849. Their two children were born as follows: Clara E., September 18, 1873, and Alice, March 6, 1875. Mr. and Mrs. Burnham are members of the Methodist church, and he is a republican.
OTHNIEL M. CLARK, farmer and dairyman, Lee Center, eldest son and third child of Sherman and Samantha (Bates) Clark, was born in West Hampton, Massachusetts, February 4, 1831. His father was a farmer, but he served from 1848 to 1850 at the drug business, and hav- ing completed his time abandoned it, as it was not suited to his health. In 1852 he made a voyage to California, and in 1856 returned and bought a farm in East Hampton. On April 28, 1858, he was married to Miss Mary Wright, daughter of Martin Wright, of West Hampton, and who was born August 17, 1833. They have three children : Wil- bur G., Carrie A. and Sarah S. In the autumn of 1860 Mr. Clark came to Lee county, and taught school the following winter ; the next spring his family arrived, and he bought a farm not far from Lee Cen- ter, in China township. In 1872 he traded this for the one he now oc- cupies, on the Chicago road, in this township, one mile west of Lee Center. His homestead is one of the oldest places in the neighborhood, contains 145 acres, was first improved by Deacon Barnes, and is valued at $9,000. Mr. Clark is road commissioner, and treasurer of the board, and school director in the Lee Center district, and clerk also of that board. This is a union district lying in four townships. Its af- fairs are not administered under the general law, but according to the terms of a charter procured from the state years ago. In addition to these public offices he is the executive agent for the Lee Center Butter and Cheese Manufacturing Company, does the buying and selling, and
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.
has charge of all the business. Perhaps the most responsible position of all which he holds is that of president of the Lee Center Sunday- school Association, which is composed of parts of Amboy, China, Bradford, and the whole of Lee Center, and includes the Baptist, Methodist, Episcopal and Congregational denominations. Mrs. Clark has belonged to the Congregational church since she was sixteen years old, and Mr. Clark about eight years. The latter is a Conkling repub- lican.
FRANK H. CHAPIN, farmer, Amboy, son of Henry Chapin, was born in Lockport, Will county, Illinois, July 23, 1854, and grew up in Am- boy from the time he was two years old. He obtained a fair education, and spent two years in Illinois College, at Jacksonville, where he took Bryant & Stratton's business course. He learned his trade and worked in his father's carriage-shop five or six years. In 1876 he laid aside his trade and began farming. Mr. Chapin was married Tuesday, August 5, 1879, to Miss Stella Van Riper, who was born August 13, 1857. Dr. H. F. Walker and his wife, Athelia, were her foster-parents. Mr. Chapin is a republican. He owns 120 acres of land three miles north- east of Amboy, valued at $4,500. In 1860 this was occupied by a Mr. Bixby, and was swept by the terrific hurricane of that year. The house was destroyed, but no persons were killed.
HENRY C. SHAW, deceased, was born in Victor, New York, July 7, 1820. His parents were John and Polly (Fox) Shaw. In 1841 Mr. Shaw left his native state and came to Illinois, and established his home at La Harpe, Hancock county, where he started a trade in gro- ceries. In 1844 he married Miss Jane Waldron, daughter of Joseph and Martha (Perry) Waldron, born in. Albany, New York, October 31, 1822, and came to this state with her parents in 1841. In 1845 he moved to Princeton, Bureau county, and being in poor health boarded himself and wife there one year. In 1846 he came to Binghamton and embarked in the manufacture of plows in company with his brother, Zebediah Shaw, and William and John C. Church. The firm changed once or twice, but Mr. Shaw continued a partner as long as it carried on the business. In 1852 he bought a farm in Amboy township, and from this date was occupied with the cares of farming until his death, which occurred October 7, 1874. He was the father of ten children, as follows: Olive A., born September 14, 1845, widow of Charles Evitts ; William M., September 24, 1847; Willfred, July 14, 1849, married Miss Martha Hammitt, and lives in Peoria; De Forist, De- cember 17, 1851, married Miss Marietta Wasson ; Arthur H., February 12, 1854; Chauncey R., June 21, 1856; Everesto L., May 9, 1858; Charles D., September 9, 1861; Don Carlos, January 25, 1864; and Madeline M., February 3, 1868. These heirs own 160 acres of choice
Respectfully Gomb
1 THE NEW YORK . il.' LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS B L
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AMBOY TOWNSHIP.
farming land just north of the city limits of Amboy, which has a running stream of living water through the body, giving it one of the greatest essentials of a stock farm.
