USA > Illinois > Lee County > History of Lee County, together with biographical matter, statistics, etc. > Part 45
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ASA B. SMITH, farmer, Harmon, son of Obediah and Lorena Smith, was born in Norwich county, Connecticut, in 1822, where he resided until twenty-one years of age. His father was engaged in the clothing business in New London, but as Asa's tastes did not run in that direc- tion he was apprenticed to a stone-cutter at an early age, and served until the fall of 1843. In the spring of 1844 he went into the city of Buffalo, where he worked five years at his trade. At the end of that time he went to farming, and was engaged in tilling the soil until 1855. In February of that year he came to Lee county and located in Dixon township, where he was for three years engaged in burning lime and afterward in farming. In the spring of 1861 he removed to Ogle county and remained there until January of the same year, when he returned to Dixon township, and was engaged in farming and ferrying until the spring of 1865, when he moved to Harmon township, and since that time has been a prominent citizen of that township. Mr. Smith was married in January 1846, to Miss Sarah M. Rogers, a native of Erie county, New York, and is the father of three children, two sons and one daughter. In 1871 was elected justice of the peace, which office he held for a period of ten years. Politically Mr. Smith is a democrat, although quite liberal in his views on all questions, and a very desirable citizen in any community.
JESSE HETLER, farmer, Dixon, the son of Nathan and Catherine (Kulp) Hetler, was born in the township of Dixon, on April 27, 1839. His father migrated from Columbia county, Pennsylvania, to Dixon, and was one of the oldest settlers in the township; when he came to
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THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
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BRADFORD TOWNSHIP.
Dixon there were only three log-houses in the city. Jessie received his education at the old Bend school-house, and worked on his father's farm till the age of twenty-four, when he married Miss Mary E. Beal, daughter of Mr. John Beal, of South Dixon, now of Iowa, in which latter state Mr. Hetler lived for seven years after his marriage. Re- turning to Palmyra, Lee county, he bought a farm of 160 acres, which he cultivated successfully for five years, when he sold it and bought in Nelson township, December 1, 1879, a homestead of 156 acres, which to-day ranks among the best farms in the township, and on which he now dwells. His family consists of two boys and three girls, named John T. Imogene, Alice Amanda, Nathan and Catherine, aged respect- ively sixteen, fourteen, twelve, eight and six years. Mr. Hetler is a member of the temperance organization. His first vote was cast for Abraham Lincoln.
BRADFORD TOWNSHIP.
This originally included T. 21 and half of 22, R. 11 E., of the 4th P.M. Its limits remained unchanged till the separation of the north half-township in the organization of Ashton township in 1861.
The first meeting was held April 1850, at the house of Ralph B. Evitts ; Elisha Pratt, chairman, and Thomas S. Hulbert, secretary. Charles Starks was duly elected moderator and T. S. Hulbert, clerk, and both were sworn by Geo. E. Haskell, justice of the peace. The town was divided into three road districts. A fence law was passed. Charles Starks was elected supervisor, receiving 27 votes ; Ira Brewer, town clerk, 19 votes; E. W. Starks, assessor, 18 votes; Samuel S. Starks, collector, 29 votes ; Ralph B. Evitts, overseer of the poor, 20 votes ; Sherman Shaw, Stephen Clink and George Yale, highway commission- ers, 29, 26 and 28 votes respectively ; Samuel S. Starks and Daniel Barber, constables, 27 votes each; Elisha Pratt and Lafayette Yale, justices of the peace, 24 and 21 votes respectively. Jesse Woodruff was nominated and elected as the defendant and prosecutor of suits of law and equity where the town is interested. On motion it was voted that the next meeting be held at R. B. Evitts'. Meetings were held at private houses till 1856, when a meeting was held in the school- house at Ogle Station (now the village of Ashton).
