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 708-709; Transcribed by Margaret Rose Whitehurst
William Hinderliter is a fine representative of our self-made,
self educated men, and the work that he has accomplished has placed him
among the wealthy, intelligent farmers, who have borne so prominent a
part in building up the financial prosperity of the State of
Illinois. He is the son of an early settler, and his own pioneer
labors entitle him to an honorable place among the pioneers of this
county. He is one of the largest landowners and the most
extensive stock-raisers in Cass Township, where he has a handsome
commodious brick residence on section 26, and a farm that in point of
dimensions, improvements and cultivation ranks among the finest in this
section of the county. It comprises six hundred acres of good
prairie land, all in a body, and nearly all under admirable
tillage. He rents much of it and has retired practically from
active work, though he superintends the raising of standard grades of
cattle, horses and hogs, ad of quite a quantity of grain, the most of
which he feeds.
John Hinderliter, the father of our subject, was a native of
Pennsylvania, though he came of an old Virginia family, some of whose
members took part in the Revolutionary War. His father was a
farmer. The maiden name of his mother was Dinah Howarter and she
was a native of Pennsylvania. Her father also took part in the
Revolution. The parents of our subject were married in
Pennsylvania and lived there until 1838 when they came to
Illinois. They were pioneers of Fulton County and the first year
they spent here they passed on a rented farm near Canton. The
next year they rented the Maxwell farm near Cuba. Then they
bought the southwest quarter of section 25, Cass Township, and settled
here with their family. The land was timber openings and here he
built a log cabin. The situation was very lonely as there were
but few neighbors in this then sparsely settled region, and none are
now living who were here then. The family was very poor and as
the father had ten souls to support he had a hard task before him in a
newly settled country. However, his boys were all good workers,
and did their best to help him. He lived a great many years and
when his death occurred in 1885, caused by his accidentally falling
from his reaper, he had acquired a comfortable property. His wife
died in 1884. They were the parents of twelve children, of whom
ten are now living. They were devout Lutherans and he was a
prominent man in the church. He was at one time leader of singing
in a Pennsylvania congregation.
William Hinderliter was the oldest child of the family and was
born January 18, 1820, in Berks County, Pa. He received very
limited schooling in the subscription schools and only attended the
free school one term. At the age of twenty he began life for
himself by apprenticing himself to learn the trade of a carpenter and
served a year, and after that worked at his calling in this
neighborhood. In 1843-44 he worked in Chicago, which then was
town with a population of eight thousand people. He then returned
home and in 1846 he and his wife settled on this farm. They were
poor at that time, having started out together empty handed and were in
debt for their eighty-acre tract of land. They first took up
their abode in a rude log house which was replaced by a hewed log
house. Their third residence was of brick and was burned in 1868,
and after that their present substantial dwelling was erected. It
was only by the closest economy, by hard work and by living from hand
to mouth that they succeeded in keeping soul and body together those
first few years. Prudence, thrift, patience and self-sacrifice
were the levers by which they lifted themselves to their present
position of independence and wealth.
Mr. Hinderliter was one of the “49ers” who sought gold in
California. He and nine others crossed the plains with ox-teams
and after traveling six months and eight days arrived at
Sacramento. He then went into the mines for awhile, and
subsequently secured a team and transported provisions to the
mines. He made money by this enterprise and after a year on the
Pacific coast returned home by the way of the Isthmus of Panama, New
York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati and St. Louis. When he began life
here, as before mentioned he was very poor and had to depend entirely
on his hands and head and the assistance of his good wife.
Mr. Hinderliter and Miss Mary Ann Smith were married in 1845,
and to her active co-operation he is greatly indebted for his present
prosperity. Mrs. Hinderliter is a daughter of William and Sarah
(Kline) Smith. They came here from Ohio and were early settlers
of this county, living between Fairview and Ellisville. They are
now deceased. They were the parents of eleven children of whom
seven are still living. The wife of our subject was born in 1823
in Richland County, Ohio, of which her father was a pioneer farmer, and
she was a lass of seventeen summers, when she accompanied her parents
to Illinois in 1840. They were members of the Baptist Church and
her father was a stanch Democrat.
We are glad to inscribe on these pages this account of the
successful career of our subject, as a perusal of this biography may
afford encouragement to many young men who are just starting out in
life with no other capital than an enterprising and persevering spirit
and a good capacity for steady labor. Mr. Hinderliter is a man of
sturdy, roundabout common sense, rare judgment and good business
tact. He is an exceptionally well-informed man, having been a
great reader all of life and from books and observation has obtained a
good practical education. One of his chief treasures is his good
library, in which he takes much pleasure. He and his wife are
devoted members of the Baptist Church, of which he is a Trustee and
deacon and they are both interested in the Sunday-school, and he has
been Superintendent of the same. He has done much for the cause
of local education and has been a School Director here in years past
and Road Commissioner. In early life he was a Democrat, but at
the breaking out of the war his sympathies were with the Republican
party, though he lived in a strong Democratic neighborhood where
Knights of the Golden Circle ruled, and since that time he has been a
strong Republican. During the war two of his brothers served as
soldiers. His brother Jesse, now a resident of Blandinsville, was
a member of the One Hundred and Third Illinois Infantry. He was
twice wounded, his arm being crushed the first time and the second time
he was shot through the leg. His brother Samuel, a resident of
Highland, Wis., was in a Wisconsin regiment during the Rebellion.
