Portrait and biographical album of DeKalb County, Illinois : containing full-page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county, Part 76

Author:
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Chicago : Chapman Bros.
Number of Pages: 888

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 76

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Mr. Mc Dole was married Dec. 20, 1882, to Miss Amanda, daughter of Henry and Mary (Brown) Wilkinson. She was born in Mayfield Township.

ouis Connart, one of the substantial busi- ness men of Sycamore, was born Ang. 4, 1833, in the city of Krotochin, in the prov- ince of Posen, in Prussian Poland. He is the son of Simon and Bertha Warschauer. His father was a merchant in the city where the son was born. The latter went to England, where, on ac- count of the orthographical difficulty with the family name, and the fact that its proper pronunciation was almost impossible to untrained tongues, induced him to change his name to its present form.

Mr. Connart passed the period required by the laws of his native land in attendance at school and in compliance with the law that the children should go to school until 13 years of age; but he was taken from school for the purpose of learning a trade at the age of 12 years and was apprenticed to a tailor. At the end of the prescribed three years he had ac- quired a thorough knowledge of the business, and on the expiration of his indentures he set out for Ham- burg on foot with ten cents cash capital to begin the world with. He spent six months in Hamburg, and went thence to England, where he worked at his trade in London two years. In the year 1850 he returned to his home, where he passed a brief period among his friends, after which he sailed for America. After a voyage of six weeks he landed at the port of New York. He went thence to Boston, where he operated as a tailor a few months and proceeded to Eastport, Maine. He was there one year, working at his trade and as a salesman in a clothing house. He went next to Calais and became the manager of a clothing establishment, officiating in that capacity

two years, when his employer failed, without having paid his salary for the time he had operated in his interests. Attorneys advised him to take no legal measures to secure the amount due him, but he watched his opportunity, and on one occasion, when he found his employer making a temporary stay in New Brunswick, he procured his pay by forcing him to a settlement. Mr. Connart went next to Dover, N. H., and after a short time proceeded to Farmington, where, with an associate, he opened a tailor shop. This venture proved a failure and closed at the end of a year, Mr. Connart finding himself the possessor of $20, with which he set out for the West. After a brief stay in Chicago, he came to Sycamore, the owner of $5 in money. He arrived here in 1858. He obtained a situation in the store of Isaac Marks, at a salary of $30 a month, with which he paid his own expenses and contributed to the support of his father in his native land. His in- dustry and frugality wrought substantial results, and in 186t he found himself the possessor of $600, and friends (Mr. J. S. Waterman and E. Hunt) in cir- cumstances to afford him assistance in obtaining from the latter the necessary guaranty for $5,000 worth of goods in New York, and entered upon the prose- cution of a prosperous business. He carries on a gentlemen's furnishing store, dealing in all the arti- cles common to such establishments. A custom de- partment is attached to the establishment.

Mr. Connart was married in 1865, to Miss Herbert, a native of the same city in Prussia, of which he is himself a native. They have four children-Bertha, Benjamin, Isaac and Dora. The family residence on State Street was purchased in 1876.

R. Thompson, one of the oldest and most g prominent and worthy pioneers of De Kalb County, and residing at De Kalb, as a vener- able patriarch, surrounded by a large circle of relatives and friends, is a native of Ohio. His parents, Samuel and Hannah (Roberts) Thompson, were natives of the State of New York. His grandfather Thompson, a native of Connecticut, was one of the early settlers of the Holland Pur- chase, in Western New York. He and three sons, as also Samuel Thompson's father-in-law, served in

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the War of 1812, between the United States and Great Britain, and were stationed at Buffalo, N. Y., at the time that city was captured and burned. Mr. Samuel Thompson, being well acquainted with the topography of the country in the vicinity of Buffalo, was selected to act as guide to a portion of the re- treating army.

After the restoration of peace, the latter settled in Ashtabula Co., Ohio, where he was a pioneer, and made three farms in the primitive wilderness, in the town of Geneva. In the meantime, as foreman, he osuperintended the construction of the Government works at the wharves at the mouth of Ashtabula Creek; but while thus engaged he contracted a pul- monary disease, which became the occasion of his moving Westward. Accordingly, on the 15th day of April, 1835, he started West, with two yoke of oxen and two wagons, loaded with household goods, and accompanied by his family, consisting of his wife, eight children and a son-in-law. At that early day, when the roads were poor and the bridges few and far between, they had a tedious journey. They were five and a half days crossing the Maumee swamp alone-a distance of 31 miles. They arrived at Joliet on the 22d of May, stopping first at the Black- burn Tavern. Mr. T. bought city property, and, with his family, remained a resident there until No- vember, 1836. Then pushing on still further into the frontier, he first located, before the land was sur- veyed, in that part of Kane County which is now in- cluded in De Kalb County. He purchased a claim on what was afterward surveyed as section I of De Kalb Township, on which was only a log house. Here he commenced the protracted task of making a comfortable home ; but, his health already impaired, he continued gradually to fail until Aug. 2, 1840, when death put an end to his sufferings. He had to cease from manual labor entirely in the fall of 1838. Three years afterward his widow married Valentine Randall and moved to Kane County. She finally died in Hampshire Township, that county, in July, 1861.

