Jasper County IL Archives Biographies.....Palmer, Osiah 1837 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 28, 2011, 1:39 pm

Source: See below
Author: Lake City Publishing Co.

OSIAH PALMER, one of the leading business men of Granville Township, Jasper
County, residing on section 28, is the proprietor of a large sawmill. This is
one of the most important industries of the community. The owner is a native of
Ohio, having been born near Canton, Stark County, June 17, 1837, and is a son of
Jonathan and Rebecca Palmer. His father was born in Maryland and was of English
descent. His death occurred in 1856, and his wife, who survived him a number of
years, passed away in 1880. Of their six children, the eldest died in infancy;
Osiah is the second in order of birth; John A. resides in Plymouth, Ind.;
Catherine is the wife of Peter Braucher, of Havana, N. Dak.; Samuel is a planter
of Madison, Ala.; and Jonathan died in 1891.

  Mr. Palmer, whose name heads this record, received such educational advantages
as the district schools afforded, and upon bis father's farm was reared to
manhood. He remained with his parents until 1859, when with an ox-team he went
to Pike's Peak. On the 12th of March, he left Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., and on the
24th of May reached the present site of Denver, but the city then consisted of
only a few tents and probably one or two sod houses. Mr. Palmer saw Horace
Greeley while there. He began prospecting and remained in that locality for
about a year, when he and two companions bought lumber at the cost of $15 per
hundred feet, built a boat and sailed down the Platte River to Plattsmouth,
Neb., a distance of one thousand miles, reaching the end of their journey ten
days after leaving Denver.

  Later Mr. Palmer worked his way back to Ohio, where he engaged in farming and
in cutting cord wood for thirty-one cents per cord, but, the war having broken
out, he enlisted November 17, 1861, and was mustered into service at Camp
Dennison as a private in the Third Ohio Independent Battery. His first active
engagement was at Shiloh, and later be participated in the battles of Corinth,
Raymond, Clinton, Jackson, Champion Hills and the siege of Vicksburg, where for
forty-two days ho was under fire. He then took part in the battles of Kenesaw
Mountain, Atlanta and Nashville, after which he went to Ft. Donelson, where he
heard the news of President Lincoln's assassination. He was mustered out as
Sergeant in Cleveland, Ohio, in August, 1865.

  Returning to his home in the Buckeye State, Mr. Palmer purchased an interest
in a grocery, but it was soon afterwards burned, and in 1866 he went to
Plymouth, where he carried on a bakery establishment until 1870. He then sold
out and went to Madison County, Ala., where he engaged in raising cotton for
three years, and in 1873 returned to Princeton, Ind. There he again carried on a
bakery and restaurant, and subsequently was proprietor of a large hotel in that
place, where he did business until May, 1886, when he traded his hotel for his
sawmill and about two hundred acres of land. He now owns two hundred and
eighty-five acres of land and has turned out in one year two million feet of
lumber. He recently purchased a large mill in Scott County, Mo., and five
hundred acres of good timberland. He also carries on farming to a limited extent.

  In 1865, Mr. Palmer married Miss Levina Kepler, and unto them were born three
children: Arthur, Jennie, and one who died in infancy. In 1875 Mr. Palmer was
again married, his second union being with Miss Ella Mossier, by whom he has
nine children, as follows: Mary, Maggie, Susan, Laura, Jessie, Fred, James, Lena
F. and Ruth.

  Mr. Palmer is a man of excellent business ability, and although he started out
in life a poor boy, he has steadily worked his way upward, overcoming the
obstacles and difficulties in his path by a determined will and enterprise. He
is now at the head of a large and paying business, and he may feel justly proud
of his success, which has been achieved by his own well-directed efforts. In
politics he is a Democrat, and socially a member of the Masonic fraternity and
the Grand Army of the Republic. Such a life as he has led has not only won him
prosperity, but has gained him the confidence and esteem of all with whom he has
been brought in contact.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

Portrait and Biographical Record of Effingham, Jasper and Richland Counties
Chicago: Lake City Publishing Co.
1893


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