USA > Illinois > Vermilion County > History of Vermilion County, Illinois : a tale of its evolution, settlement and progress for nearly a century, Volume I > Part 23
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R. W. Cowan, druggist, of Georgetown, is the brother of W. C. Cowan, and came to Vermilion County at the same time with his father and the other mem- bers of the family. He enlisted in the Seventy-third Illinois Regiment, and was in the battle of Perrysville. He was discharged from the army because of ill health after six months and returning to Georgetown engaged in the grocery business. He afterward tried all lines of mercantile work and at the last settled on the drug store.
In 1850 the Danville Seminary was incorporated under the provision of the law passed by the legislature of 1849, permitting citizens to be incorporated for the purpose of establishing institutions of learning. This school was the out- growth of the one taught in the Methodist church, which was the only institu- tion of learning where more than primary studies could be taken. Without the later established public schools there was no place nearer than the Georgetown Seminary or the Vermilion Grove Academy, where the youth of this section could secure any training in books. This institution was handicapped from the first by being made denominational. The incorporators were many of them, and indeed in the majority, members of the Methodist church and the articles of incorporation provided that a majority of the trustees should be from that church, and that the teachers should be appointed by its authority. Education and educational institutions to reach the highest results must recognize no limits of church or politics. An independent school would have been much better at that time since this drawing of the denominational line engendered a strong partisan spirit and when that creeps into anything young people have to do with there are bitter feelings aroused which do not so readily disappear. That this school was well conducted there is no doubt, yet much of the after division in the sentiment of those in business and social lines may be traced back to the bitter quarrels among the children who went to school at that time and were compelled to take sides in the church differences which followed.
The board of trustees selected two acres of land just north of the west end of Main street as it was then. Upon his land the two-story building was put up. This building now faces Pine street, a little north of Main street. This school was the only institution of higher learning in Danville for a year.
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows were granted a charter for their lodge in Danville, July 25, 1850. The charter members were John L. Tincher, Samuel Frazier, J. B. Gilbert, Joshua Hollingsworth and H. J. C. Batch.
The Higginsville postoffice was established in 1850.
The Vermilion County Agricultural and Mechanical Association was or- ganized in 1850. The first fair was held at Danville, and was where the Pres- byterian church now stands on the corner of North and Franklin streets. The officers were elected, the fair was held and the premiums awarded, all in the
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same day. There was no gate fare charged and only $40 paid in premiums. This amount must have been realized from the license charged to those who kept stands on the grounds. The second fair was held down on the bottoms near the "old red bridge."
Abel Wolverton came to Vermilion County in 1850 and entered 160 acres of land being the N. E. one-fourth section 18, town 23, range II. He soon bought 160 acres more and then increased this amount to 400 acres. The fol- lowing year his family came and occupied the land. In the family was a son of fifteen, who was to be a strong factor in the development of the northern part of the county. Charles Wolverton learned the carpenter's trade before and during the war. He enlisted in Company H, 70th Illinois Volunteers. This regiment did duty most of the time of their enlistment at Camp Butler, Spring- field, and at Alton. They did garrison duty at Alton and furnished numerous details for guarding prisoners. Mr. Wolverton rose to rank of Colonel. Since the war Mr. Wolverton has been conspicuous in business and politics. He is a republican.
When Henry B. Kester was three years old he was taken by his parents from West Virginia to Morrow County, Ohio, and when he was twenty-two years old he came to Vermilion County, Illinois. He had his trade of carpenter before he came and went directly to work in building. His work increased to such an extent that he employed many men to help him get out his contracts.
Mr. Kester was married to a girl from his childhood home in 1853. He continued working at his trade until the Civil war broke out. Then he joined Company E, 149th Illinois Regiment under the command of Captain Laferty and Colonel W. C. Kifner.
This company did garrison duty until the close of the war and at Dalton, Georgia, on the 27th of January, 1866, Mr. Kester was honorably discharged. The rest of Mr. Kester's life has been spent in the filling of his duty, as an honest citizen.
