Champaign County, Illinois - The whole text, 1918 (part 14 of 23)

Mr. Kirkpatrick's parents were very active members of the Mayview Methodist Episcopal Church, and each of them donated a memorial window to that beautiful chapel. When a young man Mr. Kirkpatrick had hauled material for some of the university buildings at "Urbana.

Mr. and Mrs. Kirkpatrick celebrated their wedding by a 1,000-mile tour through Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, making that trip through the most beautiful months of the year, September and October. September is considered a lucky month in the Kirkpatrick family. Mr. Kirkpatrick was married in that month both times, and his twin children, Maude and Claude, selected that time for their weddings.

Mr. A. J. Kirkpatrick some years ago left the farm and took, up study in the College of Hygiene at Champaign under Dr. Frank Ross. He graduated June 10, 1901, received a diploma, and went to Nashville, Tennessee, and engaged in the practice of medicine. He had begun the study of medicine for his own benefit and pleasure before taking it up as a profession. After a brief practice he found the lure of the farm irresistible and agriculture more congenial to his practical tastes. He is, as already stated, a natural farmer. His beautiful and well-kept fields and fine country home attest that fact, and while he is really a landlord, he is first of all a good business manager and a thorough farmer. He has been a useful man in his community and interested in the promotion of every movement for the general welfare.

Recently Mrs. Kirkpatrick sustained a double bereavement in the death of her parents at Salem, Oregon. She had at different times lived with them for several months at a time. While in the Northwest she took special pleasure in the beautiful scenery. She visited the city of Portland at the time of the great rose carnival, an exhibition of rare beauty to the eastern tourist. She witnessed the water pageant on the Willamette River with its miles of boats gaily festooned with roses, with King Rex crowned with, regal authority on his throne of roses, accompanied by his court retinue, amid the salutes of hundreds of guns. Towering above the scene was Mount Hood, with its snow-capped crown in the clouds, and altogether it was a gorgeous spectacle such as deserves to be long remembered.

ALBERT A. HYDE. A native of Champaign County and one who has spent his entire life within its borders, watching its development throughout the years of its greatest growth, Albert A. Hyde is so well known to the citizens of this great agricultural center that it may seem supererogatory to give his record in detail in a work of this kind. On the other hand, Mr. Hyde is one of those who have helped to make history in the county. He has not merely been a witness to progress - he has also been a participant in the movements which have made for the same, and his record of citizenship is also worthy of note.

Albert A. Hyde was born November 7, 1856, in Champaign County, Illinois, the third in a family of six children born to Adolphus W. and Sophia H. (Choate) Hyde. Of these children five are living: Elizabeth, who is the wife of G. E. Durbin, an agriculturist in the vicinity of Backus, Minnesota; Peoria, who is the widow of Joseph L. Neal, also resides at Backus ; Albert A., of this review ; Carrie A., who is the wife of J. H. Abbott, a retired farmer of Lincoln, Illinois; and Adolphus Bruce, a prosperous farmer and miller of East Bend Township. The father of these children was born in Switzerland County, Indiana, February 16, 1835, and in his youth learned the trade of carpenter and joiner, which he had mastered before coming to this State in young manhood. In Illinois he was married, but returned to Indiana and spent four years in the Hoosier State, then coming back to the prairie country, where he settled on the land which had been taken up by his father from the United States Government, and the deed for which bears the bond and seal of Franklin Pierce, under date of January 3, 1856. This paper is still in the possession of Albert A. Hyde, and is a document which will be handed down with pride to his descendants.

Adolphus W. Hyde was first a Whig and later a Republican, and his vote was sturdily given to Abraham Lincoln at a time when the country needed every loyal citizen. While not a man who courted honors or sought preference above his fellows, he was one who recognized and appreciated the duties of citizenship, and for nineteen years served capably and conscientiously as township treasurer of East Bend Township. Mr. Hyde was of English stock and traced his ancestry to a family that was due to receive a large inheritance. However, he made no public mention of the fact, and seemed to be perfectly content to have his reputation rest upon the things that he did himself and not the accomplishments of those who had gone before him. When he died, October 27, 1907, a faithful member was lost to the Methodist Church, which he had joined in 1881 and which he had helped to build, as had also his son, Albert A., of this review. He was laid to rest in Mount Hope Cemetery. Mrs. Hyde was born in the same county as her husband, January 25, 1828, and died June 20, 1909. Her example and precept had been such as to guide her children along the right paths; her training was of the kind that brought them up to straightforward and sterling manhood and useful and modest womanhood ; and her memory will be kept forever green in the minds of her children as a kind, loving and always self-sacrificing mother.

In a home of this kind it was not unnatural that Albert Hyde should grow up with ideals of clean and honorable living; nor is it surprising that he should remain under the parental roof until he was thirty years of age. Aside from the education that he secured in the public schools and the training that he gained during the leisure to be found in a family in which each member was supposed to do his or her part in contributing to the general income, he is a self-educated man. During his career he has seen much, has observed more, has gained information through association with his fellow men, has exercised a mind naturally bright, and as a result he is well informed, intelligent and alive to all that is going on in the great world, and able to converse upon it in a way that leaves no doubt as to his information. Brought up an agriculturist, he has been content to follow the vocation of the husbandman, and his fine tilled fields show the result of his industry and good management.

Mr. Hyde married March 18, 1886, Miss Alice M. Norton, and they are the parents of four children : Edith, who is the wife of P. M. Hamm, connected with the United States Mail Service at Dewey, Illinois; Nellie, who resides with her parents ; Marian A. ; and Paul A.

Mrs. Hyde is a native of Pickaway County, Ohio, born April 29, 1861, a daughter of Edwin D. -and Mary (Rhoades) Norton. There were four sons and three daughters in the family, and of these five children are residents of Champaign County. Edwin D. Norton was born in Pennsylvania, February 26, 1830, and died December 20, 1898. He went to Ohio as a young man and resided there until 1865, and during his residence in that State served as postmaster at Tarleton during the administration of President Lincoln. In 1871 he came to Champaign County, Illinois, and made his home here until his death, which occurred on his farm in the vicinity of Bondville. He cast his vote for Fremont and was a stanch and sturdy Republican. Mrs. Norton was born in Indiana, January 13, 1838, and is still living, at the age of seventy-nine years, being a resident of Champaign. She is a faithful member of the Methodist Church and one of the most beloved ladies of her community. Mrs. Hyde, after completing the public school course, spent two years at Monticello High School, and for four years following was one of the most popular and successful teachers in Champaign County. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in the work of which she takes an active part, as she does also in the activities of the Ladies' Aid Society, to which she also belongs. Like her husband, she is a firm believer in the value of education, and the Hyde children have been given every opportunity to fit themselves for the battle of life.

Mr. Hyde's first vote was cast for President Garfield, and since that time he has been an active and helpful supporter of every candidate who has headed the Eepublican ticket. For the past six years he has been a member of the board of directors of the public schools. His fraternal connection is with Camp No. 6319, Modern Woodmen of America, at Dewey. The well-cultivated and handsome 160-acre Hyde estate is situated two and one-half miles east of Dewey, on the North and South Road, in East Bend Township, and upon it stands the modern and hospitable home where the family's many friends are always welcome.

CHARLES BOYS is one of the oldest residents of Champaign County, where he has witnessed the changes of fortunes of life in this community for over fifty years. Hard work has been the keynote of his career, and with that as a fundamental qualification it seems that everything he has touched has responded to his management and has served to increase his prosperity. Mr. Boys became one of the large land owners of Champaign County and was for years noted as one of the cattle kings of this section of Illinois.

He is a native of New England, son of Loren and Alvira Boys, also of New England stock. When he was a small child the parents removed to Chautauqua County, New York, and soon afterward to Michigan. Charles Boys while growing to manhood learned the trade of plasterer and bricklayer. From Michigan he went to Chicago, and remained there two years, working at his trade for wages of $1 a day, boarding and keeping himself.

It was on the 9th of September, 1852, that Mr. Boys left Chicago and came to Urbana. In that small town he spent another two years working at his trade. Then, at the age of twenty-two, he laid the foundation of his own home by his marriage to Matilda E. Morris. She was born in Pennsylvania, daughter of a physician and a well known former business man of Champaign County.

After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Boys remained in Urbana for six months, and he then accepted an invitation from Doctor Morris to move to Salt Fork and enter a partnership in a general mercantile 'store. Merchandising was an item of his experience for one year, but keeping store proved too confining and was not satisfying to his disposition for a more active life. Leaving the store, he rented a farm near St. Joseph for five years, and there laid the foundation of his permanent prosperity. From his savings as a renter he bought 120 acres in St. Joseph Township, and as that transaction occurred many years ago the price of the land was only $10 an acre. On that farm he made his real substantial start in life. It was only a short time before he began adding to his holdings, purchasing the next year forty acres in Stanton Township. He was concerned not only with the cultivation of his land in the most practical way, but the construction of good building improvements, the planting of trees, arid always took care that his farm should measure up to the best standards of Champaign County rural life.

