USA > Illinois > DeKalb County > Past and present of DeKalb County, Illinois, Volume I > Part 60
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Lee R. Hudgens is one of a family of nine chil- dren, five sons and four daughters, of whom four sons and three daughters are yet living. The oldest brother, Milton D. Hudgens, is a resident of Indianapolis, Indiana. Seymour I. Hudgens is now a practicing lawyer in Boston, Massachus- etts, and is a graduate of IHarvard College. Dana C. is a graduate of the State University of Cham- paign and is now an architect and mechanical en- gineer of Chicago. The sisters are: Hulda J., living in Sandwich : Augusta. wife of Joseph Skin- ner of Bedford: and Olive, who is with her sister in Sandwich.
In taking up the history of Lee R. Hudgens we present to our readers the life record of one who is widely and favorably known in this part of the state. He was reared in La Salle county and after acquiring his preliminary education in the common schools, became a student in the Sand- wich high school. He remained with his father until he had attained his majority and afterward engaged in operating the home farm for four or
tive years. He was married in Sandwich on the 29th of January. 1885, to Miss Mary D. Carr. who was born, reared and educated in that city and is a daughter of Captain Lindsey Carr, who was a soldier of the Rebellion, commanding a company as its captain until killed at Island No. 10 in 1862. He had a brother who is a noted artist and has a studio in New York city. He was sent by the government to Cuba during the Spanish-American war to do work there and is well known in art circles. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Hudgens have been born two children: Lue and Mitt, both at home.
In 1902 Mr. Hudgens purchased the farm upon which he now resides. It is an excellent property, well improved. lle rents much of the land, while he gives his attention to the raising and feeding of cattle and other live stock. He feeds and ships about three carloads of fat cattle each year and also about two carloads of hogs. He is a very successful feeder and also makes a business of buying and shipping horses, to which work De has given his attention for several years. He is well known in La Salle, De Kalb and Kendall counties as a prominent live-stock dealer, conduct- ing a very successful business. Politically Mr. Hudgens is a stanch republican and has never sought nor desired office. Mrs. Hudgens is a mem- ber of the Presbyterian church at Sandwich. Both are highly esteemed throughout the community and have a circle of friends that is limited only by the circle of their acquaintance. Mr. Hudgens has been a resident of the state throughout his entire life. He has traveled quite extensively in other states but regards Illinois as the best of all and is fully satisfied with the advantages and productiveness of the Fox river valley.
HENRY BENJAMIN GURLER.
Henry Benjamin Gurler, dairyman. anthor and lecturer on dairy topics and a man of state and national reputation. was born May 21. 1840. at Chesterfield, Cheshire county. New Hampshire. and is a son of Benjamin and Harriet ( Hopkins) Gurler. The father was also a native of Cheshire county. born at Nelson, October 25, 1802. The
H.B. Gurley.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF DE KALB COUNTY.
paternal grandfather of our subject was Thomas Gurler, who removed to Nelson in 1:22 and was accompanied by his widowed mother. his father having been lost at sea. He was a sea captain whose home was at Marblehead, Massachusetts. The family on the Gurler side originally came from Wales. Thomas Gurler married Susana Farwell, a relative of ex-Senator Charles Farwell, of Illinois, and J. V. Farwell, the great merchant of Chicago. They reared a family of ten chil- dren. all of whom grew up and occupied promi- ment stations in life. Five of them came to Illi- nois and five remained in New Hampshire. It was in 1856 that Benjamin Gurler, his wife and four children came to this state and settled on section 32, De Kalb township, De Kalb county. For thirteen years he was engaged in the manu- facture of augers and bits and then followed farm- ing until 1886, when he removed to De Kalb and ched there in 1889. His children were Henry B .: George H .: Mrs. Sarah M. Snow; Mary J., who died a few years after coming to Illinois; and Mrs. Lizzie Coey, who was born in this state in 1860.
During his boyhood and youth Henry B. Gurler lived with his parents and assisted in carrying on the farm. He improved his spare moments in study and prepared for teaching school and taught two terms. In July, 1861, he enlisted under Captain J. D. Butts in the Forty-second Illinois Volunteer Infantry and saw service in Missouri, Kentucky, Alabama and Mississippi. At luka. Mississippi, in September. 1862, he was mustered out and returned to De Kalb where he elerked for Atwood Brothers and Flinn & Hyde. In May, 1864, however, he re-enlisted and joined Company K, One Hundred and Thirty-second Illinois Volunteer Infantry, under Colonel Pickett, of Chicago. He was elected second lieutenant of his company and saw service in Kentucky and Missouri, being mustered ont at Chicago in 1864.
