Galena Illinois

Biography of Sylvester Washington McMaster

Almost the only living individual among those earliest settlers who came to Rock Island County in the thirties and forties, when the present City of Rock Island was a small village, known as Stephenson, is Sylvester Washington McMaster, a man whom nearly every man, woman and child throughout Rock Island County knows, either personally or by reputation. He was born October 8, 1811, near Watertown, in Herkimer County, New York, and died January 22, 1908, at the age of ninety-six years. His early life was spent upon a farm and he received such education as he could in the country … Read more

Biography of Gen. Morton Mathew McCarver

GEN. MORTON MATHEW McCARVER. THE FOUNDER OF BURLINGTON, IOWA, SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA AND TACOMA, WASHINGTON,- General McCarver was born near Lexington Kentucky, January 14, 1807. Of an independent, roving spirit, determination, courage and enterprise that knew no bounds, he quit his home at the age of eighteen years and went to Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, and not finding anything congenial to his tastes returned and settled in 1830 at Galena, Illinois, where he was married to a Miss Mary Ann Jennings. He served in the Black Hawk war, and after the surrender of the great chief of the Sacs and Foxes, … Read more

Biography of Isaac Negus

Isaac Negus, deceased, who, during his lifetime, was one of the leading business men in Rock Island, was a man whose be-lief in the future of the city he had chosen for his home took the substantial form of building enterprise. He was born December 31, 1799, at Labions, Ondaga County, New York, where he received a common school education. After leaving school he found employment in the construction department of the Erie Canal in New York State, where he remained for three years. The experience and practical knowledge gained during those three years was a great service to him … Read more

Biography of Rev. John F. Devore, D. D.

REV. JOHN F. DEVORE, D.D. – Doctor Devore was a native of Kentucky, being born near Lexington, December 7, 1817. He was of French descent, as the name indicates, and owed very much to the pious example of religious parents, who urged him with their last words to be “faithful to his God.” The “Life of Bramwell” fell into his hands at an early date, was read with great relish, and had much to do in molding the shape of his after life. Entering the ministry, he joined the Rock river conference in 1842, Bishop Roberts presiding. He was ordained … Read more

Illinois Indian Land

Black Hawk

With the rapid increase of a white population between the Lakes and the Mississippi, which followed the conclusion of hostilities with England and her Indian allies, new difficulties began to arise between the natives and the settlers. Illinois and Wisconsin were inhabited by various tribes of Indians, upon terms of bitter hostility among themselves, but united in their suspicions and apprehensions at the unprecedented inroads of emigrants from the east. The Winnebago, dwelling in Wisconsin; the Pottawatomie, situated around the southern extremity of Lake Michigan; and the Sac, (afterwards mingled with the Foxes, and usually coupled with that tribe,) of … Read more

Biographical Sketch of George W. Swagart

GEORGE W. SWAGART. – Mr. Swagart, identified since 1853 with the interests of our coast, and now one of the “cattle kings” of Eastern Oregon, was born May 1, 1848, near Galena, in Joe Davis county, Illinois. In 1853 he came with his parents to Oregon, locating in Lane county, where he received a common-school education, and became inured to the hardships of an early pioneer life, in the saddle, and to the arduous labors of farming, until, in 1865, he branched out for himself in the stock business, driving a band of sheep across the Cascade Mountains to the … Read more

Biography of Francis Xavier Paquet

FRANCIS X. PAQUET. – Francis Xavier Paquet, son of Joseph Paquet and Marie Madaline Godant, was born in the parish of Saint John, about thirty miles west of Quebec, at the junction of the Jacquarka river with the St. Lawrence. Joseph Paquet was a stonemason by trade, but lived on a farm and took jobs of stonework. He was the father of eighteen children, nine boys and nine girls. F.X. Paquet, the sixteenth child in order, was born on the fifteenth day of January, 1811. He learned the trade of shipbuilding at Quebec, being apprenticed to Peter Labbe when not … Read more

Ely S. Parker Homestead, Tonawanda Reservation

Ely S. Parker Homestead

Ely Parker was a Seneca Indian of the Wolf Clan. He was born on the Tonawanda Seneca Reservation in 1832. His boyhood name was Hasanoanda ‘Coming to the Front’. Later he was made a chief of his clan and received the title, Do-ne-ho-ga-weh ‘He Holds The Door Open’. Ely Parker received an academic education and studied law and civil engineering. At Galena, Illinois, while he was employed as an engineer on a government project, he met Ulysses S. Grant. He became a close friend of Grant. This friendship continued till death. Ely Parker took part in the Civil War of … Read more

Biographical Sketch of T. B. Johns

T. B. Johns, farmer, P. O. Athens, was born in Galena, Ill., April 8, 1841. In 186l he went to California, and back to Nevada in 1862; thence to Utah; thence to Idaho; thence to British Columbia; thence to Oregon; thence to Montana; thence to Wyoming; thence back to Utah; thence to Prescott, Arizona, back to Nevada, and again back to Illinois; thence to Queenstown, Ireland, and back to the United States, settling at Abilene, Kan., in 1871. Came to Jewell County in October 1871, and is now the owner of 240 acres of land. Mr. Johns has been an … Read more

Biography of A. M. Brookes

A. M. BROOKES. – A portrait of Mr. Brookes is placed in this work. The present efficient postmaster of the “Queen City” (Seattle) was born in Galena, Illinois, September 2, 1843, and is the son of Samuel M. and Julia B. (Jones) Brookes. His father was one of the early pioneers of Milwaukee. When our subject was but an infant his parents moved to Chicago, and two years later moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where A.M. was educated at the Milwaukee Academy, and where he resided until August, 1862. When, on the call by President Lincoln for three hundred thousand men, … Read more