Bradford is an excellent township for farming. About three sec- tions in the southeast corner consist of marsh or swamp land, used only for pasturing. Sec. 5, and a little adjoining land, is flat; the rest of the township is probably equal in natural productiveness to any other equal portion of Lee county. The land is in a good state of cul- ture and mostly well improved. The inhabitants are German by a
27
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.
good majority. Nearly all of the first occupants of the town, nearly all, settled in Lee Center, and thence spread out over the prairie north. Some made their claims as soon as they arrived in this locality ; others lived at the "Inlet" a year or two before making any claim. Nearly all worked their claims before settling on !them and building. Mr. Whitmore and Sherman Shaw were the first to build houses within the limits of Bradford. The house of the former was standing as early as the spring of 1839, on land now owned by Mrs. Schott, in the western part of the township. In 1840 Shaw built a frame house on the N.E. corner of Sec. 31. This building is still standing. Egbert Shaw is said to have been the first white child born within the township. Omnen Hillison's house was built soon after those mentioned. Several claims were made in 1839, and but few, if any, before. In 1838 Charles Starks came to Inlet Grove, and the next year claimed the E. ¿ N. W. 4 of Sec. 32, and the W. ¿ N.E. { of the same section. About this time the Whipples claimed a short distance north of here. Starks at once began breaking his claim, and built and moved on to it in 1842. In 1839 George and Milo Yale claimed the N.W. } Sec. in Bradford. In 1842 their father, N. C. Yale, moved from Franklin Grove to where Jacob Schmucker lives, Sec. 1. Before 1842 Jesse Woodruff settled on Sec. 32, R. B. Evitts on Sec. 29, and at about this time C. Bowen settled north of Bowen on the same section, and Stephen Clink built the stone house on the place where V. Hicks lives, Sec. 33. As early as 1845 John Hotzel was keeping what might be called a bachelor's hall in a slab shanty on the E. ¿ S. W. ¿ of Sec. 31, claimed by him two or three years before. Hillison also was for several years a bachelor in Bradford, and lived in a sod house on the prairie before he put up his frame house. In 1842 Elias Hulbert claimed the S. ¿ S.E. ¿ of Sec. 19, and moved on to it in the fall of the same year. John Owen was an early settler on what is now known as Bradford street.
Many of the first occupants were from Bradford county, Pennsyl- vania, and from this circumstance the town took its name. Lewis Clapp located quite a number of land warrants at an early period ; and much land was bought with money furnished by him to parties many of whom would otherwise have been unable to purchase so soon as they did. It may be justly said of Mr. Clapp that directly or indirectly he did more than any other man for the early development of this township. As it now is it presents an appearance of thrift and abund- ance. Its population is industrious and peaceful. The town is not thickly settled, many of the farms being quite large. Inlet swamp covers Sec. 36, nearly all of 35 and 25, besides a little of 24 and 34 in the southeastern part ; this has no dwellings upon it.
There are eight school-districts and part of a union district in
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Bradford. The eight school-buildings are fully an average of the coun- try school-house, and doubtless the instruction given in them is not materially different from work generally donc in the country school ; and yet the writer cannot dispossess himself of the idea that an over industry or greed for "eighties " and "forties " possesses many of the foreign-born farmers, to the serious detriment of their children, in that mental culture is lacking.
As early as 1850 meetings of the Evangelical church of Bradford were held at the house of John Hotzel, just over the line in China, nearly opposite William Ross' place. Hotzel had a room fitted up for the purpose, and a Sunday-school was also started. These were the first German meetings in the county. The preachers came from Perkins' Grove, Bureau county : McLean was the first, William Kolp was the next. Reinhart Grass, John Aschenbrenner, John Hotzel and his fam- ily, members of the families of C. Reinhart and Conrad Hotzel were among the original members. In 1859 a church was built on Sec. 17 at a cost of $1,300. In 1874 an addition was made and a steeple erected at a further cost of $2,700, making the total about $4,000. The present membership is sixty, all but two of whom live in Bradford township. The Sunday-school numbers 125 pupils and 18 offices and teachers. The present pastor is Adam Goetshel, who has charge of this and another church in Reynolds township. These are in the Ashton circuit and Mendota district. All services are in the German tongue. The trustees of this church are Reinhart Grass, Peter Eisen- berg, Nicholas Killmer, William Ross, and Charles Krug. The first trustees were C. Reinhart, R. Grass, and John Aschenbrenner.
