John Westwick came to Galena in 1852 and two years later started the Westwick Foundry, which was most successfully operated by himself and his son until 1884 when the father withdrew, and the son, John William, assumed the management of the business. The latter is now conducting it with the same good judgment which distinguished his honored sir when he was manager. The buildings and machinery are finely adapted to the purposes for which they are intended, and their castings are shipped to various parts of the United States.

Mr. Westwick long since established himself in the confidence and esteem of his fellow-citizens both as a business man and a member of the community. Notwithstanding the drawbacks of a partially disabled arm. He drafts all kinds of patterns He possesses inventive genius to a more than ordinary degree, and has made a fine astronomical telescope. This has a 4-inch object-glass with power sufficient to detect the rings of Saturn, the nebulae of Orion, and other important bodies. This was built by Mr. Westwick for his own personal gratification, and indicates the bent of his thoughts and tastes. As a student of astronomy, he has few equals in the North west. He has also given considerable attention to photography, and in this line has produced some excellent results.

The boyhood home of Mr. Westwick was on the other side of the Atlantic, in the North Riding, of Yorkshire, England, where he was born March 30, 1822. He is the scion of an excellent old family of pure English stock, his paternal grandfather having been William Westwick, a native of Cumberland County. The latter was a gamekeeper by occupation, and lived to be quite aged. His last days were spent in ease and comfort, living upon pension awarded him by the gentleman in whose service he had been for many years.

The father of our subject was James Westwick who, under, the apprenticeship of his father, also became a game-keeper, and an expert marksman It is claimed that he was the finest shot in the Kingdom and his feats were witnessed upon many occasions by the nobles of England and Scotland. He spent his entire life in his native shire, dying when quite well advanced in years. The mother in her girlhood was Miss Nancy Sweeting, who was born and reared not far from the early home of her husband. After the death of the latter she came with her son, our subject, and the younger members of the family, in 1852, to the United States. They at once sought Northern Illinois, and settled in Galena, where the mother made her home first with her son John, and later with her son James, at whose residence, in East Dubuque, her death took place, in 1857. Her age was seventy-three years. She was a most worthy lady, and a member in good standing of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

John Westwick was reared and educated in his native county, and at an early age evinced a more than ordinary interest in the arts pertaining to his present business. When of suitable years he began his apprenticeship as a machinist and millwright, and later, in company with his brother James, operated a large shop in Yorkshire. He still looks back to his old home in England with many pleasant recollections, and revisited it in 1876.

About 1845, in the West Riding, of Yorkshire, Mr. Westwick was married to Miss Mary Emerson, who was born in West Riding, near Dewsberry, March 5, 1826. She was the daughter of John and Sarah (Wade) Emerson, who both died there, the mother when her daughter was quite young. Mr. Emerson married for his second wife Miss Elizabeth Thompson, who is yet living in Leeds, England. John Emerson departed this life in 1875, at the age of seventy-three years. The family belong to the Presbyterian Church.

Mrs. Westwick was reared and educated in her native shire, and of her union with our subject there are seven children living. Of John W„ the eldest, we have already spoken; he married Miss Sarah Evans, and they occupy a pleasant home on Broadway, Galena; Thomas E. married Miss Emma McMichael, of Wisconsin, and is a foreman in the Dempster Windmill Manufactory of Beatrice, Neb.; Sarah is the wife of J. C. Brown, a resident of Galena; Eunice married Leslie Roberts, of Wichita, Kan., where Mr. Roberts is engaged as a dealer in real-estate; Mary is the wife of Thomas Glenville, a partner of John Fiddick, who is in the dry-goods trade; Charles J., a machinist, is connected with the foundry of his brother John; Emma E. remains at home with her parents. Mr. Westwick, politically, is a sound Republican, and with his excellent wife belongs to the Baptist Church, of which he is one of the chief pillars.

Transcribed by Christine Walters - Portrait and Biographical Album of Jo Daviess and Carroll Counties, Illinois (1889)