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THOMAS
SENTENEY, farmer and stock-raiser; P. O. Cook's Mills; one of
the early settlers of the county, was born in Kentucky May 16, 1819;
came to this State in 1842, Coles Co. in 1853, and settled in North
Okaw Twp.; his farm consists of 104 acres, valued at $3,000, and
since his residence in the township he has held the office of
Assessor one term, School Trustee and Director twelve years.
He was married to Miss Anne Flemming, who was born
in Indiana; they have had seven children, viz., John T.,
Sarah, Mark, James L., Mary J., Samuel A. and Emma.
Source: History of Coles County, Illinois - Chicago - Wm. LeBaron,
Jr., & Co. - 1879 |
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Lafayette Twp.
B. B.
SHINN, farmer; P. O. Mattoon; owns 142 acres;
was born in Montgomery Co., Ohio, Mar. 10, 1824; was brought up a
farmer. He married Margaret BarcalowJan. 1, 1845; she
was born in Butler Co., Ohio, July 14, 1824; they had three
children; only one (G. B.) is now living; he was born in Bartholomew
Co., Ind., Oct. 20, 1851. He married Cornelia M. Ricketts
Feb. 11, 1872; she was born in Charleston Mar. 19, 1853; is a
daughter of Joshua Ricketts, Esq., of Ashmore Twp.; they have
had three children, two of whom are now living - Nellie and
O. Morton; Katie is the name of the deceased.
The subject of this sketch had two other children - James,
who died at the age of 22 years; a twin to the latter died in
infancy. Mr. S. has held the office of Justice of the
Peace, Supervisor and Town Clerk. He, in company with his
wife, spent five months at the Centennial Exhibition in
Philadelphia, in 1876. He was appointed by the Governor of
this State as Assistant Commissioner at that exhibition; he
purchased a county right for a patent farm-gate, while at that
Exhibition, that is worth the attention of every farmer; it is
simple and cheap, and a person does not have to alight from a load
of hay or a wagon to open it; it costs no more than a common gate;
the inventor was a Canadian, and, of course, it is constructed so
that deep snows are no hindrance to its being opened or shut at any
time without the trouble of shoveling snow; it will pay any person
to travel a long distance to see this gate; there is no doubt but
what they will come in general use just as fast as the people find
out that there is such a simple device in existence.
Source: History of Coles County, Illinois - Chicago - Wm. LeBaron,
Jr., & Co. - 1879 |
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Ashmore Twp. -
A. J. SHULSE, farmer and stock-raiser, P. O.
Kansas; was born in Nicholas Co., Ky., Oct 17, 1827, being a son of
Henry and Winnifred Shulse, the former a native of Kentucky,
and the latter of Virginia. He was married Aug. 5, 1852, to
Miss Martha J. Honn, daughter of David and Anna Honn, of
Nicholas County, Ky. She was born in that county May 9, 1826.
In November, 1859, they removed to Coles County, and the following
spring settled in their present home. Mr. and Mrs. Shulse
are well pleased with the change from Kentucky to the prairies of
Illinois. For nearly three years past, they have been
traveling in the West, visiting the States of Missouri, Kansas and
Colorado, spending over a year in the Rocky Mountains, and although
well pleased with the Western country, have returned fully satisfied
with their present home. Mr. Shulse owns a fine
farm, improved with good buildings, shrubbery, orchards and miles of
Osage hedge, which in summer time presents a most beautiful
appearance. It occupies a commanding location, affording a
fine view of the surrounding country. Mr. Shulse has
devoted his attention exclusively to his business of farming, in
which he has been very successful. His aim has been to farm in
a thorough manner rather tan to acquire large quantities of land,
and the result fully demonstrates the wisdom of his course.
His home farm contains 80 acres, besides which he has 20 acres of
timber. In 1868, he was ordained an Elder in the Christian
Church, since which time he has served in that capacity.
Source: History of Coles County, Illinois - Chicago - Wm. LeBaron,
Jr., & Co. - 1879 - Page 604 |
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THOMAS SMITH,
farmer and stock-raiser; P. O. Mattoon; was born in Coles Co., Ill.,
Oct. 19, 1853; he is the son of Mr. W. H.
Smith, deceased, and Mary A. Smith,
deceased, who was formerly Miss Mary A. Osborn.