There are two cemeteries within the limits of Bradford. One is on Sec. 29, on the southwest corner of the southeast quarter. Here between forty and fifty have been interred. The earliest inscription, October 25, 1842, is on the stone over the grave of Mrs. Hannah Hulbert. Here are the graves of Omen Hillison, who died June 21, 1853; Lucretia Sawyer, wife of C. Sawyer, June 20, 1848; Sarah A., wife of John Methorn, January 21, 1857; Lurany, wife of Elisha Pratt, April 9, 1858, aged sixty-eight years ; Eliza A., wife of R. B. Evitts, February 28, 1877, aged sixty-eight years, six months and twenty-eight days; Stephen Clink, August 5, 1858, aged fifty years and ten months ; Susannah, daughter of M. W. and L. A. Welden, Angust 17, 1848, aged nineteen years and four months. The other is on Sec. 15, a little north of C. Gehant's house. There have not been so many burials here as in the former, having been opened later, and these are chiefly of foreigners.
The Bradford Insurance Company was incorporated March 30, 1869, by a special act of the state legislature. Ira Brewer, R. B. Evitts,
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.
Thomas S. Hulbert, Charles D. Hart, Valentine Hicks, C. F. Starks, and George Hulbert were the incorporators. It was to be styled " The Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Bradford, in the county of Lee." At the first meeting, held November 1869, fifty-four appli- cations were received, and fifty-one were approved and signed. Since its organization the company has had but three losses, amounting to $2,440. It has had no loss for two years. The number of policies in force December 31, 1880, was 440, amounting to $592,190. About twenty policies have since been written, making the total risk at this writing (July 1881) about $620,000. These policies are held chiefly in Lee county, in the north and eastern parts. A few are held in Bureau and Ogle counties. The officers of the company are Ira Brewer, Samuel Dysart, George A. Lyman, C. D. Hart, William V. Jones, R. Grass, William Ross, managers; Ira Brewer, president ; Samuel Dysart, secretary ; C. D. Hart, treasurer ; William V. Jones, general agent.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
WILLIAM S. FROST, farmer, Lee Center, was born in October 1832. His father, Daniel Frost, was born in New Hampshire in 1799. Eulalia Frost, his mother, was born in Maine in 1798. In 1837 Daniel Frost emigrated from Maine to Illinois. Leaving his family in Morgan county, he came to Lee county and built a log house about half a mile north and east of the Binghamton mill in Amboy township. The follow- ing spring the family came on, and in the fall of 1838 they settled on a place about a mile and a half east of Lee Center. In 1852 Mr. Frost moved into the village of Lee Center, where he lived till his death, October 1868. His wife, Eulalia Frost, died May 6, 1875. Of his eight children six survive him, Charles, Elizabeth (Mrs. Smith), Lydia (Mrs. Salsbury), William S., Silas D. and Marcia (Mrs. McKay). Mary (Mrs. Gilmore) died October 1865; Almira died March 1875. In the winter of 1853-4 William Frost went to California and returned in the fall of 1858. In the following spring he went again to Califor- nia, overland, and remained till the summer of 1861, when he came home by way of Panama. At this point of his journey he heard of the battle of Bull Run. In May, 1862, he began raising a company, which was mustered at Dixon in June. On or about June 1 Mr. Frost received his commission as captain of Co. E, 75th Ill. Inf. This was a full company from Sublette and Lee Center. Frank Ells was first lieutenant. The company left their camp at Dixon September 27, 1862, and were first engaged at Perryville October 8. Here Co. E lost heavily : eleven were killed, twenty-six wounded, and two taken prisoners ; Lieutenant Ells was killed and Captain Frost wounded.
