USA > Illinois > Whiteside County > History of Whiteside County, Illinois, from its earliest settlement to 1908, Vol. I > Part 68
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Antliony A. Thome was reared in Nelson township on the home farm and attended the distriet schools, mastering those branches of learning which enable one . to successfully cope with the problems which continually arise in a practical business carcer. He lived at home until he had attained his
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majority and when twenty-one years of age, thinking to find another pur- suit more congenial than that of farming, he began learning the blacksmith's trade, which he has followed continuously since. No doubt one feature of his success has been his persistent purpose, while his business advancement may also be attributed to his unflagging industry and his straightforward dealing. He first established a smithy in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he re- inained for three vears, and then came to Rock Falls and opened a shop, which he conducted alone for about fourteen years. He then admitted John Decker to a partnership and the firm style of Thome & Decker has since been maintained, while a liberal patronage has been enjoyed by the partners. They are both practical worknien and their expert service has given them a right to expect and receive a generous share of the public tradc. They have a splendidly equipped shop and conduct a general blacksmithing business.
In 1888 Mr. Thome was married to Miss Lily Jolinson, a daughter of William and Lorette (Proctor) Johnson. Her father came from Vermont at a very early day and settled near Morrison in Whiteside county, Illinois. He continued a resident of this county throughout the remainder of his life, dying in 1903, at the age of eighty-four years. Mr. and Mrs. Thome have six children : Mabel,' Roy, Clyde, Effie, Anthony and Dora. The eldest daughter, Mabel, is now the wife of Urban H. Eakle.
Mr. Thome has been an Odd Fellow for twenty years, holding member- ship in Advance Lodge, No. 590. He is a stalwart advocate of republican principles, has served as a member of the school board for six years and as alderman for four years gave evidence of his loyalty to municipal affairs. He was also elected as mayor of Rock Falls in 1907 and in his official capacity he stands for all those interests which are a matter of civic virtue and of civic pride. He has thus made a good record in citizenship and in business life and deserves classification with the representative men of White- side county.
JOHN B. GALT.
John B. Galt, living retired at No. 1204 West Third street, Sterling, has through intense and well-directed energy become one of the prosperous citi- zens of Whiteside eounty, where he located at an early period in its develop- ment. There are few residents of the county who have more intimate or accurate knowledge of its history. He came here with his parents when this was a frontier region and the family were prominent in reclaiming it for the purposes of civilization. As one looks abroad today over the fine farms with their splendid improvements it seems hardly possible that it is within the memory of living man when almost the entire countryside was wild and unbroken prairie, much of it being still in possession of the govern- ment. Wild game was quite abundant here in the early days-another proof of the unsettled condition. Comparatively few roads had been made and in
JOHN B. GALT.
LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA
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June the prairies werc starred with millions of wild flowers and in December covered with one unbroken, glistening sheet of snow.
John B. Galt was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, May 7, 1835, at the family home, bordering the Conestoga creek. Several generations of the family had previously resided in Pennsylvania. The ancestry was Scotch and the first settlement in America by any of the family was made in Penn- sylvania about 1710. There is a Galt family cemetery at Piqua Valley, Pennsylvania, not far from the old Piqua Valley Presbyterian church. Rob- ert Galt, the founder of the family in America, was the father of James Galt and the grandfather of Thomas Galt, the last named being the great-grand- father of the subject of this review. Thomas Galt and his wife, Isabelle, both died in Pennsylvania. Their son, James Galt, was born in that state, March 19, 1757, and on the 3d of February 1791, wedded Mary Martin, who was born in 1772. He died October 7, 1821, in his sixty-sixth year, while his wife passed away August 2, 1847. They were the parents of eleven chil- dren, as follows: Eliza, William, James, Catharine, John, Alexander, Thomas, Lydia, Mary, Isabelle and Martin.
