Mosquito Township

Mosquito Township

HIS township embraces all of town 15, Range 1 West, together with that part of 16-1 W., lying between the former and the Sangamon river. It is bounded on the uorth by the Sangamon river, east by ]\Iacon county, south by Stonington, west by Mt. Auburn township. It is drained by Mosquito creek, which enters the township on section 13, and runs in a north-westerly direction to the Sangamon river. In the early times the borders of this stream were greatly infected with mosquitoes, and it was from them that the creek derived its name. Mosquito township originally formed a part of " Mt. Auburn Precinct," and remained in this connection for many years, and until the adoption of township organization in 1866. Among the early settlers were the following ; some of whom could antedate the " deep snow." James Saunders came in 1825 ; Thomas Russell, John White, Truman White, 1832 ; Jacob Wydick, Elias Copenbarker, came in 1830 ; James Fletcher, 1833 ; father of Grifiin T. Fletcher,

1833; Martin White, A. D. Northcutt, W. H. Masterson, 1835; John G. Fletcher, in 1830 ; R. B. Osborn, in 1830 ; and Berry Rose. !Most of these settled in the neighborhood of Mosquito creek. Jas. T. and Wm. Armstrong, came in 1841. James Saunders, the old pioneer backwoodsman, was among the first settlers of this township. He was noted as being a great deer hunter, and a man of strong character. Mosquito was also noted as the early home of " poor ilartin White," of Kansas fame. His farm is now owned by jNIoses Stafford. He was a Predestinarian Baptist preacher, and was a strong believer in the doctrine that a man will not die till his time comes. He was a correct type of the backwoods preacher, and when preaching in warm weather, would lay ofl' hLs coat, open his shirt collar, turn up his sleeves, and fairly make the woods ring with his stentorian voice. Martin White was the first representative from this county in the legislature, in 1840. He seems to have attained to some notoriety. The following " card " of Mr. White, a].p.;irc<l in ilic Si.rhiL'tiil.l -Journal," of February 19th, 1841. It savs. " Wr i-hccrfully iii^iTt the fommuuicatiou uf Mr. White, Rei)- reseiilativc from Cliristiaii (.-oiiiity, in answer to some remarks respecting his official comluct, in the last issue of the paper. We most certainly excuse liis bad grammar and spelling. We have no longer any cause to wonder that he should refuse to obey his constituents ;" lie is certainly just such a man as we should naturally expect would treat his constituents with '- 'contempt.' " p,u._I se A Card in your paper the 11 fif Febuary : In wliich it had sum Direct alusion to my vote on the judiciary. Vou stated that 1 was Instructed By a majority of my Constitants to vote Against the Judiciary Bill, and that I would feel the Pangs of my Insulte'd Constitants, thare was a majority of names on the defi'erent Petetions : But tha ware mostly whigs and i did not no That tha Put thare uaims to the Petitions Purticuhir those from Christian so Far I under.stand that a Curtan Whig who Lives in springfield to Christian Co. with the Petition to get my Constitants to instruct rae to go against the Bill And Buy lying he got Cum of my DimoCratiC friends to sine it. But I want this Springfield Junto to understand that tha Cant Cum it l-'or I wont obey the Proscripshuu of this Springfield wig Junto, the Plans ware all made out in Springfield without My Constitants asking for it And then the Black lage boo tuck Thoas Petitions ware a shaimed. to give me the Petitions. I don't no but what that .scoundral forged the names that was on the Petition that he CerCulated - now I will give my reasons for not obeying the InStruCtious, the reason Is the Petitions ware gotten up in Springfield and unCaled for By my Constituants and a great menny of them had not herd of it tel the Petition ware Presented to them and then it ware very rougley stated and false statements maid concerning it

Now Mr Editor i think those silk glove and Rutfell shirt dandys about Springfield Hoo have never got thare bred by the swet of thare Brow will liegin to find that Tha Cant. (Aim it over the lalxiring Class of Commnity

" A word to you Mr Editor - now Sir I think you will find a nuft" to doe if you will tend to your own bisness. And keep your own house swept and garnished ' First take the Beem out of thine own eye and then you can ce to take the mote out of Thy brothers eye I will Conclude for the present by saiing to you if you Pour out enny more of your slang About me I will expose The Conduct of your Whig clan excuse my grammar and bad spellin as I am a hoam spun farmer and have but Little Education, and have smiiething Else to do besides lisniug to the slang of your 1ilue light federal Paper. M. White"

In reference to the above The Hei/Uter of Feb. 19th, 1841, .says " Kep. White had not been in.structed by a majority of his constituents ; and as to whig instructions, said Mr. White, 'They need not send such documents to me. Previous to the Aug. Election, said Mr. White, these same Federal Gentry tried to instnid me to stay at home, but they couldn't come it then, and they can't come it now.' The Junto of Springfield tried to play a trick on some of the constituants of Mr. White, about some local matters, promising them a slice off - of Old Sangamon, if they would instruct their Representative, but the trick failed."

