USA > Illinois > Morgan County > Portrait and biographical album of Morgan and Scott Counties, Illinois > Part 72
USA > Illinois > Scott County > Portrait and biographical album of Morgan and Scott Counties, Illinois > Part 72
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Mr. Chance is an old resident of Scott County, and it is said that, obeying the injunction of his father, he has never entered a saloon, nor has he
ever drank a drop of intoxicating liquor. The family is a very hospitable one, have a nice home and everything comfortable around them. Politi- cally, Mr. Chance votes the straight Republican ticket, and has served for years as School Director and Superintendent of Roads. Both husband and wife are active members of the Methodist Episco- pal Church, of which organization Mr. Chance is a Trustee.
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EZEKIAH EVANS, a veteran of the late war, was born in Clark County, Ky., June 12, 1827. Ilis father, Daniel Evans, a farmer by occupation, came to Morgan County in 1829 and settled on a tract of govern- ment land abont one-half mile from the present limits of the city of Winchester, Scott County.
The hardships, privations and trials of a typical pioneer were undergone by the elder Evans, and little did he know that a mighty empire was to spring up where was then virgin prairie. But he, in common with all other brave pioneers, builded better than he knew. Posterity will not likely re- call what these people did for the advancement of this great country, but the fact nevertheless remains that the march of civilization owes its progress to these old heroes, and it is meet that their names should be embalmed in history. From Winches- ter, in 1853, the father, Daniel Evans, removed to lowa, and from there, a year later, to Missouri, where he lived until the outbreak of the late war. During the Rebellion he lived in Winchester, thence returned to Missouri, and at Kirksville, that State, spent the remainder of his life, dying in 1874 at the age of seventy-two years.
Ilezekialı was the second of seven sons. In 1852 Hezekiah Evans went to California overland, and remained there one year, returning to Illinois via the Isthmus and New York. In 1855 he engaged in the livery business, and in March 1863, enlisted at Winchester as a private soldier in Company F, 33d Illinois Infantry, and served until mustered out by reason of the close of the war in Nov. 1865. Leaving the army he returned to Winchester, and has here continued to prosecute his old calling. that of the livery business - in which he has been
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very successful-up to the present time. HIc has been five times elected alderman, a fact which fully illustrates his popularity and fitness for the office, and is now representing the second ward in the City Council. Ile has always been an active and aggressive Democratic worker and possesses the fullest confidence of his party, while his election to the position of Post Commander of the G. A. R. at this place, attests alike his fidelity, patriotism and good citizenship.
Mr. Evans was married in this county in 1849 to Miss Harriet Claywell, who has borne him eight children, four of whom are dead. The living are: Hezekiah Jr., now in St. Louis; Laura (Mrs. Frank Morgan) of St. Louis; Charles, who is asso- ciated with his father in the livery business, and William. The list of the deceased is as follows: James died in 1849, aged four months; Charles died in 1854, aged two years; Minnie died in 1867, aged eighteen months; Ollie died in 1888, aged thirty-three years; and Hattie died in 1872, aged fifteen months. In addition to their own children Mr. and Mrs. Evans have reared eleven orphans. which fact fully attests the kind-heartedness of this couple.
R EV. WILLIAM SUMMERFIELD CLARK. The earlier years of the subject of this no- tice indicated that his life would be spent largely in the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, but an inscrutable Providence, seemed to direct otherwise, and on account of failing health he was obliged to abandon a work which lay very near his heart. Then turning his attention to agricultural pursuits as the best means of building up a constitution never extremely ro- bust, he established himself on section 24, township 13, range 12, Seott County, where he has developed a fine farm and is living amidst the quiet enjoyment of rural life. Not far from this property is his father's old homestead, where he was born Oct. 22, 1837.
Edward J. Clark, the father of our subject, was born in Washington County, West Virginia, whence he migrated to this region as early as 1834 and took up a tract of land in Manchester Precinct
from which he removed in 1837 to that which now constitutes the old homestead. There he spent the remainder of his life, passing away Jan. 30, 1889. The mother, Mrs. Sarah (Smith) Clark, was also a native of Washington County, in the Old Dominion, and the parental household included seven children, viz: Mary C., now Mrs. Peter Clark; William, our subject; Margaret, Mrs. Van Tyle; Virginia, Mrs. Hughes; Lueintha, Isabelle and Lizzie, Mrs. Smith.
