Atwood Family History, Marshall County, Illinois Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives Copyright 2000 Sandra K Enkey PLATTSMOUTH, NEBRASKA April 11, 1900 BY: William Atwood (Born December 8, 1817) The following is part of William Atwood's family history, commencing January 22, 1869, thirty-two years after his father Timothy died, without any preparation beforehand by him or anyone else, therefore it will not be as full as I would desire. My object in writing this history is to show the rising generation how much better they are situated to make a living than their forefathers were and how hard their forefathers labored to make an honest living which they did and helped to prepare this country for civil and religious liberty, also to clear up the wilderness and prepare it for the welfare and happiness of the rising generation. The reader will keep in mind that our forefathers who came over from the old country were mostly poor people, so far as money was considered, but strong in body and mind and that many of them, like my grandfather, Timothy Atwood, had served in the Revolutionary War and got no bounty or pension. My grandparents, (Timothy Atood and Sarah Curtis (DAR Patriot Index)) like many other pioneers, had to settle among the Indians and lived very poor with nothing but their hands to dig their living out of the earth. In heavy timbered country, it is hard for the people of this day and age of the world to realize the difference between then and now. No railroads, no steamboats or steam power of any kind. The mail was carried on horseback or wagons, and slow and far between, with considerable expense. The lowest postage on a letter was twenty-five cents, consequently, relatives did not write very often nor visit far from home, for they had enough to do to make a bare living and that a cheap kind. Tradition says the Atwood family to which my father belonged came over on the Mayflower and settled at Cape Cod. Some of them died and were buried there. Others scattered with the emigrants through the New England states, some at Boston, some at Hartford, Connecticut. My great- grandfather, Jedediah Atwood, was born in Massachusetts in 1718 and died at Hartford, Washington County, New York, December, 1810. His son, my grandfather, Timothy Atwood, was born in Hartford, Connecticut, September 2, 1748. He married Sarah Converse (or Curtis) July 11, 1771. She was born July 7, 1752, and died in Hartford, New York, March 14, 1786, aged thirty-three years. They lived in Vermont a part of their lives. My father was her youngest son. Her eldest chid, Esther Atwood, was born in one of the New England states, June 16, 1772, and married a Mr. Towsley. Second child, Joel Atwood, born November 9, 1775, took the occupation of a sailor, went to sea and that was the last account we have of him. Third child, Lydia Atwood, was born August 8, 1777, married a Mr. Rowland, a gunsmith. Fourth child, my Uncle Aaron Atwood, born December 30, 1779. Fifth child, my father Timothy Atwood, Jr., born in Dutchess County, New York, December 24, 1782. My grandfather Timothy Atwood, Sr. married his second wife, Grace Pickett. Time not known to me. Her oldest child, Polly Atwood, was born in Hartford, New York, February 23, 1791. She married Anthony Fosdick, had no children. She died in Steuben County, New York, March 2, 1840. Second child, Seleh Atwood, born in Hartford, New York, May 28, 1794. He lived in western New York on a farm. Third child, Joseph Atwood born in Hartford, Washington County, New York, August 8, 1797, and married Miss Louisa Davis. She was born February 3, 1800. They raised a family of four children. He died March 14, 1850, aged 53 years. His wife died there, June 21, 1858. Sally Atwood was born in Hartford, New York, August 7, 1802, married Joel Fosdick. She died in Allegany County, New York, April 21, 1844. Grandfather Timothy Atwood died in Hartford, New York, April 24, 1837. Grandmother Grace Atwood died in Hartford, New York, January 15, 1840. Those of my father's brothers and sisters that I know of were very respectable people and religious and industrious, hardworking people. Generally stout and healthy; mostly farmers. My grandfather, Timothy Atwood, Sr., was a cabinet maker and farmer. Uncle Aaron's family were a very nice, respectable people. They lived in Erie County, New York. In 1835, the children were Joel, Rufus, who was a Presbyterian preacher, Sally, Lydia, Esther, and Lilis. My father and mother, with five younger children, visited them on our way from New York to Illinois. It was the last we heard of them, which was the spring of 1835. Uncle Joseph was born and married and lived on the farm at Hartford, New York (that is where his father lived and died) all his life. Raised a family of four children, namely, William, Rufus, Betsey, and Harriet. They all settled in that township for a number of years. Rufus and William married sisters, Misses Mann, and raised families in Washington County, New York. Rufus and wife and one daughter lives on the old home farm (that his grandfather and father died on) at the present writing. William lost his wife there, January 26, 1899. He went from there to Westport, New York, and lives with one of this sons at this writing. William was born June 24, 1821, and Rufus was born April 4, 1823. Rufus's eldest son, Milo, lives at Hartford, New York, at this writing. His second son ---- is in Newburg, New Jersey. He is superintendent of a school of 750 pupils. His other two sons, Orvil, 34 years old, and Warren, 40 years old, live at Bay Shore, Michigan, and run a store there. Lucinda, 36 years old, lives with her parents. I never saw any of Uncle Joseph's family, but have corresponded with William and Rufus. My father, Timothy Atwood, Jr., was born in Dutchess County, New York, December 24, 1782. He married Nancy Fosdick, April 15, 1802. She was born April 1, 1785 in the town of Hartford, New York. They lived there awhile, then moved to Vermont a few years, then went back to Hartford, New York and lived there until the winter of 1814, when they moved to the town of Dansville, Steuben County, New York. They moved five children and had five more in Steuben County, New York. They had five boys and five girls live to get their growth. Two sons and two daughters married in New York, and one son, Cyrus Atwood, the fifth child, died and was buried in Steuben County, New York. When Father and Mother moved to Steuben County, New York, the land was covered with heavy timber, standing as thick as it could grow, and the land was full of stones also. Father bought 207 acres of land on time at 7% interest. Of course, the timber had to be cut and burned before they could raise any grain or vegetables to live on. Father was teaching a school near home when Mother and the five older children moved from Hartford to