The Cumberland Presbyterian church had an tu'ganization on Mosquito at an early day. In 1838, they built a C. P. church on Berry Rose's land. Elder Northcutt says he assisted in its building.

It was a frame - every stick of which was hewed or shaved. They made out to raise money to buy nails, and glass for the two small windows. It burned down about twenty-five years ago.

The following amusing anecdote is related of James Saunders and John G. Fletcher, old pioneer citizens of Mosquito. The latter was something of a bee-hunter, and on one occasion having cut a large bee-tree, converted it into a "gum, " covered it with a split slab and left it for a more convenient time. Uncle Jimmy Saunders, as he was always familiarly known in the settlement, as it happened, had just killed three deer, and finding the "gum," not seeing the honey^ filled it up with deer tallow, thus to keep it from the ravens, which were plenty - and somewhat larger than a crow - since extinct in this region. Fletcher returning first could not understand how anvbodv could rob him of his honey, and leave tallow in exchange, the latter being much more valuable.

Berrv Rose, whom all the old settlers will remember, lived furth. er up the creek. He was fond of telling yarns about the "varments of Mosquito." He related one that wolves were very numerous and very troublesome. <!>ne by one they would steal away his geese, pigs and sheep, and one night he was awakened from a profound sleep by a noise in the yard ; and on looking out, found one of his sheep running around his cabin with a wolf after it, and the dog after the wolf.

Zimri Augur opened the first farm on the south side of Mosquito, lietween Mt. Auburn and the Macon county line. He settled on his place November, 18o9 ; emigrated from Connecticut. His farm lav one mile east from !Mt. Auburn, now occupied by his son Andrew L. Augur. This old resident died in 1870, at the ripe age of 78 years.

On the adoption of township organization in 1866, " Mosquito " was formed into a justice's precinct, and the place of voting fixed at Eagle school-house, on the lands of R. B. Osburn, where lived forty-five years ago the veteran pioneer, Elder Northcutt. At an election held April 3d, 1866, James Davidson was elected Supervisor, Andrew L. Augur and Jiinathan A. Sprague were elected Justices of the Peace. Mosquito has no towns or villages within its borders excepting a small place called " Randellsville," in the south-east corner of the township. It formerly contained a Post-office, a church, school-house and several dwelling-houses. Blue Mound has somewhat dwarfed its future prospects. Tlie lauds of this town.ship were originally surveyed in the summer of 1821, by William V. Rector, and the same year township 16 - 1 W. was surveyed by A. L. Langham. Mosquito, at the Presidential election, in November, 1876, cast a vote of 358. The first board of school Trustees, in the county were appointed by the county Court, at their second term or meeting on the twenty-fourth of June, 1839, for town 15 - 1 W. Martin White, John G. Fletcher and Griffin T. Fletcher. It was decided at the same term of the court that the Trustees sell the 16th section, and the money thus obtained, to be used fiir school purposes.

Assessors. - Elias Brarael elected 1860, J. A. Henderson appointed; J. A. Heudereon, J. L. Drennan, Richard Coliver, John Scott, George McQualit_v, Oliver AVhite, 1876 ; H. T. Davidson, 1877, re-elected 1878, 1879 and 1880.

Commksioners of Hir/hways. - A. J. McVey, Daniel Daniels, William Leeper, George Overraeir, William Morgan, Hezekiah Davidson, Francis Stewart, 1876 ; Robert Elder, 1877 ; J. F. P"ergusou, 1878 ; J. L. Drennan, 1879; A. W. Smart, 1880.

Justices of the Peace. - H. L. Hugur, J. A. Sprague, B. D. Cross, Ira Ellis, F. M. Sanders, E. M. Burns, Samuel Betz and Jewillis Wood elected in 1877 and now servins.

Biogeaphical Sketches

Col. Crawford was born in Westchester county, New York, on the first day of January, 1805. On his father's si<le his ancestors were Scotch and on his mother's Welsh. His father, Caleb Crawford, was also a native of Westchester county, and served for a short time against the British in the war of 1812. His mother's maiden name was Pho>be Kniffin. In the year 1813, the family moved from Westchester county. New York, to Cincinnati, Ohio. Col. Crawford remembers New York city, as he passed through it on his way West, then a boy eight years of age, as a town of about fortv thousand inhabitants, confined to the extreme lower point of Manhattan Island. All that constitutes a great part of the present metropolis was then a country district where property now worth millions could be obtained on cheap terms. Few people expected the city to reach its present remarkable growth. An emigrant wagon conveyed the family across the Allegheny mountains to Pittsbui'g, from which place they floated down the Ohio to Cincinnati in one of the broad-bottomed " Broad-Horns," then used for transportation on western rivers.

