USA > Illinois > Champaign County > Gifford > The Centennial book, Gifford, Illinois : 1875-1975 > Part 2
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THEOPHILUS P. BARNES
Mr. Barnes was born on August 7, 1816, near Phillipsburg, New Jersey, and began work at an early age as a carpenter. He was married to Miss Nancy Cyphers before he was twenty years old, and in 1837, with his wife and a young son, he moved to Marion County, Ohio, by team and wagon. The trip took over three weeks, during which time they cooked beside the road and slept in their wagon. He busied himself with carpenter work and farming in Ohio for sixteen years, then he loaded his wag- on, hitched up his horses and "hit the road" again- this time to Warren County, Illinois.
He farmed in that area until 1865, when he bought 240 acres in Section 10 just southwest of Gifford. To quote the account in the "History of Champaign County" published in 1878, "He has proved himself entirely worthy of a prominent place among the intelligent and enterprising farmers of this section. His land is in a good state of culti- vation, and prolific of the choicest crops of the Prairie State. The farm buildings are convenient and well constructed, and the whole presents a picture which is pleasing and delightful to the eye of the passerby. She who began with him in his first effort for the establishment of a home, passed from the scenes of earth on the 16th of March, 1863, after having been his faithful and sympathizing com- panion for over a quarter of a century." (How's that for real writing?) Eleven children were born to
the Barneses, the youngest of whom was the James S. Barnes who was a real estate and insurance man in the fledgling town of Gifford. James S. was the father of Roy Barnes who is known to many of you, and who was President of the Village Board for nearly ten years.
THEES H. BUSBOOM
The place and date of Mr. Busboom's birth are not available, except that he was born in Germany. In 1866 his twenty-year-old son, Heije T., came to the United States and went to Adams County. En- couraged by Heije's reports of the new country, presumably, Mr. Busboom gathered together his wife and his three other sons and they all came to America. After some six years in Adams County, the whole family settled near Gifford in 1874. The four sons then were Heije, Rankin, George and John.
To account for all their descendants in the 10] years since their arrival in Gifford will have to be the subject of another book-and that book ought to be written.
A few of Mr. Busboom's grandsons are shown in the accompanying picture with their "hot rods" in 1916.
Car to left: Heye Busboom and Fred Bluhm Other car; back seat: John Busboom, Fred Busboom Front seat: Ed Busboom, driving, Ed Bluhm
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JOHN CLARK
Mr. Clark "first opened his eyes to light in Forfarshire, Scotland, on April 2, 1830"-the son of William and Mary (Donaldson) Clark. Mr. Clark was married to Miss Jane Butters in 1853, and on the day after the wedding they sailed from Glasgow for the United States. It took them 52 days . . . on that sailing ship to reach New York where they re- mained for two years. In 1855 they moved to Chicago, arriving with just $6.00 in their possession. They had to pay $5.00 rent in advance, so they began their housekeeping in Chicago with a cash reserve of one lonesome dollar. Their joys continued to be mixed with misfortunes, and just after the birth of their third child, John A., their house burned and they were left with nothing.
Friends came to their rescue, and by hard work and good management they soon recovered. The Clarks came to Compromise Township in 1868 and settled on the family homestead just east of Gifford on Section 6 which they purchased from the railroad for $8.00 an acre. Through the four children who grew to maturity, the Clarks have a number of descendants in the area, including grand- daughters Bonnie Bryan and Jeannie Clark who live on the original homestead.
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From the "History of Champaign County" - 1887
JOHN AND JANE CLARK
RESIDENCE OF JOHN CLARK , SEC. G , (R.14.W.). COMPROMISE TP.
