Sangamon County IL

Biography of Charles Hedricks

In the death of this esteemed and worthy citizen Wallowa County suffered the loss of one of her best known and most widely beloved and substantial sons and his demise was a time of general mourning to all who knew him. Mr. Hedricks was capable and enterprising, and his real worth and noble qualities were manifest to all. Charles Hedricks was born on January 28, 1828, in West Virginia, to Charles and Hannah (Collins) Hedricks. The father was a native of West Virginia and was also a skilled machinist and he wrought for some time in the large iron works … 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

Foster, Carrie Mrs. – Obituary

Enterprise, Wallowa County, Oregon Carrie Poley Foster died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. S. L. Magill in Lostine, September 22, aged 71 years, nine months and six days. She was born near Auburn, Ill., and at the age of 16 years joined church and has been a faithful Christian ever since. She was married March 9, 1864, to B. O. Foster, who died and was buried at Ashland, Ore., 5 years ago. After a brief funeral service held at Lostine, the remains of Mrs. Foster were taken to Ashland and interred beside her husband. Frank Foster, a son, … Read more

Biography of Abraham Graham

Abraham Graham. The quiet life and substantial accomplishments of the farmer have been the lot of Abraham Graham, who is now living in the town of Penfield, retired from the strenuous labors which marked his early youth. Mr. Graham has been identified with Champaign County almost half a century, and his life record is one that will be read with pleasure by his many friends and acquaintances as well as by his family. He long ago accumulated sufficient to protect him against the days that are to come, and the respect in which he is held is no less than … Read more

Biography of Roger E. Zombro

Roger E. Zombro is one of the live and enterprising business men of Champaign, and after a number of years of practical experience as an employee graduated into the ranks of independent merchants and now conducts one of the most popular men’s furnishing goods stores of the city, drawing his trade from the best classes of people. Mr. Zombro was born at Midland City, Illinois, October 16, 1880, a son of Jacob W. and Mary M. (Cheney) Zombro. His parents were both born at Mechanicsburg, Ohio. Jacob Zombro spent the last twenty years of his life in the insurance business, … Read more

Biography of Adam Loch

Adam Loch. The rewards attainable through a life of industry are forcibly illustrated in the career of Adam Loch, one of the leading and successful business men of Chanute and vice president of the Fidelity State Bank. Since early youth he had depended wholly and solely upon his own resources, working out his own success and steadily advancing to success and position along the commercial and financial path. His career should be an incentive for renewed effort by the youth of today who are starting life without friends or fortune to aid them. Mr. Loch was born at Springfield, Illinois, … 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 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

Biographical Sketch of Ira B. Jackson

Ira B. Jackson, insurance agent, Mattoon; was born in Madison, Jefferson Co., Ind., Oct. 31, 1851; in 1855, his father removed with his family to Illinois, and settled in Sangamon Co., near Springfield; his early life was that of a farmer’s boy; he acquired a good common-school education; at the age of 18, he engaged in the business of photograph artist, which he followed two years; in 1872, he completed a business course in the Commercial College, at Terre Haute, Ind.; in 1874, he engaged in the grocery trade with Fallin Bros., under the firm name of Fallin Bros. & … Read more

Biography of Sylvester Werneth

Sylvester Werneth came to America from the Fatherland. He was born in Germany, on the 29th of December, 1856, and when eight years of age crossed the Atlantic with his parents, the family locating in Wisconsin, whence they afterward removed to Springfield, Illinois. In the capital city of the Prairie state he acquired his education in the public schools and was there reared to manhood. When about sixteen years of age he entered upon an independent business career, learning the brewer’s trade, at which he worked in St. Louis, Missouri, and in California. In 1886 he came to Weiser, Idaho, … Read more

Kimble, Lawrence W. – Obituary

Enterprise, Wallowa County, Oregon Lawrence W.Kimble was born at Benton, Pa, June 16, 1871. Died in Enterprise, Sunday, October 6th, 1918. When Lawrence was five years of age his parents and family moved to Springfield, Illinois where they remained seven years, then moving to Minnesota. They returned to the old home in Pennsylvania where they now reside. Lawrence remained in the central west except for two years spent at the old home in Pennsylvania just before coming to the far west. He first moved to Kennewick, Wash., in 1911 and to Enterprise in the fall of 1912 when he became … 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 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

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 Samuel V. Mallory

Samuel V. Mallory, now superintendent of the city schools of Morrill, Brown County, had been a, Kansas educator for many years. He had been connected at different times with the public schools of three states–Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma–and both as a teacher and administrator his work rests upon the seeure foundation of sincere and effective service. Mr. Mallory had lived in Kansas since early youth and he represents some of the best elements of American ancestry. His great-grandfather, John William Mallory, spent his life in Virginia, having been born near Harper’s Ferry. He married Elizabeth peyton, who was the daughter … Read more

History of Williamsville Illinois, 1853-1953

Williamsville centennial souvenir program, 1853-1953

The “Williamsville Centennial Souvenir Program, 1853-1953,” authored by Jane Brown Groves, is an historical record celebrating the first hundred years of Williamsville, Illinois. Published in 1953 by “Star” Printing Co. in Springfield, Illinois, this program is dedicated to Miss Jane B. Groves for her relentless dedication to compiling the historical data contained within. Her family had been integral to the development of Williamsville for over a century, contributing to its economic, social, political, religious, and educational spheres.

Haun, Mellie Dodd Mrs. – Obituary

Pioneer Teacher Dies At Hospital Mrs. Mellie Dodd Haun, first principal of the Lostine school, passed away at the Wallowa Memorial hospital here Friday, March 20, 1953 at the age of 88. Mellie Dodd was born on a farm near Auburn, Illinois on January 14, 1865, the daughter of James E. and Annis Dodd. She started teaching school in her home community in Illinois when she was 15 years of age and taught there for a number of years before coming to Wallowa county about 1900 to become principal of the Lostine school. She was married to James F. Haun, … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Thomas K. McCoy

THOMAS K. McCOY. – The gentleman whose name heads this sketch was born March 9, 1827, in Sangamon county, Illinois, and there was reared and educated. On October 12, 1848, he was married to Margaret A. Kendall, who was also born and raised in Sangamon county, the date of her birth being October 4, 1829. The fruits of their union were seven children, three daughters and four sons. Mr. McCoy came to Oregon in 1851 via the “ox-team route,” and settled in Linn county. The following year his wife joined him in his new home, she having come in 1852 … Read more

Biography of Gen. Smith D. Atkins

Smith D. Atkins, born June 9, 1836, in New York, was a multi-talented lawyer, soldier, journalist, and politician. He began his career in journalism before pursuing law and active military service during the Civil War. Notably, he fought bravely at Fort Donelson and commanded the 92nd Illinois Infantry, refusing to return escaped slaves to their owners. Promoted to Brigadier General by war’s end, he became a respected leader. Post-war, Atkins edited the Freeport Journal and served as Postmaster, continuing his commitment to public service.