Portrait and biographical album of Henry County, Illinois : containing full-page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county, Part 20

Author:
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 850

USA > Illinois > Henry County > Portrait and biographical album of Henry County, Illinois : containing full-page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county > Part 20

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100-0 enry Mussey, a grain merchant at Atkin- son, was born in Rutland, Vt., June I, 1828. He was reared to the age of man- hood under the care of his parents. In 1857, he came from Vermont to Wheatland, Ill., where he became a farmer of considerable ex- tent. He bought a farm of 290 acres, which he placed in first-class agricultural condition, and con- tinued its management until 1881, when he removed to Atkinson. He sold his place in Will County, and on his removal to Henry County he interested him- self in the business which has since occupied his at- tention. He is operating in grain of all kinds that

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are grown in the_vicinity of the place where he is prosecuting his business relations.

Nov. 9, 1852, Mr. Mussey was married to Charlotte E. Moulthrop. She was born in the State of Ver- mont, Sept. 3, 1829. They have been the parents of three children : Henry E. died in early infancy ; Jennie was born Dec. 11, 1855 ; Alice O. was born Oct. 23, 1862, and is the wife of Wilbur F. Arnold, an engraver in Chicago: they reside at Oak Park, in the vicinity of the city.

Mr. Mussey is the owner of a large amount of real estate in the village of Atkinson. He is a Republi- can in political sentiment, and is a member of the Congregational Church. His wife is a member of the Episcopal Church.

orrison Francis, deceased, a pioneer of Henry County of 1840, and for 33 years a farmer of extensive relations in the township of Andover, was born June 5, 1816, in Westmoreland Co., Pa. He was of Irish lineage in the paternal line, and on his mother's side was connected to the Lee family of Virginia.

On coming to Henry County, Mr. Francis at once entered upon the relations to the community which he held during the remainder of his life. He bought land on his arrival and founded a wide scope of agricultural connections, operating in all the branches of general farming, and adding to his estate until he accumulated nearly 1,000 acres of land. He was one of the first to become interested in the reports from California, and in the spring of 1849, in com- pany with two brothers-in-law, John and Dan Moore, he crossed the plains to the land of gold. He oper- ated there with success for 16 months, and returned to Andover in the fall of 1850. In 1851, he went again to the Pacific coast, taking with him a consid- erable party with horses and other equipments.

Mr. Francis died in Andover Township, Oct. 28, 1873. He was universally esteemed and his loss was bitterly mourned. He was composed of the right material for a pioneer. The spirit of en- ergy and enterprise with which he was imbued was strongly marked. His frank, manly, generous and honorable character secured for him a general pop-

ularity. He was always foremost in promoting the interests of education, and he made the school at Andover one of the best in the county.

He was a most decided Democrat, and the quality of his politics was of the same stamp as his other controlling traits. He hesitated at no sacrifice in promoting the interests of the local element of his party. As an illustration, it may be stated that in 1869, when the Cambridge Democrat had been abandoned by James S. Roock, in connection with R. H. Hinman, he assumed the burden of its man- agement and ran the paper two years, losing several thousand dollars before he succeeded in placing it upon a permanent basis. His popularity is manifest from his successive re-elections to the position of Supervisor of Andover, notwithstanding the fact that the town was overwhelmingly Republican. He al- ways ran far ahead of his ticket when placed in nomination for any office. He was pre-eminently a social man, and the hospitalities of his home were always dispensed with a liberal hand. None, friend or foe, ever appealed vainly to him for aid. He was the owner and manager of one of the most extensive mills in the county. The establishment was de- stroyed by fire in the late fall of 187 1, and its rebuild- ing was a complete exponent of the enterprise of its owner. On the day on which the fire occurred, he said he would have the mill rebuilt and in complete running order within 60 days, and he kept his word, although the engine and heavy machinery had to be transported overland a distance of 30 miles, and the remainder of the material was brought in the same way 16 miles. The feat was accomplished in the winter and at a time when the weather was un- usually stormy.

One of the best and most lasting mementoes left by Mr. Francis, was in the liberal educations he be- stowed on his children.

Mrs. Mary C. (Moore) Francis was born Sept. 13, 1820, in Lisbon, N. H. She is of Irish extraction, and her grandfather, John Moore, was a native of New Hampshire. He also married a lady of New Hampshire birth, and they reared seven children. John J. Moore, the father of Mrs. Francis, was born in Bedford, Merrimac Co., N. H. He was a farmer and married Deborah, daughter of Reuben Sherman. Slie was born in New Hampshire and came with her husband in the spring of 1836 to Hickory Creek,

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Will Co., Ill. In 1840 they came to Henry County and located in the township of Andover, where they died. Their children were named Priscilla W., Reuben S., Mary C., Electa S,, Eliza T., John and Dan.

