History of Macoupin County, Illinois, Part 56

Author: Brink, McDonough & Co.
Publication date: 1879
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 440

USA > Illinois > Macoupin County > History of Macoupin County, Illinois > Part 56

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The first store was established in the same year by Joseph Batchelor. Z.

B. Lawson, John Vial, W. Lee, and Mr. Peebles were early to embark in business.

A log school-house was built here two years before the town was platted. The first teacher was a man by the name of Dooner. At present there is a two-story school-house, and a good graded school.

Three churches-Presbyterian, Methodist and Episcopalian.

In 1864, Penn, Rogers and Padget erected a steam flouring mill, which is doing a good business. Previous to this W. B. Loomis built a steam flour- ing mill about two miles east of the village.

The following are the principal business houses in Chesterfield :- Gro- ceries and Drugs-Thomas Towse, Charles Bramley ; Dry-goods and Gro- ceries-Hall & Lee, James Birdsall ; Drug-store-William B. Peebles ; Shoe-shop-Henry Stamm ; Blacksmith and Wagon Shop-William Towse ; Blacksmith-John Scutt; Flouring Mill-Bielby & Bramley ; Physicians -I. R. Lane, L. F. Corgan, C. H. Murphy ; Furniture and Undertaking, Robert Oliver; Paint-shop -- John Nix ; Hotels-John Richey and Thomas Towse.

Chesterfield Lodge, A. F. & A. M. was organized Feb. 6th, 1865. The first officers were-W. J. Finch, W. M .; C. H. Murphy, S. W .; W. S. El- dred, J. W .; A. Hildreth, Treasurer ; J. W. Lumpkin, Secretary ; H. J. Loomis, S. D. ; E. Johnson, J. D .; J. M. Smith, Tyler. Chartered October 4th, A. L. 5865, with the following charter members : W. J. Finch, C. H. Murphy, M. S. Eldred, H. J. Loomis, Elfreth Johnson, W. B. Loomis, J. W. Lumpkin,' F. B. Selsby, A. Hildreth, Harkey Huskey, J. M. Smith. The lodge numbers fifty members, and is in a healthy condition.

The village of Chesterfield has at present about five hundred inhabitants.

THE VILLAGE OF MEDORA

Is located in the extreme south-west corner of the township, with a small division extending into section six of Shipman. It is on the line of the Rock Island Division of the C. B. & Q. R. R., which passes through the village, and out of the county about one mile north-west of Medora.

The village was laid out by Thomas B. Rice, proprietor, and surveyed by T. R. McKee in 1859. Previous to this the settlement was known as Rhoads' Point.

Medora is at present a very thriving and enterprising village of about five or six hundred population. There is quite a grain and lumber trade estab- lished here, and the milling facilities are excellent.

Two churches, a good graded school with two departments, hotels, groce- ry, hardware, drug, and dry-good stores ; blacksmith, shoe, carpenter and wagon repair shops; and in fact almost every kind of business is carried on in the village; there is also a good and reliable banking-house; Dr. Hunter is among the leading physicians.

The Medora Lodge of Odd Fellows was organized July 25th, 1872. The charter members were T. J. Cox, R. A. Love, William Johns, George Har- lan, D. S. Ferguson and Edgar E. Barnes. First officers were-T. J. Cox, N. G .; D. S. Ferguson, V. G .; R. A. Love, Secretary ; Andrew Steed, Treasurer. Present officers-C. M. Johnson, N. G .; Andrew Steed, V. G. ; E. W. Steed, Secretary ; J. A. Payne, Treasurer.

VILLAGE OF SUMMERVILLE.

This village was laid out by Wm. Carson, in 1852. It is located one mile north-east of Medora. Since the completion of the railroad and the building up of the town of Medora, the trade of Summerville has been di- verted to that place.

* For data furnished for the writing up of this township we are particularly indebted to J. H. Williams, Capt. Thos. S. Gelder and Nicholas Challacombe, and others.

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HISTORY OF MACOUPIN COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

Nicholas Challacombe.

