Champaign County, Illinois - The whole text, 1918 (part 9 of 23)

families and very prominent in Lewis County, where, the Nash family can be traced back for generations. During the Civil War both families were strong Unionists and the uncles on both sides served in the Union army. At the age of eighteen years Jesse Nash, father of Howard Nash, enlisted as a private in Company I, Fourth Kentucky Infantry, and was taken prisoner at Macon, Georgia, and was incarcerated at Andersonville. He possessed a strong enough constitution to survive the cruelties of that period of imprisonment, and saw four years of military service. In 1870 he came to Illinois and located in Piatt County, where he and his wife still live, he being a large land owner. For some years he was a railroad contractor, taking contracts for the building of the Wabash Eailway, and later he invested in farm land and carried on agricultural activities until he retired. To Jesse Nash and wife the following children were born: Minnie L., who is a resident of Portland, Oregon; Howard; William S., who is an attorney in practice at Portland, Oregon; Bessie, who resides in Montana; Frederick A., who is a farmer in Piatt County, Illinois; Jessie M., who is the wife of Doctor Euden, a resident of Montana; and Walter B., who is a resident of Montana.

Howard Nash attended the local schools and remained at home until he was twenty years of age, in the meanwhile planning a course of three years in Valparaiso College, having very definite and determined ideas on the subject of education. He demonstrated his courage and independence by working his way through college, after which he returned to Piatt County and began to teach school and at the same time filled in all spare time and vacations in studying law, his preceptor being Charles F. Mansfield of Monticello, Illinois. In thus broadening his understanding, Mr. Nash did not have the practice of law in view, but desired a legal education because of its helpfulness in other lines.

In 1902 Mr. Nash opened a real estate office at Mansfield and remained in business there until 1910, when he came to Champaign, and he is now located in the Trevett-Mattis Bank Building. As previously indicated, Mr. Nash has made a special study of land values, not only in Illinois, but on a much wider scale, traveling for this purpose over the country, making estimates and gathering information that has been of great benefit. His intelligent investigations have made him an expert, and operators all over the country consult with him and accept his opinion as to values.

On December 14, 1904, Mr. Nash was united in marriage with Miss Bertie M. James, who was born at Mansfield, Illinois, and they have three children: Lyle J., who was born in 1905; Lois, who was born in 1908; and Howard, born in 1912.

Mr. Nash is an ardent Eepublican and has attended every National Eepublican Convention since he was twenty years of age, not being interested as a seeker for office, but because he believes in the principles of the organization to which he belongs and enjoys the congenial political fellowship he finds in these mighty gatherings. He is a strict party man and has devoted much time to the welfare of his party. His name may be found as a contributor to benevolent movements and charitable organizations, and he is considered one of Champaign's leading public spirited citizens.

JOSEPH E. PEARSON. Among the families that have helped forward the remarkable economic transformation by which the waste lands of Champaign County were reclaimed and converted into productive fields and a smiling landscape of happy homes, a place of prosperous usefulness belongs to those of the Pearson name represented by Mr. Joseph E. Pearson, whose home is in section 11 of Harwood Township. His postoffice is Ludlow.

Mr. Pearson was born in Mason County, Illinois, a son of Robert and Mary (Fletcher) Pearson. His father was a native of England but married in America, and from Mason County moved to Champaign County. When the Pearsons first settled here they had many unpleasant things to contend with. Much of the land was wet, covered with sloughs, and acre after acre had to be redeemed to cultivation at the expense of much labor and money. But Robert Pearson had the energy requisite for such an undertaking, and in course of time he not only had a fine farm, but became one of the extensive land owners in Champaign County, having an estate of 560 acres. He and his wife finally retired to a comfortable home in Rantoul, where this good old timer entered into rest in 1913.

Joseph R. Pearson was educated in the public schools, and, was also a student in the State Normal University at Normal and in the college at Paxton.

He married Miss Clara J. Johnson, who was born in Champaign County, a daughter of Isaac and Alice (Belford) Johnson. Her father was a native of Vermilion County, Illinois, and her mother of Ohio. Mrs. Pearson was educated in the public schools, the high school at Gifford and Greer College at Hoopeston, Illinois. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Pearson began life on the old homestead of Father Pearson, and he has since had the active management of this splendid farm.

To Mr. and Mrs. Pearson were born eight children : Mary Alice, Robert J., Bessie Lenore, Eva Pauline, Lowell B., Glen Leroy, Donald Richard and Harold Fletcher. This is a family of bright and energetic children, true types of American boys and girls. They received their preliminary education in the Webber District School. Mary graduated from the high school at Paxton and Robert did two years of work in that high school. Lenore is still a student in high school, a member of the junior class, while Pauline recently became the proud possessor of a diploma from the eighth grade.

As a farmer Mr. Pearson is giving a good account of his energies and ability. His principal crops are corn and oats, and in an ordinary season he gets seventy-five bushels of corn to the acre. As a stock man he raises some fine Percheron horses of French imported strains and has a herd of Jersey cows, shipping cream to market.

The family attend worship at the Methodist Episcopal Church of Gifford, and the children are all active in the Sunday school. Mr. Pearson is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America and in politics gives support to the Democratic party.

Thus the lives of the Pearson family have been closely identified with Champaign County since early times. Their industry has brought about the improvement of a considerable acreage and they are to be credited with success as homemakers and with that public spirit which flows from capable and upright people. Mr. Pearson's mother is still living in her home at Rantoul and spends the winters in southern climates, chiefly in Florida. Mr. and Mrs. Pearson are carrying the responsibilities of their farm, have a pleasant home and enjoy the confidence and esteem of a large community. Mrs. Pearson is an energetic and cultured woman and takes proper pride in her home and her happy family circle.

CHARLES J. MULLIKIX is a native of Champaign County, has been a farmer, merchant, real estate and insurance man, and all his activities have done him credit. He is one of the most influential Democrats of this section of Illinois, and is now serving his term as postmaster of Champaign. Mr. Mullikin was born in this county, April 4, 1867. He is a son of George C. and Nancy (Jones) Mullikin, the former a native of Indiana and the latter of Kentucky.

belongs came from Scotland, first locating in this country in the early part of the sixteenth century, in the province of Maryland, as a part of the Lord Baltimore colony. James Mullikin, of whom the subject of this sketch is a direct descendant, was granted land in the province of Maryland for services rendered in bringing over emigrants to this country from Scotland; part of the land thus ceded was a fine tract in the forks of the Patuxent River near Baltimore. This tract was improved and became the original homestead of the family in 1668. The farm has never passed out of the family name and is now inhabited and owned by a Mullikin.

The Mullikins were owners of several plantations and numerous slaves throughout Maryland before the Civil War. The early generations were communicants of the Episcopal churches, but the later generations, however, were principally affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church. The early members of this family were tall, large formed, brawny men of fair and florid complexion, and as a family were possessed of superior intelligence and public spirit, most of them showing military tastes and many of them having held commissions in the Revolution and subsequent wars. The great-grandfather of our subject was born on the family homestead in Maryland, at the "Forks of the Patuxent," during the year 1767. In the year 1811 he sold to other members of the family his interests in the homestead, and with his family and household goods, enclosed in wagons, removed with his slaves and stock to Fleming County, Kentucky, where he located. In 1812 he enlisted in the War of 1812, being a member of the celebrated Squirrel Hunter "Riflemen" Company from Kentucky. After the war he proceeded from New Orleans, with other companions, through the wilderness on foot to his home in Kentucky. The grandfather of Charles J. when a young man came from Maryland to Kentucky with his father, served his country in the War of 1812, being made captain, and later he moved to Johnson County, Indiana, where George C. Mullikin, the father of our subject, was born. In 1865 George C. Mullikin, following the inherited spirit of his grandfather, removed in a prairie schooner from Johnson County, Indiana, to Piatt County, Illinois. George C. Mullikin was a type of character such as not only his children but a large community always respect and remember with grateful esteem. He spent one year in Piatt County, and in 1866 located on a farm in Scott Township of Champaign County. He was a practical, hard-working farmer. He had a rugged physique and constitution, and was as big in heart and sympathy as he was in body. He stood six feet tall and was large in proportion. His faithful wife left him in 1879, and at her death there were five young children. Seldom has a man met his responsibilities with such versatile resourcefulness, prompted by love, as George C. Mullikin did when his wife died, laboring in absolute poverty. As a tenant farmer he worked in the fields and kept the farm going as usual. At the same time he looked after all the duties of the household, caring for the young children, cooking for them, mending their clothes and performing all the housework which the older children could not do. Thus he kept his children together until they had reached self-supporting manhood and womanhood. It is not strange that his children came to regard him as more than a father, and with a veneration which will never depart from their memory. The death of this worthy citizen occurred March 19, 1914. The five children were: Joseph, a farmer in Champaign Township; Charles J., who was the second oldest; Mary, wife of T. H. Walker of Bondville, Champaign County; Austin of Illiopolis, Sangamon County, Illinois; and William, who died in infancy.

After all his children were old enough to look out for themselves George C. Mullikin married for his second wife Corrina J. Hunter, who survives him and now makes her home at Bondville, and is a woman of admirable character, who cared for her husband to the very last and who is respected and loved by her step-children and her grandchildren as if she were their real mother and grandmother.

