C. W. ATKINSON,
ex-County Clerk of McLean County, has been a
resident of the Prairie State
since 1853, coming here when a
young man eighteen years old. His native place was Lake
County, Ohio, where he was
born In
1835, and his parents were William and Marian (Ferguson)
Atkinson, natives respectively of New Brunswick
and New York.
They were married in Ohio
in 1833, locating upon a farm of 160 acres, where William Atkinson
industriously engaged in farming and stock-raising until 1853. He then
started
for the prairies of Illinois and
purchased a
farm in Cheney's Grove Township,
this county,
which he cultivated for a number of years, and which still remains his
home,
although he is now retired from active life. William Atkinson was born
in 1807,
and is consequently now eighty years of age. He was always of a
religious turn
of mind, studied for the ministry while a young man and was ordained a
minister
of the Methodist Church
in 1848, since which time he has
served as a local preacher. The parental household consisted of ten
children,
six now living.
The subject of this
history spent his boyhood and youth in attendance at school during the
winter seasons
and assisting on the farm the balance of the year. At twenty-one years
of age
he entered Wesleyan University, Bloomington,
where he pursued a two years' course, and engaged in teaching for two
years
following, in McLean and Champaign Counties.
During the first year of the war he enlisted as a soldier in Co.
I, 23d Ohio
Vol. Inf., and served until the close of the conflict. For brave and
faithful
services he was commissioned Captain, having taken part in the battles
of South Mountain,
Antietam, and all the engagements of the Shenandoah
Valley
of 1864. He escaped serious injury and received an honorable discharge
on the 26th
of August, 1865.
At the close of his
military services Mr. Atkinson returned to Illinois, and locating at
Saybrook,
engaged in mercantile
pursuits until 1868. He then sold out, and going to Bloomington,
was appointed Deputy Circuit Clerk, which position he held four years
and then
was the incumbent of the same position in the office of the County
Clerk
until 1877, when he was elected County Clerk
and held the office
until December, 1886.
Mr. Atkinson was
married in 1866, to Miss Kate Guthrie, the daughter of Rev. R. E. and
Lucy
(Kelsall) Guthrie. Of this union there have been born five children :
William
E.; Wilber, a graduate of the city High School, both of whom
are clerks in the office of their father; those at home are Marion, Roy
and
Carrie. Mr. Atkinson is Republican in politics and socially belongs to
the
Masonic fraternity, the I. O. O. F., the G. A. R. and K. of P. In
addition to
his pleasant residence in Bloomington,
he has a farm near Cheney's Grove, consisting of 140 acres of valuable
land,
finely improved and mostly devoted to stock-raising. Mr. Atkinson is a
thorough
business man and in all respects a representative citizen.
Portrait and biographical album of McLean County, Ill.
: containing full page portraits and biographical
sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county,
together with
portraits and biographies of all the governors of Illinois,
and of the presidents of the United States. (Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1887), 203-4.
Transcribed by Judy Rosella Edwards
