USA > Illinois > Bureau County > The Biographical record of Bureau, Marshall, Putnam and Stark Counties, Illinois > Part 94
USA > Illinois > Marshall County > The Biographical record of Bureau, Marshall, Putnam and Stark Counties, Illinois > Part 94
USA > Illinois > Putnam County > The Biographical record of Bureau, Marshall, Putnam and Stark Counties, Illinois > Part 94
USA > Illinois > Stark County > The Biographical record of Bureau, Marshall, Putnam and Stark Counties, Illinois > Part 94
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97
" On the evening of the 29th of May, after having been enrolled, I drew my first rations at Andersonville prison, consisting of one pint of corn and cob meal, half a teaspoonful of salt and two ounces of meat. This was one day's rations. For six weary months of sick- ness and suffering amid scenes of anguish, sur- rounded with the dead and dying, did I remain in Andersonville prison. Every day the dead and dying by scores met the eye, wretched victims of rebel cruelty and hate, until at last our feelings became calloused and we could look upon these scenes of suffering and death with stolid indifference. We were driven to many resorts to keep up our courage under these trying times. I obtained a little money from one of my comrades and went to trading; bought some tobacco and little notions and so whiled away many tedious hours. Here I saw a man shot dead by the guard because while carrying a pail of water he, through pure weak- ness, stumbled and fell over the dead line. Rebel soldiers were offered a premium of thirty days' furlough for every Yankee they shot who was attempting to escape. Hence it was not uncommon for our men to be shot down by the guard for no offence whatever, but that they might get the furlough. Once more are we told that we are to be exchanged, again to be disappointed, instead of which we were, on the 28th day of September, sent to the city of Charleston, the rebs fearing that we would be released by Sherman, who had already taken Atlanta.
" At Charleston we were placed under the fire of our own guns for two days; then we were sent back into the country about one hundred miles to a place called Florence. When we arrived there was no stockade built, so we were kept under a strong guard for several days until they had erected one. Dur- ing this time we were most inhumanly treated.
749
THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
For three days all that we received to eat was one half pint of poor corn meal and about two tablespoonfuls of stock peas or negro beans to a man. At this treatment our men became desperate and resolved to make their escape, but being unarmed and weak from starvation the attempt proved a failure. Some escaped to the swamp but were retaken; dogs were put on their tracks and in a short time all were either captured or killed. At this place the hellish cruelty and malice of the rebels seemed to be intensified. They forced us to fill up the wells that we had dug with pieces of old case-knives and canteens, and compelled us to drink the water from the swamps that ran through the prison grounds. One pint of corn and cob meal per day, without meat, salt or anything else, was our rations, and some days nothing at all. At one time we were kept without food for three days because some of our men had dug a tunnel under the prison walls, and for this eleven thousand of our emaciated and suffering soldiers were com- pelled to endure the pangs of hunger for three days!
"But, O righteous God, who shall suffer for all this at the judgment ? Sometimes I used to think I should never get away from the cursed rebels; then, again, the thought of home would bid me hope. I used to think that I had seen some hard times at sea, but Florence prison capped anything that I had ever conceived of. Death, with all its horrors, met one at every turn, and no escape. But all things earthly have an end. For nearly six months I was an inmate of this rebel hell, when the good tidings came to our ears that the sick and wounded were to be paroled. Thank God! We were not doomed to disappointment this time. On the 28th of November, 1864, we took the cars for the city of Charleston. We then changed cars for Savannah and arrived on the 29th,
and on the 30th we took the flag of truce and started for God's country, as we thought we were delivered from the very gates of hell. On the same day we arrived on board our own fleet. Scarcely a word was uttered by our suffering, emaciated inen; it seemed but a dream, and we dared not break the charm. . But when we beheld the stars and stripes float- ing in the breeze and heard the kind words of friends instead of the curses of the rebels, we began to realize that our release was a reality. So, after washing ourselves, which was no small job, as many had not washed for months, we were furnished with new clothes, after which we were regaled with a supper of good coffee, hard-tack and salt-junk. This was the best meal I had eaten for nine months. In a few days we sailed for Annapolis, and after a four- days' ride on the blue waters of the Atlantic we once more set foot on free soil. Here we were paid off, after having been an inmate of rebel prisons for fourteen months and twelve days. On the 16th of December I left for my home in Illinois, and bade adieu to prison life in the southern Confederacy."
