Astoria Tile Works bio

History of Fulton County, Illinois; together with Sketches of its Cities, Villages and Townships, Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History; Portraits of Prominent Persons and Biographies of Representative Citizens. Chas. C. Chapman & Co., Peoria, Illinois, 1879, page 419, Astoria Township
Astoria Tile Works, Messrs. J. B. Palmer and W. C. Holland, proprietors. This is a new feature of business in this flourishing town, but we feel will prove a most valuable one. The clay used is of a superior quality and the machinery of the most modern make. One kiln is now in use and others will undoubtedly be needed. They now have a capacity of 8,000 tiling per day. We will say a few words of a biographical nature in reference to the firm:
J. B. Palmer was born in Brooke Co., W. Va., in 1837, and in 1853 located near Astoria. When the late war broke out he enlisted in Co. H, 85th Ill., and participated in many important battles, as Perryville, Savannah, etc. At the close of the war Mr. P. returned to Astoria, where he since resided. In 1860 he was united in marriage with Miss Mary McLaren, of Astoria, who has become the mother of 4 children. He is the veteran school-teacher of South Fulton.
W. C. Holland, who may be regarded as an old settler of this county, was born in Smith Co., Tenn., May 7, 1820. Growing to manhood in his native State he received a good common-school education. In 1845 he came to Schuyler Co., Ill., where he learned the carpenter trade and where he married Miss Margaret Kelly, daughter of William Kelly, of Tennessee. She bore him two children. For a number of years prior to his present venture Mr. Holland followed farming.