Mrs. Francis was 16 when her parents removed to Illinois. She was married near Joliet, April 23, 1840, and not long after that event, came to Henry County, where she was a faithful and efficient aid to her husband in his labors as a pioneer and business man.

The record of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Fran- cis is as follows : Eveline is the wife of Capt. L. F. Dimick, of whom a sketch is presented in this vol- ume ; Lide A. married Thomas Keagy, of Cambridge ; John F. was educated at Lombard University, Gales- burg, Ill., and studied law with his brother-in-law, Jerome Carpenter : he was a talented young man, and after he was admitted to the Bar of Illinois, he established his practice at Cambridge, where he died; Emily, the oldest daughter, was noted for her proficiency in music and for her vivacious, sprightly character, which made her a prominent member of society: she married Jerome Carpenter, an attorney at Cambridge, and died Oct. 3, 1874; Frank F. is a farmer in Grand Forks Co., D. T .; Nellie A. resides with her mother.

Mrs. Francis is the owner of 400 acres of land in Andover Township. In the spring of 1882, she fixed her permanent residence at Cambridge. She is a member of the Christian Church.

eorge F. Butzer, deceased, was a pioneer of Henry County of 1838. He was born at Baden, Germany, in 1806, and in 1830 married Miss Louise Baltz. They had two children, born in Germany. Jacob was born Nov. 26, 1831, and died in the United States, Nov. 26, 1883, leaving a widow and II children. The daughter, Catherine C., is the wife of Dan'l Henney, of whom a complete sketch is given on another page. Mr. Butzer emigrated to the United States in 1835. He passed three years in the city of Detroit, Mich., and in 1838 came to Henry County. He located in what is now Phenix Township, and engaged in farm- ing. He endured many privations and hardships

incident to pioneer life, but succeeded in founding a good home for his family, which included 160 acres of land. His death occurred March 12, 1850. Mr. and Mrs. Butzer had four children after their re- moval to this country. One son-Louis-was born in Michigan and married Miss Clara Licht, and set- tled in Kansas. Two sons and a daughter were born in Henry County. Caroline is the wife of Val- entine Sieben, a farmer of Phenix Township. Mar- cilli is married to Joseph Arnett, of Loraine Township. Adam married Margaret Licht, and is a farmer in the township of Phenix. Mr. and Mrs. Butzer were members of the Evangelical Association. Mr. But- zer was a Republican in political connection. Mrs. Butzer survived her husband and died July 2, 1881.

r. J. L. Bryan, deceased, formerly of Cam- bridge, was born in Monticello, Wayne Co., Ky., not far from the Tennessee line. He was the third child in a family of 15 sons and daughters, of whom II grew to adult age. His father, Dr. Edmund Bryan, was the son of a Virginia farmer who settled in Southern Kentucky at a very early day in its history, and whose name and family history are unknown. Besides Dr. Ed- mnund, there were three other sons-William, John and Albert, now deceased, who were physicians and muchi esteemed as skillful and conscientious practi- tioners. The youngest son, Algernon, went with Bryant on his overland journey across the plains. He afterwards went South and settled somewhere on the Gulf coast. All traces of him are lost. Drs. John and William died full of years in the neighbor- hood of Louisville, Ky. Dr. Albert died in Indian- apolis about 1877, and Dr. Edmund in Grayson Co., Ky., in 1863. Mrs. Lettice Bryan, mother of Dr. J. L. Bryan, was a Pierce, of Monticello, Wayne Co., Ky. Her mother was a daughter of Walter Crow, a wealthy land-owner of that section of the State. The Crows were of Irish extraction; the Pierces were of French descent, but both families emigrated to Vir- ginia long before the Revolutionary War. Mr. Pierce had three children-Lettice, Sallie and Stan- ton. The latter was a physician and a man of un- usual culture and force of character. He was connected by marriage with the Moores, well known in Kentucky through the famous Perry Moore law-

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suit, a Tichborne case on a small scale. The Pierces were characterized by great personal beauty and in- tellectual force and ability. Mrs. Lettice Bryan was a woman of an unusually fine presence, and well educated for a day and land when the schoolmaster was not " abroad." She was the writer of two works on religious subjects, and the writer and publisher of the " Kentucky Housewife," a book in great request 50 years ago, but now out of print. She died in the winter of 1877, at the residence of her son-in-law, Dr. C. F. Burnett, of Bunker Hill, Macoupin Co., Ill. Of the six sons that reached manhood, Stanton, John L. and Anthony studied medicine. Stanton resides in Florida and Anthony in Evansville, Ind., where he holds a professorship in the medical college.

