Champaign County, Illinois - The whole text, 1918 (part 2 of 23)

Eight children were born to them, Lewis B., Herman, Ernest, Elsie, Orval, Grover, Goldie and Vesta. All were students in the district schools of Indiana. Herman Fultz married Anna Oliver, located at Salem, Indiana, and had seven children, named Gertrude, Audrey, Ina, Helen, Ruby, Everett and Fred. Lewis B. Fultz, who lives at Mount Pleasant, Michigan, married Viola Bennett, and their children are Chester, Glay, Wayne and Dale. Ernest Fultz, whose home is at Milford, Illinois, married Lottie Hilt, their five children being Claude, Howard, Glen, Carl and Derrel. Elsie married Elmer Bates, their home being in Michigan, and their three children are Marvel, Robert and Murriel. Orval is the wife of Louis Chaney, and they have a son, Victor. Grover married Roma Burkhardt, they live on a farm near Rantoul, and their four children are Clare, Dana, Dorothy and Erma. Goldie is the wife of Henry Sullivan, their home being on a farm near Rantoul, and their one child is Mildred. Vesta is the wife of Ed Gauntt, and they have a farm near Ludlow, Illinois.

Mr. and Mrs. Fultz strained every effort and made many sacrifices in order that their children might be well reared and well trained for the duties and responsibilities of life. Both Mr. and Mrs. Fultz are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Mr. Fultz served as church trustee for a number of years. He was a township supervisor in Indiana, and politically he formerly voted as a Democrat but latterly has been a strong and ardent Prohibitionist and foresees in the near future the bright day when America will be committed to temperance, not only locally but nationally.

Mr. Fultz's father donated land for the first Methodist Episcopal Church in his neighborhood in Washington County, Indiana. The passing years have witnessed three different churches built on the same plot of ground. In 1916 they dedicated a fine chapel. Perhaps the brightest memories of Joseph Fultz are the twelve years of service he gave to the church as local pastor. During that time he not only preached from the pulpit but visited the sick, comforted the dying, baptized the converts, attended funerals, solemnized marriages, and found a host of Christian deeds ready for performance. His good wife shared with him in all these labors, and many a home has blessed their presence. -

SAMUEL P. ATKINSON. Perhaps Champaign has no more sturdy and progressive citizen than is found in Samuel P. Atkinson, manager of the S. P. Atkinson Monument Company. He is a thorough American, with a backing of colonial ancestry and Revolutionary stock; and is a veteran of the great struggle which prior to 1914 the people of the United States has called the saddest page on the world's history. Mr. Atkinson is a vigorous and able business man, but he is much more, for he has the true welfare of his city at heart and is zealously working to advance movements that will be of the greatest permanent benefit to the whole community. His entire life has been a busy, useful and interesting one.

Samuel P. Atkinson was born in Central Ohio, November 26, 1844. His parents were Peabody and Marenda (Elliott) Atkinson, both of whom were descendants of Revolutionary heroes and natives of New Hampshire. The old Atkinson homestead situated ten miles from Concord, New Hampshire, was the cause of a pilgrimage made by Samuel P. Atkinson in 1916, and in the vicinity, with other kindred of generations gone, rest the ashes of his grandfather, Joseph C. Atkinson. To Peabody Atkinson and wife seven children were born, namely: Henry and Mary, both of whom are deceased; Joseph, who is living in Ohio; George, who is deceased; Samuel P.; and Annie and Nettie, both of whom are deceased. The father of the above family died from an accident in August, 1863, and the mother passed away in 1866.

Samuel P. Atkinson completed his junior year at Marietta College of Ohio, and entered the senior class at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, from which he graduated with high honors in June, 1866.

In 1864, when the need of soldiers was the greatest, he with his two brothers, leaving their widowed mother alone upon the farm, enlisted in the One Hundred and Thirty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, serving in the Army of the Potomac in Maryland and Virginia. When this regiment was mustered out more men were missing from its ranks in killed, wounded or prisoners of war than any regiment which left Licking County, Ohio, during the Civil War. Six soldiers in the Revolutionary War, three in the War of the Rebellion and six thus far in the present world's conflict is the quota from the Atkinson family for voluntary military service.

After completing his collegiate course Mr. Atkinson went to Attica, Indiana, where he remained one year engaged in teaching school. On April 20, 1868, he came to Champaign and soon became interested in farming, and for twelve succeeding years cultivated his fields in the summer months and taught school in the winter seasons. In the spring of 1880 he left the farm and engaged as salesman for J. W. Booker in the monument business at Champaign. In 1881 he became a partner in the business.' He continued until 1884, when he sold his partnership interest to Mr. Booker and embarked in business for himself, purchasing the monument business of Falls & Bagley. The S. P. Atkinson Monument Company is now located in the commodious building erected by Mr. Atkinson in 1904 at No. 106 South Neil Street. He has occupied other excellent locations, for the first four years at the corner of Taylor and Neil streets, where the Citizens' Bank is now located, after which he purchased the Flatiron Building, in which the Champaign Gazette is located, and which he still owns, but removed to his new site in 1904.

Mr. Atkinson has had a long and honorable career as a successful business man, and has been interested in many of the city's most stable enterprises. He has been a director in the Champaign Building and Loan Association, of which George W. Harwood is and has been the secretary, and attributes his success in a business way to this sure and safe way of acquiring a home and a competence.

On August 8, 1894, Mr. Atkinson was united in marriage with Miss Emma Schultz, who was born in Champaign, Illinois, and they have two sons. Donald is a graduate of Champaign High School and attended the University of Illinois two years. He enlisted in the Ambulance Corps of the Regular Army June 7, 1917, and is now in training at Allentown, Pennsylvania, preparatory to service in France. Joseph, the other son, is a member of the Champaign High School, class of 1919. The family belong to the Congregational Church. In politics Mr. Atkinson is a Progressive Republican, and believes in clean politics and a progressive city. He belongs to the Knights of Pythias, the Elks, the Grand Army of the Republic, and is a Blue Lodge, Chapter and Commandery Mason.

HERMAN SCHWANDERMAN has his farm home in section 17 of Harwood Township, with postoffice at the village of Ludlow. He has contributed to the development and farm improvement of that locality for a number of years and he represents that sterling and industrious stock of people that came out of Germany.

Rebecca Margaret (Behrens) Sehwanderman. The parents were both born in Germany, came to America in early life and married in this country. They had only two sons, twins, Herman and Henry, the latter died at the age of seven months.

On December 25, Christmas Day, 1902, Herman Sehwanderman married Ruth Mary Dodson of Monticello, Wayne County, Kentucky. She was the oldest of the thirteen children of James R. and Harriet (Simpson) Dodson. Among her family Mrs. Sehwanderman was always called "Mollie."

Mr. and Mrs. Sehwanderman married in Kentucky, and their wedding trip was the journey north to Champaign County, where Mr. and Mrs. Sehwanderman located in the home of his parents. They took charge of the farm of eighty acres and gave the tenderest care to Mr. and Mrs. Sehwanderman during the rest of their lives. This farm is the result of the accumulations and the hard work of Father and Mother Sehwanderman after they came to America. The elder Sehwanderman, who was born at Strassburg, Germany, died July 17, 1910, at the age of seventy-two, while his widow passed away . December 12, 1911. They were people of splendid character, industrious, good home makers, supporters of church and morality, and endeared themselves to their community in Champaign County by numerous acts of kindliness and neighborliness.

Mr. and Mrs. Herman Sehwanderman have five children : George Leopold, James Clarence, Oliver Herman, Eliza Ray and Leland Glenn. They are a happy family of five boys, the oldest being thirteen years and now in the seventh grade of the public schools. Mr. and Mrs. Sehwanderman are taking great pains to give them the best of advantages and the older ones are in the Griswold school.

Mr. Schwanderman's ability as a farmer needs no comment. His well kept fields and his sleek stock show the care and enterprise of the thrifty agriculturist. In politics he is independent, voting for the best man. He was reared and has always retained his membership with the German Lutheran Church at Dewey, while Mrs. Sehwanderman is a Baptist, the faith in which she was reared. Mr. Sehwanderman believes in keeping up good schools and in giving the best of instruction to his children and is now filling a place on the local school board.

WILLIAM B. KEUSINK is one of the younger business men of Champaign, has been a resident of the city most of his life, and since 1910 has conducted a very successful drug business.

He was born at Bloomington, Illinois, September 20, 1879, a son of William and Elizabeth (Lynch) Keusink. His father was a native of Schenectady, New York, and his mother of Utica, New York. William Keusink for a number of years conducted a laundry business in Champaign County, but is now living retired. He and his wife had two children, William B. and Wilhelmina, the latter the wife of H: C. Johnson, of Champaign.

His early education William B. Keusink obtained in the grammar and high schools of Champaign. After some preliminary experience he definitely determined on a vocation as a pharmacist and entered the University of Illinois Pharmacy School in Chicago, where he was graduated in 1904. Returning to his home city he became a pharmacist with a local drug house until 1910, and at that date went into business for himself at the corner of West University Avenue and South Neil Street. He has a fine store, well equipped, and has always emphasized and sought in every way to improve the service of the pharmacy department.

Elks Lodge and the Country Club, and is a member of the Episcopal Church. He married November 21, 1910, Miss Hazel M. Elliott, who was born at Arcola, Illinois. They have one child, Virginia Morse.

ALEXANDER CRAIGMILE. Of the men whose ability, industry and forethought have added to the character, wealth and progress of Champaign County none deserves better mention than Alexander Craigmile, a veteran of the Union army, long and successfully identified with agriculture, and now with his good wife living retired in a comfortable home at Eantoul.

