History of Coles County, Illinois

By Charles Edward Wilson

© 1905
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CHAPTER IX
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CITIZENS OF COLES COUNTY
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©2004, Transcribed by Judy Anderson for Illinois Genealogy Trails



The verdict of mankind has awarded to the Muse of History the highest place among the Classic Nine. The extent of her office, however, appears to be, by many minds, but imperfectly understood. The task of the historian is comprehensive and exacting. True history reaches beyond the doings of court or camp, beyond the issue of battles, or the effects of treaties, and records the trials and triumphs, the failures and the successes, of the men who make history. It is but an imperfect conception of the philosophy of events that fails to accord to portraiture and biography its rightful position as a part--and no unimportant part--of historical narrative. Behind and beneath the activities of outward life the motive power lies out of sight, just as the furnace fires that work the piston and keep the ponderous screw revolving, are down in the darkness of the hold. So, the impulsive power which shapes the course of communities may be found in the molding influences which form its citizens.

It is no mere idle curiosity that prompts men to wish to learn the private, as well as the public lives of their fellows. Rather it is true that such desire tends to prove universal brotherhood: and the interest in personality and biography is not confined to men of any particular caste or vocation.

The list of those to whose lot it falls to play a conspicuous part in the great drama of life is comparatively short: yet communities are made up of individuals, and the aggregate of achievements--no less than the sum total of human happiness--is made up of the deeds of those men and women whose primary aim, through life, is faithfully to perform the duty that comes nearest to hand. Individual influence upon human affairs will be considered potent or insignificant according to the standpoint from which it is viewed. To him who, standing upon the seashore, notes the ebb and flow of the tide and listens to the sullen roar of the waves, as they break upon the beach in seething foam, seemingly chafing at their limitations, the ocean appears so vast as to need no tributaries. Yet, without the smallest rill that helps to swell the "Father of Waters," the mighty torrent of the Mississippi would be lessened, and the beneficent influence of the Gulf Stream diminished. Countless streams, currents and counter currents--sometimes mingling, sometimes counteracting each other--collectively combine to give motion to the accumulated mass of water. So is it--and so must it ever be--in the ocean of human action, which is formed by the blending and repulsion of currents of thought, of influence and of life, yet more numerous and more tortuous than those which form "the fountains of the deep."

In the foregoing pages are traced the beginning, growth and maturity of a concrete thing, Coles County. But the concrete is but the aggregate result of individual labor. The acts and characters of men, like the several faces that compose a composite picture, are wrought together into a compact of heterogeneous whole. History is condensed biography; "Biography is History teaching by example."

It is both interesting and instructive to rise above the generalization of history and trace, in the personality and careers of the men from whom it sprang, the principles and influences, the impulses and ambitions, the labors, struggles and triumphs that engrossed their lives.

In the pages that follow are gathered up, with as much detail as the limits of the work allow, the personal record of many of the men who have made Coles County what it is. In each record may be traced some feature which influenced or has been stamped upon, the civic life.

Here are pioneers who, "when the fullness of time had come," came from widely separated sources, some from beyond the sea, impelled by diverse motives, little conscious of the import of their acts, and but dimly anticipating the harvest which would spring from their sowing. They built their little cabins, toiling for a present subsistence while laying the foundations of private fortunes and future advancement.

Most have passed away, but not before they beheld a development of business and population surpassing the wildest dreams of fancy. A few yet remain whose years have passed the allotted three score and ten, and who love to recount, among the cherished memories of their lives, their reminiscences of early days in Coles County.

Among these early, hardy settlers and those who followed them, may be found the names of many who imparted the first impulse to the county's growth and homelikeness, the many who, through their identification with agricultural pursuits and varied interests, aided in her material progress: of skilled mechanics who first laid the foundations of beautiful homes and productive industries, and of the members of the learned professions--clergymen, physicians, educators and lawyers--whose influence upon the intellectual life and development of the community it is impossible to overestimate.

Municipal institutions arise: Commerce spreads her sails and prepares the way for the magic of Science that drives the locomotive engine over the iron rails. Trade is organized, stretching its arms across the prairie to gather in and distribute the products of the soil. Church spires rise to express, in architectural form, the faith and aspirations of the people, while a university, together with schools, public and private, elevate the standards of education and of artistic taste.

Here are many of the men through whose labors, faith and thought these magnificent results have been achieved. To them and to their co-laborers, the Coles County of to-day stands an enduring monument, attesting their faith, their energy, their courage and their self-sacrifice.

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(The following items of personal and family history, having been arranged in encyclopedic (or alphabetical) order as to names of the individual subjects, no special index to this part of the work will be found necessary.)

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ABERNATHY, George W., farmer. Hutton Township, Coles County, Ill., was born in Tippecanoe County, Ind., March 4, 1858, the son of Samuel and Mary Abernathy, natives of Indiana. Both parents died while Mr. Abernathy was very young. He was then taken to Cumberland County, Ill., and soon familiarized himself with the labor connected with working a large farm. At length he was promoted to the dignity of a regular paid farm hand; later, rented property, and in 1891 was able to purchase his present place of seventy acres in Hutton Township. On this farm its owner has made substancial improvements.

On January 1, 1890, Mr. Abernathy was married to Belle, daughter of J. J. Cottingham, and of this union five children have been born: William, Clara, Blanche, Mary and Freddie. In his political affiliations, Mr. Abernathy is a Democrat. He is a member of Hutton Lodge, No. 692, I. O. O. F., at Salisbury.

ADAMS, Captain William E., (deceased)









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