John L. was a graduate of the University of Louis- ville. At the beginning of the Civil War he was a practicing physician of Washington Co., Ind., but early answered the call for volunteers, enlisting at Camp Morton, Indianapolis, in July, 1861. He had gone there with a small company of young men, warmly attached friends of his, expecting that they would form the nucleus of a company of which he would be Captain, a position to which his education and stand- ing would naturally entitle him; but, finding many unfilled companies and skeleton regiments in camp, and a call from the field most urgent, he immediate- ly, with his young friends, joined a company whose officers were already elected and only needed the complement of men they furnished to go tothe front. The regiment went at once to Jefferson City, Mo., held by the brave Col. Mulligan. Dr. Bryan was connected with the army three and one-half years, acting most of the time in a medical capacity, as As- sistant Surgeon of Post Hospital at Jefferson City, where he was placed by Gen. Fremont, then com- manding the Department of Missouri. He after- wards became Assistant Surgeon of the "26th Missouri," commanded by Col. Boomer, and for 18 months he officiated as Surgeon of one the eruptive hospitals of the department of Louisville.

At the close of the war, Dr. Bryan removed to Illi- nois, settling first in Marshall County, and after- wards at Buda, in Bureau County, living for the last 1 3 years of his life in Cambridge, where he died, on the 22d of January, 1884. Dr. Bryan was much esteemed, both as a man and a physician, for he was kind, skillful and conscientious, and his heart was al-

ways open to the cry of the unfortunate. He was of exceptionally fine physique, weighing at his best state 230 pounds, and so proportioned as to at- tract notice as a fine sample of manly development. The arduous labors of his profession told heavily upon him during the latter portion of his life. He be- came much broken in health and spirits; and, at the time of his death, was but a wreck of his former self.

In 1851, Dr. Bryan was married to Hannah M. Dietz, of Blue Lick, Clark Co., Ind. She resides at Cambridge with four sons-Oscar D., William S., Edmund M. and John L. Charles E., third son, lives in Dakota. The youngest, Bertram, died on the 12th of April, 1883.

Mrs. Bryan is a lady of culture and uncommon in- tellectual abilities. She is a poetess of signal merit, and has won recognition as such in the arena of let- ters. Her contributions to proniinent periodicals have given her genius a well-deserved celebrity, and she has secured an enviable position in the estima- tion of the reading public. In the spring of 1885 (current year), she acceded to the ownership by pur- chase of the Local Reporter, a journal published at Cambridge. She is assisted in its management by her oldest son, O. D. Bryan, who acts as local editor.

ohn W. Goss, junior member of the firm of John Goss & Co., lumber dealers at Geneseo, was born in Lexington, Ky., July 24, 1847, and is the son of Charles and Mar- garet Goss. On leaving his home to begin the world on his own account, he went to the State of Missouri, and there passed two years. At the expiration of that time he came to Geneseo. The first important act after his arrival in that place was his enlistment in the military service of the United States. In January, 1865, he enrolled in Co. I, 112th Ill. Inf., and served in the capacity of a soldier as long as the war continued. On return- ing to Geneseo, the existing partnership was formed with his uncle, John Goss, the pioneer lumber mer- chant at Geneseo, and their relations have been in existence 20 years.

Mr. Goss is a member of the present City Council (1885). In political preference, he is in sympathy with the Republican party. Mr. Goss was married

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in the State of Maine, Sept. 3, 1876, to Miss Celeste, daughter of Luther Chamberlain. She was born at Fox Grove, in the Pine-Tree State, and was reared in the Methodist faith. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Goss, at Geneseo. They are named William, John and Lutie.

mos Gould, retired merchant and grain- dealer, real-estate and loan agent at Cam- bridge, came to Henry County in 1856. He was born June 6, 1823, in Piedmont, Grafton Co., N. H. His father, Amos Gould, was born April 1, 1790, in Warner, N. H. He was a tanner and shoemaker by occupation, and married Nancy H. Bartlett, who was born Aug. 8, 1796, in Canaan, N. H. They had ten children, of whom eight survive. They were born in the follow- ing order : John M., Amos, Lyfe Y., Nathaniel B., Mrs. Nancy J. Dean, Dan W., George D. and Mrs. Susie C. Burrows. The deaths of the parents occurred respectively January, 1864, in Moline, Ill., and November, 1884, at Cambridge, Ill. The fam- ily removed to Henry County in 1858.