Cincinnati was then on the extreme frontier, and a town of less than nine thousand inhabitants. His father was one of the first men to engage in the pork-packing business in that city. For a couple of years he carried it on quite extensively. But he was a farmer by occupation, and had a strong inclination for agricultural pursuits. The lands of the Wabash valle}- in Indiana, known as Harrison's Purchase, were about that time offered for sale. His father was one of a compan}' which purchased from the government the plat on which the city of Terre Haute now stands, and immediately set out by keel boat down the Ohio and up the Wabash river to Fort Harrison, then garrisoned by United States soldiers as a frontier post. This was in the year 1816. His father's family was the third to settle in Vigo county. The place where they located was at the head of Harrison prairie, five miles above the present city of Terre Haute. Fort Harrison, two miles and a half above Terre Haute, was then the principal military post for the Northwestern Territory. Gen. Harrison was in command and frequently visited the post. Col. Crawford's boyhood was principally spent among the Indians, with whom he associated on terms of perfect friendliness, even at times when a hostile feeling existed between the tribes and the garrison of the fort. The Kickapoos, Miamis, Delawares and Pottawatomies, then inhabited that locality. On one occasion, when the settlers were all gathered together at Fort Harrison, expecting an attack from the Indians with whom there had been some serious misunderstanding, the inmates of the fort were reduced to great straits by reason of a lack of provisions. Col. Crawford, then a boy of eleven or twelve, was sent on horseback out through the Indian camp and brought back to the fort the herd of cattle on which the inmates relied for food. No schools had of course been established in Indiana at that time. His parents were, however, persons of good information, and the Col. learned the rudiments of a good English education at home. But his boyhood and youth was principallv spent amid the wild free scenes which marked life on the frontier, roaming through Indian camps, hunting, fishing, and enjoying to the utmost the unrestrained liberty of life in the wilderness and on the prairie. His father's investments in the Wabash lands proved unremunerative and unfortunate. He was unable to meet the successive payments, and finally lost almost the entire tract he had originally purchased. It has, of course, since become of great value.

As he grew older Col. Crawford went to farming for himself He raised one large crop of corn which he sold for six cents a bushel. The Wabash valley between Vincenues and Terre Haute had by that time become (juite well settled. The farmers were accustomed to ship their produce in flat boats down the Ohio and Mississippi, and dispose of it in New Orleans.

About the year 182.3, when he was eighteen, there came to Terre Haute a Zoological exhibition under the control of Harvey Bailey, a son of the well-known Hackaliah Bailey, who exhibited the first elephant ever brought to the United States, and from it made a large fortune. Hackaliah Bailey had been i-aised on an adjoining fiirm to the Crawforils, in A\'estchester county. New York, and the two families had consequently been on terms of some intimacy. Col. Crawford was induced to accompany the exhibition, and he thus began a career which he followed for several years, and which was the occasion of his visiting all the inhal)ited parts of the United States, and of his experiencing numerous adventures. He proved an apt man at the business, and in a few years was made manager of an exhibition. For a great part of the time he had charge of the advertising. With the Washburns and Spencer Gregory, of New York, he was a stockholder in a Zoological and Ornithological association, which at the time of its organization was the most complete in the whole country. These exhibitions traveled largely through the West and South, and Col. Crawford became familiar with almost every town and village of importance in the whole country His winters were sjjent principally in the southern cities. He was at Charleston during the winter of 1832-3, at the time of the famous nullification excitement. South Carolina was in a fever heat, and a conflict between the Federal and State authorities in Charleston Harbor was momentarily expected. His travels and associations also made him familiar with many occurrences and incidents between public men, which have since become matters of public history. Like most men in his position he spent his money freely. Although in the receipt of a liberal income he saved comparatively little from his many years of service in this field.

In the year 18-'!8 he retnrucd to Indiana. In 1839 he married Miss Corrina Ann Durkee, a native of Vigo county, Indiana, and daughter of Dr. John Durkee, one of the early settlers of Vigo countv, and a physician who, in those early days, practiced exteusivelv through the whole settled part of the Wabash valley. After his marriage he settled on a farm three miles from Terre Haute. His wife died in January, 184.5.