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The latter was removed to the New Albany, Indiana, hospital, where lie remained two months. He joined his company in the battle of Stone river. He was in the engagements at Liberty Gap and Chica- manga. In October, 1863, the 75th was assigned to the 3rd brigade, 1st division, 4th Army Corps, General William Grose commanding.
CAPT. WILLIAM S. FROST was with his company in the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, and through to Atlanta, before which city he was wounded July 23, 1864, in consequence of which he was in hospital at Lookout Mountain till October, and then was sent home. He was mustered out February 23, 1865, at Cincin- nati, Ohio, because of physical disabilities. In November, 1865, he married Sophia E. Shaw, daughter of Sherman Shaw. Their issue are Frank E., born November 3, 1866; Silas D., February 3, 1871 ; William S., September 22, 1872; Melinda S., February 11, 1868; Mary A., June 27, 1878. Mr. Frost is now living on Sec. 28, where James Phillips settled, having bought him out in 1871. He has a farm of 400 acres in Secs. 27 and 28. In 1873 he was burned out; but built again immediately, and two years ago completed his residence, at a cost of $4,000. He is chiefly engaged in the raising of and trading in stock. He is a Mason, and for several years has been supervisor of Bradford. We wish him all the success that his generous nature deserves.
IRA BREWER, farmer, Lee Center, was born in Hampshire county, Massachusetts, in 1820. He is the son of Jonas B. and Betsey (Miller) Brewer, of English ancestry. His father was a farmer and he was reared to the same occupation. After he was ten years old he received but four terms of schooling of three months each. In 1842 he was married to Mary Phillips, who was born in Berkshire county, Massachusetts, November 1822. In the following year he and his wife came west, arriving in Lee Center in June 1843. Here they lived in a house previously occupied by Charles Starks, on the place now owned by Alva De Wolf. The same year Mr. Brewer bought from O. W. Wright a claim, W & N.W. ¿ of Sec. 32, Bradford township, for $40 in trade ; also the E. ¿ N.E. ¿ of Sec. 31, from Sturdevant, for which, with ten acres of timber at "the grove," he paid $100. He afterward entered both these claims. In 1845 he build a house, 19×24 feet, on his claim, abont one hundred rods north of his present dwelling, which is situated on the E. ¿ S.E. ¿ of Sec. 31, having built the latter in 1859. Mr. Brewer now owns 270 acres in Bradford, Secs. 31 and 32, and a large tract in Lee Center township, on Secs. 3, 16, 17 and 23. He has had six children, four of whom are living: Louisa, born March 30, 1846 ; George W., April 25, 1848 ; Ella J., December 11, 1849 ; Clara A., August 16, 1852; Luna C., August 22, 1854; and
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.
Mary Jane (deceased, aged ten months). Clara A., wife of B. Starks, died October 24, 1872. Mrs. Brewer was the oldest in a family of eight. Her father died in Massachusetts and her mother in Chippewa county, Wisconsin, at the residence of her youngest son. Two of Mrs. Brewer's brothers were in the Kansas struggle. One was killed there in 1856 and the other lost an arm. In politics Mr. Brewer is a greenback republican. He was the first town clerk of Bradford, and for several years was supervisor. He with his family belongs to the Congregational church. He has in his possession several valuable relics : one is a powder-horn used in one of the early Indian wars, another is a continental dollar "Printed by Hall & Sellers 1775." Mrs. Brewer has an old Gaelic bible brought to this country by her grandfather McCullum more than one hundred years ago. On the first cover are written these words : "Malcum McCullum augh this book 1772. I am eighteen years old 1772. I have five brethren and tue sisters." On the next page is written : "Malcum McCullum is my name; Bradalban is my nation; Ardchoie is my dwelling place, my boni habitation 1771. Malcum McCullum augh this new testa- ment." On the title-page is inscribed : "Le Balfour, Auld, agus Smellie, M,DCC,LXVII." The book is in a good state of preser- vation, the only disfigurement being the marks of a wetting it received on its voyage from Scotland. But for lack of space the writer would gladly testify to the many excellent qualities of the subjects of this sketch.
