USA > Illinois > DeKalb County > Portrait and biographical album of DeKalb County, Illinois : containing full-page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county > Part 26
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On the division of his father's estate the latter became the possessor of an amount of personal property, and the title to real estate in Iowa, which latter he applied as part payment for 120 acres of land lying on sections 32 and 33, in Clinton Town- ship, whereon he resided from 1860 until 1876, when he removed to the east half of the northeast quarter of section 33, where his homestead is still main- tained.
He entered the army of the United States a few months after the commencement of the struggle instituted by the South for the dismemberment of the Union, enlisting Oct. 5, 1861, in Co. G, Second Ill. Light Artillery, under Captain Stolbrand. He
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was in action at the siege of Vicksburg and at Union City, Tenn., and was involved in much skirmish warfare. He became disabled through hardship, exposure and illness, and was honorably discharged Oct. 16, 1863, at Vicksburg. In the township of Clinton Mr. Greenwood earned the reward of good citizenship and public spirit, receiving repeated elec- tions to places of prominence and trust. He served three years as Supervisor, as Commissioner of High- ways, and in the various school offices. In the fall of 1882 he was elected to the position of which he is now the incumbent, on the Republican ticket. Mr. Greenwood is a member of the Masonic frater- nity, and belongs to Potter Post, No. 12, G. A. R.
His marriage to Catherine I. Darland took place July 4, 1855, in Clinton Township. Mrs. Greenwood was born Sept. 28, 1838, in Fairview, Ill., and is the daughter of Benjamin and Catherine Darland. Five children were born of this Union in Clinton Town- ship. Byron P. was born Sept. 26, 1856, and is resi- dent manager of a mercantile enterprise at Marble Rock, Iowa, of which his father is the proprietor. Alice was born May 16, 1859; Jennie J. and Charles, twins, were born Sept. 1, 1870. The latter died Aug. 21, 1872.
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harles Wesley Marsh, whose portrait is presented on the opposite page, resides on a country place, on section 14, of De Kalb Township. He was born March 22, 1834, near Cobourg, Ont., and is the oldest son of Samuel and Tamar (Richardson) Marsh. His earliest recorded ancestor was a "Cavalier " and was killed at Edgehill in the course of the conflicts that preceded the Protectorate in England, and whose two sons fled to the American Continent dur- ing the first half of the 17th century to escape the vengeance of the Roundheads. The two branches, designated respectively as the Vermont and Con- necticut lines of descent of the Marshes, trace their origin to these brothers.
Samuel Marsh was born Feb. 7, 1804, in Canada, and died in De Kalb Township, in April, 1884. He belonged to the Vermont line, his immediate ances-
tors having originated in the Green Mountain State. With all the male members of his family, including his father, uncles and brothers, he was an active par- ticipant in the rebellion in the Dominion in 1837, known to history as the Patriots' or Mckenzie's War, and with the others narrowly escaping the fruits of the vengeance of the English Government. All who were not arrested and placed in confinement escaped only by precipitate flight. Samuel Marsh was among the former, and was captured at Kingston, where he was held in jail five months. His trial was long and severe, and he barely escaped conviction and execu- tion. His wife was born March 22, 1807, in Canada, and is a descendant of the Mohawk Dutch, belonging in the maternal line to the Schermerhorn family. Her marriage occurred in Consecon, Can., and she became the mother of three children, two sons and a daugh- ter. The latter was born March 10, 1838, while her father was a state prisoner in the jail at Kingston. She died at Chicago March 13, 1881. The mother of Mr. Marsh is still living.
The father was a farmer, and, after his release, re- sumed that occupation. In 1844 he sold his prop- erty in Canada and started for the part of the United States then known as the " West," to locate a home. He encountered a Millerite camp-meeting at the head of the Bay of Quinte, known as the "Carrying Place," which he attended and became a convert to the tenets of that sect. Firmly convinced that the coming of the Lord was at hand, he returned to his family to await the crisis. The mother, trained and disciplined by the trials she had already experienced, 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 husband waited, placed them at St. Andrews School at Cobourg. At 12 years of age the older son entered Victoria College at Cobourg, having become exceptionally well fitted under the inflexible regime of the school, in which he entered at 10 years of age upon a classical course of study. In 1847, the practical, provident mother col- lected a sum of money and, by proxy, purchased a quarter of section 18, situated near Shabbona Grove, Clinton Township, in De Kalb County, whither the family removed in 1849. Mr. Marsh of this sketch was then 15 years old and within one year of receiv- ing his degree at Victoria College, having accom-
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plished the curriculum of three of the four years' course prescribed at his Alma Mater. The failure of the Millerite prognostics had wrought sad havoc with the little fortune of the family; and upon the sons, after their removal to the farm in Illinois, rested the responsibility of its management, and they de- voted themselves to the labor of reducing the un- broken prairie to a condition of improvement and cultivation. Mr. Marsh taught two winter terms of school, and in 1858, in accordance with his strong predilection for a life devoted to mental endeavor, entered the law office of Hon. Charles Kellum as a student. He was obliged by failing health to relin- quish the project and returned to agricultural em- ploy. The details of his efforts in subsequent years are presented in the sketch of his business career which appears in full on another page.
