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 48

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 48

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The subject of our sketch came to Illinois in 1856, and located where he now lives. On the 2d of September, 1856, he was married to Edith March, who was born in Madison County, Ky., on the 15th of April, 1833. She was the daughter of Abraham and Susannah ( Robinson) March, na- tives of Kentucky. Her father was born on the 14th of April, 1788, and died in January, 1855; he was a farmer by occupation. The mother was born in 1793 and died in April, 1878. They were mem- bers of the Christian Church, to which they were much devoted during the latter part of their lives. In 1857 Mr. and Mrs. Elmore took np their resi- dence in the house in which they now live. To them have been born five children: James B .;

RESIDENCE OF ROBERT ELMORE, SEC. 33. PLEASANT. RIDGE TOWN SHIP.

RESIDENCE OF JOHN PURSLEY, SEC.5. FAYETTE TOWNSHIP.

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Mary A. married James F. Galbraith ; Susannah married George S. Wilson, and resides in Living- ston County : William A. lives at home; Robert M., the youngest child, was accidentally killed while hunting, at the age of fifteen years. It is supposed that while he was loading one barrel of his shot- gun the other barrel was accidentally discharged. He was a bright boy for his age, and was the pride of his parents as well as the favorite of the neigh- borhood.

Mr. Elmore has 302 acres of land where he lives, and it is all in an excellent state of cultivation. When he first became the possessor of his land it was just as nature made it, being unbroken and undisturbed prairie. The buildings which he has erected upon the farm are first-class in every respect, and a credit to Pleasant Ridge Township. Besides culti- vating his large farm Mr. Elmore is extensively engaged in buying and selling eattle, handling from 200 to 500 each year, while the number last year ran up to 800. Mr. Elmore is one of the suc- cessful men of Livingston County, his business effort> having been rewarded by the accumulation of a con- siderable fortune, which is well invested. What time he can devote to political matters is given to further the interests of the Democratic party. He has not been an office-holder to a great extent, and is satisfied with having held the position of Road Commissioner for fifteen years. He and his wife are active and influential members of the Christian Church, to which they contribute liberally of their time and means. A lithographie view is shown of Mr. Elmore's handsome residence.

OHN PURSLEY, a wealthy and prominent farmer of Fayette Township, on the southern line of Livingston County, owns and oc- cupies 360 aeres of finely improved land on sections 5 and 6. He is the son of one of the ear- liest pioneers of this section of country, and came to the township when there were but four families within its limits. From a modest beginning in life he has built up one of the most desirable homes in Livingston County, and owes no man anything

either for his position in life or for any assistance at the beginning.

Mr. Pursley was born in the city of New York, June 2, 1832, soon after his parents, Gottfried and Anna Mary (Evering) Parsley, who were natives of Germany, set foot upon American soil. They passed the first year in New York City, where the father followed his trade of shoemaking, and in 1834 he removed with his family to Chicago. Three years later they changed their residence to Ottawa, LaSalle County, where in addition to shoemaking the father engaged in the manufacture of harness, besides operating a tanyard for a number of years, when he was called from his earthly labors. His death took place abont 1845, and a wife and seven children were thus left without their natural pro- tector. The family ineluded two sons and five dangh- ters, namely, Catherine, Phebe, Elizabeth, Anna Mary, John, Daniel and Emma : the latter died when seven years old. The others are married and most of them have families of their own, and reside in this county. The father was a man of much in- telligence, and after becoming a naturalized Ameri- can citizen, identified himself with the Democratic party. He had been reared in the faith of the German-Catholic Church, to which he elosely ad- hered. The mother died in LaSalle County in 1882.

In beginning life for himself, our subjeet engaged in farming in LaSalle County, about 1854, where he remained thirteen years, and then came to this county, of which he has since been a resident. Upon his arrival he took up a tract of wild land, and the large and valuable farm of which he is now the possessor is abundant evidence of the manner in which he has spent his time and the rare good judgment with which he has been blessed by nature. He has effected fine improvements, including a set of substantial farm buildings, and of late years has given much attention to stoek-raising, in which he has been uniformly successful.

