Portrait and bigraphical album of Livingston County, Ill. : containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county, together with portraits and biographies , Part 143

Author: Chapman Brothers (Chicago) publisher
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Chicago : Chapman brothers
Number of Pages: 1208

USA > Illinois > Livingston County > Portrait and bigraphical album of Livingston County, Ill. : containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county, together with portraits and biographies > Part 143

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Mr. Foley had lived trugally and saved what he could of rather limited earnings, which he now in- vested in 160 acres of land on section 35, in New- town Township. Ilis course from that time has been steadily onward, and he has been uniformly suc- cessful in his undertakings. He has added to his first purchase by degrees and has now one of the most desirable homesteads in the township. It is with pleasure we present a view of it in this volume, as being a fine representative of the farm homes of Livingston County. Upon coming here he was at once recognized as a valuable addition to the com- munity, and has interested himself in whatever en- terprise was set on foot for the advantage and wel- fare of the people. Politically he votes the straight Democratic ticket, and is School Director in his dis- trict. Ile was reared in the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, and has all his life closely adhered to the faith of his forefathers.

The family of our subject consists of his wife and eleven children. The former was Miss Bridget, daughter of Michael and Mary (Doran) Whalen, natives of County Wexford, Ireland, and the par- ents of ten children. The latter were named re- spectively : Patrick, Ellen, John, Catherine, Mar- garet, Michael, Bridget, Lawrence, Thomas and Edward. With the exception of John, who died in August, 1873, at Esmond, they are all living and mostly residents of Livingston County. The chil- dren of Mr. and Mrs. Foley are recorded as follows: Patrick Henry was born March 22, 1859, and is an intelligent and enterprising young man, who, in or-

1153

LIVINGSTON COUNTY.

der to see something of the world, started out in 1883 and is now traveling in Texas; Mary Ellen was born Dec. 17, 1861, and died May 30, 1886 ; Morris, Jr., was born Oct. 22, 1863, and married Miss Maggie L., daughter of Frank Craven, of Odell Township, and is engaged in farming: John W., born May 27, 1865, is at home with his parents: Frances C., born Jan. 13. 1867, is the wife of Peter, son of John Corrigan. of Amity Township, and whose biography appears elsewhere in this volume ; Dennis was born Feb. 13, 1869; Thomas Edward, Sept, 1, 1870 ; Hannah, Oct. 10, 1872 ; Katie Agnes, born Sept. 10, 1874, died Aug. 9, 1875; Philip C. was born in 1875, and with the other younger chil- dren continues at home with his parents: Katie Am was born Dec. 14, 1877 ; Josephine, in December, 1879 : Frederick A., Aug. 17, 1883.

Besides bringing his land to a thorough state of cultivation, Mr. Foley has erected a fine set of frame buildings which will bear fair comparison with anything of the kind in this county. As a man who has assisted in the development of the re- sources of Livingston County, he stands high and enjoys the uniform respect and esteem of his neighbors.

W ILLIAM E. VAN BUSKIRK, Cashier of the bank of Odell, is a native of Montgomery County. Pa., born July 29, 1860, and is the son of Silas Y. and Catherine (Troy) Van Buskirk, who were natives of Pennsylvania and New Jersey respectively. The father of our subject was a farmer in early life, but his later years were spent in painting. In 1867 the family came to the great West and located at Fairview. Fulton Co., Ill. Two years later he removed to Odell, where he is still living, and following the trade of a painter.

The subject of this sketch was reared a farmer until a young man. He then commenced learning the harness-making and saddlery trade. Not find- ing this very lucrative, he commenced teaching school, which he followed for two years and one- half. He was educated at the city schools at Odell, and completed the full eonrse in those excellent in- stitutions. In 1883 he prepared to enter the Nor-

mal School in MeLean County, but being offered a position in the bank of Odell, he renounced his in- tention, and entered upon his work in the bank on the 9th of April, 1883. He has remained in this institution ever since, and now hokls the respon- sible position of cashier.

August 6, 1884, Mr. Van Buskirk married Elma L. Root, daughter of S. T. and Susan (Haynes) Root, who was born in Somerset, Mich., Dec. 14, 1859. She had been a teacher by profession, and was fulfilling an engagement in the Odell school at the time of her marriage. They are the parents of one child, Troy Root, born Ang. 10, 1885.