Mr. Marsh is an adherent to the principles of the Republican party and a supporter of its issues, which he adopted on entering upon the privileges of Amer- ican citizenship. In 1868 he was elected to the House of the Illinois Legislature, where he did ex- cellent service on several committees, as he did in a succeeding term in the Senate, to which he was elected on the expiration of his period as Representa- tive. His labors in those positions won a subsequent recognition at the hands of Governor Beveridge, who in 1873 appointed him to a Trusteeship of the Insane Asylum at Elgin, which he has since held continu- ously and of which body he has been for many years President. The existing condition of the institution is the best possible testimonial to the efforts and abilities of Mr. Marsh, it being acknowledged as among the best managed of the long catalogue of similar institutions in this country.
The character of Mr. Marsh from the celebrity he has achieved in his connection with the machine which revolutionized the system of harvesting through- out the civilized world, deserves something more than a passing notice. His predominating trait, and one which renders him conspicuous, is versatility, and has been manifested in every enterprise to which he has lent his attention. The scholarship to which he attained in childhood was phenomenal, and he has retained in all their freshness and strength the tastes and proclivities which are his nature. Had he devoted himself to a literary life he would with- out doubt have attained distinction. Still another
leading characteristic of his mind is the simplicity of his predilections. Although in his prosperous days he was the possessor of a generous fortune, he had no aspirations beyond those of a country gentle- man. His residence displays no ostentation either in style or equipment, although planned and con- structed in his palmy days. But its apartments con- tain the evidences of a cultivated taste in rare and valuable books and pictures. Among the former are two ponderous and magnificent volumes of Hogarth's and Gillray's engravings from the original plates. The oldest and most curious volume is a copy of the Decretals of the Catholic Church, written by a monk. The work occupied 15 years and was finished in 1409. It was done wholly with a pen, and is from first to last a wonderful and beautiful sample of the perfection attained by the scribes before the days of printing. The work is concluded by the copyist's fervent " Laus Deo." A detached papal bull issued by Gregory XI to a Minorite order in Spain, exhibits six varieties of penmanship. These are but samples of a most valuable collection .. Mr. Marsh is the possessor of an interesting collection of pictures and photographs, gathered during a four months' tour on the continent, whither he went for the purpose of recreation and in response to an invitation from the Government to make trial of the Marsh Harvester in Hungary, where he spent six weeks.
Mr. Marsh is an ardent admirer of nature, and his home and its belongings bear the evidences of the direction of his predilections. The park adjacent to the house is stocked with deer and wild fowl, and his library contains an assortment of hunting equipments and trophies of sport, both valuable and curious.
The general estimate of the character of Mr. Marsh is manifest from the fact that when disaster overwhelmed the splendid business in which he was the prime factor, he was the unanimous choice of the creditors for the position of assignee, this tribute of confidence being the outgrowth of the disinterested- ness, integrity and solicitude for the general welfare which he has displayed unfalteringly throughout his entire business career. He can receive no better testimonial than the unquestioning trust of the peo- ple among whom he has lived from boyhood, in his inflexible probity and unselfishness.
