Vermilion county Illinois, VINSON R. BOARDMAN ==================================================================== Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives Joy Fisher ==================================================================== p. 217-218 VINSON R. BOARDMAN. Occasionally we find a man who has had the enterprise to see something of the world before settling down to the sterner duties of life, as in the case of the subject of this notice. He has been quite a traveler throughout the Western country, and spent a number of years on the Pacific Slope, he came to this county in the fall of 1840, and settled on this farm in 1859, where he has 265 acres of choice land on section 26, township 23, range 12. This has been his home for the long period of thirty-five years, and he is still on the sunny side of seventy, surrounded by all the comforts of life, and blest with the esteem and confidence of his fellow citizens. Mr. Boardman was born in Ontario County, N. Y., May 3, 1822, and there spent his youthful days, acquiring a practical education in the common school. He was bred to farming pursuits. In the spring of 1849, young Boardman decided to visit California, and, purchasing an ox team at Independence, Mo., started across the plains with a company of 125 men. They crossed the Missouri River at St. Joseph, and followed the usual trail taken by emigrants. They were five months on the road, but at the end of that time 123 of the men were scattered to different places, only our subject and one man reaching their destination in company. The others finally drifted to the same place after having wandered around north of the Sacramento River. Upon his arrival in California, our subject engaged in mining from early in the fall until late in the winter, then went down to Nappa, when there was only one building in Sacramento but acres of tents. He staid there with an attack of fever, which lasted about four weeks, and then entered the employ of the proprietor of the city, with whom he remained, hauling lumber at $150 per month until fall, when he made his way to Oregon, where he spent the winter. In the spring he entered the mines of Northern California, but with rather poor success, then returned to Oregon, but finally went back to California and rented land, where he carried on agriculture until returning home. This return journey was made by our subject via the water route, across the isthmus to New Orleans, and up the Mississippi, Mr. Boardman arriving in this county again in the spring of 1853. That year he visited New York State. Subsequently Mr. Boardman employed himself at farming, having in view the establishment of a home of his own, and on the 16th of November, 1854, was united in marriage with Mrs. Susan Carter. Soon afterward he settled on his present farm, where he has since made his home, although the farm did not equal its present dimensions, having been added to both by himself and his sons. To Mr. and Mrs. Boardman there were born four children, all of whom are living. Inez is the wife of Thomas Evans, and they are residing in Grant Township; Herbert V. and Ernest C. are at home with their father; Marcus A. is traveling Auditor for the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad Company. Mr. Boardman has been for a number of years a member of the Presbyterian Church at Rossville, and politically gives his support to the Republican party. He is a man quiet and unostentatious in his manner of living, and has been content to pursue the even tenor of his way, making very little stir in the world, and never seeking political preferment. The parents of our subject were Jesse C. and Mary (Runyon) Boardman, the former a native of Connecticut. When about eight or nine years old he removed with his parents to New York State, where he was married and settled on a farm in Ontario County. His wife, the mother of our subject, died there when the latter was four years old. Jesse Boardman spent his last days near Rushville, Ontario County, and departed this life when about sixty-seven years old.