In 1854, Mr. Pursley was married to Miss Mary Everling. She was born in the Province of Rhine- folz, Germany, July 29, 1831, and is the daugh- ter of parents who were of pure German ancestry and engaged in farming pursuit>. Her father de- I parted this life at his home in Germany in 1882;

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the mother is still living and a resident of Remstein. They were the parents of twelve children-John, Jacob. Mary. Philip. Philip (2d). Adam, Phoebe, Catherine. Elizabeth. Peter. Margaret and Caroline.

Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Parsley there were boru twelve children. namely. John. Louisa. Mary. Roma. George. Charhe. Caroline, Jane, Peter. Eliza- beth. Joseph, and Anna, who died when thirteen months oldl. Louisa is the wife of Thomas Mur- phey. a highly respected farmer of Fayette Town- ship: John married Miss Caroline Bell, and is farming near his father's homestead. The younger children continue at home with their parents. Our subject and his family belong to the German Catholic Church, and Mr. P., like his father, is Democratic in politics. He has been School Di- rector in his distriet for a number of years, and is a liberal supporter of those enterprises calculated for the general welfare of the people.

A lithographie view of Mr. Pursley's residence is shown in this volume.

6 HOMAS A. BEACH, of the firm of Beach & Dominy, bankers, at Fairbury, deals also in real estate, and at the present time is owner of 2,100 acres of land, besides a great deal of town property. Hli- residence is one of the most substantial and imposing buildings in the village of Fairbury. It was constructed in 1875, and re- gardless of expen-e wa- fitted with all the modern convenience -.

Mr. Beach was born in the town of Amity, Mad- ison Co., Ohio, on the 4th of December, 1828, and is the son of Lorenzo and Edith ( Bull) Beach, who were natives respectively of New York and Ver- mont. Dr. Lorenzo Beach was born at New Haven, Vt .. on the 7th of November. 1798, and died at Fairbury. Il., on the 9th of August, 1878, aged seventy-nine years. nine months and two days. At the age of seventeen he moved to Worthington, Ohio, where he resided about one year. Thence he went to Erbana. Ohio, where he studied medi- cine with Dr. Parker three years, after which he re- moved to Amity, Ohio, and engaged in the prac-

tice of medieine for twelve years continuously, when he moved on a farm in the vicinity, and re- sidled twenty-three years more, practicing medicine in connection with farming. Ile united with the Methodist Episcopal Church at Amity, Ohio, about the year of his first marriage, 1823, and for over fifty years was an active, consistent member of that denomination, contributing very liberally of his means toward the building of a church at Am- ity, Ohio, and Fairbury, Ill. His business. as well as his Christian life, was a success. For three years before his death, his mind as well as his body perceptibly failed, though he spent much time in the examination of God's Word, and any allusion to it in his hearing always brought a hearty and ready response. He frequently sang those hymns and tunes familiar to him in his youth, but forgot- ten among the busier seenes of life, to come back and comfort him in after years. " He renewed his youth like the eagle." "He was like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." His first wife bore him four children: James died in infancy; Hester married Mr. Ezra Dominy, both of whom died some years ago; Thomas A .; Chloe married Dr. Bartlett, and is now a widow. He married Mrs. Sarah A. Roop, Nov. 23, 1870, who was born Nov. 1, 1821.

Thomas A. Beach married Miss Amelia Bartlett, on the 8th of April, 1853. the ceremony being per- formed by the Rev. Dr. Smith, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. She was born on the 9th of July, 1828, in Hamilton County, Ohio, and was the daughter of Latham S. and Naney (Cumstoek) Bartlett, natives of Vermont and New York State respectively. The mother died in 1840, and the father died in Ohio on the 13th of June, 1862, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. He was an early settler in Ohio, and was a farmer by occupation. For many years during his life he held the offices of Trustee and Class-Leader in the Methodist Epis- copal Church. He married for his second wife, Miss Hannah March, in 1842; she still lives at the age of sixty-nine years. Writing of his religious character and life, a biographer says of Mr. Bart- lett: "Ile was converted and joined the Methodist

LIVINGSTON COUNTY.