The subject of this notice pursued his first studies at the old-fashioned school-house in his native township and embraced every opportunity for the acquisition of useful knowledge. He was a quiet and serious youth and identified himself with the Methodist Episcopal Church at the early age of eighteen years. Eleven years later, in 1866, he became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Con- ference and labored as an itinerant for a period of thirteen years. He was then superannuated and, greatly to his regret, retired from the ministry.
The Clark homestead comprises 131 acres of choice farming land and is largely devoted to stock-raising. It was purchased by. our subject in 1852, and here he has since lived. He was married March 20, 1860, to Miss Tabitha A. Akers, daugh- ter of Thomas Akers of this county, and of this union there were born five children, four of whom are living, namely: William F., Luella F., Oscar M. and Charles W. William married Miss Bell Ilel- mick and lives in DeKalb County, Mo .; Luella is the wife of R. J. Ash, of Manchester this county, and is the mother of one child, an infant daughter. Mr. Clark during the progress of the late Civil War enlisted in Company G, 91st Illinois Infantry, and was in the service nine months, during which time he assisted in the repulse of Morgan in his at- tack upon the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, at Elizabethtown, Ky. He was taken prisoner and paroled and soon afterward received his honorable discharge on account of disability. He has always been a Republican, politically, and socially belongs to the G. A. R. He is a man of more than ordi- nary intelligence, a deep thinker and an extensive reader, and the many friends who watched his early career predicted for him many honors from the Church of his choice, in whose behalf he was
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willing to spend his time and strength. His im- pulses have been those of a good man in the broad- est sense of the term, and he has exercised a health- ful influence upon all by whom he has been surrounded.
ANIEL W. MILLS. Probably no man is more popular among his fellow citizens than Mr. Mills, who is proseenting agri- culture very successfully on a finely culti- vated farm of 196 acres, comprising a portion of section 2, township 15, range 13, in Scott County. He is still on the sunny side of forty, having been born July 16, 1848, at the homestead where he now lives and where he was reared to man's estate. His boyhood and youth were spent after the manner of inost farmers' sons, and he assisted in the various labors around the homestead, remaining a member of the parental household until twenty years of age. About this time he assumed its management, and many of the improvements which have since been effected have been the result of his own industry, he having put up buildings, laid rails for fences and planted hedges for the same purpose, also set- ting out fruit and shade trees and increasing the area of cultivated land, so that he has about 160 acres under the plow. The land is watered by Mauvaisterre Creek and is exceedingly fertile, yielding to its owner a handsome income. There is also a living spring on the farm and native tim- ber sufficient for all practical purposes. An apple and peach orchard and trees of the smaller fruits yield to the family the luxuries of the season.
Some of the best of New England blood flows in the veins of our subject, who is the son of Alford Mills, a native of Massachusetts and born in 1802. 'The paternal grandfather, James Mills, who was also born in the Bay State, was a mill- wright by trade, which he followed in his native place and in Genesee County, New York, to which lie subsequently removed. lle, with one of his sons, served as a private in the War of 1812, the latter officiating as a drummer. Grandfather Mills came to Illinois jn 1821 and located near Jackson- ville, where he lived a year, then removed to the
vicinity of Exeter, where, in partnership with Jesse Diekson, he put up a saw and grist-mill, the first of the kind in this seetion, and occupied the first house in Exeter, which, it is hardly necessary to say, was a log cabin. He finally retired from active labor and died in Exeter.
· 'The father of our subject came to Illinois in 1821 and entered eiglity acres of the present home- stead, which he improved with buildings and fences. Prior to this purchase he had been em- ployed in the lead mines of Galena, and thus ob- tained the money with which to buy land. He was married, August 29, 1830, to Miss Beda Lowe, who was born in New Madrid, Missouri, March 27, 1807. Iler father, Aquilla Lowe, was born in Pennsyl- vania and went to Tennessee when a boy, where, upon approaching manhood, he engaged in farın- ing. Later he served in the War of 1812, was captured and confined a prisoner at New Orleans for some time. Prior to this, however, he had en- gaged as a live-stock dealer in his native State. From there he finally removed to Missouri, where he dealt in live-stock for a time, then returned to Tennessee. After the war was over he migrated again across the Mississippi and operated as a car- penter in St. Louis. In 1819 he came to Scott County, this State, and entered a tract of land near what was then the small hamlet of Geneva. Upon this he effected some improvements, but later re- moved to the vieinity of Evansville, in Cass County. In the meantime he served as a soldier in the Black Hawk War, and maintained his prinei- ples as a member of the old Whig party. He had the honor of driving the first stake in locating the county seat of Morgan County, and one of his Democratic friends named it Jacksonville. Ile died in Scott County at the age of sixty years. The maternal great-grandfather of Mrs. Mills, also named Aquilla Lowe, was a native of Germany and emigrated to America prior to the Revolution- ary War, in which he took part. He settled in Pennsylvania, but died at Knoxville, Tennessee.
