Sangamon County IL

Biography of Joseph R. Smith

Joseph R. Smith. The record of continuous service in the office of probate judge in Kansas is held by Joseph B. Smith, of Iola. The people of Allen County first elected Mr. Smith to handle the delicate responsibilities of the probate office in 1894. The term is for two years. Every succeeding two years the people have had an opportunity to express their judgment of Judge Smith’s administration, and every time, apparently regardless of political party fortunes or other considerations, his ability and varied qualifications have received the stamp of approval and in 1916 he was re-elected for the eleventh … Read more

Biography of Frank F. Loose

Frank F. Loose, one of the leading farmers and business men of the county, residing upon his farm in the north suburb of Tuscola, was born in the city of Springfield, Illinois, in the year 1859. He was reared on the farm and was educated in Springfield. his father’s farm lying just south of the city. His father, Jacob G. Loose, was born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, just across from the Maryland line. He sank the first shaft in the vicinity of Springfield, on his own farm, mortgaging almost everything he had to accomplish this, and his venture was richly … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Alfred A. Lowdermilk, M. D.

Dr. Lowdermilk is the son of William and Martha (Rhodes) Lowdermilk, and was born in Greene county, Tennessee, June 24, 1848. In 1856, his parents moved to Sangamon county, Illinois, taking young Alfred with them. At fourteen years old, he started out to make his own living and learned the trade of tinsmith, which he followed till he was twenty-one years old. He then, in 1869, entered and took a course of lectures in the Louisville Medical College. The next year he began the practice in Vernon and Barton counties, this State, thus acquiring the means to complete his professional … Read more

Biography of John D. Burton

John D. Burton. Like many of his contemporaries in the field of journalism in Southeastern Kansas, John D. Burton, proprietor and editor of the Potwin Ledger, began his career at the case. His entire life had been devoted to newspaper work, as compositor, editor and owner of publications in various parts of the country, but principally in Kansas, where he had resided and labored since the fall of 1878. While his present publication was founded only recently, it had already gained a wide circulation and promises to become an organ of influence in public matters under Mr. Burton’s wise and experienced direction. John D. … Read more

Biography of Edward Everett Wall

Edward Everett Wall, water commissioner of St. Louis, who has ever met the requirements of his public position in an eminently satisfactory way, was born at Cambridge, Saline county, Missouri, August 15, 1860, and is a son of John and Mary (Gault) Wall. The father, born in 1819, went to Saline county, Missouri, in 1833, his father there entering three hundred and twenty acres of land, a greater portion of which constitutes the farm now occupied by two of the sons of John Wall. As a member of Doniphan’s regiment John Wall served through the Mexican war and afterward crossed … Read more

Biography of Jesse K. Dubois, M. D.

Dr. Dubois is one of the well and favorably known physicians not only of Boise but also of the entire state of Idaho. He is a native of Springfield, Illinois, where he was born November 16. 1848, and is of French descent. His grandfather, Dubois, came to America from France and was chief of the staff of General William Henry Harrison. Jesse Dubois, the father of our subject, was born in Illinois when that state was a territory. He married Miss Adelia Morris, of Kentucky ancestry. He was a prominent lawyer and a stanch Republican, having been a neighbor, friend … 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 Merrill F. Hackett

Merrill F. Hackett, retired farmer; P. O. Oakland; born in Lexington, Fayette Co., Ky., Sept. 10, 1821; he removed with his parents, when 8 years of age, and located in Springfield, Sangamon Co., Ill., where he learned and worked at the trade of brickmason until 1841, at which time he removed to Charleston, Coles Co., and engaged at his trade and farming and stock-raising until 1856; he then removed to the northern part of Coles Co., where he followed farming and stock-raising until 1875, when he purchased his present place of about thirty acres, upon which he has a fine … Read more

Biography of Charles Daniel Ise

Charles Daniel Ise, a prominent lawyer and now county attorney of Montgomery County, had an individual record worthy of mention in this history of Kansas, and also represents a family which have many claims to distinction, some of them gained in this state, and others back in the Germen fatherland where the ancestors for generations were of the nobility. In Germany the name was spelled Eisenmenger. The family seat for generations had been in the Kingdom of Wnerternberg, and they had been members of the noble classes in that kingdom from the fourteenth century. One of the family was hero … Read more

Biography of Robert Harmon Hazlett

Robert Harmon Hazlett. Kansas is rapidly becoming a creditor state. It produces more than it consumes. It is flourishing, opulent and as progressive in material interests as in the field of legislation, social ideas and politics. Kansas farmers, Kansas business men, Kansas bankers are getting as securely established as factors in national affairs as Kansas politicians and social and civic leaders did in earlier years. One of these successful men whose achievements in some fields at least are well known beyond the borders of the state is Robert H. Hazlett, lawyer, banker, Hereford cattle breeder, and business man of El … Read more

Biography of John Russell Stewart

John Russell Stewart. As a citizen who for many years was closely identified with journalism and local affairs in Champaign County, the people of this section feel a corresponding interest in the personality and career of John Russell Stewart. As supervising editor of this publication, the publishers feel that this interest should be gratified by the inclusion of a brief personal biography. He was born on his father’s farm in Butler County, Pennsylvania, November 6, 1840, a son of William and Eliza Jane (Gibson) Stewart, who were both of direct Scotch-Irish descent. Mr. Stewart received his education in the local … Read more