Charles J. Mullikin grew up on the farm, and besides the duties he learned and assumed at home he attended the local public schools. When he was twenty-one years of age his father gave him a team and wagon and a couple of plows. With that equipment he rented a small tract of land and farmed it a year. He then sold his interest, and about that time he married a popular young school teacher of the neighborhood. The young couple removed to Bondville, bought a home there, and Mr. Mullikin found a position with the local grain elevator for a year. From Bondville he came to Champaign, and) for a year was a locomotive fireman with the Illinois Central Eailroad Company. Returning to Bondville, he accepted financial help from his father and bought a general merchandise store. He was one of the leading merchants of that village for six years, and during that time he served as town clerk, and on February 27, 1893, was appointed postmaster of Bondville, about the time President Cleveland began his second term. In 1895 Mr. Mullikin traded his store for a farm in Indiana. He never occupied the farm or managed it personally, but instead engaged in the real estate and insurance business at Champaign.

In the past twenty years Mr. Mullikin has become one of the leading real estate and insurance men of the city. He has handled a very extensive business in that time. In 1896 he was elected an alderman from the Third Ward and from August, 1896, until January, 1898, served as assistant postmaster of Champaign, filling the vacancy caused by the death of the assistant postmaster. In 1900 he was elected mayor, giving the city's affairs a splendidly efficient and economical administration during his one term. He has also served as Democratic State Central Committeeman. In February, 1914, he was appointed postmaster of Champaign and is now giving all his time to the duties of that office.

On March 8, 1889, Mr. Mullikin married Elizabeth E. Lowman, who was born at Champaign, a daughter of Allison and Sarah J. (Lytle) Lawman. Both her parents were born in Pennsylvania and both are now deceased. Mr. Mullikin is affiliated with the Masonic order, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He and his wife are members of the Congregational Church.

CHARLES H. SPEARS, M. D. While the success of the ethical physician does not permit of the analysis to which a career in other lines of business or in other professions might be subjected, there are many things that indicate the standing of the reputable doctor of medicine. His associations in medical circles, his length of practice, his training, all have a bearing upon his relative success. Measured by whatever standard, Dr. Charles H. Spears is one of Champaign County's foremost physicians. He has been in practice at the city of Champaign for upwards of twenty years.

Doctor Spears was born in Shelbyville, Illinois, April 22, 1873, a son of Henry and Rebecca (Warner) Spears. His father was a native of Ohio, moved from that state to Illinois, and was a farmer in both commonwealths. About six years ago he removed to Champaign, where he now lives retired.

Educated in the public schools of Illinois, Doctor Spears took up the study of medicine in the medical department of the University of St. Louis, where he was graduated in 1897. He then located in Pana, Illinois, where he practiced until moving to Champaign. So far as the practical demands upon his time and attention have permitted, he has neglected no opportunity to improve himself and gain the highest possible proficiency in his work. He took post-graduate courses in the Medical College of

Chicago and had much hospital service, specializing in diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat. He also studied along the lines of their specialties for one year in the hospitals of London, England.

After his return to the United States Doctor Spears resumed his practice in Champaign, where he has since been in practice. His finely equipped offices are in the Illinois Building, the finest building in the city. He has prospered in a business way and owns considerable real estate in Champaign and elsewhere.

Doctor Spears married Miss Nellie E. Ainsworth, a native of Champaign County. They have two sons, Charles and John. Doctor Spears is a Eepublican in politics, is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Modern Woodmen of America and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He is also a member of the Champaign County Medical Society, the Illinois State Medical Society, the Twin City Physicians' Club, is on the staff of Julia F. Burnham Hospital and also on the staff of the Julia F. Burnham Training School for Nurses, and is local oculist for the Illinois Traction System and the Illinois Central Eailway.

JOHN MURPHY. A fine farm, a good home, an excellent family belong to John Murphy, one of the prominent residents of Kerr Township, his well cultivated acres being located in section 32.

Mr. Murphy is a native of Ireland, a son of Martin and Mary Murphy. He grew up in his native isle and was twenty-four years of age when, seeking the better opportunities of the New World, he immigrated to America and came direct to Champaign County. This section of the New World seemed to offer especial promise to young men of limited capital and unlimited energy and he soon found work as a hand.

It was after coming to this country that he married Miss Jennie Whalen. She was born in County Wexford, Ireland, daughter of James and Mary (Cullen) Whalen. She also was twenty-four years of age when she came to America with two cousins named Gordon. She was the first member of her immediate family to come to this country. She was ambitious and able to work and willing to do her part. She first came to Gifford, where she had cousins and friends, and the first friendly face she met after leaving her home in Ireland was her cousin, Joseph Gordon, who took he*r to his home, where she remained four years. While there she made the acquaintance of John Murphy, a young Irishman from the same part of Ireland, and in a short time they were married. They began housekeeping east of Gifford on the farm of Mr. Sunderland. They rented land from Mr. Sunderland six years, and there they laid the foundation for their permanent prosperity. They next moved half a mile south of Penfield, and for three years rented a farm from Mr. Benjamin. By that time through strict economy and thrifty saving they had accumulated enough to enable them to purchase 120 acres north of Penfield. In that locality they have made their home ever since.

Six children were born to them, and they lost one, Thomas Eichard, in infancy. The others are, James, Mary, John, Margaret and Mildred. One of the first things Mr. and Mrs. Murphy thought about was the proper education of these children. They sent them regularly to the Stonestreet district school and afterwards to the Penfield High School. Miss Mary was graduated in 1916 from the high school and made a splendid record as a student. The subject of her graduating thesis was "The Value of Eeputation," and many compliments were paid her for the manner in which she treated this subject and for its delivery. Besides her literary training she took music lessons from Mrs. Klein, and music has always been encouraged as a feature of culture in the Murphy home. The daughter Mary had an ambition to teach school but so far has been hindered in taking the examina- tion on account of illness. The son James Murphy is living on his father's old farm. He married Esther Kelley, daughter of Patrick Kelley, present postmaster of Penfield. Mr. and Mrs. James Murphy have a little daughter,' Mary Vivian, who at this writing is four months old. The other children of Mr. and Mrs. Murphy are students in school and Margaret has taken piano instruction from Miss Grace Gray.

Mr. Murphy has done his part toward maintaining high standards in the local schools and has served several years as a school director. The family are active members of the Catholic Church at Penfield, all the children having been reared and confirmed in that faith. In matters of politics Mr. and Mrs. Murphy are Democrats. In northeastern Champaign County the ability and success of Mr. Murphy's efforts as a farmer need no special mention. Farming with him is a business and crops always seem to prosper under his skillful touch. Mr. and "Mrs. Murphy have developed a fine grove of trees on their farm, an attractive feature of the landscape, furnishing protection to the live stock both winter and summer.

A word should be said concerning the younger children in school. Margaret is now in the seventh grade and Mildred in the fourth grade. Mr. and Mrs. Murphy have done everything they could to encourage their children in obtaining the best of educational advantages. Their daughter Mary especially excelled in penmanship and was awarded a Palmer's certificate for skill in writing.

JOHN WALLACE MULLIKEN. It is said that the greatest incentive to ambition for young people who have not yet discovered their proper talents and place in life are stories of successful self-made business men. Any boy might be encouraged by reading something of the career of John W. Mulliken, one of Champaign's leading merchants.

Mr. Mulliken has been a resident of Champaign County for over sixty years. He came to the county when a boy of six and he had practically no opportunities to gain an education. This was partly due to the fact that good public schools did not exist during his youth and also because of the necessity which early put him in the ranks of wage earners. When he was only eight years of age he entered the store of Walker Brothers in Champaign to learn the undertaking and furniture business. He remained steadily with this firm until 1877. This partnership later dissolved, and Mr. Mulliken was taken into the new firm, which later became known as Walker & Mulliken. Mr. Walker died in 1905, and at that time Mr. Mulliken took over the entire business and is now conducting it as a furniture store, having abandoned the undertaking business. He has given Champaign its largest and most complete furniture establishment. He carries over $40,000 worth of stock and is able to supply every demand that reasonable taste requires.

He was extremely young when his father died, and he has always taken a great deal of satisfaction in having undertaken the support of the family after it was deprived of the father's care. As his work was better rewarded he borrowed $600 to buy his mother a little home. On this borrowed money he paid interest at 1% per cent per month. It required four years of strict saving and hard work in order to pay off the debt.

