USA > Illinois > Marshall County > Records of the olden time; or, Fifty years on the prairies. Embracing sketches of the discovery, exploration and settlement of the country, the organization of the counties of Putnam and Marshall, biographies of citizens, portraits and illustrations > Part 79
USA > Illinois > Putnam County > Records of the olden time; or, Fifty years on the prairies. Embracing sketches of the discovery, exploration and settlement of the country, the organization of the counties of Putnam and Marshall, biographies of citizens, portraits and illustrations > Part 79
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MELVIN HULL, Richland Township, Marshall County.
Mr. Hull was born in Sciota county, Ohio, in 1830, and came to this connty with his parents, who located in Richland township. where he has lived ever since. He married Miss Hattie Bayne in 1871. She was born in Brown connty, Ohio, ju 1850. They have one child, Hattie, born in 1872. Mrs. Hull is a member of the M. E. church. He owns 160 acres of land, all in cultivation, with good improvements. He is a son of Isaac and Sarah Hull. His father is now in his 89th year, whose long and useful life is drawing to an honorable close He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and draws a pension from government for services.
ENOCH SAWYER, Hopewell Township, Marshall Co., Ill.
Mr. Sawyer lives in Hopewell township, Marshall county, Ill. He was born in North Carolina in 1816, where his father was a planter, merchant, etc., owning a large plantation, which he sold ont, and with his family set out for the state of Illinois, a place as distant in those days to emigrants as was California before the completion of the Pacific R R. They traveled in wagons along with a neighbor named Forbes, and reached their destination in 1831, where they built cabins and settled down. Enoch Sawyer assisted his father on the farm, and in 1840 bnilt a saw mill on Sandy Creek, which he run for a number of years. He married Elizabeth Broaddus, and to them nine children have been born,-Lundsford, Jesse, Lemuel (dead), Simeon, Jordan, Enoch. Lucy, Mark and Christopher (twins). Lemnel and Jesse enlisted in the 77th regiment, the former dying at Camp Douglas of disease contracted
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RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
in the service. Jesse served through the war. Mr. Sawyer is a large farmer, and a type of the old Virginia planter- generous, hospitable, wedded to his opinions, a warm friend, an open foe, loves hounds and hunters, pays his debts, and never lays awake nights for fear of the sheriff.
ANDREW SCHURTZ. Henry Township, Marshall County, Il.
Mr. Schurtz was born in Hunterdon, New York, in 1805, and moved to New York city in 1819, where he learned his trade as engineer and blacksmith, and was foreman in old James P. Allaire's foundry and steam boat building, at $6 00 per day, seven days of the week. He moved to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1830, where he followed blacksmithing until 1842, when he came to Aurora, Ill,, where he bought 320 acres of land covering the present site of the greater part of East Aurora. He lived here until 1848, and purchased 1600 acres in Whiteside township, and hund eight quarters deeded to his children and two quarters to his father and mother, and purchased 160 acres for his cousin and fitted him out. He married Miss Jane Nevins in 1869, She was born in New Jersey. and had eight children, all married. Mrs. Schurtz died in 1856. He married his present wife. Ann Trimble, in 1857. She was born in Alexander, Va., and had one child-Celesta. He moved to Minnesota in 1856. and pre-empted 610 acres of land, which they still own. He lived there two years and owned and run the Marsball Hotel at Red Wing Landing, in Minn .. and sold it out in 1869, and got only $300 more than he gave for it in 1856. He then located in Henry, and started his business in 1869. He spent nearly a ycar in Virginia with his I rotber-ir-law, and saw both armies at his brother's house alternately. Mrs. Schurtz is a member of the Presbyterinu church. He was school director and road commissioner several years. In February, 1866, he went to Marshall county, Ky., and assisted his uncle, who is a large farmer there, in making plows, etc. " He then went to Louisiana and Texas, where he was engaged in the stock business. Mr. Shurtz re- mained there some 13 months, and got home in January, 1869. Has followed the blacksmithing business. He is going to Colorado in 1880.
L. H. FARR,
Henry township Marshall county, Ill.