BENJAMIN TREADWELL, baggage-master, Illinois Central railroad, Amboy, second son of Allen and Deborah Treadwell, was born in Pennsylvania, July 31, 1823. His mother died when he was about eight years of age, and as soon as he was old enough to work he began to earn his own living, and thereafter made his way independently in the world. His education comprised such acquirements as could be obtained in the district schools during winter terms. He followed stage-driving fifteen years, and owned a line from Belvidere, Warren county, New Jersey, to Easton, Pennsylvania. In 1854 he sold out, and on November 18 was married to Miss Caroline Aton. Immedi- ately upon this event he emigrated to Polk county, Wisconsin, where he remained only one winter, but long enough, however, to lose his property. In the spring of 1855 he removed to Amboy and engaged the first year in farming; the second year he was butchering; and in 1858 he went on the Central railroad as baggageman, and has held that position to this date. He owns and resides upon the Andrew Bainter farm, consisting of 78 acres two and a half miles southeast of Amboy. Mr. and Mrs. Treadwell are communicants in the Methodist church, and he is a democrat. They have one son, Harmon, given them by his father, and born July 31, 1866.
WASHINGTON I. FISH, plow manufacturer, Amboy, is the son of Henry and Mary (Colony) Fish, and was born in New York in 1833. His father was a prominent man in his own section of the state, a doc- tor by profession, and represented his district in the general assembly, and held various other offices of honor and profit. Our subject received a good English education. In 1851 he began learning dentistry, and was located in its practice at Mecklenburg, Schuyler county, thirteen years. In 1864 he moved to Illinois and settled at Binghamton, where his brother, Erasmus D. Fish, was manufacturing plows. He went to work at once with the latter in the shop. In November, 1865, his brother died and left the property to him by will, and he has since kept the factory in operation. He employs hands, makes scouring plows, and does general repairing. Mr. Fish was married in 1858 to Miss Cornelia A. Ink, of Enfield, New York, who was born in 1834. Three children have blessed their union : Minnie I., William G. and Ira M. Mr. Fish is a democrat in politics.
DUER C. BADGER, stock-raiser, Amboy, son of Chester and Mary A. (Cushman) Badger, was born at Binghamton, in 1854. He received a good English education, and graduated from the Northwestern Business College, at Madison, Wisconsin, in 1875, after eighteen 25
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.
months' study in that institution. He has traveled with profit within the United States, having been in nearly every state and territory, and made two visits to the Pacific coast. Mr. Badger celebrated his marriage with Miss Ann L. Wooster, daughter of A. H. Wooster, March 7, 1878. Mrs. Badger belongs to the Baptist church, and he is a Mason and a democrat. Their homestead, a valuable tract well im- proved, a mile northeast of Amboy, is the N.E. ¿ Sec. 14, T. 20, R. 10, and is estimated to be worth $18,000. Mr. Badger keeps about $6,000 worth of stock.
DAVID PETTICREW, farmer, Amboy, was born in Montgomery county, Ohio, February 22, 1820. He was the eldest son by James and Elizabeth (Haines) Petticrew. Both his grandfathers did veteran service in the war of the revolution, being enrolled during the entire period and engaged in a number of battles. In 1826 Mr. Pettierew's father settled near where Niles, Michigan, now stands, and in 1837 re- moved with his family to Livingston county, Missouri. At a subse- quent period his father made another removal to the vicinity of Fort Scott, Kansas, where he died about the beginning of the war. In 1847 the subject of this sketch returned to Michigan and resided until 1854, when in November he came to Amboy, and bought the farm where he now lives south of the city. "Next spring his family came. He was married, in 1845, to Mrs. Margaret Miller (Roof). By her first mar- riage she had a daughter, Matilda, now Mrs. Henry Somes, of Iowa. By the last union there are seven children : Jasper, Sylvester, married Miss Maggie May ; Frank, married Miss Ida Clark ; Olive, Alice, wife of James Purseley ; Emma, and Ella. Jasper volunteered for three months at the beginning of the war, and served at Camp Douglas ; he afterward reënlisted in Co. I, 89th Ill. reg., and served to the end of the war. He was wounded in the right leg in the battle in front of Atlanta, July 22, 1864. Sylvester enlisted in Co. G, 7th U. S. Cav., Col. Custer, April 8, 1874, and was in the service nearly a year in Da- kota. Frank performed military service in the regular army about the same length of time in 1875 and 1876. Mrs. Petticrew is a member of the Baptist church, and Mr. Pettierew is a prominent republican.
WILLIAM H. DRESSER, farmer, Amboy, oldest son of William and Amy (Heath) Dresser, was born in Genesee county, New York, Novem- ber 7, 1830. The father was a native of Massachusetts, and the mother of Connecticut, and both were taken to new homes in Genesee county when young children. Mr. Dresser has always been a tiller of the soil. In 1852 he went to Minnesota and stayed two years. In 1854 he set- tled in St. Croix county, Wisconsin, and lived there until 1866; at that date he removed to Amboy, and bought his present home of eighty- two acres from Joseph Doan, an early settler of Amboy township. He
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was married in 1861 to Miss Nancy Lewis, daughter of Hiel Lewis ; she died in November 1865, and he was married a second time, to Miss Sallie Eaton, in 1872. They have an adopted son, George, eight years old. Mr. and Mrs. Dresser belong to the Methodist church. He has always been a voter of the republican ticket.
