Small, Peter B. 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 776; Transcribed by Margaret Rose Whitehurst
Peter B. Small. If bread is the staff of life according to vegetarians, there is a large class who would accord that place to meat. The man, therefore, who supplies is fellow-citizens with healthy flesh fills a position of importance in the settlement, and may well be noted among the prominent business men. Such a place is held by Mr. Small, who has been more or less extensively engaged in butchering during the past twenty-five years and is now carrying on a fine trade in Canton.
Mr. Small is a native of Franklin County, Pa., where his eyes opened to the light October 13, 1841. His parents, John and Nancy (Duffey) Small were also born in the Keystone State, the one one being of German and the other of Irish descent. The grandfathers of our subject bore the respective names of John Small and James Duffey. John Small was a carpenter and joiner and followed his trade during the greater part of his life. Some time after his marriage he removed to this county, locating in Canton and dying here in 1861, about the time that the Civil War broke out. He had been living here a little more than a decade and had become quite well known as a good work man and worthy citizen. His family consisted of five sons and five daughters, all of whom are yet living except two.
Our subject is the first-born in the parental family. His boyhood and youth were passed in his native county where he acquired a fair education and then learned the trade of a saddler and harness-maker. This he followed until the outbreak of the Rebellion when he laid aside the peaceful weapons with which he was endeavoring to acquire a competence and took up the more deadly ones which belong to a soldier. He enlisted in Company K, Seventh Illinois Cavalry, and during a period of four years and three months gallantly served in the ranks of his country’s defenders. He took part in many raids, skirmishes and battles, the most important conflicts in which he was engaged being Corinth, Nashville, Germantown and Iuka. He received an honorable discharge and was mustered out in the fall of 1865, returning to Canton to engage in the business which he is still carrying on.
A neat and tasty residence on Seventh Street in this city is occupied by Mr. Small and his estimable wife. This lady, with whom he was united in marriage in 1878 was formerly Miss Lottie T. Hummell of this city, a daughter of William Hummell, Esq. The union has been a childless one, but by a former marriage, contracted in 1859, Mr. Small became the father of one daughter, now married.