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 170

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 170

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).

Mr. Johnson's son, I. B., was married to Anna Loveless, in April, 1871, and his father gave him a farm of one hundred and thirty acres, one-half mile distant, worth $50 per acre. His daughter, Laura, married Henry Hedrick, in December, 1870, and he also gave her eighty acres of land, two miles distant; she had five children, all of whom yet live, but Laura died August 29, 1881.

Samuel Johnson, farmer, in Rochester, was born September 18, 1831, in Sangamon county, Illinois, the son of Andrew Johnson, who was born in Dumfreeshire, Scotland, and came to America when he was a young man, and to San- gamon county as early as 1826 or '27. He was a millwright, and built a mill on the South Fork of the Sangamon river for Edward Clark. An- drew Johnson was married about 1827 to Mrs. Mary Barker, whose maiden name was Wil- liams. He died in Sangamon county, Illinois. His mother afterwards married Greenbury Baker, and died May 12, 1842, and he died March 4, 1873.

The subject of this sketch received a common school education. and was raised principally on a farm. He was first married in 1852, to Lovina J. Baker; who was born in Sangamon county, Illinois, and died March 24, 1856, aged twenty- three years, six months, and one day; the daugh- ter of Esquire and Margaret Baker. By this marriage he had two children, Jennette F., now Mrs. Joseph Sharp, and one who died in infancy June 20, 1853. His wife died March 24, 1856,

and he married again to Louisa Taff, who was born in Sangamon county, the daughter of William and Teresa Taff, both residents of Sangamon county. They have had nine children, eight of whom are now at home with their parents, Mary E., Teresa A., James E., Ida F., Flora A., Martha C., Arthur, and Ira; Dora, de- ceeased. Mr. Johnson began life in moderate circumstances, and has by industry and close at- tention to farming, obtained two hundred and eighty acres of land, which is situated in Cooper, Rochester and Cotton Hill townships, under a fair state of cultivation, and worth $50 per acre. He is also one of the strong supporters of the Republican party, and its interests. Mrs. Johnson and three daughters are members of the Christian Church.

Andrew II. Kalb, son of Absalom and Susannah (Larkin) Kalb, was born in the city of Frederick, in the county of Frederick, Maryland, to which place his father moved soon after his marriage in 1809, and where the subject of this sketch was born January 20, 1812, from whence he moved with his parents and three brothers, in the spring of 1817, to Loudon county, Virginia, and in 1819, to Smithsburg, in Washington county, Maryland, and thence to Trough Creek Valley, Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, in the fall of 1822, and thence, in 1827, to Franklin county, Pennsylvania, and thence back to Loudon county, Virginia, in the spring of 1830, remain- ing with his parents and brothers, assisting in farm operations, and received a common school education, as the winter seasons gave him op- portunity, till abont the age of nineteen. He learned the business of saddlery and harness- making, at which he continued for eleven years. He was married in Loudon county, Virginia, in the year 1836, to Ann James, daughter of Elijah James, and was born in the same county March 17, 1811, after which he changed his occupation and engaged in farming in the same county till the year 1850, when he moved with his family to Sangamon county, Illinois, whither his father and mother, with four brothers and one sister, had preceded him in the previous fall. Here the subject of this sketch tilled a part of a large tract of land owned by his father on the south fork of the Sangamon river, about five miles south of east of the city of Springfield, till about the year 1855. He purchased one hundred and thirty acres of the land, upon which he now resides, and an additional pur- chase of the original tract has increased his farm to two hundred and fifty acres, worth about $70 per acre, while he also owns one hundred and

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fifty-eight acres in Christian county, of this State. Mr. A. H. K. has had twelve children, of whom George E, Mary A., now the wife of George Waters, of this county; Elton A., and Edwin M., are living, while the following are dead: John R., James William, (who was killed in the Union service of the late war), Sarah C., Asbury R., Edgar F., Charles C., Susan R., and Emma Jane. For fifty-five years Mr. K., has been a member of the M. E. Church, and in politics is a Republican.

