USA > Illinois > Henry County > The biographical record of Henry County, Illinois > Part 32
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township, and served in that capacity three years; has also filled the office of road com- missioner; was assessor of Wethersfield township for the long period of twenty years ; and has frequently served as a dele- gate to the county conventions of his party. He and his daughter are members of the Congregational Church, and he is also con- nected with the Grand Army post, of Ke- wanee, in which he has filled all the chairs and is now past commander. He has al- ways been found true to every trust reposed ir: him, whether public or private, and has been found a loyal and patriotic citizen in days of peace as well as in time of war.
N. C. GILBERT.
N. C. Gilbert is one of Geneseo's highly respected citizens, whose useful and well- spent life has not only gained for him the confidence of his fellow men, but has also secured for him a comfortable competence which enables him to lay aside all business cares and spend his declining days in ease and retirement. He was born in Ontario county, New York, February 10, 1834. and is a son of Horace and Ann E. ( Carpenter ) Gilbert, the former a native of Connecticut, the latter of Herkimer county, New York. His maternal grandparents were Nathaniel and Betsey (Green) Carpenter. Through- out his active business life the father fol- lowed the occupation of farming in Ontario county, New York, where he owned about three hundred acres of land. For many years he served as deacon in the Congrega- tional Church, to which he belonged, while his wife was a devout and active member of the Baptist Church. He died in 1862,
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at the age of sixty years. She long sur- vived him, dying in 1897, when within seven days of the eighty-seventh anniversary of her birth. Their children were as follows: Mary, deceased wife of J. R. Hopkins; N. C., the subject of this review; E. Curtis, a farmer of this county, who was born in 1836 and died in 1889; H. C., formerly a farmer and now a banker of Lima, New York; Elon H., who died at the age of twelve years; and Elizabeth G., wife of Gil- bert W. Peck, of Canandaigua, New York.
N. C. Gilbert was reared on his father's farm and educated in the public schools of the neighborhood. When his school days were over he took up the occupation of farm ing, which he has made his life work. Com- ing to Henry county, Illinois, in 1856, he purchased a farm in Geneseo township where he resided four years and then removed to ' Munson township, where he purchased a farm of eighty acres, to which he has added and now owns four hundred acres in that township, and successfully operated it until 1893, since which time he has rented his land and lived a retired life. His farm has been occupied by his son. H. Mark, or his son-in-law, D. S. Brown, since 1893. He was a charter member of both the Farmers National Bank and the First National Bank, of Geneseo, and was a stockholder and di- rector of the former up to January 1, 1901. He is also a charter member and president of the Geneseo, Edford & Munson Mutual Fire Insurance Company, and has ever been identified with those enterprises calculated to advance the interests of his town and county.
On the 9th of August, 1860, Mr. Gilbert was united in marriage with Miss Francelia Amsden, a native of Rochester, Vermont, and a daughter of R. P. and Lora Ann
( Buck) Amsden, who were also born in the Green Mountain state. The father died at the age of eighty-four years, but the mother is still living at the age of eighty-five. In religious belief they were Baptists. They came west in 1854, and settled on a farm in Geneseo township, this county, where they reared their family of children, namely : Lucien C., now a farmer of Missouri; Fran- celia, wife of our subject: Viola, wife of Aaron Wilson, of Menlo, lowa : Darwin R., a farmer of Scranton, Iowa; John L., also a resident of that state; Lorenzo S., a resi- dent of Los Angeles, California; Myra, who married W. E. Tipton, and died at the age of thirty-four years; and Minnie, wife of J. A. Phillips, an attorney of Dunlap. Iowa. Three children have been born to our sub- ject and his wife : May, at home ; H. Mark, a farmer of North Yakima, Washington, who is married and has four children, Curtiss, Lois, Elon and Margaret ; and Lora, wife of D. S. Brown, a farmer of Munson township, this county, by whom she has one child, Ethel, who died at the age of seven years.
In early life Mr. Gilbert was a stanch Republican, but since 1892 has been a sup- porter of the Populist party. While living on his farm he served as treasurer of Mun- son township for thirteen years, resigning that position on his removal to Geneseo in 1893. He was also supervisor of the town- ship for over ten consecutive years, and has always taken an active and commendable interest in public affairs, doing all in his power to advance the general welfare. He was president of the Henry County Fair As- sociation for nine consecutive years. He possesses great energy, good judgment and indefatigable industry and these elements have brought to him a well-deserved pros-
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perity, which now enables him to put aside active labor and enjoy the competence which former toil gained for him.
