Vermilion county Illinois, CHARLES M. BAUM ==================================================================== Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives Joy Fisher ==================================================================== p. 199-200 CHARLES M. BAUM, a native of this county, may usually be found at his well-regulated homestead on section 25. Besides general agriculture, he is largely interested in the breeding of draft horses and has been of signal service in elevating the standard of horse flesh in this part of the State. Active, energetic and industrious, he is a scion of the pioneer element which located in this county at an early day and assisted largely in its growth and development. There are some interesting facts connected with the family history of Mr. Baum which cannot by any means be properly omitted from this sketch. His father, Samuel Baum, a farmer by occupation, was born twenty-five miles south of the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, and was the son of Charles Baum, supposed to have been born in Pennsylvania, whence he removed first to Ohio and later to Illinois. He was a gunsmith by trade, but after coming to this country occupied himself mostly as a farmer, and died at the advanced age of ninety-eight years. Three of his seven children are yet living, and Samuel, the father of our subject, was the oldest of the family. Samuel Baum came to Illinois as early as 1828, and located on the Little Vermilion, near the present site of Indianola. The country then was very thinly settled and Vermilion County was considered quite a frontier. The journey was made overland in a Dearborn wagon, and. they brought with them a bug-horned cow tied behind the wagon. The incidents of that long and wearisome journey, during which they camped and cooked by the wayside and slept in the wagons at night, and the after experiences, replete with toil and privation, if properly related, would fill a good-sized volume. The parents of our subject, however, possessed the hardy spirit requisite in the pioneers of '28 and entered with courage upon the task set before them. The mother was in her girlhood Miss Sarah Weaver, daughter of Michael Weaver, who also came to this county in 1828, and the young people were married in Ohio. Mr. Weaver prior to this time had served as a soldier in the War of 1812, and was greatly prospered as a tiller of the soil of Illinois, becoming one of Vermilion County's wealthiest men. Mrs. Baum was the eldest of the eight children comprising the parental family, of whom only two are now living. The parents of our subject were married in 1823. Samuel Baum became a very successful farmer, the owner of 1,400 acres of land, and devoted himself largely to stock-raising. After the labors of a well spent life he departed hence in March, 1861. The mother had passed to the silent land fourteen years previously, in 1847. Of the ten children born to them seven are still living. Charles M. was the sixth child and was born Dec. 22, 1838, at the old homestead near Indianola. He pursued his first studies in the district school and in due time entered Bryant & Stratton's Commercial College, Indianapolis, from which he was graduated and at the age of twenty-two years began work for himself on his father's farm. Our subject operated as a general agriculturist two years, then for one year turned his attention to shipping stock. In the meantime he went into Texas and purchased 500 Texas cattle, which he drove through the Indian Territory, in 1866, to Chicago, consuming eight months on the journey. He disposed of his stock, then returning to Newtown, this county, embarked in the mercantile business for two and one-half years. He then purchased ground for a sawmill and in company with Robert Craig put up the necessary building, equipping it with machinery and operated the mill for two years. Then selling out he resumed his former business as a live stock shipper and afterward farmed again for about two years. About this time Mr. Baum became interested in fine horses and began importing Clydesdales from Canada and was thus occupied two years. Afterwards he began breeding fine horses, for which his well-equipped farm of 200 acres affords every convenience, he has thirty head mostly Clydesdales, including the Knight of Colander, imported by Galbraith Bros., of Janesville, Wis., and a very valuable registered mare imported by himself. Mr. Baum's horses are gaining an enviable reputation in this part of the State. On the 22d of March, 1869, our subject was united in marriage with Miss Mary J., daughter of William and Emily (Vanderin) Craig, who were among the pioneer settlers of this county. Of this union there have been burn five children: Grace, Ernest, Katie, Charles and Frank, all of whom are at home with their parents. Mr. Baum has been active in politics since becoming a voting citizen, and is proud to record the fact that his first Presidential candidate was the martyred President, Abraham Lincoln. He keeps himself well posted upon the political issues of the day, and for twelve years has officiated as School Director in his district. He is President of the Newtown Horse and Cattle Fair and a member of the Clydesdale American Association, also for the Newtown Horse Protector Association. He has been for the last three years a Road Commissioner. It will thus be seen that he has made a good record as a citizen and is amply worthy of representation in the Biographical album of Vermilion County.