D. G. Kalb, the subject of the following memoir, was born on the morning of the 4th day of December, 1815, in the city of Frederick, Frederick county, Maryland. His father, A bsa- lom Kalb, born March 23, 1787, was a native of the same county; yet, being born in a house through which the State line of Pennsylvania and Maryland passed, there were but about ten feet of the latter that claim him as a native of the State. Absalom's father, John Kalb, was born November 12, 1761, in the eastern part of Pennsylvania, in what is now the county of Berks, at or near a place then called Bottsgrove, not far from what is now Reading, on the Schuylkill river. Here his father, also named John Kalb, settled at an early day, before the Revolutionary war, having emigrated from his native country, that of Polish Germany, where he imbibed the theory and spirit of freedom from political oppression, and left it to join the struggles then engaged in by the British colonies of North America. John Kalb, Sr., was born in the year 1733, and hence was in the prime of young manhood when the struggle in the colo- nies commenced, and found him in their midst, imbued with the same spirit of freedom, where he was rearing a family of four sons and two daughters of like minds and spirits; and, whether the elder Kalb enlisted personally in the battles of the Revolution or not, it is certain that others of his household did, as numerous anecdotes of them go to show. And, no doubt, he had some- thing in inducing his cousin, the Baron DeKalb, to cast in his fortunes with the people who, like their noble countrymen, the Polish Germans, were oppressed by stronger powers, and offer his gratuitous services, in company with that distinguished soldier and patriot, La Fayette, in freeing the oppressed Americans. Perhaps the readers of this sketch will allow a digression, in order to connect the history of Sangamon county with so brave and philanthropic a man as the Baron DeKalb, from whose ancestors came at least six of his name, who went out from San- gamon county as soldiers in the late war, where

they joined a score or more of others of the same name and lineage, from this and other States of our Union, to fight and die, if need be, to maintain what their ancestors procured by treasure and blood, in company with the brave Baron DeKalb, during the struggle for Ameri- can freedom; but we shall be brief on this point. He died from the effects of numerous wounds, while fighting at his post on the field of battle at Camden, South Carolina, August 19, 1780; and when the British officer came to condole with him, as he lay prostrate, DeKalb extended to him his hand, saying, "I thank you for your generous sympathy, but I die the death I always prayed for-the death of a soldier fighting for the rights of man."

. Many years after his death, General Washing- ton, when at Camden, inquired for his grave; and after gazing upon it for some time, he breathed a sigh, and exclaimed: "So, there lies the brave DeKalb, the generous stranger who came from a distant land to fight our battles, and to water with his blood the tree of liberty. Would to God he had lived to share its fruits."

We find that there went out from the county of Sangamon, no less than a half dozen men of the name of Kalb, as true Union soldiers, in the late war of the Rebellion, all of whom came in the same direct line of ancestry, whose blood flowed in the veins of the brave Kalb of Revo- lutionary fame. The names of the six alluded to are: D. G. Kalb, the special subject of this sketch, and his two sons, already mentioned, also three of his nephews-John William, son of his brother Ezekiel L., and James William, son of another brother, A. H., both in the One Hundred and Fourteenth Illinois Infantry, and William A., son of Jesse D., in the One Hun- dred and Thirtieth Regiment. James William and William A., were killed in battle.

The great grandfather of D. G. Kalb, moved from Maryland to the wilds of Ohio in 1805, with his youngest son, George, from whom a numerous progeny have come, and many of whom are yet residing in Ohio, and in the late war there were quite a number of chaplains and soldiers of that name from that State.

In the autumn of 1849, the subject of this sketch came to Sangamon county in company with his father and mother, and several brothers. The father, Absalom Kalb, was favorably known in this county and city of Springfield, for the time of over sixteen years, to the day of his death, January 7, 1865, for his zealous adherence to the cause of the Union, as also for his fervency in the church of his early choice. The M. E. Church

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HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

always found in him a true friend and liberal supporter, for more than sixty years. After his death his widow, Mrs. Susannah (Larkin) Kalb, made her home with the youngest living son, Dr. A. J. Kalb, in the city of Quincy, Illinois, and died there, April 15, 1873.

D. G. Kalb was engaged in teaching about seventeen years of his life, from September 22, 1837, till 1854, and for about as long a time, from 1847 to 1864, he was a local preacher in the M. E. Church, of which he has been a member nearly fifty-five years. He enlisted as a soldier in the war of the late Rebellion, in Company G, One Hundred and Fourteench Illinois Infantry Regiment and served to the close of the war, a term of three years.

