History of Sangamon County, Illinois, together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 147

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing company
Number of Pages: 1084

USA > Illinois > Sangamon County > History of Sangamon County, Illinois, together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 147

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).

Benjamin West, was drowned off the coast of the Phillipian Islands, on Christmas, 1863.

Mrs. North was the daughter of Francis Tay- lor, of Kentucky, and came to Sangamon county, Illinois, in 1834. Her eldest daughter, Mrs. Rice, lives in Massachusetts, and another, Mrs. Mary E. Wilson, resides in Illiopolis township. By her third marriage, with Mr. North, she had four children: Peter F., died in infancy; Robert F., born March 31, 1859, lives on the old homestead, and has full charge of the estate, and evidently is a success in life; Edward E , born January 14, 1861; and Pemelia A., born January 24, 1864. The last two are living with their mother on the home place.

Mr. John North was one of the early settlers of this county, and in early days labored hard to buy land, mauling rails for his neighbors and otherwise, before old age came upon him, and then farmed the whole of his large farm of one thousand, seven hundred acres. He is one of the stoutest men in the community. In politics, Mr. North was always a Democrat. For a num- ber of years Mr. and Mrs. North have been Ad- ventists, and he resided on the same tract of land to the day of his death, for more than fifty years, being widely and favorably known.

Elizabeth Prather, widow of Perry, daughter of Abraham and Sarah (Rout ) Troxell, all natives of Washington county, Maryland. She was born October 29, 1813. Iler husband, Perry Prather, was born April 2, 1798, and died No- vember 2, 1858. They were married August 1, 1830, and had twelve children, six sons and six daughters, all of whom are living. Abraham P., Wm. D., and Isaac R. live in Arizona, near Prescott. The other sons-Washington B., a soldier in the late war, married Marietta Kline, and lives in Cantrall, this county; Samuel James married Mary Alice Miller, and has one child, Chas. Marshal, born February 3, 1879, and live on the old homestead; and John L. lives at home, also single. Of the daughters, Sarah E. married Harry H. North, and lives in Christian county; Ruth A. married Mr. Sadler, and lives in Taylorville, Christian county; Mary C. married Jacob A. Miller; Gretna married John F. Loe; and Rachel T. lives at home with her mother; Jemima J. married Wm. Troxell, and lives in Norton county, Kansas.

Mrs. Prather's parents were of German de- scent, and Mr. Prather was of an old Maryland family, and English by descent.

The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in politics are Republi- cans.

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HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

Joseph E. Ross was born October 13, 1823, in Clark county, Ohio, and came to Sangamon county in 1841. His father, John Ross, married Rachel E. Wallace in Ohio, who died there. He then married Catharine (Keyser), then widow McCurdy, and then came to this county, where they both died.

Joseph E. married Mary J. Fairchild, March 24, 1852, in this county. She was born in Essex county, New York, May 27, 1827, the daughter of Moses and Ada Fairchild, who came to this county in 1832, near to Rochester. They have had four children, John Henry, born August 19, 1853, and married Annie Troxell, February 22, 1876, daughter of Peter and Susan (Fiery) Trox- ell. Mrs. Ross was born February 2, 1849, and has three children, Wilbur, Mary and IIomer; and lives section twenty-eight, Cooper township. The other son, Charles Oscar, born October 27, 1862, is with his parents. They have four hundred and sixty-five acres of land, mostly under cultivation.