After returning to De Kalb in October, 1864. Mr. Gurler bought out Mr. Hyde of the firm of Flinn & Hyde, and about a year later his brother George HI. purchased the interest of Mr. Flinn. the firm becoming Gurler Brothers. They dealt in groceries and farm products and carried on business on the present site of the Barb City Bank. After two years the junior member purchased the store.
In 1868 Henry B. Gurler removed to the old homestead and that same year bought the Clover Dairy Farm, where he carried on the experiments that have made him famous. In 1870 he located on the farm and started his experimental work. At first he had but twenty cows, which were doubled in a couple of years, and his first year's work averaged only one hundred and fifty pounds of butter per cow. He realized that the farm was not paying properly on the outlay and effort and he set out with a scientist's instinct to work out a plan for improving conditions. This was be- fore the days of the Babcock test and each cow's milk was kept separate and the cream churned by itself. In this tedious way he weeded out the un- profitable cows and in twenty-four months' time he had raised his annual average to two hundred and sixty-eight pounds of butter per cow. He left the farm in 1881 and in the spring of that year 11. B. and G. II. Gurler, under the firm of Gurler Brothers, built the De Kalb creamery. During the next few years they bought the creameries at Malta, Five Corners, Hinckley (with H. H. Hop- kins), Shabbona Grove and built the creamery at Shabbona.
Gurler Brothers were the first in the world to buy milk by the Babcock test, Professor Babcock of the Agricultural College of Madison, Wiscon- sin. having devised a plan by chemical action and centrifugal force to separate the butter fat from the milk. A small sample was taken from each customer's milk daily and the test was made onee a week. This proved the best way to get the value of the milk. In 1896 the firm of Gurler Brothers was dissolved and the creameries were divided. H. B. retaining the De Kalb and Five Corners creameries.
At this time H. B. Gurler turned his attention toward producing certified milk. For years he had carried on experiments and was getting his farm and herd ready for doing this work. He was encouraged in the enterprise by the leading phy- sieians of Chicago to produce a milk perfectly pure for them to prescribe for the infants and invalids that came under their care. He was one of the first to have his eows tested for tuberculo- sis by the state veterinarians. He fitted up his stables with cement floors and mangers, provided white suits for his employes, established a sys- tem of ventilation. a sanitary bathing plant, and
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every precaution was taken to make the milk pure. In November, 1895. he commenced shipping the certified milk to Chicago. At first the business was aided by physicians prescribing the milk to patients. The industry has grown until he is now doing a business of fifty thousand dollars per year.
In 1900 Major Alvord of the United States dairy division of the department of agriculture at Washington, D. C., solicited Mr. Gurler to furnish photographs showing in detail the plans at his farm and furnish samples of the milk for the Paris Exposition. The milk was seventeen days in transit and kept sweet four days after its ar- rival. The French chemist would not believe that it had not been doctored until it was ana- lyzed. Mr. Gurler was awarded a gold medal at that exposition. His work has given him a national and international reputation and he has been visited by people from all over the world by those interested in advanced dairy work, having visitors from England, Germany, Japan. New Zea- land and Russia.
Mr. Gurler has served as president of the Na- tional Butter, Cheese & Egg Association; treas- urer of the National Dairy Union, the organiza- tion that secured the passage of the oleomargarine law. He was president of the Illinois State Dairy- man's Association two terms and while in that position he assisted in getting through the state board of agriculture a resolution that was the first step toward getting national legislation against oleomargarine being sold as butter. Ile has also been elected president of the National Dairy Show of Chicago.