His public spirited citizenship has stood every test of time and service. Forty years he has known Compromise Township, and during that time has again and again been chosen to fill places of trust and responsibility. He was elected to serve as assessor, collector, supervisor and road commissioner, and is now on his second term as justice of the peace at Rantoul, having been re-elected in April, 1917. He gave the best of his ability to the various offices, and his work in civil office has been characterized by the same fidelity which he displayed when following the flag of the Union during the Civil War. Mr. Craigmile is now commander of Seaver Post No. 253 of the Grand Army of the Republic at Rantoul.

He is of Scotch nativity and ancestry, and was born near Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1843. When a child he immigrated with his parents to Upper Canada, and in 1852 the family came to Illinois. When Alexander Craigmile was twenty-one years of age he enlisted at Chicago in Company D of the One Hundred and Fifty-sixth Illinois Infantry, and marched away to the sound of the fife and drum to protect his country's flag. He saw active service for upwards of a year and was finally mustered out at Springfield, Illinois, in October, 1865. Some idea of the service rendered is noted in quoting the contents of the Christmas card which Mr. Craigmile received in 1916 from Comrade C. C. Dudley of Minneapolis. This card reads: "To the playmates of my boyhood days, who knew no care or responsibility, and whose only burden was the long hours in the class rooms in Naperville Academy and who later put our names to the enlistment roll of Company D, One Hundred and Fifty-sixth Illinois Infantry, and saw Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Dalton and Memphis, and then every man went his way to the sterner duties of life. To my old associates in business and friends in church and college and old comrades of Phil Kearney Post No. 7, who walked with me side by side, sharing one another's joys and sorrows. To my new friends of later days in Minneapolis, whose kind hospitality has made our stay so full of gladness and cheer ; I wish you all a joyous Christmas and a glad New Year. To the friends of a lifetime I count friendship one of the chiefest enjoyments of my life, a comfort in time of doubt and trouble, a joy in time of prosperity and success."

Mr. Craigmile is a son of Alexander and Jean (Mitchell) Craigmile. He received his early education in Ontario, Canada, in DuPage County, Illinois, and finished his work in Naperville Academy. After the war he came to central Illinois, and in 1868 made his first purchase of land near where the present town of Gifford stands, but before a railroad was built through that section.

Mr. Craigmile laid the foundation of his own home by his marriage to Miss Agnes Calder. She was born in Canada, a daughter of William and Mary Ann (Hempey) Calder. Her father was born in Scotland and her mother in Bristol, England. William Calder was a brave soldier of the British Empire and was in the armies of her majesty fourteen years.

After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Craigmile started life on a farm of 254 acres at Gifford. There the young Scotch couple demonstrated the possession of those sterling characteristics so familiar to the people of the land of the hills and heather. Though they started on the bare prairie, they gradually surrounded themselves with comforts and improvements, and have long since accumulated a fine estate. For his first land in Champaign County Mr. Craigmile paid only $11 an acre, and any of his possessions now are worth many times that sum. He has been both a farmer and stock raiser.

The children born into their happy home are named A. H., Erva J., Mary, Archibald, Eunice and Charles. The training and education of these children have been always close to the hearts of Mr. and Mrs. Craigmile. The first school they attended was near Gifford, and the parents encouraged the boys and girls to make the best of their time and opportunities, and subsequently gave them the advantages of the great University of Illinois at Urbana. Mary and Charles both graduated from that institution with honors, and Mary became a popular teacher in Champaign County in the district schools at Penfield and the Eantoul High School. Charles Craigmile specialized in civil engineering and is now employed by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway, with headquarters at Lincoln, Nebraska. He is a progressive American boy and makes friends wherever he goes. A. H. Craigmile was a successful teacher for ten years and for two years was principal of the Gifford schools. He also taught in Alberta, Canada. The children fitted themselves for useful occupations in which they might exercise the best talents of their characters. Many pupils have received instruction from the Craigmile children, and as teachers their record is enviable and worthy. The oldest child, A. H. Craigmile married Miss Clara Williams of Rantoul, and they now reside at Dauphin in Manitoba, Canada. Their two children are named Mary W. and Robert Alexander. Erva J. Craigmile is the wife of W. S. Smith, and they live at Armstrong, Illinois. Their two children are named Emile Jean and Charles Craigmile. Eunice Craigmile married J. F. Clark, a Rantoul attorney, and is the mother of two daughters, Elizabeth and Janis.

For the past ten years Mr. and Mrs. Craigmile have had their home in Rantoul. Both attend the Methodist Episcopal Church, and fraternally Mr. Craigmile has affiliations with the Grand Army of the Republic, and Mrs. Craigmile belongs to the Woman's Relief Corps. Their comfortable home is on Belle Avenue, and here they dwell in peace and may look with pardonable pride over the backward stretch of years from the time they married and started to make a home until now their children are grown and they have grandchildren.

GENERAL SAMUEL T. BUSET. A soldier, banker, a patriot and publicspirited citizen, the late General Samuel T. Busey was without question one of the ablest factors in the history of Champaign County and was widely known and his leadership gratefully acknowledged throughout Illinois.

Xecessarily the name Busey is one that frequently recurs throughout the pages of Champaign County history. The family was founded here by Matthew W. Busey, father of General Busey. Matthew W. Busey was born in Shelby County, Kentucky, May 15, 1798, a son of Samuel and Catherine (Siegler) Busey. When he was a small boy they removed to Washington County, Indiana, where he learned the brick mason's trade. From 1823 until 1847 he followed the business of contractor and builder.

It was in 1832, eighty-five years ago, that Matthew W. Busey first visited -the region of eastern Illinois, including Champaign County. This was then a part of Vermilion County. During this visit he entered land from the Government on the site of what is now a part of the city of Urbana. In 1836 Matthew Busey brought h s family to Champaign County and lived there from that time until his death on December 13, 1852. He married in Washington County, Indiana, Miss Elizabeth Bush, who was born in Shelby County, Kentucky, March 6, 1801, and died in Champaign County in 1880.

General Samuel T. Busey, the sixth child of his parents, was born at Greencastle, Indiana, in 1835. He was only an infant when the family removed to Champaign County and he grew up in almost a frontier community and had the advantages of such schools as were maintained here seventy or eighty years ago. His early experiences were those of his father's farm, but in 1856, when a little past twenty years of age, he entered merchandising. That was his active work until 1862, when he sold his business and prepared to assume the responsibilities of a patriot and defender of the flag.

Obtaining a commission from the war governor, Richard Yates, he recruited a company and with it went into camp at Kankakee August 6, 1862. When the company organized he was elected captain. On the organization of the regiment he was elected colonel. His company was Company B, Seventy-sixth Illinois Infantry. On the 22d of August, 1862, the regiment started south for Columbus, Kentucky, which was then the base of supplies for Grant's army operating about Corinth. He afterwards joined the field forces at Bolivar, Tennessee, and subsequently was with Grant at Coffeeville, Mississippi. In 1863 Colonel Busey led his regiment to join Grant's army in the rear of Vicksburg. His regiment was closer to a rebel fort than any other regiment on the entire fourteen miles, they occupying the extreme left of the command. They arrived at Chickasaw Bayou the night Grant drove the Confederates into the Vicksburg stronghold. After that city surrendered Colonel Busey was the first Union officer to enter. His able services again and again attracted the attention of his superiors, but he refused promotion to the rank of brigadier-general in order that he might not be separated from his comrades in the old regiment. Subsequently he was offered command of the post at Natchez, Mississippi, but he declined this for the same reason. On January 1, 1865, leaving Memphis with his regiment, he was the first to report to General Canby at New Orleans, went from there to Pensacola, Florida, later to Pollard, Alabama, and then moved down to Fort Blakeley, the last stronghold in the rear of Mobile. This fort was carried by assault on the 9th of April, after a ten days' siege. Colonel Busey's regiment was the first to enter the works and it suffered greater loss than all the rest of the command. Colonel Busey was the second man to surmount the works, and his companion was killed and he himself wounded. He recuperated from his wound in the hospital at New Orleans, and it was June before he was able to rejoin his command. He went to Texas and was mustered out for discharge at Galveston and was given his honorable discharge at Chicago, August 6, 1865. Subsequently, on the recommendation of Generals Andrews, Steel and Grant, for his gallantry in leading his regiment in the assault on Fort Blakely, he was commissioned brevet brigadier-general, and by active and meritorious service perhaps not one of Illinois' brigadiergenerals more completely deserved this honor.

The war over, General Busey resumed civil life in the role of a farmer in Champaign County. In 1867, in company with his brother, Hon. Simeon H. Busey, he organized what is today known as Busey's State Bank at Urbana. General Busey afterwards bought his brother's interest and associated with him his nephew, Matthew W. Busey, in the management and direction of the bank's affairs.

General Busey finally retired from active business affairs and lived quietly at his home in Urbana until his death on August 12, 1909. Politically he was a Democrat, one of the best qualified leaders of his party in

Mrs. Mary E. Busey, widow of the late General Busey, has long been identified with the life and affairs of her home county, and through her repeated elections to the post of trustee of the University of Illinois is one of the most widely known women of the State. Her maiden name was Mary Elizabeth Bowen. She was born in Delphi, Indiana, June 21, 1854, a daughter of Abner and Catherine J. (Trawin) Bowen. Her father was born in Dayton, Ohio, and her mother in Calcutta, India. Mrs. Busey's paternal grandparents were Enoch and Elizabeth (Wilson) Bowen, both natives of Pennsylvania. Her great-grandfather, David Bowen, was born in Pennsylvania. Her maternal grandparents were John and Mary (Webber) Trawin, and they and her great-grandmother, Sarah (Brett) Webber, were all natives of England.