Dansville. There was two of their neighbors moved with them. My oldest brother was ten years old when he drove an ox team 300 miles in the winter with a sled to haul the household goods and family. Then he helped Mother until Father's school closed, when Father joined them. They built a log house and peeled the bark from the hemlock trees to cover it. They went to cutting off the timber, which was a slow job, could only clear off a small piece in a year. Father had to go away from home and teach school to get money to buy the necessaries of life until they could raise something to live upon while Mother and the children did what they could at home. They made sugar from the sap of the maple trees. As soon as they could raise flax, Mother would work it into clothing for her family, and as soon as they could raise sheep, she made wool into clothing for her family, and as soon as the two oldest daughters were large enough, they had to help in every way they could to make a living. Father was a good and correct surveyor and surveyed the lands and roads around there for several counties, as they had no county surveyor in that state, which took him away from home a good deal and brought him some money, but they pay for all kinds of labor was small in those days, in comparison to the pay in later years. All kind of labor was cheap, and money very had to get. It was several years before there was settlement enough t support a school in the neighborhood where we lived; consequently, the older children got but little schooling, only in the school of hard labor. They were well drilled in that. The land there was very poor and hilly in comparison to the prairie soil of Illinois. It was full of stone as well as roots of trees, but the western states were not known then, only as the abode of Indians and wild animals. There were Indians and wild animals in western New York when our folks moved there. They were as plenty as white people, and they dealt with them in exchanging goods, meat for meal, but Mother was afraid of them when Father was not there with her. The white people lived on cheap food, and made their own clothing, and enjoyed their lives as well as the people do now. They married for love and worked for love. Divorces were seldom known in those days. My father and mother lived there 21 years. Cleared up a large farm for that place, built a large and nice frame house, and two frame barns, raised a good orchard, fenced the land in small fields. They cut their grain with hand sickles or reap hooks. Threshed with hand flails. A stout man could thresh six or eight bushels of good wheat in a day. They carried their wheat and corn to a grist mill and gave one tenth for grinding. My father served in the Commissary Department of the War of 1812, and held various public offices of importance. Was an official member of the Baptist Church. Furnished land to build a church edifice and done more than any of his neighbors in building and supporting the church and schools. He was a Royal Arch Mason, and a man of good Christian principles. A strict observer of the Sabbath and had the confidence of all who knew him. Mother was also a member of the Baptist Church, and they believed in an experimental religion. After Father's family had lived in western New York a number of years, Mother's father and mother, William Fosdick and Irene Carrington and all of her brothers and sisters except one, William, moved west to be near our folks. After that, when my father moved to Illinois, they followed him there (those that were left). After Father heard of the good cheap land in Illinois, and Congress had passed a law to allow men to go and settle on Government lands and gain a pre-emption in to years without paying until the end of two years, only paying $1.25 per acre, he sold his farm in New York and moved to Illinois. After selling his old farm he bought of Mr. Brewer, who had been to Illinois and saw the land, 640 acres of prairie called Soldiers Rights, a tax title which was good in the courts of the State of Illinois. Paid about 76 cents per acre, in Putman County then, but after the county was divided and that part called Marshall County, Illinois. Illinois then was the far-off West and no railroads in the western states. Very few wagon roads, no good roads. He concluded to ship his good and family by water from Buffalo to Cleveland on Lake Erie, and from there down the canal and Ohio River, and up the Illinois River. He with the wife and five children left for Illinois on the first day of April, 1835. The children were Timothy, 20 years old; William, 17 years old; Nancy, 15 years old; Sally, 13 years old; Electa, 11 years old. None of the five had ever seen a city or a boat. When we got to Buffalo, New York, it was a wonder of wonders to see such nice houses and vessels on the Lake. The ice was not out of the Lake and Father took his team and family twenty miles into Erie County, New York, to visit his brother's family, Aaron Atwood. It was the first and only time that we children ever saw that family. Brother Timothy and I went back to Buffalo to accompany the goods to Cleveland, Ohio. Father took Mother and the three girls to Dunkirk, where the ice was out. Brother and I got into a schooner at Buffalo with the goods and when we were away out of sight of land, there came a heavy wind and rain that made the best sailor tremble. We were alarmed and wished to be on land again. When we all got to Cleveland, Father was advised to ship to Chicago, so he loaded his goods on a schooner, and the family and the team on a steam boat. The Captain of the steamboat agreed to carry us to Chicago as soon as the schooner would get there, but when he got to Detroit, Michigan, he turned back and left us there. There was no regular line of boats then, and we could not tell when another would go through, so Father took his team and wagon and started by land, went through Michigan and Indiana and the country was new and people poor. We soon came to where it was hard to get anything to eat or food for our horses. There were no bridges over the small streams, and many places the family walked to favor the horses, for they got very tired, living poor and working hard. Sometimes we had to camp out to sleep, but we had no cooking utensils. We first struck the Illinois River at Joliet and then went to Hennipen, the county seat of Putman County, to learn where the land was that Father bought. We then followed down the river thirty-five miles before we could get across the river, and that was seven miles too far south for our land. We stopped in Peoria County, Illinois, with a man named George Siglar. His wife's first name was Emeril Root. My brother Timothy, after two years, married her sister, Alma Root. The family stayed there awhile. Father hunted his land, found it to be rich, black soil and smooth, nice