Portrait and biographical album of McLean county, Ill., containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county, Part 30

Author: Chapman brothers, Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1887
Publisher: Chicago : Chapman brothers
Number of Pages: 1222

USA > Illinois > McLean County > Portrait and biographical album of McLean county, Ill., containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county > Part 30

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Ansel Howard, Sr., in early life was united in marriage with Miss Louisa Wilbur, the mother of our subjeet. She was born in Easton, Mass., Sept. 5, 1804, and departed this life in Taunton, April 4, 1834. Mr. Howard afterward married Miss Phobe Bueklin, also a native of Massachusetts, and who died in Fall River, that State, in 1885. Of the first marriage there were four children: Louisa W. died May 11, 1843, in Taunton; Maria W. became the

wife of Daniel MeFarland, and lives in Mt. Hope Township; Ansel D., our subject, was the third ehild; James G. died Feb. 8, 1836, in Taunton. Of the second marriage there was one child, a son, Charles W., who died Feb. 27, 1859.

The subject of this history remained under the home roof and attended the eity sehools of Taun- ton until fifteen years of age. He then engaged as clerk in a drug-store, and later in a boot-and-shoe store. When seventeen years of age he began an apprenticeship at earriage-building, serving three years, and then spent two years in a locomotive manufactory. He became remarkably skillful in the use of tools, and after working as a " jour" in a wagon-shop one year, went into partnership with his father and operated with him until the fall of 1857, and the following spring came to Illinois.

After arriving in this eounty our subject en- gaged at farm work with S. J. Chapin for a brief time, afterward going into DeWitt County and working at his trade. There, after eighteen months, the shop in which he was employed was destroyed by fire, and he lost a large number of valuable tools. He then went to Independenee, Iowa, whence he returned after nine months to Waynes- ville, this State, and from there came to Heyworth in this county, where he built a shop and en- gaged in the manufacture of carriages and other vehieles four years. He then came back to the Prai- rie State and this eounty, and purchasing a farm in Mt. Hope Township, engaged in agricultural pur- suits until 1875. He then sold out, and going to MeLean engaged in the furniture trade. In 1881. he became associated with his present partner, Laban F. Gifford, and added hardware to his other stoek. The firm is on a substantial basis, and doing a profitable and steadily increasing trade.

Mr. Howard was married in October, 1855. to Miss Mary B. Hunter, who was a native of Warren, R. I., and the daughter of William S. Hunter, of the same town and State. Rufus Hunter, the grand- father of Mrs. II., was a native of Rhode Island, and in early life followed the sea in the whaling service. His father served as a soldier in the Revolu- tionary War, and his son Rufus was in the War of 1812. William Hunter, the father of Mrs. Howard, followed the sea from the time he was sixteen until

George Wilson

MRS. GEORGE WILSON.

MCLEAN COUNTY.

he was thirty years of age, and then engaged in ship-building in Warren, R. I. He left New En- gland in 1858, and crossing the Mississippi settled in Buchanan County, Iowa, and still lives there upon a comfortable homestead. He married, in carly manhood, Miss Sarah Luther, who was born in Rehoboth, Mass., and died in Warren, R. I., in 1840. For his second wife William S. Hunter mar- ried Miss Lydia Luther, a' sister of the first lady.

Mr. and Mrs. Howard have two children-Mary / L., the wife of Laban F. Gifford, of MeLean, and Ella M., who married Willis Snow, and lives in Mt. Hope Township. The parents and daughters are members of the Congregational Church, of which Mr. Howard has been Treasurer and one of the leading members for several years. He has in all respects fulfilled the obligations of a good citizen, and enjoys the friendship and esteem of the com- munity in a marked degree.

R EV. GEORGE WILSON, of Bloomington Township, a gentleman of rare literary abil- ity, a minister of the Baptist Church, and who has also combined the peaceful and pleasurable pursuit of agriculture with his other life labors, has been a resident of MeLean County since 1858, at which time he located upon a purchase which he made nearly twenty years before. He has been remarkably successful in his undertakings in life, and to his agricultural pursuits has added that of stock-raising, which he has carried on exten- sively and profitably for a number of years. He is the owner of 570 acres of land, 320 in this county, and 250 in Ford County, Ill., and since becoming a resident of this locality has aided materially in the building up of its industrial and agricult- ural interests, as well as its great moral bulwarks.

