USA > Illinois > DeKalb County > Past and present of DeKalb County, Illinois, Volume II > Part 34
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Warner D. Whipple spent his youth in the usual manner of farm lads of the period, carly becoming familiar with the duties and labors that fall to the lot of the agriculturist. He was married August 17, 1900, to Miss Florence M. Rowan, a daughter of James and Margaret Rowan, of Chi- cago, the former a native of Toronto, Canada, and the latter of Redbank, New Jersey. Mrs. Whipple was an only daughter and was born June 3, 1881.
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Her father died April 22, 1894, while her mother survived until January 13. 1906. Mr. and Mrs. Whipple havetwochildren : Mary Alice, born April 11, 1902 ; and James L., on the 7th of July, 1903. B. F. Whipple, the father of our subject, is also a member of the family. the three generations liv- ing in one house. Before the death of Mrs. Julia A. Warner of Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, in the summer of 1906, there were five generations of the Whipple family living. the connecting links in the chain being Mrs. Warner, Mrs. Mary A. Whipple, Benjamin F. Whipple, Warner D. Whipple and his little daughter, Mary Alice Whipple.
Warner D. Whipple owns a farm of two hundred and twenty-seven acres pleasantly located about two and a half miles from Sycamore. The im- provements are modern in all respects and the place is well kept, neatness and thrift character- izing it in every department. A telephone keeps them in close connection with their friends and the home is such as is found in the cities in the own- ership of men of progress and enterprise. Mr. Whipple keeps a good grade of stock and uses the latest improved machinery to carry on the work of his farm. He and his family are well known in the community, their circle of friends being almost co-extensive with the circle of their ae- quaintance, and it is with pleasure that we present to our readers this record of Warner D. Whipple.
CARLOS LATTIN.
Carlos Lattin, the founder of Sycamore, and the fourth child and the fourth son of Abner and Sarah (Bennett) Lattin, was born May 31, 1813, at Huntington, Hartford county, Connecticut, where he resided until the winter of 1819, when his parents removed to a little place called Veteran, in Chemung county, New York. The boy was bright and industrious and very soon attracted the attention of a neighboring family named Lyon who prevailed upon the parents to permit Carlos to come to them to live. The new relations became so mutually congenial that Mr. Lyon adopted the boy and kept him until he reached his twenty-first year, when in the autumn of 1834, with a horse which Mr. Lyon gave him and one thousand dollars
in money. which Mr. Lyon loaned him without interest, he rode westward to St. Louis. Then, as now, work was plenty and help was scarce and upon the day of his arrival he hired out to a near- by farmer and with the latter worked until the fame of northern Illinois came over the great prairies by those cosmic wings which lend their silent influence to great movements, and buzzed its message into the ears of Carlos Lattin.
At once he mounted his horse and traveling into southern Illinois, he worked with farmers along the route, days at a time, for his board, until in the month of March, he had reached the great grove which covered the country immediately to the north of Sycamore. The abundance of tim- ber and water to be had at the Kishwaukee at- tracted him and he stopped and erected the first building upon what is now the city of Sycamore and became its first settler and founder. The Frenchman and the Norwegian who had tarried a short while during the previous autumn, were not then returned and when they did return, they proved to be birds of passage only and not settlers. On the spot approximately occupied by the Syca- more National Bank-a little back and a little to the north. the cabin stood and was occupied by him until the year 1849, when he removed to the two-story brick building, built by him on West High street. near the corner of California. That little log cabin was built eight logs high. It was sixteen by twenty-four feet, the floor and doors were rude puncheons and the roof was made of shakes, three rows of them to the side, held down by poles running lengthwise of the roof. One door and a window were made on the south side and a mud and stick chimney was built against the north gable. A little window peeped out from the south side of the little upper half-story.