Mrs. Busey was educated in Vassar College, and on December 25, 1877, at her parents' home in Delphi, Indiana, she married General Busey. For forty years she has been a resident of Champaign County, and not only shared with her husband the many social distinctions paid them, but is active also in the responsibilities of home and the community. She is an active member of the Presbyterian Church and has served on the board of trustees for more than twenty-three years. For several successive terms she has also filled the post of trustee of the University of Illinois, having been re-elected in 1916. She is identified with the patriotic order, the Dames of the Loyal Legion and the Woman's Eelief Corps.

General and Mrs. Busey had three children. Marietta was married April 7, 1909, to Guy A. Tawney, who is head of the Department of Philosophy in the University of Cincinnati, Ohio. Professor and Mrs. Tawney have two children, George Busey, born July 7, 1912, and Elizabeth, born February 4, 1916. The daughter Bertha lives at home with her mother in Urbana. Charles Bowen was married June 6, 1911, to Louise Carter of Dallas, Texas, and they now reside at Urbana. They have one child, Charles Bowen, Jr., born November 15, 1915.

MATTHEW WALES BUSEY. Of the native sons of Champaign County who have been factors in the development of the county's resources, one of the most prominently known is Matthew WTales Busey, president of Busey's State Bank at Urbana. As one of the leading bankers of his section he has contributed to the advancement of the agricultural interests of Champaign County, and in his capacity of private citizen has ever been found ready to lend encouragement and support to the movements which have made for progress in his fertile and enterprising part of the State.

Matthew Wales Busey was born at Urbana, Champaign County, Illinois. December 7, 1854, being a son of Simeon Harrison and Artimesia (Jones) Busey. His paternal grandfather was Matthew W. Busey, who was born in Shelby County, Kentucky, May 15, 1798, a son of Samuel and Catherine (Siegler) Busey\ The family removed to Washington County, Indiana, when Matthew W. Busey, the elder, was still a youth, and there he learned the trade of brick mason, later becoming a contractor and builder, a business which he followed with success from 1823 to 1847. In 1832 he visited the region of Champaign County, which was then a part of Vermilion County, and entered land from the United States Government on the site of what is now a part of the city of Urbana. In 1836 he removed with his family to Champaign County, and continued to make this section his home during the remainder of his life, his death occurring here December 13, 1852. Mr. Busey had married Miss Elizabeth Bush while residing in Washington County, Indiana, in 1821. She was born in Shelby County,

Kentucky, March 6, 1801, and died in 1880. She was the mother of eight children, Simeon H., John Simpson, Samuel Thompson, Mathew D., Mary C. Kirkpatrick, Sarah A. Sim, Elizabeth F. McClain and Louisa J. Romine, all of whom survived their parents.

Simeon Harrison Busey was born October 24, 1824, at Greencastle, Indiana, and was twelve years of age when brought to Champaign County, Illinois, where, as his father had at that time taken up farming and stockraising, the youth was reared in an agricultural atmosphere. He also had influences that were an incentive to the highest degree of effort to realize his individual capacity. His father was an active member of the Baptist Church and had served as a colonel in both the Illinois and Indiana State Militia, was for two terms a member of the State Legislature and had also acted as judge of the County Court. Simeon H. Busey, as he grew older, adopted farming and stock-raising, and eventually acquired extensive holdings in the rich farm lands of this section and did his work on a large scale. The competence he thus acquired led him into the financial and industrial development of a new country and he assisted in the organization of the First National Bank of Champaign. Soon afterward, however, he disposed of his interest in that institution and in 1868, with his brother, Colonel Samuel T. Busey, organized Busey's Bank at Urbana, with which he was connected until a short time prior to his death, which occurred at Urbana, June 3, 1901. He was a born financier, and upon entering the banking business soon became known as such, and his judgment was much sought and relied upon in business matters.

On September 22, 1848, at Greencastle, Indiana, Simeon H. Busey married Miss Artimesia Jones, and brought his young bride to the Illinois home which he had prepared for her and where the young people soon became important factors in the social and intellectual life of the community. Artimesia Jones was born at Greencastle, Indiana, October 26, 1826, was reared in that State, and after a residence at Urbana of nearly sixty-six years she passed away July 18, 1914. Her father, John Wesley Jones, was born in England, November 16, 1794, and married Alice Allen, who was born October 20, 1798. They were married in Indiana.

Nine children were born to Simeon H. Busey and wife : John Wheeler Busey ; Matthew W. ; George W. Busey, who is president of the First State Bank of Fisher, Illinois; James B. Busey, a farmer and a banker at Mahomet; Alice J. Freeman, wife of Gus T. Freeman of Urbana; Ann Augusta Morgan, a resident of Urbana, Illinois; Elizabeth Frances Riley, wife of Ozias Riley of Champaign; Lucy Ann, who died in infancy; and William H. Busey, who died aged forty years.

Simeon H. Busey was a member of the First Baptist Church of Urbana, was a charter member of the local Masonic Lodge, and in politics a Democrat. He served as a member of the State Legislature and besides his local banking connections was one of the organizers and a director of the Bankers National Bank of Chicago up to the time of his death. He was one of the active workers in securing the location of the University of Illinois at Urbana, as well as in securing the location of the railroad running from Peoria to Indianapolis, now part of the Big Four System.

Matthew W. Busey was well educated for his work in life, both theoretically and practically. He attended the Urbana schools and in 1875, at the age of twenty-one, became bookkeeper in the bank of Busey Brothers. In November, 1879, he bought his father's interests, and in 1888 became president of Busey's Bank, a position he has held until the present date, almost thirty years. He is also president of the Ogden Bank of Ogden, Illinois, the Exchange Bank of St. Joseph, Illinois, and the Commercial Bank of Champaign. Mr. Busey has in many ways used his position and influence as a banker to promote agricultural prosperity and the solution of the many problems connected with the betterment of country life in America. He has acquired extensive interests in Champaign County farms and also owns a large amount of land in Mississippi and other sections of this State. In 1905 Mr. Busey was appointed treasurer of the University of Illinois. He has also been a member of the executive committee of the Illinois Bankers' Association.

On November 15, 1877, at Tolono, Illinois, he married Miss Katherine W. Richards. She was born at Warm Springs, Virginia, October 20, 1857, and was educated at the State Normal University at Normal, Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Busey have two children. Paul Graham Busey, the son, was born at Urbana October 5, 1880, was educated in the public schools, the University of Illinois, the Art Institute at Chicago, and is now vicepresident of Busey's State Bank, with his home at Urbana. He married Miss Clara Blanche Black, of Urbana, and they have one child, Patricia Blanche. Virginia Busey, the daughter was born at Urbana, November 4, 1883, and was also liberally educated, attending the Urbana public schools, the University of Illinois, the National Park Seminary at Washington, D. C., and Smith College. She is now the wife of Dr. James F. Churchill, of Chicago, and they reside at San Diego, California. They have one son, Robert Busey.

Mr. Matthew W. Busey is a Democrat in his political affiliations, but his business interests have been so extensive that he has not found time to enter actively into politics. He is well known in fraternal circles, being a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of the Knight Templar body and Medinah Temple, A. A. 0. N. M. S. of Chicago, Illinois. He is also a member of Urbana Lodge, B. P. 0. E. When a young man he served his time in- the National Guard.

BERT RAYBURN. Champaign County with its high-priced lands is distinctively the field for the highly efficient farm manager. That is the work and position of Mr. Bert Rayburn. By long experience he has proved his capability in handling the soil and resources of Champaign County in a manner productive both to himself and the owners of the land. Mr. Rayburn has acquired a considerable stake as a land holder himself, but his chief experience has been as a renter and farm manager.

A native of Champaign County, he was born in Mahomet Township, September 24, 1872, a son of Lee and Dora (Christian) Rayburn, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Kentucky. The Rayburns were pioneers in Champaign County, where Grandfather John Rayburn located about 1856. He was a farmer, and farming has been the regular occupation of the family through three generations. Mr. Lee Rayburn spent many years in that vocation and is now living retired at Champaign. He was at one time road commissioner of Scott Township. He and his wife had thirteen children : Estella, living at Champaign, widow of William Herriott ; Bert ; Leonard, a farmer in Mahomet Township ; Joseph, Pearl and Nellie, all deceased; Myrtle, at home; Ethel, wife of Charles Keller of Urbana; Mabel, wife of Thomas Barker, a farmer in Scott Township ; Cecil, a Scott Township farmer; J. W. of Scott Township; Lee and Elsie, still at home.

Mr. Bert Rayburn had a thorough training as a farmer during the first twenty-one years of his life, which he spent at home. In the meantime he acquired a substantial education in the local schools. At the age of twentyone he continued working a year for his father and then rented ninety acres in Scott Township, which he managed two years. He then went to a larger farm, consisting of 265 acres, and had that place under his control for five years. His next experience was in the implement business at Bondville for a year, and removing to Mattoon, Illinois, he farmed a 240-acre place two years and for one year was in Iroquois County, farming 200 acres.