After the discovery of gold iu California, Col. Crawford was among the first to make his way across the Plains to the Pacific Coast. After traversing in safety the vast region intervening between the Missouri river and the Rocky Mountains, then regarded as an arid and inhospitable desert, which would always renuiiu incapable of cultivation, he was seized with a severe fever at Summit Spring near the Summit of the Rocky Mountains. He liappily recovered. He lay at Salt Lake City three weeks regaining his strength, (^n reaching the gold regions he undertook washing gold on the Rio de Las Cos Manos. He followed washing gold about a year and found it profitable. The winter of 1850-1, he visited Oregon, ascending the coast as far as Astoria and the straits of Juan de Fuqua. He returned from California by way of the Isthmus of Panama, vi-siting various portions of Central and South America and the West India Islands, and stopping at Havana, Cuba, and in the city of New Orleans. ( )n the fifteenth of October, 18.51, he married Mary W. Kidder, who was born at Searsport, in Hancock county, Maine, on the twelfth of August, 1815. Her father, Nathaniel Kidder, was for a number of years a merchant in Boston, and removed to Oxford, Ohio, in the year 1829. Mrs. Crawford came to Terre Haute in 1850, where she made the acquaintance of her husband. Her grandfather, Nathaniel Kidder, was an Orthodox minister, who preached at Nashua, New Hampshire, for a long number of years, and died there at an advanced age. Her mother, Salla Atherton, was the daughter of Dr. Israel Atherton, an old practitioner of medicine at Lancaster, Massachusetts.

In August, 1851, Col. Crawford purchased from John Gregg, of Philadelphia, about a thousand acres of land on Mosquito Creek, in the northern part of this county. He settled on this tract where he has since lived. Few improvements had then been made in that part of the county. His farm, which has been reduced by gifts to his children to live hundred acres, has of recent years been chieflv devoted to grazing purposes. Consequently, Col. Crawford leads a life of comparative ease, and as free as possible from the ordinary cares incident to the carrying on of a large farm. His two children, David F. and Henry C. Crawford, are married and .settled on farms near their father. David F. served in the Union army during the war of the rebellion, a member of the Twenty-first Illinois - Gen. Grant's original regiment. He was in numerous battles, and was severely wounded at Stone River. He won for himself a record as a good soldier. The last seven months of his service were spent as a prisoner at Andersonville and other ports of Georgia, where he had ample opportunity to experience the hardships and privations of life iu the Southern prison pens, which will be remembered in subsequent history for their unparalleled barbarities. Col. Crawford and his wife also have an adopted daughter, Mary Bell Maxwell, who has lived with them since she was two weeks old. Her father, James Maxwell, died in the army during the war.

In early life Col. Crawford was a Whig. Ou the agitation of the question of slavery and its proposed extension into the territories, his natural sympathies made him a free soil man. He has been a member of the Republican party from its organization. He is a well-known resident of this county. His extensive travels have brought him in contact with many men of note. Among his reminiscences are treasured up many incidents relating to public men, who were in active life during his early manhood, and who have since been given their appropriate places on the roll of their countr3-'s history. As a child he was of weakly growth, and gave little promise of a hardy constitution or a long life. By active exercise in his boyhood, he acquired a vigorous constitution, and few men could have stood so successfully the toils and travels which he has undergone. As a pioneer in the great West he was among the earliest. It is sixty-four years since his feet first trod the soil of Illinois - then a wild and uninhabited territory. He often made the journey from Terre Haute to Springfield when not a single settlement varied the monotony of the journey. Though a man who has traveled much by sea and land he is a farmer, and is well satisfied with his home and its surroundings, believing that all things considered, he lives in one of the most favored portions of his adopted state.

John L. Drennan

Tins gentleman, who has resided in Mosquito township since 1856, is a native of Kentucky, and was born in Caldwell county, in that state, Nov. 14, 1826. His grandfather, John Drennan, was a resident of South Carolina at the time of the revolutionary war, and served in the American army during the latter part of that war. He moved from South Carolina to Kentucky about the year 1802, and settled in Caldwell (then Livingston) county, and was one of the pioneer settlers of that part of the state. He located there when it was almost a wilderness, and still inhabited by the Indians. His father, Eli Drennan, was born in South Carolina in the year 1800, and, consequently, was onlj' about two years of age when the family removed into Kentucky. He was raised in Caldwell county, and, upon reaching manhood's estate, married Margaret Mc- Dowell, who was also a native of Caldwell county, and who was descended from an Irish family which had settled some years before in South Carolina, and moved from there to Kentucky at an early date.

John L. Drennan, the subject of our sketch, was the oldest of nine children born to Eli and Margaret Drennan. He was raised iu Caldwell county, Ky.

The schools of that part of the state, in his early youth, offered only moderate advantages for obtaining an education, in addition to which he was obliged to remain at home to assist in the work upon the farm. The result was, he only attended school about three mf)nths altogether, and for what education he received, he was indebted entirely to his own efforts.

