USA > Illinois > Lee County > History of Lee County, together with biographical matter, statistics, etc. > Part 82
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LARS LARSEN RISETTER, retired farmer, Lee, was born in Hardanger, Bergens stift (state), Norway, March 30, 1826. He was the youngest son of Lars Larsen and Anna (Peterson) Risetter, and was reared to farming, and received a common school education. In the middle of March, 1847, he left his home in Norway to take passage for America ; he was delayed a month in the city of Bergen, was a month crossing the ocean, and still another month in reaching Chicago. He proceeded from New York by the Hudson river to Albany, from thence by rail to Buffalo, and the remainder of the way by the lakes. Ommon Hilleson, the first Norwegian settler in Lee county, had brothers and sisters in the party with which Mr. Risetter came, and he was to meet them in Chicago and transport them to Lee Center, but failed to reach there before they got away, although they were detained awhile in the place. "Big Nels," the most prominent Norwegian in the Fox river
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.
colony, conveyed them as far as his home, and there they hired a man and his team to bring them to Lee Center, where they arrived on June 20. Mr. Risetter was taken with fever and agne and was ill all sum- mer, and not able to work before December. He arrived at Lee Center sick, penniless, and nnable to make himself understood and his wants known to the strangers among whom he was cast, for Ommon Hilleson was still in Chicago, or between the two places. To say the least, this was a painful situation, and Mr. Risetter will never forget it. But the cloud lifted somewhat and the sun shone with a brighter effulgence when Hilleson returned, for then was the meeting of old-time friends and near relations after long years of tedious separation and waiting. In the autumn he was married to Miss Gertrude Hilleson, who had taken passage with him from Norway, and immediately they hired out in Sublette, to Thomas Fessenden, for $15 per month for the labor of both. They continued so employed one year, and until they had saved enough to buy 80 acres of land from the government, when they began farming on their own account. They reared a little log cabin, in which they dwelt with much comfort until 1856, when they sold out and in February moved to Willow Creek. It should be recognized in this place that they were the first family of Norwegian settlers in Sub- lette township and the second in this. Mr. Risetter bought the S. W. } of Sec. 15 at the price at which the government sold public land, $1.25 per acre, but was not forehanded enough to pay for it ; so Col. Dement advanced the money at ten per cent interest, and held it in his name three years, when Mr. Risetter became the virtual owner. He and his wife labored with severe industry, and from this time dates a period of signal financial success in their history. At one time they owned 920 acres of valuable land in a body, besides tracts in various other places, but they have sold off 280 acres, and the rest is occupied by their children. Both belong to the Lutheran church, and Mr. Risetter is a republican. They have had seven children : Anna, Lewis, Holden, Thomas (dead), and three infants (dead). Anna is the wife of A. C. Olson, minister and farmer, and lives in Kankakee county, this state ; Lewis married Miss Melinda Johnson, and lives on the old homestead, and Holden, who was married November 11, 1875, to Miss Julia Christopher, lives on the N.E. ¿ Sec. 21. Holden's three children are Louisa, Betsy, and Lewis. The Risetters are among the most sub- stantial, influential and best respected people in this part of the county.
HENRY STEVENS, farmer, Compton, was born in Wayne county, Pennsylvania, in 1826. He was the eldest son of Nicholas and Ann (Ketterson) Stevens, and was reared a farmer by his parents. In the autumn of 1854 he came to Willow Creek and bought fifty-nine acres ; returning to Pennsylvania he remained there that winter, and in the
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following spring came back, and at once set about improving his land. He has added to his original purchase until he now owns 126 acres of choice farming land, estimated to be worth $6,000. In politics he ad- heres to the principles of the republican party. He has been twice married, and celebrated his first nuptials with Miss Sarah Ann Sisco January 1, 1860, and by her he had two children, John and Sarah Annie. She died in February 1863, and on December 13 following he was married to Miss Mary Jane Sivey, who was born June 4, 1840. By this second marriage there have been born to him three children. The names of all his children and the dates of their birth are as follows : John, October 15, 1860 ; Sarah Annie, January 31, 1862 ; Rosetta, Sep- tember 19, 1864; Clarence, January 21, 1866, and Levi, October 24, 1869.