In 1909 Mr. Eayburn took the active management of the large Burnham estate in section 2 of Champaign Township. This has long been one of the noted farms of Champaign County, and for eight years Mr. Eayburn has rotated the crops on this 270 acres and has handled it both as a general farming and stock-raising proposition. Altogether he has 367 acres under his direction, including ninety-seven acres of his own located in Hensley Township. Mr. Eayburn pays successful attention to all the varied departments of farming, and if there is any one specialty it is his dairy of fine thoroughbred Holstein cows. Politically he is a Republican and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

On February 20, 1895, Mr. Eayburn married Eva E. Shaffer, who was born at Ludlow, Illinois. They are the parents of six children : Fern, who was born March 23, 1896, and died in November, 1899; Glenn and Gladys, twins, born August 10, 1897; Harold, born in 1899 and died in 1901; Vernon, born in November, 1903; and Feryl, born May 3, 1910.

WILLIAM D. BURTON is a Champaign County pioneer, was a farmer during his more active years, and since moving to Champaign has done much for the betterment and improvement of that city.

Mr. Burton was born near Cincinnati, Ohio, January 28, 1830, a son of Elijah and Deliah (Dimmitt) Burton, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Virginia. His father was a farmer and both he and his wife died in Knox County, Illinois. There were nine children : Malinda J., who died in California ; Harvey, deceased ; William D. ; Henry, of Grant's Pass, Oregon; Sarah, John and George, all deceased; Oliver, who lives in Iowa ; and Hiram, of Colorado.

William D. Burton was reared in Ohio, and first passed through Champaign County when on his way to Iowa. The following year, 1858, he returned to Knox County and later to eastern Illinois and located on a farm four miles north of Mahomet in Champaign County. He still owns a hundred acres of the land which he developed and cultivated in that section. In 1892 he came to Champaign, was real estate agent for some years, and invested in local property, including his own home and other parcels of real estate. Mr. Burton was the man who set out all the trees in the East Side Park addition.

On March 20, 1856, he married Mary Abbott Wright, who was born in Licking County, Ohio, October 16, 1829, and died at her home in Champaign February 15, 1917. Mr. Burton has two children: Eliza is the wife of Dr. J. I. Groves, of Champaign; Dora is the wife of F. J. Foote, of Columbus, Ohio. Mr. Burton is a Republican, has been affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows since he was twenty-one years of age, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

THOMAS J. COLVIN. One of the substantial commercial enterprises of Urbana, with forty years of successful and reliable business history back of it, is the meat market conducted by Thomas J. Colvin. When Mr. Colvin entered upon his career in this venture, he had little to back him save the experience he had gained as his father's assistant, his ambition, determination and industry, but out of these he has developed a paying and prosperous business, which has become so well known at Urbana as to be accounted a necessary commercial asset. The proprietor, with a supreme faith in the future of the city, has invested heavily in real estate holding here, so that he is one of the substantial property owners of the place. Both in his own interests and those of the city, he has always staunchly supported measures making for local improvement and civic betterment.

Thomas J. Colvin was born February 14, 1858, in Scott County, Indiana, and is a son of John and Catherine (Goben) Colvin. His father, a native of County Down, Ireland, came to the United States in young manhood and engaged in working at the cabinet-maker's trade in Scott County, Indiana, where he met and married Catherine Goben. She died there in 1860, and in 1867 Mr. Colvin brought his family to Champaign County, Illinois, and settled on a farm in the vicinity of Tolono. He became one of the leading citizens of his community, won an honorable standing in business life, and finally became interested in public affairs and was well known as one of the staunch workers in the ranks of the Democratic party. Under both of President Cleveland's administrations he served Tolono as postmaster, and eventually was chosen mayor, in which office he was serving at the time of his tragic death. On the day of his demise a fire had broken out, and Mayor Colvin, hastening to the scene of the conflagration, was struck and instantly killed by an Illinois Central train, the approach of which he had failed to note because of an umbrella which he was carrying. His death was considered a great loss to the community, in the interests of which he had labored so faithfully. There were five children in the family of John and Catherine Colvin, namely: Martha, of Los Angeles, California, the widow of Ebenezer Gordon; Mary Jane, who is the wife of B. B. Salberry, of San Francisco, California; John M., a resident of Spokane, Washington; Thomas J., of this notice; and Edward, who enlisted in the army when a mere youth, and of whom the family has completely lost track.

Thomas J. Colvin was educated in the public schools of Tolono, and as a youth assisted his father in conducting a meat market at that place. When he had $100 saved, at the age of nineteen years, he embarked upon an independent venture, which, starting in a necessarily small way, rapidly developed into a substantial house. In 1882 he bought the business establishment which he now conducts, and which is accounted one of the leading markets of the city, it having been built up through a policy of honorable conduct, honest representation and straightforward methods of doing business. In investing his profits Mr. Colvin has been loyal to his home city, and now has numerous holdings in a realty way, business and residential. His standing in business circles is of the best, and as a citizen he has contributed freely of time, ability and means in furthering worthy projects. Mr. Colvin is a Democrat, but not a politician.

In December, 1882, Mr. Colvin was united in marriage at Urbana to Miss Sadie Marks, who was born in Champaign County, and to this union there have been born three children : John T., who is associated with his father in the market business, one of the enterprising young business men of Urbana; Don Otto, who is now residing in Arizona; and Ernest M., whose place of residence is Middletown, Ohio.

ISAAC E. HESS. Successful merchandising is a business that is necessary in a community that desires to expand and progress, but all merchandising is not, by any means, successful. When poor stocks are offered to the public and indifferent salesmen reluctantly show the wares, the business is not very likely to interest any one very long, but, on the other hand, the first class store, filled with dependable, up-to-date goods which are brought to the attention of customers by courteous employes and sold at honest prices, is a very helpful factor in building up the name and promoting the prosperity of a town, village or a city. In order, however, to be a successful merchant, a man must have many of the qualities that make for success along any line, and foresight, shrewdness, knowledge of details, good judgment and integrity are some of these. Occasionally the real mercantile spirit descends in a family from father to son and a case in point may be mentioned in referring to Philo, that bustling little city in Champaign County, where the name of Hess has been thoroughly identified with the mercantile business for the past forty-two years.

Isaac E. Hess, who is the leading general merchant at Philo, Illinois, was born at Parkville, in Sadorus Township, Champaign County, Illinois, September 3, 1871. His parents were George W. and Brzilla Jane (Bedson) Hess, the former of whom was born in Ohio and the latter in Kentucky. In his earlier years George W. Hess was a farmer. Pie came to Champaign County and located in Sadorus Township in 1858 and engaged there in agricultural pursuits until 1875, when he moved to Philo and established himself in the general mercantile business there, but his career as a merchant was short, as his death took place August 25, 1876. His widow survived him many years, the date of her death being May 4, 1915. They were the parents of the following children : Ella W., who is the wife of Martin Ellars, Ironton, Ohio; William S. Hess, merchant at Homer, Illinois; Samuel, who is general passenger agent for the Wabash Eailroad at Decatur; Fred C., who conducts a drug store at Villa Grove; George D., a resident of Champaign; and Isaac E.

Isaac E. Hess attended the public schools and was graduated from the Champaign High School in the class of 1887. In the meanwhile his older brothers had carried on the mercantile business established by the father at Philo, and he became a clerk in the store and soon began to cherish the .imbition to make the business his own, which ambition he was able to gratify in 1898 when he bought the entire interests of his two brothers and then took charge. Mr. Hess has a fine modern store, with a carefully assorted stock and does a substantial business, his patronage not being confined to the town but coming from a large outlying territory. In thus being able to keep the people's money in circulation at home, Mr. Hess has assisted the community, for it is distributed in other lines of trade together with his own and the benefit has been mutual and general.

As a successful merchant Mr. Hess fills a place of usefulness and no. small distinction in Champaign County, but it is for other reasons that he is widely known over the state and has a growing list of admirers in many sections of the country. If Champaign County should ever create a Hall of Fame there would certainly be a niche somewhere for Isaac E. Hess. He would deserve that place, not because he has been a successful business man, but because of his quiet and sustained interest and study for many years of Illinois bird life. Curiously enough, Mr. Hess' services as an ornithologist is known and appreciated by more people outside Champaign County than within it, though this is due merely to the fact that a very restricted number of people in any one given locality are real nature lovers and students. In recent years at different times articles on Mr. Hess' work have appeared in many newspapers, including the St. Louis Post- Dispatch, the Chicago Record-Herald, and various down-state journals. It would not be possible in this article to quote even a few of the many appreciations that have been written concerning his practical work as an ornithologist or his character as a bird poet and philosopher. In April, 1913, the Decatur Herald said editorially: "Xo naturalist that we know anything about makes his subjects of more gripping interest to the reader or clothes it in a finer philosophy than Isaac Hess of Philo. The Herald considers itself fortunate in being able to present to its readers Mr. Hess' series of bird articles. Mr. Hess could not be drily and formally scientific if he tried. He would make an ornithological catalogue fascinating and put humor into an appendix of a work on pterodactyls. It is the happy mission of Mr. Hess to open the mental eyes of his fellow men to the things they have seen, but do not notice; a talk with him - and a walk through timber, along a river bottom, or a ride along a country road has a new significance."

Some months before this editorial appeared the Decatur Herald published a full page article, illustrated, under the title, "Philo's Bird Lover, Philosopher, a remarkable combination of business man and interpreter of nature, student and champion of his feathered friends, to whom it is good to listen." It is only doing justice where justice is due to quote some of the paragraphs from this very interesting special correspondent.