On the 5th day of September, 1839, Carlos Lat- tin was married to Naney Cartwright, who then Jived on the farm known now as the County Farm. Then it was the property of her father. The newly married couple moved into the little log cabin and there lived and reared a family, until the year 1849 when the family removed to the brick house before mentioned. In the exciting days of the early county seat wars. it was Carlos Lattin, with two others, who furnished the ready money with which to buy from the government the present site for the courthouse. That event defi-
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mitely settled the contest and the land was con- veved to the county of De Kalb. Mr. Lattin was deeply religious. He carly became identified with the Methodist church and remained its pillar until his death. He gave to that church the property upon which the parsonage now stands and the other where stands the church; both on Somonauk street. For the construction of that church, he also gave fifteen hundred dollars in money and continued a liberal supporter of it.
Carlos Lattin and his wife were what the old settlers always denominated as very jolly people, and it was no uncommon thing during the long tedious winters of the early days to "hitch up" and drive to the neighbors, for Mr. Laffin to join in games of ball, blindman's buff, etc .. and make life merry with such harmless pasttimes. His fame is sung even to this day for such youthful games. Lattin's addition to Sycamore, was part of his old elaim and so are Waterman & Ellwood's additions. From the latter, Mr. Lattin reserved two lots upon which he subsequently built his larg- est and last home upon the corner of Somanauk and High streets. This old homestead is still owned and occupied by his daughter, Mrs. Frank E. Stevens, and family, making a period of seven- ty-two years of consecutive ownership by the fam- ily-a very rare incident for Illinois.
Upon the 20th day of April, 1876, Carlos Lat- tin died. His widow, who had been his helpmate indeed for the years of hardship of those early days, survived him until the 1st day of March, 1901. when she too died in her eighty-first year.
C. M. FULLER.
C. M. Fuller is engaged quite extensively in the raising of chiekens upon a farm in Clinton township. He makes a specialty of Plymouth Rocks and, while he also engages in the tilling of the soil, his poultry interests constitute an im- portant source of revenue to him. IIis birth oc- curred in Clinton township, May 15, 1870, his parents being A. M. and Susan B. Fuller, natives of the state of New York, born in 1832 and 1834 respectively. The father came west in 1850 when a young man eighteen years of age and worked by the month as a farm hand in De Kalb county.
lle was married, after which he purchased a tract of land upon which his son C. M. Fuller now re- sides. After cultivating this place for some years he retired from active life and removed to Water- man where he is now living in the enjoyment of well earned rest. As the years have passed by his fellow townsmen have recognized his many good qualities and given him their high regard. In the family were four children: Frank, who died in infancy ; C. M., of this review ; Lida, who is married and lives in Colorado; and John N., who is married and follows farming in De Kalb county.
Farm work early elaimed the time and attention of C. M. Fuller and he was trained to labors of field and meadow. The public schools afforded him his educational privileges and his entire life has been largely a period of earnest toil. He was married in 1890 to Miss Eugenie C. Normandin, who was born in Kane county, Illinois, March 28, 1869. Her parents were residents of Waterman. They were natives of Canada and came to Illi- nois in 1843. In their family were eight children and it is a notable fact that the family circle yet remains unbroken by the hand of death. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Fuller has been blessed with seven children : Irene L., who was born December 7. 1891 : Frances J., born October 2. 1893 : Everett A., born June 25, 1895; Merle P., born November 2, 1897; Zila E., born November 2, 1901; S. Verdelle, born May 20, 1904; and Genelle G., born December 5. 1905.
Following his marriage Mr. Fuller rented the old homestead farm whereon he has since lived. It was his birthplace and therefore dear to him through associations of youth as well as manhood. He lives an active and busy life in the further care and development of the property, and in connec- tion with the tilling of the soil he makes a spe- eialty of raising poultry, including buff Plymouth Rocks. He uses an incubator in hatching and raises from eight to twelve hundred chickens per year. He gets from eight to ten dozen eggs per days all through the winter season and sells few fowls except for breeding purposes. His business is one of the most extensive of this character in the county and Mr. Fuller keeps only very high grade fowls. He votes with the republican party and for seven years served as school director and the cause of education finds in him a warm friend.
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while his aid and co-operation are given many progressive movements which directly benefit the town and community.
EPHRAIM ILALL.