THE ancestors of Mr. Challacombe were of Norman origin, and came over to England with William the Conqueror. For several generations preced- ing the birth of the subject of this sketch, they had lived in Devonshire, where his father and his grandfather were both born. His grandfather was named William Challacombe, and his father, John C. Challacombe. They followed agriculture, were the owners of their land, and were con- sidered a family of good origin and standing. The home of the Chal- lacombes was at Buttercombe Hall, in the parish of West Down. Barn- stable was the nearest market town. The family is quite extensive in England, having representatives at Bristol and other localities, but as far as known none of its members emigrated to America prior to 1830. Nicholas Challacombe was born at Buttercombe Hall, Devonshire, June 19th, 1824. He was the youngest son, and the sixth of a family of eight children. His mother, Elizabeth Parminter, belonged to an English agricul- tural family. In the year 1833, his father emigrated with the family to America. They first settled at Stafford, in Genesee county, New York, in which neighborhood a considerable number of English people from Devon- shire had settled. Purchasing a farm his father lived there till 1840, and then fulfilled his original intention of coming to Illinois. A number of English families, who had come over to America in the same vessel, had settled in Macoupin county, and accordingly he determined on making his home in this part of the state. He bought a farm in the south-west part of township ten, range seven, where he lived till his death, which took place in February, 1846. Mr. Challacombe's mother had died previously, in 1843.

While living in the state of New York, Mr. Challacombe attended the district schools, and after coming to Macoupin county, went to the "Old Seminary" at Carlinville, a school well known to the older residents of the

county, and in which he obtained the chief part of his education. He was sixteen when the family came to Macoupin county. In 1845, the year in which he attained his majority, his father purchased for him four hundred acres of land lying in the Macoupin bottom, in sections seventeen, twenty, and twenty-one of the present Chesterfield township. Of this tract only eighty acres were under cultivation, partly covering a mound rising from the Macoupin bottom, and affording a beautiful and picturesque building site. The place is one of the oldest in Chesterfield township, and was originally settled by a man named James Loper. From the Loper family it passed into the hands of the Blackburns, and Mr. Challacombe purchased it from A. M. Blackburn, son of Dr. Gideon Blackburn. He was married on the 22d of March, 1847, by the Rev. Hugh Barr, the pastor of the Spring Cove Presbyterian Church, to Nancy Glorianna Carson. Mrs. Challacombe was born at Franklin, Tennessee. Her ancestors were Scotch. Her father, William Harvey Carson, became a resident of Macoupin county in 1833. Mr. Challacombe devoted all his energy to the improvement of his land, to which he subsequently made additions. He is now the owner of seven hun- dred acres, lying in one body, in sections sixteen, seventeen, twenty and twenty-one. The original cabin built by Loper, which stood on the premises when Mr. Challacombe took possession, was destroyed by fire on the night of the 14th of October, 1846. At that time his sister was keeping house for him, his marriage not then having taken place. The conflagration broke out so suddenly that the inmates of the house were compelled to seek safety from the flames without their clothing. The same fall a log house was re- moved from another locality to replace the structure, and was standing till 1870, when his present residence, which he began building in 1860, was completed. The mound on which stands his house comprises sixty acres.

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It rises to a considerable elevation above the surrounding country, and is one of the most attractive spots for a residence to be found in the county.

He has been principally engaged in general farming. He and his wife have eight children living, and four who are deceased. In his political sym- pathies he was formerly a member of the Whig party, and Henry Clay, the idolized champion of the Whig organization, received his first vote for President in the exciting contest of 1844, when the Whig party went to pieces, and the Republican party, like a young giant, stepped forth in the arena of politics to do battle for freedom. Mr. Challacombe's free-soil prin- ciples led him to at once espouse the cause of the new party, and he became one of the early Republicans of Macoupin county. For the last thirty-three years he has been a member of the Spring Cove Presbyterian Church, founded by the Rev. Dr. Blackburn, and whose first house of worship stood on Mr. Challacombe's farm. The church is now at Summerville. He is known as one of the large and progressive farmers of Chesterfield township. He has been incidentally interested in other business. For a time he was the proprietor of a steam saw mill on the Macoupin. He was interested in the organization of the Bank of Medora in the spring of 1879, and is its vice-president, and one of the directors. For twenty years he has been school treasurer of Chesterfield township. For the first three terms after the adoption of township organization, he was a member of the Board of Supervisors, serving during the years 1871, 1872 and 1873.

