Charlie N. Cotton has lived in Champaign County over fifty years, and is rated as one of the enterprising and progressive agriculturists of Sidney Township. His well improved farmstead is on Rural Route No. 61 out of Homer.
Mr. Cotton was born in Madison County, Indiana, April 6, 1860, and was brought to this county by his parents in 1866. He is a son of Robert and Margaret (Williams) Cotton, his father a native of Indiana and his mother of Ohio. When his father came to Champaign County he located on a farm near Catlin, and became widely known and respected as ( a business man and citizen. His death occurred March 13, 1907. The mother, who was born in 1838, is now living at Homer in her eightieth year. They were the parents of four children: Charlie N.; Emma R., wife of L. C. Palmer of Homer; Josephus W., who died in childhood; and William E. of Homer.
Charlie N. Cotton had a farm as his early environment, and he learned the lessons taught in the local district schools. He was a factor in the family and at home until twenty-eight, and then rented ninety-seven acres in section 12 of Sidney Township. From there he moved to Lost Grove, Illinois, bought a place of 1291/2 acres, and five years later sold this and acquired eighty acres south of Broadlands. He farmed there for nine years and on selling that bought the old homestead of ninety-seven acres, which he has since increased by the purchase of eighty acres. All of this land is now thoroughly cultivated and used as a general farming proposition.
Mr. Cotton married December 27, 1888, Miss Alice Coddington. She was born in Sidney Township. They had three children: Robert F., an attorney at Newman, Illinois; Carl, who died at birth; and Frank Earl, still at home. Mr. Cotton is a Republican and a member of the Modern Woodmen of America.