Burns Township

Burns Township

BUCKLEY ROBERT, Carpenter, Sec. 30; P.O. Ulah; born Philadelphia, 1812; came to Co. 1866; Ind; moved to Farmington, 111. 1837; was the third man who settled in that town; removed to Knox Co. 1859; followed farming six years; was married April, 1832, to Caroline Lewis, of Mass., who was born 1811; have had four children, three living and one son died from a wound received in late war; served from 1862 till close of war in 112th I.V.I.

CARSON SAMUEL,, Farmer, Sec. 26; P.O. Kewanee; born Harrison Co. Ohio, Feb. 4 , 181.1; came to Co. 1836; Rep; Pres; owns 183 acres, value $8,000; has served as Justice of Peace and held other township offices; married Elizabeth Doty, Sept. 20, 1836, who was born in Trumbull County, Ohio, July 4, 1814; have five children living, three dead, four boys and four girls.

CHARLES W. S. Farmer, Sec. 32; P.O. Galva; born in London, England, Nov. I, 1818; came to this Co. in 1842; Rep; owns 200 acres of land, value $10,000; came to America in 1832; stopped at Skaneateles, Onondaga Co. N.Y. five years; came to Lafayette, Stark Co. 111. 1837; married to Esther L. Stoddard, April 18, 1839, it being the first wedding in Stark Co; she was born in Litchfield Co. Conn., Oct. 6, 1815; came to 111. 1836; was a descendant of one of the oldest families settled in Conn; have had five children, two boys and three girls; three living; second son was the first child born in this section of the country.

CLEMENT WM. Farmer and Peddler, Sec. 25; P.O. Kewanee; born Ireland, Jan. 26, 1828; came to this Co. in 1851; Rep; Meth; owns 40 acres of land, value $2,000; wife was Sarah Gash, born Lincolnshire, England, 1836; came to the Co. in 1861; married 1870; have resided in Henry Co. ever since.

COWL E. T. Farmer, Sec. 8; P.O. Burns; born Sullivan Co. N.Y. Nov. 21, 1809; came to Co. 1854; Rep; Lib; owns 89 acres, value $7,000; lived in Putnam Co. N.Y. from 1818 to 1854; has lived in Wethersfield three years; has worked as a tanner; was married 1835 to Caroline Hinman, who was born in Putnam Co. N.Y. Oct. 25, 1811; have two children, Mary L., married Ira Parker, of Burns; and Lydia A. married Chas. L. Burtis, President of First National Bank, Waterville. Kan.

KEMERLINGr GrEORGE, Farmer, Sec. 35; P.O. Kewanee; born Ohio, April 15, 1815; came to this Co. in 1841; Dem; owns 322 acres of land, value $16,100; has run threshing machines about 14 years; married Jane Leonard, Sept. 2, 1847, who was born in Ohio, Oct. 10, 1827; had six children, four boys and two girls; five living.

KEMERLING JACOB, Farmer, Sec. 35; P.O. Kewanee; born in Columbiana, Ohio, May 18, 1807; came to this Co. March 23, 1837; Dem; Ind; owns 426 acres of land, valued at $20,000; mxrried Sarah AHbright, Feb. 10, 1831; she died Sept. 20, 1863; they had nine children, eight living: Levi J., Henry H., Barbara S., Sophrona, Ellener, Prudence H., Charlotte and Elbert P.; married Elizabeth Ewing, Oct. 10, 1868. Mr. K. has been Assessor and School Director more than 20 years.

MATTHEWS SIMEON, Farmer, Sec. 9; P.O. Burns; born Harlford Co. Conn. April 17, 1812; came to Co. 1848; Rep; Freewill Bapt; owns 300 acres, value $15,000; came to Ohio 1834; married Phcebe Jane Rogers 1836, who was born Ohio, 1815; died March 30, 1868; have three childreen by this wife - boys; oldest died at Knoxville, Tenn. Dec. 25, 1863, while serving in the late war; married 1871 to Minerva Hemingway, of Litchfield, Co. Conn, who was born 1816.

>IOYEBS DAVID L. Farmer, Sec. 21; P.O. Kewanee; born Crawford Co. Penn. Dec. 25, 1832; came to Co. in 1861; Rep; owns 320 acres, value $20,000; moved to DeKalb Co. 111. 1846; resided there fourteen years; has lived in Howard Co. Mo. 19 months; married Sarah Ault Oct. 3, 1856, of Lycoming Co. Penn; she died Oct. 28, 1857; married Elizabeth Gross, of Penn. for second wife, who was born June 9, 1838; have had four children, three living, boys.

REED ALMEROK, Farmer, Sec. 28; P.O. Kewanee; born Ontario Co. N.Y., Nov. 8, 1841; came to this Co. in 1868; Rep; Cong; owns 160 acres of land, valued at $8,500; was in the army nearly three years in 1st N.Y. Mounted Rifles; joined Grant at Cold Harbor, and took part in all the fighting around Richmond till close of war; wife was Nannie A. Howard, daughter of Capt. Howard, of Kewanee, born in Wethersfield 1850, died 1874.

