History of Whiteside County, Illinois, from its earliest settlement to 1908, Vol. II, Part 67

Author: Davis, William W
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago : Pioneer Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 882

USA > Illinois > Whiteside County > History of Whiteside County, Illinois, from its earliest settlement to 1908, Vol. II > Part 67

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On the 26th of December, 1854, Dr. Taylor was united in marriage at Breeksville, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, to Miss Stella Hannum, who was born in that county, September 9, 1835, a daughter of Julius and Martha Han- num. Her father was born October 16, 1780, in Massachusetts, and died Deeember 9, 1853 .: Her mother, a native of the same place, was born Aug- ust 13, 1789, and passed away March 28, 1864. Unto Dr. and Mrs. Taylor were born five children. Eva M., born Deeember 1, 1858, in Erie, this county, was married October 30, 1879, to Dr. Frank Fitzgerald, now a prom- inent and suceessful physician of Morrison. Walter, born September 11, 1861, died May 13, 1882. Burton, born July 19, 1864, died December 11, 1876. Mary A., born October 27, 1867, married S. M. McCalmont, an attorney of Morrison, Illinois; and William B., born December 23, 1872,

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married Miss Grace Hubbell, of Brooklyn, New York, and resides in Cin- einnati, Ohio, where he is at the head of the Young Men's Mercantilc Library.

The death of the husband and father occurred January 30, 1890. He had been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and was in thorough sympathy with the principles and teachings of that organization. His life was an active and useful one, characterized by the strictest conformity to a high standard of professional ethics and by all that is honorable and. straightforward in man's relations with his fellowmen. He held to high ideals both in his profession and in citizenship, and his death was the occa- sion of deep and wide-spread regret when he was called from this life.

PORTER J. HUMPHREY.

Porter J. Humphrey dates his residence in Whiteside county from 1859 and has long figured prominently in agricultural circles. He was born in Gencsee county, New York, on the 16th of March, 1836. His father, Na- thaniel Humphrey, was likewisc a native of the Empire state, born Septem- ber 13, 1802. He wedded Miss Eliza Barrett, and unto them were born seven children: Albert, who died in Canada, where he was serving as'a postmaster; George B., who died February 13, 1908; Charles, who is engaged in the hardware business in Rising City, Nebraska; William, deceased; Erastus, who is now living retired in Clinton, Iowa; Sarah, a resident of this county ; and Porter J. The death of the father occurred Mareh 14, 1888, while the mother passed away at the age of sixty-six years.

Porter J. Humphrey was twenty-one years of age when he crossed the border into Canada, where he remained for about two years. On the expira- tion of that period he came to Whiteside county, Illinois, in 1859, and has since made his home here, being closely associated with farming interests as the years have gone by. His cooperation has also been a factor in com- munity affairs and has contributed to substantial development and improve- ment. He has been road commissioner here for thirty years and has done much to improve, the public highways. He resided here at the time the first iron bridges were built and has always labored to secure good roads, knowing how valuable they are to the farmer who must carry his produce from the fields to the market.

In December, 1857, Mr. Humphrey was married to Amne Paschal. She first married Silas Winget, by whom she had one son, Leslic. She is a daugh- ter of John D. and Nancy (Short) Paschal, who were married December 20, 1827. The father was one of the old-time residents of Mount Pleasant township and one of its most respected citizens. He came to the west in early manhood from North Carolina and as the years passed his judicious invest- ment and careful management of his business affairs brought him success. Unto him and his wife were born cight children: William P., David B., Mrs. Elizabeth Jane Winget, James A., Frank, Marie and John.

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Humphrey has been blessed with six chil- dren : George D., Nettie, Byron, Willard, Raymond and Luclla. In the

P. J. HUMPHREY

LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA

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community the parents are widely and favorably known, having for almost a half century been residents of Whiteside county. Mr. Humphrey has now passed the allotted age of scripture-three score years and ten-but in spirit and interest seems yet in his prime. His political views are in accord with the principles of the republican party and fraternally he is an Odd Fellow. He yet gives active supervision to his farm, which is located in Mount Pleas- ant township not far from Morrison. It bears evidence of his eare and super- vision in its well developed fields and attractive appearance, for he has led a busy life, successfully devoted to the eultivation of the fields.

HENRY A. HUNTINGTON.

