Biographies of Lake County Residents
Biographies of Lake County Residents
William James Elsbury
Mr William James Elsbury, 47, was born in 1865 in Stanmoor, near Burrow Bridge, Somerset. He was the son of James and Mary Ann Elsbury. He was the brother of Sarah, Mary Jane and John. He emigrated to Gurnee, Lake County, Illinois in 1884 where he subsequently acquired a 105 acre farm. He married an American woman called Eliza and had a family of 4 children, 3 boys (one of which was Lloyd) and a girl, Bernice. The 2 eldest boys worked with him on the farm.
On 20 November 1911 he returned to Somerset on his own, to assist his younger brother, John in the winding up of his recently deceased father's financial affairs. He was due to return to Gurnee in the March of 1912, but on hearing of the maiden voyage of Titanic he decided on the new ship as his means of returning to America. He boarded the Titanic at Southampton, travelling 3rd class. He was lost in the sinking. His body, if recovered, was never identified.
There is a memorial to James on a gravestone in the Taunton area.
http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/biography/799/
HON. ELIJAH M. HAINES, deceased. By the life of this worthy citizen has the county been advanced, the State honored and society blessed. Without educational advantages, or wealth or influential friends, he arose by native genius and persistent application to a place among the strong men of Illinois. He sprang from the noted Haines family, the progenitor of which was John Haines who emigrated with the Rev. Edward Hooker from Essex, England, in 1633, and became Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Three years later, he went to Connecticut, was chosen the first Governor of that Colony and served each alternate year until his Icath in IGG4. Inheriting the ability and application characteristic of the family, Elijah Middlebrook Haines added a name that has made it even more glorious. He was born April 21, 1822, in Oneida County N. Y., and in his boyhood became inured to the hardship of farm life. When he was but a child, his father died and subsequently his mother again married. In 1835, the family emigrated to Illinois and after spending about a year in Chicago and Joliet, arrived in Lake County in May, 1836. A claim was taken where Hainesville is now located and the task of making a farm begun. The death of the stepfather left young Elijah the main dependence of the family. With a manliness seldom found in one so young, he faithfully performed his part. His education had been meagre but in connection with his labors he found time for reading and private study. Thus he prepared himself for teaching, and in the winter of 1841-42, became master of the first school in Little Fort. Subsequently he turned his attention to land surveying, and in this capacity his services proved of great value in opening roads, establishing lines, etc In 1846 he platted the village of Hainesville, which still bears his name. Soon after attaining his majority, Mr. Haines was elected School Commissioner for the county and a few years later was chosen Justice of the Peace. This gave him experience in a new field. His mind, with a natural legal aptitude, grasped readily all questions of law and after reading such text books as he could obtain he was admitted to the bar in 1851. The following year he removed to Waukegan. His experience as a Justice of the Peace led him to prepare a treatise on the law and practice of these tribunals which has become standard through-out the State. His "Township Organization," a compilation of the law with practical forms and instructions for putting it in working operation, has been the guide in the administration of town affairs, not only in Illinois but in many of the surrounding states. His consummate ability as an advocate soon brought him to the first rank in his profession. A man well posted in public affairs and an active spirit in caucus and convention, Mr. Haines was soon called by the popular voice to represent the people in the State Legislature. He was first sent to the lower house of that body in 1859 and for eight terms filled the position with credit to himself and with satisfaction to his constituency. During two terms, he was honored with the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives and his intimate knowledge and skillful application of parliamentary law gave him a prominence and influence that few speakers have enjoyed. His extensive knowledge, perfected by experience, was embodied in a work on parliamentary law that is recognized as among the highest authorities. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1869 and 1870, and had much to do with shaping our present organic law.
Mr. Haines' literary labors were quite extensive. The indigenous races of North America presented a wide field of research in which he took great interest. Studying the character, language and traditions of the principal tribes, he acquired by personal research a fund of ethnological and archeological information that furnished materials for an elaborate work on '"The American Indian" that condenses in a single volume of eight hundred pages a library of valuable knowledge on this interesting subject. He founded the Lake County Patriot, a weekly newspaper that has attained the respectable age of almost half a century, and the Legal Adviser, published in Chicago, the oldest law newspaper, with a single exception, that now sees the light in the republic in the village that bears his name. Mr. Haines was married August 18, 1845, to Melinda Griswold, daughter of Amos Wright, a branch of the family that gave to the commonwealth of New York her most eminent Senator, Silas Wright. She was born in Herkimer County, February 18, 1827, and died in Waukegan June 28, 1881, leaving two children, John Charles Haines, a lawyer of Seattle, Wash., and Frances, now the wife of Andre Matteson, who continues the publishing business left by her father. On April 25, 1889, the Hon. Elijah M. Haines passed to his rest. His death was a calamity to Waukegan and to the commonwealth in whose legislative council he has served so ably and so long. Few men have left upon the record of their time a more enduring stamp of a strong individuality. Though in political opinions classed with the Dempcratic party school, Mr. Haines was more noted for personal independence than for party fealty. So great was his influence among men of all party rulors that in a strong Republican legislative district no adverse candidate of any party name was ever able to overcome his majority. A man of strong, positive and aggressive character, such was his astuteness and knowledge of men that be made himself the parliamentary commander of a legislative assembly without a party majority behind him. His phenomenal genius for parliamentary contest was equaled by few and transcended by none. In the practice of his profession he was not only just and honorable, but noble. He look more delight in seeing men settle, their difficulties without wasting their substance, in lawsuits than in securing a large fee. The cause of the poor and oppressed, he often espoused without the hope of pecuniary reward. His name will emblazon the pages of history and his memory will be enshrined in the hearts of future generations.
Source: "Portrait and Biographical Album of Lake County, IL", pub. 1891 - Transcribed by K. Torp
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