The mother of our subject was very young when she removed with her parents to Tennessee from Missouri and made her home with her unele. Although a child of three years she still remembers the earthquake at New Madrid She was twelve
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MORGAN AND SCOTT COUNTIES.
years old when she came to Illinois and remained at home until her marriage. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and to her and her husband there were born eight children: Harriet, Mrs. Webster, lives near Exeter; Laura, Mrs. Straight, is a widow and lives with her mother; James, during the Civil War, served in the 129th Illinois Infantry, enlisting in 1862. Ile contracted lung trouble from which he died soon after. Mary A., Mrs. Graves, lives on a farm in Chautauqua County, Kansas; Aquilla enlisted the same year and in the same regiment with his brother James. served all through the war and was the eolor bearer of his regiment part of the time. He is farming in Cowley County, Kansas. Saralı E., Mrs. Has- kell, is the wife of a prosperous farmer of Seott County ; Rhoda, Mrs. Funk, lives on a farm near Exeter; Daniel W., our subject, was the next in order of birth.
Our subjeet, politically, is a stauneh Republican and has served on the Grand Jury. In his farming operations he makes a specialty of full-blooded Ches- ter-White swine and graded Short-Horn eattle. Ile employs three teams to operate his farm, and is a great lover of fine horses, and owns some valuable specimens of the equine raee, including the cele- brated Belgum, "Bai Brussels," and is a stoek- holder in the Horse Breeders' Association at Bluffs.
Mr. Mills was married near Exeter, November 24, 1875, to Miss Nellie Funk, a native of Scott County and a narrative of whose parents may be found in the sketch of Jacob Funk on another page of this Album. Of this nnion there has been born one child only, a son, Clifford, October 7, 1886.
h ERMAN D. VANNIER is a native of Han- over, Germany, where he was born Oct. 1, 1832, and reared on a farm. His father, Frederick Vannier, was also a native of Hanover, Germany, and by trade a gunsmith. He removed to London, England, and there enlisted in the Englishi army, and was sent back to Germany to fight the French from 1812 to 1815. In 1851 he eame to Ameriea, and died very soon after lie landed, at the age of sixty-two years. Ilis wife
was Kate Shown. She was also born in Hanover, and came to America in 1851 and died in 1855, leaving six children: Diek, Henry, Margaret, An- nie, Ilerman and Mary. Dick and Henry were both in the Mexican War.
Herman D. received a common-school education in his native land and after he became ten years of age he worked on a farm for his father. In 1851 he came to America with his parents, leaving Bremen on the sailing vessel "Tousan ;" after a voy- age which covered eight weeks and three days, they landed in New Orleans, whenee they came directly to St. Louis. From St. Louis he came to Scott County and from here he proceeded to Peoria, where he followed the work of firing on a steam- boat, a business he proscented for some time. In 1857 he came to Scott County and rented some land, which he continued doing for eiglit years, after which time he bought eighty acres. By dint of hard work and under many disadvantages, he cleared this tract of land and stayed on it until 1875, when he purchased his present place of 290 aeres. This farm was an improved one, partially, and he has sinee cleared it up until he has now 175 aeres under plow, well feneed, and containing a splendid orchard. It is well watered by springs. and upon it is ereeted a large commodious farm house and other buildings. Ile is engaged in a general farm business, and among other things. raises Clydesdale horses. His eattle and hogs are of improved breeds, and a sourec of considerable revenue to him.
Mr. Vannier was married in Peoria, in February, 1852, to Miss Mary Middendorf, a native of IIan- over. Iler father was a soldier in Germany, and also a farmer. He came to America in 1860 and loeated at Bluffs, where he engaged in farming until his death, which occurred in August, 1878. ller mother was also a native of Germany, and died July 4, 1886, leaving eight children, of whom Mrs. Vannier was the eldest, having been born Jan. 15, 1828. While yet in Germany she learned the dressmaker's trade, a calling she pursued until her emigration to America. She erossed the ocean on the same ship as her husband did. She was the mother of eight children: llenry W., Annie, George J., John D., Mary K., Frederick G., Carrie
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A. and William (deceased). Ilenry married Ada Bloyd, and is now a resident of Seward, Neb .; Annie married John Gansman, and they also reside at Seward, Neb .; George married Emma Aldridge, and is farming at Bluffs; John married Annie Morthole, and they are residing in Seward, Neb .; Mary married John O'Hara, who is a coal miner at Centerville, Iowa. The rest of the children are at home with their parents.