prairie, covered with nice grass for feed, but our goods were over two hundred miles away and no roads and the land was flat and wet. Father sent brother Timothy with the team to Chicago for one large box of goods that had $1200 of silver and gold in it, as the eastern paper money would not buy land in Illinois. Timothy got that box a part of the way, there was high water and he could not cross the (Little) Vermillion River with the team. He took the money out of the box and wrapped it in a horse blanket and put it in a grain sack, and got into a canoe, led one horse over and left one horse sick and wagon and goods. He then went to Illinois River on the east side opposite where Henry is now. The water was over the bottom so that the horse had to swim a part of the way before he got to the bank of the river. Timothy could not swim and the horse nearly drowned, but they got through and over the river. He was wet, his sack of money was wet, and when asked he passed it as nails. He stopped overnight with a ferryman; the next day, he got back to the family, but had no goods with him. He waited awhile and went again, but had to leave the box of goods on the bank of the Illinois River, to have it shipped down the river, and it lay out for several weeks before we got it. The box was dropped into Lake Erie at Cleveland, Ohio, by the carelessness of the boatman in loading on a got. It had Father's desk in, with the best books, and bedding and clothing were in it. They were badly damaged by mildew and still not half of the goods were in the box. The balance lay in the warehouse in Chicago until October, when Father sent his youngest son, William, seventeen years old, with two yoke of oxen to get the balance of the goods and a few of brother Hiram's and Samuel Haynes' that they shipped, and they all went all the way by land on dry land. I drove two pair of oxen wagon hard and got the goods home with considerable trouble, by getting stalled in the mud at various times. Chicago then, October, 1835, was a small, little town, no hotels, nor lodging places for the teamsters that went there for goods; I had to sleep in my wagon, the water nearly shoe-top deep for nine miles out to the first dry land, but I succeeded in getting the long-lost goods. Father had to buy some goods and build a log house on a piece of Government land near his military land, to gain a pre-emption, and there was some timber there too. The land was not in market, but people built on the land and represented each other's claims where they proved to be permanent settlers. The next trouble was sickness, as that country was subject to fever and agues. The climate and water was different from that in New York. All eastern people got sick with fevers and agues, Mother and Sister were first to get sick. We all had to come to it, but those who had ague said we would wear it out, but it wore many people out. Some died, some went back, but we were there to stay and die. Brother Joel, brother Hiram and brother-in-law Samuel Haynes followed us to Illinois in early fall. Then Father, brother Timothy and myself went to work in earnest to build houses, make rails, as we were near the river timber and we could borrow timber of Uncle Sam on the Government land, as it was not in market yet. We worked hard, early and late, all winter, and it was a cold winter, too. Some of the time the snow was deep, we took a cold lunch for dinner, went from two to three miles to work. By the next summer, we had enough rails to fence 320 acres in one field. We fenced one half of the military land Father bought in New York. We built one house on the corner of four quarters section of land to gain a pre-emption. It was called "pre- emption house and the big field" by all of the neighbors for several years. In the spring of 1837, brother- in-law Allen Hunter moved to Illinois and into the pre-emption house with his family. The year of 1836, we broke some prairie and raised some sod corn. My father helped lay the worn fence around the big field, also fenced and raised a good crop of corn on forty acres of his home farm or pre-emption claim. In the summer of 1837, brother Timothy and myself and three of the younger sisters lived at home with our father and mother. Father was sick with a bilious fever. It ran nine days and turned to typhus and ran nine days more, then he died on the 6th of September, aged 55 years, 8 months and 18 days. He was buried in the Root burying ground in Peoria County, Illinois, three miles west of Chilicothe, and his remains lay there until September 18, 1866, 29 years and 11 days, when his remains were removed to the new cemetery, close to the farm he first settled on in Marshall County, Illinois, which was then placed by the side of his companion in life. His bones were sound and hair fast to the skull, and it had grown four or five inches while lying underground, 29 years, as it was six inches long. Father made a will before he died and deeded 80 acres of the half section that was fenced to Samuel Haynes and brother Hiram, brother Timothy and myself. The balance of Father's military land was left to be divided, as brother Joel and gone away and we did not know whether or not he was alive. Father left the homestead to Mother, with sufficient property for her maintenance through life, with the design of keeping me and the three younger sisters with her. Mother and brother Timothy acted as executors of the will. A public inquiry was made for brother Joel and he learned of his father's death and came home. There was a satisfactory arrangement made to let brother Joel have 160 acres of good prairie land and 40 acres of good timber land that Father left so that he could make a good farm. My brother-in-law, Allen Hunter, persuaded Mother by good promise to keep her a lady without work, for her property. He told her that I was too young to depend on to run the farm place, etc., until Mother sold her estate to Allen Hunter for her maintenance, and she took Allen Hunter into her house and gave him possession of the farm and personal property, unfortunately for her and all of the family. She soon found that she could not live with him and she left him and lived around with her other children, changing from place to place until 1860 or the year of 1860. After I had built a frame house, she concluded to make her home with me. She had a hard spell of sickness and her mind became delirious. We were in hopes as her health got better, her mind would get all right again, but it did not, growing worse by degrees, and still continued to grow worse. By the advice of her own brothers and neighbors and the request of her children, I was legally appointed her guardian and built an extra room to my house for her, keeping her until her death. She died of erysipelas at my house. I stood by her when she closed her own eyes for the