JOSEPH W. EMERY Joseph W. Emery, one of the old residents of Austin township in Macon Co is a native of Canterbury, Merrimac county, New Hampshire, and was born on the fifteenth of January, 1813. The Emery family, which was of English origin, settled at an early period at West Newbury, Massachusetts. The old homestead--home of the early members of the family--has been in the possession of the Emerys for several generations. Josiah Emery, the grandfather of the subject of this biography, moved from Massachusetts to New Hampshire, and settled in the town of Sanbornton, now Tilden. Nathan Emery, Mr. Emery's father, was born and raised in Sanbornton. He married Betsy McCrillis, who was of Scotch- Irish descent, and a native of Canterbury. Both the Emery and McCrillis families have been remarkable for their vigor and long life. They show a noticeable freedom from disease, and the tendency towards longevity has been marked for several generations. Among the ancestors many instances of death at ! an a! dvanced age have occurred; very few passed away before reaching seventy years. Joseph W. Emery was the ninth of a family of sixteen children, of whom fourteen grew to maturity, and thirteen married. His father owned a farm, and was a carpenter by trade. He was a man of considerable intelligence, was well versed in surveying and civil engineering, and was very fond of reading--a habit which he transmitted to most of his children. His children all attained good substantial English educations. He believed in education, and gave his children ample opportunity to attend school. Mr. Emery has one brother, Josiah, who graduated at Union College, New York, and is now engaged in the practice of the law at Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Another brother came to Illinois, and is editor of the Peoria Transcript; another brother settled in Indiana, and the others remained in New England. Mr. Emery made that part of New Hampshire in which he was born his home till he was seventeen. In the year 1835, he left home and went to Rhode Island and found employment on the canal, running from Providence to Worcester, Massachusetts. He subsequently worked at Worcester. In the month of February, 1840, he was married at Upton, Worcester county, Massachusetts, to Francis R. Leland, a member of an old New England family. After he was married he engaged in farming at Upton, and resided there till 1850, when he moved back to Canterbury, New Hampshire. He formed a partnership with his brother, Nathan, and undertook urnning a saw-mill at Canterbury, which he carried on six years. His first wife died on the seventeenth of September, 1853. Frances A. Sanborn, a native of Sanbornton, New Hampshire, became his second wife on the sixteenth of February, 1854. She was a daughter of Samuel D. Sanborn. Her ancestors had settled there at an early period, and the town received its name in their honor. The saw-mill business not proving renumerative, he determined to emigrate to t! he W! est. Illinois was at that time attracting settlers by the thousand from the Eastern states. Many purchased land from Illinois Central Railroad company. In the fall of 1866, he reached Macon county and bought one hundred and sixty acres of railroad land, the same track on which he now lives, in section eight of Austin township. After spending the winter at Clinton, he brought his family to the township the following spring. Few settlements had at that time been made. Almost the entire township was unoccupied prairie land, and he had little expectation that it would ever reach its present state of cultivation and improvement. There is now only one other person besides himself living in the township, who was the head of a family, at the time he took up his residence in it. He has had eleven children, of whom four are now living; Ellen, Betsy, Charles and Clarence. The three oldest are by his first, and the last by his second marriage. He has taken an active interest in politics, and has filled several offices in the township. He was originally a whig, and supported that party in opposition to the democracy. He was one of the first to ally himself with the republican organization, of which he has since been a steadfast supporter. For four years he served as treasurer of Austin township, and has also filled the office of assessor four time. He is a man of positive convictions. He is now one of the oldest citizens of the township, and is well-known to the older settlers of Macon county. History of Macon Co., Illinois, 1880, p. 228 Transcribed by Pat Hageman ------------------------------------------------------------ USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. 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