CAPTAIN THOMAS S. GELDER

WAS born in Yorkshire, England, March 1, 1809. His father was John Gelder, and his mother Elizabeth Shearburn, and the subject of this sketch was the second of a family of five children, of whom only two are now living-Capt. Gelder and his sister Sarah, widow of the late Judge Ambrose Wycoff, of Jersey county. In the year 1831 John Gelder emigrated with his family to America, settling in Chesterfield town- ship on the farm now occupied by his son. He built a log-cabin, which at the time of its construction was the largest log building in the county, with the exception of the court-house. He died December 23, 1851, at the age of seventy-three years and four days. His wife, Elizabeth, died March 24, 1847, aged sixty-one years. During their life-time they were both com municants in the Episcopal church. Capt. Gelder's father assisted in organizing the Episcopal church at Chesterfield, and was one of its wardens till he died. He was a whig in politics, and a man of many excellent traits of character.

The subject of this biography secured his early education in Yorkshire, England. He attended the common parish schools, and also a boarding- school at Whiston, near Rotheram. After leaving school he assisted his father on the farm. He concluded to emigrate to America, and landed at Baltimore July 16, 1830. Traveling through Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky, he reached Carrollton, in Greene county, in November, about a year earlier than the date at which his father reached this country. In June, 1831, he enlisted for the Black Hawk war, in Capt. Smith's company. He took part in the various campaigns against the Indians, and was stationed for a time at a place opposite Fort Armstrong, where he was discharged from the service at the close of the war. He received for his services a dollar a day, and had to find his own horse and accoutrements. In the fall, of his return, his father reached Carrollton with the family, and Capt. Gelder settled with them in Macoupin county. He was shortly afterward naturalized, and was the first person of foreign birth to make application for citizenship after the organization of Macoupin county.

October 1, 1836, he married Ann Quarton, daughter of Thomas and Lydia Quarton. Her parents were natives of Yorkshire, England ; came to America in 1829, and settled near Linnville, in Morgan county. By this marriage there were nine children, four of whom are deceased. Of those living, the only son, John Gelder, resides at Virden, and is one of the large and successful farmers of Macoupin county. The oldest daughter, Elizabeth Ann, is the wife of Lewis Terrel, a farmer of Jersey county. Mary Frances married Charles Lewis, a resident of this county. Sarah Ellen is the wife of F. W. Shearburn, and resides in Sangamon county. The youngest daughter, Clara, married Peter G. Randolph. a hardware merchant of Mor- risonville, in Christian county. His first wife died on the 12th of December, 1855, aged forty years. His second marriage occurred May 14, 1857, to Ruth Louisa Chapin, daughter of Daniel Chapin. She was born at New- port, New Hampshire, and is a lady of more than ordinary culture and

refinement. She was a member of the first class which graduated from the Monticello Female Seminary.

Capt. Gelder has been one of the successful farmers of the county, and a man of high personal character and standing. In early life he was a whig, and the first vote after his naturalization was cast for Henry Clay for president. He has voted at every subsequent presidential election. On the dissolution of the whig organization he became a republican, and was one of the strong supporters of the policy of that party in opposition to the extension of slavery into the Territories, and afterwards when the Rebel- lion broke out, vigorously seconded the efforts of the administration to save the Union. He had the honor of voting twice for Abraham Lincoln, with whom he was on terms of personal acquaintance, and with whom he served in the Black Hawk war. During the late war of the Rebellion Macoupin county did not have a more patriotic citizen. He contributed liberally of his means, so that the wives and children of the soldiers absent in the army should be comfortably clad and fed. He was appointed agent to assist in sending provisions to the soldiers, and aided largely in collecting the sup- plies sent South through the department at Springfield. He came to this county with scanty means, but his native ability, honesty and integrity soon placed him on the sure road to success and independent circumstances. He has dispensed a liberal and generous hospitality, and in the earlier history of the county has entertained under his roof many men prominent in the history of the State, among whom were Stephen A. Douglas, Governor John Reynolds, Governor Thomas Carlin, and Richard Yates. He is a member of the Episcopal church at Chesterfield, of which he has been senior warden since his father's death. Mrs. Gelder is a Congregation- alist. .