Episcopal Church, of which he lived a consistent member until death. He was not one of those impulsive, vacillating characters, to be governed by the opinions and feelings of others, driven by adversity or led away by prosperity, but like every consistent, honest man, he with a strong faith and a well-balanced mind, served God and labored for the church from principle. He served the church for many years as Class-Leader and Steward, for which work he had a peculiar gift, as he was always cheerful, hopeful, charitable and forbearing, always preferring others to himself. For some seven years previous to his death he suffered much from a nervous disease, and a part of this time he was de- prived of church privileges. But at home he used the means of grace and continued to retain bis con- fidence in God. and to feel that His grace was sutli- cient to sustain him in the hour of affliction. For three months prior to his death, his sufferings were beyond description ; every day during that time he thought would be his last, and often looked forward with joy to the time when his sufferings would end, that he might leave this world of woe to dwell in the land where pain cannot come. In the death of Father Bartlett, the church lost a true brother, the wife a kind husband, the children an affection- ate father, our country a true patriot, and the op- pressed of our land an unflinching friend." By his first marriage there were six children-William II .. Josiah, Harriet, Cicero, Amelia and Sarah A. By the second marriage there were also six children- Lavanda, Orpha, Latham, Ella M., Charles E. and Horace G .; two of the first children are living, and all but one of the last.

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas A. Beach have had four children : Sarah A., who died at the age of fourteen years; Chloe B., at the age of twenty-two years; Thomas L., in infancy; Ella, the wife of Dr. Lewis, of Fairbury, has two children-Thomas B. and Amelia. Mr. Beach arrived in Illinois on the 15th of August, 1854, and located on a farm two and one-half miles southwest of Fairbury, where he re- sided nine years, and then moved into the town, and for the following sixteen years engaged in the dry-goods and hardware business. In 1874 he es- tablished a banking business which he has since continued. Mr. Beach is a member of the Masonic

fraternity, and has advanced as far as the Chapter. He is a Republican in politics; his wife is a mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

ELSON LOUKS, a native of the Dominion of Canada, is familiarly known as one of the most prosperous farmers and stock- raisers of Nebraska Township. His boyhood and youth were spent amid the quiet scenes of rural life, near the place of his birth, which was about twenty rods from the shores of Lake Erie, in Norfolk Coun- ty, Canada. He began life on the Ist of March, 1830, and is the son of William and Huldah (Hoffman) Louks, natives respectively of New York and Ver- mont, who became the parents of nine children, of whom our subject was the seventh in order of birth.

The paternal grandparents of our subject, Henry Louks and his estimable wife, were born in New York State, the former about 1760. He removed to Vermont forty-three years later, where he carried on farming, and late in life he joined his son Will- iam in Canada, where he died of typhoid fever when sixty-two years of age. His ancestor> came from Holland and were among the earliest settlers of the Empire State. His son William. the father of our subject, was born in Dutchess County, N. Y., March 22, 1787, a little over 100 years ago, and was a carpenter by trade. When the War of 1812 broke out he was working at his trade in Canada, and after completing his contract he went back to New York and served in the militia. He had in the meantime been married. about 1808, to Miss Huldah Hoffman, who was born in Franklin County, Vt., Oct. 16, 1791. They returned to Canada in the fall of 1821, where the death of the father oc- curred April 11, 1857, while the mother passed away a little over five years later, June 18, 1862. The record of their children is as follows: Sarah was born April 9, 1810, in Franklin County, Vt., and became the wife of Solomon Griffin : she is now living in Delhi, Canada, and is the mother of seven children, all of whom are married. Elizabeth was I born Nov. 28, 1811, and married Abram Mills, who has a large farm in the Province of Ontario, Canada : they have nine children, all married. Jacob was born June 22, 1815, was twice married, and died in 1865,

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leaving a large family : Eusebia was born July 19, 1>17. and first married Edwin Potts, who died leaving no children: she then became the wife of Levi Steinhoff, who is also deceased: they had two children. and she now makes her home with her son in Nebraska Township, this county. Melissa was born Aug. 28, 1819, and became the wife of Alex Cowan: she lives in Canada and has several children, all married. William I1., the first of their children born in Canada. was born Nov. 29, 1828. and is now a prosperous lumberman, farmer and stock-raiser of Lapeer County, Mich. ; he is married and the father of tive children. Alex was born June 2. 1832, reside- in Canada. is married and has six children : Lucy was born Ang. 30, 1835. and resides in Canada. being the wife of John Reid, and the mother of six children.

