USA > Illinois > Macon County > Decatur > Past and present of the City of Decatur and Macon County, Illinois > Part 83
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Throughout his entire life he has made his home in Maroa, being born in 1860 in the first house erected in the village. It was the home of his parents, G. J. and Alice Schenck and was built by the father. Our subject at- tended the public schools here and later pur- sued a commercial course in the Bryant & Stratton Business College of Chicago. On leaving that institution in 1880 he returned to Maroa and entered the dry goods store of Friedman & Son, in whose employ he remained only a short time, however, as on the 20th of June. 1880, he embarked in the insurance business on his own account. He now repre- sents the Forest City Company of Rockford; the German of Freeport; the Northwestern National of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and the Milwaukee Mechanics Insurance, of Milwau- kee. Although Mr. Schenck makes this his principal business, he is also interested in a number of other enterprises, some of which have proved quite profitable. He is secretary of the telephone company of Maroa, he and Mr. Crocker having put in the exchange in 1900, and the system has been extended from year to year until it now has many lines in operation. He is also secretary of the elec- tric light company which was organized in 1892, and has an interest in the manufacture of the Boss car loader in Maroa, and also in the Crocker Elevator Company.
On the 27th of July, 1880, Mr. Schenck was united in marriage to Miss Fannie E. Ross, a daughter of Daniel Ross. She was born in Missouri, but was only ten years okl when she came to Maroa and has since been a resident here. Our subject and his wife have two children : Alice E., who is now the wife of J. O. Wyatt, living in St. Joseph, Missouri ; and Edith .A., who is at home with her pa- rents. Mr. and Mrs. Schenck are prominent
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and active members of the Presbyterian church, of which he is one of the trustees, and he is also a member of the Knights of Pythias Lodge, No. 109, of Maroa. He has a nice residence in Maroa and a good office in the rear of the Crocker & Company Bank. As a business man he is prompt, energetic and notably re- liable, and is entitled to distinction among the representative and prominent citizens of his native county. He has always taken a deep and commendable interest in public affairs and as has already been seen, he is actively identified with many interests which have been of great benefit to Maroa.
MAYWOOD MAXON.
Large corporations do not retain in their employ men of limited capacity, unqualified for the conduct of important business duties, but demand of their representatives marked capability, faithfulness and diligence. These qualities have been manifested in the business record of Maywood Maxon, who is to-day one of the most trusted employes of the Standard Oil Company, as manager of the Decatur division.
He was born in Marietta, Washington county, Ohio, in April. 1857, and is a son of H. C. and Mary A. (Cooper) Maxon. The Maxon family came originally from New England and the Coopers from Orange county, New York. William Maxon, the great-grandfather of our subject, was one of the original forty-eight men who removed from New England in 1787 and settled at Marietta, Ohio, where he made a purchase of land and took an active part .in reclaiming the wild district for the purposes of civilization. Ilis son, John Maxon, the grandfather of our subject, was born in the block house at Mari- etta, Ohio, during the Indian war in the '90s -- the last decade of the eighteenth century. When he was ten years of age his father re-
moved to a farm about twelve miles from Marietta, in the midst of a dense wilderness, and there he built a log cabin and established a home. It was thus that John Maxon was reared amid the wild scenes of frontier life in a district which had already become his- toric as the early home of the Mound Build- ers, whose places of residence and of burial are still to be seen in that locality. The maternal grandfather of our subject was Jonah Cooper, a native of Orange county, New York, whence he removed to Ohio by wagon in the early part of the nineteenth century. There with his family he continued to spend his remaining days and at length passed away in his Ohio home. His daughter, Mary A., in making her first trip back to her native place, covered the entire distance on horseback.
H. C. Maxon, the father of our subject, was born in Ohio, and spent his entire life in that state. He was a farmer by occupation, following that pursuit in order to provide for the needs of his family. At the time of the Civil war he joined the Union army, enlist- ing first for one hundred days' service and afterward becoming a member of the Fifty- second Ohio Regiment of Volunteers. He died in Ohio in 1877, at the age of fifty-two years, and is still survived by his widow. They were the parents of seven children. five of whom are living.