Mr. K. was married in 1841, to the widow of George W. Shutt, of Virginia, who, after the death of Mr. Shutt, came to Sangamon county in 1836, residing in Springfield till 1841, and thus became an old settler of the county, and on her return to Virginia, on a transient visit, she was married a second time, thus connecting her husband, D. G. K., with the Old Settlers' his- tory, till, by a residence of thirty-two years, now heis a bona fide old settler. Mrs. D. G. Kalb died at their residence at Willow Dale Farm, on Round Prairie, Rochester township, February 3, 1881. She had one child by the first marriage, who is now the wife of Philip Shutt, till lately, the publisher and editor of the Edgar county Times, in the town of Paris. By his marriage with the widow, Mrs. Eliza S. (Bennett) Shutt, Mr. K. had three sons, Ethelbert, William Ed- ward B., and George B., and two daughters, Mary Abner and Julia Maria. The son, Ethel- bert, enlisted in the Thirty-third Regiment, Illi- nois Volunteers, August 20, 1861, and served nearly four years, and was honorably discharged at the close of the war. William Edward B., enlisted in the company and regiment with his father, March 26, 1864, and was killed in the battle of Guntown, Mississippi, June 10, 1864. George B., and his brother, Ethelbert, yet live, as also the daughter, Mary Abner, who remains single, and resides with her father, at Willow Dale. The youngest child, Julia Maria, died January 10, 1859, at the age of four years. Mr. K. respectfully declines to be further inter- viewed, and refers to numerons older, and, as he modestly says, more worthy and prominent citi- zens of the city and county, with whom he has had a pleasant and profitable social acquaintance for more than thirty-two years.

Stephen T. Lawley, was born November 23, 1836, in Sangamon county, the son of William

B. and Amy (Meredith) Lawley. His father was born in Smith county, Tennesee, June 24, 1811, and came to Sangamon county in 1828. He remained one year near Springfield, and in the spring of 1829, moved to what is now Ball township, where he farmed until his death, in March 23, 1876. The subject of this sketch re- ceived a common school education in Sangamon county, and was raised on the farm. He was married in 1859 to Mary A. Gaines, who was born in Indiana June 26, 1842. They have had eight children, Sarah E., Amy J., Mary M., Mar- garet L., Albert W., Charles A., Laura H. and Willie I. Willie died December 23, 1879, when an infant. Mr. Lawley moved to the present farm in 1878, and owns eighty acres of land sit- uated in Rochester township, which is worth $50 per acre. Himself and wife are members of the Christian Church and politically they are Re- publicans.

Milton D. Mc Coy, an old farmer and highly respected citizen, adjoining the village of Roch- ester, was born on the spot where he now resides, from which he has never moved his place of res- idence; his father settled upon it in the year 1818, and here Milton was born October 16, 1823. The land has never been transferred to any other owner than from his father to himself, as heir. His father, James McCoy, was born in Nicholas county, Kentucky, July 25, 1791, but his grand- parents, John and Mary (Ebermen) McCoy, were born and raised in Pennsylvania, and were there married, and raised a large family, being the de- scendants of one of three brothers, who came at an early day, in the time of the American Colo- nies, from Scotland, two of whom settled in the South and one in Pennsylvania, and from whom all now known to be of kin in these parts have descended. John, the grandfather of him who is the leading subject of this sketch, was born July 11, 1763, and died October 26, 1823, and his first son was the father of Milton D. McCoy, and was born July' 25, 1791, as before stated; the next born was Polly, October 13, 1793, who died October 3, 1855; Elizabeth, born November 3, 1795; next Joseph E., born October 5, 1797; John A., born September 13, 1799, died July 14, 1835; Nancy, born November 16, 1801; Pru- dence, born March 10, 1804; Zillah, born March 5, 1806; Sophia, born October 5, 1809; Andrew T., born November 26, 1811; Jessie C., born Oc- tober 9, 1815.

James McCoy was married in 1814, to Jane Murphy, who was born of German parents, and raised ten children: Caroline M., born in Ken- tucky, July 16, 1815, and married L. A Grims-

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HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

ley, August 17, 1834; Sylvester G., born in Ken- tucky, April 28, 1817, married Mary Robinson, raised two children-James B. and Caroline M. -and died in 1844; Joseph E., born in Sanga- mon county, March 6, 1819, was the first white child born within what is now Sangamon county; Isaiah T., born in Sangamon county, May 16, 1821; Milton D., born October 16, 1823, on the farm on which he has ever since resided-fifty- eight years-and claims that no other man in the county has lived so many consecutive years on the spot where he was born.

On the farm is a mineral spring, of considera- ble notoriety, known as the Sulphur Spring, and gives name to the farm. A further account of this spring, by D. G. Kalb, is found in the his- tory of the township. Mr. M. D. McCoy mar- ried Melcina A. Cooper, in Sangamon county, March 29, 1848, by whom he has had seven chil- dren; the fourth one, Valinore, born July 31, 1855, and died September 25, 1857. Of the other six: Sylvester J., born May 3, 1849, was married January 8, 1874, to Panline Abel, and reside in Rochester. They have had four chil- dren: Milton A., died in his third year; Jay, born March 6, 1876; Eddie A., born December 29, 1878; Nina, born December 17, 1880. J.cob C., born October 19, 1850, resides near Cawker City, Mitchell county, Kansas; Louvilta Jane, born December 1, 1852, and married O. C. St. Clair, December 12, 1876, and has two children: Nannie M. and Milton N., and lives in Spring- field, Illinois. Jesse K., born May 7, 1858; Mary M., born May 3, 1861, and Lillie C., born May 9, 1865; the last three are single, and re- side with their parent.