He lived at home until he was twenty-one years of age, and then fairly started in life on his own account. Continuing the same line of business, he began farming for himself in Caldwell county.

Upon the loth of March, 1850, he married Henrietta Wimberley, one of twelve children, who had been born in Trigg, but was residing in Caldwell county, Kentucky. Her ancestors had come

The Drennan family were early settlers in Illinois, William and Joseph Drennan, uncles to his father, having settled in Sangamon county, this state, at a very early period ; and were among the first pioneer settlers, it being said that they planted the first corn ever grown in Sangamon county. Mr. Drenuan's father came to Illinois about 1820-21 ; remained two years in Sangamon county, and helped build the first house in Springfield. He was not favorably impressed with the country, however, and returned to Kentucky in the fall of 1856. John L. Drennan moved with his family to Illinois, and settled in Christian county, near Mt. Auburn. Since 1864 he has been living upon his present farm, in sec. 22, T. 15 R. 1 W. Mr. and Mrs. Drennan have fourteen children, all living, viz.: Alfred M., Franklin P., John G., Adelia J. (now wife of John F. Cole), Laura E., Margaret Emily i who married Clayton Clemens), Henry E , George R., Henrietta Adel, Cora A., James L., Thomas M., Oscar W. and Charlotte O. Two of his sons reside at Taylorville. Franklin P. has been connected with the oiRces of the county, and Circuit Clerk for the past four years, and John G., who is now a candidate for the position of State's Attorney, having received the nomination from the democratic party by a large majority, and there is but little doubt that he will be elected.

In his politics Mr. Drennan has been a member of the democratic party all his life. His first vote for president was cast for Lewis Cass, in 1848, and he has voted for every democratic candidate for president since, with the exception of James Buchanan, in 1856, when he lost his vote by reason of his removal to this state at that time.

He has been one of the representative democrats of Mosquito township. In 1872 the democrats of Christian county made him their nominee for County Treasurer

Mr. Drennan is a man who has commanded the confidence and respect of the people, and has filled several positions with credit to himself, and to the satisfaction of the people of the township in which he resides He was assessor of Mosijuito township for two years - during 1866 and 1867. He wa.s elected a member of the board of supervisors in 1868, and served four consecutive years. He was again elected to this position in 1874, and again represented his township on the Board for five successive years. He has also filled a number of minor offices in the township, such as school trustee and commisioner of highways. He was one of the first to settle out on the prairie, in the south-west part of Mosquito township, and since his location there, has witnessed a vast amount of improvement around him.

Elias Bramel

ELIAS BRAMEL. This gentleman, one of the early settlers on the Mosquito prairie, is a Kentuckian by birth. The family from which he descended is of English extraction. His grandfather, .Jonathan Bramel, was born in England, and on his emigration to America settled in Maryland. His father, Elisha Bramel, was born in Maryland, and when a young man went to Kentucky and settled in that state. This was about the _vear 1812. About 1815, he married in Mason county, Kentucky, Rebecca ^Nloran, who was also born in Maryland, the Moran and Bramel families having emigrated from Maryland to Kentucky together, and settled in ^lason county. Mr. Bramel's birth occurred in Mason county, March 17, 1820. He was the third in a family of eight children. When about seven years old his father moved to Harrison county. The part of Kentucky in which his father lived was thinly settled, and the neighbors few and far between. In consequence the children were aflbrded ver}- poor advantages in the way of obtaining an education. When he was a boy there was no school within a reasonable distance at which he could attend. The only schooling he received was for about two months after he became of age. Mr. Bramel lived at home until he was twenty-one, and then turned out in the world on his own account. He went to Paris, in Bourbon county, and learned the business of a stone mason, and afterward the trade of a stone cutter. He worked at his trade for fifteen or sixteen years, and at it saved enough money to buy a farm of two hundred acres, in Harrison county, in the year 1843, and on which he moved, but still carried on his trade, obtaining other help to carry on the farming.

His first marriage occurred November 3, 1844, to Eliza Ashcraft, of Harrison county, Kentucky. Her death took place Jan. 18th, 1849. He was married again August 12, 1851, to Dorinda Dodson, who was born and raised in Harrison county, Kentucky. In 1852, Mr. Bramel removed to Illinois, and purchased eighty acres of raw prairie laud, in section 34, town. 19, range 1 west, and twenty acres of timber. Mr. Bramel began farming on this tract, and ha.* been farming in that part of Christian county ever since. He now owns three hundred acres of land in sections 34 and 35, and is known a.< one of the substantial farmers of Mosquito township. !Mr. Bramel was among the first to locate on the Mosquito prairie, on which there were only one or two houses on his coming to the county. Herds of deer were a common sight on the prairie, and the country gave little promise of developing into the rich agricultural country' which it has since become. Mr. Bramel has ten children living: Columbus, now living in La Bette county, Kansas, Lucinda, wife of Lysauder Whaley, of Mosquito township, Sallie A., who married Adam Whiteside, of Macon county, Benjamin, Oscar, now farming in Mosquito township, Robert, Thomas, Ira, Richard and John Wilmer.

