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OTHER BIOGRAPHICAL INDEXES:
BIOGRAPHIES
Source:
The History
of
Vermilion County, Illinois
A Tale of its Evolution, Settlement and Progress for
nearly a Century -
Vols. I & 2
By Lottie E. Jones -
Chicago - Pioneer Publishing Company -
1911
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C. B. FENTON.
The name of C. B. Fenton is indelibly inscribed on the pages of
Danville's history. His success was not that alone of material
gain, for his progress was equally marked along the lines of
intellectual development and of humanitarian spirit and
principle. He was interested in the: welfare of his race and was
deep student of those things which have marked the progress of
humanity through all the ages. At the same time he was a
practical man of affairs, long associated with the business
interests of Danville where his intelligently directed efforts
brought him success. A native of Pennsylvania, Mr. Fenton was
born in Wesleyville in 1841. His father, Edwin V. Fenton, was a
native of Ohio and was a tailor by trade. In following that
pursuit he provided a good living for his family.
C. B. Fenton largely acquired his education in the
schools of Conneaut, Ohio, and after completing his course was
connected with business interests in that state for a number of
years. He arrived in Danville on the 17th of August, 1870,
removing from Paynesville, Ohio, where he had formerly been
connected with mercantile interests. On arriving in this city he
purchased the store and stock of William Brown, who dealt in
stoves and tinware at the corner of the square, and later he
added a line of hardware. Mr. Fenton remained there for two
years, after which he carried on his store in the Hub block for
two years. In 1874 he removed to 17 East Main Street and
continued at the same location for thirty-six years. Since his
death his daughter has conducted the business. At the time of
his demise he was with one exception the oldest merchant
continuing in the same line of business in Danville. Not only
did he figure as one of the leading: and enterprising merchants
of the city but was also a factor in promoting the material
growth of Danville along many other lines. He was interested in
the Opera House, was one of the active factors in promoting the
street car system, (the electric lights and other projects which
have been extremely valuable as features in Danville's up
building and commercial progress.
Mr. Fenton was a man of broad general information and
carried his researches and investigation far and wide into the
various specific lines of knowledge. Few men not in public life
were more familiar with the political situations and questions
of the day and for various magazines and the Chicago paper he
wrote articles upon subjects of vital political interest. He was
also the author of a volume on Coins and Currency. He possessed
a fine large library and his evening hours outside of business
were largely given to companionship with the master minds of all
ages. He reads broadly, thought deeply and largely drew his
inspiration from the authors with which he was familiar.
In Cleveland, Ohio, in 1868, Mr. Fenton was united in
marriage to Miss Margaret E. McKeon, and unto them were born
three children, of whom Josephine and Grace are now living,
while a daughter Willie died in 1876.
For a long period Mr. Fenton gave his political
allegiance to the Republican Party but when his views became at
variance with its platform he withdrew from active connection
therewith and voted independently, keeping, however, well versed
upon the issues of the day. He served as supervisor for a number
of years and discharged all public duties with a sense of
conscientious obligation. For thirty-five years he was a member
of the Masonic fraternity of Danville, joining the organization
when eighteen years of age. While he did not bind himself by any
creed or religious dogma, he was a friend to all the influences
which uplift and benefit mankind and gave generously to the
support of churches and Sunday schools, recognizing their
potency as factors in the material development of the individual
or community. He was a man of Kindly spirit, genial in manner,
courteous in deportment and generous and benevolent in
disposition. He took no narrow or contracted view of life, his
expanding mental powers reaching out to broader views and
bringing him into touch with the universal and the enduring work
of all ages. He was loved by all who knew him and no higher
tribute can be paid to any man.
Source: History of Vermilion County, Illinois
- Vol. II - Publ. 1911 - Pages
510
and 511 - Contributed by Mary Paulius |
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HAMILTON
C. FINLEY, numbered among the most enterprising,
far-sighted and successful business men of Hoopeston, where he
is now engaged in the grain trade, is also mayor of the city and
as its chief executive officer is actuated by spirit of
unfaltering loyalty and devotion to the public welfare. The high
regard entertained for him by his fellowmen has its root in his
sterling qualities of character which find expression in his
reliability in business as well as his progressive-ness in
citizenship.
Mr. Finley was born in Benton county, Indiana,
September 13, 1857. His father, Robert Finley, was born
near Belfast, Ireland, and was of Scotch-Irish lineage. He came
to America in 1850, settling first in Indianapolis, after which
he removed to Benton county, Indiana, where he lived until 1880.
In that year he took up his abode on a farm near Hoopeston and
devoted ten years to general agricultural pursuits. He then left
the farm and lived retired in Hoopeston until called to the home
beyond. His death occurred November 16, 1908. His wife, who bore
the maiden name of Elizabeth Berley, also came of
Scotch-Irish ancestry. They were married in Ireland and the
death of Mrs. Finley occurred in Hoopeston about 1890. In their
family were fourteen children, of whom seven are yet living.