C IIARLES STACKER has been a resident of Livingston County since the 24th of Angust, 1865, moving from Bureau County, Ill., where he had been successfully engaged in farming for ten years. Since becoming a resident of Liv- ingston County, he has been engaged in general farming and the raising of high-grade stock, in- cluding Norman horses, Short-horn cattle, and Po- land-China hogs. He keeps generally from fifteen to twenty horses and cattle, and about the same number of hogs upon the place. The improve- ments which he has made upon his farm are very substantial, and include the planting of an ash and maple grove, covering two acres of ground. When Mr. Stacker came to Forest Township, a large pro- portion of the land embraced in that territory was wild prairie. The eighty acres which he purchased of Mr. S. G. Cone is now all under a good state of cultivation, and is located about a quarter of a mile from the village of Forest. For this land he paid $20 per acre, and under the intelligent manipula- tion of its present owner it has increased in value until it is now worth $75 per acre.

Mr. Stacker was born on the 31st of August, 1837, and is the son of John and Ilenrietta Stacker, the former a wagon-maker by trade, who came to Chicago in 1854, where he remained until his death, which occurred in 1858. The mother died in the old country one year before the father emigrated to the United States. They were the parents of

1151

LIVINGSTON COUNTY.

five children, whose names are: Mary, Lena, Caro- line. Louise and Charles. While our subject re- mained at home he worked at the trade of wagon- making with his father, and at twenty years of age began working for himself. engaging the first year with a Mr. Reese. He then went to Bureau County. where he worked at his trade by the month for three year-, and then entering land he farmed for tive year-, at the end of which time he came to Liv- ingston County, where he has since resided.

On the 15th of September, 1870, Mr. Stacker was married to Miss Lutina Judson, a native of New York State, and to them have been born two children-George Lester, on the 31st of February. 17>. and one child who died in infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Stacker are members of the Methodist Epis- ropal Church. in which they take an active interest. They are prominent members of the society of the neighborhood in which they live, and engage act- ively in such movements a- are calculated to bene- fit the community, and promote the interests of the prople. Mr. Stacker acts and votes with the Re- publican party, but is in no sense a politician in the meaning that he is a seeker after office.

P ETER SETZER was a farmer by occupa- tion though in carly life he learned the blacksmith's trade, which ocenpation he followed. managing a farm at the same time. He was born in Luzerne County, Pa., where he was reared and engaged in farming.

half stories in height. Ile was obliged to do all his own making and repairing of implements for farm use. His grain and stock market, while a resident of LaSalle County, was at Chicago, and he either drove or hauled his hogs there every year. At driving time the neighbors took turns at hauling feed along for the hogs and in aiding to drive them. While small game was plentiful in those days and deer roamed the prairie in great numbers, wolves were also very plentiful, and when the boys went in the evening to drive the cows home they carried a gun with which to protect themselves. Mr. Setzer was the father of eleven children at that time, of whom four were with him-JJacob, Peter W .. Mat- tie and Anna. Sarah came soon after. Elizabeth, Isaac and Abraham remained in Pennsylvania, the boys following a seafaring life, and three children died in infancy. The life on the farm was at first characterized by many hardships, but soon the Jand around was taken up and settlement began in earnest. A few years served to see the prairie dotted with honses and the roots of the prairie grass turned up to the sun by the sturdy plowman.

Mr. Setzer was a quiet and industrious farmer, and never sought otlice, although quite active in political matters. He was a Republican in politics, while he and his wife were members of the Baptist Church for a great many years, and wielded a strong influence in the community. It is to such pioneers as Mr. Setzer that Illinois owes her standing for en- lightenment and intelligence in the sisterhood of States.

Mr. Setzer married Catherine Van Camp, a native of Penb-ylvania. and in 1841 came to Ilinois and MOS HERTZ came to Livingston County when a large portion of it was practically a wilderness. He was well fitted both by nature and early training to take up life and its duties in this nudeveloped section of country, and has ably performed his part in the building up of the township which he chose for his future resi- denve. Broughton Township had been then but recently outlined, and the cabins of the settlers were few and far between. The people were struggling to secure a comfortable living, and at the same settled in LaSalle County, which at that time was very sparsely settled, and the preliminary work of constructing a canal was in progress: there were then no railroad- through the country. He lived there about seven years, when he moved to Living- ston County, and bought eighty acres of wild land in what is now Ermen Township. He built his house of timber which grew along the creek. sawing the slab need in its construction five miles from home and hanling them to where they were needed. This honse wa- 13x20 feet and was one and one- j time effect the improvements for which there was

1157

LIVINGSTON COUNTY.

such great room. They battled with the difficul- ties of a new and undeveloped soil, a distant market, and the laborious transportation by horse or ox teams over highways which had been but faintly marked out through the woods or over the comparatively untrod prairies. The exercise of industry, however, during the lapse of years, has effected a change which words seem feeble to express. There were required to accomplish this, resolute hearts and strength of muscle, and in these essential qualities the subject of this sketch distinguished himself as a useful and important factor toward the task which, begun amid such difficulties, has proceeded with such admirable results.