last time and seemed to fall asleep, except she stopped breathing. I felt for her pulse, but was none. She never stirred a limb or muscle but lay perfectly still. Sister Olivia and brother Hiram and his son, T.W. Atwood, was there at the time. Elder Stoddard, who belonged to the same church, preached the funeral. Her children were all at her funeral that were left. She died at 4 o'clock p.m. on the 22nd day of August, 1866, aged 81 years, 4 months and 21 days. She was buried in our new cemetery that I had done the most in starting of anyone and on one of my lots, after which Father's remains were removed and placed at her right-hand side on the same lot. After that, I bought a monument and set it up at the head of their graves. After that, brother Joel died and was buried on the left-hand side of his mother and his name engraved on the same monument. After that, we buried Mary C. Stone on the left-hand side of brother Joel's grave, all in the same lot number 51 on the plot in Steuben cemetery in the town of Steuben, Marshall County, Illinois. Lot number 70 has the grave of our first-born son, also our fourth son, Myron Rhylander Atwood. My oldest brother, Joel Atwood, was born in the town of Sheldon, Vermont, September 23, 1804. When he was ten years old he drove an ox team 300 miles in the winter time for a sled load of goods and family, there was Mother and five children. He helped to chop the timber and clear up a farm when the country was new, and no schools or church near, of course, his education was light except in the school of hard labor. He chopped four trees that were as thick in diameter as he was long, over five feet and six inches in diameter. He toiled hard through life, had two different wives but no children. He was a naturally a liberal hearted man, giving to the support of churches and charities, but unfortunate in laying up property. He sold the farm which he had improved and lived on several years that was the land Father left him in Illinois. He and his wife agreed to divide up and quit, he took his part and went to Kansas City where he was robbed of all he had. He came back to his brothers for support through life. He died August 14, 1867 and was buried by the side of his mother and his name is inscribed on the same monument. Brother Hiram Atwood was born June 6, 1810 in Hartford, New York. He also helped to clear up a timber farm. He had a better opportunity for schools and education than his older brother, when he got his growth he wanted to go to a ball of which he was appointed one of the managers, and he asked his father about it, and his father gave him a choice, either to have some money and attend the ball or go to grammar school that was taught by lectures, he chose the grammar school, which done him more good and which gave him a good start for a man. It pleased his father very much and the neighbors said that he made a wise choice. Father taught him the art of surveying also. He was the only son to learn that art. He married Sarah Maria Wallace in Steuben County, New York, April 18, 1835, and brought her to Illinois in the fall of the same year. She had one son, Timothy Wallace Atwood, who was born September 6, 1836. His mother died March 11, 1839, aged 24 years, 1 month and 18 days. She was buried in the Root cemetery, Peoria County, Illinois. When the first settlers came to Illinois, they generally had considerable sickness, especially those that came from the state of New York. Brother Hiram was sick a long time and concluded that he never would have good health in Illinois. He traded his farm for one in Allegany County, New York, but he reserved the right of the crop on the ground and by the time that the crop was harvested, he was ready to trade back and he did and made a good trade the last time. His health improved by traveling and he concluded to settle on his farm again that Father helped him to get. Hiram married Sarah Silliman for his second wife, October 6, 1842. She was the daughter of a Baptist minister. She belonged to a respectable family that had considerable property and she was and is now a woman of good judgement, although her health has not been good. She has been a good wife and helpmate in his life. Hiram taught school while a widower. He was county surveyor several years and made considerable money surveying. He held the office of Justice of the Peace eight years and filled other important situations in life. He was a deacon of the First Baptist Church in Steuben, Marshall County, Illinois, and donated 300 dollars at one time to build a church in Steuben. A short time before he sold his farm. He moved from there to Galva, Henry County, Illinois. His last wife had three children. First, Mary, born November 7, 1844 and died March 22, 1860, aged 15 years. His son, Cyrus Atwood, was born June 12, 1849 and was married to Lizzie Phillips in Chenoa, McLean County, Illinois, June 25, 1876. The second daughter, Eliza, was born March 21, 1855. She grew up beloved by her parents and friends and all who knew her. Got a good education, played on the organ. She died a Christian October 1, 1874. She was buried by her sister in Steuben, Illinois. Brother Hiram was a good financier, a good counselor, a good brother, and a good neighbor, and good to his wife and children. Hiram's wife Sarah Silliman Atwood, was born September 6, 1819 in Ohio. Brother Hiram died at his house with his wife and two sons, Captain T.W. Atwood at James, Iowa, July 13, 1896, aged 36 years, 6 months, and 8 days, and was buried in Steuben cemetery at his old home in Marshall County, Illinois. Brother Hiram's wife, sister Sarah Atwood, died February 15, 1897 at James, Iowa, in T.W. Atwood's house all far away from all of their relative. Sarah was taken back to their old home cemetery and laid by the side of her husband and two daughters and the remains of Hiram's first wife were laid in the same lot. Sarah Atwood was 78 years, 5 months, and 9 days old. Brother Hiram's son, T.W. Atwood, married Mary Hinkley, November 8, 1869. She was born February 14, 1844, and died March 20, 1894, aged 50 yeas. They had one son, born January 10, 1871 and died January 4, 1876, in Chicago, Illinois. He was buried in the family cemetery in Steuben, Marshall County, Illinois. His name was Wallace Hinkley Atwood. T.W. Atwood was stricken with paralysis on November 25, 1897, while sitting reading a newspaper. It paralyzed his left side, arm and leg so that he could not get out of bed, from which he never recovered, but gradually failed in strength until he died on the 18th of February, 1899. His remains were taken to Marcus, Cherokee County, Iowa, and buried by the side of his wife in her father's family burial place. T.W. Atwood and his wife lived in Chicago several years, moved to Marcus, Iowa, and from there to Le Mars, Iowa, where his father and mother and