USA > Illinois > Piatt County > History of Piatt County; together with a brief history of Illinois from the discovery of the upper Mississippi to the present time > Part 31
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MR. JAMES TIPPETT's parents were Americans, and lived and died in Maryland. He was born within sixteen miles of Washington City. He was married in 1823, in Loudoun county, Virginia, to Miss Elizabeth Dodd, and in 1834 moved to Licking county, Ohio. Mr. Tippett's son, Cumberland, came to this county in 1864, and for a number of years was a minister in the Methodist church. He died October 2, 1875, from the effects of a fall from a fruit tree. His widow, née Helen Heath, and two children survived him. She is now living in Champaign county. Miss Ellen and Miss Martha are living with their father in Monticello. Mr. Fenton Tippett is in the west, while the youngest daughter, Frankie, is now Mrs. W. D. Dickinson, and with her husband and child lives in Bement. Mrs. James Tippett died July 7, 1871, and lies buried in the Monticello cemetery. Mr. James Tippett, after coming to this county, lived about four years east of Monticello
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and about twelve years on Mr. Suver's place northwest of the city. Mr. Tippett has long been a zealous church member, and as he grows older his religious zeal seems to wax stronger.
MR. RILEY TATMAN, Monticello. His father came to this county in 1852, when Riley was but eight years old, and lived on what is now the C. W. Piatt place. Mr. Riley Tatman received his education in this county and was married in 1868, to America Hitchens, of Ohio, who came to this county in 1864. Maud S. is their only child. Mr. Tatman was in the late war, and of Co. F, 54th Ill. reg. He was in the battles of Corinth, Vicksburg, Sabine River, and was captured August 16, 1864, near Little Rock. He served in rebel prison until May, 1865 ; first in Monticello, Arkansas, then in Camden, Arkansas, Shreveport, Louisiana, and Tyler, Texas. His rations were one pint unsifted cornmeal a day, mixed with cold water, no salt, and baked on chips ; three ounces fresh beef every third day, roasted without salt. He was fortunate in not being wounded, and reached home in Novem- ber, 1865. Mr. Tatman kept a journal on the margins of newspapers all during imprisonment, but has since lost it. He escaped five differ- ent times, and each time was caught by bloodhounds. Three times he escaped through tunnels, once by burying himself while moving from one prison to the other, and last by overpowering the guard, shooting his arm off by slipping up where he was asleep and putting his foot on the trigger of the gun. After returning from the war, he finished his common education, and taught from 1866 to 1872. For two years he was in the drug business, then two years a carpenter, and since in abstract business and law.
MR. C. N. THOMPSON is a native of Fulton county, Illinois, from which place lie came to Piatt county in 1879, and located on a farm owned by Mr. Samuel Allerton, of Chicago. Mr. Thomson was married in 1860, to Caroline Putman, and has five children, A. C., Charles Nelson, Jessie L. and Berintha M., who are attending the St. Mary's School at Knoxville, and Pamilla. Mr. Thompson went to the army from Fulton county in Co. E, of the 103d regiment. He was in the commissary department most of the time, but was in the battle of Vicksburg and others. Mr. Thompson is now residing on the farm lately owned by Messrs Frank and Ed. Williams.
