Albert Lehman Southworth, living retired at Longview, represents one of the old and substantial families of Champaign County, his people having located here more than sixty years ago and having played worthy and active parts in the development and transformation of Raymond Township.
Mr. Southworth was born in Erie County, Ohio, August 14, 1850, son of John Randolph and Anna (Akers) Southworth. His father was a Connecticut man by birth while his mother was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. It was in 1855 that the family came to Champaign County and settled on a tract of raw and unimproved land in section 29, Raymond Township. The father lived there and cultivated the soil until his death in 1885, while the mother passed away in 1893. They were the parents of six children: Mary Adelaide, widow of Martin B. Reed, living in Colorado; Julia Ann, deceased; Horace Franklin, deceased; Albert L.; John J., of Danville, Illinois; and May Lilly, wife of James Watts, of Fairland.
Albert L. Southworth has had an active career, was reared on the home farm in Raymond Township, attended the local schools, and at the age of twenty-three left home and went to Parsons, Kansas, where he lived on a farm for seven years. His next experience was near Soda Springs, Colorado, where he spent three years as a miner. On returning to Champaign County he rented the home place for about three years, and again went back to Kansas and did farming for seven years. Since then he has lived at Longview and is retired. Mr. Southworth is a Democrat in politics.