The subject of this history was born in Allegheny County, Pa., on the 22d of Angust, 1817. His father, Samuel Wilson (who always spelled his name Willson), was of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth Crag- head, whose descendants were of the same races. The mother was a native of Maryland, and her father was a Captain in the French and Indian

War, and also a Colonel in the Revolutionary War. After the marriage of the parents of our subject they settled in Pennsylvania, where they spent the remainder of their lives.

George Wilson remained in his native State, re- ceiving careful home training and a good ednea- tion. He pursued his primary studies in private schools, and at the age of sixteen years attended Franklin College, in Harrison County, Ohio. After completing his studies in this institution he en- tered Theological Hall, a seminary of learning which is conducted by the United Presbyterian Church, and there received literary and ministerial instruction, under the tutorship of Rev. Dr. John Pressley. Before entering on his theological stud- ies his father died. He spent three years with Dr. Pressley, and was «then licensed to preach by tlie Presbytery of the Associate Reform Church of Monongahela. He was ordained in the fall of 1841 by the Mansfield Presbytery, but after a few years withdrew from the church of his early choice and received immersion from the Baptist Church, with which he has since beeu connected.

After a few years of ministerial labor in Mans- field, Ohio, Mr. Wilson caine to Illinois and engaged in the ministry in this State. Prior to making this his home in (1839) he had traveled over the larger portion of the State, conversed with many educated and intellectual men, and here began the more practical development of his religious thought and ideas. These he soon began to put upon paper, and in the course of time became quite noted as the author of a valuable religious work, "Baptismal Con- troversy Reviewed," which is a very logical work, consisting of 434 pages, bound in cloth. He has also in manuscript a work entitled "The Kingdom of God Developed, According to the Inspired Rec- ord and Predictions." Many years of his life were spent in this latter work, and it will soon be placed in the hands of the publishers. In this Mr. Wilson hopes to fill a vacant niche in sacred literature. Al- though his literary labors have consumed much time and labor, Mr. Wilson has worked indus- triously alike at his farming pursuits.

The marriage of Rev. George Wilson and Miss Margaret Taggart was celebrated in Belmont County, Ohio, in 1841. Mrs. W. was a daughter

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of Rev. William Taggart, D. D., a prominent min- ister in the Associate Reform Church of Ohio. She was born Oet. 16, 1821, and reared in her na- tive State, receiving a liberal education, and by her union with our subjeet became the mother of seven children, viz .: Sarah E., Mary J., William T., Margaret G., Amelia A., Maria I. and Geor- giette C. The family occupy a handsome and comfortable residence, and are surrounded by a large eircle of friends and acquaintances. This fair home was invaded by death March 18, 1887, when the faithful wife and fond and tender mother was taken from them.

Her decease was caused by a complication of diseases, principally of the liver and lungs. She had suffered mueh for many years, and was often at the "Gates of Death," but rallied, and was aetive to the last attaek, which eommeneed with hem- orrhage of the lungs and terminated in stragula- tion.

Tenacity for early impressions and teaching was the predominant trait of her mind, and she never gave up any of them while she eould resist the evi- denee against them.

In her last attaek she could talk but little; but in former attaeks of ehills. caused by the obstrue- tion of the gall duet, she raved mueh, continually repeating detached portions of Psalms in meter. · With these Psalms she was familiar from ehildhood, and eould sing them without book or preeentor, and when no human voice could impress her she had all the counsel, praise and prayers enstamped on her mind, mingled with incoherent thoughts. She was a life member of the Iowa Baptist State Con- vention, the Bible Union, and of the Missionary Union. The following beautiful and tender lines were penned by Mr. Wilson, whose heart was bur- dened with a sense of his loneliness at the loss of his beloved life companion :

Now rest in peace, thy journey is o'er. And we on earth shall meet no more; I'll tread alone this thorny path, And finish up our work at last.

Then I shall talk as spirits do, And learn what now is known to you; The life we now begin by faith Will not be altered by death.

And when the Savior comes again, We hope to follow in His train; The earth a Paradise will be, And here again I'll walk with thee.

The "casket" now eneloses thy form, But thy bosom and head I ean see; Thy face is pale, yet fresh as the morn; Thy closed eyes return no look unto me.

Margaret! we are going to take thee away. To dwell in thy lonely house of clay ; Thy place at bome will be empty still, For no other one thy place can fill.

Thy coffin is lowered, we bid thee adien, The earth replaced eoneeals thee from view. The last sight I took, thy image impressed What time can never erase from my breast ; Nor can I forget my first days with you : Thou wast young, fair, lovely and true.

