USA > Illinois > St Clair County > History of St. Clair County, Illinois. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 77
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He is now engaged in farming and the business of mining coal. He has three children living, all daughters. A view of his resi- dence, east of O'Fallon, appears on another page.
BENJAMIN SCOTT (DECEASED). .
AMONG the early settlers of Ridge Prairie was Benjamin Scott who in the spring of the year 1828 took up his residence in section thirty-two of township two north, range seven west, where he lived until his death. He belonged to one of the pioneer American families to settle in Illinois, his father, Jehu Scott, having made an early settlement in the American Bottom, within the limits of what was then St. Clair, but is now Monroe County.
Jehu Scott was born in Maryland, and was raised at the town of Washington, Washington county, Pennsylvania. He learned the blacksmith trade in Pennsylvania, and afterward moved to Ken- tucky, and settled near Licking on the Ohio River. He there married a Miss Wilson. From Kentucky he came to Illinois. He reached Kaskaskia about the year 1797. He afterward settled near the farm of Judge Bond in the American Bottom, in the pre- sent county of Monroe, and there married in the year 1798 (his first wife having died) Polly Kinkead, who was a native of Penn- sylvania. She came to Illinois with her parents in 1786, then ten years of age. They came in company with the Ogles and Lemens, and other pioneer families. They descended the Ohio to Fort Massacre, and from there struck across by land to Kaskaskia, driv- ing their stock with them. On this journey her father, James Kinkead, became separated from the company and was lost. Reaching Kaskaskia, and he not having made an appearance, his comrades started back to look for him. He was discovered on what was named from this circumstance, Kinkead's creek. He had been twenty-two or twenty-three days without any food except roots, leaves, and bark. He was in a famished and emaciated condition, and never recovered from the effects of the exposure and lack of food. The Kinkead family first settled at the New Design and then located at Piggot's fort, in the American Bottom, a mile and a half west of the present town of Columbia, and lived within that fort seven years.
Jehu Scott moved afterward to the Teeger prairie in the Bottom, four miles north of Judge Bond's, and there established a black- smith shop. He carried on that business for a number of years, and his services were brought into requisition for a considerable distance. It is said that he made the nails for all the coffins iu which the dead were buried for fifteen miles around. From Teeger prairie he moved to Harrisonville, and for seven years carried on his trade at that place. From Harrisonville he moved to a farm
four miles and a half north of that town and lived there about twenty years. He subsequently lived with his children for a num- ber of years, residing at Alton, near Freeburg, on the Ridge prairie, and died at the house of his son, Harrison Scott, in January, 1840. He was in the ranging service in the war of 1812-14.
Benjamin Scott was the oldest of a family of eleven children. He was born in the Teeger prairie, Monroe county, on the 23d of January, 1799. He was raised in the same neighborhood. He only had ordinary advantages for obtaining an education. The school facilities of that day were not of the best description. The schools were subscription schools, held for three months during the winter season in log school-houses with puncheon floors and slab benches. Greased paper pasted over an aperture made by leaving out a couple of logs, furnished the only excuse for a window. On the 27th of September, 1824, he married Clarissa Garretson, daugh- ter of James Garretson, one of the pioneer American settlers of Illinois.
James Garretson came to Illinois in the year 1781 and settled within the present limits of Monroe county. He came with the first American immigration to the Far West, and is one of the men to whom credit should be given for founding the present great commonwealth of Illinois. Samuel Garretson, a brother of James Garretson, was killed by the Indians during the border troubles in the early history of the territory. The family, for several years, lived near Piggot's fort, to which they were often obliged to resort to protect themselves against the savages. John Moredock, one of the pioneer settlers of Illinois who was noted as an Indian fighter, married a sister of Jacob Garretson. Mrs. Scott's mother's name was Mary Carr, daughter of Joseph Carr. The Carrs came from Virginia, first settled at the New Design, and from there removed to the American Bottom. Mrs. Scott was the fourth of a family of nine children. She was born on the 16th of February, 1806, in the American Bottom, seven (7) miles north of Harrisonville, in which locality she lived till her marriage.