H. B. Ross, a farmer, in section eighteen, Cooper township, was born in Clark county, Ohio, August 7, 1844, and came to this county March 15, 1855; the son of John Ross, born in Mason county, Kentucky. December 7, 1793, and died March 9, 1877, and Catharine Ross, who was born in Virginia, June 1, 1802, and died April 19, 1870. H. B. married Mary E. John- son, September 23, 1868, and they have six children, all now under twelve years of age, viz: Carrie B., John E., Winn J., Daisy P., Origin C., and Orville E .- the last two are twins. Mrs. Ross was born in Sangamon county, August 29, 1848. Her parents, Zachariah and Delilah John- son, are dead. Mr. Ross owns three hundred and forty acres of good land, mostly under culti- vation. He inherited eighty acres from his father, and all the rest of his property he has acquired by his own means. His father died in 1877. Of his four brothers and five sisters, two are dead; one brother, Charles, en- listed in Company B, Eleventh Missouri Volun- teers, and served three years, and was severely wounded in battle at Corinth, being shot through one lung, and his recovery was one of the most remarkable on record. He is now living in Shelby county, Illinois, engaged in milling. A sister, Lethe, married Dr. Lee and moved to California.

Mr. Ross has been an active citizen in his town- ship, and at present holds the offices of school director and commisssioner of highways, and acting the third year as treasurer. In politics they are Republicans.

William Riley Ross was born in Rahway, New Jersey, October 3, 1809. His father, Wil- liam Ross, was born in Essex county, New Jersey, February 15, 1769; married Nancy Dunn, born in Bound Brook, New Jersey, and moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1813; they were the parents of thirteen children, of whom six were born in New Jersey. The father was a black- smith and general iron worker, at the time of his death, doing an extensive business, requiring a large force of workmen. He was stricken down with the cholera, November 18, 1832, leaving a large, unsettled business. Wm. Riley Ross was appointed administrator and after closing up the estate he continued in his father's old business for two years, then moved with the family to Springfield, Illinois, in December, 1838. He soon rented and settled on a small farm in Rochester township, and in the spring of 1840, purchased part of his present farm and moved to it, where he has lived over forty-one years. Although farming has been his principal occupa- tion, his natural love for mechanicism, has in- duced him to retain his shop and kit, and at in- tervals, indulged his tastes in using them. From 1850 'till 1854 he was engaged as foreman in plow manufactury and foundry, of Lowry, Lamb & Co., who made the first scouring plows in this part of the west. Mr. Ross had married Miss A. Flagg, in Cincinnati, Ohio, May 18, 1834. She was born in Hamilton county, Ohio, and died with consumption, February 18, 1844; was mother of three children, now all deceased. One of the daughters, Lauretta, left an infant daugh- ter three weeks old, which was taken by her grandmother Ross, who reared her to woman- hood and now married, October 26, 1881, to Joseph S. Morris, and resides in this township. Mr. Ross married again December 28, 1845, to Mary E. Crowe, of Washington county, Mary- land, who came to this county in 1833. They have three sons, George R., Mordecai V., and Joseph H. The eldest son studied law, was admitted to the bar, and became a member of the law firm of Palmer, Palmer & Ross, Spring- field, Illinois. He is now engaged in farming in Cooper township. The other sons still reside with their father, on the old homestead. Mr. Ross is a Democrat, and has held nearly all the offices of the township. Mr. Ross is now the only man remaining that lived on the old road between Mt. Auburn and Springfield, when he came here, in 1840.

Henry Sprinkel, a farmer, born January 14, 1840, at Mansfield, Ohio; went with his parents to Arkansas, and there remained until 1860;

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HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

then came to Sangamon county, and settled in Cooper township. He married October 20, 1861, to Mary Ellen Buzley, the daughter of William M. and Priscilla (Evans) Buzley. They have had ten children, namely: James Henry, born August 21, 1862, died October 25, 1862; infant daughter born October 25, 1863, and died same day; infant son born December 29, 1855, died same day; Priscilla Catharine, born November 10, 1866, and died December 6, 1866; Benjamin Franklin, born February 17, 1868; Jesse Davis, born November 28, 1870, died May 22, 1877, from a wound in the knee, caused by his falling on an axe, just one month after the accident; Fannie Maria, born August 23, 1873; William Otterbein, born March 10, 1876; Cynthia Viola, born February 24, 1879; Mary Josephine, born December 29, 1880.