He was married Jan. 1, 1860, to Frances Wait, of North Adams, Mass., and they became the parents
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of three children,-George C., Mary F. and Fanny S. The mother died May 12, 1869. The second marriage of Mr. Marsh, to Sue Rogers, occurred Jan. 10, 1881. Mrs. Marsh was born in November, 1841, at Mariposa, near Lindsay, Ont., and is the daughter of Joel and Mary Rogers.
ames Harrington, M. D., retired physi- cian, resident at Sycamore, has been a citi- zen of De Kalb County since 1844, when he came here and settled about four miles north of the present city of Sycamore. He was born Sept. 20, 1806, in the Province of Ontario, and is the son of Lot and Sarah (Sage) Har- rington. His paternal grandsire was a native of Rhode Island, whence he removed to Vermont. He was a surveyor by profession and pursued that busi- ness in the vicinity of Rutland. Lot Harrington was born in Vermont, and in the days of his early manhood went to the State of New York, where he was married. His wife's parents were from Connecti- cut. Not long after marriage they went to Canada, where the mother died, in 1809, leaving five children. Of these, Dr. Harrington is the youngest of the sons.
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After his mother's death he was taken to the State of New York, and was taken care of by her relatives in New Berlin, in Chenango County. He was edu- cated primarily in the public schools, and at the age of 17 years commmenced teaching, continuing in that vocation, and at the same time studied medi- cine, until 1829, when he opened the practice of his profession at Eagle, Allegany Co., N. Y. Two years later he returned to New Berlin, and was a practi- tioner there until 1844, when he decided to come to Illinois, and test the value of the promises that offered unparalleled inducements to such as desired to advance their fortunes. He made the trip via the Erie Canal from Utica to Buffalo, and came thence to Chicago by the lake route. He obtained private conveyance from Chicago to De Kalb County. He bought a claim of 120 acres of land, situated on sec- tions 8 and 9 of town 41, range 5, now Sycamore. The log house which had been erected on the place, served for a tenement until 1846, when Dr. Harring- ton built a frame house. In the same year in which
he took possession he erected a commodious frame barn. In 1864 he sold the place and removed to Ann Arbor, Mich., for the purpose of educating his children. He returned at the end of a year to Syca- more, where he bought a block of land with a brick house.
He was married in January, 1831, in Allegany Co., N. Y., to Charlotte, daughter of Peter and Mary (Wait) Walrod. Six of their nine children are living : Diana was born Oct. 27, 1832, and died Sept. 10, 1856; Joseph was born April 27, 1837, and died Dec. 23, 1874; Susan was born Sept. 4, 1841, and died in May, 1883; William S. resides in Oregon, and is the Presiding Elder of the M. E. Church in the Portland District; George L. resides at Sycamore ; Nelson R. is City Marshal of Sycamore; James F. is a farmer in Jewell Co., Kan .; Mark W. is Professor of Astronomy in the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor; Mary married P. K. Jones, druggist at Syca- more. The mother died in April, 1871.
Dr. Harrington was elected School Commissioner in 1845, and was re-elected School Commissioner for 1856-7. In the Legislative sessions of Illinois of 1846-7 he was a member of the House of Repre- sentatives. He was one of the Supervisors of Syca- more during nine years, and served the entire period as President of that Board.
iram Palmer, farmer on the east half of the northwest quarter of section 35, Cort- land Township, was born in Charlotte Township, Chittenden Co., Vt., May 16, 1809, and in 1819 was taken by his parents in emi- gration to Chautauqua Co., N. Y., into the wild woods,'moving with a horse team and taking the first wagon that was ever driven into the town of Ripley. In 1835 Mr. Palmer went to Ashtabula Co., Ohio, where he rented a farm, remaining there until 1836. In September of that year, he located in this county, when the prairies here were still unoccupied. He rented a farm near Sycamore a year and then pur- chased the quarter-section where he now resides. At that time his nearest neighbor was three or four miles distant and there was no house where Syca- more now stands. The contrast between that time and the present, in the appearance and enhanced value of the land, as well as the experiences of life, sets the imagination almost wild.
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Mr. Palmer was married May 1, 1831, to Julia Hill, daughter of Wyman and Elizabeth (McFarland) Hill, of Scotch ancestry. Her father, a native of Verniont, died in Ashtabula Co., Ohio, about 1859, aged about 70 years, and her mother, a native of Connecticut, died in Chautauqua Co., N. Y., in 1832, about 54 years of age. Mrs. P. was born April 17, 1807. The immediate descendants of Mr. and Mrs. Palmer are: Chauncey S., born March 3, 1832, in Chautauqua Co., N. Y .; J. Sidney, Feb. 20, 1836, in Ashtabula Co., Ohio; Harriet L., July 12, 1842, in this county; and Emeline M., Nov. 9, 1844, also in this county. His father, Israel Palmer, of English descent, came from the old country to Rhode Island before the Revolutionary War, and thence to Vermont, and finally died in the town of Ripley, Chautauqua Co., N. Y., about 77 years of age; and Hiram's mother, Sally, nee Champlain, was born in Charlotte Town- ship, Chittenden Co., Vt., and died in 1813, in her native State.