Mr. Louk- remained with his parents on the farm until twenty-four years of age, the last year having the management of the homestead. Upon leaving the parental fold he migrated westward to Ogle County. this State, where he worked one year by the month, and the two following years cultivated rented land. In October. 1855, he purchased 160 acres of railroad land on section 10. Nebraska Township. this county, where he took up his abode and has since remained. Ilis purchase was practi- cally uncultivated, without even a shelter for his head. He was strong in hope and courage, how- ever, and entered vigorously upon the cultivation of the soil. and Dee. t1, 1856. strengthened his resolution to build up a homestead by marriage with the lady of his choice, Miss Margaret Sabina settle, Rev. II. W. Richardson, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, officiating. The first sermon which Mr. Louks heard in Illinois was delivered by this gentleman three years before that time, and he had not seen him since until the time that he pre- ented himself before the young couple to perform the marriage ceremony.

In the spring of 1857 our subject and his young wife moved to their present location, which has since been their home. and where their nine chil- dren were born. These are recorded as follows: Jame- William was born Sept. 21, 1858, is still in- married and a resident of Colorado: Nelson Alex

5, 1885, in Mead County, Kan., where his remains were laid to rest: Dorothea Isabelle was born Jan. 22, 1862, is unmarried and a resident of Colorado; Melissa Jane, born Jan. 18, 1864, and Stephen James, Dec. 22, 1865, are living near their brother and sister in Colorado; Walter George was born Oct. 30, 1869, and continues at home with his parents: Thomas Charlton was born Dec. 11, 1871, on the fifteenth anniversary of his parents' wed- ding; Margaret E. was born Jan. 20, 1874; Mal- com Wilfred was born Sept. 14, 1878, and died October 27 following.

Mrs. Louks was born March 10. 1838, in Loek- port, Niagara Co., N. Y., within hearing of the roar of Niagara Falls, and could often see the spray rising from the foaming water. She came to MeHenry County, this State, with her parents when a maiden of seventeen, and shortly afterward they removed across the road into Walworth County, Wis. Her parents, James and Dorothea (Charlton) Settle, were natives respectively of New York and New- castle, England. The father was a carpenter by trade, but also followed farming, and had been engaged in mereantile pursuits; subsequently they came to this county in 1861. The record of their six chil- dren is as follows: Stephen James, born March 10, 1836, entered the Union army and died with smallpox at Camp Fry, Chicago; Margaret, Mrs. Louks; Elizabeth Ann, born Jan, 3, 1841, married John Louks, a nephew of our subject, now deceased, and became the mother of two children : she after- ward engaged as a teacher, and is just finishing her eighteenth year in the schools of Minonk. Isabelle was born July 6, 1843, and died Oct. 14, 1857, when a bright young girl of fourteen years; Will- iam II. was born Jan. 15, 1846, and during the late war served in the 17th Illinois Cavalry, when he was detailed to duty on the frontier; he was pro- moted Sergeant and honorably discharged at the close of the war, and is now living in Gridley, Me- Lean Co .. Ill .; Thomas Charlton, born April 15, 18.[9, is also a resident of Gridley. Mr. Settle died at Minonk on the 27th of January, 1866, from in- juries received by a runaway team ; the mother is still living, and a resident of Minonk.

Mrs. Dorothea Settle was born at Newcastle-on- was born Ang. 23, 1860, and died ummarried, Sept. ; Tyne, England, April 16, 1808. She came to

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America with her father and step-mother in 1825, and they purchased a tract of land near Penn Yan, N. Y. Mrs. S. was first married, at Auburn, to Robert I. Cox, and the second time, in 1835, to the father of Mrs. Louks. Her father, Henry Set- tle, a native of New York, entered the Revolution- ary army when a boy fourteen years of age by the desire of his mother, a woman who possessed re- markable patriotism, and believed it her duty to give her son to the cause. His father was also in the army at the same time. Both escaped un- harmed, and the family afterward took up their residence in Canada. A cousin of Mrs. Louks, John Charlton, is a member of the Dominion Par- liament.

Mrs. Louks' great-grandmother was a native of Stuble, England ; she was born in 1756, and died at the age of fifty-five years. Her husband, Thomas Charlton, was born Sept. 13, 1737, and died Sept. 7, 1815. Mrs. Louks' father was born May 31, 1804.

OHN G. STEERS is one of the oldest and most worthy farmers of Belle Prairie Township, whose home is located on section 5. His farm consists of 271 acres, which is remarkable for its fertility and productiveness, and the homestead presents one of the attractive points in the land- scape of Belle Prairie Township. During his later years he has been largely engaged in breeding large draft horses, blooded cattle and Cotswold sheep.