WILLIAM R. GOODRICH.
No state in the Union can boast of a more heroic band of pioneers than Illinois. Their privations, hardships and earnest la- bors have resulted in establishing one of the foremost commonwealths of America, and its wonderful advancement has been largely secured through the sturdy and in- telligent manhood of descendants of Puri- tans with their moral, intellectual and phys- ical stamina; but their work is nearly com- plete, and all too soon the last of those sturdy pioneers will have passed away; but their memory will ever remain green among those who loved them and appreciated their et- forts.
The oldest settler of Henry county now residing within its limits is William R. Goodrich, of Kewanee, who was born in the town of Hilo, on the island of Hawaii. February 20, 1832. His parents, Joseph and Martha ( Barnes) Goodrich, were both natives of Wethersfield, Connecticut, and of English descent. The father was reared in the Congregational faith and educated at Yale University. After his gradua- tion he learned the trade of ship car- penter, which he followed for a time, and then studied for the ministry. After being ordained he was sent as a missionary to Hawaii in 1822, being the second to locate there, and the first sent there by the Congre- gational Church. He did an excellent work in preaching to the natives all over the isl- and and made many converts, his church
afterward becoming the largest in the world, with a membership of five thousand. After spending fourteen years there, he re- turned to America in the spring of 1836. and joined his family in Wethersfield, Con- necticut, where he had left them. In the fall of that year, in company with Norman But- ler and John F. Willard, he came to Henry county, Illinois, by wagon, and settled in what is now Kewanee township, where he took up one hundred and sixty acres of prairie land and one hundred and twenty acres of timber land, purchasing the same when it came into market. He erected a log cabin, twenty-two by thirty feet, upon his place, but it was only partially roofed that winter, though it was the home of the three men until spring. They endured many hard- ships, and their food consisted of only a quar- ter of a beef, two pounds of butter and some cracked corn. In the spring of 1837 Mr. Goodrich returned to Connecticut for his family, and by way of the Erie canal and Great Lakes, proceeded at once to Chicago, which was then a small village, one of its principal features being the block house. There he purchased a team of Indian ponies and drove across the country to Henry coun- ty. Immediately after his arrival he com- meneed to improve and cultivate his land, making it his home throughout the remain- dler of his life. He died in 1852. in his fifty- eighth year, and his first wife died in 1840, at the age of forty years, being the first person interred in the burying ground at Wethers- field. For his second wife he married Rachel Curtis. His children were all by the first union and were as follows : Lelah, who died at the age of six months: Nancy, wife of Dr. William H. Day. of Kewanee: Jane L .. widow of E. E. Slocum and a resident of Lodi, Illinois: Joseph, a retired citizen of
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Ravenswood, Illinois; William R., our sub- ject : Charles B., who died at the age of for- ty-six years; and Martha, who died at the age of forty.
William R. Goodrich began his educa- tion in Wethersfield, in a log building which was used as a school house and church, and the knowledge he acquired in the school room has been greatly supplemented by reading and observation in subsequent years. . \s soon as he was old enough to be of any as- sistance he commenced aiding in the work of the farm and give his father the benefit of his labors until twenty-two years of age. when he began work at the carpenter's trade. which he had learned with his father. In 1855, he built for H. G. Little and Nelson Lay the first school house erected in Ke- wanee, it being a one-story structure, four- tcen by twenty-four feet, and considered very fine at that time. He followed that trade for four years, and in 1857, erected a building and started the first bakery in Ke- wanee. After conducting it as such for three years, he turned it into an eating house. which he carried on in connection with work at the gunsmith's trade. In 1886 he sold out and has since lived retired.
On the 22d of November, 1857, Mr. Goodrich married Miss Harriet M. Slocum, a native of New York and a daughter of L. O. Slocum, who was also born in that state. and removed to Kewanee in 1856, making his home here until 1880, when he went to Adair county, Iowa. By trade he was a shoemaker. Mr. and Mrs. Goodrich are the parents of five children : William B., a paint- er, of Chicago, who married Ella Rinebeck, and has one child, Lena May: Roland S., a resident of southern Oregon, who married Idella Berry; Frederick G., a foundryman, of Rock Island, who married Jennie Henry, and
has three daughters, Hattie. Minnie and Grace: Charles E., a carpenter by trade, who is now working in the rolling mills of Ke- wanee ; and L. J., who married Nellie Will- iams and is engaged in the practice of oste- opathy at Flint, Michigan.
