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BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY
Source:
History of Peoria County, Illinois
Chicago - Johnson & Company
1880
Note: The NAMES in 'CAPS' will have a
biography. All others do not have biographies available.
KICKAPOO TOWNSHIP
NOTE: Names with (*) next to them have longer
description
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Page 770 |
ABBORLEY, JAMES,
coal miner, P. O. Pottstown.
Ahten, Ahte, farmer, P. O. Peoria.
Alexander, James, coal miner, P. O.
Peoria.
Alexander, Robert, railroad carpenter, P. O. Peoria.
ALLBRIGHTON, THOMAS, miner, P. O. Edwards Station.
Allen, E., farmer and coal operator, P. O. Peoria.
Alward, T., brickmaker, P. O. Peoria.
Ambs, L., farmer, P. O. Peoria.
Amsler, Mary, farmer, P. O. Peoria.
Amsler, Wm., coal miner, P. O. Peoria.
Anderson, J., farmer, P. O. Peoria.
Anderson, Simeon, farmer, P. O. Harker’s Corners.
Armstrong, farmer, P. O. Peoria.
Awl, C. L., farmer, P. O. Peoria.
Backus, N., farmer, P. O. Peoria.
Baking, J., coal miner, P. O. Peoria.
Ball, Ed., coal miner and operator, P. O. Peoria.
Barker, J., gardener, P. O. Peoria.
Barmbrook, I., coal miner, P. O. Peoria.
Barton, L. T., farmer, P. O. Peoria.
Barton, W. C. H., farmer, distiller etc., P. O. Peoria. |
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* BASLER,
NICHOLAS,
farmer and grape-grower, Sec. 10. P. O. Kickapoo.
Mr.
Basler
is a son of Philip
and
Eve
Basler
nee Stough,
and was born in Germany, 31st May, 1825. he spent the years
of his minority in his father’s vineyard, and was thoroughly
educated as a grape grower. He immigrated to America
in the twenty-second year of his age, and landed at St.
Louis, remained a short time and then went to Cincinnati,
O., where he found employment among the vineyardists of that
city for eight years. He united in marriage with
Miss
Catherine,
daughter of Godfried
and
Magdelena
Finck
nee Houk,
on the 29th day of February, 1851, and came to Illinois and
settled at their present home in April, 1855. They had
little but their German pluck with which to commence their
home, but they fought bravely and well. They settl4ed
on wild land covered with a thick growth of small trees and
underbrush. Mrs.
Basler,
although a small, frail woman, often helped her husband with
the grubbing hoe, and otherwise in clearing the land, as
well as in the planting and harvesting seasons. They worked
and saved on their forty acre farm, and now own 120 acres
valued at $30 per acre. A part of the old
homestead is devoted to grapes and small fruit, which yield
handsome profits. They were raised in the faith of the
German Lutheran Church, to which they still adhere.
They have two children.
John
was born at Cincinnati, O., 2nd September, 1852, and
Robert
was born at the present homestead 2nd December, 1858.
Pg. 770 |
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Berends, John, farmer, P. O. Peoria.
Benish, J., coal miner, P. O. Peoria. |
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* BELL, GEORGE,
farmer, Sec. 18, P. O. Alta. Son of
William and Mary Bell
nee Stephens,
was born in Ohio, 15th December, 1833. His father was
a journeyman tanner, and moved from place to place as he
could find employment. As soon as he was old enough, George
commenced to work at whatever he could find to do, but
mostly among the farmers of the neighborhood where his
father lived, so that it may be said he was educated as a
tiller of the soil. On the 18th day of March, 1857, at
Cincinnati, O., he was united in marriage with
Mary,
daughter of John A.,
and Elizabeth
Harris
nee Leslie,
who was born in Fayette Co., O., 18th May, 1838. In
September of that year, 1857, they came to Tazewell Co.,
this State, remained there one year, and then went to Des
Moines Co., Iowa. After three years in Iowa, they came back
to Illinois, and have since remained in Peoria county.
A part of the time they lived in the city of Peoria, where
Mr.