Of this family John Galt, a native of the Keystone state, followed mer- chandising there for a number of years prior to 1844, when he journeyed westward to Illinois, settling in Sterling. He became one of the early mer- chants of the city and also purchased a farm that included the present site of the town of Galt, which was named in his honor. After residing in Ster- ling for two years he located upon his farm, which he purchased from Mr. Passmore. There was a log cabin of one room and thirty acres had been broken. The remainder of his farın he purchased from the state and govern- ment. The family never lived in the log cabin, however. It was in the spring of 1846 that the family removed to the farm and with characteristic energy the father began its improvement, erecting there one of the first brick houses in the county. It contained eight rooms and is still standing-one of the landmarks of the early days and a mute witness of the history that has been enacted in that part of the county. In the early days the family hauled grain to Albany on the Mississippi river and the pork market was at Galena and La Salle, where dressed pork sold for a dollar and a half per hundred. Mr. Galt of this review has known wheat to sell here for as low as twenty-five cents per bushel, and other farm products also brought very low prices. His father in the early days would go down the river to St. Louis to buy his groceries and dry goods-the frontier settlers being thus far separated from the source of supplies. John Galt continued to supervise his agricultural interests until his demise, which occurred in 1866 when he was in his sixty-sixth year. His wife long survived him, passing away in 1898 at the remarkable old age of ninety-four years. They were Presby- terians in religious faith and were numbered among the worthy pioneer people of the county, contributing in substantial measure to its early devel- opment and progress.
In their famliy were thirteen children, eight sons and five daughters, of whom four are now living: Elizabeth M., who resides in Sterling ;. John B., of this review; Letitia, the widow of D. M. Crawford, of Sterling; and
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Frances, the widow of John Buyers, also of Sterling. The daughter Eliza- beth resides with her brother John. She always remained at home with her parents, giving to them the utmost filial devotion and love, caring for them through all the years of old age, the mother being ninety-four at the time of her demise. Her kindly spirit, neighborly assistance and her many good traits of heart and mind have endeared her to those with whom she has been brought in contact. The deceased members of the family are: James; Mary, the wife of James A. Galt; Robert A., Thomas, Alexander, Joseph, William, Henry and Josephine. Thomas was a physician and at one time mayor of Rock Island. William and Henry died in infancy. Joseph was a student of medicine in New York city at the time of his death, and Robert was a farmer and merchant. .
In the maternal line John B. Galt is descended from Captain Robert and Jean Buyers, the former a captain of the Continental army in the Revo- lutionary war. Their son, Robert Armour Buyers, was a native of Penn- sylvania, but of Scotch descent. He followed the occupation of farming and as a companion and helpmate for life's journey chose Elizabeth McCalla. He died of typhoid fever at the comparatively early age of thirty-five years and his widow survived him for but a few years. They left a daughter, Mrs. Sarah Maria Galt, and two sons, John M. and James A. Buyers.
John B. Galt was only nine years of age when he came with his family to Whiteside county. One can hardly imagine the conditions that then ex- · isted here. There were only four houses on the south bank of the river beyond Sterling and the county seat was a small village, giving little promise of industrial or commercial importance. The removal of the family from the city caused Mr. Galt to spend his life in the usual manner of farm lads and while the work of the fields became familiar to him he also acquired a knowledge of the common branches of English learning as a pupil in the public schools. The first school he ever attended was at the corner of Broad- way and Fourth strects in Sterling, held in a small frame building and taught by James McElmore. He later attended a school taught by Mrs. Wortli- ington and William Cole. He likewise spent a short time as a student in Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, and then began farming on his own account, continuing in that business until he came to Sterling. He is now the owner of the original farm which his father purchased in Hopkins town- ship upon his arrival in Whiteside county. The place comprises three hun- dred and twenty-nine acres of rich and productive land and John B. Galt resided thereon until about 1877, when he removed to the city. In the meantime he had made judicious and extensive investments in property in other parts of the country. He owns twenty-two hundred and forty-nine acres north of Duluth in St. Louis county, Minnesota, in the. Messaubic iron range. He spent one year as a commercial traveler, but during the greater part of his life has concentrated his energies upon agricultural pursuits or investments. He has, however, traveled broadly for pleasure, visiting Alaska and many parts of the western country as well as the older east, the southern district around the gulf of Mexico and the upper sections of the country
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surrounding the Great Lakes. He has no aetive business interests now save the supervision of his property and other investments.