WILLIAM DUCKELS,

ONE of the early settlers of Chesterfield township, was born at Goole, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, January 19th, 1805. In Eng- land few farmers own land, the title to which is in the hands of a compara- tively few families; most of the largest farmers are only tenants. His father, Thomas Duckels, was a tenant to the Southern family, many of the farmers under whom were quite wealthy. He obtained an ordinary business education, and worked on the farm with his father until he came to America. In September, 1830, he was married to Francis Garlick, who was born and raised in the same village as her husband. He left England on the 20th of May, 1834, to make his home in America. After a long voyage in a sailing vessel, he landed at Quebec, Canada, and from that city came directly to Morgan county, Illinois ; he remained in Morgan county only a few months, and in the month of February, 1835, he settled in Ma- coupin county on section fourteen, township nine, range nine. He first entered eighty acres of land, where he built a house, and eighty acres of timber ; he went to work improving a farm, which gradually he got under good cultivation. His circumstances were a little different from those of many of the early pioneers of the county. He brought with him from Eng- land, means which were considered at that time quite abundant, and has always been an energetic and successful farmer. He has resided in Chester- field township from the time he first came to the country, and is now the owner of more than seven hundred acres of land, part of which lies in Polk, and part in Chesterfield township.

Mr. and Mrs. Duckels have been the parents of ten children ; two are de- ceased ; the names of the eight living are as follows : Sarah Ann, now the wife of Judge T. L. Loomis, of Carlinville; William G. Duckels, who has been a resident of Polk township, and has also been in the grain business at Carlinville; Thomas Duckels, one of the enterprising farmers of Virden township ; Edward G., also is farming in Polk township; Eliza; Grace, who married Robert Carter, of Chesterfield township; Victoria, and Joseph. The oldest of these children, Sarah, was born in England ; the others are all natives of this country. Mr. D. is known as one of the substantial farmers of Chesterfield township, and is a man much respected for his worth as a citizen.

Chesterfield township contains a large number of farmers of English birth who came to the county at an early date, and by their enterprise and energy have developed the resources of the county, and secured a comfortable com- petence, while they have proved themselves peaceable, law-abiding, and hon- est citizens. Mr. Duckels is one of the representative men of this class. When he came to this country, he gave his adherence politically to the old

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HISTORY OF MACOUPIN COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

whig party, as best representing, as he thought, the spirit of free institutions ; he was a whig as long as that organization lasted, and when the slavery question came to be agitated, and the republican party sprang vigorously into existence, he did not hesitate to give his preference to the party that supported free-soil principles, and he has been a republican ever since. He is a gentleman of good business capacity, and has carried on farming in an intelligent and progressive manner. His farm south of the town of Chester- field is well improved, and has a neat and attractive residence, and other substantial buildings.

HORACE J. LOOMIS.

THE ancestors of Mr. Loomis were early residents of New England. The first of the family to settle there was Joseph Loomis, who came to Massa- chusetts in 1630, ten years after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock. From him have sprung numerous descendants, scattered over various portions of the United States. Thaddeus Loomis, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, moved to the state of New York in 1804, and settled in Herkimer county. His father, Horace Loomis, was born in Massachusetts, and was a boy when the family moved to Herkimer county, where, on growing up, he married Julia Tuttle. By this marriage there were three children-Thaddeus L., William, and Horace J. Loomis. Horace J. Loomis was the youngest, and was born at Salisbury, Herkimer county, New York, May 17th, 1832. In the year 1838 his father moved with the family to Illinois, and settled on section one, township nine, range nine. Here he engaged in farming quite extensively. He was a man of progressive nature and considerable enterprise. He was the first man in the county to embark in the dairy business, and made large quantities of cheese. His energy and superior judgment and intelligence made him one of the leading men of the community. He was a liberal patron of all educational projects, and was mainly instrumental in founding the Chesterfield Seminary in 1848. At the time of its construction the building was the finest in the county devoted to educational purposes. He died in the year 1850. Horace J. Loomis was six years of age when he came to Macoupin county. He acquired his education in the schools of the neighborhood and at Shurtleff College. September 12th, 1854, he married Alice H. Eldred, daughter of William Eldred, of Greene county. Her father emigrated from Herkimer county, New York, to Greene county in 1820. Mrs. Loomis received her education at Monticello Seminary. Since 1854 Mr. Loomis has been en- gaged in farming on sections one and two, Chesterfield township. He has four children living. He has filled the office of justice of the peace. He is a democrat in politics and a universalist in religion.