O! thy grave is so lonely, and I feel as if thou Felt its loneliness, too, and desertion, e'en now. Thank God! Not here! Thy spirit is gone. I stand beside thy cold grave alone. At home, thon, with those first you have loved, And had gone before you had removed.

I stand alone. No voice from thee speaks Me joy and peace, nor me reproaches For consigning thee to this eold, dark. and Drear abode. Thou art at home-the better Home and better company ; but still I feel- I feel-my better judgment eannot change My feelings. My last impressions must Grow dim with age and worn ont with cares. Labors, and sorrows thou wilt not know.

In polities Mr. Wilson is a staneh Republican. He was a strong anti-slavery man, and during the early history of the party assisted greatly in the establishment of its principles, by giving leetures for this purpose whenever time and opportunity permitted. At the same time he vigorously ad- voeated the abolition of slavery, and there is no doubt that his words at that time left an ineffaeeable impress upon the people of Ohio. He can now pass down the sunset hill of life with the conseiousness that he has been a good and fathful servant in the eause of right and justice. It is with pleasure that we give the portrait of Mr. Wilson with this brief outline of his life, and as .a fitting companion pieture we give that of his wife.

E SEK E. GREENMAN, one of the earliest pioneers of MeLean County, came to this section Aug. 29, 1829, and after following farming the greater part of his life retired from aetive labor and removed to Leroy, where he is now living in the enjoyment of a competeney. He was

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McLEAN COUNTY."

born three miles from Waterford, Washington Co., Ohio, Jan. 23, 1816. His father, John Greenman, was a native of Providence, R. I., and his grand- father, Jeremiah Greenman, was of Welsh birth and parentage, and came to the United States when a young man. He was accompanied by two brothers, and they located in Providence, R. I. During the struggle of the colonists for independence he was a commissioned officer of the Revolutionary War, and was taken prisoner by the British at the battle of Quebec. After being released he engaged in farming pursuits, and subsequently emigrated to Ohio, and spent the last years of his life in Wash- ington County. His son John, the father of our subject, was a young man when his parents removed from Rhode Island to Ohio. He had received a good education in his native State, and taught school in Washington County before his marriage. After this event he located on a farm, but still de- voted the greater part of his time for twenty years to the profession of a teacher.

In 1826 he removed to Waterford, where he leased a hotel and ferry, which he operated for one year, then removed three miles up the river, where he purchased sixty acres of land, and lived until 1829. Early in August of that year he started for the West, accompanied by his wife and nine ehil- dren, together with Seth Baker and family. The entire journey was made overland with teams. Mr. Greenman had one pair of horses and a wagon, and Maj. Baker, one yoke of oxen and a horse in lead. They eamped and cooked by the wayside, and the journey, especially through Indiana, was slow and tedious. In places the sloughs were so bad that all the animals were required to pull one wagon through. Each cheerfully assisted the other, how- ever, and they arrived at " Blooming Grove" on the 29th of Angust, halting at the home of their former neighbor, and the brother of Maj. Baker, Dr. Isaae Baker. After looking around three or four days they found a vacant double log honse in the grove, four miles south of the present site of the city of Bloomington. Into one end of this Mr. Greenman removed with his family, while the other was reserved for school purposes, Mr. G. officiating as pedagogue.

In November following James Allin, a merchant

from Vandalia and proprietor of a store at the southi part of the grove, came along looking after his interests there and to seek a new location. He made a claim to the land which is the present site of Bloomington, and indueed the father of our sub- ject to remove liis family there, and in considera- tion let him have the west half of the southwest quarter of section 4, Mr. Allin reserving twenty acres off the east side for the purpose of laying out what was the original site of Bloomington. This sixty aeres is on the east side of Madison street, and within one block of the court-honse. Mr. Greenman built a double log house between Wash- ington and Front streets and near Madison, and this was the second house put up on the original site of the city of Bloomington. Mr. Greenman also en- tered a traet of eighty aeres on what is now section 6. This transaction took place on the 22d of .Feb- ruary, 1830, and our subject has in his possession the receipt for the money, which was signed by William L. D. Ewing, Receiver, who was after- ward Governor of Illinois. In this house Lydia E. Greenman, the sister of our subject, taught the first school opened in Bloomington, in the summer of 1830.