Mr. Galt has never married and lives with his sister, Elizabeth M. Galt, at No. 1204 West Third street, where they own a pleasant modern residence. They are members of the Presbyterian ehureh, of which their father was one of the founders and also the first elder. Politieally Mr. Galt is a stalwart republiean, easting his first presidential vote for Fremont and for every republiean eandidate for president sinee that time. Before the organization of the party he was an abolitionist, being in hearty sympathy with the move- ment to blot out slavery in America. He has in many instances been identi- fied with the movements for reform and improvement and in Whiteside eounty is known as a representative and valued eitizen. He has witnessed the transformation of the county from a wilderness to its present fine devel- opment and has borne his share in the work of progress as the years have gone by. He ean remember when Sterling was but a small village and when outlying distriets were largely unimproved prairie land. He has seen deer on the site of the present eity and has seen them swim aeross the river to the island. He has lived to witness a remarkable ehange in all the eountryside and has always eooperated in the work of improvement. The name of Galt has been long and honorably associated with the upbuilding of this seetion of the state, and John B. Galt, like the others of the family, has stood for all that promotes progress.
JOHN D. FENTON.
No history of Whiteside county would be complete without extended mention of Jolin D. Fenton and the family of which he is a representative, for the name has figured in connection with the development of this part of the state from the time when the first white settlers founded homes within the bor- ders of the eounty and undertook the work of reclaiming the distriet for the uses of the white raee. Fenton township was named in honor of his father, Jo- seph Fenton, who was a native of Burlington eounty, New Jersey, and was of Irish deseent. When a young lad of nine years he was bound out to a mas- ter whoni he served as an apprentiee until he had attained his majority. When his term of indenture had expired, he went on a flatboat to New Orleans, mak- ing the long trip down the Mississippi river at a time when all the produee was carried in that manner to the southern market. Following his return to the north he was married to Miss Elizabeth Durrell, also a native of Bur- lington eounty, New Jersey, and of Danish lineage. She was reared in a Quaker family but was not regularly bound out, as was the eustom in those days, for the Quakers did not believe in that praetiee. Following his mar- riage, Joseph Fenton carried on farming in the east until his arrival in White- side county, Illinois. He beeamne the first settler of what is now Fenton town- slip, that distriet being named in his honor. He was a quiet home man who avoided all political eontests and devoted his energies to earing for his fam-
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ily and making for them a comfortable home. In the early days many hard- ships and privations were endured such as are incident to settlement upon the frontier. Their remoteness from cities of any size or importance made it difficult for them to obtain supplies and they had to depend largely upon what was raised. Mr. Fenton raised what was known as razorback hogs but he found no market for theni for some time and he had to dispose of his meat by selling one hog at a time. He inade his sales to the miners working in the first lead niines near Mineral Point, Wisconsin. There he received at first one dollar and a half per hundred for the meat but later had to sell as low as fifty cents per hundred. In the early days their threshing was done by oxen, tramping out the grain on the floor of the barn. Grain was hauled to Chicago where wheat sold for twenty-five cents per bushel and sugar cost twenty-five cents per pound. Tlie family home was a little log cabin, fourteen by twenty feet, with a puncheon floor, and they resided in this primitive dwell- ing for about fifteen years, or until 1850, when a house of sand and gravel was built. It is the only one in the county and is still standing today, a mute reminder of the pioneer times and a silent witness of the facts which have shaped the history and molded the policy of the county. Alfred Fen- ton, a brother of our subject, was the first white male child born in Whiteside county, his natal day being May 13, 1837. In the family were the following : Elwood W., who in 1850 went with his brother, Joseph R., with two yoke of oxen, to California, where they arrived after travelling five months, spent his last days in Amador, that state; Joseph R., who, as stated, made the trip with his brother, died in Berkeley, California. John D. was the next of the family. Elizabeth died in New Jersey when about three years of age. Rob- ert S. died in Erie. Alfred W. died in Erie in July, 1888. Mary E. is now the wife of R. E. Medhurst, a machinist of Erie. Sylvester H. and Henry C. are both residents of Erie. The father died upon the home 'farm, which he had developed from the wild prairie, passing away September 28, 1874, at the age of eighty years and seven days. His wife passed away in January, 1879, at the age of about eighty years.