Ephraim Hall was one of the prominent and suc- cessful pioneers of De Kalb county, figuring largely in the history of Sycamore township. his name being associated with many of the events which find record in the annals of the county. Ile was born in Wallingford, Connecticut, March 15, 1808. was reared in New England, and there married Miss Caroline Hall, who was a distant relative. In 1836 he removed to the middle west, settling in Sycamore township, De Kalb county, Illinois where he purchased a claim for five hundred dol- lars. The Black Hawk war had been fought only four years before-an event which decided the supremacy of the white over the red race in this section of the country. There were still many traces of Indian occupancy, however, and the great broad prairies of this section of Illinois, which are now splendidły improved farms, were then largely covered with the native prairie grasses. Of the claim which Mr. Hall secured only five acres had been plowed. the larger portion being covered with timber and no buildings had been put upon the land. Hle built a little shanty sixteen feet square. in which he lived for one year. In 183? he built a log house, which was his home for many years, and the old structure is still standing, being one of the landmarks of the township and a mute reminder of the changes which have occurred as the years have gone by. He was a man of good judgment and believed that timber land would become valu- able. He therefore bought five hundred acres. which were covered with the native forest growth and in one year sold timber from three hundred and twenty acres to the extent of seventeen thou- sand dollars.
While in Connecticut Ephraim HIall had been identified with manufacturing interests, but ou coming to Illinois he turned his attention to agri- cultural pursuits and his life from that time for- ward was devoted to general farming. He was a very successful man, being seldom at error in mat- ters of business judgment and making careful in-
vestments which proved profitable. Ilis labors, too, wore an element in the reclamation of this distriet for the uses of the white race and his work constituted an important source of the coun- ty's early progress and improvement.
Ephraim Ilall lost his wife at the comparatively early age of thirty-six years. In their family were tive children: Cornelia, who died at the age of twenty-six years ; Ruth, the wife of Captain Almon F. Parke, a resident of Sycamore township, whose sketch is found elsewhere in this work: Franklin, who is also mentioned on another page of this vol- ume : Eunice, the wife of John Trenor, who is liv- ing in Boone county. Jowa : and Henry, who died at the age of twenty-three years.
In politics Mr. Hall was a stalwart supporter of the republican party from the time of its organiza- tion and held several local otlices, including those of justice of the peace and road commissioner, the duties of which he discharged with marked fidelity and promptness. He lived to the very advanced age of eighty-eight years and in his death the county lost not only one of its most venerable, but also one of its most respected citizens. Ile had lived here from 1836 until 1896-a period of sixty years-and no man figured more largely in connec- tion with the history of Sycamore township or more deserves the gratitude of the present genera- tion for what he accomplished in the processes of devloping and upbuilding this section of the state.
EDWIN E. HEMISTON.
Edwin E. Humiston, a contractor and builder, thus extensively connected with the improvement of the city of Sandwich, was born in Newark, Ken- dall county, Illinois, July 18. 1862, his parents being Charles W. and Dorcas (Hall) Humiston, both of whom were natives of this state. The maternal grandfather, Jacob Hall, was one of the men who laid ont the north part of the town of Sandwich, subdividing eighty acres of his farm. The east side of his farm is now Main street, the best residence street of the city. Charles W. Humiston in his business life engaged largely in merchandising. He died at the age of forty-thren years and is still survived by his widow who no; resides in Sandwich.
ephraim Hall
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Edwin E. Humiston pursued a public-school education in Kendall county and following the re- moval of his father's family to Missouri, spent ten years upon a farm there. On the expiration of that period he came to Sandwich in 1882, being at the time a young man of twenty years. Here he began to learn the carpenter's trade, which he has followed to the present time, and on the 24th of January, 1893, he entered into partnership with William E. Ahrens, under the firm style of Ahrens & Humiston, contractors and builders. They have an extensive patronage, in which connection they have contracted for many of the finest residence, schools and hotels of the city and in the adjoining counties as well. Their patronage is now exten- sive and the character of the contracts awarded them is indicative of their expert workmanship and the confidence reposed in them by the general public.