Since the organization of the Republican party, Mr. Goodrich has been one of its stanch supporters. He is a member of the Independent Order of Mutual Aid, and both he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he was trustee for six years. In 1893 they went to Oregon and spent seventeen months on the Pacific coast for the benefit of his health. Mr. Goodrich can relate many interesting incidents of pioneer life, when this country was all wild and unimproved. On one occa- sion he was within ten rods of a herd of deer that must have numbered at least six hun- dred.
GEORGE T. FRELS.
This well-known and prominent citizen of Edford township, who owns and operates a good farin of one hundred and thirty acres on sections 21 and 16, was born in the neighbor- ing county of Rock Island on the 22d of March, 1859, and is a son of Henry and Catherine ( Mantler ) Frels. The father was a native of Germany, and was nineteen years of age when he came to the United States. For five years he followed the life of a sailor on the ocean, and the same length of time was spent on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. At the end of that period he came to Ilinois, and took up his residence in Rock Island county, where he purchased one lun- dred and eighty acres of government land at the regular price of one dollar and a quarter
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per acre. He also became owner of two hun- dred acres of land in Edford township. Hen- ry county, but continued to make his home in the former county throughout life, dying there in 1880, at the age of sixty-one years. His wife passed away in 1861. Of the eight children born to them, two died in infancy, the others being Margaret, wife of Mark Ilauberg, a farmer of Rock Island county ; Mary, deceased wife of Adam Garnent, a farmer of Henry county : Henry and Will- iam, both farmers of Rock Island county ; George T., our subject ; and Henrietta, wife of Fred Schmoll, a farmer of Osco township, Henry county.
During his minority, George T. Frels remained at home and gave his father the benefit of his labors. He attended the com- mon schools and completed his education at the business college of Clinton, Iowa. On leaving home at the age of twenty-two he set- tled on his present farm in Edford township, and to its cultivation and improvement has since devoted his energies. As a general farmer and stock raiser he has met with good success, and is to day one of the well-to-do citizens of his community.
At Barstow. Rock Island county. Mr. Frels was married November 16, 1882, to ilts Nettie Golden, who was born June 29, 1865. a daughter of Benjamin and Addie Franklin Golden, agriculturists of that Svinty. The father was born in Peekskill, Westchester munty. New York, March 20, 1614. und come to Illinois in 1853. He was mir years m the Union army during the Civilwar. enlisting first in May, 1861, in the Nguenth Impots Volunteer Infantry, and n Delenloc Sol. In the Fifty-first Illinois Wenden Incartry in which regiment he motor maker, 1805. when he was dis alorson This poempent formed part of the
Fourth Corps, Army of the Cumberland. He was wounded on the 27th of June, 1864. at the battle of Kenesaw Mountain, in Georgia. He was married September 14. 1864. to Miss Addie Franklin. He now resides in Mc- Cumne. Crawford county, Kansas, engaged in farming. His wife was born in Hampton township. Rock Island county, Illinois, March 3. 1843. her parents beng Joel Grout and Betsy F. ( Edwards ) Franklin. Her mother died about ten years ago at the age of seventy-six years, and her father contin- ued to reside on the farm in Hampton town- ship. Rock Island county, where he located on coming west in pioneer days, until his death, December 10, 1900, at the age of ninety years. He was a native of Vermont, and was ninety years of age on the 24th of October. 1900. MIrs. Frels is the oldest in a family of seven children, the others being May, de- ceased wife of Warren Sykes, a farmer of Hampton township. Rock Island county; Luther, a farmer of Kansas; Arthur ; Flora, wife of Sherman Scott, a farmer of Me- Cune, Kansas ; Nellie, wife of Claude Willis. a barber, of MeCune: and Frederick, who died at the age of one year.
To Mr. and Mrs. Frels were born the following named children: Genevra Pearl, born in Rock Island county, September 19, 1883, and Addie May, born in Edford town- ship, Henry county, May 12, 1885. are both at home: George Royal, born December 21. 1886, died at the age of four years and five days : Rilla Blanche, born June 10, 1892. died at the age of sixteen months ; Benjamin . \r- thur. born October 2, 1895. Goldie Irene. born August 13. 1897, and Mildred, born AApril 16, 1809. complete the family.
