History of Logan County, Illinois, Part 30

Author: Inter-State Publishing Co.
Publication date: 1886
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 989

USA > Illinois > Logan County > History of Logan County, Illinois > Part 30

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

THADDEUS F. HAMER, M. D., was born in the kingdom of Han- over, Germany, January 27, 1848. He followed the mercantile trade in his native country till December 31, 1870, when he immigrated to America, landing at New York. He came to Illinois and was engaged as bookkeeper for a firm which dealt in hardware and farm implements at Pekin till the fall of 1872. He also clerked for a short time at Emden in the first store at that place. He returned to his native country for the purpose of studying pharmacy, and thus prepared himself for a druggist. He attended the university eighteen months where he also took a scientific course. In July, 1878, he again returned to the United States, and received a diploma

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in pharmacy in the State of New Jersey. He again came to Illi- nois and purchased a drug business at Hartsburg, to which he added a stock of hardware, and conducted this business till 1881. He then sold out to his brother, Fred Hamer, and again went to Ger- many where he entered the University at Marburg of Hesse, from which he graduated, receiving the degree of M. D. in 1884. He then spent about three months at Berlin, practicing in the hospi- tals, when he again returned to the United States, and located at Hartsburg in May, 1885, where he is building up a good practice. . He was reared in the faith of the Cumberland Presbyterians, his father being a minister of that denomination.

DR. GREEN HILL, of Middletown, is one of the oldest practicing physicians of Logan County. He was born near Franklin, William- son County, Tennessee, July 1,1813, and is descended from old and honorable Southern families, his ancestors on his father's side com- ing from North Carolina, and his maternal ancestors from Virginia. The late Honorable Benjamin Hill, of Georgia, belonged to another branch of the Doctor's family. Dr. Hill received an excellent lit- erary and medical education. When he was sixteen years old he entered the Franklin Academy which was at that time presided over by Bishop James H. Otey, who became noted during the late war. After attending the college a year he went to Nashville, and there received his medical education. He began the practice of medicine at his old home when twenty-two years of age, which he has ever followed, his experience covering a period of over fifty years. After remaining near Franklin about two years he went to Columbus, Mississippi, where he practiced his profession, and kept a drug store for about ten years. In March, 1850, he came to Illinois and was temporarily located at Elkhart. In 1852 he came to Middletown where he has since lived, engaged in practicing medi- cine. The Doctor first came to Logan County in 1836 and entered 720 acres of land in Hurlbut Township, and also purchased twenty acres of timber land. He made a trip to Illinois on horseback in about ten days, bringing the money with which be paid for his land in his saddlebags. The Doctor kept this land till he returned to Illinois in 1850 when he sold it for $7 per acre. When he set- tled in this vicinity physicians were very few in number, so he had much traveling, sometimes going many miles to visit a patient, and often while crossing the prairie meeting with wolves and other wild animals. Money was scarce with the settlers in those early days, in fact about the only money the Doctor saw during the first

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year or two of his residence here was what he brought with him from Tennessee, he being generally paid in corn. The Doctor has now a good office practice, and only makes professional visits into the country when he cannot do otherwise. He has maintained through a long professional career an enviable reputation as a skill- ful and successful physician, and as an intelligent, honorable and upright citizen. He has a pleasant home in Middletown, and a farm of 120 acres in the township. He has been three times mar- ried, his first wife being Martha Ann Kirkpatrick, whom he mar- ried in 1834. They had two children-Mary and Sarah A. The latter died at the age of sixteen years ; the former married John Brandon, of Franklin, Tenn. She and her husband are deceased, leaving six children, all of whom survive. His first wife died in Mississippi, and he was afterward married in Mississippi to Sarah Ann Vanmiddlesworth, of Auburn, New York, who died in Logan County in 1858, leaving two daughters-Catherine, who married Lewis Varney, a lawyer of Saratoga Springs, New York; and Ella . M., living near Austin, Texas, the wife of C.C. Baker. The Doctor's present wife is Martha R. Caldwell, of Logan County, and to this union has been born five sons-Green E., Thomas C., John H., Harry O., and Tolbert F. In politics Dr. Hill is a staunch Demo- crat, and has always advocated the principles of that party. He is a member of the Christian church at Broadwell, and is also & member of the Odd Fellows order.

