Aten, Richard 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 419-420, Astoria Township
Richard Aten settled in Fulton Co. nearly forty years ago, and is therefore a pioneer. He was born in Hancock, W. Va., June 2, 1815, and was the son of William and Jane (Anderson) Aten, and was the third of a family of 7 children. Growing to manhood in Virginia he was there married to Miss Ann Peterson. In 1840 he set out fro Illinois, and in due time arrived at Astoria. In 1838, previous to his marriage, he had purchased land here, and 2 years later moved into a rough log house without windows, and a fire-place partly built occupied one corner of the cabin. Mr. A., who had been used to civilization, necessarily had to put up woth many inconveniences in his Western home for a number of years. His nearest neighbors it might be said were snakes and salamanders, which crept beneath the cabin, over, around and in it. On one occasion Mrs. A. was greatly frightened by the dropping of a huge rattle-snake upon the floor, narrowly missing her head in its descent. Long years have passed since then, but those early cabin days are fresh in the memory of these pioneers. they have 4 children, - Henry J., who resides at Quincy; John lives in Astoria township; Cornelius and Lucinda.