USA > Illinois > Vermilion County > History of Vermilion County, together with historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources > Part 87
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John M. Ruth, Rossville, farmer, was born in Reading, Berks county, Pennsylvania, on the 23d of February, 1856, and is a son of George and Catharine (Manry) Ruth. In 1861 his parents removed to Illinois and settled on their present homestead, one mile north of Rossville. He was reared a farmer. He has a fine estate of two hun- dred acres, valued at $10,000. He used to be extensively engaged in raising hogs, but since the prevalence of cholera, within the past two or three years, has curtailed the business. He has gratified his desire to travel by an extended tour of the eastern and southern states.
William J. Henderson, Rossville, merchant, was born in the city and county of Sligo, Ireland, on the 3d of April, 1831. His parents were James and Jane (Henderson) Henderson. He came to America to make his home in 1848, but had previously made several trips across
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the Atlantic. On his arrival he set to learning the cabinet trade, in Lafayette, Indiana, to be used auxiliary to the furniture business, in which he designed embarking. This was in the years 1848-9, during which the cholera raged with great virulence in that and other northern cities. The succeeding three years were spent in work at the carpenter trade. In 1852 he opened a furniture store in Waynetown, Mont- gomery county, Indiana, where he continued in business till 1862, changing, however, to dry-goods in 1856. He removed to Rossville, Vermilion county, Illinois, in 1862, and has since carried on the dry-goods and grocery trade, adding largely to his business by buying and culti- vating an extensive tract of land, and dealing in grain and stock. He has had as many as two thousand hogs in his pens at a time, feeding ; owns a large and complete elevator, and is doing a good business in running the Rossville Mills, one of the finest flouring establishments in this section of the country. Mr. Henderson is a live, thorough- going business man, well endowed with the three essentials of success: courteous familiarity, foresight, and push. He was married on the 2d of November, 1856, to Eliza Dwiggins, who died on the 16th of No- vember, 1857. He was married again in October, 1861, to Amelia Little, relict of John York. She died on the 10th of September, 1869. His third marriage, on the 17th of March, 1870, was to Kate Scott. They have four living children : Mary, Jane, Fannie and Nellie. Mr. Henderson owns twelve hundred acres of land, worth $48,000. He is a republican in politics.
William M. Thomas, Rossville, tile maker, was born in Delaware county, Indiana, on the 3d of August, 1836, and is the son of James and Joanna (Bobo) Thomas. He settled with his parents in the spring of 1847, in Montgomery county, Indiana. In 1862 he came to Illinois and set- tled on a piece of wild prairie,-one hundred and twenty acres,- five miles west of Rossville, which he still owns, and has brought under a good state of enltivation. The past two years he has been living in Ross- ville, where he owns and is operating an extensive factory for the man- ufacture of drain tile. He was assessor of Butler township in the year 1864; married on the 10th of December, 1861, to Mary S. Bennett, who was born on the 13th of November, 1844. They are the parents of two living children : Mellie A., born on the 6th of December, 1862; Or- della, born on the 21st of December, 1876. He is a republican in poli- tics. He owns one hundred and twenty acres, worth $4,000.
Lyford Marston, Hoopeston, farmer, was born in Plymouth, New Hampshire, on the 2d of May, 1817, and is the son of Oliver L. and Lavinia Magusta (Ryan) Marston. The Marstons were descended from English stock. They were a numerous and prominent family, the
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greater number of whom led sea-faring lives. The subject of this sketch attended the Latin-Grammar school at Cambridge, Massachusetts, one year ; then the Newbury Seminary of Vermont two or three years, studying the natural sciences and literature. In 1835 he emigrated to Bourbon county, Kentucky. There he taught school a year and a half, devoting his spare time to reading law under Thomas Elliott, of Paris. He was admitted to the bar in November, 1838, at Carlisle, county seat of Nicholas county, where he located for practice. He was married on the 22d of November, 1838, to Miss Mary Ann Amos, daughter of a highly respectable and influential farmer of Bourbon county. He was prosecuting attorney for Nicholas county a number of years. He was successful in his profession, but having no ambition for legal or polit- ical distinction, he accepted, in the fall of 1843, a position on the edito- rial staff of the "Lexington Enquirer," a Henry Clay organ. He main- tained his connection with this until the spring of 1845, when the proprietor failed and the paper went down. He at once succeeded to the management of his father-in-law's farm, the latter having deceased. Here he led a quiet and uneventful life for several years. The begin- ning of the Kansas troubles inspired his pen to active use, and he ad- vocated the anti-slavery cause in the columns of the "New York Tribune." In 1856, while visiting his native home in New Hamp- shire, he made numerous campaign speeches for Fremont. In 1860 he was a delegate to the Chicago convention which nominated Mr. Lincoln, and an elector on the republican ticket for Kentucky. At the opening of the war he opposed, in the "Tribune," Mr. Greeley's crochet that the "erring sisters should be permitted to depart in peace." In the fall of 1863 he moved to Grant township in this county, and bought a farm of one hundred and sixty acres. The next year he increased it to three hundred and twenty acres, which property he still owns. In the fall of 1878 he was elected by the republicans to the general assembly. He served on the committees on Municipal Affairs, Public Printing and Public Charities. Mr. M. has always exercised his literary tastes by occasional contributions to the press on religious and political top- ics. His estimable wife died on the 29th of January, 1879. He has five living children : Anna, wife of Cyrus Hartwell; Mary L., wife of Almond F. Perkins; Oliver Nicholas, Laura Clay, wife of Jonas Decker; Ella, wife of E. B. Row.
