LaSalle County IL

Biography of Henry M. Thatcher

Throughout the greater part of his life Judge Henry M. Thatcher has resided on the Pacific slope, and as one of the honored pioneers of this section of the country has been prominently identified with its development, progress and up-building from an early day. He was born in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, October 17, 1833, and is of German lineage. His grandfather, Samuel Thatcher, was born in Germany, and when a young man emigrated to the United States, settling in Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, where he married Miss Hannah Smith. He was a soldier in the war of 1812 and lived to … Read more

Biography of Edward V. More

Edward V. More. Of the families of Champaign County whose industry and activities of life have contributed materially to the prosperity and upbuilding of the community one of the most highly respected is that which bears the name of More, and which has a worthy representative in Edward V. More of Rantoul. Mr. More, who is engaged in the fire insurance business at this time and whose energies have taken him into other fields of endeavor during a long and uniformly successful career, was born in St. Joseph County, Michigan, and is a son of James R. and Louisa M. … Read more

Biography of James Wood

James Wood. Among her valued citizens Kansas can number yet many of her pioneers, not the floating population of her earliest territorial days, but men who came to the state as homeseekers, even before the outbreak of the Civil war. These courageous and resourceful men are universally held in honorable esteem for the great progress made by Kansas was founded upon their hardihood and energy. One of these is found in James Wood, a representative citizen and a substantial farmer of Ogden Township, Riley County. James Wood was born in England, September 27, 1844, the eldest son of William and … Read more

Biography of Anton Diebolt, Jr.

Anton Diebolt, Jr., cashier of the Piqua State Bank in Woodson County, is one of the younger bankers of Kansas and had studied and practiced banking with a varied experience in different institutions ever since reaching manhood. He is a native of Kansas and represents a family that have had an important share in business and financial circles. He was born in Atchison County, Kansas, October 10, 1885, a son of Anton Diebolt, Sr., and a grandson of Joseph Diebolt. The Diebolt family in the earlier generations lived in the Province of Alsace, on the border between the French and … Read more

Biography of A. H. Skidmore

A. H. Skidmore. The general instances in the early life of men who “do things” are peculiarly similar. Differing in detail, the general outline is the short and simple story of the rise and progress to eminence from poverty to prosperity. Assiduous toil, the common school advantages, and the struggle for supremacy generates reliance on self, the natural, rather than art is their guide; individual talents are developed and each shows through the originality thereby becoming and recognized as self-made men. Judge Skidmore was born in Virginia February 14, 1856, was reared to manhood on a farm by parents possessing … Read more

Biography of James A. Lounsbury M.D.

James A. Lounsbury, M. D. In the career of Dr. James A. Lounsbury there had been demonstrated the fact that an individual can dominate in more than one direction, and that some of the most prominent citizens and successful business men are those who have branched out from their original field of endeavor and directed their abilities towards perfecting various business interests as well as raising the standard of their communities. When he entered upon his active career it was as a laborer in the prolific field of medicine, but subsequent interests wooed him away from his profession and took … Read more

Biography of Edwin W. Shearburn, M. D.

Edwin W. Shearburn, M. D. A resident of Haddam, Kansas, since 1902, Doctor Shearburn is one of the leading physicians and surgeons of Washington County, and in surgery he takes rank among the ablest men of his profession in the state. Doctor Shearburn is of English lineage. His father, George Lionel Shearburn, was born in Yorkshire County, England, in 1818, and grew up and married in his native country, where he followed the business of farming, stock raising and was also a skilled veterinarian. On coming to the United States in 1848 he located on a farm in Macoupin County, … Read more

Biography of Moody C. Little

Moody C. Little, treasurer of the Mutual Building and Loan Association of Emporia, was for many years a merchant and banker in Illinois, but had been identified with Emporia for more than thirty years. Moody Cook Little, father of the Emporia banker and business man, was born at Campton, Grafton County, New Hampshire, in May, 1822. Moody C. Little was the only child of his parents, and grew up in LaSalle County, attending the public schools until about eighteen, when he found employment that eventually led to his engaging in the dry goods business at Tonica, Illinois, where he remained … Read more

Biography of Rev. Ernest Moehl

Rev. Ernest Moehl. The wealth of Champaign County does not consist alone in broad lands and money and other material things, but in its people of sterling worth and integrity of character. Among those who have devoted themselves to the molding of character and the improvement of spiritual conditions is Rev. Ernest Moehl, pastor of the German Evangelical Church of Flatville. Rev. Mr. Moehl was born in Hersfeld, near Cassel, Germany, a son of John and Dorothy (Auding) Moehl. His father was a teacher in the old country. The family consisted of ten children, seven sons and three daughters, Ernest … Read more

Kaskaskia Tribe

Kaskaskia Indians (perhaps akin to kāskāskahamwa, ‘ he scrapes it off by means of a tool.’ The Foxes have always held the Peoria in low esteem, and in their traditions claim to have destroyed most of them on a rocky island in a river. – Wm. Jones). Once the leading tribe of the Illinois confederacy, and perhaps rightly to be considered as the elder brother of the group. Although the first knowledge of this confederacy obtained by the whites related, in all probability, to the Peoria while they yet resided on the Mississippi, it is probable that the references to … Read more