GREEN B. HOBLIT, M. D., deceased, a native of Logan County, born August 10, 1841, was a son of J. E. Hoblit, of Atlanta Town- ship. He was reared in this county and educated in the public schools of Atlanta. He read medicine for three successive years with Dr. Kirk, of Atlanta, and subsequently attended the Chicago Medical College, from which he graduated with the degree of M. D. in March, 1869. The following June he located at Benton, Frank- lin County, Illinois, where he was successfully engaged in the practice of his chosen profession till his death, which occurred September 10, 1881. He was married November 10, 1869, to Mary C. Hamilton, daughter of Colonel Lorenzo D. and Martha Hamilton, her father having been prominently identified with Atlanta Township since its organization. To Dr. and Mrs. Hoblit were born seven children, of whom only two are living-Byron H. and Birdie. Dr. Hoblit was a member of the delegation from the nineteenth district of Illinois, taking part in the convention which nominated General Hancock for President. His remains were

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interred by the Masonic fraternity with appropriate ceremony, he having been a member of that order. His widow resided at Ben- ton till 1883, since which she has been a resident of Atlanta. She is a member of the Christian church.

SILAS E. MCCLELLAND, physician and surgeon, Beason, was born January 13, 1860, in Decatur, Illinois, his parents, Joseph E. and Margaret McClelland, being natives of Ohio. He was educated in his native town, graduated from the Decatur High School in 1875. He then entered the drug store of J. T. Hubbard, of De- catur, where he remained four years, becoming a skilled pharma- cist. He entered Rush Medical College, of Chicago, in September, 1882, from which he graduated in February, 1884. During the summer of 1883 he spent some time in practice with his brother, Dr. W. E. McClelland, of Midland City, Illinois. In 1884 he lo- cated at Beason, Logan County, where he has since been engaged in the practice of his profession, and is meeting with excellent success. He is also the proprietor of a well-patronized drug store at Beason. He was married November 26, 1884, to Sarah Armstrong, daughter of Andrew and Sarah Armstrong of Etna Township, Logan County. The Doctor is a member of the Masonic fraternity of Lincoln, Illinois.

P. H. OYLER, M. D., is the son of George Oyler, a farmer, resid- ing near Carlysle, Pennsylvania. He was born October 13, 1846, and remained on the farm until fourteen years of age, when he left home to seek a more advanced course of instruction than the public schools of the vicinity then afforded. Subsequently he began the study of medicine under Dr. Keiffer, of Carlysle, Pennsylvania, but for want of means he was obliged to abandon his medical studies, temporarily, and resort to manual labor to raise funds to prosecute his studies. In 1864 he was a forage master in General Sheridan's army, in which capacity he continued' to serve until in the spring of 1865, when he was discharged. He soon after went to Indianapolis, Indiana, where he learned carriage-making, and attended night school. He continued working at his trade until 1870, having then accumulated several thousand dollars by indus- try and economy. The next two years he was a clerk in a drug store at Columbus, Indiana. Later he became the proprietor of a drug store and continued in the business until he entered the Louis- ville Medical College. In 1878 he graduated from the latter institu- tion and moved to Mt. Pulaski, Illinois, where he has ever since been actively engaged in the practice of medicine. He is a member

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of the State Medical Society of Illinois and a permanent member of the American Medical Association. He was married at Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1868, to Sarah J. Westover, formerly of Cincinnati, Ohio, with whom he has three children, two sons and one daughter.