LORIN T. WELLMAN, farmer, Lee Center, was born in Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, in 1821. He is the son of David and Abagail (Taylor) Wellman. His father was descended from one of two brothers who came from England about two hundred years ago. David Well- man came with his parents to Pennsylvania from Connecticut about 1808. Jacob Wellman, the grandfather of our subject, was all through the revolutionary war. In 1840 the latter married Waity Hopkins, of New York state, and in 1848 came to Lee county, and at first lived about one and a half miles west of the village of Lee Center, and sub- sequently in the village. His father settled at the same time in Du Page county, Illinois. In 1852 Lorin Wellman located a land warrant on the N.E. ¿ N.E. { of Sec. 27, for his father, and at the same time the N.W. of Sec. 23 for himself. In the meantime he followed the mason's trade till 1856, when he bought his father's property and moved to where he is now living. David Wellman having moved to Bradford in 1853, and died in August 1855. Mr. Wellman owns 240 acres of land in Bradford, and an improved farm of 219 acres in Lee Center township. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. He is a Mason and a republican, but was a staunch democrat
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BRADFORD TOWNSHIP.
till the democratic platform of 1856 was formulated. His family con- sisted of Charles H., William (deceased, aged seventeen years), Dennis, Truman E., Seth A. and Ida M. The first and third of these are mar- ried and living in Kansas. Seth A. is married and lives in Indiana. Ida M. is the wife of German Lewis. Truman E. Wellman died in 1864, in his twenty-second year. He was a dwarf, and during his entire life was a sufferer from chronic humors and erysipelas. Not- withstanding his great affliction, he was remarkably intelligent and sprightly, and will long be remembered by all who knew him.
HARLOW A. WILLIAMSON, farmer, Franklin Grove, was born in Addison county, Vermont, January 8, 1830; son of Samuel and Sibyl (Delong) Williamson, both of Vermont. Their ancestors were early English settlers in that state. Harlow Williamson was the son of a farmer, and one of a family of four boys and three girls, all of whom are west, except one brother, who lives on the homestead in Vermont. The subject of this sketch came to Lee county in 1850 ; worked around by the month four years. He bought the N.W. ¿ Sec. 21, Bradford township, from Lewis Clapp, and in 1853 built a house. He now owns a farm of 180 acres with good buildings. His house, built since "the war," cost him not less than $3,000. In 1857 he married Emeline S. Starks, of Lee county. Their family consists of two adopted children, Harry and Katie Belle, aged fourteen and seven years respect- ively. Mr. W. is a republican in politics, and with his wife belongs to the Lee Center Congregational church. He is a careful farmer, and his place presents a tasteful and thrifty appearance.
PHILIP RUNYAN, farmer, Franklin Grove, was born in Columbia county, Pennsylvania, in 1818; son of Joshua and Elizabeth (Swisher) Runyan, both of Pennsylvania. His mother's people were from Vir- ginia, and his paternal grandfather was a native of New Jersey. Philip was the eldest in a family of twelve, ten of whom are living. He was raised a farmer, and enjoyed the benefits of a common schooling. He was married March 28, 1844, to Elizabeth Savage, born September 8, 1819. Their issue are Anna, born February 1, 1847; Esther, Novem- ber 8, 1850; Elizabeth, September 10, 1854. In 1849 Mr. Runyan located a land warrant on the W. ¿ N.E. 1, S.E. ¿ N.E .¿ , and S.E. } N.W. ¿ of Sec. 7, Bradford township, and in 1859 came from Pennsyl- vania and settled on the same. He has since improved this land, and his buildings have cost at least $4,000. Mr. Runyan and his wife are members of the Baptist church. He is a member of the Franklin Grove Masonic Lodge No. 264, and is also a Royal Arch Mason, Nathan Whitney Chapter. Though a democrat, Mr. Runyan has for many years held office in a strong republican township. He has been a justice of the peace since 1862, and town clerk since 1868.
