Gearhart, W. I. bio

Portrait and Biographical Album of Fulton County, Illinois: containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county: together with portraits and biographies of all the presidents of the United States, and governors of the state; Biographical Pub. Co., Chicago, IL; 1890; page 743-744; Transcribed by Margaret Rose Whitehurst
W. I. Gearhart. The pioneer residents of Fulton County have witnessed many changes within the last fifty years; uncultivated tracts of land transformed into fields of waving grain, elegant structures where once stood the log cabins of the frontiersmen, schools and churches where once the savage roamed unmolested. Among those who have aided in effecting this happy result and who have lived to see the fruits of their labors, is the subject of the present sketch, who, for more than a half century, has been engaged here in various lines of business. He is now a furniture dealer and undertaker in Canton, where the most of his life has been passed.
The parents of our subject, Jacob and Mary (Whitaker) Gearhart, were natives of Pennsylvania, where they continued to live for many years after their marriage. Their five children were named Elizabeth, John, Angeline, William and Harriet. Hearing of the bright prospects the West offered to settlers, Jacob Gearhart resolved to emigrate hither, and with his family left Pennsylvania in 1839, and proceeded by boa down the Ohio River, up the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. They landed at Copperas Creek, and thence journeyed to Canton, this county. The anticipations of prosperity which the father enjoyed were never realized, for about three weeks after reaching Canton, he passed from the scenes of earth, leaving a widow and five small children in a strange land with very limited means for their support. The mother survived until about 1875, having attained her sixty-fifty year.
During the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Gearhart in Danville, then in Columbia County, Pa., our subject was born March 14, 1835, and was therefore only three years old when he accompanied his parents to Illinois. When only seven years old he went as clerk in the dry-goods store of Maple & Piper, helping in the maintenance of the family, his mother being a widow with limited means. Although such a small child, he gave satisfaction and continued in the employ of merchants until 1858. At that date he associated himself with the firm of Breed, Kline & Co., in the dry-goods business, but after continuing for two years the firm became insolvent and Mr. Gearhart lost his two years labor and half of his capital on account of the drought.
Nothing daunted, however, by this unfortunate experience Mr. Gearhart once more returned to clerking, which occupied his time until 1866. With his brother-in-law Mr. William Thompson he commenced in the furniture business. Soon afterward the brother-in-law died and Mr. Gearhart took entire charge of the business, and since 1880 has been the sole owner of the stock. His genial disposition and upright character have added to his success as a business man, and he is deservedly popular wherever known. A long period of active interest in the commercial world has given him a splendid insight into the best methods of conducting a mercantile business, and has also prepared him to estimate people and things correctly.
Although he has frequent opportunities to fill public offices, Mr. Gearhart is so engrossed with the duties of his extensive business that he has no time for accepting the political honors his friends wish to bestow upon him. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, at Canton, Ill. Politically he casts his ballot for the candidates of the Republican party, and in religious matters is conservative. A man of strict integrity and generosity of opinion, he naturally wins friends easily, and is respected throughout the entire county. His life is an example of success, attained only after the most tremendous efforts on his part. Thus each day furnishes us examples of noble, true hearted men, bravely facing the obstacles that invariably attend a commercial career and “by opposing troubles, end them.”
In connection with this brief biographical sketch, the reader will notice a portrait of Mr. Gearhart on another page.