Mr. Mulliken has always had musical talent and has done much to cultivate it. Even as a boy he was able to earn money on the side by playing in an orchestra. His employer, Mr. Walker, would let him off from business, knowing the uses to which he was putting his time. He used to play the tuba or the "bass," as it was called popularly, in the band, and in the orchestra his instrument was the double bass viol.

a son of Albert and Susan (Cook) Mulliken, both natives of the same county. Albert Mulliken was a lumber dealer in New York and he brought his family to Champaign June 15, 1855. Here for three years he was line agent for the Illinois Central Eailway, and then embarked in the agricultural implement business, which he continued until his death on July 23, 1864. His widow survived him many years. There were eight children, John W. being the youngest. William is .now deceased. Francis G. died at Duluth, Minnesota, January 1, 1917. at the age of eighty-four. Sarah is deceased. Clarence, deceased, undertook at the age of twenty years to copy the courthouse records of Champaign County, and he soon afterward enlisted in Company G of the Twenty-fifth Illinois Infantry, and died during the service. Edmund F. was also a soldier in Company G of the Twenty-fifth Illinois, was mustered out with the rank of sergeantmajor and is now deceased. Herbert, deceased, enlisted in the Seventysixth Illinois Infantry as band musician and served throughout the war. Helen, a twin sister of Herbert, is the widow of James C. Wright and lives at Champaign.

Mr. John W. Mulliken married September 10, 1876, Miss Josephine Danforth, a native of Union County, Ohio. She died in 1908, leaving two children, Albert D., an attorney at Champaign, and Phoebe, wife of Ellsworth Story of Seattle, Washington. Albert D. Mulliken married Pearl Mulberry, a native of Illinois, and they have two children, Wallace M. and Albert D. On July 10, 1911, Mr. Mulliken married for his present wife Jean Agnew, then a resident of Detroit but a native of Canada. Mr. Mulliken is a Republican in politics. He is a member of the Lodge, Chapter and Knight Templar Commandery of Masons, also belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and was a charter member of the Knights of Pythias lodge, but has given up that affiliation.

HENRY C. BEAK is one of the oldest residents of Champaign County. He went from Macon County as a brave and gallant soldier into the Union Army during the Civil War, returned after the war with his wounds and gave his energy to agriculture until his health would permit following that no longer, and now for many years he has been engaged in the grain business at Penfield. His is a record that deserves more than passing mention.

He was born at Mount Rock in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, a son of David and Maria (Yoter) Bear. His father was a native of Pennsylvania and his mother of Maryland. Henry C. was the oldest of their nine children and was fifteen years of age when the family came to Illinois, locating at Decatur in Macon County. Mr. Bear and his brothers and sisters were educated partly in Plainfield, Pennsylvania, and also in Illinois.

On November 17, 1859, Mr. Bear married Miss Lucetta Jane Likins. She was born in Marion County, Ohio, a daughter of John and Sarah (Cole) Likins, also natives of Ohio. Mrs. Bear was likewise fifteen years of age when her parents came to Illinois. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Bear located in Oakley Township in Macon County and were quietly engaged in the peaceful vocation of farming for several years.

Not long after the war began Mr. Bear showed his practical patriotism by enlisting in Company A of the One Hundred and Sixteenth Illinois Infantry. He enlisted at Decatur, went south to Memphis, and was soon with General Sherman's great armies operating around Vicksburg. Mr. Bear had his first experience in the scenes of warfare at Chickasaw Bayou, the engagement in which General Grant nearly lost the day and would have been defeated had it not been for the coming up of General Sherman's troops. Mr. Bear was next at Arkansas Post under General McClelland and was at the capture of Fort Hinman, where the Federals captured 5,500

Rebels. He was then again with the troops in the investment and siege of Vicksburg and helped dig the canal across the river from Vicksburg at Young's Point. He was also a participant in the expedition up the Yazoo River to Black Bayou and was in the skirmish with the Confederates who tried to prevent the Union forces from securing several gunboats. Mr. Bear was a participant in those fruitless efforts of General Grant in the early months of 1863 to open up the Mississippi by means of canals and in the later movements by which Sherman and Grant's armies engaged the Confederates at Fort Gibson, Bolton, Raymond and other points in the rear of Vicksburg. He was also at Champion Hill and Black River Bridge and on the 18th of May he was one of Grant's forces that seized the Confederate stronghold of Haines Bluff. On the next day Grant ordered an assault on the Vicksburg works, intending to charge with the entire line. He changed his mind and countermanded part of the order. The batteries, however, gave the signal to charge and two divisions, one of which Mr. Bear was a member, stormed the fort and were badly used by the Confederate garrison. Mr. Bear was severely wounded in this charge and was sent to Van Buren Hospital, where he remained until that hospital was discontinued on August 20th. The patients were sent to a hospital at Keokuk, Iowa, and on June 1, 1865, after the war was over, Mr. Bear was honorably discharged. The surgeons were never able to find the bullet which wounded him and he still carries it in his body and it has been a source of more or less trouble to him ever since. Besides his own wound Mr. Bear while at Vicksburg had to suffer the loss of a younger brother, William W. Bear. His death was caused by severe exposure during a storm. Mr. Bear ministered to the comfort of this brother during his last illness, and obtained a coffin in which he was laid to rest on one of the great battlefields around the Mississippi stronghold.

After his honorable discharge Mr. Bear returned home. Mrs. Bear had in the meantime lived with her own and her husband's people and had endured bravely the sacrifices which every soldier's wife must make in time of war. Before he went into the army they had buried their first child, Minerva May. When he returned from the army his wife presented him with a little daughter, then a year old, which she had named Eugenia C. With his family reunited Mr. Bear took up. the thread of life again as a farmer, and in the spring of 1869 located on a farm near Penfield in -Champaign County.

Two other children were born to their marriage. Their names were Mary M. and Eudora. Eudora died at four years of age of typhoid fever. Mr. and Mrs. Bear gave their children the best of educational advantages, at first in the district schools and then in the Penfield schools. The daughter Eugenia married David P. Cox, and they now reside in Denver, Colorado. To their union were born three children, named Thomas Henry, Weaver B. and Mary J. The son Weaver died and was buried after they moved to Denver.

Mary M. Bear married G. W. Hadden. Mr. Hadden with Mr. Henry Bear is engaged in the elevator business at Penfield and Gerald. They own the two elevators, the one at Penfield having a capacity of 16,000 bushels, and that at Gerald 35,000 bushels. In the course of a year they handle a large amount of the grain raised and produced in this section. Mr. and Mrs. Hadden have one child, Stanley B. Hadden, a fine manly boy who finished the eighth grade of the Penfield schools and then pursued the full course in the University of Illinois, from which he graduated. On leaving the university he became associated with his father and grandfather at Penfield. In 1016 he was solicited to teach the Gerald school, and his success there caused his engagement for the year 1917-18 as principal of the Penfield school. His father, G. W. Hadden, had been a teacher for twentyfive years, and education has been something of a family profession. Stanley

B. Hadden married Miss Sylvia Kenner of Urbana, . daughter of Enos Renner of that city. One child was born, Jane Elizabeth, on November 8, 1915. She is now eighteen months old and Mr. Henry Bear is very proud of his great-grandchild.

The Bear family attend the United Brethren Church in Penfield and have for many years been liberal supporters of its cause. Mr. Bear was an early abolitionist and in the main has supported men rather than the party. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias. For the past thirty-six years he and his wife have lived in Penfield, since his wounds received in his country's service incapacitated him for farm labor. The Bear home has been one of hospitality and one of the centers of culture and good influence in this section of the county. Mr. Bear has spent nearly half a century in Champaign County and has never cared to be away from the county for any length of time. He went to the capital at Washington, D. C., to attend President Cleveland's inauguration. The great recreation of his life has been fishing. No walk has been too long and the sun has never been too bright to hinder him from such sport. He was also an early day hunter and killed a number of deer in Macon County. His friends once planned a birthday surprise party for him. Mr. Azro Arms was delegated to keep Mr. Bear busy at the elevator until the company had assembled. He induced Mr. Bear to shoot at tin cans thrown into the air. After numerous failures and a few successful shots Mr. Bear said, "This is only a waste of ammunition. I can't shoot these cans like you." Mr. Arms was somewhat of an expert in this sport. To keep the unwitting host a little longer he replied, "What do we care for ammunition ? You are doing first rate ; keep on and try again." Thus he was able to divert him until the company had assembled and then they went together to the house. On seeing the crowd Mr. Bear understood Mr. Arms' enthusiasm and he enjoyed the joke as much as the rest of the company.

His life has been noted for honesty of purpose and has been a long and commendable one. Of his good wife the following words may be appropriately recalled :

"It is a wonderful thing, a mother. Other folks may love you, but only your mother understands. She works for you, prays for you, watches over you, forgives you anything you may do, understands you, and the only thing unkind she ever does to you is to die and leave you."

GEOHGE B. FRANKS. Considered as an art, landscape gardening is one that has a definite place in life, appealing to and satisfying that innate sense of the beautiful that all possess to some degree. Nature points the way and it is the precious gift of the landscape gardener to be able to reproduce, in limited space, her noble effects and most pleasing arrangement of tree, shrub and flower. The wonderful facility in this direction, as in other artistic talents, is largely an inherited gift, although to make it practical, of course, there must be much definite knowledge, mathematical and otherwise. Perhaps no university grounds in the country, and certainly none other in the State, have been as carefully and tastefully laid out as those of the University of Illinois and this admirable example of landscape gardening will long perpetuate the name of Franks, a name that has been identified here with flowers and gardening for almost a half century. The business, established in 1871 by the late Thomas Edward Franks, is prosperously continued by his son and partner, George B. Franks, the leading florist and very prominent citizen of Champaign.

