Onion, Joel bio

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 957-958, Woodland Township
Joel Onion, farmer; is a native of Kentucky, where he was born May 21, 1804; his father, Wm. Onion, was a native of Maryland. Joel was in his 6th year when his parents moved to Indiana. In 1836 Joel and his father directed their footsteps to Fulton county, Woodland township. Joel had married in Indiana (in 1827), Mrs. Helena Shields, a daughter of Joseph and Martha Shields, by whom he had 10 children: 7 are living at the present writing. Mr. O. not long after his arrival, probably 1838, purchased a claim and moved into an old log cabin; the first winter he taught school, being the second teacher who taught the pioneer scholars in this township; at this time there was but one school building in Woodland township, and one in the township of Astoria. Mr. O. subsequently turned his attention to farming principally, although he proved an excellent mechanic, and built the first bridges at Otto and Sugar creek as well as the first frame barn in the township.