William Glaze, Hoopeston, flax-seed dealer, was born in Brown county, Ohio, on the 15th of November, 1837, and is the son of James and Mary (Phillips) Glaze. In 1845 his parents moved to Montgom- ery county, Indiana, and in 1847 to Tippecanoe county. He was raised on a farm, but having become crippled in his left leg at the age of ten,
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he was never able to do much farm work. At seventeen he began clerking, which he followed nine years. He was married on the 17th of February, 1863, to Isabel Young, daughter of Jesse Young, a re- spectable farmer of Dayton, Indiana. In November, 1864, he located near Blue Grass, Vermilion county, Illinois, and after farming there two or three years became engaged in his present business - loaning and handling flax-seed. He has been employed in this the past eleven years, and enjoys a constantly increasing trade. In Butler township he held the offices of assessor and collector from 1866 to 1871 inclusive. In Grant he was assessor in 1875, 1876 and 1877. He is at present police magistrate. He served as village trustee before the incorpora- tion as a city. He has been a director of the Hoopeston high school four years. The efficiency of this institution, and the high reputation it is rapidly acquiring, is due to the sound judgment and fearless action of its officers. He is serving his second term as secretary of the Hoopes- ton District Agricultural Society. This is one of the most successful and flourishing societies in the state. He is a zealous temperance laborer, and the fortunate driving out of the rum demon from Hoopes- ton is very largely due to his tireless exertions in that behalf. In 1873 he was licensed a regular preacher in the United Brethren church, and in his sacred calling has since been engaged principally as a local min- ister. He has four living children : Laura May, James Alvin, Jesse Franklin and William Orne. His political views are republican.
James W. Crouch, Hoopeston, farmer and stock-raiser, was born in Warren county, Indiana, on the 10th of October, 1842. His parents were Joseph and Nancy (Watkins) Crouch. He lived in his native county until 1864, excepting two years (1857-8) that he was in Prairie Green township, Iroquois county, Illinois. In 1864 he .came to his present homestead, in Grant township, this county. He herded cattle the first year for a Mr. Hunter, who subsequently became his father-in- law. For five or six years after this the same gentleman gave him the use of eighty acres of land in the same place, at the end of which time he was able to buy one hundred and sixty acres for himself, for which he paid $12.50 per acre. He has made successive purchases, till he now owns four hundred and forty acres of choice farming land, valued at $13,500. He buys young stock, and feeds and raises for the market, which business he has closely pursued for several years past. The rearing of Norman horses is a branch of stock industry to which he has devoted much attention recently. His fine farm, which is admirably adapted to the uses for which he has designed it, is advantageously sit- nated, midway between Hoopeston and Ambia, on the L. B. & M. railroad. Mr. Crouch was originally a republican, but becoming con-
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vinced that the class legislation of that party was making the poor poorer and the rich richer, in 1872 he joined the liberal wing of that organization. By the course of events, he has gravitated to the na- tional or greenback party, of whose views he is a fearless and irre- pressible advocate. He was married on the 3d of July, 1863, to Miss Harriet Hunter, daughter of a respectable farmer and stock-dealer of Warren county, Indiana. She was born on the 9th of September, 1845. They have four living children : Sarah Annas, born on the 14th of April, 1865 : Jessie M., born on the 18th of September, 1868; James William, born on the 1st of January, 1874, and Horace F., born on the 23d of November, 1873.