In 1891 Dean Henry of Wisconsin University induced him to take charge of buttermaking in the first dairy school. Following this Mr. Gurler continued in the same work in Vermont for two terms and three terms in the Pennsylvania State Agricultural College. There was a demand for a practical work on dairying and in 1894 he was induced to publish a book. entitled Gurler's Amer- ican Dairyman, which has been used as a text- book in the leading schools. The following words of praise are from ex-Governor Hoard. of Wis- consin :
"One of the most notable things in connection with practical dairying during the present (1895) year is the publication of a practical treatise on that subjeet by a man of wide experience, trained
judgment and skilled common sense. It treats every phase of the question from the breeding and selection of the cow to the final marketing of the finished product. We have read the book with great care-much of it more than once-and the more we read it the better we like it. As a literary production it is almost equal to Grant's Memoirs. so unaffected is its diction. so direct and simple its sentences, so candid in every utterance. Ile writes of what he knows, of what he has seen and tried. and unlike many writers of books, he has the rare gift of omitting the superfluous and uncertain. Having been in per- sonal business contact with every branch of the subject for many years growing the fodder, feed- ing and milking the cows, creaming the milk and churning and marketing the butter in the private dairy and in the creamery-his experience as an instructor in the dairy schools of Wisconsin, Ver- mont and Pennsylvania has taught him what to say and how to say it. The result is that he has given us the best book on dairying that was ever written, not too learned or too technical for the beginner, nor too verbose or commonplace for the scientist, the expert or the editor. The publishers (J. Il. Sanders Publishing Company, Chicago) have done their part well. as well in the matter of price ( one dollar) as in typography and press work. At least ten thousand dairy farmers and butter makers should read this book during the coming winter."
This book won the commendation of the dairy authorities of two continents and Mr. Gurler has been in constant demand as a lecturer on dairy subjects at institutes and agricultural schools. In this capacity he has appeared in Canada and at least twenty of the states. Dean Waters, of Co- lumbia College at Columbia, Missouri, has said of him: "That no other man in the world has done so much for dairying."
On the 24th of March. 186 :. Mr. Gurler was united in marriage to Miss Salenia Rolfe, a daugh- ier of George Rolfe, and to them were born three children : Stella Frances, now the wife of Franz Lundberg, who since 1894 has been associated with Mr. Gurler in dairy work: Lulu May. the wife of E. P. Ellwood, youngest son of Isaac L. Ellwood : and Hazell. who died March 24, 1885, at the age of four years and four months. The mother of
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these children died January 11, 1902, and Mr. Gurler was again married October 5, 1904, Ins second union being with Mrs. Cora Dodge. widow of Lucian Dodge. She bore the maiden name of Cora Tiffany and is a daughter of Vester and Louisa Tiffany.
Mr. Gurler was a charter member and first com- mander of Merritt Simond post. G. A. R., at De Kalb, and is also a member of the Masonic order. Politically he has officiated with the republican party. Ile is an enthusiastic sportsman and has hunted deer, bear and lynx and has at his home a room filled with highly prized trophies of his capture. In all of his research Mr. Gurler has made money making secondary consideration, and while he has been moderately successful in a finan- cial way, he has built up a name and will leave "i heritage to the world that cannot be valued in gold and silver. After half a century of activity in the community, yet vigorous in mind and body, in the midst of friends who recognize his services to the world, he is now more fully enjoying the satisfaction that comes as the heritage of a noble and well spent life.
CHARLES G. HOUGHTBY.
Charles G. Houghtby, becoming a resident of De Kalb in early boyhood days. has since made his home here and is now owner of an excellent farming property of two hundred and forty-three acres in Shabbona township. He was born in Lincolnshire, England. August 6, 1850, his par- ents being John and Margaret ( Gibson) Honght- by. of whom mention is made on another page of this work in connection with the sketch of their son. John Houghtby.
In taking up the personal history of Charles G. Houghtby we present to our readers the life record of one who is widely and favorably known in this locality. He was reared to farm life and attended the common schools. For twelve years he was bookkeeper for his father who acted as foreman of a large estate in England. On the 1st of May. 1869. he crossed the Atlantic to Canada, and two years later engaged as a sailor on the lakes and made a trip to Chicago. Being pleased with this part of the country he left the boat at Milwaukee and made his way to Earlville.