Mr. Abner Warner came to Vermilion County in 1850 and herded cattle on the prairies. These he drove across the country to the Philadelphia markets. Later he located in Vermilion County and he died in Rossville in 1888. The two children of this family are well known, particularly the elder brother, Charles W. Warner. Charles Warner went with his parents from his birth- place to near Crawfordsville, Indiana, and went to school there. He then went into a printing office in Rossville, after which he taught school for awhile. When he had finished his last school he went into the office of the Hoopeston Chronicle, which at that time was owned by Dale Wallace. Here he remained for three years. Mr. Warner bought the Hoopeston Chronicle in 1882, since which time he has been editor and owner of the paper. He was appointed, or rather elected, because of the number of candidates, postmaster of Hoopeston in 1889 and has continued in office ever since, with the exception of Cleve- land's administration.
Mr. Warner is recognized as the leader in the republican ranks in the north end of the county. His extensive political, business and social relations have given him a large acquaintance and he is favorably known.
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John L. Stewart was a well esteemed citizen of Vermilion County for thirty years coming in 1851 and locating in Newell township on a tract of wild land, twelve miles northeast of Danville. He was a native of New York state, but spent his youth in Indiana. He lived on his 260 acres in Newell township until 1879, when he sold and went west on account of poor health. He located on a farm in Oregon near Portland, but stayed only three years, when he re- turned and lived in Bismarck until he died in 1882.
A. LeSeure came to Georgetown in 1851 and began selling groceries, the firm being LeSeure and Probst. This continued for two years when Mr. Probst sold out to the other partner and Mr. LeSeure continued the business until in 1861 he enlisted in the 7th Illinois Cavalry, and was in service until the close of the war. His regiment was in several battles.
Steven Brothers was born in Ohio. He was trained to be a farmer and a blacksmith. He came to Vermilion County in 1855, coming first to Bloomfield and then to Danville, where he worked as a blacksmith. He has gone back to Ohio and also to New York and as well to Nebraska, but he has always come back to Illinois. Mr. Brothers was in Company I under Captain Vinson. He was second lieutenant. At the battle of Perrysville, he was knocked over with a ball but was not injured.
John McFarland was known as one of the best farmers of Oakwood town- ship, while he lived. He came from Ohio, and married .a Miss Oxford, in Perrysville, Indiana. They had four children. After Mrs. McFarland died he came to Illinois. In 1856 Mr. McFarland married the widow of Aaron Dal- bey. The McFarland farm was a landmark for many years, and even yet when it has changed hands, that farm is pointed out to strangers as the Mc- Farland farm.
The Union Seminary was a joint stock company that was organized in 1851 by citizens who were not members of the church which controlled the other in- stitution of learning. The trustees were L. T. Palmer, A. D. Sconce, S. G. Craig, Guy Merrill and Hamilton White. They secured good grounds in what was the north part of town and built a good building on it. The building was on the site of the Kimbrough home, at the corner of Vermilion and Seminary streets. There were about three acres around the building.
The course of study and instruction of one school was about the same as that of the other, but it was impossible for the pupils to believe this and so the chil- dren wasted their emotions in bitterness of jealousy and there was at times war over the conditions of education in Danville. Memories of discord have not yet left the hearts and brains of the men and women who were a part to all this strife in their childhood.
In 1862 the common school system was adopted in Danville and that did away with these rivals and stopped the ill feeling.
James H. Miller so long the tax collector for the county was born in Vir- ginia, and came to Ohio in 1846 staying there for about six years, when he came to Vermilion County and located at Danville. He accumulated property and had by reason of his energy, honesty and good qualities, enjoyed the con- fidence of the community. For twenty years and more he held the office of tax collector and part of the time was also assessor of Danville township.
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All the revenue derived from taxation passed through his hands. Mr. Miller was left an orphan when a small boy, and his sole income was seventy-five cents per week, he paying his own expenses out of this sum. When his latter life of comfort and ease is considered, together with the statement of his early privations, it seems a wonderful country which can help a boy to succeed in this way. Mr. Miller married a daughter of John Johns and was the father of two boys, one only of whom lived to manhood.
In 1852 William Hess came to Vermilion County with his father's family, and settled at Brooks Point. He lived with his parents until the death of his mother in 1854, after which he worked around on farms, going into Champaign County and farmed for himself for three years. In 1861 he married Miss Jane Clifton, who was born in this county. He left Champaign County and com- ing back to Vermilion settled near Georgetown, where he remained.