Mr. and Mrs. Boys had seven children : Benjamin, who died at the age of three years ; Alvira, who died in infancy ; and Ida M., Hannah H., Ella, Clint and William. The local district schools gave these children their early advantages, and those to grow up have since married and settled in homes of their own and have reflected honor upon their parents. Ida M. Boys is now the wife of Jesse Archer, a St. Joseph Township farmer, and their family consists of four children, Myrtle, Charles, Clint T. and Chester. The daughter Hannah is the wife of Charles Lehr, and also has four children, Roscoe, Cody, Beatrice and Opal. Ella married J. E. Hiser and is the mother of Charles, Raymond, Grace and Ruby. Clint married Ada Peeps and has two children, Fern and John. William remains on the old homestead and manages the place for his father. He married Minnie Vest, and their family consists of Charles, Opal and Esther.

The home of the Boys family has always been noted for its hospitality and the kindly, neighborly influences emanating therefrom. Mr. and Mrs. Boys gave their liberal support and membership to the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1895 the death angel entered this home and Mrs. Boys entered into rest. After her death Mr. Boys found his children willing and kindly home makers and has continued to live on the old farm. The years have liberally rewarded him with substantial success, and at the present time his holdings aggregate 1,000 acres. For many years he fed cattle on a large scale, buying in the fall and feeding until the stock were right for market. He is one of the men. who came to Champaign County with a very small stock of trade capital and has raised himself to a plane of affluence, has reared a family of industrious and capable children, and in his declining years a large community respects his activities and honors his character. His public spirit has been manifested chiefly in behalf of good schools in his community, and for a number of years he filled the office of school director.

ADAM KRONER. In making productive the vast prairies of the Middle West no one class of people has borne a more steady and effective part thari the German element, and particularly to those who came as colonists after the German revolutionary troubles of the '40s. Representing the second generation of this element is Mr. Adam Kroner, concerning whose work and standing as a Champaign County agriculturist only the highest words of praise may be spoken. Mr. and Mrs. Kroner occupy a fine home in Newcomb Township. Mrs. Kroner is also of a prominent German family of the county, and at all times has proved herself a valuable helpmate and counsel to Mr. Kroner in the establishment and building up of their beautiful rural home.

Mr. Kroner was born in Dearborn County, Indiana, July 29, 1865. He was the fourth in a family of six children, five sons and one daughter, whose parents were Frederick and Marie Kroner. Four of these children are still living: Emma, wife of Charles Zimmerman, a farmer at Wiseburg in Dearborn County, Indiana ; Adam ; Christ, who is unmarried and has a farm at Yorkville in eastern Indiana ; and Martin, who is married and owns a good farm home in Dearborn County.

Frederick Kroner was a Bavarian German and was born in the old country in 1825. His death occurred in 1901. He served an apprenticeship and was a journeyman mechanic, but subsequently turned his attention to agriculture. He was educated in German schools and when a young man sailed for America, spending many weeks on the ocean in one of the slow-going sailing vessels. He first located in New York State, afterward lived in Cincinnati and finally in Dearborn County in southern Indiana- There he bought 120 acres, and though he went in debt he kept steadily at the task until he had his -land paid for and was rated as one of the substantial agriculturists of that vicinity. Politically he became a Republican. He and his wife were members of the German Lutheran Church. His wife was born in Germany in 1834, and died in 1901, the same year as her husband.

He attended school and received instruction in both the German and English languages. At the age of twenty-one he started out to make his own fortune in the world. Having no capital he had to depend upon the labor of his hands. His wages for a time were only $12 a month. On such a low salary he was able to test his ability as a thrifty man, and he put aside some of these meager earnings for future use. For seven years he continued to work at farm labor in Indiana and Illinois.

In 1889 he came to Illinois and spent the first year in Piatt County. From there he came to Champaign County and for two years was employed as a wage earner by Mr. Ludwig Liestman. He next rented some land, and by slow and steady progress has raised himself from comparative poverty until he now stands among the successful men of Champaign County.

On October 29, 1893, Mr. Kroner married Miss Lizzie Liestman. Into their home came three sons. In the goodness of their hearts they have also adopted a daughter, Lucile Liestman. Of their sons Frederick L., the oldest, finished the common schools and for three years was a student in the Mahomet High School. After that he taught two years in his home township and in 1915 entered the University of Illinois, where he studied journalism. He is now a student in the dental department of Northwestern University of Chicago, a member of the class of 1919. Politically he is a Democrat, a member of the German Lutheran Church, and belongs to several fraternities. William Otto, the second son, has finished his common school course and has shown unusual energy and ability as a practical farmer and stockman. He, like his brother, is a Democrat and a member of the German Lutheran Church. Louis Albert, the youngest child, is a bright and earnest student now in the third grade of the public schools. Mr. and Mrs. Kroner have always taken the utmost pains with the education and training of their sons.

Mrs. Kroner was born in Piatt County, Illinois, May 23, 1873. She was third in age among a family of twelve children, seven sons and five daughters. She is a daughter of Ludwig and Frederika (Kersten) Liestman. Of their family eight children are still living. Four have their home in Champaign County. Two sons, Herman and Frank, live at Alief in Harris County, Texas. Another son, William, is an agriculturist and gardener in Webster, Florida.

Ludwig Liestman was born near Berlin, Germany, in 1837. His life was a long and useful one, and came to a close in Champaign County in 1914. He grew up in his native land, was educated in the German tongue, and was twenty-two years of age when he came to America in 1859. The voyage was made on a sailing vessel, and he landed from the ship a stranger in a strange land, without money, without friends, and with only his earnest, hard-working German characteristics as a means of opening the door of success. A sister was living in Bloomington, Illinois, and that city was his first destination. He found employment at day wages. He was paid a meager salary, but it offered an opportunity for him to adapt himself to the ways and practices of the new country, and he was not long in getting ahead. He capitalized his earnings until he was justified in buying some land in sections 7 and 18 of Newcomb Township, Champaign County. For one who had come to America a poor immigrant there is scarcely a more striking case of conspicuous success among all the citizens of Champaign County. Out of his prosperity he was able to give 600 acres of rich land to his sons, and besides that he owned a large farm of 480 acres. He reared his large family to lives of \isefulness and honor, and his name is still spoken with respect and esteem throughout the county. He was a Democrat and a member of the German Lutheran Church. In 1905 he retired from his farm to the city of Champaign arid spent his last years there. Mr. and Mrs. Kroner have in their home an engraving showing her father in the uniform of a body guard to Kaiser Wilhelm I, father of the present German emperor.

Mrs. Liestman, mother of Mrs. Kroner, was born almost in the same locality as her husband. She died in the city of Champaign in 1902. Life meant to her an unceasing round of devotion and duty performed in her home and to her children, and she was also strikingly generous and the poor and needy were never turned empty handed from her door. She and her husband now rest in Woodlawn Cemetery at Champaign, where a handsome monument stands sacred to their memory.

Mrs. Kroner attended the common schools, and at her marriage was well qualified for the duties of home making and as a counselor to her husband. She is cordial in manner and has a host of friends in Champaign County.

Mr. and Mrs. Kroner are Democrats in politics. They are regular members and aided substantially in the erection of the German Lutheran Church at Osman. Officially Mr. Kroner served four years as road commissioner, and for three years was school director, and Mrs. Kroner has also been a director of the public schools. Their home farm consists of one hundred and sixty acres of land, the southeast quarter of Section Twenty-nine in Newcomb Township. Better land it would be difficult to find anywhere in the length and breadth of Champaign County. Mr. and Mrs. Kroner have remodeled their residence and all the barns and outbuildings, and have shown great taste in securing homelike surroundings as well as developing the farm to a higher degree of efficiency.

CHARLES D. THOMPSON has been a resident of Ogden for many years, and enjoys a substantial position in that community because of his record as a good citizen and his honest workmanship as a painter and paper hanger.

Mr. Thompson was born August 24, 1853, at Leesburg in Kosciusko County, Indiana, son of John and Hester (Rhodes) Thompson. His father was born near Chillicothe and his mother in Marion County, Ohio. From Ohio the parents removed to Indiana and two months after the birth of Charles his mother died. Bereft of his mother, the infant was taken into the home of an aunt in Ohio, where he lived until 1861. He then joined his father and the other five children in Illinois. Charles D. Thompson is the only one of his brothers and sisters still living.

He attended public school in Ohio and finished school at Sidney in Champaign County. He grew to manhood near Homer and in 1881, at the age of twenty-eight, married Miss Frances Sweet. Mrs. Thompson was born near Manchester in Delaware County, Iowa, daughter of Samuel and Maria (Lee) Sweet. Her father was born near Rutland, Vermont, and her mother in Virginia. Her mother was a second cousin of General Robert E. Lee. Maria Lee's grandfather, James Lee, and the famous "Light Horse" Harry Lee of Revolutionary fame were brothers. When Mrs. Thompson was four and a half years of age her mother died, and at the age of six she came to Mahomet, Illinois, with her father, who passed away a year later. After that she was reared by her foster parents, Mr. and Mrs. S. H. Lyons, a pioneer family of Champaign County. Mrs. Thompson acquired a good education and at the age of eighteen received her first certificate from the county superintendent to teach. Her first school was the Burr Oak School, five miles north of Ogden.