Mr. Vannier is a Democrat, and has held the office of School Director for three years. He is also an active member of the Lutheran Church. Mr. V. is of the hard working farmers whose modesty is apparent, and is adverse to publicly parading his actions, but nevertheless he is one of the solid farmers of this county, and one who will Jeave to his children the priceless heritage of a good name.
G EORGE M. HOLLOWAY. This fine old gentleman of English descent and Ken- tucky birth, has nearly rounded up the seventy-sixth year of his age, and if what his neighbors say about him is to be relied upon, he has reason to look with satisfaction upon a life which has been filled in with good and pleasant deeds, and also with many years of industrious labor. He owns and occupies one of the pleasant- est homes in township 14, range 13, Scott County, and besides possessing a competence has an admira- ble share of sound common sense and a genial temperament, which has all his life long been con- tinually winning for him the friendship of those with whom he has been brought in contact.
Mr. Holloway was the youngest of the nine children, three sons and six daughters, born to his parents, and is the only survivor of the family. Ilis native place was in Clark County, Ky., about eight miles from Winchester, and the date of his birth, June 14, 1813. He commenced going to school in the Blue Grass State, but in 1828 the family came to Illinois, settling in Morgan County, upon a tract of land from which they constructed a comfortable homestead, and where the parents of our subject spent their last years, after having cach arrived to the advanced age of about eighty
years. John and Millie (Burch) Holloway, the parents of our subject, were natives respectively of Virginia and Kentucky. The father served as a soldier in the War of 1812, but aside from this engaged in farming all his life. The first repre- sentatives of the family in this country came over from England and settled in Culpeper County, Va., during the colonial times. The brothers and sis- ters were all natives of Kentucky. The family became somewhat scattered, most of the children making their homes in Illinois.
The subject of this sketch was reared to man- hood in this county, receiving a limited education, but growing strong and healthy in body and mind and well fitted for the future duties of life. When a little over thirty years of age he was married Aug. 29, 1833, to Miss Mary New. Mrs. Holloway was born in Ohio County, Ky., May 29, 1811, and came to Illinois a few years after the arrival of her future husband. The newly wedded pair estab- lished themselves in a modest dwelling on a farm in township 14, range 13, but after occupying that a few years sold out and purchased their present farm. Upon this there had been effected only a few improvements, and Mr. Holloway for many years thereafter labored early and late in the build- ing up of his home and the accumulation of some- thing for his declining years. The household cir- cle was completed by the birth of nine children,- Lueinda, John C., Permelia, Mary, Martha, Saman- tha, Lucy, Wealthy J. and Melissa.
W ILLIAM W. SHEPHERD, one of the most prominent farmers and stock raisers of Morgan County, came to the Prairie State a poor man and by the exercise of diligence and economy has amassed a modest fortune. Ilis real estate comprises a farm of well-tilled land, 230 acres in extent, with a handsome residence, a sub- stantial barn and all the other buildings necessary for the prosecution of general agriculture and the care and keeping of fine stock. In the latter in- dustry he is associated with his son, Morris II." They make a specialty of Shorthorn cattle of the best strains and have been eminently successful.“
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Their reputation in this line is not confined to their own immediate neighborhood but extends through- out the State. As a thorough and skillful farmer Mr. Shepherd oeeupies a position in the front rank, while as a citizen he is first-elass.
A native of Adams County, Ohio, Mr. Shepherd was born May 5, 1827, and spent his childhood and youth amid the pioneer scenes of the Buekeye State, acquiring a fair education mostly in the eomnon sehools of his native county. In 1841, when he was a lad of fourteen years his father de- eided to push further westward, and eame to La- Salle County, this State, where the family sojourned two years. In 1844 the father and his son, William W. purchased a farm near Orleans, which remained the family homestead for a quarter of a century. The next removal was to the farm now owned and oe- cupied by our subject, where the parents, William and Jane L. (Blair) Shepherd spent their last years. A sketch of them will be found on another page in this volume.
