A Standard History of Champaign County Illinois

Stewart, J. R. A Standard History of Champaign County Illinois. The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago and New York. 1918.

Biography of Alva Gilmore

Alva Gilmore. With all due credit to the great metropolitan dailies that keep people informed of the life of the world, the local paper now as always has its great field of influence and value and is an indispensable factor in the life of a community. One of the leading papers of Champaign County is the Fisher Reporter, which has been regularly published since 1890 and is now a weekly visitor to all the leading homes in the northern part of the county. Since 1902 its editor and proprietor has been Mr. Alva Gilmore, a practical journalist and business man, … Read more

Biography of Alpheus C. Swearingen

Alpheus C. Swearingen. At a pleasant home on Sherman Street in the village of St. Joseph reside a couple who carry with them many memories of Champaign County both old and new and are enjoying the declining years of life with comforts and the riches of esteem befitting their worthy careers. Mr. and Mrs. Swearingen spent their active lives on a farm, garnered many harvests there from, reared their children to worthy and useful lives, and then gave up their home in the country for the one they now occupy at St. Joseph. Mr. Swearingen is a native of Champaign … Read more

Biography of Alonzo S. Brand

Alonzo S. Brand. The career of Alonzo S. Brand, whose home is in Sidney Township, on Eural Route No. 58, has been characterized by that vim and vigor of achievement which is the admiration of all purposeful men. To say that he is a self-made man is hardly doing credit to his ability at overcoming difficulties in his way to success. Mr. Brand was born in Noble County, Ohio, January 15, 1872, a son of Greenberry and Mary (Baker) Brand. His parents were also natives of the same county and his father a farmer. Alonzo was the oldest of their … Read more

Biography of Alonzo O. Morrison

Alonzo O. Morrison. One of the families that was established in Vermilion County, Illinois, in the early ’40s and has ever since been a representative agricultural one in east central Illinois bore the name of Morrison. This branch of the family was of pioneer stock in Ohio and doubtless can trace its far back ancestry to Scotland. The leading representative in Champaign County is Alonzo O. Morrison, a highly respected resident of Homer, Illinois. Alonzo O. Morrison was born in Vermilion County, Illinois, November 17, 1859. His parents were James Perry and Harriet A. (Sterns) Morrison. The father was born … Read more

Biography of Alexander Mahaffie

Alexander Mahaffie. An honored survivor of the great Civil War and a substantial retired farmer of Harwood Township is found in Alexander Mahaffie, who was born in Pickaway County, Ohio, in 1835. For many years Mr. Mahaffie has been a respected and esteemed resident of Champaign County and he has been identified with many of the things which have been beneficial to this section. The parents of Alexander Mahaffie were William and Elizabeth Mahaffie, who moved from Ohio to Indiana when he was eighteen months old. There he grew to manhood and obtained a district school education. When the Civil … Read more

Biography of Alexander Funkhouser

Alexander Funkhouser. Some men go through the world, subject to its various experiences, doing their work well and accumulating property, but after all is said and done they apparently have not placed the proper emphasis upon life as living and have not accentuated the many interests which lie around them. Of those families of Champaign County that seem to have realized most adequately the breadth and fullness and depth of life and its possibilities perhaps none deserve mention more than the household of Alexander Funkhouser. Mr. Funkhouser is a prominent farmer near Rantoul, and his activities have been closely identified … Read more

Biography of Alexander Craigmile

Alexander Craigmile. Of the men whose ability, industry and fore-thought have added to the character, wealth and progress of Champaign County none deserves better mention than Alexander Craigmile, a veteran of the Union army, long and successfully identified with agriculture, and now with his good wife living retired in a comfortable home at Rantoul. His public spirited citizenship has stood every test of time and service. Forty years he has known Compromise Township, and during that time has again and again been chosen to fill places of trust and responsibility. He was elected to serve as assessor, collector, supervisor and … Read more

Biography of Albert R. Cooper

Albert R. Cooper, postmaster of Pesotum, has spent most of his life in this county as a practical farmer and also as a teacher, and is one of the dignified and influential leaders in his community. Mr. Cooper was born in Pesotum Township October 7, 1870, a son of John A. and Mary L. (Prose) Cooper. His mother was born in Ohio. The father, a native of West Virginia, first went west to the State of Missouri and from there came to Champaign County in 1863. Locating on a farm in Pesotum Township, he went through the trials and adversities … Read more

Biography of Albert C. Burnham

Albert C. Burnham. Even the most casual visitor in Champaign is accustomed to associate the name Burnham with that city, where two of its most prominent institutions bear the name. It is true in a broad sense that the good or evil men do in their days lives after them, but seldom does this continuing influence take a better form of concrete benefit than in the Burnham Athenaeum Library and the Julia F. Burnham Hospital in Champaign. They are memorials with a purpose, and a reaction for good day after day upon the lives of thousands in the community which … Read more

Biography of Albert A. Hyde

Albert A. Hyde. A native of Champaign County and one who has spent his entire life within its borders, watching its development throughout the years of its greatest growth, Albert A. Hyde is so well known to the citizens of this great agricultural center that it may seem supererogatory to give his record in detail in a work of this kind. On the other hand, Mr. Hyde is one of those who have helped to make history in the county. He has not merely been a witness to progress he has also been a participant in the movements which have … Read more