Maywood Maxon, the second in order of birth, obtained a common school education and was afterward employed at various pur- suits until 1875, when he entered the service of the Standard Oil Company, with which he has since been connected. He became office boy at their headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio, and gradually worked his way upward until he was made a traveling salesman. In 1880 the company transferred him to Peoria, Illi- nois, and he operated from that city as a traveling salesman for about three years. In 1883 he was promoted to the position of man- ager of the office in Davenport, Iowa, and in
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December, 1887, was put in charge of the office and business at Decatur as manager here and has since served in this city without interruption, covering a quarter of a century. He has been most loyal and capable and has had the supervision of as high as seventy offices from this point. He has been a most indefatigable worker in the service of the company throughout all these years never taking exact measure of the hours which he has devoted to the business, but doing all within his power to promote the success of the business done from this office and giving his attention to the work whether it required the hours of night or of daytime. He never asked or demanded vacations and in recogni- tion of his faithful service in 1903 the com- pany granted him an indefinite vacation from active duties with full pay. This was cer- tainly a merited tribute to his worth and fidel- ity and one which he much prizes and of which he might be justly proud as it is an indication of his honorable service and the trust reposed in him by the corporation.
In 1895 Mr. Maxon was united in marriage to Miss Emma Custer, of Effingham, Illinois. They now have an interesting little daughter, Helen Ruth. Mr. Maxon was made a Mason in Davenport, lowa, and is still a member of the Blue Lodge and Commandery of that city. He holds membership relations with the Ben- evolent Protective Order of Elks in Spring- field, Illinois, and with the Knights of Pythias fraternity in Cincinnati. The same fidelity which has characterized his business career has been manifested in his fraternal and in other relations of life.
FIELDING NATHANIEL EWING.
Fielding Nathaniel Ewing was born in Statesville, Iredell county, North Carolina, on the 29th of September, 1811. He was a son of Adlai Osborn Ewing and Sophia (Wallis) Ewing, the grandson of Nathaniel Ewing and
Rebecca ( Osborn) Ewing and of John Wallis and Isabella (Sharpe ) Wallis, of Scotch-Irish parentage and of Presbyterian faith. llis family removed to Kentucky when he was four years old and his father soon died.
Mr. Ewing received his preparatory educa- tion at the academy at Elkton, Todd county, Kentucky, and was graduated from the Uni- versity of Nashville, Tennessee, in 1838 and from the Theological Seminary at Princeton in 1843. His first ministerial charge was at Morganfield, Kentucky. On the 28th of Oc- tober, 1845, he married Sarah Ann Powers at her brother's home in Decatur. In 1849 he accepted a call to the church in Blooming- ton, Illinois, but was obliged by throat trouble to give up preaching in 1859 and moved to Lake View, a suburb of Chicago. While liv- ing there he performed one of the most im- portant services of his life in connection with the Theological Seminary. In the winter of 1862-63 the seminary was without any per- manent building and by reason of the distress and financial panic caused by the war, it was in danger of losing its landed property. This land had been given on condition that a build- ing should be erected upon it within three years and the requirement had not been com- plied with. The board of directors commis- sioned Mr. Ewing, and sent him to New York to raise sixteen thousand dollars and to per- stade the donors of the land to renew their offer in case the building should be erected within one year. His success was complete. He gave liberally himself, secured the renewal of the offer, obtained the necessary money, and the main building was erected, paid for and ready for use at the end of the next scason.
Dr. L. J. Halsey in his history of the Mc- Cormick Theological Seminary says, " .All honor is due to the memory of Mr. Ewing for the zcal, the energy and the admirable skill and the complete success with which, under the most unpropitions and difficult circum- stances, he carried through the work of raising
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the large sum of money required to erect this first building in time to fulfill the conditions stipulated by the donors of this land. It may be questioned whether any other man then known to the board of directors could have accomplished the work then assigned Mr. Ewing, or have done it with a success so com- plete. This was at the time of a crisis in the life of the nation, and there was a crisis too in the life of the seminary on which its whole future depended. This first building is named Ewing Hall by the action of the board who said. 'It seems fitting that his valuable ser- vices should be commemorated and perpetu- ated by the edifice whose existence is due to his labors."" It is marked by a tablet suitably inscribed.