George B. Franks was born at Champaign, Illinois, November 2, 1879. His parents were Thomas Edward and Annie (English) Franks, the former of whom was born in England and the latter in Ireland. Thomas Edward Franks was a nurseryman in England before immigrating to Canada, in

1865, after which he became a landscape gardener, first near Hamilton, Ontario, and then in Cook County, Illinois, and was associated with others in laying out Lincoln Park, Chicago.

In 1868 Thomas Edward Franks came to the city of Champaign, and here for three years he had entire charge of laying out and beautifying the grounds of the University of Illinois, a task he enjoyed and the result being admirable in every way. In 1871 Mr. Franks purchased property on the corner of Randolph and Vine streets, Champaign, and there started the first greenhouse in the city. In 1892 he enlarged the scope of his business, purchasing land at No. 204 East University Avenue, where he erected a nursery and greenhouse plant, and subsequently established a branch for raising cut flowers on North Goodwin Avenue. Both plants are of modern construction with every improved equipment known to the business, and there are in the older plant 15,000 feet of glass. Mr. Franks admitted his son, George B. Franks, to partnership in 1905, but continued an active factor in the business until 1911, when he retired. His death occurred October 8, 1916, having survived his wife since November 9, 1901.

George B. Franks attended the public schools at Champaign, and after completing the high school course expressed a desire for a business life, shortly afterward accepting a position in the State National Bank of Oklahoma, at Oklahoma City. The death of his mother in 1901 recalled him home, and because of his father's loneliness, he being the only child, he decided to give up his prospects in Oklahoma and remain with his father, his tastes also having considerable influence, for he has inherited the love for flowers and the understanding methods which have made both father and son successful along this line. He applied himself to the practical details of the business and gave his father valued assistance for four years and then was admitted to a partnership in the business of which he is now sole owner, and during the last five years of his father's life was the same to a large extent, being the active manager after 1911. When the Champaign Park Board was organized his father served as a member and Mr. Franks also has served three years as a member of this board.

On October 31, 1911, Mr. Franks was united in marriage with Miss Janet Styles, who was born in Missouri, and they have one son, who bears his grandfather's honored name, Thomas Edward Franks. Mr. and Mrs. Franks are members of the Episcopal Church.

In political life Mr. Franks has been quite active for a number of years and in 1910 was elected on the Democratic ticket alderman of the Third Ward, in which office he served with the greatest efficiency and public spirit until May 1, 1917, when the city adopted the commission form of government, when Mr. Franks was elected on the commission and is now serving as commissioner of public safety. He was the only man who was carried over from the old form of government in Champaign. He is well known in fraternal circles, belonging to Western Star Lodge, A. F. & A. M. ; Champaign Chapter and Commandery and Mohammed Temple, A. A. 0. N. M. S., at Champaign, and the Eastern Star, and additionally belongs to the Elks, the Order of Ben Hur and the Knights of Pythias.

JULIUS M. GEHRT has been successfully identified with Champaign County agriculture for a number of years, and is the owner and proprietor of a fine farm in section 33 of Harwood Township, near the village of Dillsburg.

Mr. Gehrt was born at Lawn Ridge, Illinois, a son of John M. and Catherine (Best) Gehrt. His parents were both born in Germany, came to America in early life, were married in this country and the father is still living, at the ripe age of eighty-three, on his farm in Stark County, Illinois. The mother is now deceased. Julius M. Gehrt was next to the youngest in a family of eight children.

He grew up on his father's farm in Stark County and attended the public schools at Spear in that county. January 15, 1902, he married Miss Carolina Kuhn. Mrs. Gehrt is a native of Germany, born near the city of Berlin, and fourth among the five children of Philip and Elizabeth (Hoeltzel) Kuhn. The Kuhn children were named Philip, Salome, Fred, Carolina and Elizabeth. When Mrs. Gehrt was eleven years of age the family came to America and she and her brothers and sisters attended the public schools of Peoria and of Stark County, Illinois.

After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Gehrt located on a rented farm in Peoria County, but in 1903 they rented a place of 160 acres owned by his father near Dillsburg in Champaign County. Here their years have been prospered and they now have the active management of a place of 347 acres. Mr. Gehrt is a very methodical and progressive farmer and has introduced many practices approved by experience. He does much stock raising, and has a herd of fine Durham cows and ships large quantities of cream.

Mr. and Mrs. Gehrt are the parents of five children: Forest L., Elmer F., Ernest H., Alice May and Julius. The children are being educated in the Battles school district, and the oldest child, Forest, 'now twelve years of age, is just entering the eighth grade.

Mrs. Gehrt is an active member of the German Lutheran Church at Gifford and the children attend the Sunday school at Eantoul. Mr. Gehrt has proved public spirited in his community relations as well as progressive in his business as a farmer. He served several years as school trustee and in politics is a stanch Eepublican. He and his wife maintain a most hospitable home, and their relations with the community have been characterized by neighborly kindness as well as by hard work and the intelligence which has brought them a good home and substantial prosperity.

GEORGE W. HARWOOD is one of the oldest business men still in active service in the city of Champaign. He came to Champaign County soon after the Civil War, in which he had fought gallantly as a Union soldier, and during the greater part of his residence here has been in the real estate and insurance business. There is no man better informed on the changing values of real estate and with a more authoritative knowledge of realty conditions.

Mr. Harwood is of New England birth and ancestry, and was born at North Brookfield, Worcester County, Massachusetts, September 18, 1841. His parents, George and Angeline (Allen) Harwood, were also natives of Massachusetts, spent their lives there, and his father was a farmer in moderate circumstances. There were three children : Anna, deceased ; George W. ; and Ethan A., who still lives on the old home place at North Brookfield.

George W. Harwood had the training of the typical New England boy, grew up to habits of industry, learned the lessons of the district schools, and at the age of twenty enlisted in Company E of the Thirty-sixth Massachusetts Infantry. He saw three years of hard service. He was in some of the greatest campaigns of the war. At Jackson, Mississippi, during the Yicksburg campaign, he was wounded, and again was wounded at Campbell's Station in Tennessee. He went in as private and came out as first lieutenant. He was mustered out at Eeedville, Massachusetts.

and for five years was a practical farmer in Newcomb Township. He then removed to Champaign and ever since has been engaged in the real estate and insurance business. He has handled many large and important transactions in local realty and has also represented some of the standard insurance companies. Mr. Harwood is now secretary of the Champaign Loan and Banking Association. His offices are located at 21 Main Street. His citizenship has always been straightforward and public spirited. He is a Bepublican, an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and belongs to the military order of the Loyal Legion. He and his family are members of the First Presbyterian Church. Mr. Harwood marriedin November, 1866, Miss Mary N. Harwood, a distant relative and a native of Kentucky.

,J. W. McCuLLODGH has long been a resident of Champaign County. His life's activities have been expressed along different lines, as a successful agriculturist, a merchant, and in his later years, with greater opportunity for leisure, he is applying himself to the management, with his son, of a large business at Rantoul for the handling of grain, fuel and implements.

Mr. McCullough is a native of DeWitt County, Illinois, and a son of James and Mary Jane (Eusk) McCullough. His parents were born in Ohio and in the early days they came to Illinois, crossing the intervening country in covered wagons or prairie schooners. They located near Clinton in this state and the children attended district school. When J. W. McCullough was eleven years of age they came to Champaign County and located on a farm six miles southeast of Eantoul in the Kentucky settlement.

Here Mr. McCullough attended school and at the same time assisted his father on the farm. That was his routine of life until twenty-one, and then, in November, 1879, he laid the foundation of his own home by his marriage to Isella Boys. Mrs. McCullough was born in Ohio, daughter of Jonathan and Elizabeth Boys. Her parents came to Illinois and she received most of her education in the Prairie Star School in 'Champaign County. This school has the reputation of having turned out many successful students, including a number of teachers.

After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. McCullough started out as renters, and subsequently moved to his father's farm. The young people proved themselves possessed of energy and industry and they practiced economy until they were able to purchase eighty acres of land. From the farm Mr. McCullough eventually removed to tlrbana and engaged in the grocery business, but then returned to his farm for three years, and finally located at Eantoul, where in connection with farming he began buying stock on an extensive scale. He was one of the leading shippers of live stock out of this county for a number of years. Subsequently he expanded his operations by handling grain, and now owns a large elevator at Eantoul with a capacity of 40,000 bushels. Grain to the average of 200,000 bushels per year is marketed through the medium of Mr. McCullough's enterprise. The passing years have brought a steady increase to his land holdings, and in the counties of Champaign, Ford and Lee he now owns altogether an estate of 850 acres.

Mr. McCullough and his fine family live in an attractive residence in Eantoul a short distance down the interurban track below the Methodist Church. A low stone fence separates the pleasant grounds from the street, and behind that fence is every evidence of comfort and liberal hospitality. Mr. and Mrs. McCullough have six children : Elsie, Irene, George, Frank, John and William. The parents have felt the responsibility of giving these children the best of home and school training and all have been educated in the high school at Eantoul.