Mr. Frels is one of the leading and influ- ential men of his community and has held public office almost continuously during
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his residence in this county, at present serv- ing as commissioner and school director. . AL different times he has filled the position of assessor. collector and road commissioner, discharging his duties in a commendable and satisfactory manner. He attends the Ger- man Lutheran Church, and is highly es- teemed by all who know him.
DANIEL MCCARTHY.
Damel MeCarthy, deceased, was for for- ty-five years one of the trusted and faithful employes of the Rock Island Railroad Com- pany, and for over a quarter of a century was an honored resident of Geneseo, Illinois. He was born in 1835, in county Kerry, Ire land, where his parents, Timothy and Mary (O'Brien ) McCarthy, spent their entire lives. The other members of the family were Mary, who wedded William O'Neal. and lived for a time in Bureau and Rock Island counties, Illi- nois, and died in Rock Island January 31, 1900; Nora, who married Edward Swee- ney, and both died in Montreal, Canada ; Jo- hannah, who married a Mr. Hogan, and died in Boston, Massachusetts, in February, 1898. Her husband died in Boston, also. C'ather- ine, who died in Ireland unmarried, and Michael, who went to St. Louis Missouri, and has not been heard of in thirty years.
On his emigration to America, in 1846, Daniel McCarthy located at Ottawa, Illinois, and soon afterward entered the service of the Rock Island Railroad Company. On the 18th of November, 1855. he led to the mar- riage altar Miss Mary Maher, who was also born in county Kerry, Ireland, August 15, 1831, and is a daughter of Jeremiah and Catherine (Ford) Maher, life-long residents
of that country. Mrs. McCarthy is the fourth in order of birth in a family of five children. the others being Patrick, who married Mar- garet Errit, and lived in Ottawa, Illinois, but after her death and his second marriage, he removed to Tiskilwa, Bureau county, this state; Daniel H., who died in Texas: Bar- tholomew, who married Margaret Wolf, and resides in LaSalle county, Illinois, and John. who wedded Mary Bartell, and died in Min- nesota, in June. 1897.
Unto Mr. and Mrs. McCarthy were born seven children, namely : Mary, now the wife of Edward Shieldls, of Hancock county.Iowa: Catherine, wife of John O'Brien. a grocer of Geneseo, by whom she has two children, Ger- trude and Florence: Daniel, who died in in- fancy ; Nannie, who died at the age of eight- een years : Nellie, who married John Carney. of Rock Island, and died March 13. 1897, leaving two children, Mary, who now lives with Mrs. McCarthy, and Maud, who lives with her aunt. Mrs. Shields; Lizzie, wife of James Kidney, superintendent of the water works of the Rock Island railroad at Daven- port, by whom she had four children, Ed- ward, deceased, Mary, Daniel and Catherine: and Agnes, a teacher in the public schools of Henry county.
From Ottawa Mr. McCarthy removed t Bureau county, and in 1867 came to Gen- eseo, where he continued to make his home until his death, which occurred August 27. 1894. As previously stated, he was in the employ of the Rock Island Railroad Com- pany for forty-five years, and had the entire confidence of the railroad officials, as well as the respect of his fellow citizens. He read a great deal and was well posted on the af- fairs of the country. By his ballot he sup- ported the men and measures of the Demo- cratic party. He was a devout member of
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the Catholic Church to which his wife and family also belong, and for nine years during his residence in Tiskilwa, Bureau county, the priest made his home with him. He contrib- uited most liberally to the support of his church and gave generously to all charities. As a man he was public spirited and progres- sive and his word was considered as good as his bond.
WILLIAM A. NEVILLE.
This well-known real-estate dealer, con- Doctor and builder of Kewanee, with office over the First National Bank, is a true type of western progress and enterprise, and the city owes not a little of its property to his en- ergetic efforts. His diligence, prudent bus- iness methods and reliable sagacity have all combined to make him one of the ablest busi- ness men of the community, and he has achieved an enviable success.