CARL HEGERT, miller, Amboy, eldest son of Carl Hegert, was born in Germany, January 10, 1835. He emigrated to America in 1857, was forty-two days in passage from Hamburg to New York, and arrived at Amboy January 1, 1858. He reached this country poor, his only capital being the miller's trade, and some knowledge of the use of tools, acquired mainly from his father. He could not at first get employment at his trade, so he took the first job of earpentering he could find, and did not lay down his tools for a year and a half. Then he was engaged at farming three years, and in the meantime, March 4, 1861, was married to Miss Hannah Grothe, daughter of John H. Grothe, of Ashton, who settled there from Pennsylvania in 1851. As soon as Mr. Hegert had been able to earn money enough he sent for his brothers, Louis and Theodore; and after they had been in this country five years the three jointly sent funds to bring over the rest of the family-the father, one brother, four sisters and their husbands. These are still all living. Mr. Hegert worked on the Dutcher mill while it was building, and afterward was employed as miller eight months. On June 17, 1862, he entered the employ of the Badger Brothers, as miller, at Binghamton, and continued with them until the second destruction of the mill by fire July 21, 1881. He is a republican, an Odd-Fellow, and a workman, and both he and his wife belong to the Evangelical Lutheran church. They have six children : Harriet Jane, born June 22, 1863; Sarah Ann, February 4, 1865; Carl, February 28, 1867; Freddie, May 31, 1869, died February 10, 1870; Ida, September 4, 1871; Rudolph, January 15, 1874, and Willie, November 26, 1878.
LEE CENTER TOWNSHIP.
This township is described in the original survey as T. 20 N., R. 11 E. of the 4th P.M. The topography is somewhat diversified. The general lay of the land is rolling, there being very little flat land ex- cept along the creek and river bottoms.
Green river rises in Inlet Swamp, in the northeastern part of the township, and winds through it in a sonthwesterly direction. After leaving the swamp it flows for some distance through an open space, and then glides into the shady depths of a forest. For two miles it is hidden from the distant observer among the heavy foliage of oaks,
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.
whose giant forms have stood for centuries like silent sentinels upon its mossy banks, and now leaping again into the sunshine and reflecting from its bosom beautiful pictures of blue sky and fleecy cloud.
The township is dotted over by numerous groves and fine farın houses. The Chicago & Rock River railroad enters at about the cen- ter of Sec. 25, and leaves at the center of Sec. 19.
Inlet Swamp extends over an area of about four square miles, in the northeastern part of the township. With this exception the land is generally good, and for agricultural purposes is inferior to none in the county.
The first settlement in the township was made by Adolphus Bliss, who came in 1834, and entered a claim on W. ¿ of S.W. ¿ Sec. 4, and N. ¿ of N.E. ¿ Sec. 9. The next settler was Corrydon R. Dewey, who came the following spring, and entered a elaim on E. ¿ of N. W. 4 Sec. 9. A little later in the same spring came Cyrenus and Cyreno Saw- yer, who jointly took a claim on N.E. 4 Sec. 1. In the spring of 1836 Louis Clapp settled on N.W. ¿ Sec. 8.
The first school-house in the township was erected in 1838, about eighty rods west of the present residence of Volney Bliss. Otis Tim- othy, of Franklin Grove, was the first schoolmaster to wield the hickory within the walls of this antiquated structure, and for his ser- vices received the princely salary of $10 per month, and " boarded around " among the pupils.
As the settlers became more numerous it was found that many of them, in fact a greater part of them, were connected with a band of desperadoes, who at that time spread terror over all of northern Illi- nois by their deeds of thievery and murder. One of the settlers, who resided near Inlet Grove, allowed his dwelling to be used as a place of secretion for stolen goods, and for fugitives from justice. It was be- lieved by the early settlers that this man's dwelling was the headquar- ters of the gang, as those who passed his house after night frequently saw groups of horses hitched in a grove near the house, and inside the cabin could be heard boisterous laughter and "sounds of revelry by night," and ere the morning dawn the horses and riders would myste- riously disappear. At one time, every township officer was supposed to have been a member of the banditti; being in the majority they could, of course, eleet their own men to office. This being the case, one can well imagine the chaotic condition of society,-each man suspicious of his neighbor. Acts of thievery were carried on with im- punity, and the authorities defied. If some law-abiding citizen at- tempted to gain redress for his wrongs an anonymous letter was left at his door threatening his life in case he persisted in his efforts. Law- abiding citizens were entirely at the merey of an enemy as cruel as the
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