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 958, Woodland Township
James M. Onion, farmer, sec. 9; P. O., Summum; is a native of
Fulton Co., where he was born in the year 1835; his father, Wm. Onion,
was born in Harrison Co., Ind., and followed farming and teaching
school, having taught the first school in Woodland tp. He was united in
marriage to Miss Jane Hagan of Tennessee, by whom he had 4 children, of
whom James was the oldest. Wm. Onion settled in Fulton Co. during the
autumn of 1834. James passed his youth and grew to manhood in Fulton
county, receiving a liberal education. In Aug., 1861, he enlisted in
Co. H, 3d Ill. Cav.; entering the service as a private soldier he arose
to the positon of 2d Lieut. He returned to Fulton county at the close
of the war, where he had married while on a furlough home, Mrs. Mary E.
Rounds a daughter of Col. Taylor Hughes, and relict of Henry Rounds. We
give Mr. O.’s portrait in this volume.