D. N. BLOOD, Henry Township, Marshall Co., Ill.
Mr. Blood was born in Hollis, New Hampshire, in 1813. When quite young he moved to Boston with his parents, lived in several places in Massachusetts, and finally located in Rochester, N. Y .. in 1823. They came to Fulton county, Ill., in 1845, and to Marshall county in 1851. In 1838 he married Miss Saloma Root. She was born in Ontario county, N. Y., in 1814. They have had six children, four of whom are living .- William M , James A., Mary I. and Daniel N. Jr. Mr. Blood has been supervisor several terms, school director ten years, and has served as assessor. He owns 210 acres of choice land, in a high state of cultivation, w.th a first-class, substantial brick dwelling.
THOMAS ROBINSON,
Steuben township. Marshall county, Ill.
DAVID BOYLE, Magnolia township, Putnam county, Ill.
TIMOTHY WOOD,
Senachwine township, Putnam county, Ill.
GEORGE SPARLING, Senachwine Township, Putnam Co., Ill.
The subject of this sketch was born in County Limerick, Ireland, November 19th, 1819, a son of James and Mary Atkins Sparling, and is descended from the Palatines, a body of 110 families of Germans from the Palatinate on the Rbine, who embarked for the new world in the reign of Queen Anne, and were shipwrecked on the coast of Ircland. To this German colony is due the honor of furnishing the first Methodist preacher to the United States in the person of Philip Embury, a connection of the Sparling family. When Mr. Sparling was but two years old his father died from exposure while serving as a soldier in the Irish rebellion of 1822-23. I'hree brothers of his mother were then living in America-two in Canada and one in Clark county, Indians, and at their carnest solicitation she finally in 1832 started with her two children, George and a sister younger, for the new world. Arrived in Quebec, Mr. Sparling, then a boy of 12, was prostrated with ship fever and taker to the hospital, and before his recovery his mother fell a victim to the cholera, at that time alarmingly prevalent and fatal in Quebec. He recovered to find himself an orphan among strangere, frantic with grief at the loss of his mother, and unable to gain any trace of his sister. He found a home with Dr, Marsden, hospital physician, and worked in his dispensary about two months, when learning that his sister had been sent by the Bishop of Quebec to their uncle, near Montreal, he availed him- self of the Bishop's generous assistance in his own behalf and joined his sister at the home of his uncle Philip, where he was received as one risen from the dead. After living with one Captain Williams about two years, where he had an excellent home and was kindly treated, his uncle Robert, at whose instance the family had come to America, and who lived in Upper Canada, 40 miles north of Toronto, claimed custody of the children and took them to his homc. Here they were first compelled to do hard work. threshing. clearing, hoeing, planting and other work incident to a farm in a new country. One year of this life determined young Sparling to quit his uncle and learn a trade, and he bound himself to a carpenter for four years. At the expiration of one-half his term of apprentice-
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APPENDIX-GEORGE SPARLING.