Edmund Heaton, Hoopeston, farmer and school-teacher, was born in Coshocton county, Ohio, on the 7th of September, 1853. He is a son of Hugh and Levia (McCoy) Heaton. His mother died on the 21st of April, 1861, in Holmes county, Ohio. In the spring of 1863 he came to St. Joseph county, Indiana, and the next spring to Vermil- ion county, Illinois, settling in Grant township. Here he has since lived. In 1877 he went to Marion county, Iowa, and from thence, in 1878, traveled in Missouri, Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico, spend- ing the season in those places, sight-seeing, for pleasure and profit, returning in the fall to Vermilion county, Illinois. He has been em- ployed during several winters past in teaching school. He is a repub- lican in politics. His great-unele, Albert McCoy, a prominent lawyer of Missouri, was killed for his Unionism by guerrillas in 1862.
William Moore, Hoopeston, real estate broker, was born in Cosh- octen county, Ohio, on the 30th of November, 1841, and is the son of Silas and Mary (McCoy) Moore. He was reared a farmer ; educated at Spring Mountain Seminary, Ohio; was taking a preparatory course at the breaking ont of the war, with a view to fitting himself for the law ; volunteered on the 23d of April, 1861, for three months, in Co. D, 16th Ohio Vols., and promoted to orderly sergeant ; mustered out the next August. He was commissioned 1st lieutenant by Governor Den- nison, on the 3d of October, 1861, with authority to raise a company, which he enlisted mostly among the students of Spring Mountain Seminary. This was Co. I, 51st Ohio, Col. Stanley Matthews. He fought at Phillipi, Perryville, Chickamauga, Lookont Mountain, Mission Ridge and Ringgold. In January, 1863, he was commissioned captain of his company. In the battle of Chickamauga he lost nearly every man in his command. One half were killed and wounded, and a large number captured. All the regimental officers of the 51st having been taken prisoners, Capt. Moore, as ranking line officer, assumed com- mand, and, with a handful of men, bearing the colors of the regiment,
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and a stand of rebel colors captured from a South Carolina regiment in the last charge, cut through the rebel lines and safely reached Chat- tanooga the next day. On two particular occasions he was selected for special service of a difficult and hazardous kind. He carried out his instructions with signal success, and was warmly complimented by his fellow and superior officers and the general commanding the army. He was mustered out of the military service in April, 1864. In March, 1865, he settled in Grant township, this county, having bought a farm of three hundred and twenty acres. From 1866 to 1874 he was jus- tice of the peace; from 1867 to 1870 collector of Grant township : from 1866 to 1872 school treasurer of town 23, range 11. He bought fifty acres of land at Hoopeston, and had it laid out in the town plat as Moore & Brown's Addition. In April, 1872, he moved into the village, and has since been engaged in buying and selling lands and town property. In the year from March, 1874, to March, 1875. the sales of the firm of Moore, McFerron & Seavey reached $330,000; is a member of the firm of Moore & McFerron in the real estate and loan business. Mr. Moore has been a director of the Hoopeston pub- lic school several years. It was through his energy and enterprise that the imposing edifice belonging to the city, and used for that pur- pose, was erected in the face of much opposition. It cost $25,000, and is a noble monument to his good understanding and his able manage- ment of the entire scheme from its inception. He has three living children : Winfield S .. Claude H., Cora M. Mr. Moore is a greenback republican. He owns six hundred acres of land, worth $18,000.
Milton M. Bush, Rossville, farmer, was born in Edgar county, Il- linois, on the 24th of September, 1845, and is a son of John and Jane (Wallace) Bush. In 1865 he settled with his parents in this county. He was married on the 2d of November, 1871, to Mary E. Evans, daughter of the late Rev. Thomas A. Evans. They have four living children : Anna M., born September, 1872; Franklin, born October 20. 1874; Jacob P., born April 20, 1876; Mertie, born November 5, 1878. He owns one hundred and eighty acres, worth $5,000. He is a republican, and a member of the U. B. church. Mrs. Bush belongs to the Christian church.
