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 765-766; Transcribed by Margaret Rose Whitehurst
Isaac N. Leeper, one of the representative citizens of
Farmington, and a man of enterprise and influence, is a brother of the
Hon. John A. Leeper, whose biography will be found elsewhere. His
father, William Leeper, came to this county in 1844, and resided in
Fairview Township until his death in 1888, when almost eighty-one years
old. He was born in Hamilton County, Ohio, and his father, Allen
Leeper, came from Pennsylvania to Ohio, and died in that State.
The Leeper family is a very old and aristocratic one, and have for many
generations wielded untold influence in the communities where they made
their home.
Our subject’s mother, who previous to her marriage was Miss
Elleanor Lake, was born in Franklin County, Ohio, and was a daughter of
John Lake, a stonemason, who worked on the first jail built in the city
of Cincinnati, and on many of the public buildings there. To this
day many colverts on the public streets remain, and for hundreds of
years will remain monuments of his handicraft.
Mr. Lake was born on Long Island, and his people came originally
from Holland, and were relatives of Anneke Jans, whose vast estates are
in litigation at the present time, and will at some future day make
each heir immensely wealthy. The mother died in August, 18900, in
her seventy-seventh year, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Nettie
Slack, of Farmington. Unto her and her husband had been born ten
children, namely: John A., Isaac N. Harriet, Emeline, Gilbert T.,
Oliver, Charles, Henry, Frank, and Nettie.
Gilbert T. marked Mary Daft, and at the time of his death left
four children. He was a farmer by occupation, and served three
years in the late war. Oliver enlisted in the army when sixteen
years old, and served through the war. He has passed the most of
his life in Texas and the Southwest. Charles, a farmer in Kansas,
is married and has four children; Henry, a resident of Fairview
Township, has been twice married; Frank, who was a farmer, is now
deceased; Harriet is the widow of Joseph McMillen, a carpenter residing
near Ft. Scott, Kan.; Emeline is married and resides on a ranch in
Southwestern Kansas; Nettie is the wife of William Slack (see sketch of
Alexander Slack).
The subject of our sketch was born September 19, 1833, in
Franklin County, Ohio, and attended school in that State. He was
seven years old when with his family he removed to Illinois, and
noticed a great difference between the schools of his native State and
the small log schoolhouses found here. He entered the Lombard
University at Galesburg, at the age of twenty-two, having previously
studied at the academy in Farmington. He is a clever,
level-headed gentleman, and possesses unusual talents, especially in
the direction of portrait painting which he took up accidentally.
He is quite a noted horseman, and shows good judgment in regard to
horse-flesh. His popularity is proven by the fact that he was
made executor of the estate of Miss Mary Ann Newcomb, without bonds,
although the property in charge was valued at $175,000.
Mr. Leeper at the age of twenty-three years married Miss Ellen
Wilson, daughter of Samuel and Maria Wilson, pioneers of Fulton County,
and now deceased. Mrs. Leeper is the fourth in the number of the
family of seven children born to them, viz: Thomas, Mary J.,
Maria, Ellen, Margaret Ann, Amanda, and James, who died when
young. Our subject immediately after his marriage began farming,
an occupation which he has continued to follow up to the present time,
and in connection with this has devoted much time to raising fine
horses. He has shipped thousands of pounds of port at various
times, and took a sweepstake premium for roadster stallions for several
years in succession at the Fair in Canton. He has been School
Trustee for several years, and is an active member of the Republican
party. He owns a valuable estate comprising two hundred and
twenty acres in Farmington Township, on section 8, and has besides an
elegant residence. He is at the present time building a
magnificent city residence on the corner of Main Street.
It has been remarked by some of Mr. Leeper’s friends, that he
missed his calling in not becoming a crayon artist while in his
youth. No one, least of all himself, imagined that he had genius
in that direction until a few years ago, when one day he was reading
his stock journals, and his eyes happened to catch the picture of a
bull. He sketched it, and the likeness was so good that he was
encouraged to try the picture of a horse in the same way, which attempt
ended with equal satisfactory results. About this time he owned a
very valuable and graceful stallion that he wanted a picture of.
Accordingly, with the original before him, he made a beautiful
representation of his pet steed. He next tried portrait work, and
finding he had the same success here, he sought instruction in the
art. To this work he has devoted only his spare moments, and
exhibited to the reporter some very fine crayon portraits, which
abundantly prove his talent in this direction.