In 1864 MIr. Ewing removed to Decatur, where he spent the remaining years of his life, his health never permitting him to resume the ministry, and he died at his home November 18, 1880. He had six children, three sons who died in infancy; Charles Adlai Ewing, who died November 6, 1896; Edgar Farris Ewing, who died August 26, 1884, when twenty-eight years of age; and one daughter, MIyra Belle Ewing.
It was said of him by one who had been his teacher in college, his colleague in the minis- try and his friend and associate through the closing years of his life: "In his public char- acter as a minister of God, as a member of the court of the church, the presbytery and synod, and especially as a director of the seminary, MFr. Ewing was regarded by all who knew him, as a man of wise council, sound judg- ment, evangelical spirit, genial manner, in- flexible principle and that consistency and up- rightness of character which invariably in- spired respect and confidence. His very presence was hailed by his brethren as an assurance of sound views and fraternal feel- ing. He was always one of the leading and working members of the presbytery, synod and board of directors. His sound and prac- tical judgment, his good sense, his knowledge
of men and things, together with his modera- tion and conciliatory spirit, often enabled him to harmonize conflicting views and to sug- gest a plan of action which all would readily accept as the best thing to be done. He en- tered no assembly of men to which his pres- ence did not lend the added charm of Christian courtesy, ministerial dignity and manly candor. Along with these solid qualities he carried a rich fund of anecdote and a glow of genial wit and humor, chastened by reverence and good taste, which made him the attraction of the social circle, and which in the earnest and often heated debates of the public as- sembly was like pouring oil on the troubled waters. Yet with all this conciliatory good humor there was no firmer and truer man- none truer to his principles, truer to his friends, truer to God and truth."
MRS. SARAH ANN EWING.
Mrs. Sarah A. Ewing was the daughter of William and Abigail (Hendrix) Powers, the granddaughter of Andrew Powers and Sally ( Carter) Powers and of David Hendrix and Anne ( Westcott ) Hendrix, and was born October 31, 1820, at Charlton, Saratoga county, New York, the youngest of eight children. Her father died when she was four years old and at eighteen she and her mother removed to Mobile, Alabama, to join the old- est son, William L. Powers, a banker there. They made the trip in a sailing vessel from New York. In 1840 with her mother, her brother, George Powers, and his wife, she drove from Mobile to Decatur, Illinois, . the trip taking six weeks, and they resided here on what is known as the Old Farm of the Samuel Power's estate.
On the 28th of October, 1845, she married Rev. Fielding N. Ewing and they drove to their home in Morganfield, Kentucky. Four years later they removed to Bloomington. Illi- nois, and in 1859 to Lake View, a suburb of Chicago. The lake air did not agree with her
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and in 1864 they removed to Decatur, where two of her brothers were living, and here made their permanent home. Iler husband died November 18. 1880, and of her six children three sous died in infancy; Charles Adlai Ewing died November 6. 1896; Edgar Farris Ewing died August 26, 1884; and her only daughter, Myra Belle Ewing, survives her.
Mrs. Ewing's health for the last thirty years of her life prevented her taking an active part in any social and religious matters, but she was from girlhood a devoted member of the Presbyterian church. She died on the 29th of January, 1902, in her eighty-second year.
It has been very justly said of her: " Her life was marked by the deepest devotion to her husband and her children. In them she found her greatest comfort and joy. and the strength and beauty of her gentle, kindly nature left its imprint upon them and was exemplified in the honorable positions they attained in the esteem and confidence of their fellow men. Her life has been filled with sadness by afflictions that have fallen upon her, but her faith and reliance in the wisdom of an all seeing God have borne her up in trib- ulations intensified by the loss of husband and children to whom she was attached by ties of love that grew with the growth of the family she reared. The beauty of her home life, her gracious manner, her sympathy with all and her interest in the welfare of her family and friends have enshrined in the hearts of all who were privileged to know her the highest regard and in their memory a monu- ment of respect and love never to be effaced. The influence of her gentle life reaches out and beyond the family circle and makes the world better for her having lived."
OWEN SCOTT.