Mr. Gould in early life acquired a thorough knowl- edge of the vocations of his father, and was in- structed in the details of shoemaking by his uncle, A. P. Gould. He followed the latter business 20 successive years. In 1854 he engaged in the prose- cution of mercantile transactions and interests, in which he continued to operate two years. March, 1856, he removed to Cambridge, where, associated with his brother, N. B. Gould, he conducted the affairs of the Cambridge House. He discharged the duties of "mine host " until November, 1860, when he was elected Circuit Clerk, in which incum- bency he served eight years. He became interested in securing the advantages of a line of railroad through Cambridge, and devoted his entire attention for the three years succeeding his release from official duties to the purpose of obtaining the pas- sage of the line of the Rock Island & Peoria Rail- road, and had the satisfaction of witnessing the success of his efforts. In 1871 he became associated with J. B. Hagin in traffic in grain, and subsequently with W. B. Fee. The approximate period of time which he passed in that enterprise was ten years.

Since 1881 he has engaged in the business relations already named.

The political views of Mr. Gould were shaped by the period in which he grew up and the circum- stances by which he was surrounded, and he was, on arriving at the privileges of citizenship, an adhe- rent of the Whig party, but with such decided prin- ciples concerning slavery that, on the formation of the Republican party in 1856, he fell into its ranks, and has since been one of its most consistent adhe- rents. In religious views he cherishes opinions of his own, but is tolerant of those of others. He is a member of Lodge No. 49, A. F. & A. M., at Cam- bridge.

Ang. 31, 1845, he was united in marriage in Thetford, Vt., to Harriet N. Burnap. She was born in that place April 10, 1826, and is the daughter of Luther and Susan (Huston) Burnap, both natives of Vermont. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Gould, two in number, are both deceased. The first-born died in infancy; Mary L., the younger, was born April 28, 1849. She married J. E. Ayres, and died July 3, 1874, having given birth to two children,- Mary L. and Amos E. Ayres.

red Thompson, station agent at Lynn, this county, also dealer in grain, etc., was born in New York, Jan. 29, 1838. His par- ents both died in his infancy, and he was reared by foster parents, whose name he took. At the age of nine, the breaking up of this family through the death of his endeared foster mother, left him practically without a home, though under the supervision of the father until the age of 17, when, not securing the educational advantages he craved, even at that age, he started out for him- self, determined to obtain an education as rapidly as possible by his own unaided efforts. He retains a vivid impression of his first engagement, at the munificent stipend of $5 per month !

His success was such that he advanced from the simple rudiments gained at a loving mother's knee to the first classes in the High Schools of Princeton and Dover, Bureau Co., Ill., teaching in the common schools winters to aid him in his object.

When the war became earnest and our martyred

Alfred P. Foster

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President made his first call for brave hearts and strong arms to enlist for three years, Fred Thomp- son, the subject of this sketch, enlisted in Co. K, 5Ist Ill. Inf., Col. L. P. Bradley, and served in the campaign against Island No. 10 and New Madrid, Mo., in the move on Corinth, Miss., after the battle of Shiloh, and in the Army of the Cumberland, in the Division of Gen. Sheridan, under Rosecrans at Stone River and Chickamauga, Ga., where, on Sept. 19, 1863, he was incapacitated from further active service in the ranks by a minie ball through the right elbow. Three months in a Government hos- pital at Nashville resulted in the saving of a crip- pled right arm by a skillful German surgeon and the first furlough home.

While there, upon the advice of an old army sur- geon, the study of telegraphy was undertaken, for which purpose a scholarship in Bryant & Stratton's Commercial College, of Chicago, was procured, but after a short attendance it was abandoned, as a journey South became necessary to procure a proper discharge from the army. His regiment being at this time engaged with Sherman in the move on At- lanta, papers could not be obtained ; and, not to be unoccupied, he sought a detail in the telegraph ser- vice, which he obtained, and thus gained the prac- tice necessary to perfect him in his future profession. He was finally" discharged, in February, 1865, at Springfield, Ill., under a general order. The recog- nition of his service, of which he is justifiably proud, is the fact of his standing at the head of the list chosen by his company by vote to constitute a " Roll of Honor " for meritorious service, ordered by Gen. Rosecrans in June, 1863.

At the time of his discharge, places were not plen- tiful in the line he had chosen, and, not willing to be idle, he rented land and raised a crop of corn ; but, finding himself unable to harvest the fruits of his labor, he gave that up, and in the winter secured labor as an operator, first on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy in Illinois, then on the Michigan Central Railroad in Michigan.