MR. A. B. TROWBRIDGE, farmer, Monticello, was born in Ohio, from which state lie moved to Illinois about 1849. He was married in 1861, to Ann C. Moore, and has had four children, William Thomas,
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Samantha Josie, Albert Levi and Opha Belle. They moved into Piatt county in 1879. ,
DR. CHRISTOPHER R. WARD was born August 6, 1809, in Abington, Washington county, Virginia, of Scotch-Irish parentage. While yet quite young he removed to Tazewell, Claiborne county, East Tennessee, where he lived until he arrived at the years of manhood. While yet almost a boy he made a trip into the then newly discovered gold country of northern Georgia and Alabama, and spent some months in searching for gold. The territory in which gold was found then belonged to the Cherokee Indians. For a time the excitement in regard to the discovery rivaled that which, after many years, occurred on the discovery of gold in California. Notwithstanding the treaty with the Indians and the proclamation of the President, the gold-bearing terri- tory was overrun with fortune-hunters, until at length, by authority of the government, they were forcibly removed by United States troops sent there for that purpose. The subject of our sketch studied medicine at Knoxville, in East Tennessee, and finally removed to Edgar county, Illinois, in 1832, where he was married to Miss Elizabeth Hobbs, by whom he had one son, T. G. Ward, who now resides in Missouri. After her death he was married to Miss Nancy Somerville, then resid- ing in Edgar county, who survives him. The children of this marriage were Jolin Ward, who adopted his father's profession and was quite successful as a physician, practicing at Lovington, Illinois, until his death, which occurred in 1875 ; Sarepta, who married C. W. Noyes and now resides in St. Joseph, Missouri ; Mary, who married James Holmes, now of Chicago, and Martha, who married H. E. Huston and still resides in Monticello, Illinois. Soon after his second marriage he concluded to remove to Piatt county and try practicing his profession. Up to that time he had tried farming and school teaching and a little of everything that came to hand. He arrived in Monticello with his young family in the year 1845, and before he had had time to unload his few household goods he was called upon to visit professionally one of the citizens who was dangerously ill, and from that time until he was finally compelled, in 1870, to relinquish his practice, by the premonitions of heart disease, he never knew what it was to rest from his labors. Through sunshine and storm, daylight and darkness, sum- mer and winter, he was always ready to go in answer to the cry of distress. At the time of his location in Monticello the county and town was but sparsely inhabited, and he was the only practicing physician in the county. His practice for years afterward extended
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from Sadorus Grove on the east to Friends Creek on the west, from Mackville in the south to Mahomet in the north ; or in other words, about fifteen miles in all directions from Monticello. Such was the urgency and frequency of his calls, that repeatedly he was compelled to get what little slumber he could while riding horseback over the the then trackless prairies froin one lone cabin to another. The greater part of the settlers at that time were very poor, yet he never let the fact that he would probably have to take his pay in produce, and as likely get nothing for his services, make him hesitate when the call for assistance came. Nevertheless he had his reward in the universal esteem in which he was and is held by this community. He was a con- sistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Relinquishing his practice in 1870, he immediately set about putting his affairs in order to receive the summons which he felt would sooner or later call him from his earthly labors. But few persons have left their financial matters in better shape. Finally, after facing the destroyer manfully for years, he gently and peacefully passed over the river on April 22, 1881. His remains were buried in the cemetery north of Monticello .*
SQUIRE WILEY .- Addison J. Wiley was born November 1, 1810, and was named for Joseph Addison, of literary renown. His father, Moses Wiley, was born in Virginia, on the Rappahannock river, was of Welch and German descent, and was in the revolutionary war at the' age of fourteen. He married Miss Rachel Lehew, who was of French descent. They had ten children, seven of whom were boys. Mr. Wiley and his family moved to Indiana while it was yet a territory. Mr. A. J. Wiley remembers that while his folks were in Indiana, in 1814, Mr. James A. Piatt, when assistant provision contractor for Gen. Harrison, fed pack-horses on his father's farm. A. J. Wiley was married in Indiana in 1834, to Sarah Tenbrooke. They had nine children, three of whom were born in Indiana. Charles Wiley died in 1864, leaving a wife (now Mrs. Johnson) and four children. Amelia is the wife of Albert Miner. George Wiley died in the army in Nashville, Tennessee. Rachel married Wesley Goodwin. James Wiley makes his home in Monticello. Allen Wiley married Fannie Wood. On the 13th of August, 1860, Mr. A. J. Wiley and Mrs. Campbell were married. The second Mrs. Wiley died October 5, 1876, leaving three children, Belle Campbell and Frank and Lena Wiley. In 1837 Mr. Wiley came to Illinois to look up a place for a new home. He bought land, 40 acres of which was timber and 40 acres prairie
* We are indebted to H. F. Huston for the above sketch.
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land, of Mr. Abraham Marquiss and Mr. Willianı Barnes in what is now Piatt county. He then returned to Indiana and remained until 1839, when he moved out to his new home. His wife had come out a few months previous with Mr. Tenbrooke's family. They lived on their farm until 1840, when they moved into the cabin in which four of James A. Piatt's sons were then living. After boarding for a time with these persons Mr. Wiley moved into the town of Monticello, in which there were about three houses in 1840. In 1840 Mr. Wiley was made constable, which office he held two years, when he became justice of the peace, and he still has the position, having been out of the office only about four and a half years during forty years' time. We noticed in an old county paper not long since that of the several hundred decisions Mr. Wiley had made in his position as squire only two have been reversed. Mr. Wiley relates the following incident of Abraham Lincoln. When Lincoln & McDongal were practicing law here,' they . entertained each other in various ways, and at one time tried to see which could throw an old meat-axe the farthest .. The two were stand- ing in the street a little west of the southwest corner of the public square. After each had thrown the axe a time or two Mr. Lincoln tooksit and, after swinging it around his head, slung it westward and into the Lizard run. Upon seeing where the axe lit, Mcdougal exclaimed : "Why didn't you do that before ? Here I've been almost throwing my arms off trying to beat you !" Lincoln enjoyed the joke very much.