The estate being unsettled, he is one of seven heirs to the
homestead; it contains 680 acres, valued at $20,400; the balance of
the heirs, who are brothers and sisters of Mr. Smith,
are Isabel, Martha, Delphine,
Alice, Willis and Joseph.
Source: History of Coles County, Illinois - Chicago - Wm. LeBaron,
Jr., & Co. - 1879 |
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N. P. SMITH,
dealer in books stationery, etc., Oakland; born in Delaware Co.,
Ohio, Jan. 6, 1847, where he attended school until 16 years of age,
when he removed from Pickaway Co., where he attended school one
year; he then attended at Delaware City, where he entered the
Wesleyan University, where he remained eighteen months; in 1866, he
located in Shelby Co., Ill., and for five years engaged from four to
six months during the fall and winter in teaching school, and the
balance of the season farming and dealing in farm implements and
machinery; he then engaged in the book and stationery trade at
Shelbyville with T. E. Laphamb for a short time, when, in
1873, he located at Oakland in the above business, under the firm
name of Lapham & Smith, continuing the same for six months,
when he purchased the interest of his partner, since which time he
has continued the business alone; his business card will be found in
the business directory of Oakland, and another part of his work.
His marriage with Minerva Gollogher was celebrated Sept. 30,
1859; she was born in Shelby Co., Ill., Sept. 9, 1847; they have
four children now living by this union, viz., Orrin L., Jennie,
Edith and Lucy.
Source: History of Coles County, Illinois - Chicago - Wm. LeBaron,
Jr., & Co. - 1879 |
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Ashmore Twp. -
JONATHAN SHAVER, farmer and stock-raiser; P.
O. Ashmore; the above named gentleman was born in Ladoga, Montgomery
Co., Ind., July 22, 1836; his father, Jonathan Shaver, is a
native of Virginia, was an early settler in Montgomery Co., having
come there about the year 1830, his mother, Susan Shaver,
being also a native of Virginia; Mr. Shaver was raised
on a farm. He was married Sept. 30, 1856, to Miss Mary J.
Stratton, of Green Co., Ohio; she died Jan. 8, 1860, leaving two
children - Rosela and Emma J. Mr. Shaver
was then poor; he worked at the time of the war for $12 per month
during half of the hear and the balance of the year for his board;
to illustrate the habits of economy which he practiced, after
supporting his two children, he had something left. He was
married again Aug. 1, 1865, to Miss Sarah A. Tickey, a
daughter of George W. and Hannah Trickey; she was born in
Boone Co., Ind., Sept. 5, 1842; they have five children - Laura
V., John E., Herbert I., Gracie M. and Ralph. In
1867, he removed to Coles Co., and settled on his present farm; he
has worked hard, and now owns 140 acres of land under a good state
of cultivation, a barn costing nearly a thousand dollars, and no
encumbrance on any of it. He is a man of the strictest
integrity, and a prosperous citizen.
Source: History of Coles County, Illinois - Chicago - Wm. LeBaron,
Jr., & Co. - 1879 - Page 605 |
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Ashmore Twp. -
A. T. STEELE, M.D., physician and surgeon,
Ashmore, is a native of Illinois; he was born in Clark Co. June 28,
1844; he is a son of Oliver P. Steele, a native of the city
of Philadelphia, who came to Clark Co. in 1837, where he resided
till his death, which occurred Oct. 2, 1872; his mother was Nancy
K. Twilley, who was born in Kentucky, and came to Illinois with
her in 1832. Dr. Steele was raised on the farm; in
1863, he enlisted in Co. C, 62d Ill. Vols, serving till Feb. 185; he
participated in the battles of Little Rock, Pine Bluffs and Fort
Smith, Ark., and Fort Gibson, Indian Territory; returning from the
war, he spent one year in farming, and, in 1867, entered Westfield
College, where he remained two years; during the winter of 1869-70,
he attended lectures in Rush Medical College, Chicago, reading
medicine the following summer in the office of Dr. Van Dyke,
in Ashmore; in the fall of 1871, he returned to the college in
Chicago, but the buildings of that institution being destroyed in
the great fire in that city, he went to the University of Michigan
in An Arbor, and there pursued his second course in medicine; he
began practice as a physician in Ashmore, in 1872, and, in the fall
of 1874, returned to Rush Medical College, where he graduated and
received the degree of M. D. in February 1875; as a physician, he
has been successful, having a large and steadily-increasing
practice. He was married May 14, 1872, to Miss Anna M.
