Champaign County IL Archives Biographies.....Harwood, Abel 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Celia Snyder cgsnyder@uiuc.edu September 1999

Biography of Abel HARWOOD, Champaign County, Illinois

From:  "History of Champaign County, Illinois with Illustrations," 1878

ABEL HARWOOD

Men of New England birth and ideas have exercised a patent influence in
developing and building up the great West. They have exemplified in a
marked degree the true Anglo-Saxon traits of aggressiveness, courage and
tenacity. Immediately after the Revolution the pioneer New Englanders found
their way to central and western New York, and founded the civilization of
the great state of Ohio. The tide flowed steadily onward as state after
state was carved out of the Northwestern Territory, carrying every where
with it New England habits of industry and thrift, and New England ideas of
liberal education and advanced thought on political and religious
questions. Of such lineage was Abel HARWOOD, after whom Harwood township in
the northern part of the county received its name. He is now a resident of
the city of Champaign, was formerly a large land owner in this and
neighboring counties, and was a member of the convention which gave us the
present Constitution of Illinois.

The history of the Harwood family in America dates back to an early period
in the history of New England, when three brothers of that name emigrated
from England. From these three brothers the family has spread to different
parts of the United States, and embraces many members. The grandfather of
the subject of this sketch, Peter HARWOOD, was an officer with the rank of
major in the army of the colonists during the Revolutionary war. He
commanded a portion of the Massachusetts troops, and did good service in
the struggle of the colonists for their independence; his oldest son, whose
name was also Peter HARWOOD, served likewise in this war, though he was
only a boy of eighteen when peace was declared. Jonas HARWOOD, the father
of the subject of this biography, was a farmer at North Brookfield in
Worcester county, Massachusetts, and married Lucretia WINSLOW, a direct
descendant of the Winslows who were prominent in the early Puritan history
of Massachusetts. His marriage was productive of eight children, four sons
and four daughters. The fourth child was Abel Harwood.

He was born at North Brookfield, Worcester county, Massachusetts, on the
23d of November, 1814. His father's house was his home until he attained
the estate of manhood. He acquired a thorough education with the assistance
of his father, but partly by his own efforts. He attended school at
Westminster and Leicester, Massachusetts; but principally obtained his
preparatory education at Wilbraham Academy, then as now one of the best
schools in New England. He taught school and thus obtained a considerable
part of the means for his education. In the year 1836 he entered Amherst
college, from which he graduated in 1841. Soon after his graduation, in
August, 1841, he married Mary D. BATCHELLER of North Brookfield, the
daughter of Tyler BATCHELLER, a prominent business man of Boston, senior
member of the largest shoe manufacturing establishment then in existence.

Previous to his graduation from college Mr. Harwood had imbibed the idea of
going west, and in the summer of 1841 secured an engagement to take charge
of a school at Edwardsville in this state. His arrangements were all made
to leave Massachusetts with his wife when he was informed that an
alteration had been made in the plans of those in control of the school,
and that it had been determined to employ two teachers instead of one. This
arrangement was little to Mr. Harwood's satisfaction, but so thoroughly was
his mind infused with the resolution of beginning life in the western
country, that he decided to proceed to St. Louis and if possible obtain a
position as teacher in that city. While on his way he stopped at
Louisville, Kentucky, and from there visited some acquaintances in Shelby
county, of that state. While in Shelby county he consented to take charge
of a country academy for six months, but succeeding beyond his
expectations, he remained for one year; but desiring to locate in some
city, in 1842 he went to Lexington with the purpose of opening a school in
that city. He was totally without friends and acquaintances, and started a
school for boys under very disadvantageous circumstances, but subsequently
established a female school which he taught with great success and
popularity, his experience as a teacher among the select schools of New
England, and his natural qualifications well fitting him for the position
he occupied.

On coming west one of his plans had been to embark in the shoe business at
a date as early as possible, and accordingly in the 1843 he opened a shoe
store at Lexington. This business he carried on at Lexington for nine years
with constantly increasing success, his sales the last year he had charge
of the store amounting to six times what they had been the first year of
its establishment. His straightforward method of doing business and his
personal deportment won for him friends and acquaintances, while not the
least among the elements which contributed to his success were the wise
counsels and generous sympathy of a wife who had left a home of luxury in
Massachusetts to share the fate of a man without fortune, but whose
ultimate prosperity she never doubted.

In the year 1852 Mr. Harwood made a visit to Illinois. The Illinois Central
railroad was then being surveyed, and great expectations were entertained
in regard to the future value of the prairie lands which spread out through
central Illinois, wild and uncultivated, but wanting only the hand of the
husbandman to teem with abundant harvests. He became convinced that on the
building of railroads the country would develop rapidly and that
investments made in these lands would be largely remunerative in the
future. He hesitated to leave Lexington, a delightful city as a place of
residence, where his social and business relations were the most pleasant
and agreeable. His views on the subject of slavery, favoring gradual
emancipation, were not different from those then entertained by leading
Kentucky Whigs, and prominent citizens of Lexington. These circumstances
made him unwilling to leave Kentucky; but on his return to Lexington he
found an old neighbor of his who was anxious to purchase his stock of
goods, and on consultation with his wife the conclusion was reached that it
would be better to have their children grow to maturity in a free state,
even though it should be at the expense of their present social relations
and agreeable home at Lexington.

