USA > Illinois > Logan County > History of Logan County, Illinois > Part 72
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Hill Island on the Susquehanna River-where several hundred had gathered, expecting to be wafted to realms above. His father dying in 1849 and mother in 1850, and he becoming ambitious to see the world, early in 1852 started for Lancaster City, with a letter of introduction from Bruce Cameron to Thad Stevens and Walter Evans, who both treated him kindly but failed to find him employment, after which he went to Trenton, New Jersey, in which city he found a good place in a drug store. While there he studied hard, attending a course of lectures in electrical psychology, became an adept, and feels that he has not lost any of its secrets to this day. That year, 1852, occurred the campaign of Pierce and King vs. Scott and Graham, and he saw General Scott before his famous campaign tour West. The anniversary of the battle of Trenton was fought in sham array in those days and always to the defeat of the Russians. It was the big occasion to Jersey men. It was in May, 1853, while on their way to the inaugura- tion of the World's Fair at New York that President Pierce and his cabinet stopped over and put up at the United States Hotel. It was made a half holiday and he availed himself of the opportunity and made his way to the reception room of the hotel where were President Pierce and his cabinet. The President laughingly ac- quiesced in the sentiment offered by a blackemith present that we, the people, are the masters and you, the President and cabinet, are the servants. Getting the Western fever, especially from & visitor from the then Western end of the world, Toledo, Ohio, he packed his valise and in September, 1853, made his way to New York to view the Crystal Palace and the wonders of the city. After a ten-days stay he took a steamer for New York around the coast via Cape May to Philadelphia, stopping a few days in the latter city. His next point was a visit home to his sister and brothers. He stayed in Chambersburg until July 1, 1854. Re- turning to Middletown to say good-by, in company with a man by the name of Job Deckard, who with his horse and buggy started via Harrisburg, July 1, 1854, westward, passing through Carlyle, Chambersburg, Bedford Springs, Washington, Wheeling, Canton, Ohio, to Columbus, Circleville, to Yellowbud in Ross County. At Bedford Springs they saw James Buchanan and other dignitaries. That trip over land was made in the dry, cholera summer of 1854. At a number of places they were warned off and compelled to go many miles out of the way to avoid cholera-stricken towns. Arriving at Canton, Ohio, after robbing him of the little money
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he had, Deckard stole away with his team from the hotel after night, leaving him alone, penniless, among strangers. The sale of his watch paid coach fare to Columbus and Circleville and to Yel- lowbud, where his brother, Dr. J. H. Beidler, was located. The campaign of 1856 occurred while there. "Know-nothingism" was then in its glory. Dissolution propositions of the Democracy brought much fear over the possibilities of a disrupted country. He was clerk in the Yellowbud postoffice about a year before taking his departure, February 12, 1857, for Illinois, on horseback. Passed through Washington, Xenia, Dayton, Cambridge City, Richmond, Indianapolis, Terre Haute, Paris, Mattoon, Decatur, Mechanicsburg to Elkhart, Logan County, reaching there March 2, an eighteen-days ride over a boundless prairie from the Wabash River to his destination; clerked a little while at Elkhart, and be- came an early victim to the Illinois mange. In the spring assisted to dig a well; when fifty feet down asked to be let down to see stars, an old story thought in boyishness to be true. When down, the hired men pulled the buckets up leaving him to contemplate the chances of life and death for the well-digger, and surrounded the dinner table enjoying the fun of his desertion and probable fright. A young lady, Miss Clarissa Shasteen, shamed them into hanling him up again, and half an hour later the well caved in, it being of course a providential escape for our subject. Entering the ein- ploy of Kelso & Boren, druggists, of Lincoln, he was placed in charge of a branch store in Mt. Pulaski, in November, 1857. soon after he was made deputy postmaster, but nearly lost the place owing to his coolness toward the the " Danite " wing of the Democratic party. In 1860 he voted for Douglas for President, but was continued in office by President Lincoln, as it was known that he was a loyal man, true to the Union and opposed to nulli- fication or secession. Returning from Springfield with the news that the Star of the West had been fired upon by South Car- olinans, he was greeted by a crowd of his townsmen who asked his opinion as to the outcome of this high-handed act. His reply was that war was sure to follow, and that he was in favor of the coercion, subjngating, and necessary annihilation of a State or States that attemped secession. This sentiment was cheered. Mr. Beidler held the postoffice and voted Democratic until the National Democratic Convention of 1864 declared the war a fail- ure, since which time he has been a radical Republican. During Johnson's administration, 1866 and 1868, Mr. Beidler was retired