JACOB EDWARDS, farmer, Lee, the fifth of eight children by Od and Dora (Odson), was born in Norway, May 25, 1842. In June, 1866, he emigrated to America and settled in La Salle county, where he lived till 1872, working first as a hand and afterward renting land. In that year he came to this township, and was married February 10, to Miss Inger Odeson, daughter of John and Ann Odeson, who emigrated from Norway in 1858. Mrs. Edwards was born in the old country June 27, 1854. Their five children were born as follows: Oscar John, Novem- ber 8, 1873; John Ephraim, May 4, 1875 ; Dora, September 18, 1876 ; Andrew Oly, November 3, 1878, and Marshal Lewis, December 2, 1880. In 1873 Mr. Edwards purchased the farm he now occupies from his father-in-law, and his parents-in-law reside with him. His home- stead consists of eighty acres on Sec. 22, is five miles north of Paw Paw, and is worth $3,600. Mr. and Mrs. Edwards are members of the Norwegian church. The former left his parents in Norway, and his. mother died after his departure, at the age of seventy, but his father is. still living. In 1874 Mr. Edwards filed his declaration of intention to. become a citizen, in 1878 obtained his naturalization papers, and in 1880 voted for Gen. Garfield for president.
SAMUEL B. MILLER, farmer and stock raiser, Paw Paw Grove, was: born February 15, 1843. His father's given name is William, and his. mother's maiden name was Eliza Vosburg. In the autumn of 1856: his father brought his family to Illinois, settling in Viola township,. where the subject of this notice lived until the spring of 1867, and then came to his present farm on Sec. 30. He owned 120 acres until the spring of this year (1881); at that time he purchased 100 acres. more, and the whole, in a good state of cultivation, well stocked with implements, and containing first-class buildings, is valued at $11,000. Mr. Miller never learned a trade, but was descended from ancestors. who were all natural craftsmen, and his own practical ability in this
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.
line of industry has enabled him to use tools all his life with no little skill and real benefit. He does his own wood-work, and has put up all his buildings except one barn. His marriage with Miss Sarah Mil- ler, daughter of Adam Miller, was celebrated July 22, 1866. Mrs. Miller was born January 1, 1847. They have had seven children : Joseph, Llewellyn and Lewis (twins), the latter dead, Nettie, Clement, Della, and Mary. Mr. Miller is a republican.
RALPH KETTLEY, farmer, Compton, son of John and Ann (Paul) Kettley, was born in Wales in May 1828. He learned the shoemaker's trade, and in 1849 emigrated to America with only enough money to pay his way, and settled in Chicago in the boot and shoe trade in partnership with John Blow. At the end of three years he moved to Peoria, followed his trade there three years, then came to Ottawa a few months, after which he moved to Bloomington, and was in that place nearly a year. Next he settled in Wyoming township, this county, working at farming summers and at his trade winters for several years. In December, 1864, he came into this township, where he had previously bought 160 acres of land on Sec .. 18, which is now well improved and valued at $11,000. Mr. Kettley was married in 1852, to Miss Eliza Beddow, who was born March 6, 1827. They have had eight children : William, John, Lizzie (now Mrs. James Anglemyer, of Compton), Julia, Thomas, Harriet, Lillie (dead), and Mary. All these children except William were born in Wyoming township. John lives in Nebraska, and was married this year (1881) to Miss Nettie Knapp. Mr. Kettley is a republican. Mrs. Kettley's mother died when the former was only ten years old, and for the next fifteen years she worked as a domestic. She borrowed money on her own promise to pay, and emigrated to America, in 1852, and after her arrival repaid it from wages she earned. Her grandmother Beddow lived to the great age of one hundred and three years, and when a hundred years old walked six miles to Mrs. Kettley's mother's funeral and back. This couple have climbed a rugged path together, but they have reached the summit of life, and the de- scending sun looks down upon a happy family and a comfortable home.
JAMES THOMPSON, deceased, was born in Virginia in 1803, and was the son of John and Martha (Beard) Thompson. His parents remained and died in Virginia, while he, when a young man, came to Ohio, and living there two years, removed to Indiana. He was in that state some twelve years, and in 1834 was married to Miss Amanda Dunten, who lived near Fort Wayne. She was the daughter of Ephraim H. and Abigal Dunten, and was born in Watertown, New York, in 1815, and united with the Methodist church when eighteen years old. In 1841 Mr. Thompson moved to this county and settled at Malugin's Grove, remaining there two years. In 1842 he bought a claim of William
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WILLOW CREEK TOWNSHIP.