After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Thompson located in Ogden Township, near where the village of Royal now stands. They engaged in farming on rented land and went through a number of years in which thrift and economy were the prime necessities of existence. For twelve years they continued farming and then came to the village of Ogden, where they have had a pleasant home in the north end of town for the past twenty years. During that time Mr. Thompson's services as a paper hanger and decorator have been in great demand.

He and his wife are attentive members of the New Light Christian Church, known as Prospect Church, a center of religious enlightenment which has stood as a means and instrument of good in this community for many years. In politics both Mr. and Mrs. Thompson give their support to the Eepublican ticket, but chiefly to the man of principle and thorough fitness for the office in question. They are pronounced advocates of prohibition and temperance. Mr. Thompson has made a success in life and through all the years has had the aid and counsel of a good wife and a thorough home maker.

When Mr. Thompson moved out on to the prairie in 1869 there was no town of Ogden and no railroad, and only five houses in sight. All around was waving prairie grass and wet sloughs. He recalls that in the summer the stock suffered grievously from the horse flies. Many times when the women would drive to Eantoul to market, while the husbands remained at home working in the fields, the flies would attack the horses and in their suffering they would lie down and roll over to get rid of the pests. The women would then have to get down and get the team out of the tangle, and it might be necessary to repeat this performance several times before reaching Eantoul. Mr. Thompson's experiences go back to a time when the nearest postoffice was at Urbana and he appreciates the great contrast when mail is carried daily to the doorstep of every home in the county. When Mrs. Thompson was a small school girl in this county the teacher one day announced that school would be dismissed in order that the children might see the first train go by on the tracks of the I., B. & W. Eailway. Mrs. Thompson and the other children climbed a plank fence in order to witness a spectacle the memory of which has never been erased from her mind. Fraternally Mr. Thompson is a Woodman and Odd Fellow and Mrs. Thompson is affiliated with the Eoyal Neighbors and the Daughters of Eebekah.

GEORGE G. IRLE. In the famous farming district of Champaign County, where the possession of land spells prosperity, one of the active factors today is Mr. George G. Irle, whose well managed place is in section 16 of Somer Township. Mr. Irle began farming here over fifty-five years ago, and has been through practically every phase of experience as an Illinois farmer. He has had low prices and high prices for his crops, and through seasons both good and bad he has contrived to prosper and to grow in influence and affluence.

Mr. Irle has lived in Champaign County since childhood, but was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 31, 1852. His parents were Henry W. and Christina (Hohn) Irle. Both parents were born in Germany, the mother in Nassau. Henry W. Irle came to America in 1848, locating at Philadelphia, where he followed the trade of brass founder. In 1862 he brought his family west to Champaign County, and changing his occupation located on a farm in Somer Township. He became one of the substantial men of that district, and lived a long and useful career. His death occurred July 27, 1901. His wife passed away August 16, 1884. Their five children were: Hulda, deceased; Francesca, who died in infancy; George G. ; Henry H., deceased ; and Francesca, wife of Thomas B. Thornburn, of Urbana, Illinois.

and barely escaped becoming victim of a famous kidnapping case in Philadelphia. It all happened on Christmas Eve. On the same night and on the same street in the year 1876 a boy named Charlie Eoss was kidnapped.

After coming to Champaign George G. Irle attended the local schools and lived with his father on the farm until 1880. He then went for himself, buying sixty acres in Somer Township. By diligence and efficiency his success has been a progressive one, and at different times he has purchased more lands until he now owns 376 acres in section 16 and twenty-four acres at another place in the township. He has pursued the plan of general farming and stock raising and is one of the men who have demonstrated the possibilities of successful farming on the high priced land of Champaign County. Mr. Irle started life with comparatively little, and for some years he and his wife lived in a log cabin home.

On March 17, 1881, he married Mary F. Arnold, who was born in Champaign County. They have four children: Anna, wife of John H. Pierce, of Bloomington, Illinois; George W., of Buhl, Idaho; William H., of Hamer, Idaho; and Nettie, who lives at home and is in the training school for nurses of Burnham's Hospital.

Mr. Irle has not neglected the interests of the community in which he lives, and has shown himself a public spirited citizen. He has served as commissioner of highways, as tax collector and for over thirty years was a director of his home school district. He is a republican and a member of the German Lutheran Church. His postoffice is Leverett.

JAMES F. RANKIN has proved his ability both in general business affairs and as a banker, and is the organizer and active official of the State Bank of Sidney.

Mr. Rankin was born near Deland, Illinois, October 31, 1879, a son of Joseph H. and Emma (Brown) Rankin. His parents were natives of Ohio, and his father was for a number of years a general merchant at Deland, but about 1902 removed to Champaign County and located in the city of Champaign, where he is still living. James F. is the only surviving child, his younger brother, Willis D., having died in infancy.

Mr. Rankin was graduated from the public schools of Deland in 1898, and soon afterward entered the employ of John Kirby, a private banker. With that experience he assisted in organizing the State Bank of Deland, which he served as assistant cashier. Then, realizing the needs of further education, he entered the Bryant & Stratton Business College at Chicago, and from there in 1901 went to the National Bank of Commerce at Kansas City, Missouri, one of the largest banks in the Missouri Valley. He served as teller there two years, and with this metropolitan experience returned to Champaign County and for four years was draft and collection teller with the First National Bank of Champaign, Illinois. He then gave up banking and for four years was assistant superintendent of the great plant of the Republic Iron & Steel Company at Moline, Illinois. It was in 1911 that Mr. Rankin organized the State Bank of Sidney and has since given it his chief time and energies.

On February 10, 1901, he married Miss Irma K. Dresback, a native of Deland, Illinois. They have four children : Esther B., Helen M., Dwight D., and Irma Catherine. Politically Mr. Rankin is a Republican voter. He has attained the thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Masonry and is present worshipful master of his lodge at Sidney. He also belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is a church man, active in the Methodist Society at Sidney, and is assistant superintendent of the Sunday school.

AMOS ELLIOTT has had his home in Champaign County fifty-four years, grew to manhood here, and his active life has been one of unremitting industry and capable management as a farmer. His home is in Ogden Township on Eural Route 15 out of St. Joseph.

His birth occurred at Rushsylvania in Logan County, Ohio, January 9, 1851. His parents were Moses and Mary (Bonner) Elliott, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Ohio. The Elliott family came to Illinois in 1860, lived in Coles County a time, but in April, 1863, while the Civil War was at its height, settled in Somer Township of Champaign County, not far from Urbana. Moses Elliott was a blacksmith by trade and he set up a shop and did work in Somer Township while conducting his farm. Amos Elliott was the oldest of seven children. He secured his education largely in the district school of Locust Grove.

Until he was twenty-seven he remained at home assisting his father in the work and then married Miss Sarah Kirby. Mrs. Elliott was born at Hannibal, Missouri, daughter of William and Charlotte Kirby. Soon after her birth her father died and when she was two years of age she was left an orphan "by the death of her mother. There were four children in the Kirby family and after being left orphans they grew up among relatives. A great-aunt of the children was Lucy Clements, who lived in Illinois. Mrs. Clements took one of the Kirby children at the age of two years and some years later, when she again visited her people in Missouri, she brought back to her home the little orphan niece, Sarah Kirby, then nine years of age. Mrs. Clements and her good husband deserve more than a passing tribute. In the goodness of their hearts they reared not only six children of their own but seventeen orphan children, educating them and providing them homes until they were ready to take their places in the world. Some of these children they took when only six weeks old. An example of such generosity and large-heartedness is seldom found, and the world would be vastly better were there more such people. Mrs. Elliott and her children, and perhaps her children's children, will never be allowed to forget and pay gratitude to the names of James and Lucy Clements. Their home was in the southern part of Somer Township of this county. Here Sarah Kirby attended the Locust Grove district school.

Mr. and Mrs. Elliott were married March 17, 1878, when she was twenty-four years of age. At the time of their marriage they had little of this world's goods and they lived on a rented farm in Stanton Township for a few years. They next removed to Ogden Township, again rented land, and out of what they made and saved they were finally able to buy eighty-eight acres in that township at a price of $30 an acre. The only improvement was some old fencing and the land abounded in sloughs and wet places. While to many the outlook might have been discouraging, Mr. and Mrs. Elliott began at once with hope and energy, and the years have abundantly rewarded their efforts until today they own 240 acres of farm land and their present home is on an eighty-acre tract adjoining their first purchase. Their home surroundings are now of the best.