Biography of Alba J. Flatt

Alba J. Flatt. In a business way Mr. Flatt has been most prominently known in the community of Leverett in Champaign County, when he has the finest grain elevator in this section of the state and where for many years he has been the active medium through which an important bulk of the local grain production has been marketed. Mr. Flatt in recent years has had his home in the city of Champaign. While a resident of Champaign County most of his life, Mr. Flatt was born near Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, July 6, 1863. His parents, James H. and Matilda … Read more

Biography of Adam Kroner

Adam Kroner. In making productive the vast prairies of the Middle West no one class of people has borne a more steady and effective part than the German element, and particularly to those who came as colonists after the German revolutionary troubles of the ’40s. Representing the second generation of this element is Mr. Adam Kroner, concerning whose work and standing as a Champaign County agriculturist only the highest words of praise may be spoken. Mr. and Mrs. Kroner occupy a fine home in Newcomb Township. Mrs. Kroner is also of a prominent German family of the county, and at … Read more

Biography of Abraham Paulus

Abraham Paulus. It is a distinction such as pertains to few living Champaign County residents that Mr. Paulus enjoys by reason of his continuous residence in the county since 1856. That was an early year in the pioneer history of this county and was a notable one in national affairs, since it saw the first entrance of the Republican party into national politics. Mr. Paulus has witnessed a remarkable development going on under his eyes during the past sixty years, and he and his good wife have borne their shares of labor and responsibilities in this community. Champaign County in … Read more

Biography of Abraham Graham

Abraham Graham. The quiet life and substantial accomplishments of the farmer have been the lot of Abraham Graham, who is now living in the town of Penfield, retired from the strenuous labors which marked his early youth. Mr. Graham has been identified with Champaign County almost half a century, and his life record is one that will be read with pleasure by his many friends and acquaintances as well as by his family. He long ago accumulated sufficient to protect him against the days that are to come, and the respect in which he is held is no less than … Read more

Biography of A. P. Johnson

A. P. Johnson. Among the learned professions there are, probably, none that demand so much tact, judgment, patience, natural executive ability and specialized knowledge as that of the educator. The individual who enters into this field, selecting it as his chosen life work and calling, must be prepared to make many sacrifices, to endure numerous disappointments, to often spend himself for others without apparent return of gratitude, and to give the best years of his life often without the emoluments that equal efforts would in all probability bring in any other profession. It is a vocation for which there are … Read more

Biography of A. J. Kirkpatrick

A. J. Kirkpatrick. By many activities and associations the name Kirkpatrick is identified with the best traditions of Champaign County. Of this family A. J. Kirkpatrick is widely known as one of the most capable agriculturists and his success consists not only in the thorough management of the resources of the soil but also in his contributions to the improvement and beautifying of the rural landscape. Mr. Kirkpatrick is proprietor of the Blue Mound Farm in Stanton Township. He was born at Champaign, February 17, 1854, a son of John C. and Mary C. (Busey) Kirkpatrick. His parents represented two … Read more

Biography of A. F. Meuser

A. F. Meuser has been a resident of Illinois and the greater part of Champaign County for fully fifty years, and his labors long since became so productive as to enable him to live in retirement. He and his wife now have a large and comfortable home in Rantoul, on Grove Avenue. In earlier years they worked hard, were content with simple comforts and necessities, and were willing to sacrifice many things in order to secure a home, rear their children properly, and have a competence for their later years. In all this they have succeeded, and they deserve the … Read more

Biography of A. C. McElwee

A. C. McElwee. The township of St. Joseph has some of the best farms in Champaign County, and one that at once attracts attention by its well tilled fields and splendid improvements is the Elder Row Grain and Stock Farm, the proprietor of which is A. C. McElwee. Back in 1856, more than sixty years ago, his grandfather, C. J. McElwee, acquired 120 acres. It was raw and unimproved and largely became a farm under his efforts. That was the foundation and nucleus of the Elder Row Grain and Stock Farm. Oddly enough, the land has not been retained in … Read more

Biography of A. A. Arms

A. A. Arms, now living retired at Thomasboro, has truly lived the strenuous life. He has entered heartily into all the experiences that come to the farmer in a new country and after subduing his own acres and acquiring the fatness of the land he was not content to settle down into a life of studied ease, but has sought adventure and knowledge far afield. Mr. Arms is without doubt the best known hunter in Champaign County. He has the riches of trophies gained from the chase sufficient to stock a museum. He has traveled to many remote fastnesses of … Read more

Biography of William Keal

William Keal. While Champaign County has long been noted for its material riches and its magnificent assets as an agricultural district, its real wealth consists in its men and women, its families and homos, their standards of comfort and civic and domestic virtues, and in those associations which afford color to the material background of existence. Of those families that have longest been identified with the county that represented by William Keal, a resident of Rantoul Township, has more than ordinary interest. Mr. Keal was born in Prussia, Germany, and was seven years of age when he accompanied his parents … Read more