In his polities, Mr. Bramel started out in life as a believer in the (lid .Jackson democracy, to whose principles he believes that he ha-s -dhered pretty closely all through his life. His first vote for president was cast for Van Buren, in 1840, and he has voted for every democratic candidate for president from that time until now. Both Mr. and Mrs. Bramel are members of the Christian church. Mr. Bramel is a man who has been respected for his many good qualities as a citizen and a useful member of the community. As a man he is .self-made. He began life with nothing on which to rely except his own energy, and from a young man beginning life without a dollar, has risen to a position of comparative independence, and takes rank with the prominent farmers of Christian county.

William Armstrong

This gentleman, one of the old residents of this part of the state, is a native of North Carolina, and was born in Orange county, of that state. May 1, 1806. The family from which he is descended is of Irish descent.

His great-grandfather was born in Ireland, came to America, and settled in North Carolina, while it was yet a colony of Great Britain. His grandfather, William Armstrong, was born in North Carolina, about the year 1736. He served in the Continental army during the whole of the Revolutionary war, and participated in several battles, being twice taken prisoner by the British. His father, James Armstrong, was born in North Carolina, was raised in that state, and married Mary Allen, who was also a native of Orange county, N. C, and came from a family of English descent.

from North Carolina to Tennessee, at an early date, and settled on the site of Nashville, where there was only a fort to mark the spot where now stands the capital of the state. He married Jennie Lapslie. His son, Wni. Armstrong, uncle of the subject of this sketch, accompanied him to Tennessee, and was accustomed to say that he buried nearly thirty men, wlio had been picked oft' by the Indians, within a short distance of this Nashville fort. Mr. Armstrong's father also accompanied him to Tennessee, but afterwards returned to North Carolina.

The first six years of Mr. Armstrong's life were spent among the sterile hills and flint rocks of his native county. In 1812, his father moved with the family to Tennes.see, and settled in Williams county, 20 miles from Nashville. It was here that Mr. Armstrong grew to manhood. His father being a man in good circumstances, Wm. Armstrong obtained all the education oflered by the schools of that country. He was married there to Martha Oldham, a native of Virginia. Mr. Arm.stroug fir.st visited Illinois in 1836, and being determined to settle in this state, he entered land in what is now Logan county, and in 1837, brought his family to Illinois, and settled in Sangamon county, near the town of Mechanicsburg, and continued to live there until 1865, and then moved to his present farm in Christian county. His first wife died, January, 1836, before his removal to Illinois. His second marriage occurred June 15, 1837, to Statira Fickland, a native of Montgomery county, Kentucky ; his marriage took place in Saugamon county. The farm on which Mr. Armstrong now resides, was improved by his sou, Leander Armstrong, now dead, and was one of the earliest improved farms upon the prairie in the south-west part of Mosquito township. Mr. Armstrong has had ten children, of whom six are now living, namely, Mary E., John A., James I., Ann M., married to D. W. Housley of Grove City, Wm., David C. His oldest daughter is living in Jasper county, Missouri, the wife of John H. Spurgin, and all the other children are living in Christian county. Three children of Mr. Armstrong's died in Christian county, all grown, viz: Leander, April 14, 1866, George White, Nov. 26, 1868^ Emma, Feb. 17, 1873, Edwin A. having died in infancy, Jan. 4, 1834. Mr. Armstrong had three sons serving in the army during the war of the Rebellion : John A., James I., and Leander; John A. serving in the 3d cavalry, James I. in the 73d, and Leander in the 114th; the first named enlisted in 1861, and served until he became incapable of active duty on account of rheumatism. James I. and Leander served from 1862 until the close of the war. Leander contracted a disease while in the service, from which he died as above stated.

Mr. Armstrong was born in a slave-holding country, and his father was a slave-owner after the manner of the country in which he lived, but the subject of our sketch at an early age became impressed with the evils of the system, although he himself owned slaves, and as soon as an opportunity offered determined to move to a free state. He wa.s a whig while that party lasted, and voted for its candidates always in ojiposition to the democratic party. His sentiments on the question of slavery, led him to attach himself to the Republican party on its organization, and he voted for Fremont in 1856. He is still a republican, and was a stanch Union man during the war.

