Stetson, J. S. 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 195-197; Transcribed by Margaret Rose Whitehurst
J. S. Stetson - Of the citizens of Farmington, few are so well and none more favorably known than the subject of this sketch, who has resided in this city since the spring of 1856. During this long period he has made many warm friends, who hold him in the highest esteem for his integrity of character and genial disposition. After a prosperous career in the commercial world he now rests from active labor and is passing his last days in peace and quietude. He is pre-eminently a self-made man, meriting great praise for the noble manner in which he has at all times overcome obstacles placed in his way. He was eighty-five years of age on January 10, 1890, and is now unable to care for himself, but receives the best of care from his devoted wife.
Before giving the principal facts in the life of Mr. Stetson, a few words with reference to his lineage will not be amiss. His father, Oliver Stetson, was a carpenter and joiner by trade, and with his parents, three brother and two sisters emigrated from Connecticut in 1800 and located in Otsego County, N. Y. In the spring of 1804 he was united in marriage with Mary Stewart, the daughter of John Stewart, and they immediately commenced housekeeping. A few months later he took his wife and household goods to her father’s house, while he went South to seek employment for the winter season. He proceeded as far as St. Francisville, Mo., and there died.
In the home of his grandfather Stewart, the subject of this sketch was born January 10, 1805, and under the tender care of these loving relatives passed his youth until he was able to care for himself. His mother subsequently married Aldrich Balcom, by whom she had seven children, all deceased. She passed away in 1852 at the age of sixty-five years. Nothing of special interest occurred in the life of our subject until the fall of 1820, when he became interested in the subject of religion and related his experience to the First Baptist Church at Butternuts, Otsego County, N. Y., and was received into its fellowship and baptized by Elder Adams, their pastor, January 7, 1821. Since that time he has lived a consistent Christian life. In 1840 he was elected a Deacon to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Deacon Lull.
In his youth our subject attended the district schools and was engaged in various kinds of work. In the spring of 1826 he and Mr. Chapin engaged as partners in the wheelwright trade under the firm name of Chapin * Stetson. They were thus employed in Nobleville for two years. Mr. Stetson was united in marriage April 27, 1826, with Miss Eliza Robinson, and began their wedded life in a house rented of Mr. Chapin. In 1828, Mr. Stetson moved to what is now known as Stetsonville, and buying a house and fifteen acres of land, built, the following year, a shop where he manufactured wagons, sleighs and coffins. Finding his house too small for his family and help, in 1836 he purchased a more commodious residence and sixty-three acres of land.
Early in the year 1838, Mr. Stetson sold his fifteen-acre tract, and fitting one room of his house for a store, purchased a small stock of dry-goods, etc., and commenced in the mercantile business, which he carried on in connection with farming and the manufacture of potash. He subsequently built a good store and dwelling house at a cost of $2,500 and later purchased two hundred and fourteen acres of adjoining land, and erected house and barn, and other buildings suitable for dairying. In the fall of 1854 he resolved to locate in the West, and upon his arrival in Farmington, Ill., was so well pleased with the land and the prospects that he purchased of A. D. Reed a store for $2,000 cash. Here he commenced merchandising in partnership with his son, in the fall of 1855 the firm being J. S. Stetson & Son. They were prosperous, doing a good business until 1860, when the partnership was dissolved and the stock and store sold to George Stetson for $8,500.
Upon the arrival of the family in Farmington in the spring of 1856, Mr. Stetson purchased a house and two acres of land of Mr. Underhill for $2,000; this residence he still occupies. Mrs. Stetson died of consumption February 9, 1863, aged sixty years. She was the other of seven children, namely Mary Jane, born August 23, 1827 and died at the age of twenty-two years; George, born November 39, 1829; David R., December 5, 1831; Fannie M., March 8, 1834; Sally Ann, May 6, 1836; Charles A., May 4, 1840 and John Lee, January 7, 1846.
On June 14, 1864, Mr. Stetson was united in the holy bonds of wedlock with Mrs. Elvira McCollum, with whom he had been formerly acquainted in Morris, Otsego County, N. Y. She was feeble, and lived but a short time after their union, dying of consumption June 23, 1854, aged fifty-two years. Mr. Stetson afterward contracted a matrimonial alliance with Mrs. Mary Maxfield, a resident of Springfield, Otsego County, N. Y. They were married May 16, 1866 and came immediately to Farmington, accompanied by the aged mother of Mrs. Stetson, to whom they gave the most devoted care until her death, February 28, 1883, at the great age of ninety-two years.
During the many years of their happy wedded life, Mrs. Stetson has been a true companion of our subject and an untiring worker in his behalf. She is a member of the Baptist Church of Farmington, and has contributed liberally to its support, at one time giving $230 to pay the balance due on the parsonage. She was born in Warren County, N. Y. and received a common-school-education. She became the mother of two children - Orlando and Minnie, both of whom died in youth. She is the friend of temperance and everything calculated to advance the interests of the county.
Mr. Stetson is highly respected as a man of probity and honor. When he came to Farmington he found the Baptist Church weak and unable to support a pastor, but he and his wife and daughter joined the feeble band and he has since served as Deacon and has been on of the main supporters of the church in supply preaching and in building the house of worship at a cost of $5,000. He is well-known in the Otsego (New York) Association, and in the Peoria Association, having served the latter as Treasurer for about eight years. He was originally a Democrat and voted that ticket until 1840 since which time he has supported the Republican party and its principles. He served four years as Police Magistrate and in other ways aided the thriving town of Farmington.