Mr. McCoy has been an efficient and valued member of the M. E. Church since 1840, having been a steward thirty-eight years, and a class leader about the same time. His first experience as a member of a Quarterly Conference was forty-three miles from home, when Methodist preachers' circuits were much larger than at present. Having been recording steward and Sunday school superintendent for many years, it was his special duty to attend these quarterly gatherings of the official members of his church, and he was punctual in his duties. In politics he has been a Democrat, and as his party have been predominant in his township he has held, creditably and efficiently, many of the offices therein, and has been an advocate of education and temperance.

The father of Mrs. McCoy was Jacob Cooper, and she was the oldest daughter by a second marriage. He was born in Jefferson county,

Tennessee, December 18, 1800, and married Anna Burnett, by whom one child was born in Tennessee, named John Wesley, and they came to Sangamon with his brother, Rev. John Cooper, in 1819, where a second child was born. One child died, and the mother died February 22, 1824, (not 1830, as the Old Settlers' book states,) Jacob Cooper was married again, to Jane Kelly, of Springfield, and they had five children, Melcina A., Melvina C., Elzirah C., Almarida, and Wm. J. Jacob Cooper died August 22, 1864, and his widow, Jane Cooper, died August 24, 1864, both in Sangamon. Mr. M. D. McCoy's home farm consists of two hundred and forty- five acres, and he owns some land in Macou and Logan counties; making a total of three hundred acres.

Mr. McCoy tells how they did in early times when they raised flax and cotton, and worked them into clothing without machinery, and that not until the year after he was twenty-one did he ever wear a coat bought from a store. To sup- ply themselves with meat in the summer time, they would stop their plow a little while before sunset and go to the woods and kill a deer, and if they failed in that by night, then they would easily find a wild turkey roost and get a load of that kind of game. To obtain bread they would take a sack of corn on each of two horses and trudge off to a horse-mill and grind with their own team; or, perchance he, when quite a small lad, would mount "Old Ben," the white ox, loaded with sacks of corn, and proudly wend his way to the same mill, and, with the bovine slowly turn the creaking mill as the corn fell from the hopper into the eye of the upper rough mill-stone, and when ground, again wend his way homeward with the coarse meal, whistling merrily as he proceeded over the prairie and through the woods. Often they were compelled, by reason of high waters, and impassable roads, to use a hominy-mortar and pestle, to convert their corn into something like meal and hominy mixed, and use a punctured sheep-skin to sepa- rate the coarse from the fine. Thus at night they prepared bread for the day following, and this for weeks at a time.

They attended meetings and Sunday school in their bare feet and without coats in summer time. The men and boys too, and often the women, would go eight or ten miles to house or cabin raisings, which were occasions of glee and gladness to old and young. Mrs. McCoy's grand-father, John Cooper, served in the Revo- lutionary war and also in the War of 1812, under General Jackson, and her father, Jacob

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HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

Cooper, served in the Black Hawk war from Sangamon county. James McCoy, Mr. D.'s father, was in the War of 1812, and was one of the two who captured General Proctor's carriage, the General making his escape by cutting the harness loose and he and his driver mounting the team. He was also in many Indian skirmishes in those early days, and was the first constable elected in this, then a part of St. Clair county, and often then being obliged to leave Mrs. McCoy alone with the children. She was brave, and kept her gun, axe and other imple- ments ready for use as occasion might offer, but as she treated the Indians kindly when they would occasionally come to the cabin to trade with her, giving them food to eat, she was sel- dom molested by them. She was a good marks- man, and would now and then shoot a wild turkey as it carelessly came near her door, but did not go into the woods to hunt. She had a large family to clothe by means of the cotton and flax goods she manufactured by her own hands, yet she had skill, and found time to make horse-collars, back-bands, baskets, &c., of corn- husks and hickory bark.

Edmond Miller was born in Sangamon county, February 1, 1843, son of John C. Miller, who was born October 19, 1812, in Loudon county, Virginia, and came to Sangamon county in 1835, where he married Melvina Satley, who was born September 3, 1819, in Sangamon county. John C. Miller inherited a part of his father's estate of land in this township and went to farming, which he continued till his death, January 13, 1853. His widowed mother is living in the vil- lage of Rochester. Edmond's grand-father, Christian Miller, died September 14, 1842, and his grandmother August 20, 1864, both in Sang- amon county.