"Perhaps it was because of Philo's trees affording so many opportunities for songsters' nests that Isaac Hess became an ornithologist. Every country boy, he believes, is more or less an unconscious naturalist up to a certain age. He is interested in the wild life about him, learns to know the names of the birds, something of their haunts and habits, and then distractions come in; further development is arrested. Mr. Hess started in as other boys have done, only in his case there was no break in his study of birds through the crowding in of other interests. Though a busy man, he has continued to be a student in his favorite subject and has become a we)l recognized authority on the birds of central Illinois, a writer of note on ornithological subjects, and the author of papers and pamphlets, one of which is used as the basis of a course in the University of Illinois.

"Sound him on almost any phase of his favorite subject, and Mr. Hess invariably will respond : 'I have a pamphlet on that,' or 'I am now preparing a paper on that very thing.' One is brought to a realization of his capacity for hard work by records of the Illinois Academy of Science, articles in the Bird Magazine and other popular and scientific journals to which he contributes, and in the almost countless letters and articles in newspapers by which he has sought to disseminate the information that he has acquired and make it of use to those about him.

"Mr. Hess' single greatest achievement was the gathering of data on 104 different species of birds found in a ten-mile radius from his home, which data was published in 1910 and remains the most complete and authoritative work of its kind in central Illinois. Not only did Mr. Hess make his way through swamps, over hedges and along the rough course of Salt Fork Creek and the Embarrass Eiver, often creeping on hands and knees and lying for hours at a time scarcely daring to breathe lest the knowledge of his presence should disturb some little feathered home builder, but he collected the eggs of ninety-four different species, which collection occupying cases in the rear of his store, is one which bird lovers come far to see.

"Take into consideration the fact that for years Mr. Hess kept an earliest nesting record of the birds that visited this radius, and one has an idea of the size of the task. Mr. Hess also has a most complete collection of mounted birds, although most of his hunting is done with glass and camera rather than with gun, and he much prefers birds living to birds dead.

"Xo matter how well a genius may write he seldom writes as well as he talks. You would be interested in Mr. Hess' work on Breeding Birds or his paper on the Passing of Our Game Birds, but you will be a good deal more interested to sit down with him for an hour and hear him discuss birds, for it is then that you get Mr. Hess' philosophy as well as absorbingly interesting information which he has picked up first hand. You may not be a bird lover, but the probabilities are that after one of these talks with Mr. Hess your eyes will be opened to things that you never have seen before and your thought directed into new channels.

"For one thing Mr. Hess is teaching the farmers in Champaign County what birds are their friends and are deserving of their protection for the good they do in devouring weed seeds and insects. He has taught them, for instance, that the Red-Tailed Hawk that voloplanes so gracefully on strong pinions high in air has no designs on the henhouse, but is looking for the field mice which his wonderful eye discloses to him in the grass 100 yards below him. The true name of this hawk, Mr. Hess says, should be the Farmers' Friend, and he is a wholly different bird from the smaller low-flying thief that darts over the fence, seizes a chicken, and is off with it before a gun can be sighted.

"Many of his acquaintances fail to understand the work he is doing and cannot understand his willingness to put in days of ' hard labor to secure a new specimen or discover some new traits in his friends, the birds. But in this respect perhaps he does not suffer so much from lack of appreciation as other geniuses of different bent, for there is in every human a love of nature, but even if they did not care to follow Mr. Hess into realms of ornithological bliss they would still listen to him so entertainingly does he talk on birds - or any other topic.

"Broad, fair-minded, and seeking always to find- the best, rather than the other in his fellow men, Mr. Hess has inoculated most of his followers to some extent with his spirit and no matter how delicate the subject, nor how widely different may be the views on any question at his store clearing house of public opinion, there is always that spirit of good fellowship and respect for feelings in the discussion.

"One might gather the impression from this sketch that the subject of it may be a genius but not a business man. Perhaps the reader has visions of a topsy-turvy stock in an untidy, neglected store, but the opposite is true. Nowhere will be found a more tidy and up-to-date dry goods store and some of the commercial journals to which Mr. Hess has contributed his ideas on stockkeeping and bookkeeping have paid him the highest compliments, venturing the opinion that writer must have an ideal store, which it is. And this is also true of his home, for he is married to a woman who shares his love of nature. They have a pretty home and a very pretty baby girl. Living so many years so close to nature has made Mr. Hess an optimist. He accepts the Creator's plan and believes with the poet that 'All's right with the world.' To not everyone is given that ability or the desire to emphasize the good and minimize the bad."

Mr. Hess is a member of the scientific associations, the American Ornithologists' Union, Wilson's Club, and Illinois Academy of Science. For three years he was a special writer for the Decatur Herald, preparing a series of 157 articles on bird life, and this series is now running in the Quincy Whig. He was one of three authors compiling work on American birds to be published in the German language under auspices of the royal family of Germany when war interfered with all plans. At the present time Mr. Hess is engaged on a book, "Illinois Birds," the publication of which will be eagerly anticipated by his many friends and admirers all over the state. Mr. Hess has lectured nearly everywhere in Illinois before university clubs, farmers' institutes, Boy Scout clubs, high schools, women's clubs, Milliken University at Decatur, the University of Illinois and the Patterson Springs Chautauqua. These lectures and addresses are illustrated with slides from photos of his own taking of Illinois birds "in situ." Some time ago Mr. TTess was offered the position of instructor of the Nature Class Summer School in the University of Illinois.

Not all of Mr. Hess' studies of bird life have been through the medium of camera and field notes. He has expressed himself many times in poetry, and it will not be out of place to include his verses on "The Upland Plover":

But for notes of Whippoorwills Not a sound of spring so thrills Ear and heart and sets me list'ning, Like the weird and plaintive whistling, Of the dainty Upland Plover - Wild, elusive meadow-lover;

When o'er May-day breeze is floating, Soothing, whistled Plover-noting, I am seized of great desire Born of hidden motive, higher Than the sordid dollar chasing; Sluggish blood, aroused, is racing Through my veins; forsaking duties I'm away with Nature's beauties;

Slyly slipping through the sedges - Creeping, peeping, behind hedges To the fields where I discover Haunts of winsome Upland Plover; In the fields of scented clover Bobolinks are bubbling over; Meadow-larks are tuning madly; Dickcissels are ofFring gladly Sweetest anthems of thanksgiving; All lute of the joys of living.

But to me the sweetest ear-sounds - Satisfying full-of-cheer sounds, Sirens from the mated lover Of the patient setting Plover; Rising like a flash from cover Poised on flutt'ring wings to hover In mid-air above his treasure He, to show the world his pleasure, Sounds his message (song epistle) - Voloplanes down with his whistle.

Mr. Hess married, May 23, 1894, Miss Florence Adams, who was born in McLean County, Illinois. Their daughter, Edith Constance, was born March 8, 1912. For many years Mr. Hess has been a member of the Order of Odd Fellows and attends the lodge at Philo. Although a sound Republican in his political sentiments, he is by no means a politician, nor is he illiberal in his attitude on general public questions. Among other business interests he was at its inauguration and conventions secretary of the Florida Fruit Lands Company, which divided 180,000 acres of everglades.

THOMAS E. SMITH. The name Thomas E. Smith is at once associated with the wealthy and successful business men of Champaign. Success did not come to him like manna from the skies, but was earned by the hardest kind of effort. He gained some of his early experience as a pioneer on the Northwestern prairies of the Dakotas and Montana. For many years Mr. Smith has been in the meat business at Champaign and is now proprietor of two large cold storage plants and handles his business on a wholesale scale.

He was born near Potomac, Vermilion County, Illinois, January 13, 1862. His parents were William H. and Emily (Copeland) Smith, the former a native of England and the latter of Vermilion County, Illinois. William H. Smith was brought to America when an infant, his parents locating on a farm in Vermilion County, where he grew to manhood and thereafter until his death was a successful dealer, buyer and shipper of live stock. His widow is now living in Paxton, Ford County, Illinois, having married as her second husband Lynn Corbley. William H. Smith and wife had eight children : Charles S., of Kansas City, Missouri ; Alice, wife of William Palmer, of Los Angeles, California; Thomas E.; Anna, deceased ; Clara, widow of Lincoln Armstrong, living at Terre Haute, Indiana; William S., who occupies the old home place in Vermilion County; Lillian, deceased; and John E., in the meat business at Champaign.

Such advantages as the district schools were able to afford Thomas E. Smith availed himself of when a boy, but he was only fifteen when he began the battle of life for himself. His first experience was on the farm, and on account of failing health he soon went out to Minnesota. He spent two years there and then going to South Dakota took up a claim. It would be a long story to recount all his experiences while in the Northwest. He- broke the virgin prairie lands with ox teams, and hauled his supplies on a stone boat drawn by oxen from Huron, South Dakota, eighteen miles from his settlement. It required a courageous spirit and an unlimited determination to survive the life of that period in the far Northwest. Mr. Smith finally sold his claim in South Dakota and for a time was a cattle rancher in Montana.

On May 1, 1884, having returned to Illinois, Mr. Smith engaged in the retail meat business at Champaign. That business has grown apace. He proved an adept not only in the service which a retail trade demands but in all other departments of the business, both buying and selling, and his interests have consequently assumed a large scale. In 1916 he built a cold storage plant four stories high and 80x195 feet in ground dimensions, absolutely fire proof, of brick and cement construction. This plant is adapted to the manufacture of ice and the handling of all kinds of meats and produce for cold storage. Mr. Smith also has another cold storage plant in Urbana, though not so large as the Champaign plant.