MR. CHARLES WATTS (deceased) was born March 25, 1835, in Cale- donian county, Vermont. He came to Monticello about 1855, taught school the first year, and began practicing law the next year, and became a most successful lawyer of the county .. He was school and county treasurer for a number of years in the county. He went back to Vermont, and married Lodoskey A. Spencer, November 22, 1858. Four of their children are living, Willie E., Charles P., Lena M. and Harry S. Mr. Watts died February 4, 1875, and Monticello thus lost one of her most honored and respected citizens. Mrs. Watts' sister, Phebe Spencer, now Mrs. Henry Bodwell, came to Monticello i : 1859. Mr. and Mrs. Bodwell have two children, Bertie and Agatha.
MR. L. B. WEAVER, farmer, Monticello, is a native of Virginia, front which state he moved to Ohio, and then came to Monticello in 1843. He lived in the old Piatt cabin for a time, and has lived in the vicinity of Monticello ever since. He owns 80 acres of land, where le now lives, and has improved the place himself. He was married
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August 17, 1837, to Sarah A. Neal, and has had fifteen children. twelve of whom are living, and all are within a radius of eight or ten miles. Not many families so large remain so near each other. Mary J. married J. E. B. Fowler, and has three children, Berry, Charles and Louis, and lives in Monticello. George, who was in the late war, married Kate Connor, and has three children, Maud, Edna and Nellie. Margaret was the wife of Daniel Bush, who died, leaving five children, George, Mary, Frank, Alice and Bertie D. 'Mrs. Bush next married Mr. William Barnhart, who had several children. Martha A. Weaver married Daniel Russell. Elizabeth is the wife of Henry Martin, and has four children, Harry, Irving, Sadie and Elsie. James Weaver married Mary Johnson, and has three children, Linnie, Claud and Ollie. Eliza Weaver became the wife of Franklin Sellers, and has one son, Leonard B. Charles Weaver married Minnie Jones. Kate
Weaver married John Dresback, and has three children. Winfield married Ella Lowe. Nannie and John E. Weaver are still at home.
MR. JOHN WOOLINGTON is a farmer, and lives about three miles northwest of Monticello. He is a native of Ohio, from which state he moved to Illinois about 1843 or 1844. He married Isabella Kyle, who died in 1848, leaving four children, two of whom are now living. Sarah married James Davis, and now lives in Monticello. They have one daughter, Ida Isabelle, who graduated in the Monticello High School in 1881. Henry N. married Charity Parker. They, with their three children, Otho, Adelbert and May, have quite recently moved to Iowa. Mr. John Woolington married Mrs. Susan Devore, in 1849. They are living quietly and contentedly in a neat frame house on the farm that Mr. William Barnes lived on for so many years.
MR. A. H. WILDMAN, photographer, Monticello, is a native of Trumbull county, Ohio, from which state he moved to Piatt county, Unity Township, in 1850. A portion of the time since, he made his home in Douglass county, but in January, 1871, he moved to Monti- cello, where he has since resided. At present he is the only plioto- grapher in the place. He owns the property where his business office is, and also owns his residence property. He was married to Hannah J. Hodge, and has two children, Maud A. and William T. In 1861 he went to the army in Co. G of the 13th Ill. Cav. He was discharged later on account of disability, but re-enlisted in November, 1862, in Battery I, of the 2d Ill. Lt. Art., and was discharged June 14, 1865. IIe was in nearly all the battles from Chattanooga to the sea, and to Goldsborough. North Carolina. While in the army he
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lost his hearing by a premature explosion, and was otherwise injured, so that he deservedly draws a pension at the present time. Mr. Wild- man's father, Mr. Thomas Wildman, settled in Unity township in 1850. His wife died after the family had started to move from Ohio to Illinois. Mr. Thomas Wildman was a constant sufferer for nineteen years before his death in 1870, and for thirty-two months previous to his decease he never spoke a word aloud. He left six children, five of whom are living in Piatt county. Thomas P. Wildman married Elizabeth Shonkwiler, and lives in Unity township. Eunice Arvilla - became the wife of Aaron Harshbarger, but died, leaving six children. Henry Wildman married Sarah E. Quick, has six children, and lives on the old home place. Electa is the wife of Napoleon B. Shonkwiler, has a large family of children, and lives in Unity township. Emer- zilla is the wife of Samuel Harshbarger, of Unity township, and has six children.
