The following is biographical information abstracted from:
Portrait
and Biographical Review of Johnson, Massac, Pope and Hardin
Counties, Illinois
Chicago Biographical Publishing Company 1893
(online - link above)
| GEORGE C. WALLACE |
| JAMES H. WALLACE, Sheriff of Pope
County, is an invaluable civic officer, prompt, fealess
andn able in the discharge of the grave and responsible
duties of his position, and potent in preserving law and
order. He is a native of the county, and was born in
Golconda Precinct, May 8, 1854, a son of George C.
and Mary E. (Davis) Wallace, of whom see sketch on
another page of this volume. Our subject was reared on a farm, and early became proficient in all kinds of farm work, assisting his father in caring for the old homestead. His education was not neglected, and a part of each year was devoted to school until he was eighteen years old. He remaind an inmate of the parental household until his marriage, and then commenced farming on his own account. He bought a tract of land in Golconda Precinct, and actively engage in tilling the soil and making improvements until the suffrage of his fellow-citizens called him from private life to important public duties as Pope County Sheriff, to which office he was elected in 1890. He removed to Golconda to assume the functions of the abrievalty, and has since been a resident of the city. He is identified with its social interests as a member of Golconda Lodge No. 392, I.O.O.F. He was formerly associated with the Republicans in politics, but when the People's party was organized he found himself in sympathy with its principles, and withdrew from the old party to cast in his fortune with the new. He is a man of good calibre, holds decided opinions of his own on current topics with which he is familiar, stands high in the estimation of the people among whom he has always lived, and his native county has in him a citizen of sterling merit, who has its best interests at heart. Mr. Wallace was married March 10, 188, to Miss Louise Vinyard, a native of Hardin County, and a daughter of Phillip and Lucinda (Howard) Vinyard. Two children have been born of their pleasant wedded life, whom they have named George Philip and Myrtle May. |
| EZEKIEL R. WHEELER born NC 1825 father: Americus Wheeler, native of NC mother: Rachel Primrose married: abt. 1859 in TN, Rachael A. Yarbrough |
| JOSEPH C. WILLIAMS, a progressive
farmer of Pope County, Ill., is a native of Muhlenberg
County, Ky., and the date of his birth March 5, 1843.
His father, Samuel Williams, was a North
Carolinian, born in 1791, and his grandfather, James
Williams, was also from that State. The latter
moved with his family to Kentucky and died on a farm in
that State at the age of sixty-five years, having reared
a family of three sons and three daughters, of whom
Samuel J. was the second son. The latter married Mary
Woodis, of Muhlenberg County, Kyl, and together they
settled on a farm and tilled the soil until about 1850,
when they sold out in that State and moved to hardin
County, Ill., making the journey of one hundred miles
with two yoke of oxen and covered wagons, their family
at that tim consisting of five children. Like most of
the early settlers of the Prairie State they came with
small means, and after renting land for some years
bought their first home, in 1854, a tract of forty
acres, on which some slight improvement had been made,
paying for the same the sum of $200, and on this land
they made their permanent home, afterward adding to
their original purchase until they had a tract of one
hundred and sixty acres. The father died in 1856, at the age of sixty years, leaving a widow and six children. Their first-born, Richard W., died at twenty-one years of age. James F. died in 1869 at the age of thirty years, leaving a family. He was a volunteer in Company A, Twenty-ninth Illinois Infantry, was wounded at Ft. Donelson and take prisoner. After being kept in "durance vile" for about two months he with three others managed to escape but was retaken by the enemy. He again succeeded in escaping and this time reached the Tennessee River, which he swam, and after some two or three weeks reached the Union lines. This was late in the spring of 1862, and during this time he suffered innumerable hardships, being at one time chased by bloodhounds. This experience and his exposure were the causes of his death. Sarah Ann, the wife of Benjamin Bramlett, a farmer of Hardin County, is now about sixty years of age. Joseph C. is the subject of this sketch. Samuel Jackson is a farmer of Hardin County. Mary E., the wife of George W. Cowsert, died in August, 1891. Henry L. resides at Shetlerville, Hardin County, Ill. Joseph C. Williams spent his youth on the home farm, and prior to leaving home, at he age of nineteen years, he obtained but little schooling. He enlisted in Company B, Eighteenth Illinois Infantry, with which he served three years, at the end of which time he re-enlisted and served faithfully for a period of one year in the same company in which his brother served, and like him prove a trusty, valiant and useful soldier. During the four years he was in the army he was always found ready for duty, with the exception of about six weeks when he was ill. He was first under fire at Ft. Donelson, next at the bloody battle of Shiloh and then at Vicksburg. He participated in the capture of Spanish Fort and Ft. Blakely and was in various skirmishes but was not wounded. He returned home as strong and sound in health as most of the boys in blue, and is now a remarkably active, energetic and healthy man, weighing one hundred and ninety pounds. Our subject was married March 28, 1869, in Hardin County, Ill., to Laura Hutchison, daughter of Floyd and Mary (Langdon) Hutchison, she being a native of Perry County, Ind., in wich State her parents were married December 8, 1850. They first farmed on rented land for nearly three years, but their first purchase of forty acres they afterward sold and bought one hundred and sixty acres for $800, for which they went in debt. They later sold this property and bought one hundred and forty acres in 1875, on which they resided until 1892, when they sold the place at a good profit. Their present farm now comprises one hundred and eighty acres, the pruchase price of which was $1,500, one hundred acres being under cultivation and the rest good timber land. Mr. Williams does general farming and believes in the rotation of crops. he keeps about five farm horses and also cattle, sheep and hogs, marketing some of them each year, and of the latter sells about thirty annually. He and his wife buried two sons and a daughter in infancy and have the following living children: Lieunette, wife of James Shield, who resides with her parents and has a little daughter; Emery F., Blanche, Clyde J. and Rollin H. Mr. Williams is a Republican and has served as Constable of his precinct for three years. He is a member of Post No. 565, G.A.R., f Elizabethtown, and he and his intelligent and amiable wife are members of the Christian Church, and hold a prominent position in the social circles of their community. |
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