Hancock County IL

Biography of Albert Irven Decker

Albert Irven Decker. In the demands which it makes upon its devotees, educational work is exceedingly exacting. The duty of the educator, ostensibly, is to instill a practical, working knowledge into each of his pupils, but his correlative, although less direct, function of instilling character and worthy precepts through his personal influence is equally important. The duty first named calls for an individual of knowledge and specialized training, while the second demands a conscientious and capable person whose life and mode of living provide a fit criterion and example for the minds of youth. When a man is found in … Read more

Ankrom, Edward Conway – Obituary

Halfway, Oregon Edward Conway Ankrom, 85, a longtime Halfway resident, died Dec. 22, 2000, at St. Elizabeth Health Services. His memorial service will be Thursday at 1 p.m. at the Halfway Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. President Lon Nalder of the LDS Church will officiate. Disposition was by cremation at the Eastern Oregon Pioneer Crematory. Mr. Ankrom was born Sept. 17, 1915, at Salem, W.Va., to Connie Eli Ankrom and Bertha Maude Matheny. While he was a young boy he, along with his family, moved to Augusta, Ill., where they lived until he was six years old. From … Read more

Biography of L. B. Hastings

L.B. HASTINGS. – Under the bluffs on the sandbank at the old place that the Frenchmen called La Dalles, in the autumn days of 1847, a company of wayworn immigrants was lying along the river side, the women at the tents, the children playing with the dogs and romping on the shore, and the ponies and cattle feeding upon the mountain. The men were at work day after day a whole month, with their axes and hammers, in making a flatboat from the pines that they cut form the hills. This company of sixty wagons had just come out of … Read more

Ensminger, Jacob H. – Obituary

Jacob H. Ensminger Haines Pioneer Dead Resident of Baker County For 64 Years Passes Jacob Henry Ensminger, a resident of Baker county for the past 64 years, died at 3 a.m. Thursday morning, exactly a week to the hour after he was stricken with paralysis. Funeral services will be held from the residence at 1 o’clock Saturday with Rev. R.C. Lee of Union officiating. Mr. Ensminger was born March 19, 1847 in Hancock County, Ill., and was nearing his 81st birthday. He crossed the plains in 1863 locating in this community. He was married in 1871 to Miss Johanna Loennig … Read more

Biography of James McCall

JAMES McCALL. – A capable and upright man who has wrought with energy and intelligence in the work of bringing about the advancement of Union county and building up her institutions, the esteemed gentleman, whose name initiates this sketch, is one of whom the county may well be proud, and it is with pleasure that we incorporate a review of his practical and interesting career. James is a native of East Tennessee, and the son of Joseph and Malinda (Cradick) McCall, who removed with their son to Hancock county, Illinois, soon after he had gained his primary education, and in … Read more

Biography of William Rollin Yenawins

William Rollin Yenawins. Farming has been the business of William Rollin Yenawine. He has given to that vocation the same qualities of enterprise and energy which a successful merchant gives to his store or a manufacturer to his factory. His success has followed as a matter of course. Mr. Yenawine is now the owner of “Brook Side” farm in Ashland Township of Riley County. It is said that the really busy man has more leisure than the one who pursues every undertaking with frantic haste and wastes his efforts on small accomplishment. This is perhaps the reason why Mr. Yenawine, … Read more

Biography of William C. Cecil, M. D.

Dr. William C. Cecil, born November 15, 1850, in Plymouth, Illinois, was a pioneering physician in Stark, Kansas. A descendant of the notable Cecil family of Maryland, Dr. Cecil earned his M.D. from the Eclectic Medical Institute in Cincinnati in 1875. He practiced medicine in Illinois and Kansas, settling in Stark in 1888, where he was the first permanent doctor. Renowned for his dedication, Dr. Cecil served the community for nearly 30 years. He was active in local Masonic organizations and married twice, first to Sarah E. Robinson and later to Nell Rumbeck, with whom he had three children.

Biography of Bertrand Rockwell, Captain

Bertrand Rockwell, who had had his home at Kansas City, Missouri, since 1906 was one of the constructive figures in Kansas from the close of the Civil war until he retired from business. Apart from the individual interest of his career, his activities have had the greatest value in connection with Junction City and that section of the state. Before he had reached his majority he had left school and entered the army, and came out with the rank of captain. Two weeks after being mustered out, in September, 1865, Captain Rockwell reached Leavenworth, Kansas. From there he was carried … Read more

Biography of Karl Marshall Geddes

Karl Marshall Geddes. In point of experience, sound knowledge of the law, and forceful ability in its practice, the firm of Leydig & Geddes occupies a conspicuous position among the leading law firms of Southern Kansas. Mr. Geddes, the junior member of this firm, had been well known in Butler County for a number of years. He is a leading republican, had held several important public offices, and is now a member of the State Legislature. His early life was spent in Hancock County, Illinois, where he was born at Fountain Green, April 13, 1882, a son of Cyrus M. … Read more

Biography of James P. Stephens

JAMES P. STEPHENS. – This original owner of a large portion of the townsite of East Portland, Oregon, was born in 1806 in Virginia, and removed to Indiana when but a boy of eight, and came still farther west to Hancock County, Illinois, in1832. In 1830 he married Miss Elizabeth Walker of Ohio, and passed on to Missouri, and in 1843 made preparations to come to Oregon. Failing, however, to reach the rendezvous in time, the journey was postponed until the next year. Crossing the plains in 1844, he endured the hardships of that toilsome year, and reached Oregon City … Read more