Mr. Hertz is one of the oklest living settlers of Broughton Township, to which he came in the spring of 1859. He was born in Berks County, Pa., Sept. 12, 1831, and is the son of Samuel and Sarah (Ludwig) Hertz, who were also natives of the Key- stone State, llis paternal grandfather, Conrad Hertz, was a Hessian by birth, and with thousands of others became a soldier under the British Gov- ernment, and was sent to America to assist in crush- ing the rebellion of the Colonists. Upon arriving here, however, and becoming acquainted with the condition of affairs, being an intelligent man he went over to the ranks of Gen. Washington, and thereafter did splendid service in behalf of those who were struggling for their liberty. After the close of the war he settled in Pennsylvania, where he married and reared a large family of children, among whom was Samuel, the father of our sub- ject.

Samuel Hertz was reared to manhood in his native county, where he continued several years after his marriage. Most of the survivors of a large family born to him and his wife Sarah are located in Pennsylvania. They are named as fol- lows : Bernard, who is farming : Matilda, Mrs. Abram Weitzel, of Berks County : Samuel, Jesse, Amos, Jeremiah : Mary, Mrs. Nicholas Moore; Elizabeth, Mrs. William Gephart; Benjamin; Salinda, Mrs. Jacob Bixler, and Frank.

Amos Hertz continued in his native county until reaching manhood, in the meantime receiving a limited education, and becoming well acquainted with hard labor. He had always been anxious to

become well informed, and availing himself of the instructive books which eame in his way, by a steady course of reading he has kept himself well - posted on matters of general interest. He came to Livingston County first in 1858, and purchased his present farm, then returned to Pennsylvania. He provided himself with a wife and helpmeet in the person of Miss Cynthia J. Persels, to whom he was married April 4, 1861. They began housekeeping in a modest frame dwelling on the new land, and our subject commenced in earnest the cultivation and improvement of his purchase. Here he has since resided with his family.

The wife of our subject was born in Wayne County, N. Y., Feb. 10, 1841, and is the daughter of Isaac and Clarissa ( Bosworth ) Persels, the former a resident of Grundy County, this State. Isaac Persels was born in Cayuga County, N. Y., and is of German descent; the mother was of English an- cestry, and a native of Westfield, Mass. Mrs. Ilertz came to Illinois in 1856 with her parents, who lived in Grundy County for a short time, and removed to Broughton Township, this county, in 1859, where they were among the first settlers. Mr. Persels labored industriously for a number of years and aecu- mulated sufficient means with which to retire from active labor. He removed to Gardner in 1887, and is spending his last years in ease and comfort. The mother died on the farm in Broughton Township Jan. 23, 1877. They were the parents of nine chil- dren, of whom six are living, namely : Henry, of Binghamton, N. Y .: Samuel, of Steel City, Neb. ; Cynthia .J., Mrs. Hertz; Roland, of this county ; Mary, the wife of Charles Correll, of Greenwood County, Kan., and Herbert, of Butler County, Kan.

Our subject and his wife became the parents of three children, namely : Ernest A., who was born Jan. 3, 1865, and died Jan. II, 1880; Jessie M., who was born May 3, 1869, and Louis R., April 26, 1881 ; the last two are at home with their parents. The homestead includes eighty acres of land, which produces in abundance the richest crops of the Prairie State. Mrs. Hertz is a very intelligent lady, well educated, and taught the first school in District No. 3. Broughton Township, and the second term in what was then known as District No. 2. Both

115%

LIVINGSTON COUNTY.

husband and wife early in life identified themselves with the Congregational Church at Emington, and have sinee continued active members. Mr. Hertz officiates as Trustee, and has been a cheerful and lib- eral contributor to the maintenance of the society, as well as other worthy enterprises calculated for the good of the community and the promotion of morality and education.

As representative of the buildings of this section of country we present on another page of this vol- ume a view of Mr. Hertz' residence and its sur- roundings.