Illinois, where he arrived with a cash capital of thirty cents. This made employment an immedi- ate necessity and he went to work for a farmer named Herbert Hyde. The next winter was spent in the woods of Canada, after which he came to De Kalb and went to work on a farm for George Spray, in Shabbona township. In 1882 the father and sons purchased a tract of land and later Charles G. Houghtby of this review, bought one hundred and fifty-eight acres of that tract, upon which he has since made his home. The place had but few improvements upon it when it came into his possession. He has added to it a dwell- ing. has erected a large barn and other ontbuild- ings for the shelter of grain and stock, and has laid many rods of tile, thus draining the land and adding to its productiveness. He now owns two hundred and forty-three aeres which have been converted into rich and productive fields which yield to him large crops annually. He carries on general farming and is meeting with much success in his work.
In 1884 Mr. Houghtby was married to Etta Abel, a native of Shabbona township, daughter of Ezra Abel. now deceaseed. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Iloughtby have been born ten children: Ezra, Arthur. Ernest. Alice, Margaretta. Marion, Esther. Grace, Susan and John. Of this number Marion is deceased. while the others are vet at home. Mr. Iloughtby and his family attend the Congrega- tional church of Shabbona. He is a republican and is serving his fifth year as school director. Coming to De Kalb county empty-handed he steadily advanced from an humble financial posi- tion to one of affluence and his success has been wrought along honorable and modern lines of agricultural development.
FREDERICK J. BENT.
Frederick J. Bent owns and operates a farm of forty acres in Afton township and is well known in that part of the county. for his birth occurred] in Afton township. January 1, 1865. and he ha : spent much of his life in that locality. He is the eldest child of John J. and Harriett ( White ) Bent. the former born at Watertown, New York. July 3, 1831, and the latter on the 16th of April.
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1838. at Wrentham, Massachusetts. In his boy- hood days the father made his way to Aurora. Illinois, where he remained until his marriage, when he removed to Afton township. where he farmed until his death in 1885. llis wife sur- vived him for about nine years, passing away in 1894. One son of the family. Clinton A. Bent. is now principal of the schools at Castle Rock. Colorado.
A common-school education fitted Frederick .J. Bent for the practical duties of life and he ro- ceived ample training in farm work under the direction of his father. whom he assisted in the labors of field and meadow. He continued upon the home farm until 1896, when he went to Boulder, Colorado, where he took up farming and stock-raising. continuing in business there until 1900. when he returned to Afton township and bought eighty acres, comprising the old Bent homestead. lle has since sold one-half of this but is still the owner of forty acres of rich and arable land, in addition to which he has seven hundred acres near Brighton. Colorado.
On the 22d of January. 1893. Mr. Bent was married to Miss Anna E. Barclay. a resident of Washington, D. C .. and a daughter of Frederick Barclay. who at present is in government employ at the nation's capital. Mr. and Mrs. Bent at- tend and support the Methodist church and he gives his political allegiance to the republican party. He has never sought to figure prominently in public life but has not been remiss in the duties of citizenship. while giving the greater part of his time and attention to his farming interests. He is well known in De Kalb county and especially in Afton township, where the greater part of his life has been passed. and his friends are many.
EVERETT NORMAN.
Everett Norman is one of the active business men of Kirkland, where he has resided for twenty- six years. while his connection with De Kalb county dates from 1865. making him therefore one of its early settlers. A native of England, he was born in Yarmouth, County Suffolk, about thirty miles from London, on the 10th of April, 1836. His father. Edward Norman, also a native
ci Suffolk county, was there reared and was mar- ried. Mr. Norman was a gardener and fruit grower and emigrated to the new world in 1845, thinking to enjoy better business opportunities of: this side of the Atlantic. He first settled in Canada, where he remained for four years. and then removed to Wayne county, New York.
Everett Norman was reared in the place of his nativity to the age of nine years and then ac- companied his parents to the new world. At an early age he began providing for his own sup- port. He followed any occupation that would yield him an honest living and as the years passed by made progress in his business life. lIe was married in Canada in 1854. when a young man of eighteen years. to Miss Elizabeth Maria Lan- don, who was born in Canada and was in her eighteenth year at the time of her marriage. Mr. Norman afterward worked by the month in order to provide for his family. He remained a resident of the east until 18:1. when he came to Ilinois. settling in De Kalb county. He located first on a farm at Shabbona. where he worked by the month for two years and then removed to Kirk- land, where he rented a farm which he cultivated for ten years. On the expiration of that period he took up his abode in the village of Kirkland. where he established a trading business, which he conducted with success for eleven years, when he sold out and opened a restaurant and boarding house. lle continued in that line for four years and then purchased where he now resides. For the past five years he has conducted a fertilizing plant and he is well known in Kirkland and throughout the surrounding district.