The grandfather of the subject of this sketch, a native of Connecticut, was a pioneer of Western New York, and afterward a resident of Ashtabula Co., Ohio. In 1836 he visited his son in Illinois, making the journey from Ohio and return with a team. His

death occurred in Pennsylvania, in 1837, at 77 years of age.

Mr. Thompson, whose name heads this biography, was born in the town of Geneva, Ashtabula Co., Ohio, Aug. 23, 1818, came to Illinois with his parents and made his home with them until the death of his father. He continued to occupy and improve the claim, which he entered after it came into market. He equipped the place with a good collection of farm buildings, residing there until 1872, when he sold it and moved to De Kalb, purchasing the residence he now occupies.

He was married Dec. 10, 1843, to Miss Eliza A. Parker, who was born in Castile, Genesee Co., N. Y. They had eight children, namely: Alvira, now the wife of Daniel Klock; Elizabeth, now Mrs. Charles Foreman ; William W .; George S., farmer and broom manufacturer in Ogle County ; Ira Andrew, who is a resident of Texas; James S., a resident of De Kalb ; Ida, who is the wife of Dr. C. D. Carter; and Emma, the youngest, who resides at home with her parents.

ev. L. A. R. Erhard, Priest in charge of the Catholic Church at Somonauk, was born in Joliet, Will Co., Ill., April 16, 1856. Sept. 1, 1870, he entered the College and Seminary of Our Lady of Angels, an institution beautifully situated, two miles north of Sus- pension Bridge, on the New York bank of Niagara River. By a special act of the Legislature it enjoys all the privileges of a university.

It was there that Mr. Erhard completed his classi- cal and theological studies, and June 7, 1879, was ordained priest for his native diocese of Chicago by Rt. Rev. S. V. Ryan, Bishop of Buffalo. At that time he was appointed by the deceased Bishop Mc- Mullen, then administrator of the diocese, to take charge of one of the most important curacies in the city. He remained there for five years, under the learned and zealous priest, Father P. Riordan, who, Sept. 16, 1883, was consecrated coadjutor, now Archbishop of San Francisco. Under the adminis- tration of this learned and zealous ecclesiastic, was built St. James' Catholic Church, a structure erected at a cost of $150,000. Its location is 2,924 Wabash Avenue. Whilst discharging his duties as a curate

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in this church, Father Erhard made for himself numerous friends by his zeal, which he particularly evinced whilst in charge with Father Henneberry, his fellow-curate, over the Sunday-school department, which had an attendance of 1,000 children. It was from this Church, Father Erhard was first appointed to take charge of a parish by His Grace, Archbishop Feehan, of Chicago. He was appointed to succeed Father Huth, of Somonauk, May 1, 1884.

· His parents are the oldest residents of Will County. They emigrated from Europe in 1833 and arrived that same year in Chicago; assisted in erecting its first Catholic church, old "St. Mary's;" were there united in the holy bonds of matrimony, and two years later settled in Joliet, enjoying at an advanced age the society of numerous friends. Mr. Erhard's father, George Erhard, was born in the town of Mid- dlestreih, in the kingdom of Bavaria, and his mother, Louisa (Periolat) Erhard, is a native of Hochfelden, in the-province of Alsace.

Rev. I. A. R. Erhard, their son, though hardly a year in his new field, has added improvements to the amount of a thousand dollars to the parochial resi- dence. A new Catholic Church, at a cost of $3,000, will be dedicated during the autumn of #885, in Bris- tol, a mission attached to Somonauk. The contract for building a Catholic church at the same cost will be let this spring in Plano, where a mission has re- cently been opened, and in Sandwich $600 has been paid in the purchase of a lot and in the laying of a foundation for a Catholic school. Four Sunday- schools have been organized, with an average attend- ance of 200 children. Father Erhard is doing a grand work for his people.

orenzo Dow Evans, resident on section 2, Sycamore Township, was born Feb. 9, 1834, in Ash County, N. C. He is the son of Benjamin and Frances (Perry) Evans, and was an infant in his mother's arms when his par- ents set out to seek a home in the then far away West. They made the journey overland, but he has no remembrance of the slow, toilsome and tedious prog- ress they made toward the setting sun. When he was four years old-in 1838-they located at Syca- more. He has, therefore, so to speak, " grown up"

with the county, and witnessed its increasing pros- perity. As soon as he reached a suitable size he aided his father in his labors on the farm, and he re- ceived his education in the pioneer schools; to use his own language, he " graduated at the log school- house."