Mrs. Sprinkel's father, William M. Buzley, was born in Kentucky; and her mother, Priscilla (Evans) Buzley, was born in Meigs county, Ohio. Two of her brothers, Joseph and Chris- topher C., served in the Federal army in the war of the Rebellion, and died in Federal hospital in Missouri. Her father returned to Missouri and purchased land; but before he got his family upon it, the battle of Wilson's Creek was fought, and their farm was near the battle-field. Her brother was taken prisoner, but made his escape, and with his father's family he hurriedly left for Sangamon county, where they arrived in Sep- tember, 1861. One of Mrs. S's. brothers owned a nursery in Arkansas during the war, but being a Union man, he was constantly in danger, till at last his neighbors put a rope around his neck to hang him, but by some means he made his escape and reached Sangamon county in Sep- tember, 1861, and afterwards returned to Mis- souri, where he now resides. Her father died in Missouri, in 1880, in his seventy-sixth year; and her mother is making her home with her, at the age of seventy-four.

Mr. Sprinkel's maternal grandfather was born in 1785, and his grandmother in 1786. He died in the year 1836, at the age of fifty-seven, and she died in 1831, aged forty-five. Mr. Sprinkel's father was born in the year 1813, in Frederick county, Maryland, and died August 13, 1867; and his mother was born in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, in 1815, and is living on her own farm in this township. They were married in 1835.

William P. Sprinkel was born January 7, 1846, in Arkansas; came to Sangamon county in the spring of 1860, with his parents, and mar- ried Sarah Staines, April 16, 1871: who was

born May 9, 1854, in Ohio. Her parents came to Sangamon county in the fall of 1865. Wil- liam P. has four children: Minnie E., born June 27, 1872; Nora A., born February 7, 1875; Ger- tie A., born February 24, 1878, and Ina May, born July 24, 1880. Mr. Sprinkel's father and brother died in the Union army of the late war. Joseph M., born March 1, 1841, married Mrs. Charlotte Cre, and lives in Effingham county, Illinois. He was a member of Company A, One Hundred and Seventy-third Regiment Illi- nois Infantry-three years' service. John, born June 22, 1844, and married Rebecca A. Patts, in October, 1869, and lives in Montgomery county, Kansas. Mrs. William P. Sprinkel's mother now lives in Mechanicsburg with her second husband, Hugh McCarty, who owns in Cooper township, one hundred and fifty acres of land under good cultivation, and worth $60.00 per acre. The family are members of the U. B. Church, and Mr. S. is a Republican.

Charles Stafford, an old settler of Sangamon county, born October 12, 1820, in Essex county, New York. He came to this county in July 13, 1825, with his parents, who settled in Roches- ter township the same year, and then married Julia A. Stafford, March 21, 1847. They had one child, Julia A., born December 6, 1847, who married Mitchell Dickerson. Mrs. Stafford died December 17, 1847, and Mr. Stafford was again married to Mrs. Sarah A. (Wallace) Stafford, September 27, 1848. She was the widow of John Stafford, and the cousin of Charles. She was born December 24, 1822, in Culpepper county, Virginia. They have had ten children, Mary A., born February 12, 1854, and married G. Woyce; Albert R., born September 17, 1856, and married Liza Ramond, September 17, 1878; Ida L., born January 4, 1860, and died May 26, 1874; Wm. W., born April 6, 1868. Mrs. Sarah Stafford had two children when married to Mr. Stafford: Thomas Oliver, the oldest, born April 18, 1844, in Wapella county, Iowa, and was killed in the battle of Stone river, or Murfrees- boro, December 31, 1862, while a member of the Thirty-eighth Regiment, Illinois Infantry Volunteers.

Mr. Stafford's father, Jewett Stafford, was born January 13, 1795, in Kent county, Rhode Island, was a soldier in the War of 1812, and fought in the battles of Plattsburg, Boquet River, etc. He was also Colonel of the Fifth Regiment of Illi- nois Militia, in 1834. His mother, Harriet (Eggleston) Stafford, was born in New York. HIe farms about eighty acres of land, but, having also the largest store in Clarksburg, and other

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HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

interests in care. His first crop of corn was sold In Springfield, Ill., at six and one-fourth cents per bushel, and says that another year he burned part of his erop rather than gather it at the mar- ket priee. Mr. Stafford is a publie spirited man, and looks into all the improvements of the age with confidence and success.