MR. R. B. WINCHESTER, harness maker, Monticello, is a native of Madison county, Ohio. His father was from New York, his mother from Tennessee, and of English descent. They had ten children, two of whom lived in Piatt county. Mr. Winchester was married in 1852, to Frances A. Tinder, in Madison county, Ohio. They moved to Piatt county in 1853, settled in Monticello, where he has been in the harness business ever since. They have had four children, the eldest dying when eighteen months old. Lewis E. married Annie E. Maddy, of Muncie, Indiana, in October, 1876. They have one child, Eva. Mr. Winchester is a druggist, in Muncie, Indiana. Lucy Winchester died July 3, 1876. Eva is at home ; she is a graduate of the Monticello high school, in which school she is a successful teacher. Mr. Win- chester went to the army in 1861, in Co. C of the 73d Ill. Inf. He held the position of 2d lieut., and was out about five months, coming home on account of sickness. The battle of Perrysville is the principal one in which he participated. Mrs. Winchester has been a mantua- maker and milliner in Monticello for the past twenty years. She has always been one of the principal milliners, and ofttimes the only one, but she is never too busy to make use of her rare faculty of good nurs- ing at the bed-side of the sick in her community. Clara, Mr. R. B. Winchester's sister, married James Hall, and lives in Indiana. She came here in 1856 or 1857, met Mr. Hall, who went to Indiana, married her, then came here and lived for several years.
. MR. C. B. WENGENROTH, furniture dealer, Monticello, is a native of Germany. He came to America in 1853, and in 1856 located in
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Monticello, where he opened the first furniture store in the place. He now owns two business houses, three residences and seven lots in Monticello. He belongs to the Odd-Fellows lodge of the town. Mr. Wengenrothi was married in 1858, to Catherine Minick. Only one, Lillie, of their five children is living.
MR. SAMUEL B. WEBSTER, Mr. Webster's father, was a native of Kentucky, his mother of Virginia, while Ohio bears the honor of his nativity. He was one of a family of four, two of which are now living in this county. Mr. Webster moved to Champaign county in 1856, and in 1858 settled in Piatt county. He located in Monticello as a saddler, which occupation he continued until he was appointed postmaster, December 20, 1866. He was first appointed by post- master General William Denison, during the administration of Andrew Johnson, and through the recommendation of the retiring postmaster, Wilson Cox, to the postmaster-general. He was reappointed under U. S. Grant, and again under R. B. Hayes. Mr. Webster was married in 1861, to Ann M. Dyer. Four children have blessed their union, three of whom, C. Kate, Isaac W. and Lena B., are living. The people in and about Monticello will long remember the genial face of the present postmaster, as he greets and distributes mail to the eager inquiring throng that fills the office so frequently.
MR. WILLIAM C. WEBSTER, formerly a harness dealer in Monticello, was born in Ohio. He moved from his native state to Piatt county in 1857 and located at Monticello, and that has been his home ever since. He remained in the saddlery business until 1879. The winter of 1881-2 he inade a trip to California with anticipation of locating in that state. He is lavish of praise for the Golden State, but did not move to it as he anticipated. He is now living just outside the corporation line of Monticello. He was married in December, 1854, to Mary Dyer, who died in August, 1870, leaving five children, four of whom are now living. Charles, her eldest son, died of consumption when but fifteen years old. James married Miss Hattie Burgess in 1880, and is running a book and stationery store in Monticello. Miss Lillie, after her
mother's death, did ample credit to herself as her father's' housekeeper. She and her brother and sister, Eddie and Katie, are still at home. On June 25, 1872, Mr. Webster married Louisa Rue, a native of New Jersey. She has had four children, three of whom, Lulu May, Pauline and Myrtie Belle, are living. Mr. Webster has not escaped the office of school-director, and was once elected coroner.
MR. G. R. WARRICK, farmer, Monticello, is a native of . Pike
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county, and moved to Piatt county in 1878. He was married in 1873, to Lucy E. Burch, a native of Pike county. They own a farm of eighty acres, which is all under cultivation. There is a good house on the place, some five hundred trees have been planted out, and a new barn is being built.
MR. A. ZYBELL, Monticello, is a native of Prussia, who came to America in 1851, and in 1858 located in Monticello, where he is now engaged in the boot and shoe business. He was married in 1857, to Louisa Hammersmidt and has six children. Robert is in Iowa ; Bertie married Will Wall, has one child, Allie, and lives in Monticello ; Albert, Willie, August and Emma are at home. Mr. Zybell owns a residence, two business houses, and four lots in Monticello. He also owns a farm of two hundred acres in Goose Creek township, and has put all the improvements on the place. A barn and residence was erected on the farm in 1882.