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as postmaster, and was re-appointed by General Grant in 1869, and he held the office interruptedly until 1882. He was made a Master Mason in 1868, was a charter member of Mt. Pulaski Chapter, No. 121, in 1871, and a charter member of Mt. Pulaski Commandery, No. 39, of which he was commander in 1880. He was the second man to propose the building of the G. C. & S. R. R. (now Springfield division, Illinois Central Railroad), and was one of its organizers and first directors; was village trustee and treasurer from 1872 to 1874. February 8, 1866, he married Miss Prudence Ann Capps, daughter of Jabez Capps, founder of Mt. Pulaski, and eleven children have blessed the union. He has taken an active interest in all the old settlers' meetings held in Mt. Pulaski, usually becoming general manager of all the ar- rangements, retiring from the platform in favor of the old settlers at and during their deliberations. To the best of his means aided in the prospecting for coal and all other enterprises entered into for the prosperity and building up of his town. Mr. Beidler spent a thousand dollars in building a bath house in 1883, with a view of bringing the invaluable spring at the foot of Mt. Pulaski hill into prominence and use; lack of public interest made it a failure. He has been a regular correspondent of the Lincoln Herald for a decade-for other journals occasionally. Is now owner and local editor of Mt. Pulaski Republican. Has continuously been in the drug trade in this place since arriving here in 1857. Has bought and sold much real estate in lands and town property. Mr. Beidler has always been a good money-maker but a poor money- keeper-using it unselfishly and for other's good. In religion he is a believer in the great over-ruling Jehovah of the universe- also believing that the finite is incapable of comprehending the infinite, that the miracle of existence here is more mysterious and less liable to our comprehension than a continued state of intelli- gent existence hereafter.
David Birks, farmer, section 8, township 17, range 2, is a na- tive of Logan County, a representative of one of its oldest families. His grandfather, Jeremiah Birks, was born in Georgia, lived sev- eral years in Tennessee, and about 1812 moved to White County, Illinois, being one of the first settlers of that county. Three or four years later he removed to the Currant River, Arkansas, and there engaged in farming till 1822, when he was visited by his daughter Polly, and her husband, Robert Buckles, who rode from White County on horseback, each carrying a child, who are now
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well known in Logan County as William R. and Jeremiah Buckles. This visit led to the return of both the Buckles and Birks families to Illinois, and to their settlement on Lake Fork, in 1822. Jere- miah Birks bought a log house and a six or seven acre claim of John Porter, near the mouth of the Lake Fork. This he sold and then located on a claim, now the Zelle farm, near Lake Fork Sta- tion, and from there moved to the Steenberger farm, on which was a double log house, or two cabins ten feet apart. Mr. Birks was a prime mover in laying out the cemetery on this farm. He was energetic and as ingenious as a Yankee, though born in Dixie, and did his own work in his own carpenter and blacksmith shop. He was twice married. First to Elizabeth Brown, by whom he had eight children-Polly, Rial, Riley, Levina, David, Rolland, Sarah and Betsey. Polly,. David and Rolland are the only ones living. To his second marriage were born six children-Isom, Sarah, Ri- ley, Ann, Permelia and Richard. Of these, only Isom and Rich- ard are living. Mr. Birks is buried on the old Steenberger farm. His sou, Rolland Birks, was born in White County, Illinois, De- cember 23, 1814. He is a large land-owner and farmer of Logan County, living on section 16, township 17, range 2. He first mar- ried Mary Vandeventer, who died August 20, 1876. To them were born five children-Melinda (deceased), David, James, John and Rebecca. His present wife was Mrs. Elizabeth J. Montgom- ery, daughter of Green Herring, of Knoxville, Tennessee, and widow of John Montgomery. David and James Birks (twins) were born in Mt. Pulaski Township, March 18, 1839. The latter is a farmer of Dakota. John Birks was born in April, 1841, and is now a farmer of Macon Conn'y, Illinois. David Birks has been a life-long resident of Logan County, and is now one of the most extensive farmers of this township, controlling about 1,100 acres. He has lived since 1853 on Bold Knob, a high hill commanding a beautiful landscape view. The first improvements were made and the present buildings were erected by his father. Mr. Birks married Sarah J. Copeland, who was born on her father's home- stead (where he still lives), on Lake Fork, February 7, 1842. Mr. and Mrs. Birks have one son- William Edward, born January 30, 1861. They are members of the Christian church. In politics Mr. Birks is a Democrat.
