REUBEN PENTICOFF, one of the pioneers of Illinois and now residing on section 32, Loran Township, came from his native State to Stephenson County in 1837, and has been engaged in agricultural pursuits since beginning the labors of life, with the exception of two years when he resided in Woodman’s Grove. He was born in Union County, Pa., on the 9th of January, 1832, and spent his boyhood days there. His whole life has been devoted to the calling adopted by his father, and at which the latter was content to labor and spend his days, undisturbed by the turmoil attendant upon men’s lives in the great cities and the marts of trade.

Mr. Penticoff is the owner of 120 acres of land, most of which is highly improved, and the buildings he has erected would do credit to many men who possess a more extended acreage. After becoming a resident of this State he was married, in Loran Township, to Miss Mary J. Bush, daughter of Frederick Bush, and a native also of Union County, Pa. Mr. and Mrs. Penticoff have been blessed with nine children, eight of whom are living, and named respectively: Lydia A., the wife of Charles Reed; Salinda, the wife of Jackson A. Lahr; Lisa, who was married to Paul Cramer Oct. 4, 1887; Kate, Lewis, Charles, Harry and Harvey.

Mr. Penticoff is a Republican, and has been elected to township offices several times. If any man should stand up before him and ask, “What have you done?” he can answer without words, simply by pointing to the well-cultivated farm and its appurtenances, the neatly fenced fields, the goodly assortment of live-stock, the residence and the out-buildings. The picture of these latter our artist has carefully transferred to paper, and which the reader may find by examining another page.

Contributed by Carol Parrish from Portrait and Biographical Album of Stephenson County, Ill. (1888), p. 367