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 971, Young Hickory Township
Nathaniel Aylsworth is a native of Seneca county, N. Y., where
he was born March 20, 1820. He is the son of Daniel and Anna
(Hopkins) Aylsworth. In the year 1835, he went to Ohio and
engaged as boatman on the Ohio canal, and in 1836 was employed on a
Government steamer, and the same year voted for Martin Van Buren, being
but 16 years old; came to Fulton County in 1837, and slept in the only
house that was the in Canton; taught school 4 years. He had the
cholera during the prevalence of that plague in 1849, and was alone in
his store in Ellisville, but cured himself. He was married Dec.
18, 1854, to Mary Hatfield, whose mother is living with then at the age
of 81 years. They have had 5 children, 4 of whom are living, -
David, Austin, Lydia A. and May. Mr. A. is an engineer by trade;
owns and operates a saw-mill on Big Coal creek; also a farmer.