Geo. W. Taylor, a farmer, in section four, Cooper township, was born December 10, 1836, in Wayne county, Indiana, and married the widow of Isaac T. Darnall, the daughter of Joseph and Mary Ann Crowl, who was born in Maryland, October 18, 1831, and died September 29, 1881, at home; was married in Sangamon county, December 14, 1852, to Isaac Darnall, who died September 10, 1870.

The homestead was settled by Hiram, Robins, and Mr. Darnall located upon it in February, 1857, and remained there till his death. He came to this county in 1840. The children are H. W., Benjamin F., Charles A., and Maryland. Jos. E. is a practicing physician at Mechanies- burg. The farm upon which Mr. T. resides be- longs to the heirs of Robins, and consists of four hundred and fifty acres, about the half of which is under cultivation.

Daniel Waters, was born in Loudon county, Virginia, September 14, 1830, and came to Illi- nois in 1852, and settled in Round Prairie, in what is now Rochester township. He is the son of Levi and Sarah Waters, who are both dead. Mr. W. came to the county a poor man, and commenced farming and working at the earpen- ter business, which he continued ten years, and thereby accumulated a small capital. He mar- ried Harriet V. Miller, February 9, 1862, who was born in this county October 13, 1840, the daughter of Jno. C. and Melvina (Sattley) Miller, who settled in this township, and so remained

till the death of Mr. Miller, January 13, 1853. Mrs. Miller is now living in Rochester, where she lived before her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Waters have had five children, two of whom are dead, George C., born February 17, 1864, and died in his third year; and Lulu, born January 29, 1878, and died in infancy. The three living ones are Anna A., born December 17, 1862; Charles M., born February 28, 1867, and Lilla. M., born January 29, 1870-twin to Lulu, and lives with her parents. Anna is now pursuing her studies at Wesleyan University, at Bloom- ington, Illinois.

Mr. and Mrs. Waters have accumulated a fine property, owning a farm of two hundred and forty aeres, well stocked and handsomely im- proved, where they reside and enjoy their pleas- ant home, and are highly respected wherever known. He has long been associated in the township government, holding in turn several of the important offices, and for some years trusted and honored as treasurer of the school funds. Both are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and politically Mr. Waters is a Democrat.

John W. Wigginton was born in Kentucky, January 12, 1835. Son of Sidney and Elizabeth Wigginton, who were born, raised and died in Trumbull county, Kentucky. Mr. W. married Melissa Taylor, daughter of William E. and Susan Taylor, September 27, 1866, in Sangamon county. He came to Illinois in 1854, first locat- ing in Logan county, where he farmed till 1866; then moved to Cooper township, and has here farmed and raised stock. His land adjoins the village of Breckenridge, which he assisted in making, and has held most of the town offices, and is now supervisor of the township. He is a Democrat, and a member of the Masonic order.

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HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

CHAPTER XXXV.

TOWNSHIP OF COTTON HILL.

The township of Cotton Hill lies in the south- eastern part of the county, and is bounded on the east by Cooper township and Christian county; west, by Ball township; north, by Rochester, and south, by Pawnee township and Christian county. The soil is of good quality, and the township is well watered by Horse creek and the south fork of the Sangamon river, and Brush creek, and numerous springs. Horse creek enters the town- ship on section thirty-one, and running in a northerly course, passes out from section six. The Sangamon river enters on section twelve, and by a meandering course, passing through sections twelve, eleven, two, three and four, into Rochester township. Horse creek waters the western half, from south to north, and enters Rochester between sections five and six.

EARLY SETTLERS.