John D. Fenton was born near Mount Holly, Burlington county, New Jersey, November 10, 1832. On the 7th of October, 1835, his parents ar- rived in Whiteside county with their family of. four children. They made the journey westward by canal to Buffalo, thencc by schooner to Chicago, and from that point proceeded with two yoke of oxen and a "prairie schooner" to Dixon's Ferry, where a party of ten spent the night of October 6, 1835, in a little log cabin. The next day they arrived in Whiteside county, which was then a part of Jo Daviess county. Chicago was at that time a little town of no industrial or commercial importance and much of the site of the city which is now thickly covered with business blocks and residences was a swamp marked "bottomless." After reaching this county the father home- steaded a claim of about two hundred acres situated in Fenton township yet a part extending over the boundary line into Erie township. It was upon this farin that John D. Fenton was rcared and experienced all of the hard- ships and trials incident to pioneer life. He wore the coarsest kind of cow- hide shoes for which he had to pay three dollars a pair, and at times he would
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HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY
go barefooted for want of the necessary foot covering. Everything in the home was made by liand, ineluding all of the clothing for the children, and in the carly days Mr. Fenton went to bed many a time in order to have his mother mend his only suit of elothes. It was very difficult to gain supplies of any kind, not only beeause money was scaree but also because the towns kept such a limited stock of goods, everybody depending upon what could be raised for the neecssaries of life.
Mr. Fenton continued to work upon the home farm until about twenty- four years of age, assisting in the arduous task of breaking the sod and culti- vating the prairie. Ile worked for neighbors at fifty eents per day and in 1857 was paid in money that proved to be almost worthless, bringing about fifteen cents on the dollar. Thus his wages were diminished although he had been nominally paid fifty cents per day for chopping wood. At twenty- seven years of age he was married and began farming on his father's old homestead, which he continued to cultivate for several years. He then came to Erie and tauglit a district school at twenty-five dollars per month. He walked three miles and back each day to teach. He has since resided in Erie township. The only educational advantages which he was afforded came to him after walking to Erie and beeoming a pupil, in the little log school- house where the season eovercd the three winter months. He read law under Judge C. C. Teats but was not admitted to the bar. He has, however, practiced commercial law and has been executor and administrator of many estates. He is always found to be thoroughly reliable and no trust reposed in him has ever been betrayed in the slightest degree.
On the 14th of March, 1859, Mr. Fenton was married to Miss Mareia Wonser, who was born in Ellisville, Illinois, March 7, 1840, and came here from Fulton county, Illinois, in February, 1840, with her parents, Mil- den G. and Ruth M. (Churchill) Wonser. Her father died in 1883 but her mother, who was born March 12, 1813, died the evening of April 3, 1908, at the age of ninety-five years. . The death of Mrs. Fenton occurred April 17, 1906, after they had traveled life's journey together for forty-seven years. She was a remarkable lady, had been a faithful companion and helpmate to her husband and wherever known she was held in the highest esteem. By her marriage she became the mother of three children but Myra Blanche, the eldest. died in infaney. Celona Isabelle engaged in teaching school in early wonianhood and was a graduate of Fulton College. She became the wife of James P. Hubbart, of Erie township, and died Deeember 18, 1899, leaving one ehild, Beryl Elizabeth. Ruth Elizabeth, the youngest of the family, is a teacher in the publie sehools of Erie and resides with her father.
