This prosperous farmer of East Galena Township, lives on section 35, at which place he began farming in 1859; first renting the place and afterward purchasing it. He has now on that section a fine farm of 160 acres, well watered, with good buildings and improvements, and all under a fine state of cultivation. He is a native of the County Louth, Ireland. His father, whose name was Patrick, was a small farmer in that county. He was married there to Margaret McGinn, also a native of that county. The father died in the place of his birth about the age of sixty-five years, and the mother came to the United States with her son, our subject, a daughter named Ann, and a granddaughter, and settled in Jo Daviess County, where she died at about the age of seventy years. Some of her elder children had preceded her to America, and had settled in this county, and with them she made her home until her death, which occurred at the house of her daughter, Mrs. Catherine Boyle, about ten years after she emigrated. She and her husband were life-long members of the Roman Catholic Church, and in that faith their children were reared.

The subject of this sketch was of age when he emigrated to this country, in the year 1849. He went from Dublin to Liverpool, and there took passage on a sailing-ship for New York City. From this latter place he came via the Lakes to Chicago, Ill., and thence overland by team to Galena, arriving there in the fall of 1849. Ever since that time his home has been in Jo Daviess County, except four years that he spent as a boatman on the river, plying between New Orleans and St. Paul; making that trip a great many times. From the time he left steamboating, until he began farming, he was employed in the city of Galena. He has been on his farm since 1859.

The marriage of our subject took place in Galena in 1856; his bride being Miss Jane McManus, who was born in the County Fermanagh, Ireland, about the year 1829, and a daughter of James and Sarah (Morley) McManus, her father being a farmer in the county of his birth, where both parents died. They also were members of the Roman Catholic Church, and brought up their children in the same faith. The wife of our subject was nineteen years old when she accompanied two brothers and a sister to America, taking passage at Liverpool for the city of New Orleans. In this latter place they staid one year, and a year later came up the river as far as St. Louis, Mo., stopping there but a short time, and then coming on to Galena. She had lived in this county several years before her marriage, and by her union with our subject became the happy mother of eight children. Two of these, Eddie and Mary, died of diphtheria. The others are all under the parental roof, and are named: Ellen, Patrick, Frank, James, John T., and Anna J.

Politically, Mr. Levins is a stanch Democrat, and by his party has been elected to several responsible positions in the Township; for two years he served as Assistant Supervisor, for three years he was Road Commissioner, and he is now Justice of the Peace. Like their ancestors, the family are all members of the Roman Catholic Church. He is a man frank and outspoken in expressing his opinions, and his straightforward honesty has won for him many friends.

Contributed by Carol Parrish - Portrait and Biographical Album of Jo Daviess and Carroll Counties, Illinois (1889) Pg 395