Duncan, of Westfield, Ill., and has three children - Perry L.,
Binnie A. and Clifford B.
Source: History of Coles County, Illinois - Chicago - Wm. LeBaron,
Jr., & Co. - 1879 - Page 605 |
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LILBURN
SWINFORD, farm and stock; P. O. Charleston; was born in
Harrison C., Ky., Jan. 31, 1808; he married Miss Francis
Hendricks in September, 1829; she was born in Pendleton Co.,
Ky., Dec. 19, 1809. They had eleven children, eight living,
viz, William H., Martha A., Mary E., Julia A., Lucy, Louisa,
Josephine and Benjamin F. He lived in Kentucky
until 1839, when he moved to Indiana and settled near Greencastle,
where he remained until 1847; he then moved to Illinois and settled
near Ashmore, in Coles Co., and in 1865 he came to his present
place; he owns 200 acres in this county, which he has earned by his
own labor and management. His parents, James and Sarah
Adams, Swinford, were natives of South Carolina and Virginia;
they were married in Kentucky; both have died, she in Kentucky, he
in Indiana.
Source: History of Coles County, Illinois - Chicago - Wm. LeBaron,
Jr., & Co. - 1879 |
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S. C.
SWINFORD, farmer and stock-raiser, Sec. 7, P. O. Oakland;
born in Harrison Co., Ky., Oct. 4, 1825, where he attended school
until 13 years of age, when he emigrated with his parents to Putnam
Co., Ind., where he engaged upon his father's farm for two years
farming on shares and early in the winter of 1847, employed a team
to transport himself, family and such goods as he was possessed of
to Illinois, where he arrived upon the 17th of February, 1847,
having paid out his last dollar to defray expenses on the trip, his
only capital then being an old blind horse and two colts; with this
capital he commenced farming, renting of Robert Graham what
land he could work with one team, in what is now known as Ashmore
Twp.; in the spring, he walked back to Indiana, and obtained of his
father the loan of a wild horse, which he worked to get in his crop,
when he returned the same well broke, and for four years was obliged
to splice teams to put in his crop; the second year, he rented a
farm in what is now known as Oakland Twp., near where he now
lives, and in this neighborhood rented land until 1855, since which
time he has had all the land of his own he could work; in 1852, he
purchased thirty acres of prairie land, upon which he then removed,
and where he has since continued to live during a period of
twenty-seven years; he has added to the same by purchase as he has
been able, until his home farm now contains 200 acres, upon which he
has erected 600 acres in other parts of the county; upon commencing
housekeeping, he had neither a table, chairs nor bedstead; his
household goods consisted of a feather bed and some dishes; his
first bedstead, for which he paid twenty-five cents, being carried
home, a distance of one mile, upon his back. He married Dec.
2, 1844 to Mary A. Rush; she was born in Tennessee Oct. 31,
1824; they have eight children now living, having lost three by
death; the names of the living are Coleman T., Francis M.,
Henry, James M., John W., George R., Sarah E. and Thomas J.
Mr. Swinford was first Assessor of East Oakland Twp.,
which office he has filled for several terms, as well as the office
of School Director and Trustee.
Source: History of Coles County, Illinois - Chicago - Wm. LeBaron,
Jr., & Co. - 1879 |
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W. H.
SWINFORD, farmer; P. O. Oakland, born in Putnam Co., Ind.,
Aug. 20, 1844, where he followed farming until 1871, when he removed
to Illinois and located in Hickory Twp. where he engaged in farming
until 1875, when he purchased sixty acres of prairie land in East
Oakland Twp., upon which he settled, and where he has since lived;
he also owns forty acres in Hickory Twp., upon which he has erected
good, comfortable farm buildings. He married Nov. 10, 1867, to
Mary A. Cole; she was born in Putnam Co., Ind., Jan. 12,
1846; she is a sister of Richard Cole, whose biography
appears in this work; they have three children now living by this
union, viz., Arthur D., James Matthew and William
Theodore.
Source: History of Coles County, Illinois - Chicago - Wm. LeBaron,
Jr., & Co. - 1879 |
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