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EZRA DICKERSON
Mr. Dickerson was born in 1834 in Franklin County, Indiana. His father was a cooper by trade- a maker of wooden barrels. Mr. Dickerson first worked as a carpenter at $10 a month until he had saved $300. With this he bought a sawmill and went into the lumber business. Success in that venture brought him wealth enough to buy a full section (640 acres) of unbroken prairie in Compromise Township, Section 19, southeast of Gifford. Mr. Dickerson was superintendent on the construction of 35 miles of track and necessary bridges for the new Havana, Rantoul and Eastern Railroad. When
the railroad began operation, Mr. Dickerson served as conductor for four years.
The Dickerson home was built in 1883-4 and is described in our source as "a commodious struc- ture, two stories in height, being finely furnished, and altogether is one of the best farm dwellings in that part of the county." In 1884, for the purpose of draining his own land, he established a tile factory at the south edge of Gifford. That business was also successful and he made extensive shipments to points in this and other counties. Mrs. Dickerson was the former Miss Elizabeth Wiley of Hendricks County, Indiana. The Dickersons lost a son, Charles, at the age of two and raised two daughters, Florence and Effie, to adulthood.
TENANT HOUSE. EAST SIDE.
TENANT HOUSE, NORTH SIDE.
TILE MILL IN GIFFORD ,ILL.
RESIDENCE, FARM PROPERTY AND TILE MILL OF EZRA DICKERSON , SEC. 19. (R. 14 W.) COMPROMISETOWNSHIP.
From the "History of Champaign County" - 1887
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HERMAN E. DUDEN
Mr. Duden was born August 6, 1847, and Maria Jannsen was born February 17, 1850, in Ostfriesland, Germany. They came to the United States on the same ship in the late 1860's, and while they may have met before, the family tradi- tion is that their romantic relationship blossomed on the ship. From New York City they came by way of Chicago to Golden, Illinois, where friends and relatives had settled earlier. It is believed that they were married in 1871. Two children were born there, Ed on July 12, 1872, and Engel on December 31, 1874.
In 1875 Herman Duden and Gerd Ideus came to Champaign County by wagon to establish them- selves in farming. They built a two-room house where Fred Ideus now lives and in the winter of 1875 their wives and their little children came by
train to Tolono. The husbands were notified. They met their families and brought them from Tolono to the Flatville area in a blinding snow storm. Both families moved into the little house, and they shared it for some time.
Later the Herman Duden family moved to a farm three miles north of Flatville. Seven more chil- dren were born here-Geske and Mareka who died in infancy, and John, Harm, Geske, Meint, and Gerd. Engel married William Huls and Geske (Grace) married Ehme Aden.
About 1895 the family moved to the farm- stead one mile south of Gifford. The farm has been in the family for 80 years and is now owned by the only surviving child-Meint-who observed his 88th birthday on March 9, 1975. There are now about a hundred direct descendents of this pioneer couple. . Herman died in 1923 and Maria in 1927.
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THE HERMAN DUDEN FAMILY - Standing, left to right: Ed, Harm, Meint, John and Gerd Seated, left to right - Engel, Mr. and Mrs. Herman Duden, and Grace
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WILKE EMKES
Mr. Emkes was born in Ostfriesland, Germany, on March 3, 1840. At the age of 29 he was married to Altje Janssen, and the young married couple spent their honeymoon on ship to the United States. They were accompanied by her parents to Chicago. There they separated, the Janssens going to Golden, Illinois, and the Emkes going to Freeport, where Mr. Emkes had a cousin, Alec Eiskamp. Two of their children, Mareka and Engel, were born during the five years they spent in that area, and they witnessed from their home the great Chicago fire of 1871. ·When they moved to the Flatville area in 1874, the family came down from Freeport on the train while he drove down with a wagon and team-but they were misdirected somewhere and he arrived in Ran- toul before they did. They lived first just east of Flatville, but in 1875 took up 80 acres south of Dillsburg. With two horses, a borrowed mule, and a one-bottom walking plow he broke the marshy prairie. "When furrows were made the snakes and water would follow them."
In 1891 the Emkes moved to what was to be their permanent home located a mile west of Gif- ford.