Mr. Palmer is a Republican in his political prin- ciples, and has held the offices of School Director and Road Commissioner.
On his first settlement in this county, Mr. Palmer built a log house at the confluence of De Kalb Creek with the Kishwaukee River, and lived there two years, during which time he suffered a great deal from the usual ague, bilious fever, etc. ' He built his second log house at Colton ville, lived there one year; then a year on Phineas Stevens' farm; and finally a third · log cabin, on his present place of residence, where he has now lived for 40 years. After a few years in the first cabin here, he moved to the place a frame house from a distance of seven miles, and occupied that as a dwelling until he erected his present fine residence.
eorge W. Nesbitt, M. D., practicing phy- sician and surgeon at Sycamore, was born Aug. 20, 1837, in Attica, N. Y. He is a representative of the sturdy and vigorous race known as the Scotch-Irish, his paternal grand- parents having belonged originally to the former nationality, which they left at the time of the . Irish rebellion and settled in County Cavan, Ulster, Ireland. Henry Nesbitt, his father, was born in that
county, in 1803, and became a resident of the United States in 1819. George W.'s mother, Eleanor (Smyth) Nesbitt, was born in 1802, in Argyle, Wash- ington Co., N. Y. Her father was of Scottish birth; her mother was born in Connecticut and represented a family of ancient origin and of probable German lineage. Henry Nesbitt settled in Attica after his marriage, pursued agriculture as a vocation, and died there in June, 1883. . His wife died in Wyoming Co., N. Y., in 1862. Their eight children survive them. The oldest, Susannah, is the wife of A. Prentice, a farmer. David is a farmer in the township of Attica, N. Y. Henry is a farmer in Saratoga Co., N. Y. Dr. Nesbitt is the fourth in order of birth. Samuel S. is a physician by profession and is passing his life in retirement on a large farm in Adams Co., Ill. Jane resides in Attica, N. Y. James O. and John W. (twins) are farmers on the homestead in Orangeville, Wyoming Co., N. Y.
Dr. Nesbitt received the training and primary edu- cation of a farmer's son, obtaining the latter by attendance at winter terms of school, afterwards completing the curriculum of study at the Genesee and Wyoming Seminary at Alexander, Genesee Co., N. Y., then a popular institution of learning and one which has maintained its prestige. He studied ad- vanced mathematics, classical and modern languages, and was graduated with honors. Imbued with the sentiment in which the youth of his generation was reared,-the obligation to engage actively in the world's work,-he came to Genoa, De Kalb Co., Ill., and spent a winter here, engaged in teaching. He turned his face westward in the following spring and passed some weeks in travel and prospecting. Dur- ing the summer ensuing he was an attache of the Government surveying party on the Red River of the North, operating principally in Minnesota. In the winter following, he taught school in Boone Co., Ill., and on the expiration of his engagement he went to Arkansas, and to other States, and pursued the same vocation. Meanwhile he had devoted his leisure and opportunities to the study of medicine and of law. He commenced his legal reading ander the instructions of the Hon. Charles Kellum, of Syca- more, and during the years of 1860-1 he devoted nearly a twelvemonth to the study of medicine in the office of Dr. H. H. Rice, of Randolph Co., Ill. His labors as a pedagogue terminated in 1861, when he returned to his native State, and read medicine under
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the supervision of Dr. H. B. Miller, of Alexander. Later, he attended lectures at the Buffalo Medical College, and was graduated there Feb. 21, 1865.
He entered into an association with Dr. G. W. McCray, of Buffalo, in the wholesale and retail sale of drugs, and also engaged in the practice of medi- cine. He sold his interest in the fall of 1866, and after an extended tour of prospective observation through the States of the South he located, in the winter of the same year, at Sycamore, where he at once established himself as a physician and surgeon and entered upon a career in his profession second to none in popularity in this section of Northern Illinois.
Dr. Nesbitt has not limited his efforts and energies to the scope of his medical practice, nor confined his interests to the section where he is resident. He is an agriculturist of no mean proportions, and is exten- sively engaged as a breeder of valuable stock. He is the proprietor of 1,200 acres of farming land in Mitchell and Ottawa Counties, Kan., devoted to the rearing of horses, cattle and swine. He has bred some fine trotting animals, and is at present the owner of four horses of acknowledged speed. He also raises the English draft horses.
