WILLIAM RHODES LONG - The passing away of William R. Long has closed a career that is a prominent part of the early history of Lee county. To tell of the hardships that he and his companion endured would only be repeating the story that has often been told of other old settlers that have gone before. Born June 13, 1817 at Altoona, Pa, died March 3, 1907 at his farm about six miles south of Amboy, which has been his home for forty-eight years. He was married to Charlotte M. Bingham March 27, 1847, and to this union eight children were born; namely, Lucretia, Alfred, Ella, Delphine, Frank, Charles, Leslie and Andrew. Of these, six are still living. Charles died in infancy and Ella died Dec. 26, 1905. Mrs. Long died Feb. 13, 1906. Besides the surviving children there are thirteen grandchildren, also one sister, Mrs. Margaret Chandler, who resides at Oscaloosa, Iowa. Mr. Long first came West in 1847 and located in the state of Iowa. He as present when the government paid the Sox and Fox Indians for their land. He never expected to see the country west of the Mississippi settled up so he came back to Illinois and located near Springfield in Sangamon county where for two y ears he was overseer of one of Captain Brown's farms. Brown at that time was one of the most extensive farmers in the state. He sent Mr. Long to St. Louis with several hundred head of hogs, the animals being driven overland all the way. It as while working for Capt. Brown that Mr. Long became acquainted with Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln was employed to survey a lot of timber land for Brown, that was covered with briars and hazel brush and he had great difficulty in keeping his men at work under these trying conditions. But through his diplomacy, the man who later became the chief executive of the nation, was equal to the occasion. After leaving Capt. Brown's, Mr. Long returned to Pennsylvania where he leased an iron mine. After his marriage he again returned to Illinois, coming to Lee county in 1849. He bought a small tract of land and kept adding to it until he had acquired several hundred acres. At one time he borrowed money at 30 per cent, bought land, sewed it to wheat and paid for the land with the first crop. He lived to see this land worth $125 per acre. It is almost impossible to conceive the wonderful changes that took place during his lifetime. He saw the wooden plow grow to the great steam plow, the creadle and the flail to the machine that will cut and thresh grain. He saw Chicago grow from a muddy little village to a city of over two million inhabitants. The trail of the army in the Black Hawk war was clearly defined across part of the land owned by him, for some years after he settled there. He was burned out by a prairie fire in 1854 and in 1890 his buildings and stately trees were wrecked by a cyclone. In politics Mrs. Long was a Free Thinker, and independent of any party. First a Democrat, then a Republican, then a Greenbacker. He was one of the organizers of the Sublette Grange, and a prominent member of the Farmer's Club, and was always interested in any thing for the benefit of the farmer. He as one time president of the Old Settler's association of Lee County and served several terms as Supervisor of May. He united with the Methodist church at Sherlyburg*,Pa. and afterwards by letter to Sublette Methodist church here he was an active member and supporter as long as the church existed. The funeral services were held from the home on Wednesday afternoon, March 7, conducted by the Rev. N. R. Hinds of Mr. Morris, this being the third funeral in the family at which Mr. Hinds officiated in a little more than a year. The interment was in Prairie Repose cemetery.
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