After Benjamin Scott was married he settled in the American Bottom, on Moredock Lake. His farm suffering much damage from high water during the years 1824, 1825, and 1826, he de- termined to abandon the Bottom and settle in a safer locality. In company with his brother, William Henry Harrison Scott, he came to Ridge Prairie, and purchased four hundred and eighty acres of land, for which twelve hundred dollars was paid. In the year 1828 he settled on this land. He improved a valuable farm, and lived there till his death. He was a man held in high estima- tion as a neighbor and a citizen, and he commanded the respect of the entire community. In his political opinions he was first a whig, and in the later years of his life, after the dissolution of the whig party, he acted with the democrats. He united with the old Bethel Baptist Church, of which he was a member for many years. He died on the 1st of September, 1877, at the age of nearly seventy- nine.
He was the father of eight children, of whom five are now living. The oldest daughter, Dilyou, married David Moore, and lives at Knob Knoster, Missouri ; the next child is Mary ; Sallie died in January. 1842, at the age of twelve; John is now farming in Fayette county of this state; William S. lives on the old home- stead; James Wilson resides on a farm near O'Fallon ; Micha Ann died October 20, 1875, at the age of thirty-two; Lyman, the youngest, died in 1851, in infancy.
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RESIDENCE OF MRS.ELIZA HOUSER, O'FALLON.
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F
BETS
OLD HOME FARM OF ELIAS & ELIZA HOUSER, PROPERTY NOW OF ELIAS HOUSER, JR. 2 MILES S. E. OF O'FALLON, ST. CLAIR CO.ILL.
HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
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Elias Houser. fr
ELIAS HOUSER was born in Washington county, Maryland, eight miles from Hagerstown, on the 29th of April, 1810. His father, Isaac Houser, was, on his father's side, of German descent, and was born in Washington county, Maryland, and married Barbara Mumma. Elias Houser was raised in Washington county, Mary- land, on a farm. He had ordinary advantages for obtaining an education. His father carried on the distilling business, a highly respectable occupation in those days, and also owned a large mill, which may still be seen standing south-west of Hagerstown, not far from the battle-field of Antietam. Elias Houser learned both the milling business and that of a distiller, which he followed for some time previous to his marriage. He was married on the 12th of November, 1833, to Eliza Malott, daughter of Col. Daniel Malott, who lived on an adjoining farm in the same neighborhood, eight miles south-west of Hagerstown. Col. Malott was of French de- scent. He served in the war of 1812-14, and there gained his military title. He was a man of superior education, and occupied a prominent and influential position in the community. In early life he became proficient in surveying, and for a number of years was employed in surveying government lands in Ohio. He surveyed the lands on which now stand the cities of Chillicothe and Colum- bus in that state. He took an active part in public life, was a whig in politics, and held several public positions. He was twice sheriff of Washington county, Maryland, and held that office at the time of his death. He was a prominent Mason, and an officer of the Grand Lodge of Masons of Maryland.
After his marriage Mr. Houser lived in Maryland, following the occupation of a farmer till 1839, when he removed to the west. He 37
first settled in Clark county, in north-west Missouri, making his home there when it was a rough, wild country, and the settlers were few in number. The conveniences of civilization were scarce. The nearest mill was twenty-five miles distant. After living seven years in Clark county, in December, 1846, the family became residents of St. Louis. Mr. Houser was there employed most of the time in dealing in wood, having a wood yard on Cass avenue. In 1854 he moved to Illinois and settled on a farm two miles south-east of O'Fallon. He has since lived in St. Clair county, and in 1872 became a resident of the town of O'Fallon. Mrs. Houser died on the 12th of September, 1880, at the house of her son, in St. Louis, at the age of sixty-five years, seven months and one day. She was a woman of good education and of an energetic and persevering dis- position. She exercised more than usual care over her children, and was anxious that they should succeed well in the world and reach positions of respectability and usefulness in society. At, however, much inconvenience and trouble to herself, she saw that they attended school and had opportunities for obtaining an edu- cation. She possessed many praiseworthy womanly qualities and Christian virtues. In early life she had united with the Lutheran church, but after coming to St. Louis became a member of the Me- thodist church, with which she was connected till her death.
