WILLIAM SHIPPEE, of Waddams Township, owns and occupies one of its most attractive farm residences, and is the proprietor of 128 acres of land on section 9. His early home, not far from the Atlantic coast, was in Bergen County, now included in Passaic County, N. J.; his birth took place4 Dec. 7, 1816. He was a young child when his father died, and was reared by his step-father, John Freeland. Our subject when fifteen years of age set out in life for himself and commenced to learn the trade of a hatter in the city of Orange. He served an apprenticeship of five years, and was afterward employed as a journeyman three years. He then departed from his State and going into Clearfield County, Pa., purchased 100 acres of timber land at $3 per acre, erected a log house and, abandoning the hatter’s trade forever, settled contentedly down to the life of an agriculturist. He cleared fifty acres of the land during his residence there, and that winter and several following occupied himself in teaching school. The salary of the pedagogues of that time and locality was sometimes $20, and sometimes $12 per month. Farm laborers received fifty cents per day in ordinary seasons and during harvest time twelve and one-half cents additional. Mr. Shippee taught a three months’ school during thirteen successive winters, and each spring after the river had broken up rafted lumber down the West Branch of the Susquehanna. In the summer and fall he employed himself in the cultivation of his land. He was first married Dec. 17, 1843, to Miss Hannah Hoover, a native of Centre County, Pa., who died at their home Jan. 20, 1850, aged twenty-nine years. The two children, John and Ira, are both now residents of Waddams Township, this county. The year following the death of his wife, which took place in 1851, Mr. Shippee came to Illinois thinking to better his condition in the farther West. He had friends at McConnell’s Grove, this county, and visiting them he looked about him for land, and finally purchased eighty acres on the south half of section 11, in Waddams Township. For this he paid $4 per acre, and also purchased twenty acres of timber in Oneco Township at $4.50 per acre. He then returned to Pennsylvania where he spent the winter, and in the spring, accompanied by his mother and his two little sons, came back to Illinois, put up a dwelling and took possession of his land. He improved a part of this and occupied it until the fall of 1854, when he sold out at $18 per acre, thus realizing a very fair profit upon his investment. Soon afterward he purchased the land which is included in his present homestead, and for which he paid $12 per acre. Upon it stood a partly finished house in a dilapidated condition, which he put in repair and made comfortable for his family. In 1881 he completed the erection of a fine set of frame buildings, around which he planted fruit and shade trees, and has effected other improvements which have rendered it one of the most desirable homesteads in Waddams Township. The present wife of our subject, to whom he was married March 30, 1856, was formerly Miss Mary Bechtold. She was born in Clarke County, Ohio, June 19, 1840, and is the daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Bechtold, natives of Pennsylvania. Her parents emigrated to Stephenson County in 1843, and located in Buckeye Township, where they spent the remainder of their days. Of this marriage there were born twelve children, of whom the record is as follows: Wilbur is a resident of Pipe Stone County, Minn., as is also his sister Suffrona, who married W. M. Hake; Bertha is the wife of Robert Musser, a farmer of Oneco Township, this county; Emma, Mrs. John Hake, lives in Palo Alto County, Iowa; Cyrus is farming in Waddams Township, this county; Blucher is a resident of Iowa; Elizabeth, Mary Alice, Lois, Orrin, Annetta and Mahlon, are at home with their parents. Mr. Shippee is Democratic in politics, and a gentleman of more than ordinary intelligence. He keeps himself well posted upon current events and is an extensive reader, possessing a large fund of general information. He enjoys the advantages of a good education, and is the cordial and substantial supporter of those enterprises which tend to the moral and intellectual advancement of his community. In religious views he is liberal. He has served as Justice of the Peace eight years and has been Commissioner of Highways. His farming and business operations are conducted in that straightforward and systematic manner which denotes the intelligent and progressive citizen, and he enjoys in a marked manner the regard of his friends and neighbors.

Contributed by Carol Parrish Portrait and Biographical Album of Stephenson County, Ill. (1888), p. 652