Accordingly he sold his store and in the fall of 1852 he made entries of
between two and three thousand acres of land in McLean, Piatt and Champaign
counties. In the early part of the year 1853 he moved with his family to
Bloomington, Illinois, and the same year opened in that town in partnership
with his former clerk a shoe store. In this store Mr. Harwood was
interested till 1859, during which period it was as successful as had been
the one Lexington. His principal business, however, was attending to his
tracts of land which were improved under his personal supervision. He lent
himself to this work with energy, and improved in all four thousand acres.
In the year 1866 he moved on an improved farm in Newcomb township,
Champaign county, for the purpose of setting out hedges and making other
improvements, after which he intended to return to Bloomington. But in the
spring of 1870, he removed instead to the city of Champaign, purchasing a
large brick residence---one of the finest ornaments to the southern part of
the city. He has since disposed of all his lands in this county; he still
owns farm property in McLean and Douglas counties, but only a small amount
in comparison with his former possessions.

The death of his first wife occurred in the year 1856. His second marriage
took place in 1858 to Isabella D. BOYD. She was born in Flemingsburg,
Fleming county, Kentucky. Her father, Col. W. P. BOYD, for a number of
years was a member of the Kentucky senate, removed to Illinois in 1857,
practiced law in Bloomington, removed to Arcola, in Douglas county, in
1866, and died at that place in the spring of 1867. Mr Harwood has had
eleven children; six by his first marriage, of whom five are living, and
five by his second marriage, of whom one is living. Their names are Mary
M., the wife of George W. Harwood of Champaign; Lucretia; Emma L., who
married W. O. Cady of Bloomington; Ellen A., the wife of J. C. Stevenson of
Bloomington; Ida E. residing at the same place, and Bella S. In looking
back over his past life which, perhaps as much as to any man, has brought a
high degree of domestic happiness, Mr. Harwood is sensible not only of the
hearty sympathy and cooperation he has received from those closest to him
in the family circle, but realizes the fact that his marriage while a young
man without means, instead of resulting unfavorably to his success, has
proved to be of material benefit in stimulating him to exertion and
promoting his prosperity.

For two terms he was a member of the Board of Supervisors from Newcomb
township, and the second year he served was chairman of the Board. He was
chosen a member from the fortieth district, comprising the counties of
Champaign, Piatt, Moultrie and Macon, of the convention of 1869 and 1870,
which framed the present constitution of the state of Illinois. As a member
of the convention he favored the plan of county representation, by which
each county should elect its own representatives and any county not having
a population equal to the ratio of representation should have at least one
member. His views on this subject met with the hearty concurrence of a
great number of members, and the measure was carried in the convention by a
very large majority; but the committee who framed the ticket for the
popular vote, favoring minority representation, so arranged the ticket as
to make minority representation conspicuous and leave county representation
out of sight. Hence on the vote being taken, the incorporation of this
principle in the constitution failed, and minority representation was
adopted.

He strongly supported incorporating in the constitution the "iron oath," to
be administered to members of the General Assembly, in which they were
required to swear that their election had not been influenced by any
promise or bribe, and that they would not accept any valuable thing from
any corporation, company or person for giving or withholding any vote or
performing any act of legislative duty. In an able speech before the
convention he claimed that this oath would purify legislation and put an
end to the corruption which was then known as only too common in the halls
of legislation.

On the question of the taxation of railroads he opposed with great
earnestness the system by which the counties along the line of the Illinois
Central railroad were robbed of their just proportion of income from
taxation of railroad lands and stock within their limits, this or its
equivalent being wrongfully paid from the gross income of the road into the
state treasury. He ably advocated some equitable method by which the
counties along the line of the road should be relieved from this great
injustice. Toward the close of its sessions he addressed the convention on
the subject of the Bible in the public schools. He claimed that the
question was not whether the Bible should be forced into the schools but
whether it should be forced out. Both as a book of history and a book of
divine instruction it is the most important of all books, and that it
should be forever free to the use of all whether in the family, public
school or Christian church, was a matter of the highest consideration. He
simply desired that it should be left free in the hands of all persons, and
all institutions, for them to use it, or not to use it, as they might see
proper; and that there should be no power in the state, on the part of
legislatures or school officers, ever to deprive the people of this
privilege. Its exclusion in foreign countries had resulted in keeping the
masses of the people in ignorance, darkness, superstition and degradation.
Some provision should be inserted in the constitution that should secure
the free use of the Bible permanently to the people. He did not desire to
interfere with the belief or disbelief of any person, but in view of the
vast emigration to this country of those who are unfriendly to the general
use of the Bible, and in consideration of the bold efforts which had been
recently made to exclude it from the schools, he thought it wise that some
express provision should be made in the organic law of the state by which
its free use should be secured to all men and their children for all time
to come.

In the early part of his life Mr. Harwood was a member of the old Whig
organization, but on the rise of the slavery agitation promptly arrayed
himself on the side of the party of freedom. Even while a resident of
Kentucky he was an opponent of slavery, and favored its abolition by
gradual emancipation or in any way consistent with the constitution and
laws of the country; and he has supported the principles of the Republican
party from its earliest formation to the present time. He became connected
with the Congregational church while in Massachusetts, and in Lexington,
Kentucky, united with the Presbyterian denomination of which he has since
been a member. He began life without capital; he borrowed the money which
brought himself and a wife, accustomed to affluence, from Massachusetts to
Kentucky, and his subsequent prosperity has depended not on the financial
aid he received from others, but on his own energy and business
qualifications. His life teaches an important lesson of the success which
may be gained by honest industry, prudent investments, careful business
management and upright and honorable conduct.


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