Illinois Genealogy Express

A Part of Genealogy Express
 

Welcome to
Sangamon County, Illinois
History & Genealogy

BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX

Source:
Historical
ENCYCLOPEDIA
of
ILLINOIS
Edited by Newton Bateman, LL. D. & Paul Selby, A. M.,
and
HISTORY OF
SANGAMON COUNTY
Vol. II
(Part Two)
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CHICAGO
Munsell Publishing Company
1912

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CHAPTER LII.

THE PART OF BIOGRAPHY IN GENERAL HISTORY
CITIZENS OF SANGAMON COUNTY
PERSONAL SKETCHES ARRANGED IN ENCYCLOPEDIC ORDER

     The verdict of mankind has awarded to the Muse of History the highest place among the Classic Nine.  The extent of her office, however, appears to be, by many minds, but imperfectly understood.  The task of the historian is comprehensive and exacting.  True history reaches beyond the doings of court or camp, beyond the issue of battles, or the effects of treaties, and records the trials and the triumphs, the failures and the successes of the men who make history.  It is but an imperfect conception of the philosophy of events that fails to accord to portraiture and biography its rightful position as a part and no unimportant part
of historical narrative. Behind and beneath the activities of outward life the motive power lies out of sight, just as the furnace fires that work the piston and keep the ponderous screw revolving are down in the darkness of the hold.  So, the impulsive power which shapes the course of communities may be found in the moulding influences which form its citizens.
     It is no mere idle curiosity that prompts men to wish to learn the private as well as the public lives of their fellows.  Rather is it true that such desire tends to prove universal brotherhood; and the interest in personality and biography is not confined to men of any particular caste or vocation.
     The list of those to whose lot it falls to play a conspicuous part in the great drama of life is comparatively short; yet communities are made up of individuals, and the aggregate of achievements no less than the sum total of human happiness is made up of the deeds of those men and women whose primary aim, through life, is faithfully to perform the duty that comes nearest to hand.  Individual influence upon human affairs will be considered potent or insignificant according to the standpoint from which it is viewed.  To him who, standing upon the seashore, notes the ebb and flow of the tides and listens to the sullen roar of the waves, as they break upon the beach in seething foam, seemingly chafing at their limitations, the ocean appears so vast as to need no tributaries. Yet, without the smallest rill that helps to swell the "Father of Waters," the mighty torrent of the Mississippi would be lessened, and the beneficent influence of the Gulf Stream diminished.  Countless streams, currents and counter currents sometimes mingling, sometimes counteracting each other collectively combine to give motion to the accumulated mass of waters.  So is it and so must it ever be in the ocean of human action, which is formed by the blending and repulsion of currents of thought, of influence and of life, yet more numerous and more tortuous than those which form the "fountains of the deep."  The acts and characters of men, like the several faces that compose a composite picture, are wrought together into a compact or heterogeneous whole.  History is condensed biography; "Biography is History teaching by example."
     It is both interesting and instructive to rise above the generalization of history and trace, in the personality and careers of the men from whom it sprang, the principles and influences, the impulses and ambitions, the labors, struggles and triumphs that engross their lives.
     Here are recorded the careers and achievements of pioneers who, "when the fullness of time had come," came from widely separated sources, some from beyond the sea, impelled by divers motives, little conscious of the import of their acts, and but dimly anticipating the harvest which would spring from the sowing.  They built their primitive homes, toiling for a present subsistence while laying the foundations of private fortunes and further advancement.
     Most of these have passed away, but not before they beheld a development of business and population surpassing the wildest dreams of fancy or expectation.  A few yet remain whose years have passed the alloted three score and ten, and who love to recount, among the cherished memories of their lives, their reminiscences of early days.
     Among these early, hardy settlers, and those who followed them, may be found the names of many who imparted the first impulse to the county's and the city's growth and homelike ness; the many who, through their identification with commercial and agricultural pursuits and varied interests, aided in their material progress; or skilled mechanics who first laid the foundations of beautiful homes and productive industries, and of the members of the learned professions clergymen, physicians, educators and lawyers whose influence upon the Intellectual life and development of a community it is impossible to overestimate.
     Municipal institutions arise; Commerce spreads her sails and prepares the way for the magic of Science that drives the locomotive engine over the iron-rails.  Trade is organized, reaching forth to the shores of the Great Lakes and stretching its arms across the prairies to gather in and distribute the products of the soil.  Church spires rise to express, in architectural form, the faith and aspirations of the people, while schools, public and private, elevate the standards of education and of artistic taste. 
     Here are some of the men through whose labors, faith and thought, these magnificent results have been achieved.  To them and to their co-laborers, the Sangamon County of today stands an enduring monument, attesting their faith, their energy, their courage, and their self-sacrifice.

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[The following Items of personal and family history having been arranged in encyclopedic (or alphabetical) order as to
names of the Individual subjects, no special index to this part of the work will be found necessary.)
    

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