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 425, Astoria Township
Charles Chaddock, retired farmer, was born in Jefferson Co., O.,
Oct. 13, 1814. His father was John Chaddock, who followed farming
as a life vocation. Charles passed his childhood and youth and
grew to manhood in Ohio, where he received a good common-school
education. In 1836 he was united in marriage with Miss Anna
Barkhurst, a native of Ohiio. One year later he determined to
come further west and accordingly located in Woodland tp., where he
purchased and eighty-acre tract of land and subsequently increased his
land to 400 acres. This he brought from a wilderness to a high
state of cultivation. Mr. C. has labored hard upon the prairies
of Illinois and owes his present prosperity to his persistent hard
work. Mrs. C. died in 1864 and was laid to rest in Summum
Cemetery. In 1867 he was married to Mrs. Prudence Gay, daughter
Levi Sparks, of Ohio, and widow of Chas. Gay, a former merchant of
Astoria, who died in 1856. Mr. C. with almost unparalledled
generosity donated the Quincy, Ill., College the magnificent sum of
$24,000.