Isom Birks was born March 12, 1820, in Missouri. His boyhood was spent among the timber and on the prairies of Logan County. He has followed farming all his life, and has lived on his present
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farın since 1846. Including the land deeded to his sons, he has owned and reclaimed about 600 acres of Illinois, and is to-day a fine example of the open-hearted, hospitable, hard-working men, who laid the foundations for the upbuilding of the State of Illi- nois. In 1839 Mr. Birks was married to Mary Lucas, daughter of John Lucas. She was born May 26, 1824, in Ohio. By this union there are eight living children-Riley Birks served nearly three years in the Union army, enlisting in the One Hundred and Sixth Illinois Infantry. He removed to Iowa in 1881, and is now farm- ing at Portsmouth, Shelby County, that State. He married Hethey J. Martin, by whom he has six daughters and four sons. Jerry Birks also served three years as a private in the One Hundred and Sixth. He married Mary A. Lanham, by whom he has one daughter. He is farming near his father. John L. Birks married Martha S. Wilmot and has two daughters. In 1872 he removed to Iowa, and is now farming at Portsmouth that State. Sarah E. Birks married Levi Wilson and moved to Kansas in 1869, where Mr. Wilson died five years later, leaving two sons. Thomas R. Birks, married Mary C. Gasaway, by whom he has three sons and one daughter. He is now living in Persia, Harrison County, Iowa, to which place he went in 1877. Rhoda A. Birks married T. J. Gas- away, of Logan County, by whom she has a son and a daughter. Isom F. Birks, now farming in Lake Fork, married Anna R. Treft. They have one son. Permelia [. Birks is unmarried and lives with her parents. Politically Isom Birks and all his sons and daughters are Democrats. The father of the subject of this sketch, Jeremiah Birks, was born in Georgia. He was twice married, the first wife being Elizabeth Brown, by whom he had eight children, His second wife was Rhoda Collins, daughter of Hugh Collins, who settled in Lake Fork in 1822. By his second marriage six children were born, and of his fourteen children only five are now living-David, Roland and Polly, by the first wife, and Richard and our subject, Isom, by the second. Of these, David and Richard live in Iowa; Roland and Isom are Lake Fork farmers, and Polly, at the age of eighty-fonr, is the surviving widow of Robert Buckles. Jeremiah Birks settled in White County, Illinois, in 1812, where he lived about four years, going from there to Missouri, and in 1822 came to Logan County, Illi- nois. He, with his wife and family of eight children, came with team and wagon, and inade his claim at the mouth of Lake Fork, built a rude log hut, and with his stalwart sons began the work
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of clearing away the timber. A year later he sold his land and removed to what is now the Turner farm, where he bought eight or ten acres of cleared land, and in 1824 he bought of Hugh Col- lins the farm best known as the Steinbergen farm. There he built a two-story hewed log house, 20 x 24, with kitchen addition. On this farm was the Steinbergen graveyard, noted as the burial place of many pioneer settlers.
Isom F. Birks, farmer, section 13, was born February 3, 1857, on the Birks homestead in Mount Pulaski. His parents, Isom and and Mary (Lucas) Birks, were among the early settlers of this township. February 22, 1877, he married Anna R. Treft, dangh- ter of John Treft. Her father was born February 25, 1816, came to Springfield in 1837, and died December 22, 1862, on the Lake Fork. His widow, Margret (Liecom) Treft, was born August 18, 1824, came to Springfield, November 15, 1840. She married Jo- seph Thomas and is now living in Lake Fork Township. Mrs. Birks was born November 15, 1857, in Lake Fork Township. Mr. and Mrs. Birks have one son-Herbert Elmer Birks, born May 30, 1880. They belong to the Christian church.
Jeremiah Birks is a son of Isom and Mary (Lucas) Birks, and was born October 21, 1842, in Monnt Pulaski Township. He lived on the paternal homestead until August 16, 1862, when he, with his brother, Riley Birks, enlisted in Company B, One Hun- dred and Sixth Illinois Infantry. The regiment went direct to Jackson, Tennessee, and from there in June, 1862, to the rear of Vicksburg, guarding the Yazoo Valley. After the surrender of Vicksburg they went to Helena, Arkansas, and thence to Little Rock, assisting to capture that city. Later, a forced march was made toward Wichita, to cut off the Rebel cavalry that was trying to get in the rear of General Steele from the Red River battle near Shreveport. From August 16, 1864, until his discharge, March 7, 1865, Mr. Birks was disabled on account of sickness. Since the war he has lived on his present farm and remembers well his impressions formed during the war that the rank and file of the Confederate army were willing to acknowledge that the war was for the benefit of the officers of the Confederacy and wrong. Mr. Birks was married November 16, 1865, to Mary A. Lanham, born August 2, 1844, in Illinois, daughter of John Wesley and Harriet Lanham. Her father died when she was but six weeks old, and her mother Jannary 5, 1866. Mr. and Mrs. Birks have one daughter-Lucy L., born on the Lake Fork homestead December
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9, 1866. The firet President Mr. Birks cast his vote for was the Honorable Horatio Seymour, and the last one was the noble Cleve- land. He was a soldier who supported the red, white and blue, but yet a Democrat in politics.