Henry A. Huntington, successfully carrying on agricultural pursuits on section 31, Portland township, was born August 30, 1865, on the farm where he still resides. He is a son of John and Harriet E. (Schmied) Huntington, the former born in Westford, Connecticut, October 6, 1834, and the latter in Pennsylvania, in 1836. In 1838 John Huntington accompanied his parents on their removal westward, the family home being established near Grove- land, Tazewell county, Illinois. They went to Geneseo, Henry county, Illi- nois, in 1852, and in 1856 John Huntington reinoved to his father's farm" in Phenix township, Henry county, purchasing sixty acres of the same. In 1859, however, he traded this tract of land for one hundred and three acres in Portland township, Whiteside county, where he remained until 1890, being actively and successfully eonnected with farming interests throughout that period. He had been married at Spring Hill, Illinois, on the 17th of May, 1857, to Miss Harriet E. Schmied, whose parents located in Portland township, July 3, 1844, the father entering a large tract of land there. As stated, in 1890 Mr. and Mrs. Huntington left the farm and removed to Geneseo, Henry county, where they are now living retired, enjoying in well earned rest the fruits of their former toil. Almost a half century has passed sinee their arrival in Whiteside county, and they bore their full share in the work of pioneer development here. Their family numbered seven children, as follows: Mrs. Matilda Urick, of Spring Hill, Illinois; Emma, who keeps house for her brother, Henry A .; Lottie, the wife of Charles Little, of Minne- sota; John, who resides in South Dakota; Henry A., of this review; Estella R., the wife of Joseph Claypool, of Deer Creek, Illinois; and Daisy, whose death occurred when she was twenty-six years of age.

Henry A. Huntington acquired a common-school education and was reared to farm life, early becoming familiar with the duties and labors that fall to the lot of the agriculturist. After he had attained his majority he worked as a farm hand for others for four years, and on the expiration of that period returned to the home farm, having condueted the same ever since. In 1907 he purchased the property, and has met with a gratifying measure of success in his agricultural interests, his fields annually returning golden harvests as a reward for the care and labor he bestows upon them. In con-

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nection with his farming interests he has for the past twelve years been sell- ing and putting up woven wire fencing, this branch of his business also proving to him a good source of remuneration. He is a director of the First .. National Bank at Erie, Illinois, and is widely recognized as one of the repre- sentative and successful business men and citizens of his community.

In his political views Mr. Huntington is a republican, and has served as school director, the cause of education ever finding in him a stalwart champion. He is likewise a member of the Masonic fraternity at Spring Hill, and is well and favorably known in the county where his entire life has been passed, his actions having ever been such as to commend him to the confidence and esteem .of all with whom he has come in contact. The name of Huntington has figured in the annals of the agricultural development of this part of the state from pioneer times down to the present, for the work instituted by the grandfather and continued by the father is now being-car- "ied on commendably and successfully by the son.

REECHER BROTHERS.

Aaron and Isaac Reecher, brothers, are well known in connection with agricultural and stock-raising interests in Whiteside county. They are sons of Samuel and Leah (Huffman) Reecher, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania. The father brought his family to Illinois in 1865, settling in Whiteside county, and purchased the farm on which his sons are now living in Genesee township. The family numbered fifteen children, of whom six have passed away, while those who survive are: William, a resident of Sterling; Catherine, the wife of James Dean, of Carroll county, Illinois; Aaron and Isaac, of this review; Louise, in Coleta; Ann, who became the wife of Samuel Ealy and resides in Freeport, Illinois; Samuel, now a professor in the high school at Sparta, Illinois; Leah, the wife of Edward Jones, of White- side county ; and Jacob, a resident of Iowa. The father is still living on the old family homestead where he has now resided for forty-three years, but the mother passed away in 1904.

Aaron Reecher was born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, January 17, 1861, and was therefore but four years of age when brought by his parents to Illinois. He continued on the old homestead with his father until twenty- one years of age, when he started out in life on his own account and for a year worked as a farm hand by the month. He saw little chance to make progress in the business world in this. way, so he then rented a farm, which he cultivated for two years. On the expiration of that period he made his way to South Dakota, settling in Britton, where he lived for four years, de- voting his attention to mechanical pursuits. He next went to Wisconsin, where he resided for two years, and in 1894 returned to this county where he now resides, being associated with his brother Isaac in operating the home farm, which comprises two hundred acres of rich and valuable land. They make a specialty of raising and fecding stock and are well known in

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this connection. Both are energetic, enterprising business men, thoroughly conversant with the interests which now claim their attention and their sue- cess is well merited.

On the 21st of January, 1882, Aaron Reecher was married to Miss Hattie J. Pratt, who was born in Whiteside county in 1860 and was one of a family of seven children. One son graced this marriage, Roy C., but the mother died in 1891 while they were residing in South Dakota. Isaac Reecher wedded Miss Elizabeth Peaters, who was born in this county, and they now have two children, Beulah and Isabelle.