One of the prominent representatives of the journalistic profession in Illinois is the
gentleman whose name heads this brief notice, the well known manager of the Decatur Her- ald. America owes much of her progress and advancement to a position foremost among the nations of the world to her news- papers, and in no line has the incidental broadening out of the sphere of usefulness been more marked than in this same line of journalism. Illinois has enlisted in its news- paper field some of the strongest intellects of the nation-men of broad mental grasp, cosmopolitan ideas and notable business sagacity. Prominent among these is Owen Scott, the subject of this review.
.A native of Illinois, he was born in Effing- ham county on the 6th of July, 1848, and is a son of John O. and Martha B. Scott, who were among the pioneers of that county, the father having located there in 1825 and the mother four years later. John O. Scott died in 1892, at the age of eighty-six years, but his wife is still living and has reached the advanced age of ninety-seven.
Owen Scott acquired his early education in the common schools of his native county and later attended the Illinois State Normal Uni- versity at Bloomington. No event of special importance marked his boyhood and youth and he remained upon the home farm until about twenty years of age. On starting out in life for himself he engaged in teaching in the public schools for some time and for eight years was county superintendent of schools in Effingham county. Having decided to enter the legal profession, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1874, after which he engaged in practice for ten years. In the meantime he entered upon his journalistic career, publishing the Effingham Democrat for three years, from 1881 to 1884. In the latter year he left his native county and re- moved to Bloomington, where he published the Bloomington Daily Bulletin until 1891. For several years he has taken a very active and influential part in political affairs and in 1800 was elected to congress, being the only
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Democrat ever elected from that district. He served throughout the fifty-second congress and then retired to private life, his term ex- piring on the 4th of March, 1893. In 1896 and 1897 he was grand master of the Masons of Illinois. During all this time he continued to make his home in Bloomington but in 1899 came to Decatur and has since had charge of the Decatur Ilerald, which is one of the lead- ing papers of this section of the state.
At Effingham, on the 6th of November, 1873, Mr. Scott was united in marriage to Miss Nora Miser, who died August 2, 1900, leaving two daughters: Mrs. Henrietta McNulta and Miss Florence Scott. In early life Mr. Scott always affiliated with the Democratic party but was unable to endorse the party platform during the Bryan campaign of 1896 and in 1900 he declared for Mckinley and now votes the Republican ticket. He has always taken quite a prominent part in public af- fairs and besides the offices previously re- ferred to he served as mayor of Effingham from 1883 until October, 1884, when he re- signed in order to remove to Bloomington. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and other societies besides the Masonic fraternity, in which he stands high. He has not only served as grand master of the state but has filled other posi- tions in the order of minor importance. Re- ligiously he is a member of the Baptist church and was president of the State Asso- ciation for four years. He has been and is distinctively a man of affairs and one who has wielded a wide influence. A strong men- tality, an invincible courage, a most deter- mined individuality have so entered into his make-up as to render him a natural leader of men and a director of opinion.
JOHN G. SHANKLIN.
Among the old and honored residents of Macon county none stand higher in public
esteem than the gentleman whose name in- troduces this sketch. For many years he was actively identified with the farming and stock-raising interests of the county but is now living retired on his farm on section I, South Macon township. He was born near Lexington, Kentucky, December 31, 1822, and is a son of John and Jenett (Green) Shanklin, the latter a relative of General Green, of Revolutionary fame and a first cousin of General Thomas, of the Civil war. She was born at Crab Orchard, Kentucky, and was of Scotch-Irish descent. The father of our subject was a native of Washington county, Virginia, and from that state removed to Kentucky, where he con- tinued to make his home until 1828, when with his family he came to Illinois, making the journey on horseback with his house- hold goods in an old fashioned steamboat wagon drawn by five horses. He arrived in Greene county on the 14th of October, 1828, and purchased eighty acres of prairie land near Whitehall, which he at once be- gan to improve and cultivate, but he was not long permitted to enjoy his new home as death claimed him in 1832. His wife died in February, 1856. Of their eight children only three are now living. these being Hen- rietta, widow of James Doyle and a resident of Auburn, Illinois; William, a retired farmer of LaPlace, Illinois; and John G., of this review.