Mr. Armstrong is a man who is much respected for his many good qualities as a citizen. For four years he was Associate Judge of the County Court, in Sangamon county. At the age of 18, in 1824, he became connected with the Methodist church, of which denomination he has ever since been a member.

Samuel Eetz

SAMUEL EETZ. This gentleman, who has been living in Mosquito township since November, 1867, is a native of Pennsylvania, and was born in Huntingdon county of that state, March 29, 1831. His father was John Betz, and his mother Rebecca Beyer. The subject of our sketch was the oldest of seven children. When a child one or two years of age, his father moved with the family to Medina county, Ohio, where he lived three or four years and then went to Summit county, Ohio, where Esquire Betz was principally raised. The part of Ohio in which he lived had good schools, which he attended pretty regularly when a boy, and gained a good education. After becoming of age he worked by the month for a couple of years in Summit and Cuyahoga counties. The summer of 1855 he spent in Wisconsin. October 7, 1855, he was married to Catharine Weidman, who was born and raised in Summit county, Ohio, where his marriage took place. In the spring of 1856 he went to Wisconsin, and went to farming for himself in Sauk county of that state. He lived in Wisconsin seven and one half years. His father died in February, 1863. And his five younger brothers were in the army at the time, so that his mother wrote to him to come back to Ohio and take care of the old homestead ; consequently he went back to Ohio in the fall of 1863, and lived there until the fall of 1867, when he came to Christian county and settled in Mosquito township, where he has since been engaged in farming. He learned the carpenter's trade in Ohio, and has followed that to some extent here. He has had nine children, of whom all but one are living. Their names are Clara Emma, wife of John A. Delamar ; Charlotte Rebecca, William Arie, who died at the age of nearly thirteen ; Alice Florence, Ida, Rosa, John Harvey, Mary Catharine and Charles Samuel. Esquire Betz has been one of the representative citizens of Mosquito township since his residence there, and has been known as one of the public-spirited and liberal members of the community. In his politics he has always been a member of the old democratic party, casting his first vote for president for Franklin Fierce in 1852, and supporting every democratic candidate for president since. For a number of years he has filled the oflSce of Justice of the Peace in Mosquito township. He is a member of the Odd Fellows, and also a Mason.

John Palmer

Tms gentleman has been living in Mosquito township since 1875; is a native of Ohio, and was born in Washington county of that state, Feb. 12th, 1824. His father, Jabez F. Palmer, was a native of Vermont, and descended from a family who had settled in North Carolina at an early date. His grandfather, Joseph Palmer, was one of the first settlers of Ohio, and among the early pioneers who settled about Marietta, the oldest town in the state. Mr. Palmer's wife's name was Lydia G. Brown, daughter of Samuel Brown, who was also one of the first pioneers of Washington county, Ohio, and settled eight miles from Marietta, one of the first to locate at any distance from the town. Mr. Palmer's uncle, John Brown, was known throughout that part of the state as one of the early abolitionists, and most zealous advocate of freedom for the black race.

The Brown family were from New Hampshire. Mr. Palmer was born sixteen miles west of Marietta, in the town of AVatertown, now Palmer township. He attended the common schools and obtained the elements of a good English education. He was raised on a farm. November 28tli, 1847, lie married Lvdia E. Dutti.m, a native of Hockingport, Athens county, Ohio. ilr. Palmor was farming in Ohio till the spring of 1860, and then moved to Masnn county, West Virginia, on the Ohio river, opposite Gullipolis, Ohio, where he was engaged in farming through the war, and was also part of the time occupied in taking care of government horses. In 1866 he moved to the Ohio side of the river. The death of his wife occurred February, 1868, and then Mr. Palmer went to Missouri. For four or five years his home was in Sedalia, and ho also for a year lived in Cooper county. In the summer of 1873 he was most of the time in Kansas, and afterward lived for a few months in Bates ci>unty, Missouri. In ^March, 1875, he married Mrs. Martha L. Sprague, whose maiden name was Gage, who was born in New Hampshire, and came to Washington county, Ohio, when a child of five years of age. !^he married Jonathan Sprague, and settled in Mosquito township. Mr. Palmer has one son, James A. Palmer, now living in Athens county, Ohio, engaged in the merchandizing business at C'oolville. In his politics Mr. Palmer was formerly a whig, but has been a repul)lican since the organization of that party. He voted for Fremont in 1856, the first national candidate of the republican party. He has thoroughly sympathized with the aims of the repulilican party during the whole of its exlstance.