brother, Cyrus, joined them. They moved to James, Iowa, where four of them died, leaving Cyrus there alone. Hiram's brother, Cyrus, lives at this time in Leeds, Iowa, with his second wife, whom he married March 14, 1900, Kate Louise Snyder. T.W. Atwood got up a company of soldiers to go to the Southern War. When with them as Captain for two years and his time was out and he got a discharge. Irena Atwood was born in the town of Sheldon, Vermont, August 4, 1806 and married in the town of Dansville, Steuben County, New York, to Willet Ireland, February 17, 1825. They had two children, namely Darious Ireland, born August 14, 1826, who is living at this time in Fortana, Kansas. Olivia Ireland was born June 8, 1828, and died July 15, 1829. Willet Ireland died September 12, 1828, age not know to me. Sister Irena Ireland was married to Samuel Haynes, her husband the second one, March 1, 1831. Samuel Haynes was born December 25, 1799. They had six children. First, Mary Jane Haynes was born May 13, 1833, and married Luman A. Minor; second, William A. Haynes was born in Illinois, January 12, 1836, and married Delphia Fosdick. Willet S. Haynes was born March 18, 1838, and married Eliza Bowin in 1871. She died September 1, 1899, aged 54 years and was buried in Chenoa, Illinois. Sarah M. Haynes was born May 21, 1840, married Edwin Silliman, December 25, 1866. They have two sons. First son, Herbert was born July 5, 1868. Lester Lee, born in Peoria, Illinois, October 2, 1870. Edwin Silliman was born in Halleck, Illinois, November 18, 1840. Electa Ann Haynes, born September 8, 1843, married Henry Gorden, October 1, 1872. -------, born September 18, 1846 and died September, 1847. Sister Irena always had a kind and tender heart, from youth to old age. She took care of me when I was young and acted the part of guardian over me. She had two good husbands. Her second husband was an uncommonly good one, with whom I have enjoyed very many pleasant hours. They have seen a plenty of hard toil to raise a family in a new country, but they have done it very respectably, and their children will never see them suffer or want for care. Brother Samuel Haynes died at his sons, William A. Haynes, in Chenoa, McLean County, Illinois, January 22, 1888, being 88 years and 28 days old. He lived to old age, beloved by all he knew. He was buried in Payne Cemetery, northeast of Chenoa four miles. Sister Irena Haynes died October 4, 1893. She was 87 years and 2 months old and was buried by the side of her husband. My second sister, Olivia Atwood, was born in Hartford, New York, February 27, 1808, and was married to Allen Hunter, August 27, 1827, in the town of Dansville, Steuben County, New York. They had three children as follows: Irena Hunter was born April 21, 1828. She married T. Zimmerman and he left her. She afterwards married John Matthews and died his wife in Steuben, Marshall County, Illinois. William T. Hunter, born October 26, 1833, was married to Florela Hancock for his first wife. She died and he married her cousin, Molly Hancock. William T. Hunter died in Jewel County, Kansas, May 21, 1896, aged 63 years and 7 months. Hiram A. Hunter was born April 16, 1836, married Eliza Wardell, February 2, 1867, after serving his country in the Southern Rebellion. Sister Olivia Hunter died on the 6th day of February 1858, and was buried in the Steuben cemetery by where she had lived for several years. She seemed to realize that she was going to die some time before she died. I stood by her when she died. She assured me she felt prepared for death. Rev. James Stoddard preached her funeral sermon in her own house. Her brothers and one sister was at her funeral. Her husband, Allen Hunter, was born November 22, 1802. He was ambitious to gain wealth, worked hard, made a large profit by farming. Then went into trade in merchandise, lost all his property or most of it. He died May 10, 1870, aged 67 years, 6 months and was buried by the side of his companion in life. Brother Cyrus Atwood was born February 1, 1813 in Hartford, New York. He had a white swelling on his leg and suffered a great deal with it. It was healed in his 21st year and was supposed to be a cure. He went to school the next winter and after school closed, went to work for the teacher, Aaron Beach, until July 9, 1834, when he drowned while bathing in a millpond. He was 21 years, 5 months, and 5 days old. He was buried in the town on Dansville, Steuben County, New York. He was the first one of the family to die out of ten children living to get their growth. Brother Timothy Atwood was born in the town of Dansville, Steuben County, New York, May 4, 1815, and the first child born in that town. He was named after his father and grandfather. He learned easy, taught one common school before he was 20 years old. About the time that he was 20 years old, he came to Illinois with his parents. When he became 21 years old, he made a claim on a piece of Government land and went to work and made improvements on it. He married Alma Root, August 30, 1837. She was born in Ohio, August 7, 1820. She was the daughter of a Baptist preacher, and of a respectable family with considerable property. After he was married, he farmed eighty acres of land that his father gave him until 1847, then he sold to Doctor G. H. Stone and moved ten miles north and settled on the North line of Marshall County, Illinois. Farmed there awhile, raised a family and then moved his family to Galva, Henry County, Illinois except his three oldest children, as they were married and settled for themselves. They had nine children as follows: the first child, still born December 1, 1838, next Hiram T., born July 31, 1840, he married Levina Gregory. Clarisia was born January 7, 1843. She married William Snell. Clarisia Snell died March 17, 1879. Electa Atwood was born August 20, 1845. She married Spencer Ketchum, January 15, 1864, by Uncle William Atwood. The three oldest was married by Uncle William Atwood while he was Justice of the Peace. Timothy's fifth child, Jerial Atwood, was born April 3, 1848. Was married to Addie Yocum, October 3, 1872. Jerial married his second wife, Clara McKinzie, January 29, 1882, and lives in Cherokee, Iowa. William H. Atwood, born March 12, 1851, was married to Alice Russel, October 11, 1877. Emily Atwood, born September 12, 1854, and died April 12, 1855. Ira Atwood was born July 30, 1856, and died August 23, 1856. Alfred Atwood, born November 5, 1859. Was married to Emma B. Hunter, December 21, 1880. Electa Ketchum died August 27, 1892, aged 47 years and 7 days. She was a good Christian woman. She is buried in Whitefield cemetery, Marshall County, Illinois. Brother Timothy's sone, Hiram T. Atwood, died near Stutgart, Arkansas, March 28, 1899, and was taken by his wife to Nevinville, Iowa and buried there, aged 53 years and 8 months. Brother Timothy was