LEWIS M. PERRY, M. D., a well and favorably known physician of Logan County, was born in Newcastle, Henry County, Ken- tucky, September 1, 1836, his parents, William A. and Caroline B. Perry, being natives of Kentucky, and Cincinnati, Ohio, respect- ively. Lewis M. received good educational advantages early in life. October 7, 1861, he enlisted in defense of the Union in Company H, Sixth Kentucky Infantry, serving nearly four years. Before entering the service he had been Captain of a home guard company; he therefore made himself very useful in drilling new recruits. He was commissioned Second Lieutenant of his company, but in consequence of the unfaithfulness of his Colonel, Walter C. Whittaker, was not mastered. He acted in the capacity of Second Lieutenant of his company till after the battle of Shiloh, when Richard T. Whittaker, a brother of the Colonel, appeared from civil life and was mustered in Perry's place, and drew back pay. Whittaker's resignation was finally "accepted for the good of the service." June 7, 1864, Perry was made Adjutant. He was in Hagen's brigade till about the capture of Atlanta, taking part in most of the engagements in which the brigade participated, among which may be mentioned the battles of Shiloh, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, Mission Ridge, Resaca, Allatoona Mountain, and the battles in front of Atlanta. He received a slight wound at the battle of Chickamauga. He was a gallant soldier, fighting bravely and well in the service of his country. After his return home he commenced his medical studies, under the preceptorship of Dr. L. E. Goslee, of Newcastle, Kentucky, with whom he re- mained about one year. After studying about a year with Dr. T. B. Perry, in Logan County, he entered the University at Louis- ville, Kentucky, from which he graduated in the spring of 1868, and was afterward elected by the city council resident graduate of the city hospital, where he remained over a year. He has been a resident of Broadwell Village since September 25, 1869, where he is engaged in a lucrative and constantly increasing practice. The Doctor was married May 19, 1874, to Miss Kitty Broadwell, danghter of William B. Broadwell, a pioneer of this township, who moved to Jordan Springs, Reno County, Kansas, in the fall of 1873, and is now living in Hutchinson. Mrs. Perry was born

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in Broadwell Township, January 1, 1858. Dr. and Mrs. Perry have had seven children-Willie A., died, aged two years and eight months; Lewis H., died at the age of one year; Marion Lee; Ruth; Irvin B .; Thomas M .; Kittie, died in infancy. Dr. Perry was be- reaved by the death of his wife December 14, 1883. In early days the Doctor was a Whig; during the war, a Unionist, and now is in sympathy with the Labor Reform movement, and the Prohibition party. He is a member of Broad well Lodge, No. 727, I. O.O. F., of which he is deputy grand master.

M. P. PHINNEY, M. D., was born in Worcester County, Massa- chusetts. July 1, 1838. His father, Dr. Marcellus C. Phinney, was born near Bangor, Maine, and was educated there and in Harvard College. He practiced his profession for ten years in Massachusetts, six years in Ohio and about the same number in Indiana, coming to Illinois in 1858, where he practiced in Mason County. For two years he resided in Cornland, Logan County, and died in 1883 in Tazewell County. His wife was Elizabeth Perley, and the eldest son, whose name heads this sketch, was named Marcellus Perley Phinney. He was educated in Reed- town, Ohio, and Crown Point, Indiana. He studied medicine with his father and with the Eclectic Medical College at Cincinnati, from which he took his diploma in 1865. He then practiced four years in Mason County, two in McLean, and then settled in Mount Pu- laski. He is a member of the State Eclectic Medical Society. He is also a member of Mt. Pulaski Lodge, No. 454, I. O. O. F., and Sam Walker Post, No. 205, G. A. R., of which he is surgeon and adjutant. He enlisted July, 1861, in the Fourth Illi- nois Cavalry, participating in the battles of Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Shiloh, the siege of Corinth and capture of Memphis. At the end of his term of service he was discharged at Trenton, Tennessee, in 1863. March 15, 1860, he married, in Mason City, Illinois, Lucy T. Andrews, born in Ohio. Three children have been born to them-Ora L., Ossa H., and Mazie, the two former born in Mason City, Illinois, and the latter born in Atlantic, Iowa. The Doctor is a genial, well-informed gentleman, who keeps himself enlightened on many subjects outside his profession.

JULIAN A. SMITH, M. D., has been a resident of New Holland since 1883. He was born in Grandview, Edgar County, Illinois, January 7, 1847, a son of Dr. Thomas M. and Amanda E. Smith, his father a native of Kentucky and his mother of Paris, Edgar County, Illinois. His father was a prominent physician of