The first settlers of the township were Henry Funderburk and William Nelson. The date of their arrival is a matter of dispute, which does not seem to admit of settlement. The first set- tlers of the township are either now dead, or have no means of establishing satisfactorily their claims. J C. Power, when compiling "The History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County," claims that he spent much time to cor- rectly fix the date of the first settlement. Jacob Henkle thinks that Funderburk came in 1817, as his father and family came in 1818, and he says that he well remembers shocks of corn on the Funderburk place, which must have been raised the year previous. He does not remember Wil- liam Nelson so well, and it is an undisputed fact that they came about the same time, or together, and both raised a crop of corn that same season. Other parties, or their descendants, maintain that Funderburk and Nelson did not come until 1818; that the question was often discussed as to

the first settlers of the county, and it was never claimed that they were here prior to that time.

Henry Funderburk was from South Carolina, but lived for a short time in Tennessee before coming to Illinois.

The place where he first settled was on section thirty, of this township. He remained here but one or two years, when he moved across the line into Ball township, where he died, in 1843.

William Nelson came here from St. Clair county, remained some years, and then moved to Texas.

Mason Fowler, was born about 1766, in Vir- ginia. He was married and had five children in that State, and the family moved to the vicinity of Nashville, Tennessee, where they had seven children. They moved thence to Southern Illi- nois, in 1816, and in the spring of 1818, Mr. Fowler, with his two sons, Edward and John and a young man by the name of Frederick Wise, came to what is now Cotton Hill township, San- gamon county. They raised a crop, built a house that summer, returned south and brought Mr. Fowler's family to their new home on Horse creek, in the fall of that year. Edward and John were born in Virginia, married in Sangamon county to two sisters by the name of Hale, and moved to Wisconsin, near Galena. The two brothers and ten other citizens, including an In- dian agent and interpreter, were riding over the country without suspecting danger, and were at- tacked by Indians, and eleven of them killed. Only one escaped-a man by the name of Pierce Holly, who had the fleetest horse, and that alone saved his life. Thomas, another son of Mason Fowler, after the death of his brothers, Edward and John, left home with the avowed purpose of avenging their death. After an absence of ten years with the Indians, he visited his friends in Sangamon county, went again to the Indians,

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HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

and was never heard of after. Mason Fowler died March, 1844.

William Baker was born about 1798, in Sevier county, Tennessee. He came to St. Clair county, Illinois, when a young man. Phoebe Neeley was born December 14, 1799, near Nashville, Tennessee, and was taken to St. Clair county, Illinois, when she was a young woman. William Baker and Phoebe Neeley were married about 1818, near Belleville. They had one child born there, and the family moved to Horse creek, in what became Sangamon county, in the spring of 1819, in what is now Cotton Hill town- ship, where seven children were born. They then moved to a mill on the north fork of the Sangamon river, three miles north of Rochester. William Baker went to Texas previous to 1844, started from there to California about 1852, and died on the road. Mrs. Phoebe Baker died, August, 1861, in Rochester.

David Funderburk was born January 9, 1795, in Orange District, South Carolina, and was bound as apprentice to a hatter, but instead of teaching him how to make hats, his master put him to work in the fields with the negroes and otherwise treated him harshly, so he ran away and enlisted in the Third United States Rifle Regiment for five years, from August 15, 1814. It was so near the close of the war with England that he was not in any battle. His five years were spent in garrison duty on the frontier, and was at Ft. Osage, on the Missouri river, near the present line between Missouri and Kansas, when his term of enlistment expired, August 15, 1819. He, with eight other discharged soldiers, fas- tened two canoes together, with a platform over them, and all left for St. Louis with their knap- sacks. Mr. F. says that they were somewhat crowded, and on the way down he stole a canoe, and taking a comrade left the other seven who began drinking and ran their craft on a sawyer, which upset it, and they lost everything except what they had on their person, but the men clung to the sunken log, and but for the stolen canoe they must all have drowned. Mr. F. and his comrade took them all safely to shore. He has always, in his quaint way insisted that that was "Providential stealing." On arriving at St. Louis, he learned that his uncle, Henry Funder- burk, had moved into the San-ga-ma country, and he determined to visit him. He found his uncle on the 31st of August, 1819, in what is now Cotton Hill township, between Brush and Horse creeks, and went to work to supply himself with clothing, in place of that which was lost on the

river. David Funderburk was married in March 1821, to Hannah IIenkle.