Ira Todd of LaSalle IL

Ira Todd8, (Ira7, Jehiel6, Stephen5, Stephen4, Samuel3, Samuel2, Christopher1) born Sept. 15, 1822, in Hartford, Conn., died Jan., 1899, married Sept. 26, 1848, Mary Washburn Cushman, who was born July 19, 1825, in Asonet or Taunton, Mass., died Nov. 7, 1894. Ira Todd in association with his brothers Horatio N. and Andrew, owned and managed a flouring mill and a paper mill in Toddsville, N. Y. Somewhat later he became associated with three of his brothers, Horatio N., Walter S. and Andrew owning and managing a general store in Wenona, Ill., still later, he and Walter were in company in … Read more

Charles Todd of Lasalle IL

Charles Todd8, (Ira7, Jehiel6, Stephen5, Stephen4, Samuel3, Samuel2, Christopher1) born May 1, 1817, in Northampton, Mass., married Dec. 1, 1850, Eliza A. Leonard, who was born in 1827, died June 6, 1852, in Lasalle, Ill. Charles Todd was associated with his brothers, George and Washington, in the flour milling industry in St. Louis, Mo., which had been his immigrant ancestor, Christopher Todd’s calling at New Haven, Conn., nearly two centuries before. Child: *2011. Fannie E., b. Nov. 16, 1851.

Biographical Sketch of Richard Avey

Richard Avey, farmer and stock-dealer; P. O. Arcola; the subject of this sketch was born in Suffolk Co., Eng., Aug. 19, 1837. He married Miss Celia Oakland May 31, 1858; she was born in Norway, Feb. 7, 1841; they had eight children – seven living, viz., Mary J., William T., John L., Maud I., Richard G. N., Martha C. and Oscar L.; Leander R. died Sept. 25, 1866; he lived in England about eighteen years, when he came to the United States, and settled in LaSalle Co., Ill., where he lived about two years; he then came to Coles Co; … Read more

Biography of Charles Manville Sawyer

Charles Manville Sawyer, chairman of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank at Kansas City, Missouri, began his banking career in Kansas and is perhaps as widely known over the state as any one banker. The Federal Reserve Bank at Kansas City, Missouri, serves the district comprising the states of Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming and the greater part of Oklahoma, and portions of Missouri and New Mexico. Mr. Sawyer was born on a farm near Streator, Illinois. His is an old American family and some of his ancestors fought as officers in the revolutionary war. His parents were … Read more

Walter Street Todd of Lawley FL

Walter Street Todd8, (Ira7, Jehiel6, Stephen5, Stephen4, Samuel3, Samuel2, Christopher1) born Jan. 31, 1821, in Hartford, Conn., died June 22, 1891, in Lawley, Fla., married July 9, 1843, Emily Magee, who was born Sept. 6, 1820, in Decatur, N. Y., died June 22, 1899, in Lawley, Fla. Walter S. Todd went into partnership with three of his brothers, Horatio N., Andrew and Ira, and together operated a general store in Wenona, Ill. Also, he and his brother Ira owned and managed a wholesale grocery store in Lasalle, Ill., also a flouring mill. This latter business seems to have greatly interested … Read more

Biography of Edson Baxter

Edson Baxter. Now serving as clerk of the District Court at Marion, Captain Baxter is an old timer of Kansas and had lived in close touch with the developments of half a century and his own part therein allows him to speak with authority on the history of that period. The Baxter family came to Kansas in territorial times and did their pioneering in Morris County. Edson Baxter was fifteen years of age when he accompanied the family caravan overland, and he was able to make himself useful from the very beginning of the settlement. He was born on a … Read more

Boers, Daisy Ellen Hewitt – Obituary

Funeral services for Mrs. Ole J. Boers who died at her home in Sturgis last Tuesday, were held at 2:00 p.m. Saturday from the D. O. Joiley Funeral Home, with Rev. H. A. Grote officiating. Special music for the service was furnished by Mrs. William Plunkett and Mrs. E. E. Grunwald. Casket bearers were William Plunkett, Chancey McMurray, Ernie Miller, Lester Babcock, Jack Doran and William Millette. Interment was made in the Bear Butte Cemetery. Daisy Ellen Boers was born January 13, 1876 at Streeter, Illinois and grew to womanhood in Illinois and Iowa. She was married to Ole J. … Read more

Biographical Sketch of T.V.E. Sweet

T. V. E. Sweet, was a native of the city of Freeport, where he was born August 3, 1849. He derived his education from the public schools of the city, and in the more advanced branches of learning from the Northwestern University at Evanston, where he was a student two years. He worked at the printing trade until 1870, and in 1875 entered upon that clerical career in in which he has accomplished so much good, as a local preacher in the Rock River conference. His first religious work was at Thompson, ‘Illinois. At Shirland he was local supply, and … Read more

Biography of Walter C. Palmer, M. D.

Walter C. Palmer, M. D., after practicing several years in Kansas City, Missouri, where his father was for a number of years a member of the medical profession, removed to Hiawatha, Kansas, and is now giving all his time and attention to surgery. In addition to his broad experience as a practitioner and his equipment in American schools, Doctor Palmer, went abroad in 1916 and from April to July worked in the war hospitals in France. Nowhere had surgical methods undergone greater changes and been brought to a higher degree of perfection than in the hospitals in the war zone … Read more

Biography of Frank A. Bardwell

Frank A. Bardwell. A large majority of the men who are engaged in working the oil fields of Kansas have been devoting their energies to this line of work all of their lives, whether as employes, employers, contractors, drillers or producers. They have had the experience from early youth and it is but natural that they should meet with success in their undertakings granted that opportunities are the same. But there is another class among the men who are making this one of the great industries, this being formed of the men who had their training in other fields of … Read more