Biography of Colonel Elhanan John Searle

Soldier, jurist and publicist, a man of many attainments and widely diversified talent, was Elhanan J. Searle, the subject of this sketch. He was born January 18, 1835, at Royalton, Ohio, coming to Rock Island County with his parents when about two years of age, and died at Rock Island, August 18, 1906. Colonel Searle, or Judge Searle as he was perhaps more familiar known throughout Rock Island County, received his education at the Rock River Seminary, an institution located at Mount Morris, Illinois, and after completing his studies in that school, which was largely preparatory in its scope, he … Read more

Biography of Simon P. Kramer

Simon P. Kramer. During the greater part of the years since 1880, Simon P. Kramer had been a resident of Kansas and had been identified with the milling industry. He is one of the oldest flour millers in the state and had operated in many different towns. In 1915 he removed to Topeka, where he bought and reorganized the Topeka Flour Mills Company, of which he is now president. He had now one of the finest mills in equipment and service in this section of the state. It is equipped throughout with Allis-Chalmers machinery and only recently he gave an … Read more

Bilyeu, Andrew Jackson – Obituary

On Monday night at midnight [October 19, 1896] A. J. Bilyeu (Uncle Jack), a resident of Scio for many years, died at the residence of his son-in-law, Jesse Ray of Jordan. As a citizen, Uncle Jack was among our most substantial and trustworthy, always ready to accommodate a neighbor or friend he was respected by everyone. [Andrew was born in 1830 Sangamon Co., IL. He married Sarah Ann Terry in 1855 Linn Co. He was the father of eleven children. Andrew is interred in the Bilyeu Den Cemetery with his wife and many other members of the family]. Contributed by: … Read more

Biography of John A. Chapin

JOHN A. CHAPIN. The calling of the farmer is the primitive occupation of man, and the majority of those who have followed it have led upright and blameless lives, and the career of John A. Chapin is no exception to this rule. He is a native of Sangamon County, Illinois, where he first saw the light in 1829, a son of Paul Stillman and Sarah (Harrison) Chapin, natives of the Old North State, the birth of the father occurring in 1799. They accompanied their parents to Overton County, Tennessee, and were there married, and afterward lived for about three years … Read more

Biography of Francis Merriman Barnes, Jr., M. D.

Dr. Francis Merriman Barnes, Jr., a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University and prominently known as a neuropsychiatrist of St. Louis, was born in Middletown, New York, August 20, 1881, a son of Francis Merriman and Mary Drusilla (Reynolds) Barnes. The father, a native of Pennsylvania and a representative of one of the old families of that state of English lineage, is now a successful dentist. He was graduated from the Baltimore Dental College and is in active practice in Middletown, New York. His wife, a native of the Empire state, passed away in 1884. In their family were four … Read more

Biography of Charles F. Wendling

Charles F. Wendling’s farm enterprise is identified with the south-eastern part of Champaign County, in Raymond Township. His fine farm home is situated in section 10, on Rural Route No. 36 out of the town of Broadlands. Mr. Wendling has been a man of affairs in this community for the greater part of his life. He was born in Sangamon County, Illinois, December 15, 1874, a son of John and Margaret (Monigan) Wendling. His father was a native of Alsace, France, and his mother of Ireland. The father was born in 1842, came to America in 1854, at the age … Read more

Biography of Abraham Lincoln Barner

Some of the most substantial people of Kansas today, well able to ride about over the improved highways in their automobiles, came into the state in the early days with the slow and tedious method of the prairie schooner or the mover’s wagon. Such an emigrant party arrived in Sumner County in 1873. They had come overland from Central Illinois, being twenty-six days on route. Three wagons comprised the train, and the driver of one of those wagons, then thirteen years of age, was Abrabam Lincoln Barner, who is now living retired at Belle Plaine in Sumner County, and for … Read more

Biography of Charles B. Johnson, M. D.

Charles B. Johnson, M. D. Valuable work in his profession and an unusual variety of experience contribute to make the career of Dr. C. B. Johnson one of note in Champaign County, where he has lived for the past forty-six years. Doctor Johnson is a veteran Union soldier, is grandson of a Revolutionary soldier, and’ during the half century since he came out of the Northern army he has been in the active practice of medicine and is still a competent member of his profession and one of Champaign County’s most useful citizens. Doctor Johnson was born at Pocahontas in … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Frank Garthwait

Frank Garthwait, auction and commission merchant, Mattoon; was born in Terre Haute, Ind., Oct. 18, 1838; his father was a wholesale and retail grocery-man, and was one of the pioneers of the city; Frank obtained his education at the city schools, and at the age of 15, began the life of a printer’s devil in the Courier office; here he remained three years under charge of J. Canard, editor and proprietor of the paper; he next engaged in traveling and selling clocks for three years, and subsequently engaged in the sale of notions till 1861; he enlisted in the United … Read more