Morgan County IL

Biography of George W. Lee, M. D.

George W. Lee, M. D. For fully twenty years Doctor Lee had practiced his profession as a physician and surgeon in Woodson County. The greater part of this time he spent at Toronto, but is now looking after his widely extended patronage from home at Yates Center. He is a highly qualified professional man and of equally high standing in social and civic affairs in Yates Center. Dr. Lee was born at Markham in Morgan County, Illinois, December 4, 1867. His paternal grandfather, George Lee, was born in 1814 in Yorkshire, England, and on coming to America settled near Jacksonville, … Read more

Biography of Harry J. Miller

Harry J. Miller has been one of the business factors in the Town of Olsburg for over a quarter of a century. He was formerly engaged in agricultural pursuits in that rich and fertile district of Pottawatomie County, but now gives all his time to the management of a garage and the real estate business in Olsburg. His people were pioneers in two states, Tennessee and Illinois. His grandfather was born in Tennessee about twenty years after the close of the Revolutionary war and before the opening of the nineteenth century. In 1818 he took upon himself the responsibilities of … Read more

Biography of Hon. John C. Rice

John Campbell Rice, president of the Commercial Bank of Caldwell and a prominent member of the bar of Canyon County, is numbered among the native sons of Illinois, his birth having occurred in Cass County, that state, January 27, 1864. He is of Welsh descent, tracing his ancestry back to the Welsh emigrants of the name who located in the colony of Massachusetts during the early settlement of America. Later, members of the family removed to Tennessee. The grandfather, Ebenezer Rice, removed with his family from Tennessee to Illinois in 1839. Elbert Gallatin Rice, the father, was born in Tennessee … Read more

Biography of Charles W. Holtcamp

Charles W. Holtcamp, serving for the fourth term as probate judge of the city of St. Louis, also identified with important business interests and prominent in Masonic circles as a thirty-third degree member, was born in Decatur, Illinois, September 1, 1859. His father, Charles Holtcamp, a native of Germany, was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church for more than sixty years. His mother, Mrs. Catherine Holtcamp, was born in Ohio. After attending the public schools Charles W. Holtcamp continued his education at Illinois College of Jacksonville, Illinois, and next became a student in the law department of the Washington … Read more

Biography of Hon. A. R. Burbank

HON. A.R. BURBANK. – Mr. Burbank, a founder of society and business upon the Pacific coast, was born April 15, 1817, near Cincinnati, Ohio. He is the son of Major Daniel Burbank, an American officer in the war of 1812, who came with his family in an open boat down the Alleghany and Ohio rivers as early as 1814, and made a home on its northern shore near the present metropolis. The Major was from Williamstown, Massachusetts. His wife, Margeret Pinchen, was from Atica, New York. In 1818 a further move was made in the family boat down the Ohio … Read more

Biography of Hiram W. Oliver

HIRAM W. OLIVER. – It is with pleasure that we are enabled to grant to the esteemed pioneer and capable citizen whose name is at the head of this article a representation in the history of the county of Union, where he has labored long and faithfully, both for its advancement and development and for the successful culmination of his various business enterprises, wherein he has demonstrated a consummate wisdom in handling the raw resources of the wild country and in subduing it and bringing forth the wealth that lay wrapped in its coffers of natural stores, while also he … Read more

Biography of Hon. William A. Conn

Hon. William A. Conn, of San Bernardino, is one of those strong individualities in the pioneer history of California, who by his force of character and intellect stamped his impress upon the early civilization of the Golden State. Though a number of the first years of his residence on the Pacific coast were passed in the northern part of the State, at San Francisco, yet for a third of a century Southern California has had the benefits of his public-spirited patriotism, his business attainments and his generous philanthropy. Mr. Conn was born in 1814, on the West India Islands, where … Read more

Biography of John D. M. Conrad

John D. M. Conrad. Among the most interesting men of Salina are those who can justly be named pioneers of this fair city. They have a wealth of experience that no later comers can claim, and it is because of their courage and enterprise that such rich and rapid development had taken place. In John D. M. Conrad, who is the only survivor of a once very important body, the first city council of Salina, is found not only a pioneer of this section but also a veteran of honorable record of the great Civil war. John D. M. Conrad … Read more

Biography of Shelby D. Taylor

Shelby D. Taylor. A large tract of Champaign County’s fertile acres have been developed and improved by Shelby D. Taylor, who still owns one of the valuable farms of the county, though for a number of years he has lived retired at Champaign. Mr. Taylor came to Champaign County thirty-five years ago. He was born in Morgan County, Illinois, May 15, 1851. His parents, both natives of Kentucky, were George and Polly E. (Tucker) Taylor. His father was born July 20, 1805, and died September 23, 1886, and his mother was born August 15, 1807, and died January 22, 1894. … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Robert James Frackleton

Frackleton, Robert James; manufacturer; born, Chandlorville, Ill., 1868; educated, Illinois College, Jacksonville, B. S.; married, New York City, 1907, Constance Louise Chandler; en-gaged in banking for six years and manufacturing for eighteen years; pres. The Chandler & Price C.; director Frackleton State Bank; director The Reliance Gauge Column Co.; director The Cleveland Folding Machine Co.; member the Union, University, and East End Tennis Clubs.