The brother are democrats in political faith and Aaron Reecher is now serving as assessor of Genesce township, while for several years he served as school director. He belongs to Coleta Camp, No. 76, M. W. A., and is well known in the community. Both brothers arc men of determination and . stalwart purpose, who are carefully conducting their business interests and meeting with sueeess in their undertakings. They represent one of the old families of the county, having been residents here for more than four decades.

JAMES M. DEETS.

A life of industry is bringing to James M. Deets the success which ever crowns persistent, honest and honorable labor. He carries on farming and wagon-making and his home is in Hopkins township. His birth occurred in Genesee township, this county, April 6, 1865, his parents being Lewis and Margaret (Wetzel) Deets, the former a native of Germany and the latter of Ohio. In his youth the father lived near the Rhine but when he was six years of age he was brought by his mother to America, the family home being established in Philadelphia. Three years later they removed to Massillon, Ohio, and subsequently about 1850, eamc to Whiteside county, settling in Genesee township. Mr. Deets' first purchase of land brought him eighty acres, for which he paid five dollars and a quarter per acre. He afterward sold that property and bought one hundred and sixty acres cast of Coleta, for forty dollars per aere. Upon that place he made substantial improve- ments and brought the farm under a high state of cultivation. Year by year he carefully condueted his labors and met with gratifying success in his undertakings. In 1875 he bought two farms in Hopkins township, one com- prising one hundred and sixty acres and the other one hundred and twenty acres. His success was attributable entirely to his own labors, for he started out in life practically empty-handed and as the years passed his diligenee and persisteney of purpose gained for him a comfortable eompetenec.

In the year 1856 Lewis Dects was married to Miss Margaret Wetzel, a daughter of John and Margaret (Reece) Wetzel, who were natives of Frank- lin county, Pennsylvania, and of Maryland, respectively. They resided for some time in Summit county, Ohio, and afterward removed to Stark county, that state, where they lived until coming to Whiteside county. Mrs. Deets was one of a family of thirteen children and is deseended from ancestry

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whose loyalty was proven at the time of the Revolutionary war. Her paternal great-grandfather was an extensive miller, owning and operating two large flour mills in Pennsylvania. At the time of the early struggles for American independence he taxed those mills to their utmost capacity, grinding grain to be made into bread for Washington's army. On one occasion his son, the grandfather of Mrs. Deets, then a youth of seventeen, was attacked when hauling supplies for the American army by a squad of British soldiers. He managed to escape but at great risk of his life and seven bullet holes were found in the wagon in which he was driving. His mother shared the patri- otic spirit of the family, doing everything in her power to promote the cause of liberty. She begged bread for the army until she became afflieted with blindness and did everything she could for the comfort and welfare of the soldiers.

Lewis Deets, the father of our subject, was a soldier of the Civil war. In 1861 he left the plow and went to the defense of the Union, encouraged by his brave wife. He enlisted at Polo, Illinois, in Company H, of the Fifty- fifth Illinois Infantry, under command of Colonel Heffleman and served until the close of hostilities, participating in the siege of Vicksburg, the battles of Chancellorsville and Lookout Mountain and other engagements. At the close of the war he returned home and resumed the pursuits of eivil life, con- tinuing to devote himself to his home and his business until he was called to his final rest on the 14th of July, 1882. He left a record of good citizen- ship and of noble character. He was widely known as a devoted husband and father and a faithful friend. His family numbered twelve children: Wilson W., a farmer residing at Emerson, this county; Elizabeth, the wife of Henry Johnson, a grain buyer and landowner, who possesses over a thousand acres of land in the state of Washington near Almira; Charles F., who is a success- ful lawyer living at Davenport, Washington, and serving as county treasurer of his county ; James M., of this review; and eight who died in infancy.

James M. Deets was edueated in the common schools of Emerson and at the age of seventeen learned the trade of wagon-making. He attended night schools and made use of every opportunity for advancement in intellectual as well as business lines. When twenty-one years of age he started in busi- ness on his own account and began wagon-making in 1886. He is an excel- lent workman and turns out a superior product. He also carries on farming and has a tract of rich land of three hundred and fifty acres in Hopkins town- ship and four hundred and eighty acres in Douglas county, Washington. He is a man of resolute spirit, who carries forward to successful completion what- ever he undertakes. His work is carefully systematized and the best results are thus obtained.