AMUEL THOMSON ably represents the farming and stock-raising interests of Ne- braska Township, and has a desirable home- stead pleasantly located on section 24. Ile i- of substantial Scotch ancestry, a man of excellent education, and followed the profession of a teacher some years during his early manhood. He is in the prime of life, having been born Ang. 24, 1859, and hi- first recollections are of his boyhood home in Jubilee Township, Peoria County, this State. His parents were Thomas and Margaret Thomson, who lived ou a farm in Peoria County, where with their other children, our subject was reared to manhood.

Young Thomson upon reaching his majority com- menced farming for himself, but after one year, not being satisfied with his mental accomplishments, sold hi- teams, and entering the Normal School attended four terms, and in the spring of 1883 went still higher. into the commercial department of Wesleyan College at Bloomington, where he took a full course in book-keeping, commercial law, etc. In the fall of last he commenced teaching, and kept this up several seasons, in the meantime also carrying on farming in Waldo Township.

The marriage of Sontel Thomson and Mis- Ara- bella. daughter of I-ane and Mary J. (Spencer) Sheets, was celebrated on the 22d of February, 1885. Rev. Woodard. of Gridley, officiating. Mr. T. and THORNTON KEMEYS PRIME. The dif- ferent generations of the Prime family as they have come and gone, have all left marks which have not only added luster and renown to them individually, but each in his his bride soon afterward went to housekeeping, and our subject continued teaching in winter and farm- ing in summer until enabled to purchase eighty acres of land, of which he took possession in the -pring of 1xx7, and where he now lives. They | time has been a benefactor to the human race,

have one child, a daughter, Mary A., who was born Feb. 6, 1886.

Mr. Thomson was the sixth in a family of nine children : llis sister Margaret is the wife of Mat- thew Murdock, a molder by trade, but who is now farming in Allen County, Kan .; they have five chil- dren. Eliza C., Mrs. William A. Cornwell, lives on a farm in Waldo Township, and is the mother of six children ; William married Miss Margaret Gal- lagher, and lives in Rook's Creek; Agnes is the wife of James Baxter, of California, and the mother of six children; David married Miss Lucy E. Smith, and they, with their one chikl, reside in Storm Lake. lowa; Samuel of our sketch was the next in order of birth; Mary became the wife of George S. Thomson, and they removed to Texas, where she died in October. 1886; Thomas is a resident of Peoria, and John V., of Rook's Creek.

Thomas Thomson, the father of our subject, was a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, born in 1802, and died in 1869. The mother was born in Glas- gow, and is still living. They were married in Peo- ria County, this State.

Mrs. Thomson was born in Nebraska Township, this county, March 20, 1864, and is the youngest in a family of six children. Her brother William is married, and the father of five children ; he lives in Crawford County, Kan. Alexander continues at home; Nial R., also a resident of Kansas, is married and has two children: Margaret is the wife of John laley, of Dakota, and the mother of five children: Ernest Earl is at home. Mr. Sheets was born in Columbia County, Ohio, and his wife in Pennsyl- vania.

Mr. Thomson is a Republican, and a strong tem- perance man, and is not afraid to state his views and opinions, which he defends with all the sincerity and honesty of his nature.

1159

LIVINGSTON COUNTY.

Three brothers named Prime, of an excellent En- glish family, left Liverpool in 1650, and settled in Massachusetts. One family was known as the Massa- chusetts Prime, and subsequently removed to New York City, and founded the old banking house of Prime, Ward & King, which to-day exists but un- der another name. The second brother went to the South, where all trace of him was lost. The third, James Prime, was a wealthy and influential citizen of Milford, Conn. Ebenezer Prime, one of the children of James, makes the chain complete, and from him directly we trace the genealogy of the subject of this sketch.

Not only as a personal history but of general in- terest to our readers at large, will be found a short biography of the ancestors of Mr. Prime, as show- ing what has largely given him the present bent of mind and taste. Ebenezer Prime was graduated when he was nineteen years of age from Yale College in 1714, and was pastor of a parish in Huntington. L. I., in 1723. An accomplished theologian, a thor- ough classical scholar, keenly interested in Colonial affairs, he directed the thought, political as well as religious, of the neighborhood in which he lived. Hle preached, exhorted, wrote, printed and circu- lated, and enjoined resistance against the British with all the force of his tongue and pen. When the British took possession of Long Island. Col. Thompson took particular pains to direct the fury of his detachment of soldiers against the parsonage, destroying the house and its contents, and the Col- onel himself ordered that his own tent should be pitched where, as he expressed it. he " could never walk in and out of the graveyard without treading on the head of that damned okl rebel, Ebenezer Prime."