Rev. John Theodore Boetticher, pastor of the Evangelical Lu- theran Zion Church, Mount Pulaski, was born April 4, 1829, in Duesseldorf, Rhinish Prussia. His secular studies were pursued at Essen, and in August, 1855, he graduated from the Theological Seminary in Barmen, Rhine Province. In December of the same year he came to America, settling in Illinois, his first congregation being in Monroe County. He spent two years in Vandalia, Illi- nois, and from 1861 to 1865 in La Grange, Missouri. From 1866 to 1870 he was in Golden, Illinois, in Angust of that year taking charge of his present congregation in Mount Pulaski, where he has ever since resided. Mr. Boetticher was married in Quincy, Illi- nois, to Henrietta Waldecker, born 1832, in Lippe Detmold. Five children have been born to them-Wilhelmina, born December 16, 1857, now wife of Fred Bachman; Augusta, born May 9, 1861, now Mrs. H. Barmeister, (Messrs. Bachman and Barmeister are partners in the grocery business in Decatur, Illinois); Johannes S. P., born July 8, 1864, in La Grange, Missouri, died July 25, 1865; Simon W., born July 14, 1867, in Golden, Adams County, Illinois, is now pursuing his studies in St. Louis, and Emili, born December 28, 1872, in Mount Pulaski.
James Broughton, farmer, section 6, was born October 2, 1814, near the line of Fairfield and Pickaway counties, Ohio. In the spring of 1831, he came to Sangamon County, hiring out on a farm, and remembers as a boy he was furnished with a poor scythe, with which, dull as it was, he kept his place among the hay-makers. During the next few years he crossed Indiana seven different times on horseback. In 1837 his father, Isaac Brongh- ton, step-mother and eleven children settled in Sangamon County. Isaac Broughton married, first, Mary Watkins, who died in Ohio, Jeaving three children-James, Nancy and Perry. By the second marriage with Becky Rumor, there were eight children. James Broughton married Mary (Iden) Greenslate, born in Pike County, Ohio, daughter of Humphrey and Nancy (Rollins) Iden. Her mother died when she was seven years old and three years later she came to Logan County, where she married George Greenslate, of Greenup County, Kentucky. He enlisted in the One Hun- dred and Sixth Illinois Infantry, in July, 1862, and died in the
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service at Columbus, Georgia. He left four children-Peter, James W., Sarah E., and Charles H. Mr. and Mrs. Broughton have four children-Samuel M., Malissa L., Eli E. and Lewis E. Mr. Broughton bought his present farm at $2.50 per acre. He now has nearly 500 acres of valuable and well-improved land in Mount Pulaski and Chester townships, a tasteful farm house, sub- stantial barn, good fences and orchards and has done the greater part of the work with his own hands.
George Brucker, section 8, was born September 16, 1828, in Wurtemburg. In 1833 his father, George Brucker, came to the United States and settled in Zanesville, Ohio. Ten years after, he came to a new prairie farm, in Mount Pulaski Township, where he lived until his death, which occurred in 1853. His widow sur- vives him, aged eighty years. There were ten children, three born in Germany, four in Ohio and three in Illinois. George Brucker, whose name heads this sketch, was employed for many years in Springfield, Illinois. In 1857 he began farming and now has 240 acres of fine farming land, ninety acres of timber. In 1865 he built one of the finest farm houses in Mount Pulaski Township. In March, 1856, he was united in marriage with Mar- garet Weller, who had come from Germany only two years pre- vious, with her brothers George and John Weller, now substan- tial farmers of this county. Mr. and Mrs. Brucker have six children-Mary, Martha, Charles, Lizzie, Gottleib and Fredericka, all born in Mount Pulaski Township. Mr. Brucker is a Democrat and a member of the Lutheran church.
