Of this well-known resident of Lena we find a most interesting history, as follows: His early life was spent amidst the fertile stretch of country along the English Channel, in the county of Sussex, which was his early home, and where his birth took place April 2, 1837. He played among the Sussex hills for a few years, and when old enough began to assist his parents about the home. His education was limited to a short attendance at the primary schools. His parents were people of modest means, but of laudable ambition, and when their son John was eleven years old they determined to seek their fortunes on the other side of the Atlantic.

The father of our subject, James Shoesmith by name, was of English birth and ancestry, and was born Jan. 7, 1816. When twenty years of age he was married in 1835 to Miss Lucy Baker, daughter of George and Lucy (Coleman) Baker, who was born Feb. 19, 1817. At the time of embarking f or America they were the parents of five children. They took passage on a sailing-vessel, and after a voyage of nine weeks landed at Montreal, Canada. They did not tarry long, however, in the Dominion, but at once proceeded westward via the Welland Canal and the Lakes to Chicago. It is scarcely necessary to say that the present great metropolis at that time gave little indications of its future importance. No railroads, or even stages, were to be secured for the traveler who wished to pursue his journey further. The elder Shoesmith accordingly availed himself of the best means at hand, and meeting a farmer from Stephenson County who had come to Chicago Village with a load of grain, he contracted with him to convey the family to their destination.

The Shoesmith family arrived in this county on the 12th of July, 1848; a few days afterward the father had established his family in a little house in West Point Township, while he worked about by the month for their maintenance. His honesty and intelligence obtained for himself friends at once, who loaned him money, by which he secured sixty-four acres of land in Kent Township. Here he put up a log cabin, and commenced in earnest the building up of a home. The father of our subject was prospered and as time passed on found himself surrounded by all the comforts of life, and enabled to add to his possessions, until he was the owner of 204 acres of land, and had laid off 164 acres as the home farm. This he embellished with handsome and substantial buildings and provided himself with the machinery necessary to the success of the modern agriculturist. Mr. Shoesmith continued on this home place until 1869, when he wisely determined to retire from active labor, and moved to the village of Lena, where he spent his last years in the ease and comfort to which he was so justly entitled. His death took place there Jan. 31, 1887. The mother is still living in Lena. She has now attained to a ripe old age, and is in possession of a rich experience of life on two continents, from the different phases of which she gathered many a tale with which to interest and instruct her young relatives of the present generation.

The parental household of our subject, after the removal to this country, was enlarged by the birth of three children, making eight in all, four sons and four daughters, namely, John, our subject; George, Edward W., and James S., who died Sept. 28, 1877; Louisa, Mrs. Parris; Mary A., Mrs. Buss; Elizabeth, Mrs. Latham, and Lydia J., Mrs. Clark. Mrs. Mary A. Buss died at her home in Lena on the 26th of June, 1887.

John Shoesmith remembers much of his early life on English soil, and frequently recalls the incidents connected with the preparations for the voyage across the Atlantic, which proved a rich and pleasurable experience, as valuable as it was diverting. The family endured the hardships and privations common to pioneer life upon settling in the West, and our subject can now realize how patient and resolute were his parents during those trying times. He remained with them until twenty years of age, when his father, with a generosity uncommon in those days, gave him his time and $55 in cash; armed with this capital he started out to seek his fortune. Accompanied by two acquaintances he journeyed on foot to the Mississippi, and there boarded a boat to Davenport, Iowa, whence they traveled by rail to Iowa City, which was then the western terminus of the Rock Island Railroad. Not wishing to locate there, however, they interviewed a stage driver, who proposed to take them to Guthrie Centre, in that State, for the sum of $14. Our hero concluded it would be cheaper to foot it, and accordingly started out and made the entire distance of 200 miles in this manner. Upon his arrival there he engaged to work for a farmer at $20 per month. About seven weeks later he was seized with a fit of home-sickness and started on foot for Iowa City, purposing thence to return to his father's house. He had earned money enough to pay his expenses, and upon reaching home still had the $55 which his father had given him.