ROBERTS MICHAEL, Farmer, Sec. 8; P.O. Burns; born Cumberland, Me. June 20, 1796; came to Co. 1852; Rep; Freewill Bapt; owns 40 acres, value $2,500; came to Peoria 1833; moved to Fulton Co. 1835; married Minerva Atchison 1825, who was born Monroe Co. N.Y., June 22, 1807, died 1874; have had twelve children: those living are Diantha, Ann, Martha Jane, William and Stephen: those not living are Almeda, Emily, John, Jacob, Francis, Edwin and Henry. Mr. Roberts is in his 82J year, and reads without spectacles,

STACKHOUSE J. F. Farmer, Sec. 19; P.O. Ulah; born Tompkins Co. N.Y., May 27, 1828; came to Co. 1856; Dem; Meth. Epis; value real estate $1,500; was married Sept. 20, 1854, to Catharine Smith, who was born in Ireland, leaving there at the age of fifteen; have had six children, four living, three boys, one girl; was divorced 1875.

Source changes here: from Portrait and Biographical Album of Henry County, Illinois : Containing Full-page Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens of the County, Together with Portraits and Biographies of All the Governors of Illinois, and of the Presidents of the United States; Also Containing a History of the County, from Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, published 1885; 768 words in this source stream.

Burns Township

'HIS is one of the few townships untouched by the iron track of the railway, but finds good markets and shipping points about equi-distant to Kewanee, Cambridge and Galva, with good roads and easy approaches to either. The entire township is arable land, with a sufficient natural drainage in every part, and has the rather curious topography of the small drainage streams that rise near its center and flow directly north, while from the center to the south line the small streams lead to the west and southwest. The face of the country is largely prairie, but in it are several valuable groves of timber, chief among which is Round Grove in the southwest corner. The settlers here were not town builders, it seems, as they have never laid out any great paper cities or attempted to'plant and grow a flourishing and ambitious town that would spring into grandeur in a single night. The Edwards River, flowing west tQ :

The first settler was Samuel Carson, a carpenter, from Harrison County, Ohio. He was born in 181 1, and came to the county in the spring of 1836. He improved 183 acre>. He married Elizabeth Doty, Sept. 20, 1836, a native of Trumbull Co., Ohio, born July 4, 18 14. There were born to them eight children - four boys and four girls ; three children died some years ago.

Jacob Kemerling came March 23, 1837; born in Columbiana, Ohio, May 18, 1807. He improved a splendid farm on section 35, of 426 acres. He was married to Sarah Allbright Feb. 10, 1820; she died Sept. 20, 1863, having borne nine children, eight of whom survived her.

Mr. Kemerling was very nearly the perpetual Assessor and School Director during his life, having filled those places for more than 20 years. He was a noted man among the early settlers, and toward the close of his active life as well known as any man in the county. He was a most companionable man, and his delight was to meet old brother settlers, and all night and all day recount experiences, anecdotes and frightful stories of hair-breadth escapes in the day of wild varmints in the land. If he could not get an old settler to swap experiences he would content himself with a "tender-foot;" and when he fell upon a credulous one he would delight to afflict him with stories that would bring the listener hideous nightmares for the next six months. In another chapter is an encounter with a wolf on the prairie by a lone pedestrian on his way to Andover The wolf was large, and, driven by hunger, was ready to eat a pioneer blood-raw. The story is a hairstarter, and the reader had better turn to it on another page, and thus gain some idea of what perils were once upon these peaceful prairies - what awful dangers by flood and field, and hungry wolves did once beset the peaceful pioneer.

Simeon Mathews settled on section 9. He was from Hartford County, Conn., born April r7, 1812, and landed in this county in 1848. He improved a splendid farm of 300 acres, He married Phebe Jane

Rogers in 1836. She was a native of Ohio, born in 1815 ; died March 30, 1868. In 187 1 Mr. M. was again married to Minerva Hemingway, of Litchfield Co., Conn., who was born in 18 1 6.

W. S. Charles came in 1842, and settled on section 32. He was a native of England, born Nov. 1, 1 8 18. He improved 200 acres. He came to this county direct from Stark County, where he had settled in 1837. April 19, 1839, he married Esther L. Stoddard, in Stark County, it be'ng the first wedding in that county.

William Clement, a native of Ireland, born Jan. 26, 1828, came in 185 1, and settled on section 25. His wife was Sarah Gash, born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1836. They were married in 1870.

George Kemerling settled on section 35, in i84r. He was born in Ohio, April 15, 1815. He married Jane Leonard, Sept. 2, 1847, a native of Ohio, born Oct. 10, 1827. They had six children.

Michael Roberts came in ^52. He was born in Cumberland, Me , June 20, 1796. He came to Illinois in 1833, and stopped in Peoria, and then in Fulton County.

This was about all the settlers in this township until the days of railroad building, that decade from 1852 to 1862 that witnessed such a tremendous flow of immigration to this county, when every part of it became thickly settled.