Mr. Fenton cast his first presidential vote for Millard Fillmore and has been a stalwart republican since the organization of the party in 1856, always voting for its presidential candidates save in 1872, when he voted for Horaee Grecley. He is now recognized as an independent and progressive republiean. He does not believe in blind allegiance to the party but stands for improve- ment and progress in politics as well as along other lines. He served on the village board of Erie for a number of years, filling that position at the time the village was incorporated. He has also been president of the village for a
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number of terms and constable for several years, while for some time he . served as school director and for twenty-four years has filled the office of jus- tice of the peace, although this service has not been consecutive. He was notary public for about forty years and in 1887 was appointed to fill a vacancy in the position of supervisor, after which he was elected and served for tell consecutive years, acting as chairman of the board one ycar. He was also a ' candidate for the legislature from this district and stood second highest in the convention. Undoubtedly he could have won the nomination had he announced his candidacy earlier. He served as deputy sheriff for two years under E. A. Worrell, beginning with 1870, and in all his public service his duties have been discharged with promptness and capability that have won him high com- mendation. He has been a correspondent of the Morrison Sentinel since 1880 and of the Sterling Standard for a number of years. Although his opportu- nities and advantages in youth were very limited he made steady progress throughout life, is a thinker and student and takes a very philosophic view of many of life's important problems. He is today a broad-minded, intelligent man, of high purposes and lofty principles. Respected and honored by all who know him, he well deserves mention in this volume, for his life work forms an important chapter in the history of the county where he has now lived for seventy-three years.
JOHN WELLS.
John Wells is now living retired, his home being in the village of Mal- veru, but he still owns his farm of two hundred and ninety acres on sections 22, 23 and 26, Clyde township. He left the farm five years ago, after residing there continuously from 1862. In the interim his labors and energies wrought a marked transformation in the place, which was converted from a wild tract of land into one of rich fertility, annually producing large and abundant erops.
Mr. Wells is a native of Berkshire, England, his birth having occurred near the boundary line of Wilts-shire, December 12, 1834. His parents were Charles and Lucy (Nash) Wells. The father, who was born in England in 1800, came to America, May 15, 1851, and took up his abode in Cuyahoga county, Ohio, where he followed farming for four years, when he was stricken with cholera and died in 1855. His wife died when their son John was about eight or nine years of age. The family numbered six children: Mrs. Mary A. Ferguson, now living in Polo, Illinois; Mrs. Eliza Carnett, whose home is in Dixon, Illinois; Thomas, William and Maria, all of whom are deceased.
The other member of the family is John Wells of this review, who was reared in England. His educational privileges were extremely limited, as he practically had no opportunity of attending school, either in his native coun- try or in America. He was but sixteen years of age when the family crossed the Atlantic to the new world, and following his father's death he and his three sisters came to Illinois, settling in Carroll county in 1855. There he
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resided for seven years and in 1862 came to Whiteside county, where he has since made liis home. He took up his abode upon a farm in Clyde township and there continued to carry on general farming with excellent success until about five years ago, when he put aside the more 'active work of the fields and removed to Malvern, where he now resides, deriving a good income from his farm. Hc and his brother started out here with one hundred and sixty acres, which John Wells had purchased. He sold sixty acres, however, to his brotlicr. He had gone in debt for the entire farm and paid seven per cent interest on the purchase price in advance. In the carly days he endured many hardships while trying to meet his payments and suffered many privations, but he possessed a resolute and determined spirit and in course of time over- came all of the difficulties and obstacles in his path. As the years went by his unfaltering industry brought him success and he is now a prosperous agri- culturist.
Mr. Wells was married in Ohio, returning to that state in 1859 to wed Miss Catherine Ruckel, who was born in Ireland and came to Ohio in 1848, when about eightcen or twenty years of age. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Wells have been born nine children: Charles, who is now a merchant of Malvern; Glen- wood, a farmer residing in this state; Frank, a successful farmer and sheep- raiser of Fort Collins, Colorado; George, who follows farming in Rock Island county, Illinois; Fred, who carries on general agricultural pursuits in Clyde township; Ulysses, at home; Edward, who is operating the old home farm; Agnes, the wife of Samuel James, a farmer of Clyde township; and Irene, the wife of William Detra, who resides at Clarksdale, Iowa.
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