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Edgar County, practicing there about thirty-five years. He died at Grandview in 1875. His widow now lives at Paris. Julian A. Smith was given a good education, completing his literary studies at Bloomingdale, Indiana. He commenced the study of med- icine under the preceptorship of his father and completed it at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Keokuk, Iowa. He began his practice with his father and remained with him until about the time of his father's death. He then went to Cen- tral Illinois, where he has since lived with the exception of a brief space of time spent in the South. Dr. Smith is a studions member of the profession and tries to keep abreast with the lead- ing column of the medical fraternity. He hopes by courteous bearing and honest dealings with his fellow men to merit their patronage and esteem. He was married in February, 1870, to Angie Cummins, daughter of John and Nancy Cummins, both natives of Kentucky, but for fifty years residents of Edgar County, Illinois. The Doctor says: Of all the transactions of his whole life his marriage is the only one in which all his fondest hopes and most sanguine expectations were fully realized. His wife's mother is deceased. His father-in-law, hale and hearty at the age of eighty years, resides on his farm, near Vermillion, Edgar County, Illinois. Dr. and Mrs. Smith have two children-ida Gertrude, born December 20, 1871, and Nellie May, born September 6, 1876. In politics Dr. Smith affiliates with the Democratic party. He is a member of the I. O. O. F. order. He and his wife are members of the Christian church.

ROBERT M. WILSON, M. D., was born in Morgan County, Illinois, April 20, 1847. His childhood and youth were spent in Morgan and Scott counties where he was given the best educational ad- vantages and here he laid the foundation for a more liberal course in the future. At the age of sixteen years, in 1863, he enlisted as drummer boy in Company F, Sixty-first Illinois Infantry, and con- tinued in service until the close of the war, being mustered out at Springfield in 1865. After his return from the war, he began the study of medicine at Manchester, Illinois, and in the fall of 1866 entered the State University at Ann Arbor, Michigan, taking a course in medicine and a special course in the literary department. During the winter of 1867-'68, he attended a second course of lectures at the Rush Medical College, Chicago, after which he lo- cated and practiced medicine at Palmyra, Macoupin County, Il- linois, until 1872. He then went to New York City and spent a

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year in the different hospitals, at the same time taking a third course of lectures at the Long Island College, graduating from that institution in 1873. Returning to Palmyra he resumed his practice and remained chere until 1876. On December 26, 1876, the Doc- tor was united in marriage to Salome F. Solomon, daughter of Hon. D. N. Solomon, of Palmyra. They have one child-Robert M. Im- mediately after his marriage he removed to Lincoln, Illinois, his present location. The Doctor is identified with all the progressive movements in connection with his profession. Heis a member of the Society of Macoupin County for Medical Improvement, the Brainard District Medical Society and the Illinois State Medical Society. In July, 1884, he was placed in charge of the medical and surgical wards of St. Clara Hospital, Lincoln, which appoint- ment he still retains. In politics, Republican.

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CHAPTER XI.

EDUCATIONAL.

IMPORTANCE OF FREE SCHOOLS .- EARLY SCHOOLS .- HOW BUILT .- PROGRESS IN METHODS .- GENERAL REMARKS .- FIRST SCHOOL IN LOGAN COUNTY .- SCHOOLS OF THE PRESENT. - STATISTICS AND GENERAL INFORMATION .- TEACHERS' INSTITUTES .- LINCOLN UNI- VERSITY.

"That people which has the best books and the best schools is the best people; if it is not so to-day, it will be so to-morrow." These words, from the pen of the French educator and statesman, Jule Simon, deserve to become a household quotation the world over for no more potent nor expressive truth was ever uttered. Of course all progress and education is not derived from the study of books, and, as Hosea Ballon has said, "Education commences at the mother's knee," and every word spoken within the hearing of little children tends toward the formation of character; but at the same time no other one agency is so powerful as the common school in developing a nation of self-governing people.

The citizens of this county feel a just pride in their progress in educational methods, which have fully kept pace with the advance- ment in wealth and the development of material resources. As soon as the county was sufficiently settled to enable any neighbor- hood to open a school, a school-house was provided and the services of a teacher secured. Often a room of a private house was occu- pied, and sometimes the desorted cabin of a squatter became a tem- porary school-room, in which the old-time masters, who worked on the tuition plan, flourished the rod and taught the rudiments of reading, writing and arithmetic. The first school-houses built were structures of the rudest kind, such as no pioneer would be content to occupy as a dwelling. Built of logs, with floors and benches of puncheons, with a huge fireplace and a stick and mud chimney, they were little calculated for comfort or convenience. Window-glass was too expensive an article to be used in the con- struction of a school-house, and therefore greased paper was sub- (337)

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stituted for it. The writing desk was a notable feature in every school-room. It generally extended across one end or one side of the room, and was made of a slab, held in its place by wooden pins. For architectural effect, probably, certainly not for convenience, it was fastened high up on the wall, and the pupil, in order to use it, must climb upon a high wooden bench and sit there without a sup- port for his back or his feet.