He was married April 26, 1857, to Mary, daughter of Eli and Deborah (Rockwood) Jewell, who were among the earliest settlers in De Kalb County. After marriage he settled on section 2, Sycamore Township, which he still occupies. It had been entered by his father, and is now a valuable farm with a comple- ment of good buildings.

dward F. White, deceased, was one of the earliest of the pioneer settlers of De Kalb County, where he came in 1836. He was born Jan. 31, 1795, in Rensselaer Co., N. Y. and is the son of James and Mary White. His parents were both natives of New England, and when he was an infant they moved to Brandon, Vt., S where he was reared to adult age on a farm. Dur- ing the War of 1812 he was a volunteer, and went to Plattsburg. After the battle he returned to Vermont. Two years later he went to the State of New York and located near Plattsburg. He was married Aug. 25, 1822, to Mary, daughter of Seth and Sarah (Stone) White. He owned a farm in Chazy, 12 miles from Plattsburg, on which he resided until 1835. In that year he started for Illinois. He went with two span of horses and two wagons to Ogdensburg, and thence by boat on the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario to Lewiston, on the Niagara River. From there the teams were in requisition to Buffalo, where they re-embarked for Detroit. They drove thence to Chicago, which was then but a village, and went to Plainfield, where they remained until the spring of 1836.

In the previous winter, Mr. White prospected in De Kalb County, and bought a claim in what is now Sycamore Township, where he built a log house, of which the family took possession in May. When the survey was made and the land came into market, seven years later, he paid $228 for the claim, which he entered in the land office at Chicago. He made the usual improvements on the farm, which he occu-

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pied until 1859. In that year he removed to Syca- more, where he died, Sept. 23, 1867. He was one of the organizers of the First Methodist society at Syca- more.

Mrs. White still survives her husband. Five chil- dren are also living-Eveline, Phebe, Caroline, Al- mira and Mary. Oliver White, the only son, died when 42 years of age.

ichael Walsh, formerly a resident on sec- tion 11, Pierce Township, was a pioneer of De Kalb County. He was born in 1796, in County Mayo, Ireland, and was bred to the vocation of farming in his native land. His wife, Ellen (Philbein) Walsh, was also born in County Mayo, and to them were born, four chil- dren,-John, Mark, Mary and Bridget.

In 1848 the family set out from Liverpool for the United States in a sailing vessel, and were on the Atlantic Ocean five weeks. On arrival at the port of New York they started for Albany on the Hudson River, and proceeded thence by the Erie Canal to Buffalo. From that place they came to Chicago on a lake steamer. Their journey thence to St. Charles, Kane Co., Ill , was made with a team, where they arrived in June, 1848. In July following they came to De Kalb County, where the father entered a claim of land on section 11, of township 39, range 5, now the township of Pierce. The family lived for a time in a shanty made of boards, which was later replaced by a comfortable house. The first crops raised on the place were marketed at St. Charles, 17 miles dis- tant. Mr. Walsh improved his entire property, set- ting out shade and fruit trees and erecting good buildings. He lived to see his property well devel- oped, and died March 4, 1871. His wife died May 18, 1884. Three of their children survive them.

Mark Walsh was born May 10, 1837, in County Mayo, Ireland. He came when 11 years old with his parents to the United States, and grew to man- hood in the township of Pierce, assisting in the im- provement of the home farm and attending the pioneer schools. He was married Sept. 28, 1869, to Mary Scott. She was born in Illinois and was the daughter of Richard Scott. She died in 1876, leav-

ing one child-Richard. The second wife, to whom Mr. Walsh was married Jan. 1, 1877, was named Margaret Bartley. She died Oct. 15, 1880, leaving two children .- Ellen and John. Mr. Walsh con- tracted a third matrimonial alliance, Oct. 19, 1882, with Mary Coffey, and they have one child, named Mark. Mrs. Walsh is the daughter of Jeremiah and Bridget Coffey, and was born in County Kerry, Ire- land,

In 1869 Mr. Walsh located on his homestead, comprising 240 acres of land located on sections 2 and 11, all of which is at present under good improve- ments. In 1876 he rented his farm and removed to Sycamore, whence he went in 1880 to Maple Park and engaged in the lumber business, in which he is still interested.

mos Story, whose name is as much a part of the local history of the county of De Kalb and the township of Sycamore as that of any other individual within their borders, has been identified with the progress and develop- ment of both since 1837, six years before the land came into market, and some time before Syca- more assumed the dignity of its present name. He has been a resident on section 9 from the date of making his location. The claim contained a log shanty roofed with shakes, and constituted the en- tire improvements. Mr. Storey moved the structure to a new location, bought a yoke of oxen and entered resolutely into the work of improvoment. He was then a single man, and boarded in the neighborhood while improving his property.