On the 1st of September, 1887, Mr. Humiston was united in marriage to Miss Clara Smith, of Sandwich, a daughter of Edward F. Smith, a farmer by occupation. They have no children of "- foreman on this place and has operated the farm in their own but have an adopted son, "Herbert connection with the conduct of a creamery busi- ness. Eugene, who was a son of Mr. Humiston's brother and was born September 15, 1900. Mr. and Mrs. Humiston hold membership in the Methodist Epis- copal church and he also affiliates with the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, while his political allegiance and support are given to the republican party but he has never been an aspirant for office, as he has preferred to concentrate his time and energies upon his business affairs which, growing in extent and importance, have made heavy de- mands upon his energies and at the same time have brought him a substantial financial return in re- ward for his labor and perseverance.
JOHN NELSON.
There is a considerable portion of the citizen- ship of De Kalb county that traces its ancestry to Sweden or claims that country as a place of nativity. Among the number in Afton township is John Nelson, who was born in Sweden on the 16th of February, 1862. His parents were like- wise natives of that country and in 1868 they brought their family to the United States, making
their way into the interior of the country and set- tling in Malta, Illinois. In 1870 they removed to De Kalb, where the father worked at his trade as a wagonmaker. He was an industrious me- chanie and continued actively in business until his death, which occurred on the 20th of April, 1904. Ilis wife passed away in De Kalb in 1898.
John Nelson was but six years of age when brought to the new world. He was therefore prac- tically reared in De Kalb county and in the public schools he acquired his education. After attain- ing his majority he entered the employ of a grain elevator company at De Kalb and subsequently acted as a salesman for A. W. Wood & Sons, hard- ware merchants of that city. Later he bought a half interest in a dray business in connection with C. W. Whittmore of De Kalb, and was engaged in teaming for five years, when he sold out. He afterward acted as agent for the Standard Oil Company for nine years and on the expiration of that period took up his abode on the Gurler farm in Afton township, since which time he has been
Mr. Nelson has been married twice. He first wedded Miss Bruhn, who was born October 2, 1866. Iler father was a native of Germany and her mother of Sweden. Unto this marriage there were born two children : Floyd B., born September 22, 1888 ; and Minnie A., born December 16, 1890. The wife and mother passed away on the 4th of March, 1895, and subsequently Mr. Nelson was married to Julia S. Prussing, whose birth occurred in Iowa on the 18th of November, 1874, her par- ents, however, being natives of Germany. By the second marriage there have been born five chil- dren : Sylvia, on the 28th of August, 1897; Ruby, February 4, 1899; Raymond, in April, 1902; Jane, on the 20th of September, 1904: and J. Donald, on the 1st of February, 1902.
Mrs. Nelson holds membership in the Methodist Episcopal church of De Kalb and is interested in its work. Mr. Nelson has always been an earnest republican and while not an office socker keeps well informed on the questions and issues of the day, as every true American citizen should do. Almost his entire life has been passed in De Kalb county and therefore his record is as an open book to his fellow citizens. There have been no sensa-
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tional chapters in his history : on the contrary his life has been quietly passed in the faithful per- formance of the duties that have devolved upon him in every connection. He has been diligent in business, reliable at all times and has made a record which has won for him the respect and confidence of his fellowmen.
WILLIAM WALLACE MARSH.
William Wallace Marsh, now living retired in Sycamore, is well known by reputation through- out the country as an inventor. In connection with his brother. Charles W. Marsh. he gave to the world the Marsh harvester. and from his fer- tile brain evolved many ideas which have found tangible form in inventions of practical utility, especially valuable in connection with agricultural interests. It is therefore a busy and useful life that is now being crowned with honorable retire- ment from labor.