A native of Henry county, Mr. Neville was born February 3. 1855. and is a son of Patrick Neville, who was born in Ireland. and died in early life. The father came to America when quite young, and believing this county to be a desirable locality, he en- tered a tract of government land, the south- west quarter of section 24. Burns township. which is still in possession of the family. Ilis house, built of lumber hauled from Chi- cago with ox teams, is still standing, and was occupied until 1883. At the time of its erection, it was surrounded by saplings which have grown into large and beautiful trees. Thoughont life the father followed agricul tural pursuits. Ile was married in Henry e unty, about 1840, to Miss Jane Pounds. who was born in Pennsylvania, March 12, 1812, and later lived in Canton, Stark conn-
ty, Ohio, and being left an orphan at an early age was bound out according to the custom of that time. She long survived her husband. diying on the 14th of February, 1896, when nearly eighty-four years of age. During her girlhood in Ohio she united with the Chris- tian Church, of which she was a devout and active member throughout life. Her chil- dren, were Thomas P., now a resident of Stu- art, Iowa; Mary A., who died in infancy; James L., a resident of Belleville, Kansas, who was a soldier of the Civil war and was taken prisoner at Harper's Ferry, enduring all the hardships of southern prison life; P. H., who lives on a farm adjoining the old homestead; and William A., our subject. Mrs. Neville came to Illinios in 1840, first stopping in Fulton, but soon after coming to Henry county, and at the time of her death slie was one of the earliest pioneers left.
The boyhood and youth of William A. Neville were passed in much the usual man- per of farmer boys of his day, attending the district schools, where he conned his lessons on slab seats. Having become thoroughly familiar with agricultural pursuits he en- gaged in farming for several years in Iowa after his school days were over, and then turned his attention to the carpenter's trade. He has since engaged in contracting and building. It has been his plan to erect houses, which he would then sell, thus deal- ing extensively in real estate, as he has built lundreds of houses in Kewanee. In this way he has done much to impove the city. Indeed, few persons have done more to ad- vance its interests than Mr. Neville. He has also erected several large brick buildings, his first being Hotel Main. In design and structure his own residence is one of the most beautiful in the city. In 1895 he laid out a tract of six acres, known as Neville's
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addition to the city of Kewanec, on which he has built and sold many houses. He has paid out large sums for help in his work.
On the 14th of February, 1878. Mr. Neville was united in marriage with Miss Cynthia West, who was born in Ohio, and in 1863, when a child of six years came to Illi- mois with her parents, Michael and Phebe (Mettler) West, also natives of the Buck- eye state. By this union have been born four children, namely: Russell T., who is now a traveling salesman for a firm engaged in photographic work; Frank R., Ralph L. and Edna H., all at home. Mrs. Neville is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and socially she and her husband are very popular with a wide circle of friends and ac- quaintances. In politics he is a Prohi- bitionist.
GEORGE R. W. ARNOLD.
George Richard W. Arnold, a member of the well-known firm of Arnold & Goembel, dealers in grain and coal, is one of the im- portant factors in the business circles of Geneseo. He was born on the 21st of May, 1857, in Cook county, Illinois, and is a son of J. George and Salome (Windling) Ar- nold, both natives of Alsace, now a province of Germany. In early life the mother came to America with her parents, Philip and Mary Windling, and at the age of thirteen years the father crossed the Atlantic in com- pany with his mother and five children, his father having died in Germany at the age of thirty-five years. It was in 1844 that the Arnold family reached this country and took up their residence in Cook county, Illinois. They improved a farm in Northfield town- ship, where the grandmother of our subject
spent her remaining days, dying there at the age of fifty-five years. She was an earnest member of the Evangelical Association, and her husband held membership in the Luther- an Church in Germany.
Our subject is the oldest in a family of five children, the others being Lavina Sarah, wife of Samttel Rapp, a farmer of White- side county, Illinois; . Ashton and Henrietta. who both died in infancy ; and Flora, at home with her mother, who is an honored resident of Geneseo, and is now in her seventieth year. It was in 1883 that the family came to Henry county, and took up their residence on a farm on section 17, Geneseo township, just outside the corporate limits of the city of that name.
During his boyhood George R. W. Ar- nold acquired a good practical education in the common schools of his native county. and also gained an excellent knowledge of agricultural pursuits. He came with the family to this county in 1883, and success- fully operated the home farm in Geneseo township, which consists of ninety-five acres of very valuable and well improved land. He continued his farming operations until 1895, when he embarked in his present business at Geneseo, as a partner of Aaron Rapp, under the firm name of Rapp & Ar- nold. That connection continued two years. and he has since engaged in business withi Samuel Goembel under the style of Arnold & Goembel. There are only two elevators in Geneseo, and this firm receives a liberal share of the patronage.
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