While building up his business he has not neglected the general welfare of the community. He served two terms in the city council, and for nine years was a member of the school board and during that time was chairman of the Building and Grounds Committee. Mr. Smith is a Republican, is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Woodmen of the World, and though not a member gives his active support to the Christian Church.

On March 17, 1890, Mr. Smith married Amanda Gibson, a native of Jasper County, Illinois. They are the parents of five children: Gladys May, a teacher in the public schools at Champaign; Florence E., who died in August, 1915; Cleone, Harold T. and Alice, all at home.

ARTHUR ROBINSON STEWART'S chief work in Champaign County has been as an unusually competent and capable farmer. It is one of the larger and better managed places in Champaign Township where he has put into practice the accumulated wisdom and experience of many years as an agriculturist and stockman. Mr. Stewart and family are well known socially in their country community and also in the city centers of the county.

year was brought to Champaign County by his parents, Samuel G. and Jane (Evans) Stewart. His father was born in New York State, April 4, 1816, and his mother in Ohio on December 28, 1820. After coming to Champaign County Samuel Stewart located land in Somers Township, and gave his time and toil to the improvement and cultivation of that farm for many years. His death occurred May 10, 1891. His wife had died August 26, 1867, and both were buried in Champaign. There were nine children: Esther, who died April 3, 1908; William, who became a Union soldier and died while still in the service at Memphis, Tennessee, October 20, 1863, being then little past twenty-one, since he was born January 14, 1842; Martha Ann, born October 28, 1843, died December 12, 1881; Mary E., born March 10, 1845, died July 15, 1893; Jane A., born September 5, 1 846, is still living in Champaign County ; Robert E., born April 12, 1852, resides in Oregon; Emma D., born March 10, 1854, is the wife of George Lyman of Portsmouth, Arkansas ; Arthur Robinson ; and Walter N., who was born January 25, 1858, and lives at North Yakima, Washington.

In addition to the early training he secured in the common schools, and the practical experience on his father's farm, Mr. Stewart attended the agricultural department of the University of Illinois for about two years. He remained on the old homestead in Somers Township, and subsequently was associated with his brother in managing the home farm of 200 acres. Later Mr. Stewart bought the interests of the other heirs in the farm, and retained its ownership and management until 1911, when he sold the farm to the Illinois Central Railway Company as a site for shops. Mr. Stewart then bought the old Beasly farm of 160 acres in section 1, Champaign Township. This gives him a large and productive place to manage, and he has handled it largely as a dairy proposition, having a herd of mixed Hoisteins and Jerseys.

He has not neglected the public welfare while attending to his private interests and for one year served as township assessor in Somer Township. He is a Republican. He and his wife are members of the Congregational Church and Mrs. Stewart belongs to the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

On September 4, 1900, Mr. Stewart married Margaret Ncsbaume Roper, who was born in Ohio, daughter of Charles and Amelia (Nesbaume) Roper, the former a native of New Hampshire and the latter of Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart have four children : Lyman Roper, who was born June 18, 1902; Charles Robert, born November 11, 1903, and died October 3, 1904; Donald Judson. born January 25, 1906; and Catherine Elizabeth, born February 23, 1909.

ALVIN E. HUCKINS is head of the leading clay products business of Champaign County. A mechanical engineer by profession, Mr. Huckins has been identified with several large industrial corporations in the United States, and now gives his time and energies to a plant at Urbana which is capable of turning out any form or class of product from clay. It is a big business, and Mr. Huckins is considered one of the big business men of this community.

He was born in Chicago, July 31, 1884, and as a young man made his way through difficulties to success. His parents, Clarence L. and Flora E. (Ryans) Huckins, were both natives of Canada and both are now deceased. His father was for many years in the wholesale tobacco business in Chicago. Mr. Huckins was the youngest of their five -children, the others being: William A., of Miami, Florida; Albert C., of Chicago; Webster Lee, of Chicago ; and Luella R., wife of Walter Qumfl, of Chicago.

Mr. Huckins had a grammar school education in Chicago, and sold papers in order to pay his way through the English High and Manual Training School of that city. He also did night work in an architect's office and subsequently had some valuable experience with Pierce, Richardson & Neiler, a prominent firm of consulting engineers. For a year and a half Mr. Huckius was assistant superintendent of the American Spiral Pipe Company of Chicago.

In 1903 he entered the College of Mechanical Engineering at Cham-, paign, and had two years of technical training. In 1905 he took' the position of superintendent of the Abendroth & Eoot Manufacturing Company of Newburgh, New York. He was there about three and a half years and then removed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where for a short time he was connected with the Standard Asphalt and Rubber Company.

Returning to Chicago in 1909, Mr. Huckins became associated with J. W. Stipes in the Sheldon Brick Company. For several years he was' connected with that corporation, and in 1912 he bought the Sheldon Brick Company's plant at Urbaua. This is one of the largest plants for the manufacture of clay products in this section. It has a capacity of1 forty thousand bricks a day or ten million a year. The company manufactures bricks of every type and size and for every purpose and a large line of other qlay products. Mr. Huckins is vice president for Illinoisof the National Brick Association and is secretary of the Illinois Clay Manufacturers Association. He is an ex-president of the Chamber of - Commerce of Champaign. Mr. Huckins is a Republican, a member of the Masonic Order, and of the Rotary Club.

He was married November 7, 1906, to Miss Clara Gere, a native of Champaign. They have two daughters and a son: Helen, born March 18, 1911; Clara Beth, born February 21, 1915, and Alvin E. Huckins, Jr., born June 11, 1917. Mrs. Huckins is a daughter of the late George W. and Mary H. Gere, her mother still living in Champaign. George W. Gere was a prominent attorney at Champaign, and represented a number of large corporations, including the Illinois Central Railway, the Big- Four Railway Company, the Illinois Traction System, and some years ago was candidate for governor of Illinois on the prohibition ticket. Mrs. Huckins is the only surviving child of her1 parents, her sister Eva having died a number of years ago.

MARK CAELEY was one of the founders of the city of Champaign: His name appears again and again in connection with the early annals of that city and of Champaign County, and always he appears as a man .of force,- of almost unlimited enterprise and of a public spirit that was in keeping with his many successes in private life. He knew much of the world by experience and had come to Champaign County soon after returning from an excursion to California during the great gold excitement on the Pacific Coast. His own life was to a large degree the expression of those forces' accumulated and inherited by him from a notable American ancestry.

The Carleys were staunch and patriotic New Englanders. Mark Carley was born at Hancock in Hillsboro County, New Hampshire, August 24, 1799. He was a son of Elijah and Agnes (Graham) Carley and a grandson of Joseph and Sarah (Washburn) Carley. He was thus related to the Washburns whose names appear frequently in New England history, and from the same family came the Washburns who were conspicuous in the early days of Illinois. The Carleys were of Scotch-Irish ancestry. They settled in America long before the Revolution, and one of the cherished possessions of the descendants is a discharge paper signed by George Washington and granting release from the Continental Army to Jonathan Carley, an uncle of the late Mark Carley. By kinship and social ties the Carleys were closely connected with many of the leading families of the New England states and also in the states of New York, Kentucky, Ohio and Illinois. Among such families were the Stevensons of Vermont,- prominent in Colonial and Eevolutionary history, the Harrimans, the Fisks, the Lawsons and the Kendalls. There were also the Goulds and Boutons of Chicago. Louise Carley Lawson, a sister of Mark Carley, acquired marked distinction as an artist in her generation. She was the wife of Professor L. M. Lawson, dean of the Medical College of Ohio and later of the Medical College of Lexington, Kentucky.

When Mark Carley was eleven years of age his parents removed from New Hampshire to Vermont. He grew up in the hills of that State and his education was confined to the practical branches of learning taught in the public schools and to such experience as he could acquire. As a youth he learned the trade of carpenter and millwright. At the age of twenty, leaving home, he spent a brief time in the province of New Brunswick and then set sail for New Orleans. The vessel carrying him was wrecked and the passengers landed at Savannah, Georgia. From there he crossed to Havana, Cuba, and finally arrived at New Orleans April 24, 1820. In Louisiana Mark Carley had an extensive experience building mills and cotton gins. While there he learned to speak fluently the language of the French Creoles.

In 1830, during one of his visits to the North, he married Abigail Wetherbee Stevens. In 1837 Mark Carley established his home in Clermont County, along the Ohio River, in southern Ohio. There he acquired large interests as a land holder, farmed them, and also engaged in boating on the Ohio River.

In 1850 Mark Carley left his property interests in southern Ohio and crossed the plains to the gold fields of California. Here his qualities of leadership made him a marked man among the fearless and democratic element of that State. He was chosen judge of the Minors' Court and was prominent in regulating public affairs in the district where his own operations were.

In 1853 Mark Carley came to Champaign County and located at Urbana. He erected the first dwelling house in the city of Champaign, and also constructed the first grain warehouse there. He introduced the first steam engine for the operation of his elevator. A number of other business enterprises and buildings were the direct result of his enterprise and capital, and several buildings are still standing in Champaign as a monument to this pioneer. Some years later Mark Carley built the fine old homestead at 134 West Church Street, which is now occupied by his granddaughter, Martha Kincaid Weston.

Mark Carley was an ardent Whig and admirer of Henry Clay. Among the heirlooms left by him is an ivory snuff-box which was presented to him by the great Kentucky statesman. He naturally gravitated into the Republican party when that was formed, and the most distinguished visitor who ever graced the old homestead at 134 West Church Street was Abraham Lincoln.