Mr. Marsh was born April 15, 1835, near Tren- ton, Ontario, and is the second son of Samuel and Tamar ( Richardson ) Marsh. His father, who was born in Canada, February 2, 1804. died in De Kalb, in April 1884. He belonged to the Ver- mont line of the family, his immediate ancestors having been residents of the Green Mountain state. With all the male members of his family. including his father, uncles and brothers, he was an active participant in the rebellion in the Do- minion of Canada in 1837, known to history as th Patriots of MeKenzie's war. With the others he narrowly escaped the fruits of vengeance of the British government. All who were not ar- rested and placed in confinement escaped only by immediate flight. Samuel Marsh, the father, was captured at Kingston, where he was held in jail for five months. His trial was long and severe and he barely escaped conviction and execution His wife, who was born March 22, 182%. in Canada, was a descendant of the Mohawk Dutch, belonging in the maternal line to the Schermer- horns. Her marriage occurred in Consecon Canada, and she became the mother of three chil- dren, two sons and a daughter. The latter way horn March 10, 1838, while her father was a state
prisoner in the jail at Kingston, and she died at Chicago, March 13, 1881.
Samuel Marsh was a farmer by occupation and following his release resumed work along that line. In 1844 he sold his property in Canada and started for the Mississippi valley, then known as the west. Hle encountered a Millerite camp- meeting at the head of the bay Quinte known as the carrying place and attending its services, he became converted to the tenets of that seet Firmly convinced that the coming of the Lord was at hand he returned to his family to await the crisis. The mother, however, trained and dis- ciplined by the trials she had already experi- enced, exercised the practical view of Abraham Davenport, and wisely judging that in any event the prospects of her sons would be likely to be improved by mental cultivation, while her hus- band waited, she placed her boys in St. Andrews school at Coburg. William W. being at that time eight years of age. Two years later he entered Victoria College, where he was a student for three years.
In 1819 the necessities of the family demanded that they make an immediate change so that an income might be provided. The parents with their children then came to De Kalb county. Illinois, and settled on one hundred an ten acres of land near Shabbona Grove, on section 18, Clin- ton township, which had been purchased for them in 1847 by an uncle of our subject. Later the family purchased another tract of similar size. Both were nubroken prairie and it required much arduous toil on the part of the father and sons for nearly eight years to improve it and bring the raw land under cultivation and make it pro- duce profitable crops. There is a strain of me- chanical ingenuity in the family. and in 1852 were begun the experiments which resulted in the build- ing of the machine that has brought fame to the name of Marsh. The idea upon which the Marsh harvester was founded grew first from a trial by W. W. Marsh on the grounds when he found he could bind a bundle of grain while another was being ent. and that gave the idea of the necessity of moving with the cutting apparatus in order to receive the sundered grain at the opportune moment. His brother the next day made a more careful trial, satisfying himself that the idea was practical. The years of experiment and struggle
W. W. MARSH.
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that followed brought many hardships to the family who invested their earnings in further experiment, believing firmly in the ultimate suc- cessful destiny of the work which they were under- ' taking. Time passed, the weak points of the original machine were learned and corrected, im- provements were made, and at length the Marsh brothers felt that they were willing to make a test. This test took place in 1859 on the farm of Clark Barber, north of De Kalb, in the pres- ence of hundreds of witnesses. A number of reap- ing machines were in the contest, among which were the pioneer wire binders, which proved fail- ures, but the Marsh machine asserted the value of the principles upon which it was built and a com- plete triumph was achieved. From that time on brighter days were before the Marsh family. In the contest William W. Marsh occupied the plat- form, and in fifty minutes bound the grain cut on an acre, accomplishing the work with tho utmost ease. The Marsh machine was thencefor- ward recognized of utilitarian value in agricul- tural life. The next step was to begin the manu- facture of machines for the market. On the estab- lishment of their business as manufacturers the financial interests and all relations specially per- taining to that branch of the business . naturally fell under the supervision of Charles W. Marsh, the mechanical part becoming the portion of W. W. Marsh. For many years the latter was especially interested in the invention of farm machinery and with his brother and others has obtained patents on thirty-five different inventions. He has brought forth as the products of a fertile brain and skilled workmanship a score of harvester appliances and nearly as many more in other directions, includ- ing windmills, plows, cultivators, wire stretchers. paint mill, corn cutters, corn huskers, etc .. all of which were manufactured together with the Marsh harvester for twenty years, the factory being located first at Plano and later at Sycamore. On the establishment of the shops at the latter place William W. Marsh took up his abode here and has since resided in the county seat.
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