Mr. Emkes died in 1903 and his wife in 1906, but through the two sons and five daughters wlio survived them they are surely remembered in many a family album. The sons were John and Anton Em- kes. Their daughters were Mareka (Mrs. Gerd Ihnen), Engel (Mrs. Ontke Elinen), Katherine (Mrs. Martin Harms), Marie (Mrs. Claus Gronewald)
In addition to his farming, Mr. Emkes was also a carpenter-a moonlighter, even in those days-and he is said to have built the first house in Gifford. But that honor is also claimed in other accounts by Henry Flesner. Perhaps it is that Mr. Flesner built the first house in that he owned it while Mr. Emkes built it in the sense that he was the carpenter on the job. In any case, the "first house" was apparently the one on Summitt Street now occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Howard Varner.
MR. and MRS. WILKE EMKES AND THEIR CHILDREN Seated, left to right: John, Katherine, Maria, and Mareka, Standing: Engel and Anton
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HENRY G. FLESNER
Mr. Flesner was born in Ostfriesland, Germany, on October 12, 1832, and came to the United States along with his parental family, a brother-in-law named Hinrich H. Franzen, and a little nephew, Harm Franzen, who was only about a year and a half old at the time. There were ten in the party. They sailed for the United States in October and arrived in New Orleans on January 11, 1850. The Flesner Family Register reports that one of Mr. Flesner's sisters, Trientje, fell in love with a sailor during that long 75-day voyage. She left him and started up the Mississippi with her family, but when the boat was laid up for repairs a few days later she left her family and returned to New Orleans to find and marry her sailor. She never saw her family again.
The whole Flesner family and the son-in-law settled first near Golden, Illinois; but Mr. Flesner apparently came to the Gifford community within a few years, for he is designated as the first Post- master for the village when the Post Office was established in 1877. He is also reported to have built the first house in Gifford in 1876, though it may be that he owned it and had it built for him by someone else.
JAMES K. ICE
Mr. Ice was born in West Virginia in 1844, and both sides of his family date back to pre-Revolution- ary times in this country. His great grandfather came from Prussia, bringing with him a family, every member of which was killed by the Indians. He remarried late in life, fathered a son at the age of 100, and then lived on to be 124 years old. His
His mother's family also listed persons active before and during the Revolutionary War, and in the War of 1812. Mr. Ice received his schooling in West Virginia and accompanied his father and his step-mother to Champaign County in 1860.
He was married in 1846 to Miss Nancy J. Butcher and they became parents of 13 children, six of whom died before reaching maturity. But the remaining seven children were remarkable for their educational achievements in a time when education was difficult to acquire and not common for most people. Three of his daughters were college gradu- ates-one an architect and two of them teachers- and a fourth daughter completed three years of college training and became a teacher. Mr. Ice was a druggist in Gifford, beginning in 1887.
JAMES MARTIN
Mr. Martin and his brothers, Josephus and Perry, came to this vicinity in the 1850's and took up land holdings some five miles northeast of Gif- ford. Many details are lost in history, but there was a time when the three men controlled thousands of acres of land, much of which passed to married daughters and so now appears under other family names. One farm in particular-now cultivated by Lyle K. Williams-was purchased by Mr. James Martin in 1863 and was farmed by him or his heirs until about 1960. James Martin's son, Henry Allen (Allie) was born on that farm in 1869 and in due time married Miss Ona Hancock whose grandfather, Micajah Hancock lived to be 106 years old and whose great great grandfather, John Hancock, signed the Declaration of Independence. Allie Martin was a leading business man in Paxton, an automobile dealer, in addition to his farming and community interests.
E
HENRY A. (Allie) MARTIN on the farm where he was born. Early 1900's
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2782
NO/9216 19214 consolidated
CONSTRUCTION DEED.
