Hancock County IL

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 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 Joseph C. Rich

Judge Joseph C. Rich, eldest son of Hon. Charles C. Rich, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this history, was born in Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, January 16, 1841. His mother’s maiden name was Sarah D. Pea, good stock all around, his ancestors being of that hardy pioneer school who have subdued the wilds of the middle and western states and made possible the grandeur of those noble commonwealths. When but a boy of five years he, in connection with his parents and several thousand others, was driven from the city of his birth by mobocratic persecution, and commenced … 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

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 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

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 Raymond Griffin Barnett

Raymond Griffin Barnett, who had the well earned title of captain of the American army in the World war and who is now engaged in the practice of law in Kansas City, was born at Carthage, Hancock county, Illinois, October 8, 1882, and is a son of Fred P. and Adele (Griffin) Barnett, the former a native of Missouri and the latter of Illinois. The father went from this state to Iowa and afterward returned to Kansas City. He is by profession a court reporter and is now the vice president of the Shorthand Reporting Company, with offices in the … Read more

Biography of Charles W. Shinn, Hon.

Hon. Charles W. Shinn. In an able and vigorous service of eight years on the bench, Hon. Charles W. Shinn, now city attorney of Neodesha, Kansas, gained an enviable reputation for legal ability, thorough understanding of the law, wise judgments and unimpeachable integrity. As a private practitioner of law this reputation is still justified, while as a citizen Judge Shinn is numbered with the foremost men of Neodesha. Judge Shinn is a native of Illinois, born May 30, 1854, in Hancock County, and is a son of John K. and Tabitha (Ogden) Shinn. The Shinn family is of English ancestry … Read more