Moore at Twin Groves, in company with Levi Lathrop, and the follow- ing year settled there. His health having become impaired, in 1851 he drove to California with an ox-team, remained there a little less than two years, and returned by steamship. Not long after his marriage he became a member of the Methodist church, and was always an active and exemplary christian. He took the principal interest in the building of the Methodist church at the Groves, and contributed very liberally toward that object. He was constable once in Indiana, and was once elected justice of the peace here, but did not qualify, and would never afterward hold public office. He was modest in manner, retiring in disposition, and loved a good name more than worldly goods, but secured both, and left behind many warm personal friends to revere his memory. His overflowing kindness to everybody, particularly to peo- ple moving into the country and needing assistance, was proverbial. He was a large-hearted man, benevolent always, and very active in his charities, and many a poor heart has warmed in gratitude to him for such practical remembrances as drive the wolf from the door. In all his good works he was cordially supported by his estimable wife, who is still living on the homestead which their joint labors secured to. make comfortable their declining years. Mrs. Gilbert Durin, formerly Catherine Norris, was reared in their home, as was also their niece, Lucy Jane Blair, daughter of Robert Blair, who is now Mrs. Ebenezer Pettenger, and lives in the Thompson home. "Aunt Amanda" has, no less than Mr. Thompson had, a warm place in the hearts of a wide circle of acquaintances. The latter died July 5, 1868.
PATRICK H. DAUGHERTY, farmer, Paw Paw Grove, was born in Hancock county, Maryland, March 17, 1833. His parents, John and Mary Daugherty, both died when he was young. He has been a farmer most of his life, but during the four years immediately preced- ing his immigration to Illinois he was on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, the first six months as brakeman and after that as freight con- ductor. Except the first three months that he ran from Baltimore to Washington; he was on the road from Baltimore to Martinsburg. In Jannary, 1855, he came to this state, and though he never learned a trade, has worked as a mason since, about ten years altogether. He settled first in Lee county. In 1858 he married Miss Mary Jane Fisher, who was born July 28, 1835, and in 1861 he moved to Knox county, living there nearly three years. Returning, he lived at Jeffer- son Grove, Ogle county, one year. In 1865 he moved into Rochelle and was there two years, and for two years after occupied a farm ad- joining the town. In the fall of 1869 he came into Lee county, and has since been in Viola and Willow Creek, four years in the former and the remainder of the time in the latter. In politics he is a democrat.
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.
Mr. and Mrs. Daugherty have had ten children : Thomas F., Alice J., Lydia Ann, James .A., Ella P., John H., Etta R., Julia F., Jennie (dead), and Minnie.
ADAM MILLER, farmer and blooded stock raiser, Paw Paw Grove, was born in North Hampton, now Monroe county, Pennsylvania, Au- gust 19, 1816. He was the eighth child of Frederick and Catherine (Brong) Miller, and was descended from Teutonic ancestry, one of his great-grandfathers being a German. He attended the common schools of his day, was raised to farming and lumbering, and at the age of eighteen began at the milling business. This he followed until the spring of 1857, when he emigrated to Illinois, a poor man with nine children and $600, and located his family on the W. ¿ of N.W. ¿ Sec. ' 29. Afterward he bought the E. ¿ of E. ¿ of N.E. } Sec. 30, and the S. W. ¿ of S.W. ¿ Sec. 20, making 160 acres altogether, valued at $12,- 000. This is beautifully situated, highly improved, and bears the name of "Rosedale Stock Farm," on which Mr. Miller raises thorough- bred short-horn cattle, grade horses, and blooded Poland China liogs. He was born in Wilkesbarre, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, January 20, 1839, to Miss Mary Neyhart, daughter of Peter and Elizabeth Neyhart. She was born October 10, 1817. They have had ten chil- dren : Cornelia (dead), Merritt, Clement (dead), Jenette (dead), Sarah, William, Seldon, Holden, Charles, and Leonora. Merritt enlisted in Co. K, 75th Ill. Vols., in August 1862, and fought at Perryville ; after that battle he was detailed as clerk, and in that position served the re- mainder of his term of three years. Clement volunteered in February 1865, went to Chicago, where he was taken sick, and did not recover till after the close of the war. Mr. Miller has been a professing chris- tian since 1852. He united with the Methodist Episcopal church in that year, brought his church letter west, and when the Protestant Episcopal church was organized here, united with that and remained a member as long as it existed. He has no connection with any relig- ious society at the present time, but helps to support preaching at the Twin Groves Methodist church. Mrs. Miller was for many years a Presbyterian, but has not united with any church since coming to Illi- nois, and is now a Methodist in belief, having rejected the doctrine of election. Mr. Miller was raised a Master Mason in Brooklyn Lodge, No. 282, January 28, 1863; he was dimitted January 20, 1875, and affiliated with Corinthian Lodge, No. 205, November 4, 1875. He is a member of Rochelle Chapter A.F. and A.M., and belongs also to the Masonic Benevolent Society of Princeton, Illinois. He was a democrat up to 1856, but in that year cast his vote for Gen. John C. Fremont, and has adhered to the same line of political faith since.