married to Alma Root a short time before Father died, and about that time, Father made a quit claim deed of eighty acres of land that he had bought, a tax title of, to each of us which lay side by side, and as Mother sold the old homestead to Allen Hunter, it become convenient for me to make my home with Timothy and Alma the greater part of the time until I got married. We got along finely together and became very much attached to each other, which attachment always remained. My sister Nancy Atwood, was born December 5, 1819, at Dansville, New York. She married Jerial Root, Jr., November 16, 1837. Jerial and Nancy lived in the same house with his father and mother while Jerial lived with the expectation of taking care of his father and mother in their old age, but Jerial died, January 6, 1839. Sister Nancy had one stillborn child, a son, after her husband died. She married again for her second husband Dr. George H. Stone, July 28, 1839, and moved to Washington County, Iowa. They had three children; first Louise Electa Stone was born October 2, 1840. She married Robert E. Barnes. They had two children. Hiram A. Stone was born October 16, 1842; he married Sarah Taylor. Prentiss A. Stone, born January 12, 1845, who died August 16, 1845. Sister Nancy Stone died June 24, 1846, aged 26 years, 6 months, and 19 days, was buried in Washington, Iowa, by the side of her youngest son. My sister, Sally Atwood, was born August 6, 1821, in the town of Dansville, Steuben County, New York. She married Jeriah Bonham in Illinois, October 24, 1839. She had three children, Edward, the oldest, was born October 13, 1840. Eliza Ann was born February 22, 1843. Hardin born April 16, 1845, and died September 12, 1846, and was buried by the side of his mother. Sister Sally died July 30, 1846, and was buried in Bonham cemetery, in Marshall County, Illinois, two and one half miles north of Sparland. Her husband, Jeriah Bonham, was born February 27, 1818. He died June 1, 1895, and was buried in the Bonham cemetery with his wife. My youngest sister, Electa Atwood, was born in Steuben County, New York, September 26, 1823. She was in her twelfth year when we came to Illinois, and only fourteen years old when Father died. After sister Nancy moved to Iowa, Electa went to live with her. She there married a young doctor who was studying under Doctor Stone. His name was William Henry Harrison Rousseau, a Kentuckian. Was married April 17, 1845. She lived with him until she died, October 16, 1853. She was buried in Washington, Washington County, Iowa, aged 30 years. Their oldest son, John James Rousseau, was born February 2, 1846. As he grew to manhood he studied medicine and became a practicing physician when he was 19 years old. John James Rousseau died January 19, 1877, at St. Louis, Missouri, and was buried there in the 31st year of his age. Sarah Ann Rousseau was born November 5, 1847. She married A.R. Dewey, May 20, 1873, in Washington, Iowa. Lives there now at the present writing. Her husband is District Judge. His district is six counties in Iowa. He has been elected six successive times in the same district. Nancy Electa Rousseau, born September 2, 1852, and died February 22, 1873, Washington, Iowa, buried by the side of her mother in Washington, Iowa. I, William Atwood, was born in a log louse in the town of Dansville, Steuben County, New York, December 8, 1817. Was sickly while young, had the scrofula. My sister, Nancy, who was two years younger than I, walked around and alone before I did, and my right eye was filmed by disease, so that spoiled the sight of it during life, although the left one grew strong, so that I could see as well as anyone, but my eyes nor my body never got as strong as my brothers', and I was never very stout, was always small, never weighing over thirty-five pounds when fleshy. The youngest and smallest boy in the family. The land was so full of stumps and stones, that a man could not plow corn without someone to guide the horses, so the boys used to ride the horses while the men held the plow, and it was not very pleasant work in hot weather. Up and down steep hills and sometimes the plow would strike a stone and stop suddenly and I have been nearly thrown from the horse many times that way. I used to go bare- footed in the summer time and sometime knock the toenail loose against the stones and roots of stumps. I went to common district school when too young to work hard on the farm, but father was obliged to have his boys all they could do to get a living, I did not get a very good education. When I was seventeen years old, my father sold his farm in New York and moved to Illinois. It was a great change in my life. I used to pick up brush and chop timber. Once when I was felling a tree on a steep hill, a tree fell across another leaning tree, which threw the butt of the tree which I had cut, up over my head, and in jumping to get from it, I fell, my feet slipping on the side hill, and the butt of the tree fell across my legs, and I had to be carried home. The work that I disliked the most was picking up stones, and I could never see the end of it. Every time the land was plowed or harrowed, there would be more stones roll up. Well, as I stated, I came to Illinois with my father and mother, brother and three sisters. There was no schools, no churches, and it seemed as though there were no Sabbath, for the Sabbath was not observed as it used to be where we came from. When my father divided his land, before his death between his sons, it was fenced. I being under age, he charged me one hundred dollars for the fence that was around my share of that land, which I paid afterwards. Prairie fires run through the field and burned the fence down before I got any use of it. I went to work and prepared my share of the fence. As the country was new and no schools, I commenced teaching school in the winter of 1840 and 1841. I studied also to be better prepared for teaching. In the year of 1841 and 1842, I taught the Blue Ridge School, and had good success, and the spring of 1842, went to writing school, where there was nothing taught but writing. In June, I taught another school. I also joined the M.E. Church, on trial, in the spring of 1842. In the fall, I took another school for the winter in North Hampton. It was a very hard place for a young man to govern, in a little town where the leading men of the place drank considerable whiskey, and the most prominent director kept a tavern and drank, too. There were several young men and young women went to my school that attended a dancing school, one evening every week, and went to a party every other night. They seemed to think that they knew more than their father and mother both, therefore, they wished to do as they pleased, and it was hard for me to govern young ladies of that class. It was a hard place for a young man. The