When discharged from the service, Mr. Holmes returned to the farm where his wife had remained during his absence, and at once resumed its cultivation. Having saved some money, in 1866 he purchased twenty acres more, two years later bought another forty- acre tract adjoining, and in 1892 bought one hundred acres in Toulon township, where he now has a coal mine in successful operation. He also has one hundred and sixty acres of land in Texas, which was left him by a brother. Under his careful management and untiring industry his home farm has been placed under a high state of cultivation, and all the improve- ments found thereon have been placed there by him.
To Mr. and Mrs. Holmes have been born
750
THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
four children: Maria Ann, wife of William Combs Bocock, of Wyoming, Illinois, by whom she has one child, Mina; Mary Jane, deceased wife of Walter Swett; Albert Oscar, who died at the age of eight years; and Alfred Edwin, who is still attending school.
In 1852 Mr. Holmes cast his first vote for General Scott, and since voting for Fremont four years later he has been an ardent repub- lican. He has served as school director, but cares nothing for official honors, preferring to give his entire time and attention to his busi- ness interests. Still interested in the brave boys in blue, he attends the reunions of his regiment and also the state encampments, and is an honored and prominent member of Dick- erson Post, No. 90, G. A. R.
D AVID SHEARER, who, after the labors of a long and busy life, is spending his latter days in ease and retirement with his son, Andrew Shearer, on section 6, Valley township, Stark county, was born in the south- western portion of Scotland, on the 24th of October, 1813, and his parents, Andrew and Agnes (Knott) Shearer, were natives of the same country. There his boyhood was passed upon a farm, and in the schools near his home he obtained a good, practical education, which would fit him for the responsible duties of life. At the age of eighteen he started out to make his own way in the world, at first being em- ployed as coachman for a gentleman.
At the age of twenty-two Mr. Shearer was married, the lady of his choice being Miss Elizabeth Wilson, who was born in Glasgow, Scotland, a daughter of Thomas and Ann (Morrison) Wilson. For almost twenty years after his marriage our subject continued to follow farming in his native land, and there all of his nine children were born, and the second died before the family started for America.
Upon a sailing vessel they left Scotland in 1851, and after a long and tedious voyage of six weeks and three days they landed safely in New York, whence they proceeded by canal and lakes to Chicago, and on to La Salle and Peoria. In the last named city, Mr. Shearer found employment in a sawmill, where he re- mained for four years, and then purchased a farm of eighty acres in La Prairie township, Marshall county, Illinois, on which he erected a house, where the family resided for some time. As his financial resources increased he added to his possessions from time to time until he owned about eight hundred acres of rich and arable land, all of which he accumu- lated through his own untiring labors, guided by sound judgment.
While living in Peoria, Mrs. Shearer was called to her final rest. In the family were the following children: Andrew, a farmer, re- siding on section 6, Valley township, Stark county, who married Agnes Atchison, a native of Scotland, who came to the new world when about ten years of age, and who was mostly reared and educated in Woodstock, McHenry county, Illinois. Of their ten children, Lilly died in early childhood. The living are: Mary, Elizabeth, David, Grace, Agnes, An- drew, Jr., John, Ann and Harry. He is the owner of two hundred and fifty-two acres of land, one mile east of Wyoming, and is one of the substantial farmers of the county, a man of good business capacity. Anna is the wife of Thomas Gemmell, of Toulon, Illinois, by whom she has seven children. David is an agriculturist of Marshall county. John, also of Marshall county, is married and has three children. Maggie married Alfred La Bountee, of Galva, Illinois, and has three children. Agnes died at the age of eighteen.
Since becoming an American citizen, Mr. Shearer has been a stalwart democrat, but
751
THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
cares nothing for official preferment. He was reared in the Presbyterian church, to which faith he still adheres, but his family are mem- bers of the Baptist church, with the excep- tion of John, who is a Methodist. Mr. Shearer is a man of the strictest integrity and honor, and the wonderful success that has at- tended his efforts is but the just reward of in- dustry, perseverance, enterprise and economy. He is recognized as one of the most valued and esteemed citizens of his community, and his name certainly deserves an honored place in this volume.