John Cage came to Vermilion County when he was a young man of about twenty years old, coming in 1852 to take charge of the Denmark mill. He mar- ried Miss Kerr of the old home town in 1868, and rented the McCarty farm in Georgetown township. He remained here for two years when he bought a farm of his own, which he improved and upon which he remained.
The Vermilion County Agricultural Society was organized in 1852, at Dan- ville. After its first fair it located grounds at Catlin. Hon. J. H. Oakwood was from the first its most determined and energetic promoter.
Thomas Hoopes, the founder of Hoopeston, came to Vermilion County in 1853. He had made a success of living in Ohio and had a farm with all improve- ments to be desired in that state but he came to Illinois to look at the prospects of the country. It would seem that an eight hundred acre farm near Marion, Ohio, would have all the best possible conditions for any one, but it appears he was attracted to the newer country and turned with interest, if not longing, toward the natural grazing lands of the prairies of the northern part of Ver- milion County.
That he was satisfied with conditions and the prairie called him with force, is indicated by the fact that he bought 480 acres of land from Mr. W. I. Allen on which he established his new home. This land lay northwest of the present site of Hoopeston, crowning a hill on the old Chicago road. As time passed Mr. Hoopes added to his land until he had seven or eight thousand acres. He became the most extensive stock raiser in this part of the country sending his product to the eastern markets, and spending his profits for more land. In July, 1871, the tracks of the C. & E. I. R. R. were laid across his farm and the year fol- lowing the Lake Erie & Western was running trains. Mr. Hoopes saw the op- portunity to build a town of importance at the crossing and at once had his farm platted and sold it for town lots. He later sold one thousand acres of his farm to the firm of Snell and Taylor, who platted it and sold it for town lots. After that Mr. Hoopes did not do much save to oversee his invested interests. He traveled much in search of health for his wife. Mrs. Hoopes died in 1886 and Mr. Hoopes survived her until 1893.
Joseph G. English, who for years was one of the leading citizens of Dan- ville, came to Vermilion County in 1853. He came into the Wabash Valley with his father's family when he was but nine years old and made their home in
MRS. HENRY B. KESTER
THOMAS WILLIAMS
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MRS. NOAH E. HUBBARD
HENRY B. KESTER
JOHN WILLIAMS
NOAHI E. HUBBARD
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
Perrysville, Indiana. He began earning his living when he was fourteen years old, going into the service of the firm of Taylor and Linton of La Fayette, Indiana. He remained here for three years. He was employed to sweep out the store and do odd work about and on market days he had to get up by three or four o'clock in the morning to get ready for the Dunkards who took advantage of the early hours to do their marketing. His wage for such service was his board and clothing. But the discipline was good for him and besides the knowl- edge he gained of mercantile matters, he learned to control himself and acquired habits which stood him in good place in after years. After he had been with this firm for five years it failed and he went back to Perrysville, and secured a place in a general store, where he received a salary of forty dollars per month. Inside of three years he had saved four hundred dollars and he determined to settle down and marry. He married the daughter of Mr. Hicks, a pioneer of Perrysville, who had a fine property. In 1844 Mr. English went into partner- ship with his father-in-law, under the firm name of Hicks and English. Their stock consisted of everything possibly needed and they were always the market for any produce there was to sell. This produce was shipped down the Wabash river to the Ohio and then either to Cincinnati or on down the Ohio to the Mis- sissippi to New Orleans. Since this produce was carried on flat boats many times Mr. English, as a young man, became one of the oarsmen. In 1853 Mr. English came to Danville, having sold out his store in Perrysville. He at once began a partnership with John L. Tincher, which was ended only by death. Mr. Tincher had married a sister of Mr. English's wife, so they were bound by other ties than those of business.
This general store was a profitable venture but the firm was made the as- signees of the Stock Security Bank, a wild-cat institution, which was forced into bankruptcy in the panic of 1856-7. It was then that the general store of Tincher & English was disposed of and the entire attention of the firm was given to the bank. They gradually began transacting a brokerage and exchange business. which grew into a private bank.