The common schools of his native county afforded
Hamilton C. Finley his early educational privileges, while
later he spent six months in the high school at Oxford, but put
aside his text-books at the age of sixteen years. He afterward
worked upon his father's farm and for other farmers in the
neighborhood until twenty-seven years of age, but he felt that
the life was a restricted one, giving him little opportunity for
advancement, and in August, 1884, be came to Hoopeston, where he
engaged in the meat business, for during his life upon the farm
he acquired sufficient knowledge to enable him to undertake this
venture. He conducted a meat market for five years, securing a
fair measure of success, but at the end of that time he sold out
and turned his attention to the purchase and shipment of live
stock. He made his purchases in Hoopeston and the surrounding
country and shipped to Chicago and Buffalo, New York. He was
also identified with that business for five years. In 1891 he
extended his efforts to the grain trade, with which he became
connected at Hoopeston and at Cheneyville, operating under the
name of the Cheneyville Elevator Company at the latter place and
the Farmers Elevator Company at Hoopeston. He became secretary
and manager of the Cheneyville company and president of the
Farmers Elevator Company. In 1896 the former company dissolved
and in 1905 the Farmers Elevator Company was merged with the
Illinois Lumber, Grain & Coal Company, of which Mr.
Finley is the president and manager. This company is
conducting am extensive and satisfactory business, handling
lumber, grain, lime and coal. They are among the foremost
representatives of these lines of trade not only in Hoopeston
but in this section of the state, having secured an extensive
patronage which makes their undertaking a very profitable one.
In 1898 Mr. Finley also engaged in general
contracting, his operations extending to all parts of the state,
while in Hoopeston he has paved more than two-thirds of the
streets. His splendid business ability is manifest in his
successful conduct of these various enterprises. He is a man of
resolute spirit and what he undertakes he carries forward to
successful completion. He possessed unfaltering energy and
allows no obstacle or difficulty to brook his path if such can
be overcome by determination and honorable purpose.
In the meantime Mr. Finley has filled
various local offices. In the spring of 1890 he was elected tax
collector of Hoopeston and of the township, filling the position
for two years. He was member of the school board for twelve
years, from 1892 until 1904, and is the present mayor of
Hoopeston, having been elected in 1909 for a two years' term.
His administration of the office has helped to make Hoopeston
the model city that it is today. Throughout the period of his
residence here his influence has always been a factor on the
side of progress and improvement and in the administration of
financial duties he has brought to bear the same careful and
enterprising spirit which he has manifested in the conduct of
his private interests. While a democrat in politics he cannot be
said to be a politician in the usually accepted sense of the
term. He has filled public offices from the sense of duty and
his loyalty therein stands as an unquestioned fact in his
career.
On the 7th of December, 1884, Mr. Finley
was married to Miss Jenette Atkinson, a
daughter of Harvey Atkinson, and a native of Ohio. They have one
child, Fay, born January 8, 1887. Mr. and Mrs. Finley
hold membership in the Universalist church and for twenty-eight
years he has been a faithful member of the Masonic fraternity.
He is identified with the Commercial Club of Hoopeston and in
his life there has ever been maintained an even balance between
his business and his public activities, his acts and his
motives. His is indeed an honorable and creditable record, for
he started out in life empty-handed and has depended upon his
own resources for advancement. His progress is due to the fact
that he has made wise use of his opportunities, not fearing that
laborious attention to detail which is so necessary to success
in any field.
Source: History of Vermilion County, Illinois
- Vol. II - Publ. 1911 - pp. 540, 541 & 542 |
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DAVID W. FITHIAN, D.
D. S., who is engaged in the practice of dentistry in
Rossville, where he is also filling the position of village
clerk, was born December n, 1874, in this county. A son of E.
C. B. and Anna (Hayes) Fithian. His father was a son
of Dr. Williams Fithian, one of the first settlers in the
county, and from that time to the present representatives of the
name have taken an active and helpful part in carrying forward
the work of progress and promoting the welfare and upbuilding of
this section of the state. E. C. B. Fithian was
born in the city of Danville and later removed to Fithian. He
made farming his life work and upon that pursuit depended for a
source of livelihood. He died about two years ago and his
remains were interred in the Steams cemetery near Fithian.
At the usual age Dr. Fithian of this
review entered the district schools and after mastering the
branches of learning therein taught became a pupil in the
Danville high school. He then engaged in teaching for a year but
regarded this merely as an initial step to other professional
labor, for at the end of that time he took up the study of
dentistry, which he pursued in the office of a well known
dentist of Springfield, Illinois. Later he entered the Chicago
College of Dental Surgery, from which he was graduated in April,
1899. In the following month he came to Rossville, where he
opened an office and has since remained in practice, covering a
period of eleven years, during which he has made steady
progress. His work in this connection is of excellent character.