The intellectual attainments and proclivities of Dr. Nesbitt are far beyond the common order. He is thoroughly read in medical literature, and has a well earned reputation as a lecturer and contributor to the medical press. He has, on occasion, presented valu- able papers before the Illinois State Medical Society, and before the American Medical Association, and has made discoveries in the application of drugs that are of acknowledged benefit to the fraternity. In 188 1 he officiated as Vice-President of the Illinois State Medical Society, and in 1883 was elected to the same position. He has not been able to apply his abilities to the administration of local affairs, the duties and responsibilities of his extensive practice monopolizing his time and energies. He is promi- nent in the Order of Masonry, and is a member of the Royal Arch Chapter.
Dr. Nesbitt was married June 23, 1864, at Buffalo, N. Y., to Mrs. Mary H. Davis, a native of Chippewa, Can. She had two children by her former marriage. The youngest, Lydia, is deceased. Cora married Frank Whitney, and they are residents on the farm of Dr. Nesbitt, in Ottawa Co., Kan. One child born
to Dr. and Mrs. Nesbitt died in infancy. George W. was born March 13, 1869; John B. was born Jan. 31, 1873. The marriage of Dr. Nesbitt is made memorable by the fact that the ceremony was per- formed by the Rev. George H. Ball, made a char- acter of history through his intrepid denunciation of the immoral element in the Presidential campaign of 1884.
illiam Raymond, farmer, section 21, Cortland Township, came to De Kalb County in the spring of 1855. He spent the summer ensuing in Genoa, and in the fall of the same year located in the village of Cortland. In company with his brother, he afterward bought a farm on section 16, in Cortland Township, on which he settled in the spring of 1856. On this property he spent. some years. In 1883 he bought a farm on section 21, where he established his residence permanently, enlarging and improving his house and building a large barn. The place is under excellent improvements, and is increased in value by the improvements he has made.
Mr. Raymond was born in Otsego, N. Y., Aug 19, 1834, and is the son of Oliver P. and Sarah (Wilbur) Raymond. The former was born in Pawling, Dutchess Co., N. Y., and the latter was a native of Taunton, Mass. When Mr. Raymond was six years of age his father died, while engaged in the manage- ment of a hotel at Ashland, Greene Co., N. Y. Soon after that event the family removed to Davenport, Delaware County, in the same State, where the son obtained a common-school education and was reared on a farm, remaining with his mother until his re- moval to Illinois.
He was first married in 1856, to Minerva Burr. She was born in 1832, in Erie Co., N. Y., and died July 7, 1880, having become the mother of eight children,-Frank B., Fred W., Nathan, Rodolphus J., Henry O., Wilbur P., Minnie and Charles. Frank died Sept. 12, 1879 ;. the youngest son died July 17, 1880. Mr. Raymond was again married July II, 1883, to Mrs. W. R. Patrick, daughter of J. C. and Hannah (Judd) Hoag. She was born in South Do- ver, Dutchess Co., N. Y., and was married Oct. 29, 1867, to W. R. Patrick, by whom she had five chil- dren-Jennie C., George W. (died 14 months old),
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Walton R. (died when two years and ten months old), Flora B. and Willimina. One child has been born of her second marriage, Leonard Light. Mr. Patrick died Sept. 13, 1881.
illiam Wallace Marsh, Superintendent of the Turk Motor Works at Sycamore and member of the firm of C. W. & W. W. Marsh, was born April 15, 1836, near Co- bourg, Ont. He is the second son of Samuel and Tamar (Richardson) Marsh, and passed the years of his early boyhood on the farm of his - father in the Dominion of Canada. He was an infant in his mother's arms when his father became inter- ested and involved in the rebellion in Canada which opened in 1837, and in which the members of the families to which his father and mother belonged were participants. (See sketch of C. W. Marsh.) In 1844, the parents resolved to seek the advantages of the (then) western portion of the United States ; and the homestead in Canada was sold, the father setting out for a prospecting tour, but was suddenly arrested in his purpose by his acceptance of the tenets of the Millerites, who had fixed upon that year as the date of the termination of all earthly things; and, aban- doning all projects dependent upon the future, the father settled with his family at Cobourg, where the sons had the advantages of the excellent Canadian schools.
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