The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Elliott were named Clara, Fred, Mary, Emmett, Bertha and Nellie. Mary and Nellie died in childhood. The other children as they grew up were educated in the Union district pchool. Clara Elliott is now the wife of W. H. Davis, living at Muskogee, Oklahoma, and they have one child, Lavon. Fred Elliott is a farmer a mile and a half south of Ogden and married Maggie Freeman. Emmett Elliott remains on his father's farm as manager and married Zella Bradley. Bertha Elliott is the wife of Rolla Freeman, an Ogden Township farmer, and they have a son, Rolland.

pect Christian Church, Mr. Elliott being chairman of its board of trustees. For twenty-one consecutive years he served as school director and for the benefit of his own children and those of the entire community he gave much time and study to every problem involved in procuring the best advantages of instruction. For eighteen successive years Mr. Elliott served as commissioner of highways. He was reared in the Eepublican party and has always been faithful to its principles. Six of his uncles did service for the country in the dark days of the Civil War, and Mr. Elliott himself would have followed their example had he been old enough. He is a member of the Masonic order, and he and his wife are members of the Court of Honor and two of their daughters belong to the Eastern Star.

When the Elliott family settled in Champaign County not a rod of tile drainage existed anywhere. Mr. Elliott's father was one of the first to put in any tiling, and whether on their own land or in drainage districts, the Elliotts have always taken a firm stand in advocating this improvement, whose benefit and value can never be properly estimated. It is through drainage largely that Champaign County has become one of the garden spots of the world. Mr. Elliott as a boy recalls a time when the wet lands of eastern Champaign County were a haven for immense flocks of wild geese, crane, ducks, pigeons, and even deer and wolves roamed over the prairies when Mr. Elliott was a boy.

WILLIAM HENRY TREES has lived a career that entitles him to a place of honor and respect among the citizens of Champaign County. For years he was a successful farmer and is now a local business man at Sidney.

He was born in Champaign County February 5, 1872. He is a son of Ephraim and Helen (Martin) Trees. Both parents were born in Ohio. His father came to Champaign County in an early day and located on a farm near Thomasboro. That farm he cultivated and was getting to a position where he could be considered prosperous when he met death as a result of a stroke of lightning in June, 1876. He left his widow with a number of small children. His widow died in 1904. Eight children were born to them: Louisa, wife of William Arnold, of Iowa; Warren, living in Iowa; Belle, deceased; Marion, of Ohio; John, of Sidney Township; George, living in Ohio; William H., and Jennie, wife of Frank Armstrong, of Sidney Township.

William Henry Trees early learned to be dependent upon his own efforts and with only a common school education faced life on his own responsibilities. He made farming his independent vocation for a number of years, did well at it, and in January, 1917, bought a livery establishment at Sidney, which he now conducts. He also has one of the comfortable homes of that village.

In October, 1895, Mr. Trees married Mary B. Towner, a native of Champaign County. They have three children: Bernice, deceased; Leal Gleason, at home ; and Dorothy Hilene. Politically Mr. Trees is a Eepublican. He has served his district as a member of the school board. He and his family belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church.

HERMAN H. BEHRENS has been a resident of Champaign County for forty-four years. During all that time his home has been in section 18 of Ogden Township. In his immediate community he has witnessed changes and developments that would have been regarded as impossible in such a short time when he was a boy. In some of the more substantial items of progress Mr. Behrens has borne a most influential and worthy part himself.

parents, Harm G. and Anna (Lichtsin) Behrens, accompanied by the ten older children, on the way to America. The Behrens family landed from a boat at New Orleans, came up the Mississippi Eiver and first located in Adams County, Illinois, not far from Quincy. They remained there until 1873, when they came to Champaign County, where the father bought forty-eight acres in section 18 of Ogden Township. For that raw land he paid $18 an acre. The children who were then of school age attended the Pleasant Valley schoolhouse in the southwest corner of that section.

Herman Behrens was sixteen years old when he came to Champaign County, and he remained at home for ten years after that, attending school and assisting his father in the work of the farm.

At the age of twenty-six he married Eliza Park. She was born in Illinois, daughter of John and Tina (Duis) Park. The Park family were also natives of Germany. Mrs. Behrens was one of a family of nine children.

After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Behrens located on his father's homestead in section 18 and that has been continuously their home ever since. Mr. Behrens has shown himself to be a progressive and industrious farmer, and with the aid of his good wife has materially increased his estate until it now comprises 334 acres.

Into their home were born five children : John H., Anna, Tina, Harm and Catherine. These children were educated in the old home school of Pleasant Valley, where Mr. Behrens himself had received some of his instruction. They were also students in the German parochial school and were there taught the religious faith of their ancestors.

The son Harm fitted himself for pedagogical work and as a successful teacher of Champaign County taught in the Morning Star School and also had the honor of being employed by the board of the home district, the Pleasant Valley. The son John H. Behrens lives on land owned by his father and by his marriage to Anna Buhr has two children, Herman and John. The daughter Anna Behrens is the wife of John Osterbur, an Ogden Township farmer, their six children being Lizzie, Thea, Catherine, Herman, Anna and Helen. Tina Behrens married Henry Osterbur, who is also identified with the agricultural enterprise of Ogden Township. Their two children are named Louisa and Frank. The son Harm now lives at the old homestead and manages his father's farm. He married Nancy Loschen. Catherine Behrens is the wife of George Frenches, an Ogden Township farmer. Their two children are Eleanor and John.

June 5, 1898, the death angel came to the Behrens home and took away the good wife and mother. Mrs. Behrens was a woman of exceptional Christian character and was much beloved both in her family and by a large circle of friends. Since his wife's death Mr. Behrens has continued to live at the old homestead and has been devotedly cared for by his son Harm and wife.

The public spirit of Mr. Behrens has always been a strong point in his favor. He was elected and served twenty years as school director, nine years as road commissioner and eight years as drainage commissioner. Judge Eoth appointed him drainage commissioner. The drainage system of Ogden Township was greatly advanced by Mr. Behrens' work as a commissioner and he is one of the men who can appreciate the value of this improvement. The Behrens home was surrounded by a vista of slough grass, prairie grass and in the summer season life was made almost unbearable for human beings and animals by the presence of the green-headed flies and mosquitos which propagated and flourished in the undrained district. Thus the drainage system has not only contributed to the welfare of all the people living therein but has made the land more profitable for cultivation and has added hundreds of thousands of dollars to the value of Champaign County. Mr. Behrens is one of the directors of the Farmers Grain Elevator at Eoyal. In politics he votes as a Republican and altogether is a man of admirable integrity of character, never makes a promise that he cannot fulfill, and has reared a family who do credit to him. Mr. Behrens is now found in a comfortable home where he spent part of his boyhood and enjoys the shade of many grand old trees which were set out by the hand of his father more than forty years ago.

CHARLES A. DALY of Philo Township has surrounded himself with all the evidences of prosperity and enterprise as a farmer and stockman. Largely through his own efforts and enterprise he has acquired a large acreage of Champaign County farm land, has it under improvement, and for many years has been a successful raiser of good stock and gets his profit out of his land largely through feeding the crops at home.

Mr. Daly has lived in Champaign County most of his life, but was born in Ontario, Canada, February 8, 1859. His parents, John and Mary Ann (McKipill) Daly, were both natives of Ireland. From Canada the family came to Champaign County in 1868, locating in section 1 of Crittenden Township. John Daly followed farming, was a man of industry and stood well in the community, and lived there until his death on April 5, 1885. His widow survived him until January 8, 1892. They reared a family of ten children: Sarah, widow of William Moran of Philo; Hannah, widow of Michael Reiter of Philo; Andrew, deceased; Elizabeth, widow of Joseph Donalson of Urbana; Mary and Margaret, both living at Philo; John and Anna, also of Philo; Ellen, deceased; and Charles A. Daly.

Charles A. Daly finished his education in the district schools of Champaign County. Being the youngest child, he remained at home with his widowed mother for a year or so and in 1887 bought eighty acres in section 36 of Philo Township. That acreage was only a beginning and he has steadily increased his holdings until he now owns and controls the operation of 280 acres in that township.

Mr. Daly was married October 9, 1889, to Miss Susie Clennon. They have reared children who are a credit to the parents and there were seven of them : Margaret Mary, at home ; John Joseph, at home ; Ellen Loretta, wife of Vincent Cain ; Myrtle Frances, deceased ; Albert Vincent, at home ; Mary Josephine and Leo Yunon. Mr. Daly is a Democrat, a member of St. Thomas' Catholic Church of Philo and affiliates with the Knights of Columbus. He has served as road commissioner and has always endeavored to do his part in community affairs.

LEVI MEAD HALL, who recently celebrated his ninetieth birthday, still walks with firm step and unclouded mind the streets of Homer, and during his long and useful life in Champaign County has witnessed almost its entire development and has borne a share in its progress. He still manifests a keen and intelligent interest in all that affects the welfare of his community and country, and is widely and favorably known as a man of progress and public spirit.

He was born in Indiana, a son of Frost TJnderlin and Maria (Mead) Hall. The traditional account is that the founder of this branch of the Hall family came to America with General Braddock's army and participated in that notable campaign which ended in western Pennsylvania on the march to Fort Duquesne, where Braddock was defeated and where the day was only partially saved by George Washington and his Virginia frontiersmen. This British soldier and his wife came from the vicinity of Edinburgh, Scotland, and they remained in this country and died in New York City. They left only one son, David Hall. David Hall married Phoebe Allen. Her father, Andrew Allen, had come from Falkirk, Scotland, to America before 1756.

