Bureau County IL Archives Biographies.....Breed, Dr. Simon Peter
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Virginia Perry vperry@midwest.net January 1999

Biography for Dr. Simon Peter Breed, Bureau County, Illinois

Dr. Simon Peter Breed, Wyanet. In the possession of William J. Breed, of 
Raynham, Mass., are records stating that A. D. 1100 a colony of Breeds 
emigrated from Germany to Sussex County, England, and there founded a 
town called Breed, which bears that name to the present day.   From this 
colony of Breeds sprang Allyn Breed, of 1601, who came to America and 
settled in Lynn, Mass., in 1630, and became the sole progenitor of the 
Breed family in America.  One of his great-grandsons, Ebenezer Breed, is 
noted for being the owner of Breed's Hill, where was fought the battle 
of Bunker Hill.  Dr. S. P. Breed, the subject of this sketch, was born 
in Manlius, Onondaga Co.,  N. Y., February 1, 1819, and is the son of 
the late James Breed.  In his possession are records by which he can 
trace his lineage back through his grandfather, Gershom Breed, of 1755; 
Allen Beard, of 1714, who settled in Stonington, Conn., and therefore 
called the Stonington branch of the family; thence through, John Breed, 
of 1663, Allen Breed, of 1626, and Allyn Breed, of 1601, who settled in 
Lynn in 1630.  Simon Peter Breed was taken by his parents to Cicero, 
Onondaga County, in 1820, and there on the farm he was reared till he 
was seventeen years of age, except one year when the family had returned 
to Manlius.  When seventeen he removed with his parents to Hannibal, 
Oswego County, and there four years more of his life were spent upon the 
farm, in a sawmill, at the carpenter's bench and in the school room.  
When nineteen years of age he began life's work for himself, having made 
an arrangement with his father for his time.  In 1839 he went to 
Manlius, where he attended the old Manlius Academy for some time, and 
also taught three terms of school.  May 11, 1843, he started from 
Oswego, N. Y. for the West, and landed June 11, at his uncle's house 
near Vermont, Fulton Co., Ill., where his first business was teaching at 
$13 per month.  He continued teaching for three terms, and in 1844 began 
the study of medicine in Vermont.  In the winter of 1846-47 he attended 
his first course of lectures at St. Louis, Mo., in the Medical 
Department of the Missouri State University.  In the spring of 1847 he 
began the practice of medicine in Schuyler County, Ill., and there 
continued for eighteen years.  However, in the winter of 1856-57 he went 
to Philadelphia, and attended the Medical Department and graduated from 
the Pennsylvania University.  He then continued in his practice in 
Schuyler County, where he was widely known and eminently successful.  In 
1865 Dr. Breed removed to Princeton, and in the fall of the same year 
took part in organizing a district medical society, and was its first 
delegate to the State Medical Society, and through a report read there 
was first introduced to the literary medical world, and since that time 
has contributed many articles to medical journals, full of interest and 
value to the profession, but of which our limited space will allow no 
further mention, only to say that they were characterized by many of the 
leading physicians in this and other States as able and exhaustive.  In 
a centennial address before the International medical Congress at 
Philadelphia, in 1876, H. I. Bowditch, M. D., President,  of the 
Massachusetts State Board of Health, speaks of Dr. Breed as one of his 
valuable correspondents.  In the publish transactions of the nineteenth 
annual meeting of the Illinois State Medical Society are given a number 
of pages taken from his report on Practical Medicine.  Not only had Dr. 
Breed been an able contributor upon medicine, but his ready pen has not 
been slow to record his thoughts upon other topics, including those on 
temperance, a tour through Kansas in 1869, woman's crusade, etc., the 
mere mention of which will call them to the minds of many of the leading 
citizens of the county.  In early life the Doctor was an Abolitionist, 
and cast one of the two first votes in Vermont, Fulton County, for James 
G. Birney, the candidate of the Liberty party in 1844.  He is now a 
stanch Republican, and in 1870 he wrote articles against many of the 
Republicans, who bolted the regular nominee for Congress, after 
submitting their claims at the primary election.  December 25, 1848, Dr. 
Breed was united in marriage to Miss Alzina S. Powers, of McDonough 
County, Ill.  She was born in Essex, Vt., in 1827, but came to McDonough 
County in 1833.  Her father, Isaac Powers, was a farmer; she was 
educated in the district schools and at the female seminary of 
Jacksonville, Ill.  She is the mother of seven children, three of whom 
died before they were seven years of age.  The living are: Lena May, a 
school teacher; Lizzie Rachel, wife of Charles E. Sisler, who resides 
near Lincoln, Neb.; Luella and Ralph at home.  The were educated in the 
Princeton High School. In later years Dr. Breed has lived in quiet 
retirement on Center Grove farm.  This farm of 200 acres lies in Wyanet 
Township, and was settled in 1836 and when Dr. Breed purchased it in 
1870 was very much run down, but he has added many valuable improvements 
to it, and has made it a model farm.  Although not a member of any 
church, order or fraternity, he is opposed to none provided they bear 
the test of being a benefit to mankind.  He has always been a friend to 
the poor and especially during the war, he not only assisted the 
families of the soldiers by his services as a physician, but his purse 
was ever open to them, and many kindly words of sympathy did he write to 
those in the field.

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