He was born Dec. 8, 1813, in the town of Stowe, Washington Co., Vt , and is the son of William and Rebecca (Hicks) Story. His parents were natives of Vermont, and his paternal grandfather was a soldier in the war of the Revolution. He died and was buried at St. Alban's, Vt. The father died in St. Lawrence Co., N. Y., whither he had removed many years be- fore.

Mr. Story grew to manhood in his native town. In the fall of 1835, he went to Allegany Co., N. Y., with a team, and there spent the winter as a saw-mill as- sistant in the town of Cuba. In the spring of 1836 he started for Pittsburg with a raft of lumber on the

THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

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Allegheny, and at the junction boarded a similar river craft for Cincinnati, and proceeded to the junc- tion of the Ohio with the Great Father of Rivers. He went up the Mississippi to the mouth of the Illinois, and went on the latter river to Ottawa, La Salle County, on board a steamer, whence he went to Plain- field, Will County. He there engaged as a farm laborer with James Matthews. In the spring of 1837, in company with another man, he went to Iowa to seek a place for a home, but was not pleased with the outlook and came to De Kalb County as stated. He was married Jan. 28, 1860, to Mrs. Abbie (Cronk) Hunt, and they have had five children- Jane, Alma, Amos, Arthur and Lottie. Mrs. Story was born Aug. 14, 1838, in Chenango, Broome Co., N. Y. She was married May 13, 1857, at St. Charles, Kane Co., Ill., to Augustus Hunt, who died Nov. 23, 1858, leaving one child-Kendall A.

After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Story began to keep house in their pioneer log cabin, where they lived until 1865, when the fine brick residence they now occupy was erected. Mr. Story has built a good class of farm structures, and has a valuable place with good stock. He is engaged in other avenues of business besides farming, and has been prominent in official life. In 1872 he met with an accident from which he has since been a constant sufferer.

D. London, farmer on the northeast quar- ter of sec. 16, Cortland Township, was born in Clearfield Co., Pa., Aug. 10, 1842. His father, Richard London, was born in Luzerne Co., Pa., Jan. 20, 1818, was reared in his native State, followed farming, and after coming to De Kalb County, dealt considerably in stock, and died Feb. 2, 1880. The mother of the subject of this sketch, Sarah A., nee Estes, was born Jan. 15, 1818, in Luzerne Co., Pa., and is now living in Sycamore. When he was 13 years of age, the subject of this sketch came with his parents to this county, in 1855, first settling in Mayfield Township. Two years af- terward they sold out and purchased a farm in Syca- more Township, where they lived about ten years ; then they located upon the farm now occupied by Mr. L. D. London. Five or six years afterward his father moved back to Sycamore. He has since lived on this place, except a year and a half in Iowa.

Mr. London was married Sept. 8, 1867, to Miss Mary M. Schoonover, who was born April 6, 1842, in Bradford Co., Pa. Her father, James Schoonover, was born Nov. 23, 1808, was a farmer, moved to this county in 1855, settling in De Kalb Township for 17 years, then moved to Boone Co., Iowa, and finally died in Dallas County, that State, Feb. 16, 1880. Her mother, Palmila E., nee Lattimore, is living in Ogden, Boone Co., Iowa, with her danghter, Mrs. Sarah Smith.

Mr. and Mrs. L. have two children, viz .: Emma. J., born June 23, 1870, and Nettie A., Sept. 26, 1872.

Mr. London is a Democrat in his political princi- ples, and both himself and wife are members of the Free-Will Baptist Church.

eorge E. Hobbs, retired farmer, living at Hinckley, was born May 12, 1823, in Delaware Co., N. Y. His father, Samuel Hobbs, was born in New York State and mar- ried Catherine Williams, a native of England. His parents settled after marriage in Delaware Co., N. Y., where his father died Sept. 4, 1829. His mother died in January, 1830, in Oneida Co., N. Y. Mr. Hobbs is the second of five children born to his parents. Joseph W., Olive E., Jonas and Catherine are the names of his brothers and sisters.

