Biography of S. S. White

S.S. WHITE. – The pioneer experiences of Judge White are of an exceptionally interesting character. This well-known and highly valued citizen of Portland was born in Franklin county, Indiana, December 14, 1811. His father was much of a frontiersman, and, after a removal to Ohio in 1815, went three years later to Sangamon county, Illinois, settling on Sugar creek, twenty miles south of Springfield. This was then a remote and unoccupied region, Mr. White’s family and those of a Mr. Ellis and Mr. Vancil being the only families within the limits of the present Sangamon and Morgan counties, and sixty … Read more

Exclusively yours, Eurilla

Exclusively yours, Eurilla / by Edna M. Herrin.

Written by Edna Dooling Herrin for her daughter Eurilla, this self-published manuscript intent was to instruct Eurilla on her ancestry, especially in the settling of Madison County, Illinois. Families mentioned: Barber, Culp, Dooling, Harris, Herrin, Judy, Pearce, Rhodes, and Walsh.

N-R Surnames – 1818 Madison County, Illinois Census

  Name: Head of Household Page: Page of Census Listing Range of Ages: 1st Number – Free white males 21 yr. and upwards 2nd Number – All other white inhabitants 3rd Number – Free persons of colour 4th Number – Servants or slaves   Nesbet, Jane 117 01-07-00-00 New, James 132 01-07-00-00 Newell, James 117 01-06-00-00 Newman, Joseph 134 02-03-00-00 Newman, Zadock 134 01-03-00-00 Nix, Ambrose 119 02-02-00-00 Nix, David 120 01-02-00-01 Nix, John 119 01-04-00-00 Norman, William 117 01-03-00-00 Nowling, Bennett 118 01-03-00-00 Nowling, Louis 121 01-03-00-00 Ogle, William 134 02-04-00-00 Osburn, Thomas 127 01-05-00-00 Ottwell, William 120 01-06-00-00 … Read more

Biography of John B. Strauch

John B. Strauch, who since 1918 has been president and general manager of the More-Jones Brass & Metal Company of St. Louis, has been identified with this business for more than a quarter of a century and through the steady development of his powers and his close application has won promotion from time to time until he has reached his present position of administrative direction and executive control. He was born in Marine, Illinois, November 29, 1869, a son of John B. and Catherine Strauch. The father came from Germany in 1846 and settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Soon afterward he … Read more

Biography of Grant Waggoner

Grant Waggoner is a specialist in mining law with office and practice at Baxter Springs, Kansas. He has claimed his home at Baxter Springs since 1909, but did not open his law office in that city until 1912. While most of his practice is connected with some phase or other of the mining industry, he also handles a general civil and criminal practice. In 1914 Mr. Waggouer was elected from his district as representative in the State Legislature. He proved an able champion of all progressive legislation enacted during his term, and was particularly at the front in all matters … Read more

The Kribs Family of Prairie du Rocher Illinois

Mr. and Mrs. C. J. Kribs

The best teacher, it is said, is experience. C. J. Kribs, circuit clerk of Randolph County, has had varied experiences. He was born February 19, 1867, in Belleville, Illinois. He attended the parochial and public schools, after which he learned the trade of harness maker in St. Louis. After a residence of five years in this city he went to Chicago and worked for four years as assistant store-keeper in the Illinois Steel Works. Then he went to Prairie du Rocher, and after a short stay went to St. Louis, working for the Metropolitan Insurance Co. He was promoted and … Read more

Biography of Louis W. Grosse, M.D.

Dr. Louis W. Grosse, a physician and surgeon of St. Louis, was born October 13, 1884, in Collinsville, Madison county, Illinois, and was the sixth in order of birth in a family of five sons and five daughters, seven of whom are living, the parents being Herman G. and Marie M. (Neidenberger) Grosse. The father was a native of Illinois, born in Collinsville, and was a representative of one of the old families of that state of German descent. He became a pharmacist following his graduation from the St. Louis College of Pharmacy and devoted his life to that calling, … Read more

Cahokia Mound

The ancient civilization at Cahokia took advantage of the nearby waterways and the rich soil to sustain life in the American Bottom.