The subject of this notice at the age of twenty- five years was first married at Jacksonville, Ill., Oet. 12, 1852, to Miss Susan M. Simpson, who was born in South Hampton, England, April 6, 1831. Her mother died in England and Susan M. came with her father to Ameriea in 1844, when a child of thirteen years. She had then received the rudi- ments of a good education in that well-known in- stitution, Miss Chapman's Female Seminary, near London. Iler union with our subjeet resulted in the birth of five children who are recorded as follows: Morris H., was born March 29, 1854, is unmarried and engaged with his father in operating the homestead; Emma V., was born Dec. 6, 1855 and died June 12, 1857; Benjamin Franklin was born April 24, 1858, and is engaged as a salesman for the Holliday Lock and Safe Co., of St. Louis, Mo .; Kate Ella was born Sept. 8, 1860, and died Sept. 7, 1861; William was born Aug. 17, 1863, and died Mareh 3, 1868.
The present wife of our subjeet, to whom he was married May 29, 1877, was formerly Mrs. Susan E. Witty, of Mount Sterling, Ill. She was born in Kentucky from which State her parents removed when she was a child one year of age. The Shep- herds are members of the Presbyterian Church at
Pisgah in which our subject has been Elder for many years. Politically he is a sound Republiean and an enthusiastic Harrison man. He has seen. muehl of pioneer life, both in Ohio and Illinois and in the former State, when a boy attending sehool, carried wood on his back to the temple of learning to assist in keeping it warm during the day. The contrast between then and now, both in Ohio and Illinois, is a marked one and Mr. Shepherd has contributed his full quota in redeeming a portion of the wilderness and converting it to the abode of a civilized and intelligent people.
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AMUEL W. PUFFER, engaged as a lam- ber mereliant at Winehester, eame to this place in the fall of 1860 with only $15 in his "inside pocket" and besides was $75 in debt. Ile now transacts several thousand dollars worth of business annually and is generally con- sidered well to-do. He owns and occupies a eom- fortable home in the northeast part of the town and is known to a large proportion of the people in this locality.
The subject of this notice was born in Colerain, Franklin County, Mass., Jan. 8, 1837, and is the son of Dr. Chenery and Luey T. (Alden) Puffer, the former a native of Sudbury, Mass., and whose paternal aneester, Jolın Puffer, the first representa- tive of the family in America, came over from' England in the " Mayflower." The mother was the daughter of John Alden, a descendant of John Alden of olden times who was principally distin- guished as the friend of Miles Standish, the Captain of Plymouth. She was born in Ashfield, Mass .. and was the mother of four children, three of whom are living, viz: Henry M., an Attorney of Shelburne Falls, Mass .; Samuel W., our subjeet, and Charles C., of Rochester, N. Y.
Mr. Puffer and his brothers received a good edu- cation-all being graduated from the Rochester University-Samuel W. and Ilenry M. in 1860 and Charles three years later. In 1860 our subject came to Seott County and for some time afterward followed the profession of a teacher; he occupied the position of Principal of the Winchester sehools
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for two years. In the meantime he devoted his leisure hours to the reading of law and was admited to the bar in 1863, but instead of engaging in the practice of law embarked in mercantile business. Ile became interested in the Iumber trade in 1868.
The marriage of Samuel W. Puffer and Miss Mary C. Powell occurred on the 22d of May, 1866. Mrs. Puffer was born in Winchester Dec. 6, 1843, and is the daughter of Starkey R. Powell, an old settler of this place. This union resulted in the birth of four children, only two of whom are living, viz: Starkey Powell, born July 10, 1874 and Chenery Willis, March 31, 1878. Mr. Puffer in religious matters is identified with the Baptist Church while his estimable wife belongs to the Presbyterian Church. Our subject, politically, votes the Republican ticket but steadily declines to take upon himself the responsibilities of the office- bolder. Socially, he belongs to the Masonic fraternity.
W ALTER L. SIMPSON, freight agent for the Wabash Railroad Company, has been located in Jacksonville since the 6th of December, 1885. Ile is a native of the city of Liverpool, England, was born April 6, 1856, and was brought by his parents to the United States when a little lad three years of age. The latter were Alexander and Bathia Souter (Wright) Simp- son. The father was a native of Scotland, born near the town of MacDuff, where he was reared to manhood and married. Ile was at one time cashier of a bank in the city of Bamff, Scotland, and was also manager of the once famous Bone Mill of MacDuff. The family only sojourned in Liverpool two years, then removed to London, and from that city sailed to the United States.
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