McCormick and they have two children, George and Ruth. The son Frank, who lives in a home adjoining that of his father, is manager with his father of the coal, grain and implement business conducted under the name McCullough & Son. Frank McCullough married Florence Carlson and they have a young daughter, Zella Jeanette, now three years of age. She has completely won the hearts of her grandparents.

Mr. and Mrs. McCullough are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Politically Mr. McCullough supports the principles of prohibition. He is a man broad in his views and believes that the irldividual can exert his influence best by supporting principles rather than a party and by exercising a discriminating choice among candidates for office. Mr. McCullough has served as supervisor and as school director and has done all he could to raise the standards of local education. Mrs. McCullough is a cultured and popular member of local society in Rantoul, and the family as a whole on account of their business energy, success and public spirit hold a high place in that community.

WILLIAM HARTFORD, D. 0. The science of osteopathy, which has its fundamental principle in the theory that most diseases of humanity are traceable to malformation of some part of the skeleton, long since has passed the experimental stage and has become a widely recognized and sane factor in the alleviation of the suffering of mankind. A capable and enthusiastic promoter of this method of cure is found in Dr. William Hartford of Champaign, who has been engaged in practice here since 1899, and whose professional career has been one characterized by remarkably successful results. He is a native of Henderson County, Illinois, and was born December 6, 1856, a son of Winfield Scott and Lucetta Rebekah (Thomas) Hartford.

The family history of Dr. Hartford is a decidedly interesting one. In 1579 Sir John Hartford, son of Thomas Hartford, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth for brave and honorable service rendered in the wars of that period, and was given a province, or manor, in southern Scotland. While he had been born in Northumberland County, England, after being given this manor he settled in Scotland, where the family resided until during the persecution of the Church of Scotland by the ruler of England, when the younger members of the family were driven into northern Ireland and became what is known as Scotch-Irish. About 1730 James and Patrick Hartford, descendants of Sir John, who were attending college at Belfast, Ireland, as students, were enticed aboard one of the vessels lying in the harbor one Saturday afternoon, and before they were aware of it anchor had been weighed and the vessel had put to sea. They were impressed into service as cabin boys and on arising one morning Patrick Hartford, finding his brother missing, was informed that his brother had fallen overboard, had died after being taken from the water, and had subsequently been buried at sea. In reality, the brothers had been kidnaped to be sold in the New World as bond slaves, a not unusual custom of the day, and were only kept apart for that purpose, although Patrick Hartford never knew but that his brother was dead, and, in fact, both brothers died ignorant of the fact that the other was living. However, the grandchildren of each brother met in Henderson County, Illinois, in 1865. In giving their family history both told the same story, when William Hartford, grandson of Patrick, asked James Hartford, grandson of James, what his grandfather's given name was. He was told and was also informed that James had been landed at New York, while Patrick had been landed at Philadelphia. When the young men became twenty-one years of age they

When the French and Indian war broke out, in 1763, Patrick Hartford entered the service of the Crown, under Major George Washington of the Colonial army, was promoted to the position of exchanging officer, and led a company of Colonial soldiers against the siege of Louisburg. In the exchange of prisoners on the western frontier, Patrick Hartford came upon a number of women and children who had been captured by the savages, and negotiated a trade with the Indians whereby he paid one quart of rum each for the prisoners, whom he safely conducted back to their families and friends in eastern Pennsylvania. In later years he met a young lady by the name of Jane McCammant, who had been stolen by the Indians when eight or nine years, of age and held prisoner by them for a period of three years and nine months, when rescued. She was the daughter of a wealthy Scotch-Irish farmer in the Susquehanna Valley. She became his wife, and in later years, when they were talking over the exciting incidents of their childhood period and he had told her of his having been kidnaped and sold as a bond slave, she in return told him of her years spent in Indian captivity. When, in a reply to her husband's question, she said that she had been exchanged at a Detroit Indian station and gave the time, he exclaimed : "Why, you were not exchanged ; I bought you free with a quart of rum from the Indians," and so it developed that she was one of the party of women and children that he had been called upon to rescue when he was exchanging officer for the British army. Nine children were born to Patrick and Jane (McCammant) Hartford, Dr. William Hartford being descended from the third son, John.

John Hartford moved to Canada in 1795, when his son William, the grandfather of Dr. Hartford, who had been born in Pennsylvania, was about six months, old. He resided there until the period of the War of 1812, when he moved to Muskingum County, Ohio, where 'he spent the remainder of his life, passing away January 13, 1833. He married Betsy Patterson, whose family was of Scotch-Irish origin. Her father and four brothers, William, 'John, Alexander and James, enlisted for service in the Revolutionary War and when their terms of service expired re-enlisted, all being mustered out with honorable discharges at the close, with the exception of one brother, who was killed at the battle of Brandywine. This family were Covenanters, or Presbyterian, and Seceders - there were no atheists, no Universalists or Catholics among them.

At the close of the Revolutionary War, as a special inducement to secure settlers, Canada offered to give to each settler 200 acres of land and the privilege of choosing their own Legislature and making their own laws, as they were in the United States. A proclamation was issued to this effect, and as a result hundreds of poor men flocked into Canada, among them being John Hartford, who, as before noted, went there in the summer of 1795. He found, however, when he arrived that the laws were already made and that in order to secure the land he would be required to take the oath of allegiance to the king, this oath being set down by his son as reading as follows : "You do solemnly swear that you will bear true allegiance to King George III, and that you will forever disown and disdain any pardon from any foreign power, or dispensation whatever." This oath John Hartford refused to take, but bought a tract of a young man by the name of Gabriel Evans, who had taken the oath and secured the land, but who, in an altercation with a British officer, due to his failure to remove his hat when meeting him, had struck the officer (who had first knocked his hat off with his sword), and was thus guilty of treason and was compelled to flee the country. John Hartford bought his place by assuming his indebtedness for 1,000 rails which Evans had ordered split. The place

William Hartford remained on this property with his father until March, 1812, when he left home to learn the trade of blacksmith. In June of the same year the second war with Great Britain was declared, and his elder brothers were drafted into the British army. When the war broke out the governor-general of Canada ordered all who claimed allegiance to the United States to appear upon the Niagara Eiver at Queenstown and there they would be sent over to Lewiston on the American side. William Hartford, who had returned home, was among those who appeared, but the transports were so busy with a great crowd that it made it look as though Canada were to be depopulated, and he did not succeed in getting across. At this time the battle of Queenstown occurred, in which General Brock was killed, and the commander-in-chief of the British fort cancelled the order and drafted every man from the age of sixteen to sixty years into the British service, ordering them to appear at the parade grounds at Terry Berry's cross roads at ten o'clock the next day. William Hartford evaded the service through losing his way to the point of meeting, for his sympathies were with the United States, where he had been born, but eventually he was seized by some British soldiers and taken to headquarters, where he was court-martialed and sentenced to be shot, but through the friendly intervention of a British officer, who was a friend of his father, was taken with a gang of prisoners to fell some trees to form a block house and was put to work by himself in an isolated spot, which was the cue for him to make his escape. He did so and arrived home that night about midnight, disguised as an Irish "paddy," with a halter on his arm as though looking for horses. His father gave him all the silver he had in the house, about $2.25, for Canadian bills were' of no use to him in the United States, for which country he was heading. After numerous thrilling adventures, he finally reached his destination and found his way to the home of some relatives on his mother's side in eastern Pennsylvania. He was later arrested as a spy, but after satisfying the army of his loyalty he was allowed to enlist as a soldier in the War of 1812-14. He fought at Lundy's Lane under General Winfield Scott, and was at Fort Mackinac,. Michigan, when its inhabitants were massacred by the Indians. With one or two others he escaped, and they subsisted on roots and bark and on rabbits which they killed with stones until they finally reached Niagara. They were never mustered out. William Hartford dared not go back into Canada and had no means of communicating with his father for three years, when a horse-trader, going up into that country, carried a letter from him to his father. He brought back a reply, and the father eventually sold his personal property under the hammer for ready cash and came to the United States, buying about three hundred tw< - acres of land eighteen miles north of Zanesville, Ohio, where he spt the rest of his days. William Hartford was married at the age of twenty-five years to Eliza James, and they became the parents of ten children, of whom Dr. Hartford's father, Winfield Scott, was the second born.