The subject of this sketchi was only six years old when he accompanied his father on his removal to Illinois, and he was reared and educated in Greene county, this state, pursuing his studies in an old log school- house, which had a puncheon floor, greased paper windows and a large fireplace at one end. On starting out in life for himself he worked as a farm hand until twenty-two ' years of age, and then purchased one hun- dred and sixty acres of land where the town of Roodhouse now stands, paying eleven dollars per acre for it, though he had to
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borrow a part of the money. Subsequently he purchased another one hundred and sixty acre tract adjoining, a part of which was timber and the remainder prairie land. This he placed under cultivation and continued to operate it for four years. Selling out at the end of that time he returned to Greene county, where he bought a farm, making it his home for about four years, and then removed to Macoupin county, where he purchased one hundred and twenty aeres, selling his Greene county farm soon afterward. Three years later he went to Scott county, where he owned and oper- ated a farm of one hundred and twenty aeres for five years, and then removed to Sangamon county, where the following year was spent upon a rented farm. . At the end of that time he came to Macon county and bought one hundred and sixty acres of land north of the village of Macon, lo- cating thereon in time to vote for General Grant the following year. That farm was all wild and unimproved when it came into his possession, but he tiled, ditched and broke the land and erected a good house thereon, and in connection with the oper- ation of the farm he also cultivated another one hundred and sixty acres which he rent- ed for several years, at the same time feed- ing a large number of cattle and hogs for market. In 1881 he bought eighty acres on section 1, South Macon township, where he now lives, remodeled the house and made other good improvements, besides adding to his land until he now owns one hundred and ninety-six acres. A few years ago he sold his first farm of one hundred and sixty acres in the same township. Dur- ing the long years of his residence in Illi- nois, he has bought and sold much prop- erty in various parts of the state, and has materialy aided in its development and up- building.
On the 14th of October, 1847, near White- hall in Greene county, Mr. Shanklin was
united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Hol- liday, a daughter of John and Matilda (Clark) Holliday, and to them were born six children, three of whom are still liv- ing, namely: Matilda, the wife of V. W. Judd, a farmer living near Nevada, lowa; Jenett, wife of D). T. Hughes, who is now operating our subject's farm; and Jonas, wife of William Oberlin, who lives in Ma- con and is engaged in farming and thresh- ing. Mrs. Shanklin was called to her final rest on the 30th of October, 1888. She was a life-long member of the Methodist Epis- copal church, took an active part in its work and was a true and earnest Christian woman, loved and respected by all who knew her. Her death came as an almost unbearable loss to her husband and time seems rather to heighten his loneliness than obliterate it. The relations between them were most congenial, each deeply enjoying the companionship of the other and Mrs. Shanklin was a most estimable lady, kindly and sympathetic, so that she won not only the earnest and enduring love of her hus- band but also of many friends.
Mr. Shanklin cast his first presidential vote for William Henry Harrison and now supports the Republican party. During the Civil war he was a member of the Union League and has always been a patriotic and loyal citizen, taking a commendable interest in public affairs. He has filled the offices of school director and road commissioner, but has never cared for political prefer- ment. In all the relations of life he has been found upright and honorable and he holds a high place in the esteem of his fel- low citizens.
D. T. Hughes, who now has charge of our subject's farm, was born in Defiance, Ohio, July 31, 1850, and is a son of Andre and Clarissa (Blair) Hughes, who were also na- tives of the Buckeye state, whence they re- moved to Michigan, where both died. The father was a lawyer of considerable promi-
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nence and served as magistrate many years. D. F. Hughes acquired his education in the schools of his native state, and on coming to Illinois in 1876, located in Macon coun- ty, where he has engaged in agricultural pursuits ever since. He now has charge of Mr. Shanklin's estate, but owns an ad- joining farm of one hundred and sixty acres which he rents. On the 9th of July, 1881, at the Grace Methodist Episcopal parsonage in Decatur he was united in marriage to Miss Jenett Shanklin, who was born June 5, 1856, in the old log cabin home in Scott county, Illinois, and they have become the parents of five children: Elizabeth H., John S., Daisy Clarissa, D. Roy and De Witt T. Mr. Hughes is a Republican in politics but has never cared or sought for office. He is a member of the Masonic fra- ternity and also of the Methodist Episcopal church of Macon.
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