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.
PETER EISENBERG, farmer, Ashton, was born in Hesse-Cassel, Ger- many, in 1831 ; son of Asman and Christine (Sebrar) Eisenberg. His father served thirty years in the German army ; was in the battles of Waterloo and Metz, in the latter of which he was wounded. In 1852 our subject, with his father and mother and their family, sailed from Bremen to New York, and arrived in Lee county in December of the same year. The family settled on Sec. 23, Bradford township, and bought the E. ¿ N.E. } from Lewis Clapp, and subsequently forty acres in Sec. 16. Mr. Eisenberg now owns ten acres more than a sec- tion of land, and lives on the N.W. ¿ Sec. 23. His father died in 1872; his mother is living with him. He was married July 1, 1855, to Cath- erine Bower. Their family consists of nine children : Christine (wife of John Fauble), George, John, William, Henry, Adam, Mina, Mary, Emma. Mr. Eisenberg is a republican, and with his family belongs to the Evangelical church of Bradford.
LUTHER BALDWIN, farmer, Ashton, son of Joseph and Polly (Smith) Baldwin, was born June 22, 1820, in Connecticut. Here his father and mother were born, the former in 1797, the latter in 1796. These parents had a family of ten children, eight of whom, with the mother, are living. Different researches trace the lineage of the family to several Baldwin brothers who landed in New York at an early day. In 1849 Luther Baldwin married Nancy Talmage, of Connecticut, by whom he has six children : Polly Ann, Sarah J., Joseph W., Esther, Phoebe, and Charles H. In 1852 Mr. Baldwin came to Lee Center, where he lived three months; thence to Ralph Evitt's, and in the spring of 1853 he located a land warrant on the E. ¿ of S.W. ¿ and S.W. ¿ of S.W. ¿ Sec. 14, Bradford township. Here he has since lived, having built the following fall, and subsequently improved the farm. He is a republican and Odd-Fellow, and a member of the Ashton Methodist Episcopal church, to which his wife also belongs.
MRS. CATHERINE E. ASCHENBRENNER, Lee Center, one of the most prominent characters in the history of Bradford, was born in Hesse Cassel, Germany, in 1832. Her parents were Christian and Christine (Denhart) Reinhart. She is the eldest in a family of six, five of whom survive. Christian Reinhart was twelve years a soldier in the German army, and in 1845 came to New York with his family ; thence to Chicago, and from there with an ox team to Lee county. The next year they rented a farm owned by Othro Wright, now A. DeWolf's farm, and from here they went to China township, to where Andrew Reinhart now lives. Mr. Reinhart got eighty acres of government land and subsequently eighty from Lewis Clapp. Here he settled and lived till his death in 1865, at which time he was the owner of nearly 500 acres of land. Their first year in America was a hard one for the
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family. The father was taken sick in cradling time and was confined to his bed for many months. His wife and Catherine, his daughter, worked very hard to support the family and pay doctor bills. They cleaned grain, husked corn, and dug potatoes in early winter. Noth- ing by which they could earn a little was considered, too hard. In November 13, 1849, Catherine Reinhart was married to Omen Hilli- son, born December 14, 1814. He was an early settler in Bradford, and at first lived in a sod house. His frame house was quite conspicuous in an early day, and was seen over the naked prairie by the Reinharts at Melugin's Grove on their way out from Chicago. The fruits of this union were Henry W. and Betsey, born September 12, 1850, and Oc-
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