Trustees Illinois Central Railroad Co., TO
James Martin
Country of Champagne Filed for Record on the fifthwith day of August 1864 Recorded, Book to 1. Page 1 1/ 64. 44
Berorder
WARRANTY DEED.
David ! Liger TO
James. ittartin
STATE OF ILLINOIS,) SS. CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
This Instrument was filed for Record on 10th the day of Chilly A.D. 186 3 , and duly Recorded in Book of Deeds, Page ... 43%
MOAlexander
RECORDER.
DEPUTY.
Culver,' Page & Hoyne, Stationere, Chicago.
$1.00 ford
DOCUMENTS SHOWING THE ACQUISITION OF PORTIONS OF THE MARTIN LANDS
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TWO SHOTS OF THE MARTIN FAMILY in those "good old days"
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FRANK MILLER
Mr. Miller was born in Ostfriesland, Germany, on October 13, 1854, the son of Simon and Greti Astendorf Miller. He came to the United States at the age of 17 and settled at Flanagan, Illinois. Mrs. Miller was also born in Ostfriesland, she in 1861, and came to America at the age of 14. She was con- firmed in the Immanuel Lutheran Church of Flat- ville by Pastor Fischer. In March of 1881 the young people rode on horseback seven miles to Flatville to be married. They farmed in the Gifford, Flatville and Royal communities until 1929 when they moved to Gifford, and they lived to celebrate sixty- two years of married life.
JAMES M. MORSE
Mr. Morse was born in the state of New York on June 19, 1836. He received what was then a very good education, attending a "Seminary" in Oneida County of New York for six years. "At the age of twenty he determined to try what fortune had in store for him in the Great West." He first came to Wisconsin, He was engaged for 11 years in Kendall County, Illinois, as both farmer and teacher, then came to our area and bought 220 acres "of the raw prairie" from the Illinois Central Railroad just one mile south of Gifford on Section 14 (where Heye Busboom now lives). Mr. Morse was married in 1861 to Elizabeth J. Hart and they reared three children- Hattie (Mrs. Gertrude Barnes' mother), Rollin, and Jedediah.
In addition to his farming, in 1877, Mr. Morse entered into partnership with W. A. Wooldridge (Mrs. Barnes' father) and in 1885 he established the Morse State Bank. Following his death in 1887 the bank was run in turn by his two sons, Rollin and "Jed." They were followed in management of the bank by Dale E. Goodwine, Arthur F. Busboom, and now Eugene Schmidt. Somewhere along the line the name was changed to Gifford State Bank.
Editor's Note:
1 recall several things about the bank, and about the Morses. I recall that banks used to pay 2% on savings. They seemed to me to be cold, un- friendly places where you had to beg for money. Now banks are friendly as pups and seem to want you to please borrow from them-comparatively. Mr. "Jed" Morse had a stiff leg and so walked with a limp. He was superintendent in our Sunday School for years and used to play the violin for the singing. One morning he was playing away on his violin for Sunday School when someone came and whispered something into his ear. He laid down his violin and left hastily. His house was on fire.
His mother lacked only a couple of months of living to be a hundred years old. I remember her as a frail little thing in a long dress, walking with tiny steps about two inches long.
Sometime in the late 1930's Mr. Morse organ- ized a "Book Club." For a time the meetings were all in his home and he would read and review all the books for us. Later we took turns with the reviews. On the night of the fire in 1938, the fire burned right up to the bank building. It happened that I was with Mr. Morse when he entered the bank with the fire right next door, and he was the calmest man in town. When I asked what we should carry out first, he said "Nothing. Oh, you might take out that typewriter," (pointing to one) "it belongs to Finley (his son) and not to the bank."
Mr. Morse was a gentleman of the old tradition. He never failed to tip his hat to any lady he met on the street. When the banks closed in 1933, it took the Morse State Bank nearly two months to struggle back into business, and the Penfield Bank never did reopen. The heavy vault door of glass and steel which now closes the vault in Gifford was once a feature of the Penfield Bank, and it lay unused from 1933 until the construction of the new Gifford State Bank in 1963.