Biography of Augustus Titus

AUGUSTUS H. TITUS is a man that has a wide range of experience both in the affairs of life in its ordinary occupations and also in pioneer experiences, having passed through practically all the various vocations usually met with in frontier life, as mining, camping, opening up a new farm, as well as the incidents of danger and adventure with which such existence is frequently attended, beside much fighting with the savages in various places; universally manifesting both a cool and wise judgment and capabilities and valor and courage that are the constituent parts of the true man and progressive … Read more

Biographical Sketch of J. L. Aubert

J. L. Aubert, County Surveyor, Mattoon; was born in Licking Co., Ohio, Nov. 3, 1830; his father was a tiller of the soil, and his early life was that of a farmer’s son; at the age of 18, he began work at the carpenter’s trade, and worked under instruction three years. In 1854, he came West and settled in Moultrie Co., Ill., where he purchased land, farmed some, but for the most part followed his trade. In July, 1865, he located in Lebanon, St. Clair Co.; here he remained three years, during which time he contracted and built the public … Read more

Biography of Thomas R. Hopkins

Thomas R. Hopkins. Modern business requires practical and thorough training in the same degree as the professions and sciences. In Champaign County there is no institution which affords a better curriculum and practical business education than the commercial college formerly known as Brown’s Business College and now owned and administered by Mr. Thomas R. Hopkins, himself a thorough educator of long experience and a man who has trained hundreds of young men and women and given them a thorough preparation for entrance into business affairs. Mr. Hopkins was born in Peoria County, Illinois, January 24, 1877, a son of Griffith … Read more

Biography of Lewis Hanback

Lewis Hanback. In the summer of 1865, soon after the close of the Civil war, in which he had played a gallant part as a Union officer, Lewis Hanback came to Topeka to practice law. For many years he was one of the eminent members of the Kansas bar, and he was not less well known and esteemed in public affairs. He was one of the makers of Kansas history during the last half century. He was born at Winchester, Scott County, Illinois, March 27, 1839. He was the oldest of the six children of William and Ann Hanback. His … Read more

Biography of William Penn Watson

WM. PENN WATSON. – Of those who came to the Pacific Northwest in pioneer days and settled within its boundaries, and closely identified themselves with its material, social and political welfare, the exemplary citizen named above took a very active and foremost part. He was born December 18, 1828, in Morgan county, Illinois. When he was only three weeks old, his mother closed her eyes in death; and the infant left behind was confided to the care of foster parents, Allen Q. Lindsey and wife, who gave the orphan boy the best of attention and one of the best of … 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

Biographical Sketch of Dixon, James J. A. T.

Dixon, James J. A. T. dealer in dry goods, groceries, hardware, etc., opened business in February 1882 and carry a stock of $3,500. Mr. Dixon first came to Bunker Hill October 5, 1872 for his health, and after eighteen months he began agricultural pursuits and became pastor of the Congregational Church, since which time he has followed preaching irregularly. In the fall of 1875 he was elected to represent Russell County in Kansas State Legislature. Re-elected to same position in the fall of 1876. He was appointed to fill vacancy of Probate Judge in 1878, elected to the office the … Read more

Biography of William N. Smelser

William N. Smelser has been a member of the Emporia bar for twenty-five years. His had been an enviable record both as a lawyer and as a citizen, and his ability, industry and his conscientious care have brought him a high position among Kansas lawyers. His family have resided in Emporia more than thirty years, and William N. Smelser was about fourteen years old when brought to that city. He was born in Sturgis, in Southern Michigan, February 2, 1870. The Smelsers came originally from Germany, but have been Americans since about the time of the Revolutionary war. The first … Read more

Biography of B. S. Smith

B. S. Smith is one of the oldest business men of Humboldt. He had been a merchant there thirty years. In that time he had built up the largest and most complete dry goods establishment not only in the city but in that part of the state: It is a splendid store, stocked with a varied assortment of all the goods required by a discriminating trade, and had been built up on the foundation of square and honest dealing and a careful and painstaking service. Mr. Smith is also well known in other lines of business and as a public … Read more

Biography of John J. Owen

The history of the first things is always interesting. In any town the first settler’s is the name most carefully preserved. The places where he established his home and first worked at his primitive vocation are carefully noted, and his deeds and words are recounted often and with increasing interest as generations succeed one another. There lives in Genesee, Idaho, a man, now the postmaster of the city, who was its pioneer in more ways than one and it is the purpose of the biographer to record now a brief statement of the facts of his life and of his … Read more