History of Macon Co Illinois, 1880 RUFUS CROSSMAN This gentleman, one of the representative farmers of Hickory Point township, is a native of the state of New York. He was born in the town of Cato, Cayuga county, on the third of June, 1834. His grand father had come from Massachusetts and made his home in central New York when it was almost an entire wilderness and gave little promise of developing into the populous country it has since become. Asa Crossman, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in the town of Elbridge, Onondaga county, New York. He married Sarah Baker, a native of the state of Vermont. Mr. Crossman's maternal grand mother died at the advanced age of ninety-nine years. When he was a child she was accustomed to relate to him many incidents of the oden times. She had lived in New England during the Revolutionary war and heard the first gun fired which ushered in that momentous struggle. She was a woman of great intelligence and force of character. Mr. Crossman's father was a farmer. He lived on a f! arm in Cayuga county till his death. He was a good citizen, a deacon in the Baptist church, and a man of benevolent and charitable disposition. Rufus Crossman was raised in Cayuga county. The neighborhood in which he lived had good schools and afforded excellent educational advantages. For two or three terms he attended an academy at Jordan, New York. He taught school one winter in the town of Conquest, Cayuga county. In the fall of 1859 he went to Michigan. During the winter of 1859-60 he taught school at Ann Arbor, and then purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land, covered with heavy timber, and entirely unimproved, near Lansing. In 1860 he came to Illinois to teach school, and thus obtained the money with which to meet the payments on this land. He arrived in Decatur on the first of December, 1860, spent the winter in the vicinity, and the next spring began teaching a select school at Decatur. He subsequently worked on a farm in Hickory Point township, and then secured the school in the Mound district, three miles north of Decatur. His administration as a teacher proved so satisfactory that he taught this scho! ol six winters in succession. He also had charge of the school at Forsythe two terms, of the Hickory Point school one term, and also taught another term at one of the districts in the township, so that altogether he had had an extended experience as a teacher. On the first of January, 1863, he married Miss Mary Ellen Muinch, daughter of Jacob Muinch and his wife Frances, whose maiden name was Brett. Her father was from Pennsylvania and her mother from Virginia. The same year he went to farming on his present farm. He afterward purchased forty acres of land north of Forsythe, and lived there several years. In 1878 he moved back to the farm on which he now lives. He has three children, Frances Annetta, McEthelbert, and Harriet Ann. The farm which Mr. Crossman occupies is one of the oldest settled in the township. It is composed of one hundred and twenty acres. The buildings occupy a beautiful situation. Mr. Crossman has carried on farming operations with great exactness and atte! ntion to detals. Since he has had possession of the farm he has im ditching. The farm is now in an excellent condition, and in a shape in which it can be successfully and remuneratively handled. It is well adapted for a stock farm, being provided with fine springs and never-failing water running in close proximity to the buildings. In politics he has always been a republican. In 1860 he voted for Lincoln for President. He is a thorough believer in the doctrines of the republican party, considers that it has done much for the country, and that it deserves well of the people. Typed by Pat Hageman hageman@inx.net ------------------------------------------------------------ USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ------------------------------------------------------------ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Pat Hageman (© 1997 Pat Hageman)