Cahokia Mound. The largest prehistoric artificial earthwork in the United States, situated in Madison County, Illinois, in what is known as the American bottom, about 6 miles East of St Louis, Missouri, and in plain view of the railroads entering that city from the East. Before their partial destruction by the plow the principal mound was surrounded by an extensive mound group, numbering, according to Brackenridge (Views La., 187, 1814), who visited the place in 1811, “45 mounds or pyramids, besides a great number of small artificial elevations.” The name Cahokia is that of a tribe which formerly occupied a … Read more

Biography of David J. Smith

DAVID J. SMITH, general merchant and farmer of Walnut Shade, Taney County, Missouri, is emphatically a business man, the leading points of his character being energy, quick conception and an excellent judgment of men and their motives. No man in the county occupies a higher position for energy, enterprise, public spirit, integrity and business rectitude than he. This worthy gentleman first saw the light in Madison County, Illinois, in 1838, and is a son of Jason and Elizabeth (Forbis) Smith, natives of McMinn County, Tennessee, the father born in 1799, and the mother in 1803. The father never attended school … Read more

Biography of Prof. Robert Allyn Reed

Prof. Robert Allyn Reed. It is not given to every individual to find a business career that is entirely congenial. The musical genius too frequently finds that circumstances produce for him an environment in the necessary pursuits of every day life that is not satisfying and that bars him from progress and happiness. Happily, however, this has not been the experience of Prof. Robert Allyn Reed, of Coffeyville, who has achieved great success through a broad and comprehensive training and the possession of exceptional inherent talent, and who, as proprietor of the New York School of Music, occupies a very … Read more

A-B Surnames – 1818 Madison County, Illinois Census

  Name: Head of Household Page: Page of Census Listing Range of Ages: 1st Number – Free white males 21 yr. and upwards 2nd Number – All other white inhabitants 3rd Number – Free persons of colour 4th Number – Servants or slaves   Name Page # Range of Ages Ackles, Richard 127 02-05-00-00 Adkin, William 128 02-02-00-00 Adkins, John 126 07-06-00-00 Adley, John 135 01-10-00-00 Aikman, David 129 01-05-00-00 Alexander, Nelson 122 01-03-00-00 Allard, Mary 118 00-07-00-00 Allen, Benjamin 119 01-02-00-00 Allen, Daniel 133 03-05-00-00 Allen, John 125 02-03-00-00 Allen, John 133 01-01-00-00 Allen, Rowland P. 130 01-03-02-00 Allen, … Read more

Biography of David Prager

David Prager. It was the influence of his personality and character as much as his successful business activities that made David Prager so useful and valuable a citizen of Fort Scott, where he resided for over forty years. His carcer illustrates the fact that the successful man is not necessarily the selfish man. He did not keep the resources of his heart nor of his material means to himself, but dispensed them with free hand among his family, his friends and the entire community. He was one of Fort Scott’s most beloved and best known citizens. David Prager was born … Read more

Biography of Charles Percival Whitbread

Charles Percival Whitbread, president of the General Underwriters Company of St. Louis, was born in Edwardsville, Illinois, March 18, 1877, and is a son of James and Minnie Elizabeth (Rinne) Whitbread. The ancestry is traced back through several generations in England, where the records of the family include the following under title “Whitbread of Southill.” “Whitbread, William-Henry, Esq., of Southill, County of Bedford, born January 4, 1795; high-sheriff in 1837, and member of parliament for Bedford in the parliaments of 1818, 1820, 1826, 1830, 1831 and 1832. The Whitbreads are said by family tradition, as appears on an Inscription on … Read more

W-Z Surnames – 1818 Madison County, Illinois Census

  Name: Head of Household Page: Page of Census Listing Range of Ages: 1st Number – Free white males 21 yr. and upwards 2nd Number – All other white inhabitants 3rd Number – Free persons of colour 4th Number – Servants or slaves   Waddle, Colby 128 02-04-00-00 Waddle, Jessee 126 01-11-00-00 Waddle, Obadiah 133 01-02-00-00 Waggoner, John 119 01-03-01-00 Waggoner, Petter 131 02-06-00-00 Walker, John 134 01-02-00-00 Walker, Reuben 127 01-07-00-00 Walker, Samuel A. 129 01-08-00-00 Wall, Thomas 129 01-08-00-00 Wallace, Andrew 123 01-01-00-00 Wallace, John 123 02-06-00-01 Wallace, Josiah 123 01-01-00-00 Ware, John 136 01-03-00-00 Warren, Harden 121 … Read more