On the 8th of November, 1888, Mr. Deets was married to Miss Olive E. Carolus, who was born in Emerson, Illinois, February 8, 1871, a daughter of William and Margaret (Feightner) Carolus, both natives of Pennsylvania .. Her paternal grandfather, George Carolus, was a farmer by occupation and spent his entire life in the east, dying in 1856. He was married February 3, 1829, in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, to Elizabeth Kuhn, who was born March 26, 1803, in Franklin county, that state, and four years after the

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death of her husband she came to Sterling, Illinois, where she died Decem- ber 31, 1900, her pall-bearers being six grandsons, namely: Dr. W. B. Carolus, Dr. I. B. Carolus, Dr. Walter Carolus, George Carolus, Herber- Carolus and Charles Carolus. She was a faithful Christian, a member of the Presbyterian church. William Carolus, the father of Mrs. Deets, was born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, September 10, 1838, and came to Illi- nois when a young man, here following carpentering and farming. He died Deeember 3, 1900. In 1869 he married Margaret Feightner, who was born in Pennsylvania, October 18, 1838, and was quite young when she eame to Illinois. She is still living in Emerson. Her father was Solomon Feight- ner, who was also a native of the Keystone state, and from there removed to Craig, Missouri, where he resided for a few years. He then came to Ster- ling, but later made his home with his daughters in Arkansas, where he died in 1886. He married a Miss Wagner, who departed this life in 1854. Mrs. Deets has two brothers and two sisters, namely: Harry and Charles, resi- dents of Alma, Washington, where they own a large traet of land and are engaged in raising wheat; Iowa, now the wife of Charles T. Deets, living at Davenport, Washington; and Clara, who married Frank Baird and lived in Jordan township, this county, until her death, June 1, 1907. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Deets have been born four children: Florence, born April 25, 1889; Lester, L'ebruary 8, 1891; James, November 27, 1892; and Lee, May 4, 1898.

Mr. Deets is a member of Emerson Camp, No. 3994, Modern Woodmen of America. He votes the republican ticket and has been assessor for a number of years, also school director and school trustee. He has served as a member of the republican county committee and is recognized as one of the local leaders of the party. His religious faith is that of the Methodist church. Having spent his entire life in this county, he is widely known, and that his career is an honorable and straightforward one is indicated by the faet that many of his stanchest friends are those who have known him from his boy- hood to the present time.

SERGEANT ANSON E. THUMMEL.

Anson E. Thummel, a veteran of the Civil war, whose well direeted labors and unfaltering diligence in former years make possible his present retirement from active business life, now lives in Sterling. His birth, how- ever, occurred in Lexington, South Carolina, on the 22d of September, 1841, his parents being the Rev. Christian Bernard and Catherine (Lattin) Thum- inel. The former was born in Jever, Germany, and in early manhood crossed the Atlantie to the new world. He was not rugged in his boyhood days, and did not take the interest in outdoor boyish sports and exercises as most youths did, but early turned his attention to books and beeame very studious, pur- suing a long and laborious course of study. At the age of ten years he en- tered upon a three years' course in a gymnasium, and further continued his studies in the university preparatory to entering the ministry. He left that

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institution in 1820, and in 1822, with a close companion by the name of Müller, he matriculated in the university at Tubbingen, in Wurtemberg, where they spent a year and a half, while in vacation periods they traveled through Switzerland and the northern part of Italy, returning by way of the Tyrolese mountains and Bavaria, and visiting the cities of Munich, Augsburg, and Neuenburg, in Bavaria; Milan, and Verona, in Italy; Berne, Zurich, Luzerne and other cities in Switzerland. In 1823 they returned to their old home in Jever, and early in 1824 passed an examination for the ministry. In May, 1826, Mr. Thummel sailed from Amsterdam on the ship Columbus, and after a voyage of seventy days reached Philadelphia on the 19th of August, being then a young man of twenty-four years. He went to New York, and in one year learned to speak the English language, while previously he had mastered German, French, Latin, Hebrew, Spanish and Greek. In 1827 he began missionary work in the Mohawk valley, preaching in German and English. In 1837 he married Mrs. Catherine Davison (nee Lattin), whose family history was briefly related by her in her eighty-fourth year, as follows :