Biography of George W. Buck

GEORGE W. BUCK. – The subject of this article is at the head of one of the largest industrial institutions of the county of Union, being proprietor and manager of the large sawmilling and lumbering establishment, where he has been enabled to turn out from three to four million feet of fine lumber annually, and in this capacity he has displayed an excellent ability and enterprise which have commended him to the esteem and confidence of the entire community, while he has also manifested a stanch character and maintained an untarnished reputation. George W. was born on March 22, 1848, … Read more

Biography of Albert D. Bauer

Albert D. Bauer. One of the veterans of the printing trade and an old time publisher in Kansas, Albert D. Bauer acquired his first experience in “the art preservative of all arts” in a Topeka print shop. That was nearly forty years ago, and for the past twenty-three years he has lived continuously in Topeka. Mr. Bauer was born in the historic old seat of the Mormons in the Middle West, Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, March 6, 1863. His grandfather John Bauer Sr. was born in Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, coming to America in 1820 and locating as a pioneer in … Read more

Davis, Minnie – Obituary

North Powder, Union County, Oregon Funeral services will be conducted Thursday at 2 p.m. at The North Powder Community Church for Minnie Hester Davis, 91, longtime North Powder resident. She died early Monday morning at St. Elizabeth Hospital after a brief illness. Mrs. Davis, a native of Tioga, Ill., was the daughter of Gus and Lucy Ensminger Roth. She married John William Davis in Baker on Sept. 2, 1903. They purchased land in the North Powder Valley to farm and built their home. She is survived by one daughter, Mrs. Lula Cantrell of Portland; three sisters, Mrs. Jessie Hannahs of … Read more

Biography of Joseph Camp Thorn

Joseph Camp Thorn, residing four miles east of San Bernardino on the Base Line, is one of the pioneers of this county. He was born in New York, January 2, 1839, the son of Joseph and Lorana (Camp) Thorn. When the subject of this sketch was three years of age his father moved to Nauvoo, Illinois. The next year he removed to Council Bluffs, Iowa, and the following year he moved to Salt Lake. Our subject was then eight years old and he drove an ox team all the way from Council Bluffs to Salt Lake. Mr. Thorn lived at … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Thomas Baker

THOMAS BAKER. – Mr. Baker was born in Bullitt county, Kentucky, in 1832, being the son of George C. and Elizabeth Miller Baker. When he was eighteen months old his parents moved to Hancock county, Illinois. He remained in that country until the spring of 1852, being employed on his father’s farm. In the spring of this year, he started with his older brother across the plains to California, and arrived in the Golden State in August, 1852. For ten years he was actively engaged in mining, and was among the number who made the stampede to the Florence mines … Read more

Biography of David S. Lamme

The history of the pioneer settlement of Payette would be incomplete without the record of this gentleman, who from the earliest founding of the town has been a prominent factor in its substantial growth and improvement. When Idaho was cut off from the advantages and comforts of the east by the long, hot stretches of sand and the high mountains, he made his way across the plains, braving all the trials and hardships of pioneer life in order to make a home in the northwest rich in its resources, vet unclaimed from the dominion of the red men. Mr. Lamme … Read more

Kinkade, Rawlin Madison – Obituary

R. M. Kinkade, Pioneer, dies. Farmed in valley over Half-Century. Rawlin Madison (Roll) Kinkade, 86-year-old long-time Kittitas Valley resident and the last surviving son of a pioneer valley family, died last night [February 16, 1955] in Sorensen Memorial Hospital here. In ill health for some time, he had been hospitalized 12 days Kinkade came to the Kittitas Valley with his parents, the late Mr. and Mrs. David Kinkade, in September, 1882. He farmed here more than half a century before retiring in 1940. He was born in Denver, Ill., Nov. 4, 1868, and the family came here from California Kinkade … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Edmond H. Madison

Edmond H. Madison, of Wichita, who died while serving his third term in Congress, was of the younger generation of the energetic and able members of the bench and bar in Kansas. He was born at Plymouth, Hancock County, Illinois, December 18, 1865, educated in the common schools and at the age of eighteen years began teaching. In 1885 he went to Wichita, Kansas, where he studied law in the office of G. W. C. Jones; and in 1888 was admitted to the bar. The same year he was elected county attorney of Ford County, which office he held for … Read more

Biography of Joseph Thorn

Joseph Thorn, deceased, was a pioneer of 1854. He was born in New York State, December 22, 1811. His parents were Richard and Mary Ann (Armstrong) Thorn, the former a native of New York, the latter of England. Mr. Thorn was a blacksmith by trade. He was married at Niles, New York, June 19, 1836, to Lorana Camp, daughter of Jonah and Barbara (Keith) Camp, from near New Haven, Connecticut. About seven years after his marriage he moved with his wife and four children to Hancock County, Illinois, where he lived five years. He then moved to Council Bluffs and … Read more

Biography of Winslow P. Powers

Deceased. – While it is the province of our volume to give mention of the leading citizens of Wallowa county, it also comes within the purview of the work to grant to such as the noble and esteemed citizen, whose name appears above, a memoir, and it is with especial delight that we are privileged to do so at this time, since he was one of the builders of the county, and one who held in becoming manner the position of leader for many years, being eminently fitted for that capacity, both by marked capabilities, great energy and force of … Read more