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 211-213; Transcribed by Margaret Rose Whitehurst
Isaiah Prickett. This county is the home of a goodly
number of men who began their life-work without capital other than that
afforded by their native abilities, the education which was obtained in
pioneer schools and the industrious habits which they were taught in
boyhood. Taking up the battle of life with a determined spirit,
they have succeeded in surrounding themselves with comfort, bestowing
upon their offspring good advantages in the way of home care and
educational privileges and while accumulating property have won the
thorough respect of their fellow-men. One of this number is
Isaiah Prickett, a resident of Lewistown Township, where he owns two
hundred and twenty acres of land, also having the title to eighteen
hundred acres of swamp land in Waterford Township.
Tradition states that three brothers by the name of Prickett
emigrated from England to America during the early Colonial days, one
locating I Virginia and the others farther south. From the former
is descended our subject, whose grandfather was killed by Indians,
having his career cut short before he had reached the prime of
life. His son, Nicholas, the father of our subject, grew to
manhood in his native State, and there married Catherine Knapp, an
estimable woman of German ancestry who was born in Pennsylvania.
After their marriage the young couple removed to Ohio, making their
home in Clermont County for a time and then removing to Clarke County,
where the wife breathed her last in 1847.
The father of our subject bought a mill site on Buck Creek at
the landing known as Lagonda, now included in the city of Springfield
and occupied by the Champion Agricultural Implement Works. In
company with his brother he built a mil which was one of the first put
up in that count. About 1826 he visited Vermilion Count, Ill.,
with the intention of buying land and locating, but was taken sick and
died at the home of his friend, Ack Morgan. Our subject was thus
left fatherless when ten years old, his birth having taken place I
Clarke County, Ohio, March 7, 1816. During his youth he attended
the pioneer schools, the temple of learning in which he pursued his
studies being built of logs, heated by a fireplace, and having the
light admitted through greased paper which covered the opening cut from
the logs. It was supplied with home-made furniture, the benches
being of slabs with wooden pins for legs, and desks being unknown
except one around the sides of the room where the advanced scholars
stood to write, this being a board laid on wooden pins projecting from
the walls.
Young Prickett began his life’s labors as a farm hand, receiving
$6.25 per month when seventeen years old, and the following year
driving a team from Lagonda at $13 per month. In 1836 he
emigrated to Indiana, making the removal with a team and took his place
among the early settlers in Noble County where there were more Indians
than white men at the date of his arrival. He bought a tract of
Government land and built a log house, but a few months later sold the
place and entered another tract upon which he also built. Before
moving into his new house, however, he sold the land and entered still
another tract, where he cleared a considerable acreage. There he
made his home until 1852 when, on account of the unhealthfulness of the
region, he started with his family for the Prairie State. They
left the home which he had rented on the 1st of September and eleven
days later arrived in Lewistown, since which time they have made this
county their home.
Mr. Prickett lived on his brother’s farm until February, 1854,
then bought a tract where he now resides. A clearing of eight
acres and a hewed log house constituted the improvements. The
farm now contains one hundred and thirty acres, has been supplied with
well-built, commodious and conveniently-located frame buildings and the
other improvements which might be expected of an energetic man.
Eighty acres of section 10, of the same township, together with the
swamp land before mention, have been purchased by our subject, who has
shown himself a thorough farmer, a worthy citizen and a good neighbor.
The home of our subject is presided over by an estimable woman
who, prior to November 20, 1834, was known as Miss Eliza
Laughridge. She is a daughter of Abraham and Susan (Nelson)
Laughridge, natives of the Old Dominion, who are numbered among the
pioneers of Ohio, to which State they removed in 1817. In Green
County, that State, Mrs. Prickett was born September 13, 1818.
She received the education usual to the sons and daughters of pioneers
in a section where schools were early instituted, together with the
training in useful domestic knowledge which has qualified her to
thoroughly discharge her duties as housekeep, wife and mother.
Of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. Prickett four are now
living - John is settled on his own home in Lewistown Township; Nicolas
A. still remains under the parental roof; Susan C. is the wife of
Orville M. Macomber; Eliza J. is the wife of John Macomber. A
son, Harrison, died in Lewistown in 1867. He devoted four years
of his life to the service of his county, being Captain of Company A,
Fifty-fifth Illinois Infantry. Mr. Prickett was a Whig until
1856, when the Republican party was organized and he, like most of his
associates, took his stand in the ranks of the new organization, to
whose principles he was staunchly adhered from that day to this.