Anderson McMains, Rossville, farmer, was born in Warren county, Illinois, on the 10th of January, 1840, and is the son of Robert and Mary (Groves) MeMains. In 1841 his parents moved and settled in Montgomery county, Indiana. In 1861 he went to Mahaska county, Iowa, and on the 1st day of September enlisted in Co. H, Sth Iowa Inf. He fought at Shiloh, at which battle his regiment was captured, and held as prisoners two months, when they were paroled and sent to
LW Anderson MD
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St. Louis. On the 1st day of September, 1862, he enlisted for three years in Co. C, 40th Ind. Vols. He fought at Stone River and Mis- sion Ridge, served throughout the Atlanta campaign, being engaged in battle at Buzzard Roost, Resaca and Adairsville, and was wounded in the thigh at Pine Mountain, June 18, 1864. He rejoined his eom- mand at Atlanta on the 6th of September; was on the campaign against Hood in his invasion of Tennessee; was in the engagement with Forrest's cavalry at Linden, on the 29th of November, and the next day fought at Franklin, receiving a wound in his left wrist at the latter place. He was discharged on the 6th of June, 1865, at Lonis- ville, Kentucky. In the same year he settled in Grant township, this county, where he now lives, four miles west of Rossville. He was married on the 30th of August, 1866, to Clarissa Comstock, daughter of Albert Comstoek, sen., an old and highly respected citizen of Ver- milion county. They have five living children : Lewis, born May 14, 1868 ; Harrison, born January 10, 1870; Nora, born November 20, 1871 ; Guy, born October 7, 1874; Viola, born January 16, 1877. Mr. McMains owns eighty acres, worth $2,400. In politics he is a repub- lican. Both he and his wife are members of the Christian church.
James Grove, Rossville, farmer, was born in Hamilton county, In- diana, and is the son of Samuel and Ellen (Hays) Grove. His grand- father, Jolin C. Groves, was an old Indian warrior, and fought gallantly at the battle of Tippecanoe. His father was an ardent Unionist, and zealous supporter of the war. He sent his three sons to the army, and himself was a member of Col. Morehouse's regiment of Indiana Home Guards, and joined in the pursuit of John Morgan on his invasion north of the Ohio River. The subject of this sketeh enlisted on the 7th of August, 1862, in Co. K, 70th Ind. Vols., Col. Ben. Harrison. He served throughout the Atlanta campaign; was one of the storm- ing force which consisted of the 1st Brig., 3d Div., 20th Army Corps, that captured a four-gun battery of twelve-pounders at Resaca, close to the enemy's entrenchments, and fought desperately from noon till ten o'clock at night in a successful effort to hold their position and retain their prize. He fought at Peach Tree Creek, which was an open bat- tle, and disastrous repulse to the rebels. He did duty as one of Sher- man's "bummers" on the march to the sea, and the campaign of the Carolinas, and fittingly terminated his military service on the grand review of the army at Washington, on the 24th of May, 1865. He was mustered out at that place on the 8th of June, and disbanded at Indianapolis. He was married on the 3d of November, 1866, to Sarah C. Fred, who died on the 14th of January, 1873. He was married again on the 2d of October, 1875, to Sarah Duke, of Montgomery county,
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Indiana. He has three living children : Dora, born on the 18th of October, 1867; Amanda Ellen, born on the Ist of September, 1869 ; Laura, born on the 25th of November, 1871. He has an undivided one-half of one hundred and twenty acres, worth $1.800. He is a member of the Christian church. His political views are republican.
Michael T. Livingood, Rossville, physician and surgeon, was born on the 9th of March, 1825, in Womelsdorf, Berks county, Pennsylvania, and is a son of John and Elizabeth (Treon) Livingood, descended from German ancestors. His father and grandfather Treon were both physi- cians. He began the study of medicine at a very early age, under the direction of the former. In the winters of 1847-8-9 he attended lec- tures at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, graduating on the 28th of March, 1849. He located in the practice of his profession at Sinking Springs, near Reading, Pennsylvania, and remained there until 1865 ; in the meantime being for twelve years one of the physicians in charge of the Berks County Alms-house Hospital. He removed to Illinois and settled in Rossville, where he has since resided and ac- quired a large practice. He has been village trustee of Rossville two terms; is president of the North Vermilion Medical Society. He was married on the 23d of February, 1852, to Hannah E. Ruth. They have five living children. In politics Mr. Livingood is a democrat, and in religion a Methodist.