THE FARM RESIDENCE JM MORSE ESO" COMMUNISE
HÀ MÀMIỆN
IN MEMORIAM Theda and Earl Smith
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HANFORD REYNOLDS
Mr. Reynolds was born in Westchester County, State of New York in 1833. He was married to Susan Roberts in 1862 and settled in Knox County, Illinois, where the young couple lived for five years. Mr. Reynolds was a surveyor by trade in his younger life and the "History of Champaign County" credits him with laying out the city of Genesee, Illinois. The same volume reports that when Mr. Reynolds moved onto his land north of Gifford in 1868 he had to haul lumber out from Ludlow to build a house-and that the land so abounded with ducks,
for warming the drinking water for livestock in the winter, and presently had a factory going in Gifford for their production. It was apparently a well- received product and he supplied them to dealers far and near.
In 1892 Mr. Reynolds donated land adjacent to his tank heater plant-corner of Main and Plumb Streets-for the construction of a Christian Church.
The Reynolds raised five children: William H. (Witt), Charles, Chester, John J. (Jack), and Ora (Mrs. John Remley). A major portion of Mr. Rey- nolds' land north of Gifford remains in the family, more than a full century after he purchased it.
CHAMPAIGN
-
TANK HEATER
AND
.
FEED
COOKER,
PATENTED:
JUNE II, 1889.
JAN. 26, 1892.
MANUFACTURED BY
Hanford Reynolds,
GIFFORD,
=
=
ILLINOIS.
RANTOUL PRESS STEAM 'PRINT
HANFORD REYNOLDS
geese and brant (?) that he had to hire men to shoot them to keep them from eating his crops.
In 1874 Mr. Reynolds bought a whole section of land from the Illinois Central Railroad for one dollar an acre, and in time built the two-story brick house where Mr. and Mrs. Fred Olson now live. It is recorded that "this land did not have a tree or bush, and it was his (Mr. Reynolds') planting, continued over a course of many years, that gave the land its present pleasant aspect." Our fore- fathers did not seem to think highly of the open, treeless prairie. In 1889 and again in 1892, Mr. Reynolds patented a tank heater, a coal or wood-burning device
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WILLIAM SCHLUTER
Johann Wilhelm Schluter (later known as Wil- liam Schluter) was born August 26, 1847, at Holt- rop, Ostfriesland, Germany, where he was baptized and confirmed. In the fall of 1865, when he was eighteen years of age, he came to Golden, Illinois. On March 30, 1865, he was married to Gesche Fecht who had also immigrated from Germany. In 1875 they moved to a farm southwest of Gifford. To this
union eight children were born. Mrs. Schluter died June 24, 1905 and Mr. Schluter died June 7, 1925, on a farm east of Gifford.
The children, all now deceased, were: John, Harm, Trientje, Martin, Katharina, Annebken, Louis, and Antje. There are numerous younger descendants of William Schluter living in and around the Gifford community.
The Here and a runt
1.
Harry
THE WILLIAM SCHLUTER FAMILY
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F
TWO-ROOM COTTAGE
JOHN AND ALESIA SCHRODER
JOHN SCHRODER
John and Alesia Schroder came from Germany, settled on a farm east of Penfield and farmed it for several years. In 1878 they moved with their five children into a two-room house on a McFarland farm just two miles south of Gifford. There three of their children survived and two died, one at the age of nine and one at the age of twenty-one. The chil- dren helped to break the prairie, helping to fight copperheads, rattlers, bull snakes and turtles, tilling the swamps and fighting the prairie fires. They cut slough grass to make roofs for the barn and other buildings. They grew sugar cane, corn and oats, and garden produce. After 11 years in the two-room house, a new house was built along with barn and sheds. The Schroders lived in the new house for 11 years, too, and then moved into Gifford. When their health began to fail they moved into the home of their daughter, Amelia, and lived with her and her husband, Peter Strom, until their deaths in 1913 and 1915. The Stroms lived on the "McFarland farm" for thirty years, and raised three children-Victor (deceased), Forrest and Freda.
