Fike, John M. 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 949, Woodland Township
John Fike, agriculturist, was a native of Indiana, where he was born on the 27th of April, 1827; located in Fulton Co., in 1837 or ’39, left an orphan at an early age, he entered the employ of R. McLaren, remaining until he had attained his majority; Oct. 27, 1850, he was united in marriage to Miss Eliza J. Onion, daughter of Joel and Eleanor Onion; enlisted in he 3d Ill. Cav., Co. H; became Sergeant, was honorably discharged and returned to his home in this Co.; but exposure in army life had proven too much for his naturally strong constitution, and on the 23d of Dec., ’62, he was laid at rest in Woodland township. He was the owner of a valuable farm of 60 acres, and to the care of his pioneer wife he left a family of 4 children, 3 of whom are living, - Wm. M., Mary E. and John, jr.