John Bush, the grandfather of John Bush of Rossville, lived on Freeman's Creek, in West Virginia. Early on the morning of the 24th of April, 1791, he sent his two eldest children, Daniel and Ann, to drive up the cows. Immediately on their departure his house was furiously assailed by an attacking party of Indians. The screams of the children and the shouts of the savages suddenly brought Mr. Bush to his feet, and grasping his rifle, he opened the door. The weapon was instantly seized by a redskin standing at the threshold, and wrested from him. His foe shot him through the body with it, and as he dropped to the floor his wife sprang out of bed to his assistance. The Indian, while endeavoring to drag his body out, was dispatched by Mrs. Bush with an axe. Others also attempted to remove him, and she likewise disposed of five in succession. She wounded the sixth, and lost her weapon by its becoming fast in his ribs, and not being able to disengage it, she then barred the door, and the neighborhood having become aroused by the firing and yelling, the discomfited assailants fled precipitately, leaving the resolute woman " holding the fort," with her five or six children. The two children were carried into captivity, but after about two years were recovered. The boy died soon after his release, from the effects of the severities he had undergone. Mr. Bush
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was in a fair way of recovery, when, in a paroxysm of laughter, he ruptured a blood-vessel in his wound and died. This incident is related, though differing somewhat in its details, in an old book entitled "Chronicles of Border Warfare," a history of the settlement of north- western Virginia. The subject of this sketch was born in Harrison county, West Virginia, on the 2d of November, 1810. He was the son of William and Mary (McCauley) Bush. In 1811 his parents removed to Galia county, Ohio, and in 1816 to Warren county. He was mar- ried on the 24th of November, 1830, to Jane Wallace. In 1838 he settled in Edgar county, Illinois, where he resided till 1865, and tilled a farm of four hundred and sixty-six acres, which he came into posses- sion of solely as the fruit of his own toil. He labored irregularly for many years at cabinet work and carpentering, but never fully learned either trade. In 1865 he came to Vermilion county ; lived three years a little north of the present site of East Lynn, and in 1868 moved into Grant township. In Ohio he was first lientenant of the Rossburgh Independent Rifle Company five years. He has served as constable and justice of the peace in different places where he has lived. His wife died on the 7th of November, 1877, aged sixty-eight years, five months and ten days. He had seven sons and four daughters. Three of his sons were in the army in the late war: Franklin L., in the 12th Ill., Col. McArthur, three months; John C., in Co. H, 29th Ill., wounded at Pittsburg Landing, on the 6th of April, 1862, and died in hospital at Keokuk, Iowa, on the 22d of April; Daniel M., in an Indiana regiment about two years. Mr. Bush is a republican in politics, and has been a member of the U. B. church thirty-five years. His wife was an old member.
Lafayette Goodwine, Hoopeston, farmer and stock-raiser, was born in Warren county, Indiana, on the 27th of February, 1846. His par- ents were Harrison and Isabel (Charlton) Goodwine. In 1863 he enlisted in Co. K, 11th Ind. Cav. He fought in the decisive battle of Nashville, on the 15th and 16th of December, 1864. The previous summer he had done duty in guarding the railroad between Stevenson and Huntsville, Alabama, his regiment having been assigned the task of protecting that line against the irruptions of the enemy. His com- mand lay at Eastport, Mississippi, in the spring of 1865; from there it was ordered to St. Louis, and thence, in the latter part of June, to Council Grove, Kansas, where it lay till September, when it marched to Fort Leavenworth, where the horses were turned over. The regi- ment was soon after mustered out at Indianapolis. In the fall of 1866 he bought one hundred and sixty acres of his father, who also gave him an equal tract, and he settled where he at present resides, on the east
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half of section 17, town 23, range 11. The value of farm is $10,000. He was married on the 12th of October, 1866, to Miss Sarah Ann Wagoner, daughter of a respectable farmer of Milford, Iroquois county, Illinois. They have two living children: Julia Ann, born on the 3d of April, 1871; Ida May, born on the 7th of May, 1875. Mr. Goodwine is a republican. He is a prosperous farmer. Stock-raising engages a large share of his attention.
John C. Grove, Rossville, farmer, was born in Marion county, near Indianapolis, Indiana, on the 5th of September, 1837. He is a son of Samuel and Helen (Hays) Grove. He was enrolled on the 1st of Aug- ust, 1862, in the 86th Ind. Vols., Col. Geo. F. Dick. He fought in the battles of Perryville, Stone River and Nashville, the latter occurring on the 15th and 16th of December, 1864; was present at Chickamauga and Mission Ridge, but not engaged. During the latter part of his service he was in feeble health. At the battle of Stone River a bullet went through his hat and cut out a tuft of his hair. He was drum- major of his regiment about one year, when failing health caused him to relinquish that position. He was mustered out at Nashville, on the 6th of June, 1865, and disbanded at Indianapolis. On the 28th of De- cember, 1865, he was married to Huldah Plummer, daughter of Will- iam and Mary Ann Plummer, of Iroquois county, Illinois. They have had four children : Florence, born on the 3d of November, 1867; Le- nora, born on the 5th of June, 1870; Lilly, born on the 7th of Febru- ary, and died on the 17th of February, 1872; Drusilla, born on the 16th of October, 1873. In 1866, in company with his brother, James, he bought one hundred and twenty acres of land in section 31, town 23, range 12, Grant township. The estimated value of his interest is $1,800. His political views are republican.
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