Young Shoesmith now purchased from the Illinois Central Railroad Company forty acres of land at $12.50 per acre, paying $50 down, with four years' time on the balance. He at once proceeded with the cultivation of his purchase, and raised wheat for three successive seasons, for which he received a good price. Indeed, so pleased was he with the result of his labors, that he felt he could afford to spend a little money in visiting his friends and relatives in New York and Canada. This proved a very pleasurable trip, and upon returning he resumed his farm labors until 1863, when he sold his land at a good profit, and then started for Ohio, where he also had friends and relatives. He spent that winter in the Buckeye State, and upon his return in the spring purchased another piece of land, which he sold not long afterward at a good advance. Encouraged by this transaction he now decided to go farther West, as a real-estate dealer, and employed his leisure time at the mason trade, which he had learned. He took up his residence in Buchanan County, Iowa, and first invested in a quarter section of land, at $5 per acre. This he soon sold at about sixty per cent profit, and he continued in the real-estate business several years, at the expiration of which time he was in possession of quite a little fortune.

In 1868 Mr. Shoesmith decided to take a trip across the Atlantic in order to visit among the acquaintances of his boyhood days, and also to obtain possession of a tract of land in Buchanan County, Iowa, which belonged to a party in England. He took passage at New York on the steamer Denmark, October 17, and landed at Liverpool on the 29th of the same month. He spent four months in England, visiting most of the principal cities and other points of interest, and in March, 1869, set out on his return for America. After a stormy voyage the vessel arrived safely in New York Harbor, and Mr. Shoesmith returning to the West resumed his real-estate operations, and in 1883 engaged in the grain, stock and creamery business at Van Horn, Benton Co., Iowa. Soon after this time he became associated with the grain firm of A. F. Foll & Co., at Lena, with which he has since continued.

Mr. Shoesmith was married rather late in life, on the 30th of December, 1874, to Miss Kate A., daughter of Peter and Dalinda (Heard) Best, natives of Pennsylvania, who came to this county in 1851, and are now residents of Lena. The father of Mrs. S. was born in Columbia County, Pa., March 20, 1818, and was the youngest of twelve children. He remained at home on his father's farm until fifteen years of age, then learned the trades of carpenter and painter, at which he worked in his native State until 1854, in the meantime also engaging in farming. In the spring of that year he came to this county and purchased a farm in Harlem Township, which he sold not long afterward, and removed to Cedarville, where he followed his trades until the spring of 1859. He then purchased a farm in Kent Township, which he occupied until the fall of 1864, and having been prospered, now retired from active labor and took up his abode in Lena, where he at present resides. The parents of Mrs. Shoesmith were married in Pennsylvania in October, 1836. Mrs. Best was born in Clinton County, Pa., Sept. 2, 1816. Mr. and Mrs. Best became the parents of nine children, four of whom died in infancy. There are now living one son, Jacob S., and three daughters, Katie A., Mrs. Shoesmith; Margaret J., Mrs. Dorn; Mary M., Mrs. Buss. The eldest son, Robert, enlisted as a Union soldier in Co. A, 46th Ill. Vol. Inf., and died in the service.

After the death of his father Mr. Shoesmith administered on the estate in a manner satisfactory to the heirs, and has in his whole career distinguished himself as a man of honesty and integrity, straightforward in his dealings with his fellowmen, and one who enjoys in a marked degree the confidence and esteem of his community. Mr. and Mrs. Shoesmith have no children, but live happily and contentedly at their pleasant home in Lena, where they are surrounded by all the comforts of life, and are in the enjoyment of many of its luxuries. Mr. Shoesmith is still fond of travel, and he and his estimable lady frequently start out upon a tour of the country and thus expend a portion of their income in a most wise and thoroughly pleasant manner. Mr. Shoesmith owns a large amount of property, both in Iowa and this State. Politically he is a stanch supporter of the Republican party, and both he and his wife are devoted members of the Methodist Church, to the support of which they have always contributed liberally and cheerfully. They have scores of friends in this county, who rejoice in their prosperity and maintain that it is nothing more than they deserve.

Contributed by Carol Parrish from Portraits & Biographical 1888 Stephenson Co IL Pg 613-16