There are now eight children living. The oldest, Daniel Malott Houser, is one of the proprietors of the St. Louis Globe Democrat ; B. Cornelia, the oldest daughter, is the wife of Alfred C. Jones, of O'Fallon ; Sarah A. is the wife of Levi Simmons, who formerly lived in .O'Fallon, but now resides in St. Louis ; Claggett L. Houser is engaged in farming near Carlyle, in Clinton county ; Angelica
290
HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
E., is the wife of John M. Houser, formerly of Bloomington, in this state, and now residing near Russell, Kansas; Caroline M. marrried James M. McFarland, now a resident of Butler, Bates county, Missouri ; Elias Houser, Jr., is engaged in farming near O'Fallon, and the youngest of the family. Ida Houser lives in St. Louis. Four besides are dead ; two died in infancy, one of whom, Medora M. was two years and a half of age. Franklin Wesley, the sixth of the family, died in December, 1858, in his sixteenth year. Isaac Calvin, the third child, was a young man of energetic disposition. He served nine months with the 30th Illinois regiment during part of the years 1862 and 1863 in the war of the rebellion.
ELIAS HOUSER, JR.,
an illustration of whose farm, two miles south-east of O'Fallon, ap- pears on another page, and whose portrait heads this sketch, is one of the enterprising young men of St. Clair county. He was born in the city of St. Louis on the 12th of February, 1853, and was next to the youngest of a family of twelve children. He was a year old at the time of the removal of his parents from St. Louis to the neighborhood of O'Fallon. He was raised in this county and obtained his education in the public schools in the vicinity of his home, attending school at the old town of Shiloh and afterward at O'Fallon. For a short time also he was a student in McKen- dree college. After leaving school he went to work on the farm where he now lives. This farm, of which he is now the owner, is composed of two hundred and twenty acres of the valuable land characteristic of that portion of the county. Mr. Houser is a gentle- man of liberal ideas and progressive disposition, and though young in years is still known to many of the citizens of the county. He possesses an active mind and good business capacity, and in the opinion of his friends has those qualities which fit him to make his way successfully through the world. In his political views he is an earnest republican.
JAMES NEAREN
WAS born in Monroe county, January 31, 1805. When two years old he came with his step-father, Isaac Basey, to the Ogle settle- ment on the Ridge Prairie, in St. Clair county. The first school he attended was on Ridge Prairie, in section eleven of township two north, range eight west, when he was about ten years old. The teacher was Isaac Enochs. At eighteen he hired out, receiving ten dollars a month wages, and getting his pay in State paper worth fifty cents on the dollar. He then learned the cooper's trade. Dur- ing the winter of 1826-7 he was at Vandalia, where the last session of the legislature met, previous to the removal of the capital to Springfield. March 13, 1827, he married Nicene Gaskill, who was born near Owego, New York, Sept. 12, 1807, and was the daughter of Jonathan Gaskill and Elizabeth Allen. Her parents settled in this county, a mile and a-half from Mascoutah, in October 1810. In May, 1827, Mr. Nearen went to Galena, where he worked six months as a carpenter. He came home with one hundred and thirty dollars in money, and bought eighty acres of land in section eleven of township two north, range eight west, where he now lives. The price was two dollars and a-half an acre, and he had to resort to the courts to get a good title. He paid fifty dollars on the land. The first crop of corn he raised he hauled to St. Louis with an ox cart, and sold for eighteen cents a bushel. It was fifteen years- though he worked hard and was as economical as possible-before the land was all paid for. He paid eight dollars an acre for the next forty acres he purchased. He now owns five hundred acres. He has had twelve children. The three living are Allen Alonzo Nearen, Caroline, the wife of B. G. Markham, and John C. Nearen. He
voted for Andrew Jackson in 1824, and has been a democrat ever since. In 1832 he served in the " Black Hawk " war. His com- pany was commanded by Capt. Simpson, and his regiment by Col. Thomas. After sixty days service he was discharged at Ottawa, on the Illinois river. He is now one of the oldest settlers of the county, and, with the exception of one year, has lived on his pres- ent farm since 1828. He owns the old place on which his step- father, Isaac Basey, settled in 1807. He and his wife have lived together a longer period than usually falls to the lot of married couples. It is now fifty-four years since their marriage.
JOSHUA BEGOLE, (DECEASED.)
