Morgan County IL

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

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

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 Corbin True, Col.

Col. Lewis C. True. Some interesting distinctions belong to this veteran soldier and lawyer who now lives retired at Kansas City, Kansas. He came to Kansas soon after leaving the army, and spent several years combating the hardships and plagues which afflicted the farmers in that period in Franklin County. Unable to make progress as a farmer, he took up the study of law, and in 1871 was admitted to practice in Cherokee County. He spent five years in general practice at Chetopa, and was then elected county attorney of Labette County. Kansas had just enacted its state wide prohibition … 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 Louis J. Oatman, M. D.

Dr. Louis J. Oatman, physician and surgeon of St. Louis, was born December 13, 1874, in O’Fallon, Illinois, a son of Dr. Charles R. Oatman, whose birth occurred in Belleville, Illinois, and who was of French descent. The grandfather was Dr. Christopher Lorenzo Oatman, a native of Alsace, France, when he came to America in 1832, settling in Belleville, St. Clair county, Illinois, where he resided till the time of his death in 1846. He was a graduate of the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and practiced his profession as a well known and capable physician and surgeon of … Read more

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 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

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.

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 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 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