Mr. Steers, as well as his parents, is a native of the State of Kentucky, whose name is said to sig- nify "Dark and Bloody Ground," and the ancient hunting-ground for northern and southern tribes of Indians, and few of either section made it a place of permanent abode, each class seeming to dread the hostility of the other. The county in which Mr. Steers was born in October, 1834, was named after Daniel Boone, who established himself in this region in 1769, and was followed by numerous hardy adventurers from Virginia and North Caro- lina. They organized a local government in 1775, and gave this new country the name of Transyl- vania, which was afterward declared a county by Virginia, and ultimately was received into the

Union in 1792 as the State of Kentukey. The par- ents of Mr. Steers, Ilugh and Elizabeth ( Darnall) Steers, were natives of Kentucky. the father being born on the 20th of November, 1800. Ile was a farmer by occupation and a cooper by trade, de- voting the larger part of his life to farming. He made the first whisky barrel ever put up in Living- ston County. Ilis first advent into Illinois was in 1828, but he soon returned to Kentucky, where he remained until the fall of 1837, when he re- turned and entered 200 acres of land, which he occupied until 1852. He died on the 26th of October of that year, while on a visit to Kentucky, and his remains were buried near where those of his parents and Daniel Boone repose. During almost his entire life he was a leading and promi- nent member of the Regular Baptist Church, and assisted in the organization of this church in Liv- ingston County, in which he was a Deacon for many years.

On the 27th of September, 1822, Hugh Steers married Miss Darnall, who was born about 1806 in Madison County, Ky. By the death of her par- ents she was left an orphan when less than a year old. To them were born eleven children: Henry D. M., William N., Francis M., John G., Alvira M., Martin J., Henry P., Mary F., Nancy E., Clarence E. and Rachel D. At the age of sixty-eight years the mother died, in the year 1874.

John G. is the oldest member of his father's family now living. He came to Illinois in 1847, accompanying his parents, with whom he remained until he arrived at the age of manhood. He was married, on the 21st of November. 1855, to Miss Mary A. Travis, who was born Oct. 1, 1838, and is the danghter of Martin and Elizabeth (Thomp- son ) Travis, natives of Tennessee and Kentucky, respectively. Her father was born in 1811, and still resides upon the farm upon which he set- tled over fifty years ago; the mother was born on the 31st of March, 1814, and is a member of the Baptist Church. Mr. and Mrs. Steers have had nine children: Laura E., Mrs. Henry Hayman : Elizabeth S., Mrs. Foster; Mary F., deceased, Mrs. W. H. Darnall; Lindsey B., Minnie E. ; John M., deceased ; Nancy T., William II. and Ida M.

Mr. Steers' church connection is with the Regular

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Baptist denomination, and he has been clerk of the congregation of which he is a member for twenty- three years, and for twenty-six successive years has been a representative in the Sangamon Association. Both he and his wife are consistent Christians, and devote much of their time and means to acts cal- enlated to benefit the church. Mr. Steers' politi- cal affiliations are with the Democratic party, and he has frequently represented Belle Prairie Town- ship in its county convention. He has never been an office-seeker, nor office-holder to any great extent. the latter being limited to Road Com- missioner almost immediately after the organiza- tion of the township in which he resides. The material improvements he has made upon his farm are very creditable in point of taste displayed and comfort obtained. He has an excellent set of farm buildings, and all necessary implements and machinery required for the carrying on of agricult- ure and stock-raising in a first-class manner.

REDERICK IIACK, Sullivan Township. The Kingdom of Bavaria, in Central Europe, and forming a part of the German Empire, ha- given to the United States many of her most industrious and enterprising citizens. They have been people of excellent constitutions, the result of good habits and the healthful air which they took in as part of their birthright. Bavaria is the larg- est German State, with the exception of Prussia, and is rich in fertility of soil and mineral produc- tions. The people born and bred there are almost without exception of excellent morals and temperate habits, in spite of the fact that in some parts of it are located the largest beer-producing districts of the German Empire. The ancestors of our subject for generations were noted along the valley of the Rhine as having been of that stern and sturdy char- arter which rendered them desirable soldiers in time of war and reliable citizens in time of peace. The story of one of their later descendants, a worthy representative, and the subject of this biography, is substantially as follows:

Mr. Hack was born on the 6th of March, 1828, |

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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 48

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