Putman, Martin V. bio

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 371-372; Transcribed by Margaret Rose Whitehurst
Martin V. Putman is a prominent and wealthy farmer of Canton, Ill. He is a native of this county, and a representative of an old and well-known pioneer family, on whose honor Putman Township, the place of his birth, was named. He was born December 28, 1843, and is the sixth of ten children born to Harrison and Malinda (Fouts) Putman.
Harrison Putman, whose portrait appears on the opposite page and who is a retired farmer living in Canton, was born in Gibson County, Ind., December 3, 1811. His father, Hazel Putman, was a native of North Carolina. His mother, Isabel (Fouts) Putman, was a daughter of David Fouts, and a native of North Carolina. She and her husband removed to Indiana in an early day of its settlement soon after their marriage, becoming pioneers of Gibson County. A few years later they removed to a farm near Evansville.
Harrison Putman was the oldest of a family of seven children, and passed his youthful days on the old homestead near Evansville. He was eleven years old when he came to Fulton County with his parents who located in what became Putman Township; the latter was named in honor of his father, who bought a large tract of timber land, for which he afterward secured a patent and carried on trade there as a blacksmith and gunsmith. Both father and mother died in this county. He was a member of the Baptist, and she of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
The father of our subject remained with his parents until he was twenty-one years old, when he began farming on his own account in Putman Township. He was very fortunate in the pursuit of his calling, acquiring a handsome fortune and a farm containing several hundred acres of choice land. In 1872 he retired from his farm in Putman Township to Canton, where he has since made his home. He was married November 15, 1832, to Malinda Fouts, a daughter of David and Mary Fouts. She was born July 27, 1814, and after a happy wedded life of nearly fifty-eight years duration, she died in the month of April, 1890.
Martin Putman, the subject of this sketch, was bred to manhood on his father's old homestead in Putman Township. He attended school at the Hiatt schoolhouse during the winter months and worked on the farm in the summer. One winter he was a pupil in a Canton school. He remained an inmate of the parental household till he attained his twenty-first year, when he began his career as a farmer on eighty acres of land given him by his father. Success has attended his efforts, and he is now a substantial and well-to-do farmer and stock-raiser. His fine farm of two hundred and sixty-four acres in Putman Township is well cultivated and highly improved. He has erected on it good buildings, and has it well stocked, as before his removal to Canton he was an extensive feeder of cattle and hogs. He has been very successful as a wheat raiser, and has also raised large crops of corn. He continued to reside on his farm till 1884, when he removed to Canton that he might give his children better opportunities for an education. In the western part of the town he built a neat and commodious residence which is shaded by beautiful native hard maple trees that afford a most grateful and refreshing shelter during the summer months.
March 14, 1867, was the date of the marriage of our subject with Miss Hannah Newton of Putman Township. She is the daughter of Dr. Newton, a prominent physician of the county, who came here from Connecticut. Mr. and Mrs. Putman have had four children; Kate N., Leuella M., May M. and Gean Gale who died in infancy.
While he was a resident of Putman Township, Mr. Putman took a prominent part in educational matters as a member of the School Board and also as School Director for a number of years. In politics he upholds the policy of the Democratic party. He is a man of good mental endowments, frank and straightforward, and is highly regarded by all who know him or have had dealings with him.
Note: Martin's mother, Malinda Fouts Putman was a daughter of David Fouts; his grandmother was Isabel Combs married to Hazel (Hazeal) Putman. Isabel Combs Putman is the daughter of Bennett & Dorothy "Dolly" Combs.