Bell
engaged as fireman on a ferry boat, and part of the time as
engineer at the pottery. In February, 1865, he
enlisted in Company G., 77th Illinois. The war closed
in April, and Mr.
Bell
returned home in June. During the remainder of that year he
engaged as a common laborer, and in the Spring of 1866, he
leased a farm of R. M.
Cole, which he
occupied five years. In 1871, he moved to
Abram
Fry’s
place in Kickapoo township, which he occupied until the
Spring of 1878, and then became a tenant on the farm of
Robert
Campbell
in Sec. 1, Kickapoo township, on which he remained until the
Spring of 1880, when he removed to his own quarter section
as above, which he had previously purchased. This tract of
land is valued at $25 an acre. They have had seven children,
Elizabeth
Jane
and James
William,
twins, were born 23rd May, 1859,
John
Franklin,
born 28th February, 1861,
Ida
May
and Elmer
Ellsworth,
twins, born 13th February, 1863,
Elmer E.,
died 11th July, and
Ida
May,
11th October, same year,
Luella
Augusta,
born 17th August, 1867,
Cornelius
Leslie,
born 8th March, 1873.
Mrs.
Bell
was baptized in the Baptist faith, to which she still
clings. Mr.
Bell
has no church membership, Politically he is an independent
Democrat. |
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Bergman, H., farmer, Peoria. |
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* BEST, PETER,
farmer, Sec. 16, P. O. Kickapoo, son of
Jacob
and
Elizabeth
Best,
nee
Ebberlay,
was born in Franklin county, Pa., January 9, 1836. In the
last days of October, 1843, the family left Pennsylvania to
find a home in Illinois, traveling from Chambersburg to
Pittsburg in a one-horse wagon. From Pittsburg they came to
Peoria by boat, arriving in December. Temporary
provision was made at Peoria for the accommodation of the
mother and smaller children, and about five o’clock of a
cold, stormy day, the father and three of the older
children, including
Peter, set out on foot
for Kickapoo village, which they reached about 11 o’clock,
and found a shelter at
John
Schlenk’s
old pioneer hotel. A few weeks later the family
settled on a tract of land purchased in Rosefield, where the
children were raised, and on which the father died, in
December, 1874, at the age of eighty. She has eight
living children, fifty-eight grandchildren and sixteen
great-grandchildren.
Peter
Best,
the subject of this sketch, grew to manhood in Rosefield,
with such school advantages as the times afforded. On the
21st December, 1858, he married
Mary,
daughter of Adam
and
Margaret
Eisenbour
nee
Geiger,
who was born in Baden, Germany, 16th June, 1839. They
lived two years on the Best homestead, and remained in the
township until 1869, when they came to Kickapoo, and in 1870
to their present place. They now own 505 acres of
land, valued at $35 an acre, besides valuable personal
property. Democratic in political sentiment, and
Catholic in religious faith. They have nine children—Adam
J., born Sept. 27,
1859, educated at Parish’s Peoria Business College, and
graduated therefrom May 1, 1879;
Jacob F.,
born July 17, 1861,
Elizabeth A., August
6, 1863, Joseph V.,
Sept. 12, 1865,
Matilda M., July 2,
1867, Peter
M.,
November 24, 1869,
Anna M., April 3,
1872, Mary A.,
Aug. 20, 1874, Frances
B., Jan. 25, 1878.
Pg. 770 - 771 |
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Page 771 - |
Blandin, F. A., farmer, P. O. Harker’s Corners.
Blank, Geo., Coal operator, P. O. Peoria
Blower, N., coal miner, P. O. Peoria
Bohanan, J., P. O. Peoria.
Booth, W., farmer and J. P., P. O. Peoria.
Bourland, R., farmer, P. O. Peoria.
Bontz, C., farmer, P. O. Peoria.
Bontz, Peter, farmer P. O. Peoria, or Harker’s Corners.
Bowers, Frank, gardener and coal miner, P. O. Peoria.
Brast, C., coal operator, P. O. Peoria.
BRADY, CHARLES M., farmer, Sec. 12, P. O. Peoria.
Brown, Mrs. C., P. O. Peoria.
