Martin Joseph Clennon. That farming can be conducted as a successful business in the same class as a store or factory needs no other proof than a visit to the place under the management of Martin Joseph Clennon in section 33 of Philo Township. He has a large acreage under cultivation, a group of well arranged, substantially built structures for his home and barns, and on every hand are evidences of good management and efficiency.
Mr. Clennon is one of the younger farmers of Champaign County. He was born in Crittenden Township of this county December 12, 1880, a son of William F. and Adelia (Moran) Clennon. His father was born in Grundy County, Illinois, and his mother in Canada. It was in 1877 that the parents removed to Champaign County and located on a farm in Crittenden Township, where the widowed mother still lives. The father died here May 16, 1906. They were the parents of a large family of nine children: Mary Agnes, still at home; Martin J.; Francis W., of Crittenden Township; Sadie, wife of Frank H. Cain, of Philo Township; Agnes, at home; Catherine, wife of Lawrence Flynn, of Philo Township; Lauretta; Lawrence, in Battery F, 149th Illinois Volunteers; and Raymond J., at home.
Martin J. Clennon attended the district schools in his early youth and also had a course in a business college at Decatur. He wisely made choice of agriculture as his vocation and has been steadily improving his opportunities granted by experience and is now capably managing one of the fine farms of Philo Township, containing 236 acres.
On September 4, 1907, he married Catherine Tyrrell, a native of Livingston County, Illinois. They have three young children, named Howard Ambrose, Mary Edith and Lois Adelia. In politics Mr. Clennon is a Democrat. He and his family are members of St. Thomas Catholic Church at Philo, and he is a member of the Knights of Columbus. His country home is supplied with the daily mail from rural route No. 1 out of Tolono.