Unto Mr. and Mrs. Norman have been born four children. Mary is the widow of John Moore and resides at Hawkeye. Fayette county, Iowa. She has a family of seven daughters. Lucy Ann is the widow of S. G. Rowan. of Kirkland. Hattic. the youngest. is the wife of Frank Riddell. of Kirkland, and they have four children, one of whom is the wife of Maurice Haite. Mr. and Mrs. Norman have altogether eleven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. They lost a son, Charles Norman, who reached adult age and was married but is now deceased, dying May. 1902, aged thirty- six years. He left a wife and three children.
Politically Mr. Norman is a republican. He has never sought or desired office but served for
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one term as school trustee. He and his wife are members of the Congregational church, and he was one of the early members of the Woodmen camp at Kirkland. He has seen this town develop from a crossroads village of only three buildings and has witnessed the progress of the county along agricultural lines, seeing the entire countryside converted into rich and productive farms. His life has been one of activity and he is well known in the locality here he lives.
CHARLES E. WILSON.
Charles E. Wilson is one of the prosperous farmers, stock raisers and feeders of Sandwich township. IIe lives upon a neat and well im- proved farm of one hundred and forty acres on section 2, and his activity, his trustworthiness in business and his helpful interest in all that per- tains to the county's welfare and improvement. have made Ed Wilson, for so he is called by his many friends, a valued resident of this county. He has lived in the county since 1843, having been brought thither by his parents when a little lad of about two years. He was born in Onondaga county, New York, July 19, 1841.
His father, William Wilson, was a native of Paisley, Scotland, and was there reared to the age of seventeen years when he ran away from home, and got aboard a man-of-war, on which he came to the United States. He at first made his home in New York and was there married to Miss Melinda Burchim, a native of the Em- pire state, born in Cattaraugus county. Mr. Wil- son was a cooper by trade and secured employ- ment at the salt works, where he manufactured barrels for several years. Attracted by the op- portunities of the new and growing west where land values were comparatively small and where competition was not so great. he came to Illinois with his family in 1843, settling in De Kalb county in the neighborhood where his son Ed now resides. Here he secured one hundred and sixty acres of land and opened up a new farm, turn- ing the first furrows in the fields, and after break- ing the sod, he planted the seed which in the due course of time brought forth good crops. In 1852 he went to California and there died several
years later. llis wife, however, remained with her children in this county.
Ed Wilson was reared to manhood in De Kalb county amid the usual seenes, environments and experiences of life on the frontier. Because of his father's early death he was thrown upon his own resources at a tender age and is largely a self- educated as well as a self-made man, having had little opportunity in his youth to attend school. His minority was largely a period of earnest and unremitting toil but he thereby became a self- reliant young man-and the spirit of self-help is the source of all genuine worth in the individual.
In 1868 Mr. Wilson chose a companion and helpmate for life's journey, being married on the 21st of October of that year to Miss Alice Fay, daughter of Horace Fay, for many years county surveyor here. Mrs. Wilson is a native of De Kalb county and her education was acquired in the public schools while spending her girlhood under the parental roof. Prior to his marriage Mr. Wilson had saved money sufficient to enable him to purchase the farm upon which he now resides. He at first bought eighty-six acres of land, to which he has since added a tract of fifty- four acres. Following his marriage he brought his bride to his new home and with characteristic energy began to cultivate and develop the land. Ile built here a new residence, also put up good barns and outbuildings and now has his place enclosed with woven wire fences. The land is well tilled, whereby its productiveness has been greatly enhanced, and in fact the Wilson property is said to be the best improved farm in Sand- wich township. It is indeed the visible evidence of the labor of Mr. Wilson and is a monument to his diligence and persevering spirit which he has every reason to he proud of. He started out in life without a dollar and is today one of the sub- stantial citizens of the community. He has made a business of raising and feeding hogs and has at times from one hundred to one hundred and fifty fat hogs upon his place. He also raises high-grade horses and is a partner in a company that owns a fine imported Clydesdale for breeding purposes.
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