JAMES PERRY HEADLEY .- Among the brave men who devoted the opening years of their manhood to the defense of our coun- try from the internal foe who sought her dis- memberment, was the gentleman whose name introduces this sketch, now a prominent resi- dent of Toulon, where he is successfully en- gaged in the manufacture of brick.
Mr. Headley is a native of Stark county, born in West Jersey township on the 10th of March, 1841, and is a son of James and Sarah (Finley) Headley, who were married in Ohio. At a very early day, with their five children, they left the Buckeye state, taking up their residence in Stark county, Illinois, when most of the land was still in its primitive condition, and wheat had to be hauled to the Chicago market. They arrived here in 1835 or 1836, and later the family circle was increased by the birth of four other children, of whom our subject was next to the youngest. All of the nine children reached years of maturity but one, and four are still living. The father, who was in limited circumstances at the time of his arrival in Illinois, first engaged in splitting rails at fifty cents per hundred, but later turned his attention to farming, in which he met with a fair degree of success. His polit-
ical support was given the Democratic party, but he was no politician in the sense of office- seeking. He died at the age of fifty-five years, years, but his wife lived to a good old age.
Our subject was reared upon a farm and re- ceived a fair common-school education. As his father died when he was about twelve years old, he began life for himself at the age of seventeen. On the 19th of February, 1860, he led to the marriage altar Miss Catharine Kendall, of Toulon, who was born in Ashland county, Ohio, a daughter of James and Cath- arine Kendall. Her father having died when she was quite young, she was brought to Illi- nois by her mother.
In August, 1862, Mr. Headley enlisted in Company F, One Hundred and Twelfth Illi- nois Volunteer Infantry, and participated in every battle in which the regiment took part, the first hotly contested engagement being at Resaca, Georgia. He was also in the battle of Franklin, Tennessee, which is considered the hardest fight for the number of men en- gaged during the entire struggle. During the three years of his arduous and faithful serv- ices, he was never wounded, captured or confined in a hospital. After participating in the grand review at Washington, District of Columbia, he was honorably discharged and mustered out.
On his return home, Mr. Headley engaged in running an engine in a mill for nine years, and then obtained employment in a brick-yard as a molder at two dollars per day. At the end of a year, however, he purchased a half interest in the business, and one year later became sole owner, since which time he has successfully engaged in the manufacture of brick, turning out from seven to eight hundred thousand brick annually. At first the work was done by hand, but he has greatly increased the capacity of the plant, putting in a Martin
752
₹
THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
machine, and the product turned out is of a superior quality. He is recognized as one of the most substantial and reliable business men of Toulon, and his success is but the just re- ward of his own untiring labors and excellent management.
Mr. and Mrs. Headley have one son, Anson, born in Stark county, September 19, 1861. After attending the public schools of Toulon, he learned telegraphy at that place, and through merit and ability he has risen from the position of operator to that of train dis- patcher at Des Moines, Iowa, for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad. At Ottum- wa, Iowa, he married Miss Minnie Madison, of that city, and now has four sons: Perry Gregg, born November 2, 1886, in Keokuk, Iowa; Riley Banks, born November 17, 1888, in Oskaloosa, Iowa; Harry Marvin, born De- cember 14, 1891, in Des Moines, Iowa; and James Anson, Jr., born May 23, 1895, in Des Moines, Iowa.
Mr. Headley has been an ardent republican in politics since casting his first vote for Gen- eral Grant in 1868, and, while no office-seeker, he has served as councilman for six years with credit to himself and to the satisfaction of his constituents. Fraternally, he is a member of W. W. Wright Post, G. A. R., and the Mod- ern Woodmen of America. He has made his way to the front in business affairs, and this success is made still more emphatic by the broad and generous interest that he shows in all that concerns good citizenship.
B YRON SMITH, a prominent farmer and stock-raiser residing on section 31, Osce- ola township, Stark county, four miles north- west of Castleton, was born on the farm where he still resides, and is a worthy representative of one of the leading and honored pioneer fami- lies of the county. His people bore an im-
portant part in the upbuilding and develop- ment of this locality, their names being insep- arably connected with its agricultural interests.
