Joseph C. Johnson. Hale and hearty, with firm step and unclouded mind, Joseph C. Johnson at the age of eighty years is one of Champaign County’s oldest living native sons. It has been his privilege to witness with his own eyes and bear a not unimportant part in the development of this rich and prosperous […]
Charles D. Thompson has been a resident of Ogden for many years, and enjoys a substantial position in that community because of his record as a good citizen and his honest workmanship as a painter and paper hanger. Mr. Thompson was born August 24, 1853, at Leesburg in Kosciusko County, Indiana, son of John and
George C. Kirby learned his business as a farmer and stockman when a boy in Champaign County, and having added to knowledge and experience the other qualities of industry and prudence, he has been getting steadily ahead in the world since he began his independent career. Mr. Kirby was born in Sidney Township of this
John Fiock. Behind every fine farm, home and industry of Champaign County lies a story of sacrifice and strenuous personal endeavor. It has required the labors of an army of men and women to make Champaign County what it is today, and this publication performs its greatest service when appropriate credit may be given to
John Cecil Somers is one of the youngest bankers of Champaign, and his career and experience have been worked out in one-institution. When he was seventeen years of age he entered the Commercial Bank of Champaign, and by doing the duties which lay nearest and making himself generally useful to his superiors and to the
Samuel P. Atkinson. Perhaps Champaign has no more sturdy and progressive citizen than is found in Samuel P. Atkinson, manager of the S. P. Atkinson Monument Company. He is a thorough American, with a backing of colonial ancestry and Revolutionary stock; and is a veteran of the great struggle which prior to 1914 the people
Henry M. Brownfield is one of the old timers of Champaign County and has had his home in this region since early childhood and for a period of more than sixty years. The honor and respect due him are the result not only of long residence, painstaking work and management as a practical farmer, but
David Harvey Lester. For almost a half century has David Harvey Lester been a resident of Champaign County and it has been his privilege to witness and bear a part in its remarkable development. He is a native of Indiana and was born in Switzerland County, October 18, 1848. His parents were David A. and
W. W. Pepper, a popular lawyer and a successful young business man, was born on a farm seven miles south of Newman May 24, 1866, and is the eldest of seven children born to Dudley H. and Nancy Liston Pepper. His father was a native of Kentucky and resides at Oakland. Mr. Pepper received his
Dell E. Harris. In the University district of Champaign there is no merchant better known to the student population and citizens generally than Dell E. Harris, who for over twenty-five years has been in active business as a confectioner. Mr. Harris has succeeded because he has concentrated his energies largely along one line, has studied
John T. Riemke, one of the leading grain and elevator men of southwest Champaign County, began his career in humble circumstances, and has raised himself by sheer force of will and determination to a position of independence and influence. Mr. Riemke was born in Pesotum Township of this county August 29, 1877. His parents were
Alexander Craigmile. Of the men whose ability, industry and fore-thought have added to the character, wealth and progress of Champaign County none deserves better mention than Alexander Craigmile, a veteran of the Union army, long and successfully identified with agriculture, and now with his good wife living retired in a comfortable home at Rantoul. His
Francis M. Leigh of St. Joseph village is one of Champaign County’s veteran farmers. He is also one of those living who have seen most of the development of this section of the country. His own part has been not entirely that of a witness, and taking the aggregate results of the work and influence
Mrs. Anna Marie Jones. In the making of the worthy history of Champaign County, woman as well as man has played a most worthy part. But too often the part of woman has been overlooked or slighted and yet in those things of which Champaign County is most proud, its homes, the wives and mothers
William G. Fulton. The opinion has been expressed that opportunities today for the farmer are just as great as they were in pioneer times when land could be obtained for little or nothing. The career of William G. Fulton furnishes testimony in point. Mr. Fulton began his career in Champaign County with hardly enough capital
John J. Hanson, who has a splendid farm partly in Champaign and partly in Ford County, is one of that type of citizens who begin life without special advantages or the inheritance of means except ability to toil and make the best of an environment, and has proved himself one of the sturdy characters in
Henry T. Schumacher has been one of the strong and resourceful members of the Champaign County bar for the past thirteen years. He has built up a large and profitable general clientage and his name and reputation are gradually being extended all over the judicial district and the eastern section of the State. Mr. Schumacher
Charles M. Webber. Since 1914 the post office at Urbana has been in charge of Charles M. Webber, and in the time that has elapsed since that date the people of the county seat of Champaign County have had no reason to complain of the mail service. Mr. Webber was for many years a business
Thomas J. Early. The Early family has been identified with Champaign County for over a half a century. The name is one around which many interests center. They have been industrious and capable farmers, good home makers and upright and honorable citizens in all the relations of life. One of the younger members of the
Matthew Wales Busey. Of the native sons of Champaign County who have been factors in the development of the county’s resources, one of the most prominently known is Matthew W T ales Busey, president of Busey’s State Bank at Urbana. As one of the leading bankers of his section he has contributed to the advancement