The father of our subject, in tlc meantime, as- sisted Mr. Allin in the store, which he had moved there in the spring, and in the fall and winter he taught a term of school two and one-half miles southwest of the future eity. In the spring of 1831 he sold his land and removed to De Witt County, entering a claim three miles south of Waynesville. He removed there with his family, and in October of that same year was seized with fatal illness and died. 'The family then returned to McLean County and entered eighty acres of land two and one-half miles southwest of Bloom- ington. There was a log cabin on the place, into which the family moved, but on account of the se- verity of the weather soon left it and rented a house in Bloomington. In 1833 the mother of our subjcet was again married, to Dr. Isaae Baker, and spent the last years of her life at his home in Bloomington. After the death of her first husband she kept her family together until they were all able to eare for themselves.

Esek E. Greenman was thirteen years of age

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when he eame to MeLean County with his parents, and fifteen when his father died. Ile remained with his mother two years afterward, and then went to learn the trade of a carpenter and joiner, at which he served until the summer of 1835, when he went to Dixon's Ferry, now in Lee County, Ill., and after following the business of helping build cabins on Old Man's Creek, shortly after the Black Ilawk War, proceeded from there to Plattsville, Wis., where he entered the lead mines and remained one and one-half years. Ile then returned to Bloomington for a year, and was variously em- ployed there and elsewhere until 1838. He then went to Cedar County. Iowa, in company with two brothers, where they entered two elaims, broke and feneed the land, built a eabin and made other im- provements, and then, leaving one brother in eharge, our subjeet and the other went into Daven- port to earn money by which to seeure their pur- ehase. Our subjeet was then taken siek, and finally returned to Bloomington. His mother then sold the land near there and gave each ehild his share of the estate. Esek E. and his brother again started for Iowa with teams, and while on the way ran aeross a mill site on Skunk River below Au- gusta, in Des Moines County, Iowa, and coneluded to stop there and build a saw and grist mill. This was in 1840, while Iowa was yet a Territory. In June, 1843, our subject sold his interest in the mill, and returning to Bloomington, purchased a carriage and proceeded to Chieago, where he purchased a stoek of dry-goods and notions, and starting home- ward peddled them through the country. Late in the fall of 1843 he stopped with Hiram Buek, the popular landlord of the Leroy hotel. and Mr. Buek indueed him to settle at Leroy and establish a store. Mr. Buek offered to board him for $1 a week as long as he would stay. Mr. Greenman formed a partnership with S. D. Baker, and with $250 worth of goods on hand, and another $100 worth pur- ehased in Bloomington, on eredit, and a good team, started in business here Feb. 13, 1844. They op- erated together for fourteen years, earrying a gen- eral stoek of everything required in those days, from a thimble to a grindstone, and accumulated sufficient means so that in time our subjeet pur- ehased a farm of 240 aeres a few miles west of Le-

roy. Ile still remained in town, but eontrolled his farming interests for about two years, and then en-' gaged in the grocery trade. In 1868 he sold out and retired from active business with a fine'eompe- teney, which will enable him to pass the remainder of his days surrounded by all the comforts of life and many of its luxuries. The third year after Mr. Greenman eommeneed renting his farın he made a lease with George W. Segler, and Mr. Segler has now oceupied the place for the long period of nineteen years, as tenant, which probably has not a parallel ease in MeLean County.

The marriage of Esek E. Greenman and Miss Martha Pearce was celebrated Feb. 14, 1848. Mrs. G. was born in Mechanisburg, Champaign Co., Ohio, Feb. 27, 1831. She beeame the mother of eight children, and departed this life July 14, 1864. Only three of their family are living: Mary Belle is the widow of Seott Crumbaugh, and resides with 'her father in Leroy; John' E. and Charles E. are also at home. Mr. Greenman was formerly a Demoerat in polities, but has been a Republican since the organization of this party. He has been Postmaster of Leroy, was a member of the School Board for nine years and School Treasurer six years. Soeially he belongs to the Le- roy Lodge No. 221, A. F. & A. M., Bloomington Chapter.