Mr. Thompson was united in marriage, in Berrien Co., Mich., Nov. 28, 1866, to Marinda A., daughter of William and Samantha Soule. She was born in Truxton, De Ruyter Co., N. Y., Sept. 19, 1841. Her parents were natives of that State, of New Eng- land parentage, and came to Aurora, Ill., in 1848.

Her father died there two years later. Mrs. T. was reared by a neighboring family till the year 1858, when she went to the family of her elder sister in Chicago, staying there two years and following them to Michigan. Two years later, in April, 1863, she was married to C. H. Topping, a member of the 42d Ill. Inf., who died in January, 1865, of disease con- tracted in the army, or at least greatly aggravated by exposure in his country's service. A little son of this union soon followed his father.

In January, 1871, Mr. Thompson came to Lynn, where he has since been employed as station and express agent and operator, being also a dealer in grain and produce generally. He has filled the offices of Township Clerk and School Director, and is politically a liberal Republican.

Of the marriage union have been born four chil- dren, as follows: Charles F., May 2, 1869; Alice W., May 18, 1872; George Wm., July 26. 1874; and Minnie Belle, March 9, 1877.

Mr. T. owns his substantial and comfortably furn- ished residence, and has made some investment in Nebraska land.

A Ifred P. Foster, a retired farmer and sur- veyor, residing in the village of Woodhull, was born in Hillsboro Co., N. H., in 1818. He remained with his parents, Aaron and Theodate (Chase) Foster, until one year after he had attained his majority. After leaving his parental homestead, Mr. Foster became a pioneer in Wisconsin, then a Territory, settling in Racine County, and was there engaged in the hydrographic survey of the western coast of Lake Michigan, under the late Col. T. J. Cram. Mr. Foster was engaged to survey an 80-acre tract as an addition to the vil- lage, now city, of Racine, and known as " Sage's Ad- dition." In 1852 he removed to the (then) village of Winona, a mere hamlet, in the sparsely settled Terri- tory of Minnesota. He became interested in the growth of his new place of residence, and was princi- pal owner of the Winona Republican, a newspaper now widely known. He was one of the first stockholders and advocates of the Winona & St. Peters Railroad, and labored, in his quiet way, in procuring a charter for that road. While here, he was given the office of

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Probate Judge, but, as a rule, was too retiring to mingle much in politics.

From this place he removed with his family to a small farm near the city of Rochester, N. Y., where he lived 1 1 years, improving, ornamenting and beau- tifying his farm ; and thence he removed, in 1868, to Clover Township, in this county, adjacent to the vil- lage of Woodhull, and purchased a small farm; and as usual, he made it blossom and smile, and now he has retired within the village to spend the winter of a long frontier life.

He was raised a Quaker, and his early instruction has greatly aided in guiding his footsteps. Emphati- cally a pioneer of the West, he has always been ready with his labor and means to assist any and all good works, and is respected for his honest and square dealings with his fellow-man.

He has been married three times. By his first wife two children were born to them-the eldest, a daughter, now living in St. Paul, Minn., and a son, at Berrien Springs, Mich.

Not only does Mr. Foster deserve the fullest rep- resentation in this ALBUM, but the public also will naturally expect a likeness of his features to be pre- sented in connection with the foregoing brief sketch.

Ifred Stickney, one of the energetic farm- ers of Oxford Township, residing on section 25, was born in Windsor Co., Vt., July 3, 1840, and is a son of Henry and Mary A. (Wood) Stickney, natives of Vermont and New Hampshire respectively. They came West in the year 1853, locating in Clover Township, Henry County, on section 27, and purchased 1,000 acres of land in the vicinity. Here he remained until his death, which occurred in 1866.

Alfred, of whom we write, attended the district schools in his township in the acquisition of an edu- cation, and assisted his father on the farm in his leisure moments, remaining under parental influence until he attained the age of 30 years. He is the possessor and owner of 380 acres of land in Clover Township, and seven in Oxford, on which he resides. He rents his farms, which are all in excellent condi- tion.

Mr. Stickney was married in 1870, to Miss M. E.

Simmons, a native of Ohio, and. they have become the parents of one child, a daughter, Carrie A. Mr. S. is a Republican in his political sentiments, and is considered one of the representative and worthy gentlemen of Henry County.

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Portrait and biographical album of Henry County, Illinois : containing full-page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county, Part 20

Author: Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 850

Author:
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 850