| Portrait and biographical record of Christian County, Illinois : containing biographical
sketches of prominent and representative citizens, together with biographies of all the Governors of the
state, and of the Presidents of the United States. Chicago, Ill. : Lake City Pub. Co., 1893.
Transcribed by Judy Rosella Edwards, 2007. |
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O.S. NASH, a grain dealer of Sharpsburg,
was born in Franklin County, Mass., near Greenfield,
April 3, 1843. His paternal grandfather, Robert Nash, was also born in the Bay State. He was a clothier by trade
and a dresser of cloth in Greenfield. The ancestry is traced back through Tubal, Daniel (who was a farmer and blacksmith),
Daniel, Sr., and Lott Timothy Nash, all of whom were natives of Massachusetts. The father of the last-named, Thomas
Nash, was a native of England, and in 1620 braved the dangers of an ocean voyage in order to make a home in the
New World. He became a resident of the Massachusetts Colony. Robert S.
Nash, the father of our subject, was born in Massachusetts in 1814, and was a farmer by occupation.
Emigrating Westward, he located in Wisconsin, and thence came to
Christian County in 1859, taking up his residence in Buckhart Township. He now resides with our subject. He married
Joanna Packard, who was born in Enfield, Mass., and was of English
descent. Three sons and two daughters were born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Nash, the eldest of whom is O. S.;
Robert is now living in Taylorville Township; Edwin C. makes his home in Buckhart Township; Mary died at the age
of twenty-eight years; and one child died in infancy.
Our subject spent the first thirteen
years of his life in the old Bay State, and then accompanied his parents on their removal to Wisconsin. He was
a boy of sixteen when he came to Christian County, where he has since resided. He was reared to the occupation
of farming, and has followed that pursuit throughout much of his life. In November, 1868, he was joined in marriage
with Rachel Shepardson, a native of Massachusetts, and a daughter of Orash Shepardson. She was born in March, 1841,
and died in 1877. Two children were born of their union, a son and daughter: Edwin H., who is now at home, and
May L., who died at the age of eleven months.
Mr. Nash is a Royal Arch Mason, belonging to the Blue Lodge of Edinburgh and the Chapter of Taylorville. In politics he is a supporter of Republican principles. In addition to farming he does business as a dealer in
live stock and grain at Sharpsburg. He purchased the elevator at this place and buys and handles large quantities
of grain, doing a good business, which has constantly increased from the beginning. Mr. Nash is well known in Buckhart
Township and is also favorably known in Taylorville Township, where he has his home. He has long made his home
in this county, being numbered among its earliest settlers, for his residence here covers a period of more than
a third of a century. He has therefore witnessed much of its growth and upbuilding and has seen the rapid progress
and development which it has made. He is a genial, pleasant gentleman and very prominent in business and social
circles.
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