Frost Underlin Hall, father of Levi M., came from the East and was an early settler in Ohio. It is said that while he was traveling with the Mead family he came to the banks of the Ohio River. At that time he had only 25 cents in his pocket, and, pulling out this piece of money, he threw it into the river, saying, "I am going to begin life even." He lived in Butler County, Ohio, a number of years, but in 1840 moved to Indiana, and spent his last years at Quaker Point in Vermilion County. While in Ohio he had charge of a section of the old Miami Canal and lived at what was known as Hall's Locks. He often said that the Hall boys threw a wagon load of stones over the canal, aiming at birds on the other side.

Mr. Levi M. Hall was three times married. On September 20, 1846, he married Rachel Hollingsworth. On April 3, 1855, Mary Darling became his wife. His present wife was Mary Frances Patterson, and they were married October 12, 1876.

Levi M. Hall learned the trade of blacksmith, and in the early days he shod horses that drew stage coaches over the route from Covington, Indiana, to Johnston's Tavern. He is one of the best posted men on the old-time days and incidents in Champaign County. He had a large acquaintance with all the pioneers.

Mr. Hall arrived at the old town of Homer October 4, 1846. All there was of the village at that time was located by the creek near where Homer Park now is. In that community he has made his home all the years since then, a period of over seventy years. From his good business management he acquired a farm of over 200 acres and was for years extensively engaged in buying and selling farms. He made it a practice to buy up unimproved or rundown, places, living thereon until the land was once more in a state of good cultivation, and then sell out at a profit.

Mr. Hall's children are noted as follows : Calvin Jenks Hall lives in Bond County, Illinois. He married Amy I. Dodd. Persis A. Bell, a widow, lives in Los Angeles, California. Mr. Hall's oldest son was William Smith Hall, who died and left two children, Nellie R. and Levi B. Mr. Hall has three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

At the ripe age of ninety he is still a well preserved man and the years sit lightly upon his head. He is a man of genial character, and in a business way his word has always been accepted as good as gold in the hand.

His present wife, whose maiden name was Mary Frances Patterson, was born near St. Joseph, Illinois, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth M. (Ray) Patterson. She was educated in the district schools near St. Joseph. To their marriage have been born five children : Charles A., who died at the age of four years ; C. B. ; Ada M. ; Carl C., who died at the end of ten months; and Laura A. The children who grew up were educated in the district schools and attended the Homer High School. C. B., who also attended the business college at Decatur, is now in the transfer and storage business at Danville, Illinois. He married Lillian Pogue and has a son, Melvin P. Hall. Ada M. Hall is the wife of E. M. Beazeley and they live at Denison, Texas, where he is manager of a wholesale mercantile house. Laura A. Hall is a graduate nurse of Danville and is still located in that city. About eighteen years ago Mr. and Mrs. Hall left their farm and bought a pleasant home on West Street in Homer. Here they live with every comfort, and surrounded with friends and relatives they have a most happy outlook on life and on all that awaits them in the future. They are active members and supporters of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In politics he is a stalwart supporter of the Republican party. Mr. Hall has experienced the bitter along with the sweet of life, and has been called upon to lay away two wives and ten of his children. He and his present wife have been married now for over forty years and he considers it his high good fortune to have had such a capable woman at his side as an adviser and counselor during all these years. One of the most pleasant events in his life was the celebration of his ninetieth birthday at the home of his daughter, Mrs. E. M. Beazeley at Denison, Texas, on June 19, 1917. Mr. Hall has made a splendid record for himself in dealing with his fellow men, and his integrity of character has been a contributing factor in the development of his home county.

HENRY HUMMEL. Perhaps to no one nation does America owe more for the successful development of its farms than to Germany. No better or finer class of people ever came to this country than the German colonists of the '40s. On the broad prairies and in the forests of the West, in peace and in war, in every branch of human endeavor and human achievement, by brave and honest service they made compensation to the land of their adoption.

One of this class of citizens long identified with Champaign County is Mr. Henry Hummel of Dewey. He was born near that historic place celebrated in song and story, Bingen on the Rhine, August 28, 1840. His parents were Philip and Katherine (Bloss) Hummel. He was one of a family of seven children, four sons and three daughters, and it is an indication of the virility of the family stock that all these children are still living, all of them in America and five residents of Champaign County. Philip Hummel was a native of the same locality as his son Henry, and gave the best endeavors of his long lifetime to farming. In 1843, with the purpose to better his condition and secure better opportunities for his children, he set out for the New World. He and his family traveled on a sailing vessel and landing in New York City proceeded west to Kaneville in Kane County, Illinois. Like many of his compatriots he arrived poor in purse but rich in energy and resources of mind and body, and in Illinois he began work as a wage earner. He continued that until he was able to buy a team of horses, and in 1861 he came with his family to Champaign County. In this county he lived the rest of his days, and passed away in 1906. At the time of his death he owned 244 acres in East Bend Township, a farm adjoining that now owned by his son Henry. Politically he became a Republican. He was a strong friend of public education, served his school district as a director, and he and his wife were active members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church at Dewey. His wife was born in the same locality of Germany and has been dead now for many years. Both are interred in the Beekman cemetery, where monuments mark their last resting places.

Henry Hummel was three years old when he came to the United States. His parents were poor, and there were few opportunities for him to attend school when a boy and his best training was acquired by the wholesome work of the home place. He largely educated himself by study outside of school. He continued to live with his parents until he was twenty-seven, and all his active years have been given to farming and stock raising.

When it came time for him to make an independent start in the world he lacked none of the courage which had enabled his father to establish a home in a new and strange land. He bought eighty acres.

After paying his brothers and sisters their share he assumed an additional obligation of $1,200. He also bought another tract of eighty acres, where his beautiful country home now stands, at a cost of $3,000. Thus he started farming with the heavy incumbrance and handicap of a debt of $4,500. It was only an incentive to increased effort. With the aid of his good and loyal wife, and in spite of sickness, bad crops and interest rates frequently as high as fifteen per cent, he paid out dollar for dollar and after acquiring the 160 acres was still in his prime and ready for further efforts and extension of, his holdings. Today, in 1917, he owns 529 acres, all of it in East Bend Township, and there is no other farm in the entire township which shows a finer outfit of barns and other equipment nor a more beautiful country home. Not a dollar of debt stands against this property, which has been won by his capable efforts and which represents a greater value today than almost any other form of wealth.

On February 10, 1879, Mr. Hummel married Miss Mary Catherine Hannagan. Six children, two sons and four daughters, have come into their home, and all of them are still living. Charles A., the oldest, is a resident of East Bend Township and engaged in agriculture, and in politics has been affiliated with the Republican party. He married Laura K. Nickell and they have a little son, Henry C. Both are active members of St. Malachi Catholic Church at Rantoul. Ellen E., the second child, is now the wife of Frederick Federer, a Champaign County agriculturist living in Rantoul Township. Both are members of the Catholic Church. Catherine A. was educated in the common school, has taken musical instruction and is still at home with her parents. She is a member of the St. Malachi Catholic Church at Rantoul and is active in the Rosary and the Altar societies. Margaret is the wife of Ernest Lorenz, a resident of Decatur, Illinois. Mrs. Lorenz is a Catholic and her two children are Charles and Mary Catherine. Aloysius is still with his parents and in active charge of the home estate. He was educated in the common schools, is a Republican and a member of the Catholic Church. Theresa Jane, whose- church affiliation is also with the Catholic, married William Quirk, who is a plumber by trade and is now employed by the City Waterworks of Champaign, where he and his family reside. The despot of the Quirk home is their little son Billie. Mr. and Mrs. Hummel have every reason to be proud of their children, who have shown themselves young people of ready attainments and resourcefulness, capable of helping themselves and of rendering service to others.

Mrs. Hummel was born in Grundy County, Illinois, November 15, 1849, a daughter of Felix and Ellen (McCormick) Hannagan. Her parents had eleven children, five sons and six daughters, and all of them but one lived to adult age. Felix Hannagan was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, and when fifteen years of age came with his mother to America. He lived first in Rhode Island, and the mother subsequently moved to Philadelphia and later to Grundy County, Illinois. Mr. Hannagan had grown up in the East, and was a married man when he came to Illinois. For a number of years he followed agriculture in Grundy County, but in 1866 removed to Champaign County and this was his home until his death about 1894. Politically he was a strong Republican and was an active member of the Catholic Church at Rantoul. His family remember his great interest in reading, especially on historical subjects. As a farmer he acquired 160 acres of land in Compromise Township of Champaign County. Mrs. Hannagan was also a native of Ireland and came to the United States when about eighteen years old. She was a devout Catholic and a gentle, kind and loving mother.