next winter, 1843 and 1844, I taught another school. During the winter and spring, I visited Miss Sarah Jane Swift, daughter of Philander Swift and Arzilla Edgbert with a view of marrying her. Phildander Swift's parents were James Swift and Susan Fosdick; James is buried in Hartford, New York. On the 20th of March, 1844 we were married by the Reverend John Devour. I had a log house on my land, but it was rented for another year yet, so that I could not occupy it then. I agreed with brother-in-law, James Swift, for one room of a house that he had rented. In the summer of 1844, I joined the M.E. Church. I was baptized by immersion, as at that time I believed immersion the most proper mode. In the year of 1844, the same year that I was married, I was appointed Treasurer of the school fund, which was a respectable and responsible situation in life, and I was appointed to that office from time to time as long as I would accept the appointment, which was sixteen years and six months. It was customary for the trustees to meet at my house and generally take dinner with us, sometimes brought their wives and had a visit. I taught school some after I was married. When the county of Marshall was organized into townships, I was elected town clerk for several years, and Justice of the Peace ten years, and one year, they put me on the office of County Supervisor, Justice of the Peace, Township Treasurer, and School Director, which was more than any man held in that town. I am sure if I had never had an office, I would have been worth more, a great deal more property now, but almost every man has a little pride of honor, which I must confess I allowed to come over me, until I cared more for the love of men than I did the love of money, although I never gave anything to get elected. I used to make a home for preachers at my house, kept them and their horses free of charge. After a while, the subject of slavery and anti-slavery came into the Methodist Church. She was the first church to oppose slavery. In the year of 1846, Cornelius Hicks was placed in our care for raising, by his step-father Anthony Fosdick. His own father and mother was dead. I was appointed his guardian by probate court when he was eight years old. He lived with us until he was 14, then went to live with his sister, who was married. After a year or two, he came back and worked for me by the month several times. He always thought a great deal of us, after he became old enough to appreciate our kindness to him. He married Dana Odell and now lives in Iowa, March 1872. Dana Hicks died in Montezuma, December 1, 1894. Mary Catherine Thompson came to live with us, April, 1851. She was a delicate little orphan, given us by her uncle and aunt, Charles and Eliza Knock. She became a member of our family and we formed an attachment for her and she did for us, and we loved her as one of our own, as we had no girls of our ow. We felt anxious for her welfare and wished her to do well in marrying, but she blasted all our hopes by marrying one that we thought was not worthy of her. His name was James L. Stone. He went into the army and left her to herself. Mary Stone died December 14, 1864, and was buried by the side of my brother, Joel Atwood, in one of my lots in the Steuben cemetery, Steuben, Illinois. She left her little son with us, until her sister, Mrs. Stephens, took him. He died I Henry, Illinois, and was buried there. January 13, 1861, Sarah Ellen Nelson was taken to my home while we were at church and left without knowledge or consent, and word was left that her mother ordered it on her death bed, as she had no relatives able to give her anything to eat or wear. She was only five years old. Out of sympathy for the orphan girl, we kept her and sent her to school and clothed her, until she married Francis Watson; they are now living near Chenoa, Illinois. Our first child was stillborn. Our second son, Anson William Atwood, was born in Steuben, Marshall County, Illinois, November 2, 1846. He was kicked by a sharp shod horse, February 22, 1859, on his face and temple, mashing the bones of his temple and destroyed the sight of his left eye, and nearly took his life. There were ten pieces of bone came out of his temple. He was married to Miss Mary Long in Jacksonville, Illinois, January 8, 1874. She was an intelligent, good woman. She died in Jacksonville, Illinois, February 25, 1882, and was buried there with her kindred. She left three children, Lee L., Harriet H., and Mary Myrtle. We took them and moved to Plattsmouth, Nebraska, where Mary Myrtle died in her Uncle Samuel's house and was buried in the cemetery there. We kept Lee and Hallie, until their father married Miss Mary King in Jacksonville, Illinois, June 9, 1886. They now live in Plattsmouth, Nebraska, May 4, 1900. Third son, Samuel Haynes Atwood, was born in Steuben, Illinois, July 12, 1849. He married Miss Myrtle Parele in Plattsmouth, Nebraska, January 11, 1877. She was born in Osceola, Iowa, February 20, 1857. They have five children, Calvin P., Donald W., Ralph K., Juliet Wright and Catherine. They live in Lincoln, Nebraska, May 4, 1900. Our fourth son, Myron Rhylander Atwood, was born in Steuben, Illinois, September 5, 1851, and died there December 22, 1861, and was buried on my lot in the Steuben cemetery. Our fifth sone, Charles N. Atwood, was born in Steuben, Illinois, June 12, 1858 and died in Chicago, Illinois, February 14, 1882 with smallpox and was buried in the south-east part of Graceland cemetery, where I have put up a clouded marble monument. I think I have extended the Atwood name as far as I ought to, for the present purposes. Our Charles had got a good education, taught one school. Went to work for Hibbard, Spencer Co. as bill clerk, in a large wholesale hardware store, gave good satisfaction; he did not know he had been exposed to smallpox. History and tradition agree that my mother's fore-fathers came from England, and landed at Boston, Massachusetts, and that my mother's great grandfather and great grandmother, James Fosdick, was born in New London, Connecticut, November 20, 1716, and married Elizabeth Darling, December 6, 1735, and died October 16, 1784, aged 68 years. My mother's grandfather, William Fosdick, was born in Boston, Massachusetts in the year 1741, and married Dorothy Colt, at Hartford, Connecticut, one of the family of the noted gunsmith of Colts Rifles and pistols, and lived in East Windsor, a part of old Hartford, Connecticut, until after the Revolutionary War. He was a shoemaker by trade. He moved to the State of New York, where he died in 1818. His history is in the church in East Windsor, Connecticut, as having had eleven children baptized in that church, as follows: William and Dorothy, baptized May 9, 1762; third child, Lawrence, baptized September 18, 1763, etc. the record of my mother's father, my