Brown, Isaac, retired, P. O. Peoria
Bruniga, Bruno, farmer, P. O. Peoria
Bruniga, Geo., farmer, P. O. Peoria
Bruminger, H., farmer, P. O. Peoria
Brunning, J., farmer, P. O. Peoria
Burdoos, J., coal miner, P. O. Peoria |
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* BURDETT, JOSEPH,
farmer, P. O. Peoria, son of
John and Sarah Burdett,
nee Sharman, was
born at Sutton Bassett, Northamptonshire, England, September
7, 1826. He attended the free schools of England from
the time he was six and a half until he was eleven and a
half years of age, and was then set to work on a farm, and
at the age of seventeen years commenced working in the
mines. July 22, 1849, he married
Ann,
daughter of John and
Martha Fowles, nee Bagley,
who was born on the 20th day of July, 1829. In the
early Spring of 1850, he left England and his wife to make a
home for her in America; landed in New York on the 18th day
of May, proceeded to Ohio, and there found work by which he
earned money enough to carry him to Illinois, and arrived at
Peoria in November of that year. Worked in
Aquilla
Moffatt’s
coal mines, as a miner for two years, Sept. 1, 1851, his
wife joined him. In 1853, he commenced operating in
coal on his own account. In 1857, he purchased the first 80
acres of the present homestead; began to improve it in 1860,
and came to live on it in February, 1863. He has since
added another 80 acres, making 160 acres in the home place,
which is highly cultivated, and valued at $50 an acre; also
owns another 160 acres in section 27, valued at $25 an acre.
Politically Mr.
Burdett
is an uncompromising Democrat; was elected supervisor in
1868, and re-elected six years in succession; in 1879 he was
again elected.
Mr. B. is also a
practical farmer, and an active member of the Patrons of
Husbandry, and has been master of the South Kickapoo Grange,
No. 446, since its organization, May 16, 1873. He is
also president of the Peoria County Grange Co-operative
Association, and a member of the Big Hollow Butter and
Cheese Manufacturing Company. They have had ten
children; Joseph,
born in England, 6th May, 1850; married
Jane
Benn,
5th July, 1871;
Josephine, born Peoria
county, 15th December, 1852, died 11th March, 1864;
Arthur,
born 19th June, 1854, died 1st October, 1855;
Anna,
born 10th February, 1856, married
William
Benn,
5th July, 1879; Sarah,
born 7th November, 1857;
Alfred,
born 11th September, 1859, died 23rd December same year;
Stephen A. D.,
born 29th January, 1861; Isaac, born 27th September, 1862;
John,
born 18th April, 1864;
Martha,
born 8th March, 1866; died 4th April following. The
father and mother were baptized in the Church of England.
Pg. 771 |
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Calhoun, W., farmer, P. O. Peoria.
Cameron, J., farmer, P. O. Peoria.
Campen, J., farmer, P. O. Peoria
Chamblin, E., farmer, P. O. Peoria.
Chamblin, H., farmer, P. O. Peoria.
Chamblin, N., farmer, P. O. Peoria.
Chapman, J. W., coal miner, P. O. Peoria.
Chapman, Wm., farmer, P. O. Peoria.
Clark, J., farmer, P. O. Peoria.
Clark, S. S., merchant, P. O. Peoria.
Classon, N., farmer and coal miner, P. O. Peoria.
Clemens, Sarah J., P. O. Peoria.
Closen, Jos., farmer, P. O. Peoria.
Cody, Joseph, brick maker, P. O. Peoria.
Collier, J., farmer, P. O. Peoria.
Cornelius, G., farmer, P. O. Peoria.
Curtis, James, coal miner, P. O. Peoria. |
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Daubet, E., farmer, P. O. Peoria.
Daubet, Joseph, farmer, P. O. Peoria.
Daubet, Margaret, farmer, P. O. Edwards Station
Daubet, X. X., farmer, P. O. Peoria.
Davis, E., coal miner, P. O. Peoria.
Denton, Caroline, farmer, P. O. Peoria.
Donaldson, Geo., coal operator, P. O. Peoria.
Donneberger, A., farmer, P. O. Peoria.
Dorger, J., farmer, P. O. Peoria. |
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