JOSHUA BEGOLE, formerly one of the old residents of St. Clair county, was born near Hagerstown, Washington county, Maryland, on the 25th of March, 1792. The family was of French origin and belonged to the Huguenots, who were driven from France by the edict of Nantes, in 1685, and from that country emigrated to America. In the year 1805, Mr. Bagole's father removed with the family from Maryland to New York, and in the latter state he re- sided till the spring of 1819, when he went to Detroit, Michigan, where, for a time, he was in the employment of Gen. Lewis Cass. In 1820 he went to Cincinnati, and from there came down the Ohio to Shawneetown, from which place he made his way to Kas- kaskia. He found work on a flat-boat which navigated the Okaw river. He was at Carlyle when the company who owned the boat failed and suspended payment, leaving him entirely without means. He went to St. Louis in the hope of collecting the debt, and, while there, was employed by Gov. William Kinney, and came with him to St. Clair county. He worked on Kinney's farm one season, and afterward leased land and raised crops on shares. In 1826 he pur- chased eighty acres of land in section twenty-two of township two north, range eight west, paying for the improved land fifteen dollars an acre, and ten dollars for the unimproved, and having ten years' time in which to make the payment. He was married on the 2d of March, 1824, to Mary Terry. The marriage ceremony was per- formed by the Rev. John M. Peck. Mrs. Begole's father, George Terry, was born in Virginia. Her mother, whose maiden name was Sallie Linton, was also born in Virginia, on the south branch of the Potomac. Her parents started for Illinois immediately after their marriage, and settled in the American Bottom. Mrs. Begole was born in May, 1808. When she was three years old, her mother, who, after her first husband's death, married Elder Joseph Chance, moved to Ridge Prairie, (section fifteen of township two north, range eight west) where Mrs. Begole was raised.
Mr. Begole served eight years as justice of the peace. He made a good magistrate and married over forty couples. In 1857 he bought land in sections two and three of township two north, range eight west, and moved to that locality, where he lived till his death, which took place on the 2d of March, 1874, just fifty years from the date of his marriage. He was a member of the Bethel Baptist church, and was baptized by the Rev. Joseph Lemen, on the first Saturday in August, 1827. In politics he was, for many years, a member of the old Whig party, with which he acted till its disso- lution. He was one of the early members of the republican party. in St. Clair county. During the war he was a strong Union man, and did all in his power to support the government in its efforts to destroy the rebellion. He was industrious and energetic, and suc- ceeded in securing a comfortable portion of this world's goods. He was a useful citizen, a good neighbor, and a man whose private life was adorned with many Christian virtues. He had twelve children, of whom eight are now living.
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
B. F. BEGOLE,
THE third child of Joshua and Mary Begole, was born in the Ridge Prairie, November 30th, 1828. He secured his education in the ordinary district schools, and lived with his father till his marriage, which occurred January 18th, 1859, to Huldah Price, who was born in Johnson county, Missouri, October 18th, 1838, and was the daughter of John Price and Miriam Lemen. Her mother was a daughter of Robert Lemen, one of the early settlers of the county. After his marriage he went to farming for himself. Af- ter living on the old homestead a couple of years, he moved to his present farm, in section twenty-six of township two north, range eight. He has six children : Mary Theodosia, Ida Cornelia, John Franklin, Cyrus Edgar, Bessie and Ford. Mr. Begole voted for Scott, the whig candidate for president, in 1852, and has been a re- publican since the formation of that party. He is a member of the Bethel Baptist church.
CYRUS S. BEGOLE,
THE youngest son now living of Joshua Begole, was born Feb- ruary 28th, 1842. He attended the district schools in Ridge Prai- rie, and in 1863 and 1864, was a student at Shurtleff College, Up- per Alton. He was married May 12th, 1875, to Laura Begole, who was born in the city of Chicago. Her father, Bradley Begole, was descended from the old French Huguenot stock, and was a native of Mt. Morris, Livingston county, New York, and in 1849, became a resident of Chicago. Mrs. Begole's mother was Mary A. Cassidy. She was born at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In 1836, when she was sixteen, her father, James Cassidy, settled where the city of Chicago now stands. That place was then inhabited by Indians only, and a few white settlers, and no one then supposed that it would become the site of a great commercial city, and thus Mr. Begole's father and grandfather lost the opportunity of making investments which would now return fabulous amounts of money. After his marriage, Mr. Begole went to farming on his father's old place, in section twenty-two, where he has since lived. He has two children, named Lemuel. Theodore and Archie Roland. He is a member of the Bethel Baptist church ; cast his first vote for President for Lincoln in 1864, and has since been a staunch republican.