He received a common-school education, and afterwards attended the academy at Delhi in his native county, where he resided until 1865, with the exception of three years which he spent in California, and along the Pacific Coast, spending some time in each of those small republics from New Granada or Colombia (as it is now called) up to California, and also spending some months in Mexico. In In February of that year he came to De Kalb County and bought 320 acres of land in Squaw Grove Town- ship, located on section 8. On this he pursued his agricultural interests, and was resident there until his removal to Hinckley in the spring of 1883, and has not since participated in active business life. He is and has been prominent and active in the Dem- ocratic element of De Kalb County, and is one of the leaders in the local organization. He is also promi- nent in the Masonic and Odd Fellows fraternities, and has held the highest offices in both.

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He was united in marriage Oct. 9, 1848, in Delhi, Delaware Co., N. Y., to Jannett P. Aitken. She was born May 3, 1828, in the city of New York, and was the daughter of David and Agnes (Gordon) Aitken. By her mother she was distantly connected with General Gordon, recently (1885) killed at Khar- toum, Africa. David A., Mary A., Hattie A. and Nettie M. are the names of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Hobbs. Mary A. died when nine years and six months old. Hattie A. married William T. Blagg and resides at Sandwich. Nettie M. is the wife of George Mewhirter, of Bristol Station, Kendall Co., Ill. The mother died at Hinckley, April 16, 1883.

For nearly 20 years Mr. Hobbs was extensively en- gaged in agricultural pursuits in this county, becom- ing one of the leading and most prominent farmers in the county. He is a gentleman highly esteemed by the many who know hint and has a most excellent reputation throughout the county. As a man, there- fore, worthy of the place, we insert his portrait in this volume.

aniel Waite, farmer, resident on section 34, Sycamore Township, was born Oct. 2, 1798, in Braintree, Orange Co., Vt., and is the son of Daniel and Sally (Kidder) Waite. His parents were both natives of Mas- sachusetts, and accompanied their parents to Orange Co., Vt., when extremely young. The fam- ilies of both became prominent in social and public life, and were remarkable, even in that land of steady habits, for correct, well ordered lives.

The history of Braintree, Vt., in the Gazetteer of Miss Abbie Hemenway, says that Daniel Waite came to Braintree in 1788 or '9. "Uncle Daniel," as he was familiarly called, was thorough and successful, and wholly devoted to his calling. In this particu- lar he demonstrated the fact that intelligent farming pays. He early imbibed the principle that no far- mer can afford to raise corn, oats or hay to sell. He should sell horses, not oats ; sheep and cattle, not corn. In common with other pioneers, he endured many hardships. Once he was obliged to bring his seed wheat from Middlebury on horseback, with only marked trees to guide him across the mountains. All the Waites were strictly temperate, not one of

them having ever been known to be intemperate or to use tobacco in any form. The death of the father of Daniel Waite occurred Sept. 6, 1862. Mrs. Waite, the mother, died Oct. 4, 1849.

Mr. Waite grew to man's estate on the farm in Braintree, and was educated in the common schools. He was married Jan. 1, 1827, to Mary, daughter of Elias and Mary (Willmarth) Cobb. He settled on one of his father's farms, where he continued to reside until 1839, the year in which he moved to Darien, Genesee Co., N. Y., where he became the possessor of an improved farm. He decided to lo- cate in the West on account of his growing sons, and accordingly, in 1854, he sold his farm and came to De Kalb County, where he bought an improved farm on section 34, on which he pursued his agricul- tural projects until 1869. His wife died on the 3d of February of that year, and soon afterward he sold the place and has since resided with his sons, who are farmers on the same section (34).

To him and his wife nine children were born, as follows: Daniel P., Tyler K., Orlando, Edwin and Ellen (twins), John E., Charles, Jasper H. and Mary E. Daniel P. Waite was born Feb. 22, 1828, in Braintree, Vt. He was, for nearly a quarter of a century, secretary of the Minnesota Copper Mining Company, and in March, 1871, he settled in Spring- field, Mo., and engaged in mercantile business. He died there Nov. 3, 1871. Tyler K. Waite was born July 1, 1829, and was engaged as a teacher after the removal of his parents to Western New York. He came to Sycamore in 1854 and started the pioneer cheese factory in De Kalb County, and continued its manager and proprietor until his death, March 13, 1871. Charles and Jasper Waite entered the mili- tary service of the United States, and both distin- guished themselves and honored the stainless name they represented, as well as the generation and com- munity to which they belong.

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Portrait and biographical album of DeKalb County, Illinois : containing full-page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county, Part 76

Author: Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Chicago : Chapman Bros. Number of Pages: 888

Author:
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Chicago : Chapman Bros.
Number of Pages: 888