OSMAN J. HENG, hardware merchant, Lee, son of Jacob A. and
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WILLOW CREEK TOWNSHIP.
Asher (Lenning) Heng, was born in Norway, April 19, 1854. In 1864 the family emigrated to America and settled in Alto township. Mr. Heng attended the common schools at first, and was at the graded school at Marshall, Wisconsin, two winters. In 1877 he began to learn the tinner's trade in Leland, and was in that place up to the time he came to Lee, in March 1879. He is junior member of the firm of Weeks & Heng, and has been in trade in this town since December 1880. These gentlemen have a full assortment of goods in their line and are doing a large business. They are young men full of enter- prise, honorable in their dealings, and agreeable in their intercourse. Mr. Heng was married September 14, 1878, to Miss Belle Thompson, of Lee, daughter of Thomas Thompson, who still lives in Norway. They have one son, Jacob Otto, born August 7, 1879. Mr. and Mrs. Heng are members of the Norwegian Lutheran church, and he is a re- publican. When an infant, Mr. Heng was overtaken by a serious ac- cident in the loss of his right leg, in the fall of 1854, in a horse power. In the spring of 1878 his parents removed to Iowa, and on July 4, the next year, while attending a celebration at Callanan, Hamilton county, his father was fatally shot by a drunken ruffian, and died in about two weeks.
GEORGE MULLINS, farmer, Lee, son of Robert and Sarah (Hullet) Mullins, was born in Sheffield, England, in 1842. His father had for- merly worked in the cutlery business, but when Mr. Mullins was a very small infant he quit that craft and went to farming, and followed it as long as he was engaged in any regular employment. In 1852 the family emigrated and made a home in Shabbona township, De Kalb county. His father's house stood within forty rods of the track of the tornado which swept through these parts in 1860, and the doors and windows were shattered. His mother had been in feeble health for a long time ; the shock to her nerves was more than she could bear, and she died in about two weeks. His father is now living retired in Shabbona. Mr. Mullins was married November 14, 1866, to Miss Mary Ann Bostock, who was adopted by William and Ann Bostock, when she was three months old. Her own mother, Catherine Gray, died of consumption nearly four years afterward. Mr. Bostock came to Amer- ica in 1865 to view the country, and was followed by the family the next year. They located themselves first at Shabbona Grove, but now live on the county line in De Kalb county. They never had children of their own, but have reared seven adopted ones. Mr. and Mrs. Mul- lins have seven children : Sarah Minnie, Emma Lonisa, William, Robert, George F. and Maud Mary (twins), and Mary Ann. Mr. Mul- lins owns 220 aeres, valued at $11,000. His farm comprises the S. ¿
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.
of S. E. ¿ Sec. 12, ninety aeres on the N. W. ¿ Sec. 18, in this township, and fifty acres on the S.W. ¿ Sec. 7, T. 38, R. 3. He is a republican.
CHARLES CHILDS, farmer and stock raiser, Lee, was born in Sharon, Vermont, January 28, 1830, and was the eldest child of Harvey and Clarissa (Little) Childs. His father was a noted millwright and bridge- builder. In 1838 he moved to Illinois, and settled in Mendota, La · Salle county. Both parents are yet living in that place, well advanced in years, and enjoying a comfortable fortune. The origin of the Childs family in the United States was the settlement of Ephraim Childs at Watertown, in the Massachusetts colony, 1630. The ancestor of the larger number of this name was Benjamin Childs, presumably a nephew of Ephraim, who, it is thought, crossed the ocean from England at the same time. He settled at Roxbury, where he lived a busy and useful life. The subject of this sketch assisted his father in the opening of several prairie farms in his younger days, when the country was in a comparatively wild state. After having served out his minority on a farm, having a strong inclination to be a worker in wood, in his twenty-second year he took up the use of tools without ever serving an apprenticeship. He was handy with these by nature, so when he engaged in carpentering it was without inconvenience, and he followed the business successfully fourteen years as architect, builder and con- tractor. In 1851 he went to Lamoille, and though he was not there all the time, yet it was the place he called home, and it was there that he began his career as a craftsman. On September 28, 1858, he was married to Miss Eliza A. Smith, daughter of Alonzo and Rebecca (Sheldon) Smith. She was born March 26, 1834. They have reared four children, as follows : Viola Alvaretta, Frank Leslie, Lyman Whee- lock, and Nellie Eliza. Mr. Childs is a republican. On July 10, 1861, he came from Lamoille to his present location in Willow Creek, and bought eighty acres. He made his start in life unaided, and without outside aid he has kept adding on to his first purchase until he now owns a very desirable homestead of 285 acres, three-fourths of a mile south of Lee, and valued at $20,000. It is situated on the county line, and lies in both Lee and De Kalb. When Mr. Childs came, twenty years ago, not a shrub grew in sight of his place, and not a panel of fence obstructed travel between here and Rochelle. Now he is in the midst of beautiful improvements that have no limit on any hand. The iron horse that careers past the door of his pleasant and tasteful home sets him down in Chicago in little more than two hours. All the advantages of a brisk and flourishing town are at command at the end of a few moments' pleasurable ride in fine carriages and behind spirited animals, such as Mr. Childs keeps and drives. Should we wonder if social joy abounds in a home where stately rows of willows line the
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ADDITIONAL MATTER.