ship his employer went into the rebellion of 1837, and being defeated was compelled to leave the country. Young Sparling was left in charge of his employer's property and business, and faithfully attended to it until the follow- ing spring, when a letter from his employer summoned him to Niagara Falls, where he had taken a contract. Here they worked two or three months: then went to Tonawanda, at the mouth of the Erie Canal; then to Buffalo, Cleve- land, Detroit, Mackinaw, Milwaukee, and finally to the lumber regions of Michigan, where they worked at their trade until hoth were prostrated with ague, when they embraced the first opportunity and went to Chicago. Here they worked some time for Mr. Sherman, proprietor of the Sherman House, and for Mr. Ryan, of the Vermont House, refusing in pavment for their labor town lots npon the present court house site at the rate of one lot each for a month's work. From Chicago they came to Dixon, Ill., when Mr. Sparling's employer returned to Canada for his family. On the journey to Dixon Mr. Sparling was prostrated by a severe attack of hilious fever, which lasted about one month, and just as he was recovering from that he became again a victim to the ague, from which he had fled in Michigan, and which hung to him for six years. The winter succeeding his arrival in Dixon he entered a claim, hut abandoned it in the spring and bought another partially improved. On this he erected a log house, barn and corn-cribs, and cultivated ten acres of corn, working at his trade a portion of the time. In January, 1840, he came to Crow Meadow. Putnam connty, to work at his trade, subsequently disposing of his clsim and settling at Crow Meadow, among other jobs helping to build the Bradley store-honse in Henry, the first frame house finished in that place. His summer's work amonnted to $200, for which he took the place upon which he now lives. Jan- uary 12th. 1813, he married Adeline Morgan, a native of Connecticut and daughter of Alanson and Melinda Peters Morgan, and settled down to farming and the development of the fishery interests at Senachwine Lake, He bonght the most valnable tracts for fishery purposes, amounting in the aggregate to some 800 acres, and for 35 years car- ricd on the fishing business on an extensive scale, his receipts for much of the time prior to the building of the Henry dam averaging $3.000 per year. But the construction of the dam ruined the business and rendered the hun- dreis of acres in which he had invested his savings almost worthless. April 13th, 1857, Mrs. Sparling died at the age of 35 years 1 month and 7 days, leaving eight children,-George Edward, born Nov. 3d, 1843: James Alanson, May 26th, 1846; Mary Melinda, Feb. 22. 1848; Helen Elizabeth, Jan. 27, 1850; William Henry, Jan. 16th, 1852; John Stanley, Dec. 10. 1853, and Adeline and Albert, twins, born August 15th, 1856. Albert dled August 25th, 1857, and James Alanson died May 10th, 1863. August 8th, 1858. Mr. Sparling married Sarah McClung, daughter of Harvey and Sarah Bird McClung. She died Feb. 8th, 1871, at the age of 35 years, 5 months and 14 days, leaving six chil- dren,- Martha Jane, born May 2d. 1859; Sarah Evalena, born Sept. 1st, 1860; Kate Bird, horn Jan. 3d, 1862; Samuel Martell, born June 8th, 1864; Lincoln Frederick, born Sept. 25th, 1865; Emhnry Harrison, born Sept. 27th, 1867 An- gust 18th, 1874, he married Margaret McElroy, widow of James Sparling, his cousin, she having four children by her first marriage-Charlotta, Violet, Nettie and Annie. The result of this union is two children-Susan Mahel Atkins, born Jan. 3d. 1876; Homer Lewis, born Jan. 19th, 1878. In 1844 a two-year old daughter of Lewis Thompson being deserted by its mother, Mr. Sparling adopted and raised her until she was 14 years old, making in all 21 children he has had to care for, 9 boys and 12 girls. Seven of the girls are school teachers. With the exception of four dead one living in Iowa. they are all residents of Senachwine township, Putnam county, with the addition of ten grand children.
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RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
ERRATA.
Chapter XLI., page 422, in the description of Belle Plain township, fourth line, for "thirty-six townships" read "thirty-six sections."
BIOGRAPHICAL DEPARTMENT.
Hennepin township, Putnam county, page 645, second biography, "John Bunges" should be "John Bonges."
Hennepin township, Putnam county, page 644, in the biography of Jacob Zenor, for "Alvina" Skeels read "Elvira" Skeels.
Hennepin township, Putnam county. page 613, in the biography of Mrs. Flora Zenor, first line, "H. K." should be "H. B." Zenor.
Magnolia township, Putnam county, page 655, in the biography of Mr. Morrell, the initials should be "L. C." instead of S. C.
Magnolia township, Putnam county, page 656, for "John Van Horn" read "J. V. Horne."
Lacon township, Marshall county, page 691, in the biography of Mr. Speck, for "Lewis" read "Louis."
Hennepin township, Putnam county, page 646, second biography, for "James S. Zena" read "James Zenor."
Evans Township, Marshall county, page 720, in the Gants biography, read "Edwin, born Nov. 14, 1850," instead of "Nov. 19, 1852." Nathaniel Gants died Feb. 21. 1860. Emma died Sept. 27, 1857.
Evans Township, Marshall county, page 719, fifth biography, for "John Algoe" read "John Alger."
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