Of the qualifications of the teachers of those days, the less said the better. Many were accounted good teachers who, in these days, would be unable to secure a certificate even of the third grade. Yet the most of them put to the best use the little talent and less train- ing they had, and succeeded in planting good seeds in the minds of their pupils. Some of the best minde this county has produced were those of men whose whole school education was received in the log school-houses of pioneer days.

The progress of education here is only a miniature reproduction of what has taken place more slowly among all civilized nations. In recent years improved methods of mental culture have aided the teachers in securing better results. The primary object of edu- cating children is not that they may escape labor thereby, but that they may labor more intelligently. Children should be taught that employment leads to happiness, indolence to misery, and that all trades and professions whereby an honest livelihood is obtained are honorable. Right living is the end to be achieved, and it is the workers that do the most good in the world. The man who con- stantly and intelligently thinks, is above temptation. The women who honorably labor in the various trades are to be preferred and honored above those who sit with folded hands. It is education that makes duty more apparent, lessens toil and sweetens life. It is by true education that the moral responsibilities of the human family are better understood.

Methods are now sought for and followed in the school-room. The child's character and capacity are better understood now than in the pioneer days. The rod is laid aside, and children are no longer forced, under the lash, to order and apparent studiousness. Fretful and cruel teachers are giving way to those who love chil- dren, and again will mankind draw nearer to the millennium through the influence of the law of love. In this age better atten- tion is paid to hygiene and ventilation in the school-room. Houses are lighted, aired and warmed in a rational manner. Since the introduction of the "automatic " school desks there need

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be no more disagreeable seating in our school room. The inventor of this desk will have a reward in the blessings of the countless thousands of healthy men and women who, in this generation, as children, are comfortably seated in many of our best schools.

New and better studies have been added to the course of study in our common schools within the last decade. Now, the child is taught to apply what he learns, directing his course of study in the line of his mental activity, cultivating the good and restraining the evil propensities. The time was, not far back, when only a limited knowledge ot "reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic" could be acquired in the common schools. The highest aim of the youth of the pioneer days was to write a fair hand, spell orally, and solve mathe- matical puzzles. This age is moving in a better educational sphere. The change was, of course, gradual. It was a long struggle of ignorance and bigotry against education, in which the latter has been crowned the victor. But few teachers cling to the old theory. Little by little they are growing away from the old system. A few teachers who do not improve are yet votaries at the shrine of their idols-the birch, the dunce-cap and other old-fashioned methods. But,

" Too weak the sacred shrine to guard, "

they must soon yield to the new education, and enter the conflict against error and for a better educational life.

In this struggle for better methods, opinions, covered with age and honors, have been marched off the stage of human action and supplanted by facts and principles which have cost years of toil to discover, and more years to establish. To the close student and observer this theory is new only in its application to our schools. It is the normal or natural method. This is the theory of educa- tion that antedates all others. The ancients taught by objects, when but few of the most wealthy men of that day could afford books. In fact, text-book knowledge is a new thing to the world. The first teachers gave instruction orally. They were, by the force of circumstances, independent of text-books. To this excellent plan has been added the written method. Then, it was principally by observation that the pupils received instruction. By placing the objects before the pupils the teacher could easily reach their minds by his lecture. In this age blackboards, spelling-tablets, slates, charts and other school apparatus is in general use in our best schools. In the schools of to-day, it is through the eye that a

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mental picture is formed from the printed page which children draw upon paper or boards from the ends of their fingers. Well- qualified teachers do not think of depending upon text-books at their recitations, but rather imitate the ancient normal methods. In order to meet the demand for better qualified teachers, normal training schools have been established in this and other States. The teachers' institute is also an outgrowth of the demand for teachers of a higher standard. Now, true education is admitted to be the drawing-out and developing of that which the child already possesses, instead of the old crowding theory of pioneer days.

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History of Logan County, Illinois, Part 30

Author: Inter-State Publishing Co. Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Number of Pages: 989

Author: Inter-State Publishing Co.
Publication date: 1886
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 989