During his long residenee in this vicinity Mr. Greenman has fully established himself in the confi- dence and respeet of his fellow-townsmen, and has assisted materially in the growtli and development of Empire Township. He has been a man of ex- eellent judgment and foresight, and whether at ear- pentering or mining, teaching, farming or in trade, he was uniformly sueeessful, and whenever he en- countered difficulties did not allow them to overeome him, but returned to the attack with renewed vigor. IIe displayed rare judgment in his mining operations and seemed to have an intuitive knowl- edge of the richest leads. When he and his partner first began they followed the suggestions of the lat- ter and dug without results, but when they ehanged to where Mr. Greenman believed they would find a rich vein of ore it proved as he had predicted. Mr. G. was at Belmont when it was the capital of Wis- eonsin, and traveled over a considerable portion of

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MCLEAN COUNTY.

the three States of Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois bc- fore there was any railroad or even a wagon traek. He lias witnessed strange seenes, remarkable changes, and no man has viewed with more satis- faetion the growth and development of the Great West.

The mother of our subject, before her marriage, was Miss Ruth White, and,she was born in Barnard, Vt., Dec. 31, 1793. Her father, Deacon David White, a member of the Presbyterian Church, was born in Hardwick, Mass., when he removed to Ver- mont in 1799, and from there to Washington County, Ohio, where he died in Waterford Town- ship, Nov. 13, 1840. His wife died Nov. 21, 1841.

S AMUEL I. LEACII, Supervisor of Mt. Hope Township, is a highly respected resident of the village of MeLean, where he owns a comfortable estate, and by his energy and industry has obtained the means whereby he is now able to enjoy the good things of life, while his excellent personal traits of character, his ready sympathy and uniform kindness of disposition have gained him the deep respeet of his fellow-citizens.

The subject of this biography is a native of the Old Granite State, having first opened his eyes to the light among the New Hampshire Hills, in Cheshire County, and the town of Westmoreland. The date of his birth was Dec. 31, 1840. His father, Bradley Leach, was a native of the same town and county ; his grandfather, Isaae Leach, also a native of Ches- hire County, was a farmer by occupation, spent his entire life in the county of his birth, and departed from the scenes of his earthly labors after having attained the ripe old age of over ninety years. His son Bradley, the father of our subject, in early man- hood learned the trade of a blacksmith, which he followed since that time at Westmoreland, Ches- hire County, where he still resides, being now eighty-one years of age. After having arrived at years of manhood he was united in marriage with Miss Eliza Woodward, a native of Westmoreland, Cheshire County, and she still remains his faithful

and affectionate companion, being his junior by one year. The household circle embraced eight children, five of whom are still living.

Samuel I. Leach was the fifth child and third son of his parents' family. He was reared under the parental roof, receiving a fair education in the com- mon schools and in the academy at South Village. He was fond of study and ambitions to excel, and after he had completed his primary course, par- sued a more advanced one at Meriden, N. H., and engaged in teaching, which he pursued the three snececding winters. At this time, the late Civil War being then in progress, he enlisted as a soldier of the Union, Aug. 31, 1862, in Co. A, 14th N. H. Vol. Inf., and served in the army until the elose of the war. The first year he was employed at Brigade Headquarters in the Quartermaster's De- partment, on detached service, and he was after- ward assigned to duty at Campbell General Hos- pital, Washington, D. C. At the close of the war he received an honorable discharge with his com- rades, on the 21st of July, 1865, and immediately returned to New Hampshire. After visiting among his old friends and acquaintances for about a month he came west to MeLean County, Ill., and engaged as book-keeper for C. C. Aldrich, with whom he has continued with the exception of one year since that time. In 1883 he associated him- self in partnership with R. E. Gifford, and opened a grocery store, which has now become one of the leading establishments of its kind in this vicinity. To their first stock he has added a line of general merchandise, and now enjoys an extensive and lu- crative trade.

Mr. Leach was united in marriage with Miss Naney Maria Blake, on the 12th of October, 1862. Mrs. Leach is a native of Swanzey, Cheshire County, N. H., and the daughter of Benjamin C. and Emeline (Aldrich) Blake, a native of the same town and county. Benjamin C. Blake learned the trade of a tanner, and after following this a few years departed this life at the early age of twenty- six years. The maiden name of his wife was Eme- line Aldrich. She is still living, and makes her home with her son-in-law, the subject of our sketch.

Samuel I. and Mrs. Naney M. Leach have be- come the parents of five children, as follows: Fred

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McLEAN COUNTY.

S., Carlon W., Blake, Carrie De Etta and Mattie Maria.

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Portrait and biographical album of McLean county, Ill., containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county, Part 30

Author: Chapman brothers, Chicago, pub Publication date: 1887 Publisher: Chicago : Chapman brothers Number of Pages: 1222

Author: Chapman brothers, Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1887
Publisher: Chicago : Chapman brothers
Number of Pages: 1222