Asher Smith, the father of our subject, was born October 28, 1807, in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, and on reaching manhood was married there, in 1832, to Phebe Stark, whose birth occurred in the same county July 20, 18II. Three years later, with their two chil- dren, they started for Illinois and traveled by water most of the way, going down the Ohio, and up the Mississippi and Illinois rivers to Peoria. The following spring they located upon the farm where our subject now resides, the father entering forty acres of wild land from the government. Here he established a tan- nery, having learned that business in his native state, but that enterprise did not prove very successful, and he devoted the remainder of his life to farming. He became quite well-to-do, owning over four hundred acres of valuable land in Osceola and Elmira townships. He was called to his final rest May 3, 1869, and his estimable wife departed this life on the 29th of June, 1881. They held an honored place in the esteem and confidence of their fellow citizens, and had made warm friends through- out their adopted county.
Our subject is one of a family of five chil- dren, the others being as follows: Zurah, born in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, died at the age of ten years, and was buried in the ceme- tery on the home farm. Oliver, born in Penn- sylvania, June 20, 1835, now lives in Sedgwick county, Kansas. He is married and has six children. John W., born in 1837, died April 8, 1864, leaving two children, and was buried in the home cemetery. Eliza, born in 1839, is the wife of Dr. Selden Miner, of Oberlin, Kansas, by whom she has three children.
Byron Smith was born in 1851, and has spent his entire life upon the home farm with the ex-
753
THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
ception of seven months passed in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He is now the owner of a fine place of two hundred and thirty-seven acres of rich and arable land, which yields a bountiful re- turn for the care and labor he bestows upon it. He is industrious, enterprising and entergetic, and is one of the best informed men of the community, being well posted on the leading questions and issues of the day as well as gen- eral topics of interest. He is a liberal contrib- utor to and trustee of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which his mother was a consistent and faithful member. His father voted for Jackson, was later a whig in politics, and af- ter the dissolution of that party became an ar- dent republican and was a strong Union man during the Civil war, being a member of the Union League. For seven years he served as assessor, was also collector for some time in his township, and was school trustee and di- rector. Our subject has also voted with the republican party since casting his first bal- lot for Grant in 1872, and has served as school director and trustee. The family is one of prominence and deserves an honored place among the representative citizens and pioneers of Stark county.
H. P. KOPP, liveryman of Bradford, Illi- · nois, is a native of Stark county, born July 19, 1868. His parents, F. P. and Mar- garet Kopp, yet reside in Stark county, of which they have been residents for inany years. The father, who is a farmer of Osceola township, is a native of Germany, and cameto America in the '50s, locating in Bureau county, but shortly afterward came to Stark county. In their family are seven living children: John, who resides on a farm in Bureau county, Illinois; Mina, wife of Milton Evard, of Lom- bardville, Illinois; Mary, wife of Alva Ames, a farmer residing one and a half miles north of
Bradford; Maggie, wife of J. W. Maple, of Milo township, Bureau county; Frances, wife of August Brewer, a farmer of Stark county; H. P., our subject; and Ella, wife of H. W. Moses, of Galesburg, Illinois.
The subject of this sketch was reared on a farm and on attaining his majority engaged in farming for himself, in which business he con- tinued until August, 1895, when he removed to Bradford and engaged in his present line of business. While his stable is not large, yet he keeps a sufficient number of horses, buggies and carriages on hand to supply the demand. His marriage with Miss Barbara Mussulman occurred January 29, 1890. She is a daughter of David and Lena Mussulman, both of whom were natives of Germany and who came to this country in 1843. For some years they resided on a farm in Indiantown township, Bureau county, and later removed to Lom- bardville, where the father died in 1895, at the age of seventy-six years. He was a mem- ber of the German Lutheran church, and well respected by all who knew him. The mother of Mrs. Kopp makes her home with our sub- ject. She was born in 1847, and was married to David Mussulman. They had but two chil- dren-Mrs. Kopp and Joseph, who is residing on a farm in Lyon county, Kansas. He mar- ried Katie Eigsty, and they have three chil- dren.
Mr. Kopp is well known in Bradford and vicinity and is universally respected. He takes but little interest in politics and votes for such men and measures as at the time he thinks will best advance the interests of the country.