Daniel Ott, livery, feed and sale stable keeper, in Rochester, was born in Champaign county, Ohio, November 22, 1839, a son of Abraham and Nancy (Shamblin) Ott, who was born in Vir- ginia, and moved to Ohio, where he engaged in farming, until his death, February 1859. His mother still resides in the same county, in the town of Mechanicsburg." The subject of this sketch received a common school education in the schools of Ohio, and was raised on a farm. In 1856, he came to Sangamon county, Illinois, and worked as a farm hand for two years, and then engaged in farming on his own account. He was married April 20, 1861, to Elvina Betts, who was born in Sandusky county, Ohio. They have had nine children, of whom six are now living: Mamie, Hermon, Elmer, Dan B. and

Bruce and Ashbury Olen. He continued farm- ing in Rochester township till the fall of 1872, when he sold out his farm and engaged in the livery business in Rochester, where he now is prepared to do all kinds of work in his line of business, having from seven to ten buggies, and an equal number of horses to meet the demands, and has, beside, some of the finest stock in the county, which he has lately brought from the State of Kentucky. In politics he is, and always has been, a Democrat. His wife is a member of the Christian Church.

Homer D. Parker, merchant and postmaster, the only child of Darins Smith and Jane (Stagg) Parker, was born in Warren, Washington county, Vermont, May 4, 1853. His father was born in Springfield, Vermont, November 10, 1810, and his mother in Panton, Vermont, September 21, 1823. They were married July 23, 1845; his father's occupation was that of a miller. In May, 1855, he came to Sangamon county, Illinois, and located at Rochester, where he was employed as miller and clerk in the Rochester mills and store. He worked in the mill when it was running and in the store when the mill was idle, until his death, December 6, 1857. The widowed mother now lives with her son. He was raised in Rochester and obtained a common school education by working for his board and going to school of winters, and working out by the month on the farm during the summer, from his tenth to his seventeenth year, at which time he began teach- ing school for a livelihood. He taught school for three and one half years, and in the fall of 1873, engaged as clerk for C. Carter & Co., with whom he remained one and a half years, removing from Rochester at that time to engage in business for R.' Kimball, at Mount Auburn, Illinois, with whom he remained until the 29th of March, 1876, when he opened a drug and grocery store, at Mount Auburn, Illinois, on his own account. He was appointed deputy postmaster there shortly after and held the post office in that capacity until March 17, 1879, when he was commissioned postmaster. He was married September 26, 1877, to Margaret Elizabeth Lawrence, who was born in Catawba, Clark county, Ohio, September 24, 1853. She is the daughter of Doctor John Heis- kill, and Sarah Ann (Morris) Lawrence. Her father was born March 1, 1830, and her mother February 22, 1835, in Springfield, Ohio. They came to Christian county, Illinois, in July, 1854, and located at Mount Auburn, where the Doctor has since been engaged in the practice of medi- cine. H. D. and M. E. Parker have two children -Annie J., born August 16, 1878, and Ruth L.,

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born June 28, 1881. In April, 1880, James M. Firey and H. D. Parker purchased the old stock in the store formerly occupied by C. Carter & Co. Parker carried on business at both places until July, 1880, when he removed the stock from his Mount Auburn store, to the store in Rochester, where they (Parker & Firey) are now engaged in selling drugs, groceries, hardware, queensware, etc., and have a large and lucrative business. In politics he is a Republican.

George W. Poffenberger, Sen., a farmer of Rochester, was born in Washington county, Maryland, October 16, 1817, the son of Christian and Mary (Brantner) Poffenberger. His father was born in Maryland and his mother in Virginia. In 1826, they moved to Franklin county, Ohio, and thence to Sangamon county, arriving Octo- ber 28, 1839, and located in Rochester township, where he resided until 1846. He then moved to Jefferson county, Iowa, where he resided on a farm. His wife died in February, 1853, and he died in October, 1857. The subject of this sketch received a common school education, and was raised on a farm. He came to this county with his father and worked on a farm. He was married February 9, 1841, to Rachel Jones, who was born in Kentucky, September 16, 1814, the daughter of Andrew and Elenor (Goodwin) Jones, who came to Sangamon county in 1824, from Kentucky, and located in Rochester town- ship, where they resided until their deaths. Mr. Poffenberger has had six children, of whom five are now living; John A., Mary E., George W., Eliza A. (now wife of Luther Osborn Meredith) and Edwin. He is now the owner of two hun- dred acres of fine farming land which is under good cultivation and worth $60 per acre. His wife and son Edwin are members of the Metho- dist Church. He is in politics, a Democrat.

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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 170

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