tidy and fertile fields, and trim and lofty maples spread their branches in the yards and around the comfortable farm buildings ?
WILLIAM H. EMMETT, book-keeper, Lee, was born near Niagara Falls, Canada, in 1849, and lived there with his parents, James and Elizabeth (Dalson) Emmett, till he was seventeen years old, farming at home summers, and attending the common schools winters. He then pursued a three years' course of study at St. Catherine's, and at twenty commenced teaching, following this two years. In 1871 he celebrated his marriage with Miss Susannah Castleman, and in the autumn of that year he came to Willow Creek and engaged in teach- ing, keeping three terms in this township and one in Alto. In the spring of 1873 he moved to Lee, and was employed by J. Cheasbro & Co., and after a few months took charge of their books as book-keeper. He continued in the office of McLane, West & Co. after they bought out Cheasbro & Co., and until December 1874. In the winter follow- ing he taught the first school in the village of Lee, and in April accepted the position of book-keeper in the grain office of Christopher & Jorgens, and has filled it to the present time. He has the agency, also, for eight of the leading insurance companies now doing business. Two years he was village trustee, and at the annual meeting in 1881 he was elected justice of the peace for this township. He is affiliated politically with the republican party, and both himself and Mrs. Emmett have their membership in the Baptist church. They have three children : Burton Ellis, Clara, and Arthur D. Mr. Emmett has been active in promoting the Sunday-school interests and temperance work of Lee, and has been superintendent of the Union Sabbath-school two and a half years. We acknowledge with pleasure his valuable assistance in furnishing material facts for the history of the village.
ADDITIONAL MATTER.
The matter that follows, much of it of a very important character, was received too late for insertion in the portion of the book originally designed for it. Some of the sketches were held for revision by friends until the sheets containing the matter most appropriate for them had gone to press.
JOHN W. WODSWORTH, agricultural merchant, Dixon, was born in Frederick county, Maryland, November 1, 1844. He is a son of Christopher and Matilda (Feaster) Wodsworth, pioneer settlers of this section, who endured the many hardships and inconveniences alone known to pioneer life. John W., the subject of this sketch, came to Illinois with his parents in 1847, when three years old, and re-
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.
mained with his parents on the home farm, located in Ogle county, until 1866, when he secured and creditably filled the position of freight clerk and telegraph operator at the Illinois Central depot at Dixon for five years. He then went to Amboy, in Lee county, and acted s super- intendent's private secretary in railroad office at that place, wì ch posi- tion he filled for a year and a half; thence removing to Bloo.nington, Illinois, filling the important position of station agent in that city for six years. During his association with railroad matters he gained the esteem and confidence of his employers, and his efficiency in the work made his resignation in 1873 a matter of regret. By economy during this period he saved from his earnings a sufficient amount to purchase 120 acres of fine farming land in Harmon township, to which he soon added 40 acres more, onto which he moved after severing his relation with the railroads. In the two years following he was very successful, and his income enabled him to purchase 120 acres more, giving him 280 acres of well-improved land. From this land in 1880 and 1881 he sold as follows : corn, 9,000 bushels; oats, 2,500 bushels; car-load of fat hogs, besides other stock, the whole aggregating over $4,525. He has now rented his farm, cash rent, and moved to Dixon to reside, having purchased the beautiful residence in North Dixon known as the Manny property, and is associated with Maj. Downing in the agricultural im- plement business. In 1868, while residing in Dixon, he was united in marriage to Miss Josephine Goble, daughter of James Goble, Esq., an old citizen of Dixon, and for many years sheriff of Lee county. The issue of this union was six children, four boys and two girls. Mr. Wodsworth has five brothers and five sisters, all living. His mother is also living, but his father passed away in 1875.
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