W ILLIAM WEEKS, proprietor of the leading meat market and grocery store in Bradford, is numbered among its most en- terprising and successful business men. Al- though not an old settler, he has made his
754
THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
influence felt in this part of the country since he cast his lot and fortunes with a free and independent people. He first saw the light of day on the 2d of January, 1855, in Devonshire, England, a son of Henry and Jane ( Ware ) Weeks, who were also natives of the same county. In their family were nine children, five of whom are still living, namely : William, of this sketch ; Thomas, still a resident of England ; Mary, wife of John M. Heal, of London, England ; and James and John, who are conducting an extensive meat and grocery business in Hennepin and Bureau, Illinois.
The subject of this sketch learned the trade of a butcher in his native land when quite young, and in 1875, equipped with his trade and enough money to carry him across the ocean, he set sail for the " land of the free and the home of the brave." On reaching the new world his capital consisted only of a deter- mined will and untiring energy. After spend- ing about two months in New York city, he came to Illinois and worked at his trade in Chillicothe and other places for three years.
Mr. Weeks then embarked in the meat busi- ness on his own account in Sparland, Marshall county, Illinois, in company with George M. Hoyt, of Chillicothe, but at the end of fifteen months sold out and removed to Hennepin, where he established a meat market and suc- cessfully conducted the same for six years. Selling out to W. D. Ham, of Hennepin, he removed to Henry, Illinois, where he pur- chased a market, which he conducted for three years and then sold to H. J. Adams. His next removal brought him to Bradford, where he bought the old Bradford meat market, and, in connection with his brother James, carried on business from the 6th of June, 1888, until the 13th of the following August, when he pur- chased the interest of W. C. Decker, of the firm of Decker & Mahew, and consolidated the
two markets. After conducting the business for a short time under the firm style of Weeks Brothers & Mayhew, James Weeks retired and business was continued under the name of Weeks & Mayhew until June, 1894, when our subject purchased his partner's interest and has since been alone. To his meat market he has added a full line of staple and fancy gro- ceries, flour, salt, fruit, etc. He began with a small capital, and his patronage was also limited, but by constant and close attention to business, fair and honorable dealing, he has built up a lucrative trade and is rapidly ac- cumulating wealth. Besides his own fine resi- dence, which is heated throughout with steam, he owns considerable other property in Brad- ford.
On the 26th of February. 1879, Mr. Weeks was united in marriage with Miss Ida S. Deyoe, a daughter of Garrardus P. Deyoe, of Henry, Illinois, who was born in New York and was one of the early settlers of Marshall county, this state, locating there when a young man and enduring all the hardships and privations incident to pioneer life. The country was sparsely settled and he labored long and faith- fully in preparing the way for the prosperity of future generations. Mr. Deyoe married Mat- tie McVicker, a native of Ohio, and they be- came the parents of five children, one of whom is now deceased. Those living are: Ida S., the wife of our subject; Frank A .; Lillie, wife of James Weeks, of Hennepin, Illinois; and Frederick G. Mr. and Mrs. Weeks have four bright and promising children: Carrie J., Harry W., Lyman S. and Charles E. The two oldest graduated with honors from the Bradford high school in 1896, Harry standing the highest in his class, and therefore being awarded a free scholarship in Lombard Univer- sity, at Galesburg, Illinois, of which privilege he availed himself the following autumn.
755
THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
Fraternally, Mr. Weeks is a Royal Arch Mason, and has been senior warden in the lodge at Bradford, and is at present master of the lodge. He belongs to the Chapter in Wy- oming, Illinois, No. 133, R. A. M., and is also a member in good standing of the Odd Fel- lows society of Bradford, in which he has filled all the chairs. Politically he is a protectionist, and consequently supports the principles of the republican party. He was reared in the Episcopal church, but his wife is a devout Methodist, and they contribute freely to all church and benevolent work.
FRANCIS MARION BOCOCK, a well- known and highly respected farmer resid- ing on the northwest corner of section 25, Penn township, Stark county, is a native of Illinois, born in Buckhart township, Fulton county, December 17, 1860, and is a son of Cyrus and Eleanor Maria (Fouts) Bocock, who are still living in Bradford, Illinois. In the country schools our subject acquired a fair education, and since attaining his majority he has made his own way in the world, now successfully en- gaged in general farming upon land owned by Mr. Mahler.
Mr. Bocock was married February 14, 1883, the lady of his choice being Miss Anna Eliza Mahler, who was born and reared in Penn township, and is a daughter of Henry and Eliza (Hamilton) Mahler. They now have one daughter,-Maude Rietta, born December 8, 1886.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.