Mrs. Hummel was educated in the common schools and in the Catholic Academy of St. Joseph at Bloomington and for six months was a student in the Illinois State Normal. Before her marriage she was engaged in teaching and put in ten years in the school rooms of Champaign County. To her task as a homemaker and mother she brought this long experience as a teacher and those qualities of true motherhood and devotion to all of life's best interests.

Mr. Hummel is a Republican. He has for a number of years served as a drainage commissioner of Champaign County and is as forceful in his public work as he is in his private business capacity. He is a director of the public schools and is a member of the German Lutheran Church at Dewey. His father aided in the construction of the church building there. Mr. and Mrs. Hummel have attained those things that are the best rewards of character and worthy ambition. They have a beautiful home, have the companionship of noble children, and have the respect and esteem of a large community. Their beautiful country estate bears the appropriate name of Forest Lawn.

LEW E. STEVENSON. The village and community of St. Joseph have had no citizen whose work and interests have been more closely identified with the general welfare than Lew E. Stevenson. His home has been there for forty years, and almost continuously during that time he was in business in the village, but has kept in close touch with the agricultural development as well. He has given liberally of his thought and purpose to the upbuilding of local institutions, particularly the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he is now the only surviving original trustee.

Mr. Stevenson was born in Highland County, Ohio, April 21, 1850, by which token he is by no means an old man. His parents were Elisha and Nancy A. (Keelor) Stevenson, both natives of Ohio. His mother was born near Hillsboro, Ohio, a town notable for the fact that it was the birthplace of the little organization which has now expanded into an international instrumentality of good^ the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.

On October 6, 1854, when Lew E. Stevenson was four and a half years of age, his father arrived in Urbana, bringing with him his wife and five children. Elisha Stevenson was one of the capable pioneer farmers of Urbana Township, and spent the rest of his days in this locality. He was the father of thirteen children, seven sons and six (laughters, all of whom reached maturity except one that died in infancy.

Lew E. Stevenson acquired his education in the district schools of Champaign County, and his personal recollections of this locality go back nearly sixty years. On December 27, 1877, he married at Urbana Miss Ada 0. Coffman. She was born north of Crawfordsville in Fountain County, Indiana, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Noah B. Coffman. Her father was a native of Virginia and her mother of Ohio. Her father was long a prominent and notable figure in the life of Champaign County. Mrs. Stevenson was educated in Urbana and in the University of Illinois. She was one of thirteen children, all of whom were carefully educated and made good records for themselves. Several of Mrs. Stevenson's brothers went out to the state of Washington and have long been prominent in the city of Chehalis. Her brother N. B. Coffman, Jr., is president of the Chehalis Bank and has long been a prominent Republican, having served his party at different times as a delegate to national conventions. Another brother, Joseph Coffman, now deceased, was president of the telephone company in Chehalis. A. L. Coffman is in the real estate business there, and H. B. Coffman is secretary and manager of the Chehalis Furniture Company.

A few hours after Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson were married at Urbana they took the train for the village of St. Joseph. Some months before, on February 1, 1877, Mr. Stevenson had bought the local drug store of that village, and he was thus a factor in its business life before he brought his wife there and established a permanent home. The passing years have meant much to Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson not only in the matter of material fortune but in the good they have been able to accomplish as citizens. For thirty-eight years Mr. Stevenson was a familiar figure in the mercantile affairs of St. Joseph, and continued his drug business until he sold out, April 24, 1915. While never an active farmer, he has kept in close touch with the basic interests of the county by investing liberally in farm land, and at the present time he owns 405 acres in one body in Lawrence County, Illinois, not far from Vincennes, Indiana.

Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson had one child, a daughter named Mae Agnes Stevenson. She received the complete devotion and care of her parents, was liberally educated, first in the public schools of St. Joseph, afterward in high school and finished her education in the Woman's College of Jacksonville, Illinois. Being musically inclined, she was granted every opportunity to improve that talent. The daughter married Otto B. Divelbiss, a native of Eantoul and a son of John W. and Hattie E. (Dodge) Divelbiss. Mr. Divelbiss was a young man of many capabilities and had laid the foundation of a promising career when he was taken away by death on October 3, 1903. He left his wife a widow and two weeks after his death their only child, a daughter, was- born. This grandchild of Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson bears the name Maeotta Divelbiss. Mrs. Divelbiss returned to the home of her parents with her little, child and has continued to remain with them for the past fourteen years. The sunshine of the home all this time has been the granddaughter. She has made a good record in her studies and is now a member of the Champaign High School.

Mr. Stevenson's family are active members and liberal supporters of the Methodist Episcopal Church at St. Joseph. When he came to the village in 1877 he at once began an agitation for the erection of a church. For years he served as chorister and in the Sunday school of the church. The local church society was organized April 14, 1877, and Mr. Stevenson was one of the first trustees chosen by the twelve charter members. These trustees were V. J. Gallion, W. 0. Shreve, W. B. Simms, Harrison W. Drillinger and Lew E. Stevenson. As noted above, Mr. Stevenson is the only one still living. Though the church was small at the beginning, the interest in its work and its membership have been growing and before long they had dedicated their first church building. This house of worship was subsequently burned and was replaced by a second, and a few years ago they completed the beautiful brown stone and brick church which now stands as a monument to the progressiveness and liberality of the church community and promises to continue a beacon light for the welfare of its worshipers for many years to come.

In the political field Mr. Stevenson has for twenty-five years been one of the leading Democrats of Champaign County. He is an enthusiastic and dependable party worker and has done much to strengthen the local organization. He served as postmaster of the village of St. Joseph during both of President Cleveland's terms, and has also been a member of the town council. Fraternally he is a charter member of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic. His membership in the Grand Army is not honorary, as one might infer from the fact that he was born in 1850. Mr. Stevenson is in fact one of the youngest veterans of the great War of the Rebellion. That war began when he was eleven years of age, and he was only fourteen when it entered upon its final stage in 1864. He real- ized that he was too young, strictly speaking, to get accepted into the ranks of the Union army, but his loyalty and patriotism were of such determined character that he was willing to sacrifice the truth somewhat and gave his age as sixteen. He enlisted in the spring of 1864 and was mustered in at Mattoon, Illinois, into Company A of the One Hundred and Thirty-fifth Illinois Infantry. Thus he had his ardent wish and marched away with the hoys in blue to do whatever duty was required. His regiment was at first stationed in southern Missouri doing railway guard duty around Pilot Knob and Iron Mountain. When the war was over he was mustered out and given an honorable discharge at Mattoon.

Mr. Stevenson has been identified with most of the fraternal organizations in St. Joseph, having been a charter member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Masonic lodge and the Woodmen order. He is also a charter member of the local chapter of the Eastern Star, and both his wife and daughter are also members. In Masonry he is affiliated with the Mystic Shrine. For forty years Mr. Stevenson has had the inestimable good fortune of having a wife of charming personality and culture to stand by his side and help forward their home, their power of doing good in the community, and they have well earned the right to enjoy the coming years in leisure and comfort in their pleasant home at St. Joseph.

ISAAC T. LEAS. It is by no means an empty distinction to have lived actively and usefully in any community . for a period of over sixty years. At this writing Isaac T. Leas is in his eighty-third year and is one of the few men who knew Champaign County before the time of the Civil War. He has been both a witness and an actor in the changing developments of a long time and is a real pioneer. He has been successful in his work and business and is still a hale and hearty man, enjoying the highest esteem of a large community.

Mr. Leas was born near Covington, Indiana, October 27, 1833, a son of George and Lydia (Robinson) Leas. The ancestors of the Leas family came from England and were colonial settlers in Pennsylvania. George Leas had ten children, eight sons and two daughters, Isaac being the third in age.

The latter spent his boyhood days and youth in his native county and when a young man came to Champaign County with his father. His father entered 160 acres of land and the son also secured a tract of land in section 9 of St. Joseph Township.

In October, 1860, Mr. Leas laid the foundation of his own home by his marriage to Miss Ervilla Sumner. Mrs. Leas was also born near Covington, Indiana, a daughter of Selby and Rebecca (Hatheway) Sumner. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Leas settled down to begin wedded life on land which he bought, and with hope for the future, enthusiam and unlimited energy their prospects all partook of a rosy hue. Mr. Leas had many trials and privations in early years. His first land he bought in Champaign County cost him two dollars and a half an acre, and gradually his accumulations grew until he was paying taxes on 640 acres, a complete section.

Mr. Leas' brother William was a brave soldier in the Civil War, having spent more than three years in the army. As that was a long time to be away from home and friends an arrangement was made between him and Isaac that they would exchange places for a brief time to afford William an opportunity to visit home and friends. It was a risky thing to do, and had the exchange been discovered William would have been liable for arrest as a deserter. Isaac went to Louisville, changed clothes with his brother, took his brother's place in the ranks and every morning answered to the roll call under his brother's name. Thus he too had a share of the service required for winning the war, though his name does not appear on the records of the great armies of the North.

During the passing years Mr. Leas gave the best of his energies to the improvement and development of his farm, erected many commodious buildings, planted fruit and shade tiees, and the entire estate stands as an attractive monument to his industry.

