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 265-266; Transcribed by Margaret Rose Whitehurst
G. W. Hobbs, now living in Mound Township, McDonough County, was
one of the early pioneers of this county, who was for many years
closely identified with its industrial interests, as one of its most
successful farmers and skillful mechanics, and is eminently worthy of a
place among its representative men in this Biographical Album.
Mr. Hobbs was born in Maryland, not far from the city of
Baltimore, in 1817. When he was a child his parents took him to
the pioneer wilds of Jefferson County, Ohio, of which they were early
settlers. In his youth he was apprenticed to a blacksmith by the
name of James Simeral, and during the term of his apprenticeship
received his board and clothes. At the expiration of that time he
went to work with a noted mechanic, Joseph Fields, and toiled hard for
the meager sum of $2 a month, from which he had to clothe himself and
his board. He followed his trade for two years, and then made a
trip to New Orleans on the river. He afterward worked in
Washington, Pa., the year of the cholera, until all employment was
suspended on account of the dreaded disease. In 1834 he came
North from New Orleans, whither he had been sojourning, and worked in
Georgetown, Ohio, until 1835, when he came to Illinois. He landed
at the mouth of the Spoon River, in company with two blacksmiths and
two clothiers who had come from Philadelphia.
Mr. Hobbs and Joseph McCoy, who came with him, worked at the
blacksmith’s business that year in Monmouth. We may mention in
this connection that our subject still has the old anvil with which he
worked in that place over fifty-five years ago. It had been
bought by his father-in-law from a person in the East, and when it was
sold with the other effects of the old gentleman, Mr. Hobbs bought it
at the rate of twenty cents a pound. It is of English manufacture
and is of the best make. Our subject and his partner pursued
their calling very profitably at Monmouth, and at the end of the first
six months had $106 each. The former very judiciously invested
his when he came to Harris Township from Monmouth in the spring of
1836, in a tract of eighty acres of land. He still worked at his
calling, however, in the village of Marietta, where he lived, with the
exception of the time of his residence in Lewistown during the war,
until about nine years ago, when he sold out and removed to his present
place of residence in McDonough County. He had three hundred
acres of land in Fulton County, and a full section in McDonough County,
which he had purchased when it was cheap. He engaged extensively
in raising stock and carried on the business in partnership with Mr.
Wilson. At the breaking out of the war they had five hundred head
of cattle, and as pasture was plentiful and cheap, they made money
fast. This county is greatly indebted to our subject for what he
did toward improving stock in the early days by the introduction of
horses, cattle and hogs of a high grade. He believed in raising
none but good stock, and whenever he made a purchase always bought the
best in the market.
When Mr. Hobbs came here he had an idea that if he should be
able to get forty acres of land he would be well off, and when he
obtained eight acres he considered himself quite rich. With
characteristic enterprise he decided that he would have an orchard, and
he sent to an old Quaker friend to have him send him a lot of fruit
trees such as he thought he would want. His friend sent him one
hundred apple trees and a variety of pears, which he planted, and they
afterward became famous for their fine fruit. From one of his
trees our subject often sold as much as $50 worth of fruit each year,
and his orchard was regarded as one of the finest in all the country
around.
Our subject was married April 20, 1837, to Miss Eliza Humphrey,
and their wedded life of more than fifty years duration has been one of
great felicity. Mrs. Hobbs is a most excellent woman, of many
Christian virtues, and is a true member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. She is a daughter of William Humphrey, of Ohio. His
brother, John Humphrey, of Warren County, Ill., was a Colonel in the
Black Hawk War. Mr. and Mrs. Hobbs are fine people, and are in
every way worthy of the high regard in which they are held by the
people among whom they have settled. They have had six children,
four sons and two daughters, of whom the following is recorded:
George F. was a young married man of thirty-six years when he died, his
wife having died before him; John, who is married, owns and occupies a
large tract of land which his father purchased in Cass County, Mo.;
Jane married James Wallace, a druggist at Lewistown, and they have one
daughter; Addison, who bought of his father the old home place of two
hundred acres of land lying near Marietta, is married and has two sons
and four daughters; Martha married A. J. Franklin, a merchant of Los
Angeles, Cal., and they have three children; William, at home, living
on the farm near his father, is married and has three children.