In 1863 the National Bank bill passed congress and these gentlemen sought a charter and organized a national bank. Mr. English was made president of this bank and continued in that position until 1899. During these years Mr. English has been very active in the commercial and industrial life of Danville. He invested largely in land throughout the county and had much profit from his real estate deals. Mrs. (Hicks) English died in 1864, having been the mother of seven children. In 1865 Mr. English married Mrs. Partlow, a widow with two children. By this wife Mr. English became the father of two children, only one of whom lived to grow to manhood. This second wife died in 1886 and in 1899 Mr. English again married, this time it was to Mary E. Forbes, the widow of Thomas Forbes, and daughter of William Hessey, a pioneer of Vermilion County.
Mr. English was very prominent in the affairs of the Methodist Episcopal church and almost by his own effort organized the second church in Danville, better known as Kimber Methodist church. He lived retired the last years of his life, having met reverses in money matters and suffered failing health. Mr. English died in the spring of 1909.
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Mr. A. G, Webster was a merchant in Danville for thirty odd years, coming in 1853 with a small stock of dry goods from La Fayette, Indiana. He continued in the dry goods business until 1856, when he sold out his stock and set up a grocery store. His birth place was St. Albans, Vermont. He spent his life in Danville from 1853 to the time of his death which occurred in about 1907.
C. D. Henton came to Vermilion County in 1853 having spent his earlier life in Fountain County, Indiana. He located in Myersville, where he practiced his profession until 1872, when he came to Danville, where he remained as long as he lived. Dr. Henton married a Miss Gundy, sister to Andrew and Francis Gundy.
Asa H. Guy came to Vermilion County in 1853, and located in Georgetown, where he taught school. Mr. Guy was elected surveyor of Vermilion County by the republicans in 1855. This office he held, off and on for twenty-five or thirty years. He has laid out and surveyed the villages of Fairmount, Catlin, a part of Hoopeston and as well Paxton and other towns. In 1862 Mr. Guy was ap- pointed assistant revenue assessor, which office he held until 1865. Mr. Guy was the father of seven children. His oldest son, Charles V. Guy was for many years superintendent of county schools, and afterward in the abstract office. His younger son, J. Milton, M. D., has been a successful physician in Danville, whose practice extends throughout the county. Dr. Guy is one of the leading physicians of the city and it is right to say county as well. He is a progressive practitioner and ranks with the best.
George A. Fox was closely identified with the local politics of Oakwood township. He came from Pennsylvania in 1853 directly to Vermilion County, Illinois. The year following his coming to Oakwood township he bought 240 acres of land, where he lived until his death. In the following November Mr. Fox was married to Margaret Oakwood, the youngest daughter of Henry Oak- wood. They were the parents of six children, all of whom have taken their places in the world with credit. When he came to Vermilion County he drove a flock of sheep.
Mr. Fox was elected justice of the peace in 1856 and served in that capacity until 1870. He was supervisor for four years. He was the first supervisor of Oakwood township. In Vance township he was assessor and collector for three years. He was school director for many years and as well was school trustee for three years. He was a member of the Methodist church for many years and was class leader for some time.
Peter Byer the man with whom a pair of shoes is always associated, came from Germany. He stopped in Rochester on his way to learn something more about shoes. He then started for Vermilion County with the expectation of buying land. Before he could get there however, the bank in which he had his money failed as banks too often did in those days, and Mr. Byer was penniless. Nothing remained for him then but to go to work with his trade of shoemaking. He did this but did not have to depend upon such work for long, for as time passed he not only did not have to do the drudgery of shoe making but he accumulated much valuable property. Mr. Byer had some difficulty before he died, but he was always well esteemed by his neighbors and when he died there were many to mourn the loss of the citizen whom everybody liked.
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John McMahan came to Danville in 1854. He followed his trade as a black- smith until about 1870. Squire McMahan was well known and well liked. He had a wide influence and died a well honored citizen of the community. In 1869 he was elected mayor of Danville and in 1872 he was elected justice of the peace and police magistrate, both of which offices he held for many years.
John Kilborn came to Danville in 1854 after a life of more than usual prefer- ment in Ohio. He was almost forty years old when he came to Illinois and was well able to take his place as a leader at once. He was intersted in land specula- tion and gave his entire time to this.