Mark Carley lived vigorously throughout a long lifetime. He was nearly eighty-nine years of age when he passed away at his home in Champaign, February 3, 1888. His wife died November 12, 1871. They were the parents of three children: Mrs. Mary A. Carley Kincaid; Mrs. Isotta Carley Mahan of Kenwood, Chicago, but now a resident of Los Angeles; and Graham Carley, who was an important capitalist and man of affairs and died in Hyde Park, Chicago, Illinois, in 1893.

mont County, Ohio, and was married in Ohio in August, 1851, to the late Dr. Samuel W. Kincaid. Dr. Kincaid was born at West Union, in Adams County, Ohio, July 15, 1823, a son of Judge John Kincaid. His brother, Hon. W. P. Kincaid, for several years represented his Ohio district in Congress. The Kincaid family is descended from the Lairds of Kincaid of Stirlingshire, Scotland. The first Kincaid in America was Captain John Kincaid, who located in Virginia in 1707. He was a native of the north of Ireland, while his wife, Margaret Lockhart, was born in Scotland. Their son, Captain James Kincaid, was a gallant Revolutionary soldier and married a niece of James Wilson, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Dr. S. W. Kincaid was liberally educated in the schools of Cincinnati, and entering the Medical College of Ohio was graduated M. D. with the class of 1853. Soon afterward he removed to Ohio and began practice at Tolono in Champaign County. In 1855 he removed to Champaign, then known as West Urbana, and was a prominent figure in professional circles for a number of years. He finally retired from practice and returned to his old boyhood home in Ohio, where he died. Mrs. Kincaid died in Champaign, February 3, 1907. She was the mother of four children : Annie, Carley and Frank, all deceased ; and Martha K.

Martha Kincaid is the widow of Charles Weston, who graduated from the University of Illinois as president of his class of 1876 and subsequently was elected auditor of the State of Nebraska. Mrs. Weston, as already mentioned, occupies the old homestead of her grandfather and has many of the family heirlooms connected with the Carley lineage. She is a cultured woman and has long been prominent in musical affairs in Champaign. She is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and of the Colonial Dames, and is eligible to the Mayflower Society as well. Mrs. Weston's mother was also a member of the Colonial Dames.

SOLOMON MERCER, whose recent death was deplored by a host of friends, had been identified with Champaign County from the period of early youth, and had borne the heat and burden of the day during his early efforts at establishing a home and improving a farm. His later years were years of comfort and the growing esteem of his friends.

Mr. Mercer was born in Monroe County, Ohio, at Millwood, a son of Aaron and Mary (Cecil) Mercer. His father was a native of Virginia and his mother of Ohio. The father left Virginia in early youth, settling in Ohio, and there he married and his children were born, consisting of five sons and three daughters. Solomon Mercer received his first instruction in the public schools of Monroe and Logan counties, Ohio. He was still a child when his parents came to Illinois, and after two years in Vermilion County located in Champaign County, where the children continued their education at the Blue Grass school. Aaron Mercer was a very industrious man and worked hard and faithfully to provide for his family. By occupation he was a carpenter, built a large number of the early homes in Champaign County, and was very ingenious in the use of tools, being able to make all manner of furniture and also burial caskets. In a new country his services were in great demand and were much appreciated. He and his wife lived in Champaign County until they died.

When Solomon Mercer was twenty-five years of age he married Miss Mary Wyman. She was born in Ohio but when a girl came to Illinois with her parents, and grew up and was educated in Vermilion County. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Mercer took a rented farm in Kerr Township, and were renters for four years. They possessed industry and thrift, and besides supplying the simple needs and comforts of the home they were able to accumulate something for the future. They possessed that spirit which has been described by the poet as "that delightful discontent which the hope of better things inspires within us." Thus at the end of four years they felt justified in buying 320 acres of land at a price of less than $40 an acre. They did not pay for the entire tract at once, but every year saw them a little further along the road to independence and in time they had the farm clear and improvements that enhanced its value several fold.

Into their home came four children: William L. ; Allie, who died at the age of six years; Charles and Addie. Mr. and Mrs. Mercer from the first made ample provision to furnish these children with an education and with means of advancement to honorable position in the world. The children first attended the Sugar Grove school and afterwards finished the course of the Paxton High School. Addie graduated with honors from that school and all three children have made a creditable record. William is now a traveling salesman for the iron works at Galion, Ohio. His natural good nature makes him popular in the work and he travels all over the United States. He married Fannie Martin, and they have one daughter, Dorothy. Charles Mercer married Jessie Molsbury and they live in Clark County, Ohio. He is the proprietor of an elevator. Their four children are named Chester, Opal, Marion and Harold. Addie Mercer is the wife of J. W. McCall of Gibson City, Illinois, where Mr. McCall is superintendent of the canning factory.

Mr. Mercer, as was his wife, was an active member and liberal supporter of the Congregational Church at Paxton. On October 2, 1916, the death angel visited the home and took away the good wife and mother, after they had walked side by side along life's road for fifty-four years, sharing each other's joys and sorrows, and on the first anniversary, October 2, 1917, Mr. Mercer died. Mrs. Mercer was a good wife, a kind and loving mother and a splendid neighbor. Her funeral service was conducted by Rev. Mr. Webster, minister of the Congregational Church at Paxton, and a large concourse of friends and relatives gathered to pay their last tribute of respect. After the death of his wife Mr. Mercer made his home with his sister, Martha Morain of Penfield, widow of Isaac Morain. Mr. and Mrs. Morain were married in Champaign County and he died here in 1861.

Mr. Mercer had always been distinguished by public spirit and his follow citizens showed their confidence in his judgment by electing him as township supervisor. He was an ardent prohibitionist and the rapid progress of that movement in recent years made him hope to see prohibition extended over the entire United States, if not the world. Mr. Mercer was one of the loyal friends and admirers of the late Judge Cunningham, who was so helpfully associated with the compilation of this work until his death.

ARTHUR C. SINGBUSCH, now city electrician of Champaign, is a man of thorough technical training and wide experience in his profession, and his proficiency is due to a combination of practical work in various industries and to the advantages afforded by the great technical schools of his native city.

Mr. Singbusch was born in Champaign October 13, 1882, a son of August C. and Anna (Wascher) Singbusch. His parents were both born in Germany, the father coming to America when about ten years of age. For twenty-five years August C. Singbusch was in the grocery business at Champaign, though with various other interests on the side, and now except for occasionally writing some insurance he is practically retired. He and .his wife had only two children, Arthur C. and Elsa.

Arthur C. Singbusch graduated from the grade schools of Champaign and for two and a half years was a student in the engineering college department of the University of Illinois. His first business experience was with the firm of Root & Vandervoort, manufacturers of gas engines at Moline, Illinois. After two years with that company he returned to Champaign for the purpose of bettering the technical side of his training and took a short course in the steam engineering department of the University. He was next employed by the manufacturing company of Curtis & Singbusch, in which his father was a partner. This firm conducted a jobbing shop for the manufacture of auto supplies and foundry castings. Mr. Singbusch remained with them a year and once more returned to the University, where for about three years he was an employe in the electrical engineering department.

About that time the Singbusch family moved to Enid, Oklahoma, and Arthur was in the electrical business in that city for four years. Returning to Champaign, he spent four years with Caldwell & Company, electrical contractors, and in 1915 was called from this work to the office of city electrician, to which he was appointed by Mayor Swigart. He had every qualification for the office and has thoroughly justified the expectations entertained of him when he entered upon his duties. In politics Mr. Singbusch is a Republican. He is a member of the Masonic Lodge and of the Congregational Church. On April 27, 1910, he married Miss Hazel Scott, of Enid, Oklahoma. They were married at Enid, and are the parents of three children, Carl, Dorothy and Elsa Louise.

JOSEPH CLINTON WAMPLER PITTMAN. The passage of sixty years or more has removed from Champaign County the greater number of its earliest pioneers, although through worthy descendants their names are preserved and their memories perpetuated. It was sixty-one years ago, in 1856, that Joseph C. W. Pittman was brought into this section of Illinois, being then a child of seven years. In his home community of Mahomet Mr. Pittman is known as a man of most substantial resources and of that influence that springs from strong character and worthy motives. His early life was one of toil and the meeting of adverse conditions presented by a comparatively new country and his success is due to that good fortune which is a result of industry and honorable activities.

Mr. Pittman was born in Butler County, Ohio, February 24, 1849, the eighth in a family of nine children, five sons and four daughters, whose parents were George H. and Eliza (Bake) Pittman. Only three of these children are still living, Mary, Joseph C. and Jacob D. Mary, who was well educated and taught school in Mahomet Township three years, is now living at Rockwell City, Iowa, widow of J. L. Stearns. Jacob D., a retired agriculturist at Mahomet, married Miss Mary Abbott.