He keeps in touch with the advanced and improved methods of the
profession, his office is equipped with the latest mechanical
devises which are elements in operative dentistry and his
knowledge of the science is manifest in the excellent work that
he does. Aside from this he is one of the landowners of the
community, having a farm of two hundred and twenty acres,
situated two and a half miles south of Fithian, which town was
named in honor of the members of his family of an earlier
generation.
On the 5th of July, 1899, Dr. Fithian was
united in marriage to Miss Jessie R. Fellows, a daughter
of Edwin and Mary (Berkley) Fellows, of Vermilion county.
Dr. Fithian belongs to the Modern Woodmen camp and
to the Methodist Episcopal church. Along more strictly
professional lines he is connected with the County Dental
Society and with the Illinois State Dental Society. His
political support is given to the republican party and he is now
serving as village clerk, which position he has filled for eight
years. His life has been actuated by a public-spirited devotion
to the general good and his efforts have been effective and
far-reaching forces in the upbuilding and progress of the
community. He has made a creditable record as a citizen, as
practitioner and in the social relations of life and few men are
more popular or more widely known in his portion of the county
than Dr. Fithian.
Source: History of Vermilion County, Illinois
- Vol. II - Publ. 1911 - Pg. 300 |
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LATHAM FOLGER
entered land in the Harrison Purchase, and was a tanner, a
shoemaker and a manufacturer of horse collars. He ran a
tannery, a shoe shop and a horse-collar shop in Elwood form 1829
until 1845, when he settled on his land in the southern part of
Elwood township, where he carried on farming extensively.
He died early in the year of 1851, but his wife lived nearly
thirty years more.
Latham Folger lived in Nantucket Island in his
young days. He was a whaler, and was taken prisoner while
whaling during the war with Great Britain, and because he
refused to fight, was left on a small rocky island to die, but
he was fortunate in having an American vessel come long and
rescue him before he starved to death.
Source: History of Vermilion County, Illinois - Vol. I -
Publ. 1911 - pgs. 134 - Contributed by Mary Paulius |
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THOMAS CHESTER FORBES.
At the time of his death, which occurred on the 9th of January,
1895, Thomas Chester Forbes was one of the oldest residents of
Danville, having passed the ninety-second milestone on life's
journey, and during more than six decades of that period he had
been a resident of this city. The prominent part which he took
in the upbuilding of the city and his active efforts to promote
its welfare and progress caused him to be recognized as one of
its leading men, while his many excellent traits of character
gained for him a personal feeling that was deeper and stronger
than mere regard and respect.
Mr. Forbes was a native
of Connecticut, his birth having occurred in New Haven on the
12th of November, 1803. The ancestral line in America can be
traced back to 1630. His grandfather, Captain Elijah
Forbes, was closely connected with shipping interests,
and Benjamin Forbes, father of Thomas C. Forbes,
became a sea captain. The latter wedded Sarah Scott and always
made his home in New England.
Reared in Connecticut, Thomas C. Forbes acquired his
education in the schools of that state and remained a resident
of New England until thirty years of age, when in 1833,
attracted by the opportunities of the new but rapidly growing
west, he came to Illinois, bringing with him a stock of goods in
a trunk, of which he disposed. He then joined L. T. Palmer
in conducting the land office and they also engaged in
loaning money and bought and sold land warrants until the land
office was removed from Danville about the time of the outbreak
of the Civil war. He utilized his opportunities for judicious
investment and in the course of time became the owner of much
property which rose in value as the district became more thickly
settled. Thus in time his realty -holdings became extensive and
as his prosperity increased he aided most generously in
supporting and furthering any movement which he deemed of
benefit to the community. He was very active and his keen
discrimination, sagacity and sound judgment made him well fitted
for leadership. His endorsement of any public measure or project
insured a large following for it was well known that he had the
best interests of the community at heart. The
Danville of today largely stands as a monument to his enterprise
and his public-spirit.
On the 29th of January, 1874, Mr. Forbes
was united in marriage to Miss Mary Elizabeth
Hessy, a daughter of William and
Catharine A. (Cannady) Hessey, who for many years conducted
a general store here and made his home in Danville until his
death, which occurred December 4, 1888. Mr. and Mrs. Forbes
became the parents of two daughters, Cordelia
Catharine and Caroline Chester. After the
death of her first husband Mrs. Forbes married Joseph
Gibson English and still makes her home in
Danville.
The family attend the Episcopal church, of which Mr.
Forbes was a member, and in his political views he was an
independent democrat. He had deep sympathy for all who needed
assistance—a sympathy that had tangible manifestation in ready
and generous aid. He was a friend to all classes and although he
became one of the wealthy men of the city he never allowed the
accumulation of wealth to affect in any way his attitude to
those less fortunate. He was extremely active, accomplished what
he undertook, and as the years passed on firmly established
himself in the regard and goodwill of his fellow citizens.
Source: History of Vermilion County, Illinois
- Vol. II - Publ. 1911 - Page 602 |
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