Into their home were born nine children : Emma, Jennie, Clara, Gertrude, Sadie, Ernest, Ross, Nettie and Frank, the last three dying in childhood. Mr. and Mrs. Leas saw to it that their children were well educated, at first in the Argo district school and later some of them attended the fine old college in Sullivan County, Indiana, on the banks of the Wabash, known as Merom College, and also the University of Illinois. Gertrude graduated from the Indiana school. These children have since married and have become substantially located in the world of affairs. Emma is the wife of Christian Furst, a farmer at Muucie, Indiana, and she has four children, Ervilla, Oral, Russell and Stanley, the last being now deceased. The daughter Jennie married Charles Mallow and they live in Ohio and have children named Leroy, Guy, Orr and two daughters deceased. Clara L. married William Beverlin and lives in Urbana, the mother of Gladys and Mayme. Gladys is now Mrs. E. L. Coolidge of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Mayme was graduated from the Urbana High School in 1911, and then entered upon a course of instruction in the University of Illinois, but was prevented from finishing it by the sudden death of her mother on January 24, 1912. W. N. Beverlin, her father, was born near St. Joseph, Illinois, and finished his education in Earlham College in Indiana. He was a son of T. J. and Elizabeth (Stevenson) Beverlin. T. J. Beverlin was born near Centerville, Indiana, and was a soldier in the Union army during the Civil War. His wife was born near Ridge Farm, Illinois. Gertrude L. Leas is the wife of Dr. L. C. Phillips, a graduate of Merom College in Indiana, and they now live in Pensacola, Florida, and have seven children named Ian, Kent, Portia, Leeta, Mayme, Willis and Lawren. The daughter Sadie L. Leas married Edwin Keller, an insurance man of Frankfort, Indiana, and they have one child, Emerson Leas Keller. Ernest Orr Leas lives in Fountain County, Indiana, and married Miss Temperance Hayworth.

Mr. Isaac Leas, as is also true of his wife, has been a lifelong member of the Christian Church and for many years worshiped in the Prairie Hope Church, to which he was a liberal supporter. Mr. Leas had an important part in the building of this venerable religious structure. From his father's farm he hauled many logs to a mill in Indiana, and then hauled the finished lumber back to the site of the church building. The seats in the church contain a great quantity of choice walnut timber, a very rare wood at the present time. The weatherboarding on the church was sawed from fine poplar logs. This church is a splendid monument to the zeal and religious spirit of the pioneers who erected the structure and the church itself has stood as a beacon light in the community.

The influence of the Leas family has always been for good and uplifting work in that part of the county. Mr. Leas has courageously supported and upheld the principles of the Republican party, and has been firmly convinced that the best laws our nation has ever had emanated from that source. He is a great admirer of Roosevelt and looks upon him as one of the strongest men America has produced.

the work of establishing a home and had been mother and adviser to her children. For twelve years before she died Mr. and Mrs. Leas had lived in the city of Urbana, where they kept up their associations with old friends from St. Joseph Township and also found many new friends in the city. When the name of Mr. and Mrs. Leas is mentioned in St. Joseph Township there are many who are eager to speak of the many deeds of kindness performed by them, and there still live in that section a number of families who were aided in their early struggles and eventually came to some considerable measure of success largely through help extended in time of need by Mr. and Mrs. Leas. Notably among these is the family of John Fiock, who enjoys relating his early experience in St. Joseph Township. Landing in St. Joseph with a wife and five children and a cash capital of 35 cents, a stranger to everybody, hunting for work, he was referred to Isaac Leas, who went his security for furniture and provisions and employed him for two years, at the end of which time he was able to purchase forty acres, making a payment of $60, the agent requiring him to sign an agreement that he was to forfeit the same if he could not pay $40 more within six months, said time to expire at 2 P. M. Being unable to raise the amount, he went to Isaac Leas at 11 A. M. of said day, telling him his troubles. Mr. Leas was busily engaged with farm hands building fence, but like the Good Samaritan of olden days, immediately stopped his work, had his team hitched up and drove with Mr. Fiock to Urbana in time to draw the money from the bank and secure the home to Mr. Fiock, who returned home with a glad heart to announce to his family their little home was safe. Some people strew their flowers to the memory of their friends after the weary heart and hands are stilled, but Isaac Leas has chosen to modestly and quietly strew his flowers along the pathway of a needful humanity, while the heart may be made to rejoice at their reception, the fragrance and beauty surviving as long as memory lasts. It is these worthy acts that causes one's memory to be enshrined within the hearts of the recipients of the same generous deeds.

Since the death of his good wife Mr. Leas has continued his home in Urbana, but usually spends his winters in Florida with friends and relatives. On some of his journeys his granddaughter Mayme Beverlin has been with him as traveling companion. Together they made a most enjoyable tour to the Pacific coast in 1915, visiting the exposition at San Francisco and also the fair at San Diego. They were impressed with the wonderful mountain scenery between Colorado Springs and Salt Lake City, went from Los Angeles to Catalina Island, where they viewed the wonders of the deep through the glass bottomed boat, also crossed the border to the quaint Mexican village of Tia Juana, and then returned by the southern route, first pausing at El Paso, Texas, and again crossing the border into Juarez. They also remained in New Orleans a few days and from there came back to Illinois. -

Mr. Isaac Leas has always been a stanch friend of the cause of temperance. Temperance has not been merely a theory with him but a practice from youth to old age. He has never used either tobacco or liquor, and his life and character in its essential attributes has been consistent with these moral principles. In the matter of commercial integrity there is no question that the word of Isaac Leas is as good as a gold bond. In his business relations he has always been careful, and an incident testifying to his discretion is related. An agent was recently trying to sell him a $3,000 automobile, saying to him, "You might as well buy it and enjoy it, you cannot take your money along with you into the next world." To which Mr. Leas replied, "I think I might take it along as well as I could an automobile."

REV. ANDREW SCOTT. The qualities of real manhood and the power of leadership were never in greater demand in church work than today. The clergy have always been men of education and of fine moral standing, and with these qualities the successful pastor must now combine the spiritual enthusiasm and some of the same enterprise and energy which are such vital assets in the business world. A better type of this modern minister Champaign County does not have than in the case of Rev. Mr. Scott, pastor of the Christian Church at Fisher. Mr. Scott is a man of letters, has had the benefit of extensive travel, is a fluent and logical speaker, and in the course of his active career has shown unusual capacity as an organizer, administrator and a real church builder.

Some of these qualities he undoubtedly inherited from the land of his birth. He is a Scotchman by nativity, and was born at Melrose in Roxborough. His birth occurred February 13, 1857. He was the third in a family of six children, three sons and three daughters. All these children are living and all in Canada except Mr. Scott. His parents were Adam and Agnes (Gilroy) Scott. His father, who was born in the same locality as the son, was a Scotch teacher, an occupation also followed by the grandfather of Rev. Mr. Scott. In 1863 he determined to bring his family to the broader and more generous opportunities of the New World. The intention was to locate in the United States, but the war then raging between the North and the South caused a change of plans and he took his family to Canada and located near London, Ontario. An uncle had previously established a home in that community. After three years Adam Scott moved to Huron County, Ontario, bought a farm and followed agriculture the rest of his days. His death occurred on the old homestead at the age of eighty-nine. His wife was also born in Scotland and had a common school education. She died in Canada at the age of fifty, and both are now at rest in Sunshine Cemetery at Sunshine, Ontario.

Andrew Scott was about seven years years of age when his parents came to Canada. He had attended school in Scotland, and afterward had the benefit of the splendid public school system of Canada. One of his teachers to whom he has always paid homage was John T. Wood, who had the unusual record of teaching in one school for twenty-eight years. About 1877 Mr. Scott came to the United States and entered that well known Ohio institution of learning, Hiram College, of which James A. Garfield was at one time president. Mr. Scott has always had a high admiration for the "towpath boy" President. For three years he pursued the literary course in Hiram, at the end of which time he received a call from the Ontario Mission Board to take charge of a mission at Portage la Prairie, then far out in the western wilds, beyond the terminus of all railroad lines, in what is now the province of Manitoba. This mission was one of the outposts of the Christian Church. Mr. Scott went into the far west in 1881, about the time President Garfield was assassinated. Portage la Prairie is now a flourishing city sixty miles west of Winnipeg. Mr. Scott had a frontier missionary experience two years. The mission was composed of seven members when he took charge, and he held his first religious service in a private house and afterward in a small public hall. In less than a year he had bought ground and had erected a church at a cost of $4,000. At the end of his two years' missionary work the membership had increased to seventy-five. Some of those first members of the missionary church are still connected with the flourishing congregation as officials and members, and now Portage la Prairie has a handsome church building costing $25,000.

County, Ontario, and assumed a regular pastorate, which he held four years. There he had a church of about 150 members, and it was a prosperous and contented congregation. While acting as regular pastor there he was also connected with evangelistic work in the province of Ontario. In 1887 Mr. Scott went to Niagara Falls, where he gave all his time to his pastoral duties for three years.