Biographical Sketch of J. E. Sharp

J. E. Sharp a retired capitalist of Santa Ana, was born in East Tennessee, November 17, 1809, a son of Joseph and Sarah (Lamb) Sharp, who had but two children: the subject of this sketch and a boy named Prophet, who died in 1850. The parents died in 1828, the father one day and the mother the next. In 1830 Mr. Sharp went to Illinois, where for several years he followed farming in Madison County; after this he went into the mercantile business at Bunker Hill, Illinois, and subsequently he moved to Litchfield, that State. In 1864 he came to … Read more

I-M Surnames – 1818 Madison County, Illinois Census

  Name: Head of Household Page: Page of Census Listing Range of Ages: 1st Number – Free white males 21 yr. and upwards 2nd Number – All other white inhabitants 3rd Number – Free persons of colour 4th Number – Servants or slaves   Jackson, Low 131 01-12-00-00 Jackson, Martin 133 01-03-00-00 Janderow, Baptiste 136 01-07-00-00 Jarvice, John 117 01-06-00-00 Jeffres, Samuel 127 02-07-00-00 Jingles, Elizabeth 124 00-06-00-01 Johnson, James 134 02-03-00-00 Johnson, John 124 01-03-00-00 Johnson, John 134 01-07-00-00 Johnson, Peggy 123 00-03-00-00 Johnson, Sarah 122 00-04-00-00 Johnson, Thomas 124 01-03-00-00 Johnson, William 133 01-04-00-00 Jones, Benett 129 03-06-00-00 … Read more

Biography of Hon. Eugene Semple

HON. EUGENE SEMPLE. – Eugene Semple was born June 12, 1840, at Bogota, South America, his father being at the time the Minister of the United States at new Granada. Coming with his parents to Illinois, his youth was spent in Madison and Jersey counties of that State. Attending the common schools of the latter county, he finished his education at the St. Louis University in 1858. Commencing the study of law in the office of Krum & Harding, in St. Louis, he afterwards attended the Law School of the Cincinnati College, where he graduated in 1863, taking the degree … Read more

Biography of W. S. Ferguson

W. S. Ferguson is secretary and treasurer of The Locomotive Finished Material Company of Atchison, one of the most important industries of the city. Mr. Ferguson had been identified with Kansas and Atchison for over thirty years, and throughout that time had been connected with the foundry and manufacturing business in different capacities. He is now the oldest executive official in point of continuous service of The Locomotive Finished Material Company. He represents an old and honored family name in the City of Alton, Illinois, where he was born January 16, 1861. The Fergusons for several generations were linen drapers … Read more

Biographical Sketch of W. H. K. Pile

W. H. K. Pile, real estate, collecting and insurance agent, Mattoon; was born in Breckinridge Co., Ky., Feb. 17, 1819; he was reared on a farm, and learned his trade, that of a wagon-maker, during his minority; at the age of 20, he began life for himself, following his trade and that of a carpenter, till 25 years of age; he then engaged in farming for five years; in1855, he came West to Illinois, and settled south of Charleston, Coles Co.; in 1856, he came to Mattoon, and engaged in operating a hotel; in 1857, he was elected Police Magistrate … Read more

C-D Surnames – 1818 Madison County, Illinois Census

  Name: Head of Household Page: Page of Census Listing Range of Ages: 1st Number – Free white males 21 yr. and upwards 2nd Number – All other white inhabitants 3rd Number – Free persons of colour 4th Number – Servants or slaves   Cadwell, George 127 01-08-00-00 Caldwell, James 132 01-06-00-00 Campbell, John 122 01-01-00-00 Cannon, Robert 131 01-07-00-00 Carland, James 125 01-03-00-00 Carland, Thomas 125 02-02-00-00 Carlock, James 129 01-06-00-00 Carpenter, Nathan 128 02-03-00-00 Carrol, George 134 03-05-00-00 Carson, James 129 03-05-00-00 Carter, Davis 133 01-04-00-00 Carter, Samuel 128 01-10-00-00 Casteel, Abraham 121 01-03-00-00 Casteel, Isaac 121 01-01-00-00 … Read more