Mr. Kilborn built and improved the house long known as the Hooton place, and in 1862 moved on his farm in Danville township.
In 1854 Jacob Yapp moved his harness and trunk factory from Cuba, New York, to Georgetown, Illinois, under the firm name of Yapp & Co. This firm continued one year when Mr. Yapp bought out the business and formed a part- nership with James Jackson, which continued until Mr. Jackson's death, when Mr. Yapp took sole charge of it until 1861. He then gave it up and gave all his attention to the hotel business, which he had opened three years before. He also ran the hack line from Danville to Paris, also having charge of the mail route. In 1864 he was elected justice of the peace; in 1868 he became a hardware merchant.
James H. Phillips, who has probably resided in Danville longer than any other person not a native of the state of Illinois, was born in Sussex County, Delaware, September 22, 1832. In 1850 just as he was about to enter Delaware College from the preparatory school at Newark, Mr. Phillips, by reason of an unfortunate venture in a cargo of coffee bought in Rio de Janeiro by the super- cargo of a barque belonging to his father, was compelled to give up all hope of a collegiate education, and return home and to work. Four years thereafter, through the kindly influence of Levin T. Palmer, now deceased, and the loan of twenty-five dollars, by a friend, in his native town, Mr. Phillips, after a five days' journey from Baltimore, Maryland, by rail, canal and stage coach, arrived at Danville, November 20, 1854, and at once entered the employ of Tincher & English, as their bookkeeper. On the night of his arrival in Danville accom- panied by Mr. Palmer, Mr. Phillips called at the store and before leaving, Mr. Tincher said, "Do you wish to go to work in the morning, or look around the town?" The reply promptly came: "I want to begin my duties at once." In May, 1860, Mr. Phillips was appointed agent for Danville of the Home Fire Insurance Company of New York, and he enjoys the enviable distinction of being in one business the longest continuous number of years of any business man in the city, if not in the entire state of Illinois. The Danville agency is 712 and its company now has probably 15,000 agencies. The Home Insurance Company, was, at that time, only seven years old.
Mr. Phillips has a silver and also a gold medal from the Home, denoting twenty-five and afterward fifty years of continuous service as local agent. There are no other gold medals of that company in Illinois, and only five in the entire United States. Mr. Phillips also enjoys the distinction of being the long- est continuous Building and Loan Association manager in Danville and doubt- less in the entire state. His career in that branch of his business dates from
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November, 1873, and he only resigned the office of secretary of the Danville Building Association, in favor of his son Samuel Frazier Phillips, in January, 1910. Mr. Phillips was made a Mason in 1856 by William E. Russell, then Master of Olive Branch lodge in this city. By reason of the death of Mr. Russell, Mr. Phillips by special dispensation of the Grand Master of Masons in this state, was elected Master of Olive Branch lodge, having never been elected a Warden. This was in 1858. Mr. Phillips doubtless enjoys the dis- tinction of being the oldest living Past Master Mason in Illinois, whose first election as Master of a lodge dates as early as 1858. During the Civil War and after the office of Internal Revenue Collector Eighth Congressional District, comprising the counties of Vermilion, Iroquois, Ford, Champaign, Piatt, Macon, Moultrie, Cumberland, Douglas, Coles and Edgar was located in this city, Mr. Phillips was Deputy Collector, under W. T. Cunningham, collector.
Soon after the 15th of April, 1865, Mr. Phillips, as well as other employees of the U. S. government wore by order of the commissioner of Internal Revenue, a band of black crepe on the left arm for thirty days in commemoration of the death of President Lincoln.
November 24, 1859, Mr. Phillips was married to Miss Angeline, daughter of Captain Samuel Frazier. To that union were born the following named children : Annie Laurie, Jennie Louisa, Edwin Frazier, Frank Chipman, Leona, Florence Josephine, Samuel Frazier, and "Corinne Angeline. November 27, 1909, these highly esteemed people celebrated the close of fifty years of wedded life surrounded by their children, fourteen grandchildren, and two hundred friends, many of them of the long ago. Mr. Phillips at this date, December 3, 1910, 'enjoys robust health, and spends from six to eight hours daily in the Insurance and Building Association office of Phillips, Snapp & Espencheid, of which firm he is yet an active member.
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