"In the early part of the seventeenth century Thomas Lattin, who was born in England, and was then a lad of twelve years, was apprenticed by his mother as a cabin boy to the captain of a sailing vessel trading between London and Boston. The voyage was a long and rough one and the boy, being sick most of the time during the passage, begged to be left in the city until the return voyage. The captain therefore procured him a situation as errand boy with a grocer. Thomas Lattin, however, never heard of the ship again. In a book in the old home of my Grandfather Lattin I found the following: 'Thomas Lattin, my great-grandfather, was born in 1727 and died aged eighty-two years. Abigal Lake, his wife, born in 1729, died in her sixty-sixth year. William Thomas Lattin, my grandfather, born in 1746, died in 1826. Abigal Hurd, his wife, born in 1770, died in 1826.' . My grandfather came from near New Haven, Connecticut, and bought land and settled on the Hartwick patent in Otsego county, New York, in 1789, and there died. The original farm is still in the Lattin family. For the last few years of his life he was quite helpless from rheumatism, and was also blind. He had a family of eight children, all married and long since dead, but all of them leaving children. I have heard the family often lament over the foolishness of some ancestor who for some services rendered during the reign of Queen Anne, was given a tract of land on which Hart- ford and New Haven now stand, and which he sold for a beaver hat and a brass kettle.

"My father, Thomas Anson, was the oldest son of my grandparents, William and Abiel Lattin, and was married to Lucy Davison, my mother, in Hartwick, New York, in 1809. I was born October 23, 1810. In 1815 my father, with his family, removed to Ohio. We went by land through Penn- sylvania, and over the mountains, and were seven weeks on the way. My father settled on a place four miles north of Columbus, Ohio, where he died of fever in 1823, aged thirty-five years. My mother, with four children, rc- turned to her parents. In 1830 she married E. Elmore, by whom she had two

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children. She died in 1858, aged sixty-nine years. In 1837 I married the Rev. C. B. Thuminel, D. D., then principal of the Clinton (New York) Liberal Institute, a widower with two children-William and Elizabeth. In the fall of 1838 we went to South Carolina, where we remained several years, my husband being engaged in teaching. Here we buried our daughter, Helen, and Anson and Charles were born. In 1845 we came north and bought a farm in Lec county, Illinois, for which we paid six dollars per acre. In 1868 wc left the farm and moved to Prairieville, one mile south, where the doctor employed his time in preaching."

He spent his last days in Palmyra township, Lce county, Illinois, where he died May 24, 1881, at a ripe old age. He had been married in New York in 1837 to Catherine Lattin, a native of the Empire state, and unto them were born seven children: Helen C., who was born in 1838 and died in 1840; Anson E., of this review; Charles B., who was born in South Carolina, July 27, 1843, and is living in Russell, Kansas; Mary C., who was born Septem- ber 23, 1846, and died in the same year; George H., who was born in Illinois, January 31, 1848, formerly a lawyer at Grand Island, Nebraska, and now clerk of the United States court at Omaha, Nebraska; Warren F., who was born December 9, 1850, and is attorney for a leading insurance company of New York city; and Kate L., the wife of Herman Fischer, who was born October 16, 1854, and is now living at Dover, Delaware.

Arriving in Illinois in his boyhood days, Anson E. Thummel pursued his education in the schools of Lec county, where he resided from 1845 until 1897, with the exception of a few years spent in Iowa. On the 1st of March, 1897, he took up his abode in Sterling, where he has since made his home. In the meantime he had loyally defended the Union cause in the Civil war, enlist- ing in Company D, Thirty-fourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, on the 26th day of August, 1861, under Captain T. L. Pratt and Colonel Kirk, and re- enlisting as a veteran on the 23d of December, 1863. The regiment was sent to the south and assigned to the Second Brigade of the Second Division, Four- teentli Army Corps, under command of Generals Buell and Roseerans and later under command of General Sherman, with whom he went on the memor- able march to the sea. Mr. Thummel also participated in the battles of Shiloh and Stone River, Atlanta, and all the engagements of the Atlanta campaign. He also took part in the battle of Bentonville, North Carolina, where nine of his company were killed and nine seriously wounded. While on the mareh to the sca he passed through Lexington, South Carolina, his native city, and was permitted to visit the place of his birth and to call upon his old friends there. In Washington he was one of the victorious army that marched through the city in the grand review when there hung suspended over Pennsylvania avenue a banner bearing the words, "The only debt which our country can- not pay is the one which she owes her soldiers." Coming on to Chieago, Mr. Thummel was there mustered out in July, 1865, after having served with the army for almost four years. During that time he was never wounded nor captured but was always found at his post of duty, faithful in the discharge of cvery task that devolved upon him, whether it called him to the lonely picket post or stationed him in the midst of the firing line.

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History of Whiteside County, Illinois, from its earliest settlement to 1908, Vol. II, Part 67

Author: Davis, William W Publication date: 1908 Publisher: Chicago : Pioneer Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 882

Author: Davis, William W
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago : Pioneer Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 882