Winfield Scott Hartford was born in Muskingum County, Ohio, and received an ordinary education in the schools that the day and locality afforded. He was reared to the pursuits of agriculture and was still a young man when, in the fall of 1846, he passed through Champaign County and Urbana at a time when there was but a little tavern at that point, he being then on his way to Henderson County, Illinois. Doctor Hartford has heard his father tell how the land all around Urbana was bog land, and of how one could stand and shake the ground under his feet. Winfield S. Hartford accumulated land in Henderson County, where he remained for four years engaged in farming, and at the time of selling out and leaving had over 400 acres. He returned to Ohio and remained that winter, and then prevailed upon his father to sell out his Ohio holdings and come to the west. William Hartford came through by wagon in 1852 and his first impressions of the country could not have been very favorable, for on the present site of the Flatiron Building, of Urbana, Champaign, his teams mired down, so that it took him a whole day to get his wagons out of that bog hole. Land values at that time were fifty cents an acre here, and it may be that he would have purchased property had he known what they would increase to, but instead he pushed on to Henderson County, where the family made their home for more than twenty years. In later years Winfield S. Hartford moved on to Adair County, and later to Springfield, Missouri, where his death occurred November 12, 1900, the mother, Lucetta Rebekah (Thomas) Hartford, a native of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, having passed away in Adair County, Missouri, November 5, 1867. To their union there were eleven children born: Eliza, who is the widow of Robert G. David, and resides at Cana, Kansas; Mary A., who is the widow of James Brooks, of Idaho ; Sarah E., who is the widow of Alexander McLelland, of Miami, Oklahoma; Justice, who is deceased; Doctor William, of this review; John T., a resident of Missouri; Isaac J., of Manitoba, Canada; Elmira L., who is the wife of H. L. Walker, of Idaho; Martha R., who is the wife of Robert E. Bledsoe, of Oklahoma; and Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, twins, the former deceased and the latter a physician and a resident of Gibson City, Illinois. The mother died at the time the twins were born.

William Hartford remained with his father until he was twenty-one years of age, in the meantime receiving such education as the meager opportunities of that time afforded. At the time that he reached his majority he entered the State Normal School at Kirksville, Missouri, but remained at that institution only one semester, then returning home to begin teaching his old district school where he had first attended. For four years he remained in charge of that school, each year receiving an increase in salary as an appreciation of his capable services, and in the meantime returned to the normal school during the vacation periods, thus improving his own education all the time. He graduated from the normal school in 1886, and following this taught in the city school of Middle Grove, Missouri, for two years, then being elected county superintendent of schools for that county in 1888. At the expiration of his term he went to Saint Edwards, Nebraska, where he was superintendent of city schools for two years, and in 1892 was nominated as county superintendent of schools for Boone County, Nebraska, but on account of his wife's ill health was forced to decline the nomination. He then returned to Kirksville, Missouri, where resided an osteopathic physician whom he knew and in whom he had the greatest confidence. Physicians in Nebraska had given his wife up as incurable, but under the skillful treatment of this osteopath, Dr. A. T. Still, she fully recovered her health.

For some time Doctor Hartford had been carefully watching and investigating Doctor Still's methods of practice, and his success in curing his wife caused him to fully decide to enter the American School of Osteopathy. He made rapid progress and graduated in osteopathy June 22, 1897, almost immediately thereafter going to Clarinda, Iowa, to practice, only to find that there was a state law against it, but while there he made several remarkable cures. Subsequently he went to Ogden, Utah, opened an office and began professional business, but after thirty days was arrested for the practice of osteopathy. He was acquitted at his trial, but within fifteen minutes was again arrested, was again acquitted and was arrested for the third time. He stood this trial before the judge of the Circuit Court and it lasted from 8 :00 A. M. until 5 :00 P. M. The judge took it under advisement for two weeks before making his decision, and during those two weeks the case was thrown out of court. It was at the instigation of the State Board of Physicians that he was arrested, and after his final acquittal Doctor Hartford sued this board for $10,000 damages, but the matter was compromised by leaving him to practice in peace thereafter.

A little later Doctor Hartford returned to Illinois, where he learned a law also existed against the practice of osteopathy. Later he went to Iowa and was instrumental in securing the passage of a law permitting the practice of osteopathy in that and other states, and in 1899 came to Champaign, Illinois, where he passed the examination of the State Board of Health. He opened an office in the annex of the Beardsley Hotel January 1, 1900, and remained in that office for three years, at the end of which time he removed t6 the Illinois Building. In 1912 he came to his present offices, in the First National Bank Building, where he is enjoying a large practice. His office is unexcelled in equipment, containing the most practical apparatus thus far discovered, as well as the latest periodicals and books bearing upon the subject which is enlisting his best energy and thought.

Doctor Hartford was married March 26, 1882, to Miss Hattie Sterrett, a native of Putnam County, Missouri, and to this union there have been born two children. The first, Dr. William Scott Hartford, of Los Angeles, California, is a graduate of the Chicago College of Osteopathy and Herring Homeopathic College of Chicago. In 1906 he located at Urbana, Illinois, where he had a large practice until 1916, and in that year disposed of his property interests and went to Los Angeles, California, where he is now located at No. 310 Story Building. Naoma Rebekah, the only daughter of Doctor and Mrs. Hartford, is a graduate of the Champaign High School, of the National Park Seminary, Washington, D. C., and of the University of Illinois, and for two years before her marriage was a teacher in the city schools of Champaign. She is now the wife of William L. Ashbeck, of Chicago, Illinois.

Politically Doctor Hartford is a Republican. His fraternal affiliations are with the Masons, the Knights of Pythias and the Guardians of Liberty, and, with the members of his family, he belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church.

FELIX G. CAMPBELL was a thoroughly practical and successful farmer before he took up the business of real estate, loans and insurance at Champaign, and in both lines his success has been noteworthy. He is still a farmer through ownership, though no longer a worker in the fields, and he now gives all his time to an extensive clientage in real estate and insurance.

Mr. Campbell was born in Preble County, Ohio, November 11, 1848, and was four years of age when his parents, John W. and Margaret N. (Dooley) Campbell, moved to Peoria, Illinois. His father was a native of Kentucky and his mother of Illinois. John W. Campbell spent his active career as a farmer, largely in Peoria County, and finally, when he and his wife retired, they went to live with their daughter Addie, at that time in Burton, Kansas, where both of them died. They were the parents of seven children : Mary E., David 0., Charles L., Samuel, all deceased ; Addie, wife of William H. Wilson of Wichita, Kansas; Felix G.; and George W. of Lincoln, Nebraska.

Histoey Of Champaign .County 743

he left home and lived on rented farms for about five years, when he bought eighty acres of his own and subsequently another eighty acres, this 160 acres constituting a very fine improved farm in Peoria County. Later Mr. Campbell bought 160 acres in Champaign County. He still owns both farms. In 1892 he removed to Champaign and for a quarter of a century has been handling real estate, insurance and loans. Mr. Campbell is an active Eepublican and a member of the Presbyterian Church. On September 4, 1872, he married Miss Alice Gilbert, a native of Peoria County. They are the parents of four children: Walter G., deceased; Maude, at home; Kalph M., associated with his father in business ; and Leland L. of Champaign.

CHARLES GORDON. Now enjoying the comforts of a home in Eantoul that is one of the best residences of that town, Mr. and Mrs. Gordon are able to look back with pardonable pride upon a long and active career spent in Champaign County. Mr. Gordon gained his success as a farmer. Industry, combined with good judgment, gave him a competency many years ago, and he is looked upon as one of the large land holders and substantial citizens of this section.

A native of Ireland, he was horn in Wexford County, a son of John and Mary (Whalen) Gordon. A year and a half after his birth his parents came to America in 1857, and for the first nine years lived in Aurora, Illinois. From there they moved to Shabbona Grove in DeKalb County, "*and three years later, in 1869, came to Champaign County. Charles Gordon was the fourth in a family of five sons and three daughters. These children were all educated in the district schools of Compromise Township in this county.

Charles Gordon as he grew to manhood assisted his father on the farm and in 1886 he established a home of his own by his marriage to Miss Hanora Jackson. Mrs. Gordon was born in Morris, Eipley County, Indiana, fifth in a family of five daughters and four sons of John and Anna (Molloy) Jackson. She was educated in the high school at Eantoul.

Having - inherited 160 acres of land from his father, Mr. and Mrs. Gordon located on that farm in Kerr Township after their marriage and put to the test the qualifications they had as industrious and economical young people. Their prosperity grew and in time they found themselves the possessors of a fine estate of splendid land, 640 acres. Mr. Gordon has often succeeded in his agricultural efforts where others have failed, and his friends say that he has a genius for making mother earth yield bountifully to every effort he puts forth.

In time there came into their home seven children, two sons and five daughters: John F., Joseph A., Alice M., Theresa M., Clara A., Rose A. and Nona M. From the first Mr. and Mrs. Gordon were ambitious that their children should have the best of educational opportunities. They first attended the Gordon district schools. Alice and Theresa were students in the St. Mary of the Woods at Terre Haute, which is one of the finest schools of culture and training in the Middle West. Theresa graduated with honors from that institution. John F. studied three years in St. Viator's College at Kankakee. Joseph Gordon began his higher studies in St. Bede's College at Peru, Illinois, and graduated from the college course at St. Viator's, and spent four years in St. Paul's Seminary at St. Paul, Minnesota. On finishing his philosophical and theological studies he was ordained a priest at Peoria, June 17, 1916, by Bishop Edmund Dunne. He was then appointed assistant pastor of St. Mark's Parish in Peoria under Father Burke. He has distinguished himself as a studious and consecrated young priest and has a large circle of friends. Clara and Eose became students in the Villa de Chantal College of Eock Island and Clara graduated with the class of 1914. This class contained ten graduates. The daughter Nona is now a student in the Donovan Memorial School at Rantoul. Thus Mr. and Mrs. Gordon have largely succeeded in their task of educating their children and of preparing them for true and useful citizenship. Alice M. Gordon married Francis J. Klein, and they reside on part of the Gordon estate.