ISAAC FORMAN, (DECEASED).
ISAAC FORMAN, who died on the 29th of October, 1878, was one of the leading farmers of the Ridge Prairie. He settled there at an early day, and by industry and good business management, secured an ample fortune. Like many of the early settlers of Illinois, he was a Kentuckian by birth. He was born near Paris, Bourbon county, Kentucky, on the 2d day of November, 1800. His father, Joseph Forman, was born in the year 1775, and his mother, whose maiden name was Mary Landers, was born on the 12th of February, 1782. The subject of this sketch was the oldest of a family of several children. His early life was spent in Ken- tucky. The locality in which he was raised, offered not the best advantages for obtaining an education. The schools were usually of an inferior character, held in log school-houses, with puncheon floors and slab benches, while a strip of greased paper pasted over an aperture made by leaving out a log on the side of the building furnished the only substitute for a window. In these rude schools the boys of that day acquired the elements of an education, and fitted themselves for the future duties of life. Mr. Forman suc- ceeded in acquiring a good English education, and after coming to Illinois, for some time previous to his marriage, taught school.
In the year 1819, his father moved with the family from Ken- tucky to Illinois, and settled on Ridge Prairie, on section fifteen of township two north, range eight west. This is the location where Mr. Forman afterwards lived, and where his widow, Mrs. Rebecca Forman, now resides. At the time the family settled here, the land was wild and uncultivated. The older settlers had mostly confined their improvements to the edges of the timber, thinking the open prairie to be an undesirable place of residence. A num- ber of negroes were brought along from Kentucky, and the work of improving a farm was vigorously commenced. After living here a year or two, Mr. Forman's father died, and the rest of the family, becoming dissatisfied with life on an Illinois prairie, moved back to Kentucky. Mr. Forman was about nineteen when he first came to this state. He returned with the other members of the family to Kentucky. After remaining there for some time, he went to Missouri and purchased a farm, on which he lived some years. He then purchased the interest of the other heirs in the land on Ridge Prairie, on which he, with a younger brother, settled, and where he afterwards lived till his death.
He was married on the 22d of Dec. 1836, to Mrs. Rebecca Har- desty. Her maiden name was Beedle, and she was the daughter of Samuel Beedle, and Sarah Benham. She was born near Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 2d of July, 1812. Her father was an early settler of that part of Ohio. She was five or six years of age when her father moved from Ohio to Illinois. The family settled in this county on section twenty-eight of township two north, range eight west, and Mrs. Forman was raised in that vicinity. When she was twenty- one she married Richard Hardesty, who was also born in Ohio, and who died within a few years after their marriage.
Mr. Forman was a man of great energy and industry, and of a persevering disposition, which enabled him to carry out his plans, and overcome all ordinary obstacles. He threw his energy into the work of improving a farm, and soon had a fine body of land under cultivation. He had good business qualifications, and stead- ily accumulated property. He had been brought up on a large farm in Kentucky, in the midst of a fine stock country, and was early accustomed to the care and management of stock. As soon as he got his farm into the proper condition, and had sufficient means he turned his attention toward raising cattle and sheep, and up to a late period of his life; when he became too feeble to give his active attention to the business, he was engaged, more or less, in raising and fattening stock. At the time of his death he owned large quantities of valuable land, and was one of the wealthiest farmers of that part of St. Clair county. On part of his farm he laid out the town of Forman, on the line of the Ohio and Mis- sissippi railroad, though on account of the proximity of other towns, the place never secured a vigorous growth. His death in Octo- ber, 1878, was caused by a cold caught while in attendance at a camp-meeting.
Previous to his marriage he became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church ; first uniting with old Shiloh church, and afterward joining the Methodist church at O'Fallon, when one came to be established in that town. He was devoted to the inter- ests of the church, and was licensed as a local preacher. He was a man of earnest piety, and was a warm friend of the different evangelizing institutions of his denomination, especially the Mis- sionary and Church Extension Societies. He recognized the im- portance of Sabbath-school work, and taught and superintended a school on the Sabbath in the school-house in the vicinity of his home. Throughout life his habits were temperate, and he did all he could to encourage the principles of temperance in others One of his peculiar characteristics was his strong opposition to secret
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