Union County IL Archives Biographies.....FOLEY, V.M. August 23, 1843 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Tim Casey timcasey5@gmail.com and Andy Anderson oxdrover@mindspring.com June 8, 2008, 6:32 am

Author: History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties Illinois



V. M. FOLEY, farmer, P. O. Cobden, was born in Warren County, Ky., August
23, 1843, to Leroy M. and Caroline (Ellis) Foley. He was born in Warren
County, Ky., May 12, 1822. She was born and raised in Virginia. They are
now [1883] living in this county [Union].

When our subject was small, his parents moved to Cape Girardeau County, Mo.,
and resided there till September 1861. Then, on account of the war
troubles, he had to leave, receiving such notice from some of the
Confederates. So he moved to this county with what he could haul in a wagon
with two horses. His occupation has always been that of farming. They are
the parents of two children, our subject and his sister, Eliza Castleberry,
of Jackson County. Three sons, however, died when young.
Our subject never had the opportunities of attending the free schools, and
attended but poor subscription schools. Before leaving Missouri, there were
great inducements offered him to join the Southern army, most of his
associates entering that army, and perhaps he might have done so, not
knowing the cause of the war or what secession was, but his father was too
strong a Union man and influenced him in the right direction.

August 11, 1862, he enlisted from this county in Company E, Eighty-first
Illinois Volunteer Infantry, Capt. J. P. Reese, Col. Dollins. He served
till mustered out August 5, 1865. He was in many of the leading
engagements, such as Jackson, Miss., Vicksburg, where Col. Dollins was
killed, on the Red River expedition, at Spanish Fort, etc.; also at Guntown,
Miss., where about one-half the regiment was lost; also at Nashville, where
Hood and Thomas were engaged.

Mr. Foley is now a pensioner of the Government for injury sustained at
Guntown, Miss. By forced marches, he was over-heated, and, after going into
the engagement the heat overcame him and he had to be carried from the
field, but not until he had fired about forty rounds of cartridges.

After returning from the army he settled on his present farm and has
remained there ever since. September 17, 1865, he was married to Emily
Anderson. She was born in this county to Cornelius and Elizabeth Anderson.
The mother died during the war; the father is still living in the county and
is one of the old settlers, coming from Tennessee.

Mr. and Mrs. Foley have seven children - Ollie, Ella, Oran, Frank, Charles,
Leroy and Harvey. For eight years after coming from the service, he
followed house carpentering; then commenced farming, and has been engaged in

general farming and fruit-raising since. He has 120 acres of land, about
seventy being improved. He and his wife are members of the Christian
Church. In politics he is Republican, and is serving a term as Justice of
the Peace. Mr. Foley has always done all he could for the advancement of
morals and against the liquor traffic in his vicinity.


Additional Comments:
Andy Anderson submitted the Biography. I believe is Cobden Township.

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