The Gordon family are active members of St. Malachi's Catholic Church at Rantoul. For twenty-seven years Mr. Gordon served as treasurer of his home school district and that old school has taken the name of the family and is now known as the Gordon School, the land having been donated by Mr. Gordon for school purposes.

In February, 1916, Mr. and Mrs. Gordon gave up the active responsibilities of managing their extensive landed property, and removing to Rantoul, built a fine residence at the corner of Belle Avenue and High Street. Here they have every comfort and convenience, and are also in close touch with their large circle of friends. Their son John F. Gordon has now assumed the chief responsibilities of managing the homestead farm in Kerr Township. He married Emma McEvelly of Minooka, Illinois. They have a young daughter four years old named Vivian Gordon.

JOHN C. KEUSE is one of Champaign's oldest business men in point of continuous service, having lived in that city for almost half a century. He has been an independent merchant for over forty-five years, and he has wisely looked after and directed the business training of his sons and assisted each one to get established in business.

Mr. Kruse is a native of Germany, where he was born July 23, 1840, son of John 0. and Minnie (Martens) Kruse. His parents spent all their lives in Germany. John C. Kruse had that substantial training afforded by the public school system of Germany. His father intended that he should go to a seminary and qualify for the profession of teacher. His father was a cabinetmaker, and before the plan had been carried out with respect to the son's education he became so deaf that his son had to leave school and take charge of the business.

Thus when Mr. Kruse came to the United States in 1867 he had mastered a trade and had considerable business experience. He first located in Cleveland, Ohio, but after a year there moved to Champaign, Illinois. Being an expert workman, he found employment in the furniture factory of Walker Brothers, with whom he remained four years. Out of his modest savings he then engaged in a business for himself and has been one of the leading furniture dealers and undertakers in Champaign for so many years that few residents of the city can recollect when the name of John C. Kruse was not in the business directory. In politics Mr. Kruse has maintained an independent attitude for a number of years. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America.

On December 6, 1869, he married Miss Doris Busch. Nine children have been born to their union : Minnie and Otto, both deceased ; Valdemar, in the furniture business at Champaign ; Emil, deceased ; Paul, in the electrical business at Champaign; Edgar, in the automobile business there; Carl, an electrician; Robert, deceased; and Albert, associated with his father in the furniture business. Each of these sons remained with their father until twenty-one years of age, receiving no pay except board and keep. On reaching manhood the father started each one in a separate business for himself, though retaining some financial interest in the venture. It was a splendid way to do and the results have well justified the plan.

ENGWARD BENGTSON. While good Americans today find it entirely unnecessary to refer to other countries in order to establish honorable standing, it is but natural that a kind feeling should ever be preserved for the land of one's ancestors, and especially may this be the case when attention can be centered on Sweden. That country has contributed nobly to. the good citizenship of America, and in every part of the United States may be found men of Swedish extraction who have proved their dependable qualities. They are found in Champaign County among the representative citizens and progressive farmers. Here the Bengtson and Gilburg names have been held in the highest regard for very many years.

Bngward Bengtson, one of the large farmers and successful cattle growers of Champaign County, was born in Ford County, Illinois, and is a son of Charles and Clara Bengtson. They were born in Sweden and came early to -Illinois. They endured many hardships, as did all the early settlers, but they acquired property through their perseverance and industry and the father still lives to enjoy the comfortable surroundings which seem to be the rightful accompaniments of age. About 1900 they removed from their farm of 245 acres, situated in Harwood Township, to Paxton, Illinois, where the beloved mother passed away April 15, 1917, attended carefully, tenderly and scientifically by their daughter, Tillie Bengtson, who is a graduate nurse of Wesley Hospital, Chicago. She still maintains a home at Paxton to care for her venerable father. To Charles Bengtson and wife the following children were born: Alfred, George (who died December 3, 1916), Engward, Tillie and Carl.

Engward Bengtson attended the publiq schools and was a student in the Ludlow High School. He gave his father assistance on the farm, as was natural and proper, taking a deep interest in all the industries and advocating improvements when he found them desirable. When his parents left the farm and moved to Paxton he and his brother George took entire charge and Tillie became the housekeeper. The death of his brother and his own marriage made some change in the domestic arrangements, but he has continued to operate the land and has been exceedingly successful in this undertaking. Under his management the Bengtson farm has retained its old reputation for fine cattle, and perhaps no finer herds of Durham can be found in the county. He has had a continuous record for large yields, particularly in corn and oats, eighty bushels to the acre not being unusual in corn, and in 1915 he harvested 5,340 bushels of oats. He keeps well posted on agricultural matters and is not afraid of new ventures and has met with some success in his experiments with alfalfa. Although he has met with a gratifying amount of prosperity in his agricultural industries in Champaign County, as a good business man he thought it desirable to look over some other agricultural sections arid in 1907 spent some time in the vicinity of Spokane Falls, Washington. It resulted in his contented return to Champaign County, firm in the opinion that this is, indeed, the garden spot of the world, a section that cannot be surpassed for rich farming land, equable climate and good neighbors.

In 1912 Mr. Bengtson was married to Miss Sylvia Gilburg, who was born in Benton County, Indiana, and is a daughter of Carl Oscar and Louise (Anderson) Gilburg, both of whom came early to Indiana and were married at Attica. They had the following children : Sylvia, Lena, George, Emma and John, all of whom were educated in the public schools of Fowler, Indiana. Even before the marriage of the son and daughter, the Bengtson and Gilburg families were very friendly and frequently visited each other. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Bengtson settled on the old Bengtson homestead and have resided here ever since. They have one son, Edward Charles Bengtson, a handsome, sturdy little fellow of whom parents and grandparents are justly proud. Mr. and Mrs. Bengtson attend ^he Swedish Mission Church at Paxton, Illinois. In politics Mr. Bengtsonis a Democrat and a great admirer of President Woodrow Wilson, believing that he is the providentially selected man of the hour for the great responsibilities now resting upon him.

CHARLES B. WIGGINS. So indispensable has the automobile become to modern life that one is led to marvel that such great progress in manufacture and use could have been made in comparatively so short a time. Although the idea of self-propelled vehicles was entertained and to some extent proved possible long before 1886, when the first horseless carriage as a practical conveyance appeared on the boulevards of Paris, France, it presented so many impossible features that for years the venture was not regarded as feasible. When other motive power than steam became known to the industries, it required only the application of inventive minds to evolve the automobile, a rather crude affair even in the summer of 1898, when in the entire United States there were only eighty of these new vehicles. In comparison with the present the record is astounding, not only in the volume of automobile output, but in the improvements that each year adds to the utility, beauty, use and comfort of this wonderful invention. With the increased use of the automobile dawned a new prosperity in every land, business methods have been revolutionized, agriculture is carried on along new lines, social life has been pleasantly stimulated and even war is prosecuted with unheard of vigor because of automobile inventions. Thousands of far-seeing business men find profit in handling one or another of the special type of cars, and along this line an immense business is being transacted at Champaign by Charles B. Wiggins, who is the local agent for the well known Cadillac cars.

Although numbered with Champaign's most representative and solid business men, Charles B. Wiggins is not a native of Illinois. He was born near Circleville, Ohio, January 16, 1872. His parents are Henry J. and Eosalie (Eggleston) Wiggins, both of whom were born in Ohio. They now reside at Homer, in Champaign County, Illinois, where the father is engaged in a banking business. Three sons made up the family : Perley, who is associated with his father in the bank; Charles B., who belongs to Champaign; and Henry, who is deceased.

Completing his public school course by the age of sixteen years, Charles B. Wiggins for a time was connected with his father's bank. Later he went to the Arkansas Valley in Colorado, and near Rocky Ford bought a large farm and went into the business of raising sugar beets, an industry he continued for four years, and then took advantage of an excellent offer and sold out. He returned then to Illinois and re-entered his father's banking establishment and in the course of time became vice president of the bank and continued in the financial field until 1912, when he sold 'his interest and came then to Champaign.

In coming to this city Mr. Wiggins had a very definite plan in view and immediately set about putting it into execution. He immediately invested in valuable vacant property, on which he erected one of the finest business structures in this city, a four-story fireproof building which has a frontage of forty-six feet on Hickory Street and forty-six feet on Neil Street, with a depth of 100 feet. The entire building is devoted to the exhibition of the Cadillac cars. Out of the numberless makes of automobiles, each with special claims to attention, Mr. Wiggins selected the Cadillac, assuring himself first concerning the superiority which he has no difficulty in impressing on buyers when they view and investigate the merits of the magnificent display of cars provided in such an admirable setting by Mr. Wiggins.

On September 16, 1901, Mr. Wiggins was united in marriage with Miss Daisy Morrison, who is a daughter of Elisha A. Morrison, a well known resident of Homer, Illinois, and one daughter was born to them, Marion, who did not survive infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Wiggins are members 'of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Mrs. Wiggins taking an active part in the benevolent work for which this religious body is notable.

Not only is Mr. Wiggins an alert and progressive business man, but is active also in all that pertains to public affairs, especially in his own city, and, elected on the Republican ticket, he effectively served as alderman of the Sixth Ward until May, 1917, when a commission form of government was adopted. Fraternally he is identified with the Masons and the Elks.

