SAMUEL HERSHEY, of Loran Township, and pleasantly located on section 33, is the owner of 160 acres in a high state of cultivation, and supplied with a fine set of frame buildings. He came to this county in the fall of 1870, from Allegheny County, Pa., where he was born Oct. 15, 1828. He was reared to farm pursuits, which he has followed nearly all his life, and in the management of his property has distinguished himself as a skillful agriculturist and a wide-awake business man.

Our subject started out in life when twenty-one years of age, and first made his way to Ohio, of which State he remained a resident two years, engaged in farming. In 1858 he visited California, but after six months returned, to repeat the experiment, however, four years later, when he remained in that section of country for about seven years, engaged in mining and milling. Upon returning from California, he sought the home of his childhood in Pennsylvania, and the following year, 1870, came to Stephenson County, of which he has since been a resident.

Mr. Hershey, upon his return trip to his native county, was united in marriage with one of his childhood playmates, Mrs. Nancy Fennell, in March, 1870. Mrs. Hershey is the daughter of Robert and Ann (Hershey) Adair, and the widow of John Fennell, who died in Westmoreland County, Pa., in the spring of 1856. Of her first marriage there were born two children – Sarah A. and William J. The former is the wife of Joseph Boerr, a farmer of Loran Township, and William J. married Miss Emma Fisher, daughter of Jacob and Sarah (Hammond) Fisher, residents of Carroll County, this State. William J. Fennell was born in Westmoreland County, Pa., July 18, 1856, and his wife, Emma, was born in Pennsylvania. They have three children – Edith M., Myrtle M. and Nannie V.

Our subject and his wife are the parents of three children – Logan S., Nannie and Robert J. Mrs. Hershey belongs to the United Brethren Church, and Mr. Hershey, politically, affiliates with the Republican party.

Contributed by Carol Parrish from Portraits & Biographical 1888 Stephenson Co IL Pg 332