Emery, Illinois

The Maroa Lodge, No. 454 A. F. and A. M., was chartered Oct. 4, 1865. The first officers were : J. H. Crocker, W. M. ; Rufus C. Crocker, S. W. ; Oliver J. Harlan, J. W. ; Samuel Lowe, Treas. ; T. S. Collins, Sec. ; A. C. Keever, S. D. ; Jacob Cooper, J. D. ; J. F. Blount and A. D. Wysong, Stewards; Mayer Friedman, Tyler. These, together with J. H. Axton, C. F. Emery, Joseph Lingle, W. L. Webb, G. W. Conover, H. S. Tisdale and G. A. Milmine, constitute the charter members. The present officers are ; W. M. Phares, W. M. ; J. Longstreet, S. W. ; J. A. Hartman, J. W. ; M. Friedman, Treas. ; W. H. Austin, Sec. ; F. M. Smith, S. D. ; E. Friedman, J. D. ; S. C. Crowell and E. J. Carter, Stewards ; H. S. Bennett, Tyler.

Passage source: History of Macon County, Illinois : with Illustrations Descriptive of Its Scenery, and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, published 1880.

The Emery family are of Scotch and English ancestry. David and Mahala Emery, the parents of the subject of this sketch, were natives of New Hampshire, but subsequently removed and settled in Tioga county, New York. Charles F. is the eldest son in a family of five children - three sons and two daughters. He was born May twenty-sixth, 1833. He received a good education in the common schools of his native state. At the age of fourteen years he entered the printing office of the Ithaca Chronicle as " carrier " boy, where he remained two years. In the winter of 1849-50 he was appointed " messenger boy " in the New York Senate at Albany. In the summer of 1850 he made up his mind to go to California. His idea was to ship on board some vessel which would in time take him to the " Golden State." With this object in view he shipped from New Bedford on the " Stephania," a whaling vessel bound on a voyage to the Arctic Seas. After being out on her for one year, he left the ship at the Sandwich Islands, and in a steamer sailed for San Francisco. After his arrival in California he engaged in mining business, in which he continued for one year. He then shipped as second mate on the brig "Magdalena," which went down the coast of California on an expedition in search of guano. While stopping at an island in the Pacific Ocean, he assisted the captain of the brig in an attempt to kill a sea lion. During the struggle the monster seized Mr. Emery by the leg, crushing the knee joint, and so mangling and wounding him that he was taken to the Sandwich Islands, where he lay nearly two years before he entirely recovered from the terrible wound. After his recovery he went back to the island in the Pacific Ocean, where they had discovered guano, and remained there eight months in charge of a gang of men, superintending the loading and shipping of guano to Rich- mond, Virginia He then returned to the Sandwich Islands, and from there went to San Francisco. From the latter place he sailed as second mate of a brig to Australia, and from thence to Callao, South America. From the latter port he sailed around Cape Horn in a Spanish vessel to Barbadoes, iu the West India Islands, then to New Orleans, and from there to Liverpool, England, and then to New York city. After a long absence he returned home to visit his parents. They induced him to go west on a visit to his uncle, then living in Clinton, Illinois, who was engaged as a railroad contractor. His visit was lengthened out, and he was finally induced to stay. He then purchased land in Austin township, Macon county. One year later he went to Texas, and engaged in sheepraising. The business not proving as profitable as was expected and the war of the rebellion coming on, and sentiment changing, and the people becoming Hostile towards those entertaining Union sentiments, - all conspired to hasten his departure from that state.

Passage source: History of Macon County, Illinois : with Illustrations Descriptive of Its Scenery, and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, published 1880.

Logan commanding. In the Atlanta campaign he was appointed Chief Quartermaster of the Corps, and remained upon the staff' of Gen. Logan until after the surrender of Atlanta. He was then granted a short leave of absence, and returned home, and while there was taken sick with pneumonia and confined to his home until February, 1865, when he recovered, sufficiently strong to join the army, which was then at Goldsboro, North Carolina. He there assumed the duties of Quartermaster of the Fourth Division, Seventeenth Army Corps, Gen. Giles A. Smith commanding, with the rank of Major. He remained in that position and in that command until the close of the war, and participated in the grand review at Washington. The command of Gen. Smith, after the war, was ordered to Brownsville, Texas ; Major Emery remained upon his staff as Chief Quartermaster until September, 1865. The duties being light, and consequently irksome to an active mind and disposition like Major Emery's, he asked to be relieved. His resignation was accepted, and he was honorably discharged the same month. His commissions date as Regimental Quartermaster, with rank as First Lieutenant, March 2, 1863 ; Assist. Division Quartermaster, with rank of Captain, December 5th, 1863 ; Division Quartermaster, with rank of Major, September 20th, 1865. After he was mustered out he returned home to Austin township, cultivated his farm and engaged in real estate business as agent for non-residents. He remained on the farm until 1872, when he removed to Maroa, and commenced banking, buying and shipping grain, and continued his real estate business.

Passage source: History of Macon County, Illinois : with Illustrations Descriptive of Its Scenery, and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, published 1880.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Maroa Township - it names this place 3 more 3 times.