Joseph H. Gunsaul, at present Assessor of West point Township, came to this locality in pioneer days, and has faithfully clung to the place where he set out early in life to establish a permanent home. He is a native of the Empire State, and was born near the little town of Amsterdam, Fulton County, Sept. 27, 1834. His father, Gabriel Gunsaul, was a native of the same county, and his grandfather, Joseph Gunsaul, was born in Dutchess County, Oct. 14, 1769. The great-grandfather of our subject, also named Joseph, spent the last years of his life in the United States. The place of his birth is not known to his descendants now living.

The Gunsaul family is supposed to have originated among the Spanish Huguenots, and the first representatives in this country were three brothers who crossed the ocean before the Revolutionary War. One settled in Pennsylvania, one in Maryland, and the third, the great-great-great-grandfather of our subject, established himself in the territory which was named after the Duke of York, but is now New York State. Nothing more is known of him except that he married and reared a family of sons and daughters.

The great-grandfather of our subject removed from Dutchess to Saratoga County, settling on the present site of the village of Charlton, where he secured the title to a section of land. There were but few white men in that region at the time, and the great-grandfather, Joseph Gunsaul, was murdered by the Indians in about 1776. His son, Joseph, was at that time a lad twelve years of age. At the time of this tragedy a great-uncle of our subject, John Gunsaul, together with the hired man, were taken prisoners and carried to Canada. The lad Joseph was captured, but made his escape. The great-uncle was held by the savages three years, but was finally released through the efforts of his cousin, an officer in the British army, who effected his return to his native State. He settled near the homestead which had been inaugurated by his father, and there spent the remainder of his life.

The grandfather of our subject, Joseph Gunsaul, was born and reared in Saratoga County, N. Y., where he remained until after his marriage. After a short residence in Schnectady he removed into the Empire City, and was engaged as a clerk until the outbreak of the War of 1812. He then went to Amsterdam and engaged in mercantile business, and after a few years traded his stock of goods for a farm and hotel on the Mohawk River two miles east of Amsterdam Village. These he conducted until 1835, when he sold out and returned to Schenectady, and kept the North hall Boarding-House, which was connected with the Union College. He was thus occupied until 1853, when he decided to come West and spend his last days with his son Samuel. Five years later, on the 12th of June, 1858, his death took place in Winslow Township.

The paternal grandmother of our subject, who, in her girlhood was Miss Mary Manny, was born in Amsterdam, Montgomery Co., N. Y., Feb. 2, 1794, of French parents. She came to Illinois with her husband after they had both become aged, and passed away two years before his decease. Their six children were named Gabriel, Emanuel, John, Mary, Margaret and Samuel. They possessed vigorous constitutions, and all lived to mature years, married and settled in comfortable homes. Gabriel, the father of our subject, grew to manhood in his native county in New York, where he married and continued to live until 1842. Then, accompanied by his wife and four children, he started for the Prairie State, making the journey by the Erie Canal and the Lakes to Chicago, where he purchased a team and came overland to this county. He had chosen farming for his vocation, and renting a tract of land cultivated it two years, and soon afterward entered land from the Government that is located in Waddams Township. He put up a frame house of native lumber, where he established his family and proceeded with the cultivation of the soil, which heretofore had never been turned by the plowshare. His nearest market was Galena, and the few mining towns adjacent. He labored worthily and industriously in common with his brother pioneers, and lived to see the country richly developed around him, looking with gratified interest upon the transformation which changed the uncultivated prairies to smiling farms and beautiful homesteads. His upright course in life secured for him the regard and confidence of his neighbors, and when he passed to his rest in May, 1883, there was regret on every side at the loss of a conscientious and valued citizen.

Gabriel Gunsaul in early life was married to Miss Nancy Marsellis, a native of his own county, and who played with him during his childhood days. She came to the West with her husband, endured bravely and patiently the hardships of life in a new country, and preceded her husband to the other world in May, 1871. The household circle included four children, of whom Gabriel died in Rockford, in 1871; Maria is married and lives in Lena; Joseph H., of our sketch, was the third child; James F. is a farmer in Hamilton County, Iowa.

The subject of this sketch was a lad of eight years when his father came to the West. He remembers distinctly many of the incidents connected with the long journey from the Empire State, and the struggle with life in the wilds of Stephenson County during its first settlement. His first school studies were conducted in the log cabin, the institution being maintained on the subscription plan. In common with the sons of the early settlers, he knew little of luxury, or the amusements of the present day, but was content in his sphere of life, and was taught by his excellent parents that to live honestly and worthily was ambition's chiefest (sic) goal. He followed in the footsteps of his ancestors and has been engaged in agriculture all his life with the exception of the time spent in assisting to put down the Rebellion. Soon after the outbreak of the war he enlisted in the 92d Illinois Infantry, which was assigned to Sherman's command, and whose soldiers participated with the great General in his march from Atlanta to the sea. Mr. Gunsaul was present at many of the important battles of that campaign, and remained faithful to his duties as a soldier until the close of the war. It proved a valuable and interesting experience, which, notwithstanding its hardships and dangers, he would not willingly part with. After the surrender of Lee's army, Mr. G., in common with his comrades, received an honorable discharge and returned home. Soon afterward he resumed the work which had been thus interrupted, and continued until the spring of 1871, when he sold out and came to Lena, and invested his surplus funds in groceries and dry-goods, later adding agricultural implements, and was engaged in trade until 1878 or 1879. The flight of years now admonished him that it was time to rest, and disposing of his stock and business he retired to his present home, where he anticipates spending the later years of his life in the peace and quiet which he has so justly earned.

Contributed by Carol Parrish from Portrait and Biographical Album of Stephenson County, Ill. (1888), p. 384-87

Photos from Alva Van Houtin and Diane Boand - both on Find-A-Grave