He next received a call from Sterling, Illinois, and was located there two years. In 1895 he took charge of the church in Saginaw, Michigan. In all communities where he had his work he proved a vitalizer of church effort and activity, and the results of his work were not far to seek. The congregation at Saginaw when he took charge was worshiping in a small and inadequate building, and while he was there he erected a fine edifice costing $12,000. On the first -church there was a mortgage, and he not only paid this off but gave the community an edifice of which they might be proud. For five years he remained at Saginaw, and besides his regular pastoral duties he spent every Sunday afternoon at a neighboring church. From Saginaw Eev. Mr. Scott was called to Butler, Bates County, Missouri, where he remained two years. He followed this with a pastorate at Pontiac, Illinois. He found there a mission, and was able to pay off another mortgage. About that time, his daughter desiring to enter the State Normal University, Mr. Scott took charge of a church there for two years. His following charge was at Danville, Illinois, where he again acted as a "mortgage burner," and gave the congregation new life and inspiration for larger work. During the last three years of his Danville pastorate he was district superintendent of the sixth district, and had active charge of the placing of ministers and the general upbuilding of church affairs throughout the district. Altogether he remained at Danville seven years, and this long pastorate is of itself a highly significant testimony to Mr. Scott's efficiency and ability.

From Danville he removed to Hoopeston, Illinois. He went there following an investigation which showed the affairs of the parish in such condition that his personal attention was required. The people at Hoopeston had been worshiping in a church edifice for sixteen years, and it was still burdened with a $6,000 mortgage. The resourcefulness of Mr. Scott in lifting mortgages did not fail in this crisis, and the second year he was there he paid off the mortgage and brought zeal and renewed courage to a thoroughly disheartened people.

In November, 1914, Mr. Scott assumed the pastorate of the Christian Church at Fisher, Illinois. The usual success has attended his efforts in this locality. Under his energetic leadership the people have imdertaken the building of a modern church edifice which will be dedicated in the fall of 1917. The church, with the grounds, when completed will represent a cost of about $20,000. Of this amount the sum of about $17,000 in cash or collateral has been raised by Mr. Scott. For many years Mr. Scott has been chairman of the committee on ministerial standing.

In 1882 he married Miss Sophia Stait. Three children, two sons and one daughter, were born to their marriage and all are living. Errettine was educated in public schools in the various localities where her father lived, and after graduating from the State Normal University of Illinois she taught seven years in the Danville schools. She was especially successful in primary work. Besides her literary education she has taken musical instruction. She is now the wife of Elmer Barnes, who is manager of the Bank of Cheneyville, Illinois. Paul A. Scott, the older son, is a merchant now living at Waterloo, Iowa, and at present connected with the May Tag Company of Newton, Iowa. He is a very energetic young man. He had a common school education and also attended the high school at Normal, Illinois. The maiden name of his wife was Sidney Smith, who was well educated and taught school at Danville, Illinois. They have two sons, Charles and John Andrew. Walter, the youngest of the children, is a talented musician, especially as a singer, with a voice of fine tone and compass, and has taken considerable part in evangelistic work. He is now an employe of the postoffice. He married Miss Lei a Myers, and they have a daughter, Virginia Errettine.

Mrs. Scott was born in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1863, and was well educated in Canada. Her father was a native of England and came to Canada when a young man, marrying in the Dominion. He was an agriculturist, and died in Canada at the age of ninety. Mrs. Scott's mother was also a native of England, and is now living at Montclare, a Chicago suburb, at the age of eighty-five.

Ever since their marriage Mrs. Scott has been thoroughly in sympathy with her husband's aims and work, and has done much to give him practical aid in his successful endeavors in addition to caring t for her home and looking after the training of her children. Eev. Mr. Scott has for a number of years been one of the leaders in the temperance movement. He is a very effective speaker, and is not only eloquent but has that poise and dignity which command the confidence of an audience. He has been heard on questions of public and current interest as well as on religious texts and has appeared in pulpits and lecture platforms in such cities as New York, Buffalo, Indianapolis and Cleveland. Eev. Mr. Scott has a thoroughly used and well read library of standard literature, comprising at least 500 volumes. He and his wife have a very comfortable home at Fisher, and a home that is a manifest of the culture and refinement of its inmates. In 1911 Mr. Scott and his daughter made a tour of about three months through his native land of Scotland, and also through England and France, and visited many of the places of historic interest. While abroad he preached in Edinburgh and London. For years he has been a regular contributor to the church papers. He now edits what is known as the Fisher Christian, which has a local distribution of about 200 copies and is a valuable medium for the dissemination of religious influences.

GEORGE W. HILL. As the nation grows older more and more honor is paid the men who offered their lives as sacrifice to the preservation of the Union in the dark days of the '60s. One of these veterans still living in Champaign County is George W. Hill, whose life since the war has been one of peaceful industry as a farmer and he is now enjoying a well earned retirement at his home in the village of St. Joseph.

He was born at Paola, Orange County, Indiana, February 22, 1840. It will be noted that his birth occurred on Washington's birthday and he was given the name of the father of his country. His parents, Erasmus and Huldah (Fawcett) Hill, were both natives of North Carolina and were early settlers in Indiana. George W. Hill received his education in a subscription school known as the Prospect School, kept in an old log schoolhouse. He grew up in Indiana, and was twenty-one years of age when the war broke out and he volunteered his services, enlisting in Company B of the Twenty-fourth Indiana Infantry. He enlisted at Orleans, Indiana, went South to St. Louis, up the river to Jefferson City, on to Sedalia, and from there to Springfield in the southern part of the state, returned to Sedalia and at St. Louis again took boat and went down the Mississippi to Cairo, Illinois, and from there proceeded up the Tennessee to Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, while Grant was waging his tremendous campaign around those outposts of the Confederacy. The record of his service introduces many of the most notable battles and landmarks of the Civil War. After the fall of Fort Donelson he went to Pittsburg Landing, then to Corinth, to Memphis, crossed the river and participated at Ball's Bluff, a campaign in which his regiment did a great deal of skirmishing, and was also in that victorious engagement for the Union arms at Grand Prairie, Arkansas. Another river journey took them to Helena, Arkansas, where Mr. Hill and his comrades were encamped when the news of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation was received. The next movement was down the Mississippi to the campaign around Vicksburg. He and his comrades marched around Vicksburg to Grand Gulf and fought at Port Gibson, later at Campian Hills in the rear of Vicksburg, and then followed the real siege of the Mississippi stronghold. He was also at Jackson and in the ten days of continuous fighting around Vicksburg. After the fall of that city his regiment was sent down by river transport to Baton Eouge, Louisiana, on to New Orleans, and participated in the Eed River expedition. On returning to Algiers, Louisiana, Mr. Hill re-enlisted for three years or the war. He spent thirty days' furlough at home and again started South to Evansville, Indiana, where he took boat for New Orlean and then crossed the Gulf to Pensacola, Florida. He was in the noted engagement at Fort Blakely, one of the posts guarding the city of Mobile, and did considerable duty until that last southern stronghold was vanquished. The troops then went up to Selma, Alabama, from there to New Orleans, and again crossed the Gulf to Galveston, Texas, where Mr. Hill was mustered out. Thus he gave four years of service of almost continuous fighting and marching during the war. Though in almost constant danger he sustained only two slight wounds, one in the hand and one in the ankle. His two brothers were killed in the war, Alonzo at the siege of Vicksburg and Eli at the battle of Lexington.

On April 13, 1879, on Easter Sunday, Mr. Hill married Miss Sarah E. Butts. She was born at Winchester, Indiana, in 1857, a daughter of Oscar and Catherine C. Butts. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Hill rented a farm at Homer in Champaign County and they continued the active life of farmers for many years.

Mr. and Mrs. Hill have one son, Oscar A. Hill. He is a young man of more than ordinary attainments and abilities. He graduated from the high school at St. Joseph, was given a diploma as a teacher, and spent several years in that work. His first school was the Beverlin School and later he taught the Wilson School and Zion School. For a number of years he was also in the employ of Charles Dale, editor of the St. Joseph Record. From an early age he has been interested in electricity and he helped install the electric light and telephone systems at St. Joseph. He afterwards went to Florida, where he did electrical work, and also edited a newspaper known as the Lake Wales News. He is now connected with an electrical company at Akron, Ohio. Among other talents he is a noted musician, and while living in Champaign County took instruction from Professor White of Champaign. He is known as a composer of several popular melodies, two of the latest being "The Blue and the Gray" and "Stand by the Stars and Stripes Forever." Another song which gained much popular favor is entitled, "Is This the Road to Heaven ?" Thus his life has been filled with interesting activities. He distinguished himself as a teacher, being an excellent disciplinarian as well as a thorough instructor. As a musician his services were much in demand as a choir leader. At the dedication of the fine Christian Church at St. Joseph he led the choir of sixty trained voices. In token of appreciation of his services in this way the church made him a present of a fine ring. While living in Florida he married Catherine Hickman.