grandfather, William Fosdick, was that he was born in East Windsor, Connecticut, April 27, 1762. Baptized there May 9, 1762. He enlisted as a soldier in the Revolutionary War as a fifer in the company of Captain Jonathan Chester, in the second regiment of the Continental army, under General Spencer, May 12, 1775. Was wounded by a bullet through his under lip, December 17, 1775, and paroled until he got well, then returned to his post again. He never received a pension or bounty. He was married in East Windsor, Connecticut, to Irena Carrington, January 1, 1782. He moved with the tide of immigration westward to the State of New York and t Hartford, Washington County, New York. Some of their children were born there, and in old age they moved to Angelica, Allegany County, New York, and died there. Grandmother Irena Fosdick died there September 18, 1853, aged 84 years. Grandfather William died there, February 6, 1851, aged 88 years and 9 months. He as a shoemaker and farmer. He made the first pair of boot I ever had. They raised five sons and four daughters. My mother, Nancy Fosdick, was the oldest child, although three of the Atwood family married Fosdicks, they were no blood relation, but Mother's folks followed my father and mother to western New York, and lived near each other there, and after Father and Mother moved to Illinois, they followed them there, those that were living, and lived neighbors to us until most of Mother's brothers and sisters died. Mother's brothers and sisters are all passed away to the better world, I trust. Many of their children are living yet. My mother, Nancy Fosdick, was born April 1, 1875, and died August 22, 1866, aged 81 years, 4 months, and 21 days. My mother's brothers and sisters lived near enough to be to visit us after I was married, and when Mother lived with me the latter part of her life. She died at my house. Her brother, Aaron C. Fosdick, lived on a farm near me in Steuben, Marshall County, Illinois, in the latter part of his life. His family went to the same church. His wife, Olive Fosdick, died there, February 13, 1873, and was buried in the cemetery where many of our relative are buried. I sold him the burial lot. Uncle Aaron had a cancer on his under lip. Made a will, I wrote his will for him, June 28, 1883, at Sparland, Illinois. He died at his daughter's Irena Rakstraw, April 28, 1885, and was buried by the side of his wife in Steuben cemetery. My uncle Levi Fosdick, was born March 18, 1801. He married Roxena Webster. They raised a family of two sons and two daughters. The oldest son, Jay Fosdick, was starved and frozen to death on the Sierra Nevada mountains with the Donner party. My uncle, Levi Fosdick, died in Bureau County, Illinois, September 1, 1878. He and his wife died and was buried in Tiskelwah, Illinois. The history of the Fosdick family is too long to be repeated in this writing. I will refer again to my own history. I lived 31 years on my farm after I was married; built a frame house and a good barn; raised an orchard; made good improvements and, in the winter of 1875, I sold my farm and moved to Sheldon, Illinois. We lived there until August, 1882, when we moved to Plattsmouth, Nebraska. In the year of 1876, my brothers, Hiram and Timothy, and myself went to the Centennial exposition at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, took a circuitous route, passed through Indianapolis, stopped one day, and at Cincinnati one day, and we crossed over in Kentucky. We passed through West Virginia, Harpers Ferry, place of the noted John Brown's raid, and to Washington, D.C. Found one of my near neighbors as Congressman G.L. Port, who showed us around the city. We went into the Halls of Congress, and the President's house, the Treasury Department, where there were eight hundred women making Green Back bills. We went into the Centennial M.E. Church, the nicest church in the city. The pulpit was made of Cedar of Lebanon. The keystone of the arch over the pulpit is a part of Solomon's Temple, the windows are frescoed and there are memorials of noted preachers, some of whom I have been acquainted with. We went from there to Philadelphia and saw the great Centennial Exposition and enjoyed it very much. We went from there to the city of New York and took a ride on the ocean and from there to our birthplace in Steuben County, New York. We went into the same old school house where we had been to school fifty years before. Went to our old home and from there to Niagara Falls, Buffalo, and though Canada to Detroit, Michigan. From there to Chicago, stopped awhile at each city and from there home to Sheldon, Illinois. When we were married, my wife's father and mother and grandmother and eleven children were living in Illinois. There were eleven sons and daughters. Her father and mother, grandmother, two brothers and five sisters have died since that, and are buried in Illinois. We have lived together fifty-six years. I am now eight-two years old and my wife is seventy-three. My brothers and sisters have all died but one, brother Timothy and his wife are living at Fremont, Nebraska, at this date. This portion of my family history is not one-half that I have recorded in my book. I have kept a diary account of events transpiring during the last forty-one years, every day up to January 1, 1900 and four months of this year. (Written by hand by William Atwood, May 15, 1900) My father was a Democrat in politics in the later part of his life. Then there was but two political parties, one party called themselves Whigs until 1860, when they changed their name to Black Republicans. Since that, they left the Black off and call the name Republican. In the year of 1860, the Southern Democrats broke up the party, by seceding. The regular National Nominee for the President (L.A. Douglas) and the Democrat Party has been the same party since. I always voted the Democrat Party ticket until after the Civil War. Then I concluded that the action of the Democrat Party were calculated to keep up the excitement of the Rebel Party and it was wrong! So I have voted the Republican Party, since, on presidential elections. The Democrat Party is all split up now, until people do not know how they stand, some middle-of-the-road Populists, Fusion Populist, some Free Silver, 16 to 1 Popps, and some 16 to 1 Democrats, some Union Labor Democrats or Anarchists. Who stir up contention and rioting throughout the nation, such as Debs and Altgeld and William Jennings Bryan. His spent his time for the last 5 or 6 years to get all of these parties to elect him President of these United States. I do not think he will accomplish it. I hope not. Plattsmouth, Nebraska William Atwood Added: William Atwood died December 20, 1903 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations or persons. 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