P. B. SOLOMON.

MR. SOLOMON belongs to one of the oldest families in the county. He was born in Logan county, Kentucky, May 25th, 1814. The family settled in North Carolina at an early date. His grandfather, Lewis Solomon, was in the Revolutionary war. His father, Lewis Solomon, was born in Frank- lin county, North Carolina, and married Sarah Bowden. He moved to Ken- tucky in 1811 ; to Morgan county, Illinois, in 1825 ; and to North Palmyra township in this county in 1827, where the father and mother of the subject of this sketch both died. Mr. Solomon was about eleven years old when he came to this state. When they came to North Palmyra township there was no othe house nearer than eight or ten miles to the north, twenty miles to the east, eight miles south, and twelve miles west. By reason of the wild, unsettled condition of the country there were no schools till Mr. Solomon had grown up, and he remembers being inside of a school-house for purposes of instruction only a few days in all his life. For his acquirements in the way of an education he is indebted to his own efforts after he was grown to manhood. In the year 1834 he married Lucy Ann Fink, who died in 1844. After his marriage he entered land and went to farming in South Palmyra township. In the spring of 1845 he settled in the town of Chesterfield, where he took a contract for building the Methodist church, the first frame building in the town. He also put up a circular saw mill run by horse power, the first mill of the kind in Macoupin county, and afterward built several saw mills. For some years he was clerk in a store at Chesterfield. June 1st, 1845, he married Mary E. Good, whose death took place in 1855. About 1850 he started a store of his own at Chesterfield, which he carried on six years. February 5, 1856, he married Fannie Smith, who was born in

Western Mound township in 1833. Her father, Joshua Smith, was a North Carolinian by birth, who came to the county in 1828, and was one of the earliest settlers near Chesterfield, within a few miles of which he improved several farms. Mr. Solomon was elected justice of the peace about 1846, and held the office two terms in succession. In 1862 President Lincoln ap- pointed him post-master, but after some years he resigned. He was re-ap- pointed in 1873, and now holds the office. For eight years he kept a hotel at Chesterfield. During the last twenty-five years he has acted on many occasions as executor and administrator, and has settled up numerous estates, and has transacted a considerable part of the legal business done at Ches- terfield. He has also acted as real estate agent, and has appeared as attorney in almost every case that has been tried before justices of the peace at Ches- terfield. He was first a democrat, and voted for Van Buren. Although a warm supporter of Douglas he differed from him on the question of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and was one of the first democrats in the county to cut loose from the party on that measure. To him belongs the distinction (which will reflect credit on him in after years when the histories of parties in Illinois come to be written up) of presiding at the first regularly organized meeting in Macoupin county, from which dates the formation of the repub- lican party in the county. The meeting was composed of democrats opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska bill. He has been an active republican from that day to the present. He was enrolling officer at Chesterfield during the war. He is an old and well-known citizen, and has discharged every business trust in a manner that has reflected credit on his ability and integrity.

THOMAS DOWLAND,-(DECEASED),

WHO died in 1874, was born at Shaftesbury in Dorsetshire, England, October 3d, 1819. His father was a saddler. He learned the trade of a butcher. July 26th, 1843, he married Mary Edwards, born at Fontmellmagna, Dorsetshire, November 12th, 1824, daughter of James Edwards. In 1848 he came with his family to New York in a sailing ves- sel, intending to settle at Dixon, Illinois, but meeting some people coming to Macoupin county, they came to Chesterfield township. He rented land two years and then bought forty acres in section twenty-two. He had barely enough money to get to Illinois, but was industrious and energetic, and be- came the owner of 260 acres of land. His constitution had never been very strong, and finally after an illness of nearly a year he died of consumption, March 4th, 1874. He had nine children : Jane, who married Robert Rich- ardson ; Martha, wife of Thomas B. Richardson ; Mary, twinsister to Martha, who died at the age of seventeen ; James E., Sarah, wife of William Robinson ; Albert, Clara A., John R. and Mary Annie. Mr. Dowland was a republican in politics, a useful man, and a good citizen.

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History of Macoupin County, Illinois, Part 56

Author: Brink, McDonough & Co. Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Number of Pages: 440

Author: Brink, McDonough & Co.
Publication date: 1879
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 440