Christopher Haines was born July 4, 1795, in Russell county, Virginia. His parents soon after moved to Allen county, Kentucky. He was married in that county, October 12, 1815, to Myrah Gatewood. They moved to Bureau county, thence to Sangamon county, Illinois, arriving October 22, 1829, in what is now Cot- ton Hill township.

John Rape was born about 1794, in South Carolina, and taken to Tennessee by his parents, at eight years of age. He was a soldier from Tennessee, in the War of 1812, and arrived at New Orleans the day after the battle of January 8, 1815. His father, Gustavus Rape, was a soldier from North Carolina during the war of the American Revolution. John Rape was married August 18, 1818, in Tennessee, had two children there, and moved to Sangamon county, Illinois, arriving in Cotton Hill, February, 1826. He died January 29, 1872.

Henry Rape came to Sangamon county in 1825, and settled in Cotton Hill township. He subsequently married Polly Snodgrass, and died November 11, 1851. Mrs. Rape never formed a letter with a pen until her sixtieth year. Her son, James H., was in the army, and she found it difficult to induce others to write to him as often as she desired, so she resolved to learn, and commenced by copying letters and other documents, and was soon able to communicate with him. She continued this correspondence, to the great satisfaction of both, until his three years of service terminated.

Mathias Vigal was born August 28, 1779, in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. His father died and his mother married Adam Mung. They moved to Jefferson county Kentucky. Mathias Vigal and Mary Roney were married in Jefferson county. They moved in 1820, to Clark county, Indiana, and from there to Sangamon county, Illinois, arriving in the fall of 1830, in what is now Cotton Hill township. Mr. Vigal died December 25, 1862.

Abraham Viney and family were from Ken- tucky, though Mrs. Viney was by birth a Vir- ginian. He married in Sangamon county in what is now Cotton Hill township, in the fall of 1819, and died August 4, 1820.

Elias Williams was born near Clarendon, Ver- mont, February 27, 1770. He there married and the family moved to Essex county, New York, about 1804, where two children were born, thence to Hamilton county, Ohio, where one child was born, and from there to Butler county, in the

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HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

same State, where three children were born. In 1819, the family moved to Wayne or Henry county, Indiana, and from there to Sangamon county, Illinois, arriving in February, 1822, in what is now Cotton Hill township, where he re- mained about one year and then moved into Rochester township.

Robert W. Sanders was born April 10, 1815, near Harper's Ferry, Virginia. His father died when he was a child, and his widowed mother, with her eight children, moved to Rutherford county, Tennessee, in 1827. Robert W. was married there, in 1834, to Kesiah Johnson. They had two children in Tennessee, and moved to Sangamon county, Illinois, arriving in the fall of 1838, in what is now Cotton Hill township, where two children were born. Mr. Sanders as- sisted in quarrying the stone for the State House, then in process of construction at Spring- field. His family suffered greatly from sick- ness, and in 1840 he returned to Tennessee, where he died May 31, 1857, leaving a widow, nine sons, and one daughter. Robert W. Sanders was a minister in the Baptist Church for thir- teen years previous to his death. The widow felt that some great calamity was about to be- fall that part of the country where she lived, and without any definite idea of what it was, she med- itated long upon the subject, and when her chil- dren were wrapped in slumber, she resolved, if possible, to take them again to Illinois, as a place of safety. She wrote at once to her eldest son, who had returned to Illinois soon after the death of his father. He was glad to give them such aid and encouragement as he could, and they all arrived in Sangamon county, October 10, 1859, just in time to understand the situation of the country and add five soldiers to the Union army.

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History of Sangamon County, Illinois, together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 147

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing company Number of Pages: 1084

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing company
Number of Pages: 1084