George H. Pittman was born in New Jersey, but was taken when a child by his parents to Ohio, where he grew up, was educated in the common schools, and lived in the Buckeye State until after his marriage. All his children were born in Ohio and on moving to Champaign County he continued his career as a renter, and by the hardest kind of work he provided for his family and always performed to the best of his ability the duties laid upon him as a citizen and neighbor. He was an old-line Whig and from that became a Republican, and he and his wife were very active in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He served on its official board. His death occurred in Mahomet about 1895 and his remains now rest in Riverside Cemetery, where an appropriate monument stands to mark the spot. His wife was born near Middletown, Ohio, was reared and educated there and died about 1897. She was a fine type of courageous pioneer woman and gave the best of her life to the service of her home and children. The name Pittman is of English stock.

his training was the result of experience and observation. At the age of twenty-one he started out to make his own way in the world, without any cash capital and with nothing to rely upon except a disposition for honesty and industry. For six years he rented and farmed and then accepted an opportunity to buy 107 acres in the northwest part of the township. He went in debt for the greater part of the purchase price and finally traded the land for another farm, and that, too, he sold. He then bought 280 acres in Mahomet Township, and on this he assumed a debt of $5,000. He carried these obligations and disposed of them as rapidly as possible and in the course of time his substantial success was assured. Many improvements have been made on his farm, including a new residence, four different barns, substantial fences and other improvements. About 1907 he bought eighty acres more and added a forty-acre tract in 1912. His homestead in Mahomet Township now includes 340 acres of the rich and fertile soil of that region. Besides this he has 240 acres in Calhoun County, Iowa, and is interested as a stockholder in the Farmers Elevator Company of Mahomet and in the Champaign County Fair Association.

On December 12, 1876, the Centennial year, Mr. Pittman married Miss Mary E. Boyer. Their marriage was blessed with the birth of four children, three sons and one daughter, and all of them were carefully trained and educated both at home and in school.

Claude E., the oldest, was educated in the Mahomet High School and spent two years in the Illinois State University. For the past six years he has been a salesman of agricultural implements for the John Deere Company, with home and headquarters at Indianapolis. He married Miss Clara Prather, who received her education at Anderson, Indiana, and is a daughter of Calvin W. and Arabella (Summers) Prather. Their home is now brightened by the presence of one daughter, Louise. Claude Pittman is a Republican, a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and his wife is a Presbyterian.

Mabel G., the only daughter, is the wife of Archie Herriott, a practical agriculturist in Mahomet Township. Their two children are named Harold and Frank. They are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Mahomet.

Elmer D., the second son, supplemented his training in the common schools by a two years' agricultural course at the state university and is now applying his knowledge and experience as a farmer in Mahomet Township. He is a member of the Masonic order at Mahomet and he and his wife are active Methodists. He married Miss Ruth Bishop, and their son has been given the name J. C. W., Jr.

Cecil, the youngest child, is a graduate of the Champaign High School and is now successfully devoting himself to farming in Mahomet Township. He married Miss Blanche Bell and their two children are Viola and Catherine E. They have membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Mrs. Pittman, the mother of these children, was born in Champaign County, December 25, 1850, a daughter of George and Mary E. Boyer. Her parents died in 1872 and 1874 respectively. Mrs. Pittman was a graduate of the Mahomet High School and also of the Illinois Woman's College at Jacksonville. For nearly forty years she was a loyal wife, a devoted home maker, and expressed her many kindly qualities and good deeds in her community and among her friends. Her death on January 25, 1915, \ras a great loss not only to the family but to the entire community.

Mr. Pittman has been a loyal Republican since casting his first presidential vote for General Grant forty-five years ago. At different times he has served as a delegate to county conventions and has filled many places of honor and responsibility. For nine years he was road commissioner, was township supervisor six years, has been one of the men in his section of Champaign County to advocate consistently and unselfishly the cause of good roads, and has also accepted every opportunity to advance the interests of the local schools. He is now and has been for four years school treasurer of Mahomet Township. Mr. Pittman is also one of the prominent Methodists of his section of the county, was a member of the building committee when the present Methodist Church at Mahomet was built, is a member of the church official board and for over twenty-one years has been superintendent of the Methodist Episcopal Sunday school and is yet superintendent. For four years his brother DuBois was superintendent of this same Sunday school. He gave up that position when he went to the war as a Union soldier and died from the effects of a wound received in the battle of Kenesaw Mountain during the Atlanta campaign.

Those movements which have been undertaken for the advancement of his home county have always found Mr. Pittman a capable and effective co-operator. His is a name everywhere spoken with respect and due loyalty for a man whose life has been so consistently honest and honorable. In 1917 Mr. Pittman made a trip back to his old home in Ohio, and after an absence of sixty-one years revisited the old scenes and landmarks of his early childhood and of his parents' early associations. One of the things that interested him most was the towpath of the old canal that went and his mother of Ohio. The father left Virginia in early youth, settling standing and people are living in it at the present time.

EVARTS BOUTELL GREENE has been Professor of History in the University of Illinois since 1897, and from 1906 to 1913 was dean of the College of Literature and Arts. He has been connected with the State University twenty-three years, is well known as an historical author and editor, and is a member of an old American family that has furnished many useful men and women to the arts and professions.

He was born in Kobe, Japan, July 8, 1870, a son of Daniel Crosby and Mary Jane (Forbes) Greene. The late Daniel Crosby Greene, who died September 15, 1913, was one of the pioneer American missionaries in Japan and was long considered an authority on Japanese life and affairs. He was born at Roxbury, Boston, February 11, 1843, and was a member of a Massachusetts Colonial family. His parents were Rev. David and Mary (Evarts) Greene. A brother of D. Crosby Greene is Roger Sherman Greene, who made a brilliant record as a soldier in the Civil War and in 1870 was appointed a justice of the Supreme Court of Washington Territory and has practiced law and taken a prominent part in public affairs in Seattle for the past forty years. D. Crosby Greene was graduated from Dartmouth College in 1864. In 1862 he served as a private in the Seventh Squadron of Rhode Island Cavalry. In 1869 he entered upon his work as a missionary in Japan and his home and activities were in that country the rest of his active life. He was president of the Asiatic Society of Japan in 1896 and 1901-02, and was lecturer on Japan in Harvard University in 1908-09. He was author of the Chinese New Testament, prepared for Japanese readers, 1878 ; Course of Study for Students of the Japanese Language, 1903 ; was joint translator of the Japanese New Testament; revised and brought up to date Ritter's History of Protestant Missions in Japan, 1898; and was editor of the Christian Movement in its Relation to the New Life in Japan. ' He was married to Mary Jane Forbes in 1869. Besides Evarts Boutell Greene two other sons have gained distinction, Jerome Davis and Roger Sherman Greene. Jerome Davis Greene was secretary of the Rockefeller Foundation 1913-16, and is also a member of the International Health Commission of the General Education Board, the Board of Overseers of Harvard University. Roger

Sherman Greene was in the consular service in South America, Japan and Russia, subsequently consul general at Hankow, China, and since 1914 has been resident director in China of the China Medical Board for the Rockefeller Foundation.

Evarts Boutell Greene was a student in Northwestern University at Evanston, Illinois, from 1885 to 1888, and graduated from Harvard University in 1890, A. M. in 1891, and with the Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1893.

From 1890 to 1893 he was assistant in history at Harvard and during 1893-94 was Harris Traveling Fellow of Harvard University and a student in the University of Berlin. In 1894 he became assistant professor of history in the University of Illinois, was associate professor during 1895-97, and since 1894 has been head of the history department. Mr. Greene has been president of the Board of Trustees of the Illinois State Historical Library since 1910. In 1913 he was appointed a member of the Illinois State Centennial Commission, was a member of the Centennial Building Commission which in 1916 purchased the site of the Centennial Building, and as chairman of the publication committee of the Illinois Centennial Commission has had general supervision of its historical publications. Since 1913 he has been secretary of the Council of the American Historical Association, and was a member of the Council from 1908 to 1911. He is corresponding member of the Chicago and Minnesota Historical Societies and of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts and member (1917) of the National Board for Historical Service, Washington.

Mr. Greene as an author has the following works to his credit: The Provincial Governor in the English Colonies of North America, 1898; 1 The Government of Illinois, 1904 ; Provincial America, 1905 ; was joint author with C. W. Alvord of The Governors' Letter Book, 1818-1834, and with C. M. Thompson of the Governors' Letter Book, 1840-53; American Interest in Popular Government Abroad, 1917. His contributions have also frequently appeared in historical and educational periodicals.

ROLLO STEWART BASSETT is a lumberman of wide and thorough experience in both the manufacturing and business ends of the industry, and for the past ten years has been district manager of the Alexander Lumber Company, with headquarters at Champaign.

Mr. Bassett was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, March 9, 1872, a son of Charles F. and Bertha (Stewart) Bassett. His father was born in Cincinnati and his mother in Newport, Kentucky. His father is an old time lumberman, is an honored veteran of the Civil War, having served three years in the armies of Burnside, and is still living at Cincinnati, being connected with the National Flag Company of that city. His wife died at the age of forty-two. There were four children : Rollo S. ; Edna, deceased; Newton, of El Paso, Texas; and Ferris, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Rollo S. Bassett attended local schools at Cincinnati, and at the age of sixteen began working with his father in the lumber business. Later he attended high school and also the Art and Mechanical Institute of Cincinnati, where he perfected himself in mechanical designing and illustrating. Mr. Bassett at the age of twenty-two went to Chicago and was connected with a wholesale milling concern in that city until 1908. In that year he came to Champaign as his headquarters, and as district manager for the Alexander Lumber Company his territory covers Rantoul, Villa -Grove, Penfield, Royal, Mansfield, Sidell, Champaign and Decatur.

garet Beriham. Mr. Bassett is an accomplished musician, and while in Chicago he served as organist for the First Congregational Church. He is now deacon in the First Congregational Church of Champaign. Mr. Bassett is a Knight Templar Mason and in politics is a Eepublican.

J. E. NYE. By reason of long residence in Champaign County, for a period of sixty years, by the ability shown in varied undertakings and by the honesty and high character of its members the Nye family is one of the best known in the county and the name is everywhere spoken with respect and esteem which are their due.