MK. and MRS. PETER STROM
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In Memoriam Fred Behr and Forrest Strom
JAMES A. TALBOTT
Mr. Talbott was the fourth of eight children born to J. V. and Sarah (Parsons) Talbott, born in Virginia at an unknown date. He was still young when his parents moved their family to Illinois, arriving in Danville on the day news of Lincoln's assassination reached that city. Mr. J. V. Talbott bought ninety acres in Vermilion County but did not live to develop it, for he died in the next year.
In February of 1875, James A. Talbott bought eighty acres of land just north of Gifford from Mr. J. C. Shelton and chose himself a wife-Ruthie LeFever. The young couple had their work cut out for them in building a farm home and turning the raw prairie into productive acreage, but they did it, meanwhile raising four children-Charles V., Lucy A., Frank W., and Earl P. The four children attended the one-room school just a mile north of Gifford which was then known as the Corless School from the name of the man who leased land for its con- struction. The school later became the Talbott School.
When school was discontinued there in 1918, the building was moved to its present site and was remodelled to provide a home for the Talbotts' long- time friend and employee-Clarence (Shorty) Al- corn. The original homestead remains in the family and is now the home of a granddaughter, Mrs. Viola (Talbott) Hylbert. She reports that a portion of an old wagon trail can still be seen across a pasture field which has never been farmed. She also points out a few little entries in her father's diaries:
"Dad (James A.) owned the Gifford Hotel."
"Dad built the house where Elizabeth Saathoff now lives."
"Put hard road (pavement) North of Gifford, 1930."
"Went on the high line (REA electric power line), November 11, 1930."
The base for the pavement in 1930 was prepared by men with horses and scrapers. Some of the con- struction horses were stabled in Mr. Talbott's barns.
ABSOLOM B.
VALLANDINGHAM
Major Vallandingham was born on September 1, 1817, near Lexington, Kentucky, where his father owned nearly a thousand acres and some twenty slaves. He received a good education for that time and was married in 1839 to Miss Mary Vallan- dingham who was a distant relative. As happened all too often in those times, the young wife bore five children and died in 1849. A second wife lived only a year and the Major married for a third time in 1856, choosing this time a Miss Jennie Elizabeth Coons. He operated a hotel in Warsaw, Kentucky, until the start of the Civil War. He was designated as Provost Marshal of the town. He helped to recruit the 18th Kentucky Infantry and was detailed to the Army Secret Service. In 1864 he recruited the 37th Kentucky Infantry and was commissioned Major in the Union Army.
In 1867 he moved to Illinois. As a counselor-at- law he helped to secure right-of-way for the Havana, Rantoul and Eastern Railroad. With the completion of that task he settled in Gifford, then built and operated the "Commercial Hotel" on the east side of Main Street, just north of the railroad.
For several years the Vallandinghams cared for the children of John Armstrong and for his widow until she remarried. He had fatally hurt him- self in trying to lift a threshing machine off a stump in 1874.
One of the children was John Leslie Armstrong who in his youth fell in love with the Vallanding- ham's granddaughter, Anna Jean Richards, after she came at the age of 18 to work as a seamstress in the Commercial Hotel. The Vallandinghams fully ap- proved of this romance, and the young couple planned to be married in the Spring of 1895. But Mrs. Vallandingham was very ill, and she wanted to see the young couple married. So the wedding was performed at her bedside on the evening of January 14th and she died before morning. The newly mar- ried couple lived out their lives in the Gifford com- munity, farming for years northeast of town and raising their children, one of whom was Lorain (Pete) Armstrong who still lives here.
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