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JAMES
M. AKIN, farmer, was born in Franklin
County in 1824, the son of James T. and SaraH A. (McMellon)
Akin. The father, born in South Carolina, of Irish
stock, was the son of James Akin, native of Ireland,
where he was married and located in South Carolina, and when
James T. was a boy moved to Greene County, Ohio, thence a
few years later to Gibson County, Ind., and in 1818 settled in
Eastern Township, Franklin County, on the farm now owned by
George Brady. He died in 1856, a pioneer of the
county. James T. married in Gibson County, Ind.,
and in 1822 came to Franklin County. After raising one
crop on Crawford's Prairie he returned for his family, and
entered the farm now owned by the Widow Frost, in Eastern
Township. He died about 1835. His wife, born in
South Carolina, died in 1860, sixty-two years old. Our
subject, the only survivor of six children, received a
common-school education in Franklin County, and lived with his
mother until about sixteen, when, after a year's work for his
uncle, John Akin, he began for himself. When
eighteen he married Mary A., daughter of John T. and
Jane Carter, born in 1824 in Smith County, Tenn. Their
children are William T. (deceased), Samantha J.
(wife of Akin Plaster), James E., Catherine (wife
of John W. Ross), Melinda (wife of A. Criss),
John M., Amanda (wife of F. M. Flemming),
Grant and Ida M. He then located on a 280 tract
in Eastern Township. In 1885 he sold that and bought 183½
acres in Sections 22 and 23, his present home. From 1882 he was
a merchant about two years, but sold out, and in a few months
rebought a half interest, and continued about eighteen months.
He is a Democrat, first voting for Polk, and is a leading
citizen. For four years after 1868, four years after 1872
and for four years after the county adopted the township
organization, he was a member of the county court. From
1876 he was two years a sheriff of Franklin County. He is
a Master Mason and an Odd Fellow. Dec. 16, 1861, he
enlisted in Company I, Fifty-sixth Illinois Volunteer Infantry,
for three years or for the war, and was made first lieutenant,
and discharged Oct. 29, 1862, owing to disability.
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