Biography of Joseph Brannan

JOSEPH BRANNAN. – Mr. Brannan was born in Union county, Ohio, near Marysville, September 13,1825, is the ninth child of a family of twelve children, and the son of Joseph and Jane Huls Brannan. On his nineteenth birthday he left his father’s farm and came west to Winnebago county, Illinois, where he resided for six years and followed farming, when he went to Iowa, but soon returned to Illinois. On April 1, 1854, he started for Washington Territory, with Seattle as the objective point, to join his brother William H., who was killed by Indians in the fall of 1855 … Read more

Biography of Colonel Charles L. Walker

Col. Charles Leander Walker, a member of one of the leading law firms of Rock Island County for more than a quarter of a century, is a native son of Illinois. He was born at Queen Ann, McHenry County, Illinois, December 27, 1851. He is a son of Reverend Leander Smith Walker and Miriam Lavilla Walker. His father was a Methodist minister and a leader in the Rock River conference. He was for a period of years stationed at Rockford, Winnebago County. From 1865 to 1870 he was financial agent for the Rock River Seminary and Collegiate Institute, located at … Read more

Biography of Ralph Ray Price

Ralph Ray Price, professor of History and Civics in the Kansas State Agricultural College at manhattan, had a more than professional interest in the history of Kansas, since he is a native of the state and his people were factors in the pioneer life of the territory. Professor Price is of Scotch-Irish descent and one of his ancestors fought for American independenes in the Battle of Bunker Hill. He was born on a farm in Willow Springs Township of Douglas County, Kansas, ten miles south of Lawrence on March 6, 1872. For several years he had been out of the … Read more

Biography of David O. Wilder

David O. Wilder, proprietor of the Pioneer Meat Market, the largest and best appointed market in the city of Riverside. The liberal patronage and support his enterprise receives from the community, is well merited, for he is a thorough master of his business, and prompt in meeting the demands of his customers. Mr. Wilder is one of the earlier settlers of Riverside, who came to California in 1874, and after a year spent in Bakersfield established himself in Riverside. Upon his arrival he purchased land and engaged in horticultural pursuits, and also established a bee ranch at Temescal, which he … Read more

Biography of C.N. Bentley

C.N. Bentley, whose home is on section 21, Harlem township, is one of the venerable figures of the pioneer gatherings of Stephenson county. It indeed has few if any residents whose settlement antedates his own. He knows what it means to open up a new country to civilization, and he is now living in the peace and comfort that follows a long and useful career. Eldred Bentley, the grandfather of the subject of this article, was born in Rhode Island, but spent the greater part of his life in Rensselaer county, New York, and died in Chautauqua county of that … Read more