Benjamin Young Prime, the next descendant, was born in the old Huntington parsonage, Dec. 20, 1733. He entered the college of New Jersey, then sitnated at Newark, and was graduated in 176t with honor. He decided on the profession of med- icine, and sailed for the continent, and was soon busily engaged at work. lle made himself pro- ficient in six languages, writing readily French, German and Spanish, as well as the classic lan- guages. He inherited all his venerable father's en- thusiast, and composed songs, ballads and battle

lyrics, which were sung by the soldiers during the Revolution, and have gone down into history as the best of poetic and literary work of that nature. Ile lived to see the close of the war and the estab- lishment of peace, and died respected and lamented by all, in 1791. A son of the above. the Rev. Dr. Nathaniel Scudder Prime, was an eloquent speaker, a close observer of current thought. a learned theologian, a wise counselor, and a zealous pro- moter of education. He left behind him four sons, two of whom were clergymen, the third a physician and the fourth a lawyer, but all so actively en- gaged in letters as to be pre-eminently recognized as literary men.

We now come to Dr. Samuel Irenaus Prime, the father of S. Thornton K. Prime. Ilis life may be considered from four standpoints, those of the preacher, the author, the editor and the private man. Dr. J. R. Paxton, in his funeral address, de- livered July 22, 1885. says: " Never a bigot or fanatic on any question agitated or debated in the land for half a century : a well-balanced head, no eccentricities, no pet virtue, no little hobby. no one special excellence which he always aired and rang changes upon. the leading advocate of the evangelical Protestant faith in this country, his death is a calamity to the whole church. lle will have no successor, but as long as this country en- dures and Christianity is proved. Dr. Irenaus Prime is sure of honor and fame for the good he accomplished. the life he lived. the God he glori- fied as citizen. preacher, editor, author and man." The historical facts are condensed from a paper en- titled Four Primes, read before the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, Feb. 12. 1886, by Edward Irenæus Stevenson,

S. Thornton K. Prime was born at Weston, Conn., .July 31, 1834. and was educated at Rahway. N. J., where he was prepared for entering college. He did not enter, however, for the father thinking the tastes of his son inclined more to a business career than a literary one, placed him in the banking-hou-e of John Gihon & Co., New York City, where he remained for seven years, and until the house was swept away by the financial crisis of 1857. Mr. Prime married in 1858, and removed to Dwight, Ill., which was then a very small prairie town with

1160

LIVINGSTON COUNTY.

not over 100 inhabitants. He purchased 320 acres of land, built a house and commenced farming, knowing nothing practically of the work. Hle toiled on. struggling for ten years against low prices and poor crops. During all this time he de- voted bis leisure moments to reading and study. and was never so happy as when writing some short artiele for the press. In 1873, when the Granger movement swept over the Northwest, Mr. Prime took a most active part in the work in Illinois. No other county was so thoroughly organized or produced greater practical results from the move- ment than Livingston County, the home of Mr. Prime.

The celebrated platform of the Farmers' and Peo- ple- Anti-Monopoly Party was the joint work of Mr. Prime. of Dwight, and W. B. Fyfe, of Pontiac. Tens of thousands of copies of the platform were circulated all over the Northwest; the principles adopted, and county and State officers elected, as the result of this wonderful, broad and far-reach_ ing declaration of principles. A copy of the plat- form i- here given.

PLATFORM

of the

Farmers' and People's Anti-Monopoly Party

LIVINGSTON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

DECLARATION.

The organization i- opposed to railroad steals, tariff stral -. salary-grab steals, and every other form of thieving by which the farmer and Inboring classes are robbed of the legitimate fruits of their labor.

PLATFORM.

Fir-t :- We are in favor of controlling by law the railroad corporation- of the State.

Second :- We submit to taxation and duties to mert the necessities of the Government, but de- bonnee as unjust and oppressive all taxations for the benefit of special cases.

Third :- We are in favor of the present banking -ystem being so made that all men, by giving the proper security. should have equal privileges, so

that supply and demand shall regulate our money market.

Fourth :- We are opposed to all future grants of land to railroads or other corporations, and believe that the public domain should be held sacred to the actual settler.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Portrait and bigraphical album of Livingston County, Ill. : containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county, together with portraits and biographies , Part 143

Author: Chapman Brothers (Chicago) publisher Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Chicago : Chapman brothers Number of Pages: 1208

Author: Chapman Brothers (Chicago) publisher
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Chicago : Chapman brothers
Number of Pages: 1208