CHAPTER XIII.
BEMENT TOWNSHIP.
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T THIS township lies directly south of Monticello township, and also contains forty-eight sections of land. A portion of Champaign county bounds it on the east, Unity township on the south, while Willow Branch and Cerro Gordo townships form the western boundary.
A ridge running across the northwestern corner of the township causes the land there to be a great deal higher than it is in the southern and eastern part of the township. . In fact the lowness of the land in the southern and eastern part debarred settlement therein for a number of years, and even yet it is thinly settled in some parts. But since tiling has begun to be used in the county much has been done to prepare the exceedingly rich soil for cultivation. A very much greater portion can be cultivated now compared with the tillable land of twenty years ago, and much more improvement is anticipated, too, in the next few years.
The extreme northwestern portion of the township drains toward the Sangamon, while all the rest of the township is drained by the Lake Fork of the Okaw, which comes into the township in its north-
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eastern section, runs southwest and then southeast, leaving the township about the middle of its southern boundary line. The fall in the stream is very slight. After the rainy season the banks are soon overrun, and then for days and weeks the stream, through miles of its course, has the appearance of a lake or swamp; and because of this slowness in discharging its waters, we suppose, the stream has been called Lake Fork. The land traversed by the Lake Fork is very rich indeed, and when the channel of the stream is once deepened so that the surplus water can be turned from off the farming land, we anticipate that the finest crops in the country can be raised on what is now untillable land. 5
Two railroads pass through this township. The Wabash road strikes the eastern boundary line about one mile from the northern boundary line, runs southwest through the township, crossing the western boundary line about three and one-half miles from the northwestern corner of the township. This road was the first one built in the county, and it has assisted greatly in the growth of the same. A road formerly known as the Chicago & Paducah railroad crosses the township nearly two miles from and runs parallel with the western boundary line of tlie township. This road now belongs to the great Wabash system. These roads cross at Bement.
The following, from an article written December 25, 1879, by Mr. L. B. Wing, will show the condition of at least a part of Bement township a quarter of a century ago :
"It is just twenty-six years ago to-day since I first saw the spot where this town is located. On Christmas day, 1853, three ‘solitary horsemen ' halted upon the ridge which divides the waters of the San- gamon and the Kaskaskia, and looked southward. It was a beautiful day - like autumn, rather than winter. A magnificent view, limited only by the powers of vision, was before us. It was like looking out upon the ocean. No farm or orchard, no living thing or sign of human habitation ! Everything, so far as we could see, was just as it had been for centuries. We knew that in the groves of tinber that skirted the water-course a few pioneers had built their cabins, and for years had supplied their simple wants by hunting and by a little farming of the most primitive sort. "But their proximity was not apparent to us and in no way dispelled the sense of complete solitude that oppressed us.
" The government of the United States still owned this land, and offered it in small parcels at the minimum price of $1.25 an acre.
" We dismounted and threw ourselves upon the sunny slope to
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enjoy the view, and debated the question whether it was likely that this prairie, after remaining hundreds of years unoccupied, was now about to attain any particular value. All who had preceded us had evidently come to the conclusion that it was like air and water, valuable and necessary, so far as it could be used, but was in too large supply to be worth buying. Was it likely that in the little span of time represented by our lives, that this condition of things would greatly change ?
" But we had come to the state predisposed to own a small piece of it, and after we had consulted maps and rode over the land we drove stakes, selecting adjoining tracts, so that we might not lose each other, and in 1854 we secured titles to as much as our slender means would pay for. The year following the deer and prairie wolves were startled from their homes by an engineering corps surveying the route for what is now the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific railway. With this prospect in view we at once gave attention to our new purchase. This town was laid out on the tract as the nearest railroad point to the county seat, and I fell into the line of improvement by first hauling with ox teams, from Urbana, in Champaign county, the materials for a house, the third built in the town. The next season the 'iron horse' made his way through Bement, from the Wabash river to Springfield. At this date the land was all bought up and the immigration was rapid. A large tract was purchased by Col. John S. Williams, now United States senator from Kentucky, who, with his brother, made this county their residence. With the same energy and pluck which won for him his sobriquet of 'Cerro Gordo Williams' in the Mexican war, he pushed his improvements and rapidly transformed the prairie into cultivated fields.
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