Andrew Buckles is a son of Robert and Mary Buckles, who set- tled in Logan County in 1822. He was born December 20, 1827, on the paternal homestead, Mount Pulaski Township, and has spent his life here. In early life he was an enthusiastic hunter, keeping a pack of greyhounds, and in winter often capturing three and four deer per day to say nothing of the turkey and wolf shooting. For the past forty years he has been a successful and devoted bee hunter, finding on an average six to eight trees per year. After 1856 the deer-hunting was a sport of the past, though geese, ducks, brant, etc., seemed to increasejfor a few years. About 1851 Mr. Buckles built the house in which he now lives, and began farming on 320 acres of land. He now has a home farm of 480 acres, with good buildings and improvements, and has 133 acres additional. March 1, 1855, he married Elizabeth Whiteside, born May 15, 1828, in Cumberland County, Kentucky, and is the only
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living daughter of Charles and Elizabeth (Graves) Whiteside. In 1831, her parents, with their ten children settled on a farm near Springfield, Illinois, and there Charles Whiteside died. The widow and family came to Logan County in 1851. There were seven brothers-William A. and N. B. Whiteside are Sangamon County farmers; Franklin resides in Springfield; Milton 18 a resi- dent of La Cygne, Kansas; Thomas resides in Fort Collins, Colo- rado; Harvey is living in San Francisco and George is a resident of Olympus, lowa. Mr. and Mrs. Buckles have three living children-M. Frances, born October 17, 1858, now wife of John England; Henry Sherman, born June 17, 1865, and Robert Emmet was born March 2, 1869. Four children are deceased-Charles Andrew, died in infancy; Margaret C., died in her seventeenth year; Flora, died at twenty-two years of age and Emma L., at eighteen. Mr. and Mrs. Buckles belong to the Christian church. In politics Mr. Buckles is a Republican.
. Elias Buckles is the oldest son of John Buckles and was born September 30, 1848, on the Buckles homestead and has spent his entire life in Logan County. As a son of one of the largest farmers and most extensive stock dealers in Logan County, much of his time was spent in the saddle on cattle buying excursions, with his father, and in supervising the work on the home farm, under his father's instructions. September 1, 1868, he married and at the age of twenty years began life for himself on a part of his present farm. This was known as the old Thomas Lushbangh farm, though the place was occupied early in the " '20.'s " by G. W. Turley, who laid out the embryo city of Jamestown about 1830. Early settlers remember the surveying of Jamestown on the beau- tiful mound, now the home of Mr. Buckles. The enterprise came to nothing and Squire Turley became one of the founders of Mount Pulaski. Vestiges of the old brick yard and log buildings of the Turleys yet appear on the farm. This hill is about six feet higher than the Mount Pulaski hill, and upon it, in 1870, Mr. Buckles built his handsome two-story house which he has environed with beautiful and ornamental trees. His barn, 44 x 66 feet, was built eight years later and his place is laid out on a plan similar to that of his father's beautiful home. Mr. Buckles has been an extensive feeder of cattle, turning off an average of 100 head of fat cattle per annum for the past eighteen years. A few years ago he bought fifty head of male colts, kept them till they were three years old, when he sold the entire lot. Mr. Buckles and his wife have now
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1,200 acres of fertile land in one tract, being an inheritance from both the Buckles and Dyer estates. Both Mr. and Mrs. Buckles are members of the Christian church, having made an early pro- fession of Christianity. Politically Mr. Buckles is a Republican, keeping up the religious and political traditions of the family. Mrs. Buckles is a daughter of Harrison and Sarah (Turley) Dyer. She was born on the farm she now owns and is the only survivor of seven children. Harrison Dyer was born and reared in Ohio. In 1834, his father, Israel Dyer, a millwright, brought his family, with a four-horse team, to Illinois, settling at Two-Mile Grove, where he died. Harrison Dyer, born August 31, 1814, was mar- ried in Logan County to Sarah A. Turley, a daughter of John Turley and granddaughter of James Turley, one of the first white settlers of Logan County. Sarah Turley Dyer died in 1850 and is buried in the Carlysle cemetery. Harrison Dyer married again Martha Rankin, who survives him. She was born in Ken- tucky, settled in childhood in Menard County, Illinois, came to Lake Fork in 1851, and is now making her home in Mount Pulaski, Illinois. Her husband died, beloved and respected by all who knew him, May 17, 1866, and is buried beside his first wife. Mr. and Mrs. Buckles have six living children-J. Harrison, born July 24, 1869; Ora Ella, born November 13, 1871; Myrta L., born April 5, 1872; Edna Jane, born March 19, 1876; Elias F., born March 20, 1878, and Hubert, born September 19, 1883. Ira Lee, born October 30, 1870, died October 17 of the following year, and Darius W., born October 26, 1874, died September 20, 1875. All the children were born on the Mount Pulaski farm and repre- sent the fifth generation of this notable family in Logan County.
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