THOMAS B. WELLES, whose fine country home is in section 7 of Compromise Township, in the Penfield community, has gained an enviable position among the progressive and successful farmer citizens of Champaign County. The passing years have brought him a large degree of that material prosperity which is characteristic of this rich section of Illinois, the esteem of the community has increased in proportion to the length of his residence, and his fellow citizens have come to rely upon him as a leader in many of those movements which mark the enlightened progress of any locality.

Mr. Welles was born in Compromise Township and is a son of J. H.; and Ann Sarah (Jones) Welles. His father was born in Connecticut and his mother in the State of Maine. They were industrious and thrifty people of Yankee stock, and were pioneers in Champaign County, moving here from Ohio in 1863. When they first located in Compromise Township all the surrounding country was a bare prairie and only four houses could be seen between their home and Rantoul. They had the characteristics of the real pioneers, and in the course of time they had their land under the plow, commodious buildings erected, many fruit and shade trees set out and much of their effort is represented in the present value and attractiveness of the old homestead.

Thomas B. Welles was the youngest in a family of eight children, two sons and six daughters. He grew up on the home farm, and secured his education from the nearby country schools. He gained a home of his own by his marriage to Miss Emma McHenry. Mrs. Welles was born in Vermilion County, Illinois, daughter of Joseph and Nancy (Watson) McHenry. Mrs. Welles was also well educated in the local schools. After their marriage they located on the old Welles homestead, and with 160 acres under his management Mr. Welles has made more than a comfortable living for himself and family and his farm shows the evidences of expert stiidy and handling. For a number of years he has been noted among the breeders and raisers of Percheron horses in this county.

Mr. and Mrs. Welles are the parents of six children : T. Maxwell, Ralph J., Marian Frances, Margaret Alice, Helen Louise and Kate Elizabeth.

It has been Mr. Welles' desire to give his own children good educations, and with this object in view he has striven to raise the standards of the local schools and has served as a member of the board of directors. In politics he follows the example of his honored father and is a Republican. Mrs. Welles is a member of the Christian Church, but all the family attend the Methodist Episcopal Church at Penfield, where the children are in the Sunday school. Thus Mr. and Mrs. Welles with their family live on an old homestead which has a host of associations centering around the name and there they enjoy the good things of life and the years that are past are as grateful in recollection as the future is bright before them.

JOHN FREDERIC HESSEL. There are many avenues of honorable business open to men of education, initiative and talent, and it is a claim proudly made by the great University of Illinois that from her halls go out graduates thoroughly prepared for any career. Many of these young men of the thousands who have hopefully crossed her doorsill undoubtedly have proved the truth of this claim, and many have settled down under her walls, as it were, and through their achievements have reflected credit on their alma m#ter. In this connection may be mentioned a prominent business man of Champaign, John Frederic Hessel, who is a worthy representative of one of the sterling old pioneer families of Champaign County.

John Frederic Hessel was born at Champaign, Illinois, September 18, 1866. His parents were Gustavus Edward and Mary (Davorn-Dixon) Hessel, the latter of whom survives. She was born in Dublin, Ireland, of Irish and Scotch parentage, on April 4, 1841. In 1856 she was married to Gustavus Edward Hessel at Brooklyn, New York, and five children were born to them, of whom John Frederic is the only survivor. The others, who bore the names of Frank L., Cora Mae and Emma H., all died of scarlet fever on April 24, 1878, aged respectively six, ten and fourteen years. This heart-breaking domestic affliction was one that from lack of medical knowledge at the time was repeated in many a bereaved home.

Gustavus Edward Hessel was born at Freiburg, in the province of Saxony, Germany, October 6, 1836, and died in Illinois, August 10, 1881. His father, Frederick Hessel, owned vineyards and followed an agricultural life. Gustavus Edward came to the United States at the age of sixteen years and he found employment on a farm in the northern part of Champaign County. He found but little time to attend the public schools, but studied at night and found teachers to help him, and in that way acquired a fair knowledge of the English language. In 1855 he began the business of manufacturing harness and saddles at Champaign, then known as West Urbana, and through his industry, enterprise and good judgment developed a large concern that was known $11 over central Illinois. He was an active member of the Republican party in the county and always gave support to worthy movements of all kinds. He was one of the early members of the Order of Odd Fellows in this section and was a devout and generous member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

John Frederic Hessel attended the public schools and completed his education with two years in the University of Illinois, soon afterward embarking in the land and loan business, in which he has been interested ever since. He operates quite extensively in Northwestern lands and maintains offices at Champaign. At present he has a project of great public value in view, it being concerned with connecting the University of Illinois with the city of Champaign by means of a boulevard system and a high grade residential district. If this plan or another he may find more workable, should be successfully carried through, Mr. Hessel will have done a great thing for Champaign, for it would bring numberless benefits in its train.

While Mr. Hessel has never been particularly active in politics, he has felt a citizen's responsibility at all times. He is a Republican. In fraternal life he is identified with the Elks and the Knights of Pythias, and a wide acquaintance has given him many agreeable social connections.

WILLIAM KEAL. While Champaign County has long been noted for its material riches and its magnificent assets as an agricultural district, its real wealth consists in its men and women, its families and homos, their standards of comfort and civic and domestic virtues, and in those associations which afford color to the material background of existence.

Mr. Keal was born in Prussia, Germany, and was seven years of age when he accompanied his parents to America. He is a son of Frederick and Louisa (Dahms) Keal. Altogether there were eight children, four born in America and four in Germany. Frederick and Louisa Keal possessed the substantial German characteristics of ambition and thrift. To better their fortunes they determined to come to America. After landing in New York they proceeded directly to Champaign County, Illinois, where Frederick Keal had two sisters living, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Seams. For several years they lived at Champaign and worked largely as wage earners. Frederick Keal at one time farmed a portion of the land now included in the university farm. By the strictest attention to duty and by many sacrifices they were finally able to buy forty acres seven miles southeast of Eantoul. Mrs. Keal possessed energy and industry to as great a degree as her husband. In those early days Champaign County was noted for its production of broom corn. Mrs. Keal with other women did the heavy work involved in sorting the broom corn. The industry of herself and husband had its reward. After buying their first home they were able from time to time to add to their landed estate until they eventually owned 100 acres of as fine land as can be found anywhere in Illinois.

The names of their children were: Frederick C., deceased; William; Mrs. Sophia Wallen ; Charles G. ; Minnie ; Louisa ; Anna ; and Lilly. The two last are now deceased. Lilly was Mrs. Tibbets, and she died in Urbana. All these children were educated in the district school at Maple Grove.

Mr. William Keal also attended school in the East Side High School at Champaign. His early experiences were as a farmer, and he had reached the age of twenty-three when, on December 25, Christmas Day, 1878, he laid the foundation of his own home and fortune by his union with Miss Frances M. Harris. She is a daughter of Marvin B. and Melissa Harris, the former a native of New York and the latter of Indiana. Marvin B: Harris moved from New York to the vicinity of Honey Creek, Indiana. The Harrises were of Scotch-Irish descent. In the family were three children, William, Albert and Frances. All were born at Honey Creek, Indiana, and for a number of years' they had their home south of Terre Haute. Then the death angel came and took away the mother and after her death Frances Harris spent three years with her uncle, John S. Brookbank, who is still living at the age of ninety. Mr. Brookbank moved from Indiana to McDonough County, Illinois, thence to Warren County and finally to Champaign County. Eventually Frances returned to Indiana to live with her father, who had married again. Mrs. Keal's father served gallantly as a soldier in the Civil War. At the close of the war he returned home and married, in order that he might furnish his daughter a home. Later Frances returned to Champaign County and kept house for her two brothers on a farm until her marriage to Mr. Keal.

After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Keal began in Eantoul Township on a rented farm. In order to see more of the country they subsequently took a trip to Iowa, but their investigations proved to them that no country was quite so satisfactory as Champaign County. Eeturning, they bought eighty acres in Eantoul Township, and with that strict application, energy and good management which are the fundamentals of success as farmers they increased their prosperity from year to year. At the present time Mr. and Mrs. Keal have an estate of 280 acres, including some of the richest and most productive land of Champaign County.

Charles W. and John Harold. These children were all given the advantages of the local district school and subsequently the high school at Rantoul. Rosa B. Keal married Arthur Hadler, a farmer whose home is five miles west of Rantoul. Their three children are named William Harris, Henry Kenneth and Frances Caroline. Charles W. Keal married Stella Tweedy, and they live on a farm south of Rantoul. John Harold Keal married Cecil Cornelia Baker on May 29, 1917. They are living at the Keal homestead. Thomas is still at home with his parents.

Politically Mr. Keal has come to prefer the man to the party and is exceedingly broad' minded in his attitude and views of public questions. He believes that the honors of politics should go as a reward for real service and that only the men of tested honesty and ability should be preferred for public positions. Mr. Keal is also a strong prohibitionist and looks forward to the time in the not far distant future when the state and nation will be irrevocably committed to the prohibition of the liquor traffic.