Williaji Morgan

WILLIAJI MORGAN Is a native-born citizen of Christian county. His birth dates September 4th, 1838. His father, John Morgan, was a native of Kentucky, and was a son of Lambert Morgan, of Virginia. I>ambert Morgan emigrated to Kentucky at an early da}'. He was in the war of 1812, and was at the battle of New Orleans. In about 1820 he settled in Indiana, where he lived until 1832. He then came to Illinois. When the family arrived at Vandalia, John Morgan, who was then about eighteen years of age, concluded he would remain in that place. His father continued his journev, crossed the Illinois river at Beardstown, and settled somewhere in the military tract, where he lived a number of years. He afterwards moved into Davis county, Missouri, where he died in 1)^74. .lohn Morgan remained in Vandalia a short time, and then went to St. Louis, where he was employed by " Billie" Wiggins to work one of his ferry-boats. He afterward went to Beardstown, and then to Springfield, and finally came into what is now Christian county, where he was married in 1834 to Miss Nancy Watkins, a native of Tennessee. Her father was an early settler in the central part of Illinois. After Mr. Morgan's marriage, he settled down.to farming. He now lives in Mosquito township. He has been twice married. His second wife was a Mrs. Allen, who, before marriage was a Miss Lucinda Loyd, of Kentucky. There have been six children born by this union, one now decea.sed. The subject of our sketch was the only child by his father's first marriage. John Morgan is a man of the true pioneer type, and delights in telling anecdotes of the early times.

William Morgan was raised on a farm in the early settlement of this county, and in consequence, his advantages for receiving an education were limited ; but, by clo.se application, he acquired the rudiments in youth, and in after years qualified himself sufficiently to transact almost any ordinary business. At the age of twenty-eight he was united in marriage to Miss Margaret Ann Nicholes, a native of Sangamon county, Illinois. They have a family of five children, viz. : ]\[ary Emma, Lucy E., John A. R.,

William K. and (Jeorge. After Mr. Morgan's marriage, he began farming where he now lives, on one hundred and forty acres. He now owns two hundred and eighty acres. His father gave him a start of ninety acres, and by hard work and economical habits he has acquired the balance. In 1862 he was elected constable, a position he has filled to the present time, with the exception of about two years. For three years he was commissioner of highways in his township. In politics he is a stanch democrat, and takes an active interest in the success of his party. He cast his first vote fiu- James Buchanan, and has so continued to vote the straight ticket. Such is a brief sketch of one of the prominent young farmers of ^Mosijuito township.

J Willis Wood

J WILLIS WOOD W.\s born in Clinton county, Kentucky, October 25th, 1840. He is the son of John and Sarah Wood. John Wood was a native of East Tennessee, and his fiither, Samuel Wood, a native-born Englishman, who emigrated to this country about 1750. He settled at Mt. Vernon, Virginia, and enlisted in a Virginia company, which served in the French and Indian wars. He was under Captain George Washington, at Braddock's defeat, in the western part of Pennsylvania, and also served two years in a campaign against the French in Canada. Mr. Wood married at Mt. Vernon, and emigrated to Tennessee before it became one of the states. John Wood, the father of our subject, was born in 1781, and was a soldier in the war of 1812. He emigrated to Kentucky, where he married Sarah Crouch, a native of Tennessee, and of French descent. They raised a family often children, of whom the subject of our sketch was the youngest. The occupation of John Wood, after settling in Kentucky, was that of a farmer; he improved a farm in Clinton county, where he died in 1860, at the advanced age of 81 years. His elder brother, William, and uncle to our subject, served in the Kentucky assembly twenty-one years, nineteen years consecutively, by profession an engineer - what then was termed a surveyor. Mr. Wood was raised upon his father's farm, in Kentucky; he attended the common .schools in Clinton county, and also attended Mount Cumberland Academy, whereby he received a good education ; his original intention was to fit himself for the practice of law, and in 1859, he began reading law in the office of H. S. Taylor, of Albany, Kentucky; he remained in this office about one year, and then attended the law lectures, at the University in Louisville. He became fully qualified, and was admitted to the bar in 1861. His first intention was to open an office and practice his profession in Albany, but upon account of the war he left his native state, and came to Illinois in 1862, first locating in Macoupin countj', where he taught school for two years, in that and Madison county. He was united in marriage to Miss Maria Wood, March 15th, 1866, near Troy, Madison county. Jlr. Wood was advised by his physician to abandon the idea of practicing law, or the confinement necessary for study, and adopt a more active life on account of an affection of the heart, from which he at this time suffered. He consequenth' came to Christian county, and entered into the avocation of a farming life once more, which it is his purpose to continue the rest of his life. After settling in Mosquito township, in the spring of 1866, he experienced the great misfortune of losing his wife, in the month of February, 1878. He has two children, viz. : Aronette and A. Leon.

ISIr. Wood is a man of con.siderable ability, and has most satisfactorily filled the office of Justice of the Peace in the township wherein he resides. In politics he is democratic.