Oakley, Illinois

Another old settler is W. T. Howell, a grand son of James Howell, the pioneer of Oakley. The first marriage was that of Caleb Warfield and Nancy Rea, in 1835. Elizabeth Helm, the daughter of Guy and Anna Helm, was the first child born in the present limits of Oakley. First death was that of Mrs. Morris, mother of William, David, and Achilles Morris.

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.

Railroads. - The Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific railroad enters this township on section nine, Tp. 16-3, and the line of the road is on a north-easterly direction. It leaves .the boundaries of Oakley on section 33, Tp. 17-4. This road furnishes excellent transportation and shipping facilities for the residents of the township.

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 subject of the following sketch is a native of Cumberland county, Pennsylvania. He was born near Carlisle on the 3d of May, 1822. George Hiser, his father, was also a native of the same county and state. John Hiser, the paternal grandfather, was a native of Germany. He came to America and settled in the county and state above named, and married there, and remained in the county until his death. George Hiser, the father, came west to Illinois in 1850, and stopped with his son John until his death in 1858. He married Mary Wolfe. She is still living with her son John, in Oakley township. There were born to George and Mary Hiser ten children, eight of whom are still living - six boys and two girls; John is the second in the family. His advantages for an education in his youth were exceedingly meagre ; his father was poor and had a large family to support, so that John was at an early age forced to become a help and support of the family. He remained at home until his twenty -fourth year, when he hired out and commenced doing for himself. In the fall of 1849 he concluded to come west. Being possessed of little means and unable to pay his passage, he started out on foot and walked the entire distance from Pennsylvania to Macon, Illinois. When he got here he found that there were better chances for a poor man than in Pennsylvania, and here he determined to stay. He first stopped in Decatur and worked at making rails during the winter. The next spring he hired to work on a farm, and soon after went into Spangler's flouring and grist mill, and six months later leased the mill and operated for one year and a half. He then went back to farming and making rails until 1858, when he ^mrchased one hundred acres of raw land in Sec. 27, T. 17, R. 3 E., and commenced its improvement. There he has lived up to the present time, and now has a fine farm, well-improved and stocked. A view of his farm and residence can be seen on another page of this work. On the 17th of September, 1853, he was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Hess. She was also born and raised in Cumberland county, Pa. Her parents, Caleb and Barbara Hess, came to Illinois in 1850, and settled in Oakley township. Eleven children have been born to John and Sarah Hiser, nine of whom are living. Their names are: Elizabeth, wife of Daniel Seitz, a farmer living in Oakley township; Jane, wife of Levi Kniseley, a resident of Summer county, Kansas ; Mary Jane, died at the age of twenty-one years ; George, farmer, now farming the home place ; William ; John F., who died in infancy; Lida, Albert, Jacob, Henry and Sylvester Hiser. Both he and his estimable wife are members of the United Brethren church. Politically he is a democrat, and cast his first vote for James Iv. Polk in 1844, and from that time to the present has given his adhesion to the party of his early and first choice. In the business of life Mr. Hiser has been reasonably successful. He started poor and unaided. What he has has been accumulated by hard toil and the practice of rigid economy. Every cent of it has also been gotten in an honest and honorable way. Among his neighbors he is regarded as a man of strict propriety of character, a kind friend and good neighbor.

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 Oakley Township - it names this place 9 more 9 times.