Vermilion county Illinois, JOSEPH S. CHRISTMAN ==================================================================== Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives Joy Fisher ==================================================================== p. 235-236 JOSEPH S. CHRISTMAN is emphatically one of the business men of Vermilion County, who has risen to prominence through his own exertions. He was born on the 30th day of January, 1855. He spent his boyhood days with his parents until he became seventeen years of age, when being of a studious mind, he went to Indianapolis and attended business college in that city, where he graduated. After leaving school he returned to Warren County, Ind., where his parents were living at the time, and remained there for a short period engaged in a dry goods store in Attica. He returned to Indianapolis and entered into the elastic roofing business at 241 Massachusetts Ave., being successfully employed for one year. He then bought a grocery store on Meridian street, where he carried on a good business for a period of one year, when he sold out and came to Rossville, Ill., where he landed in his twenty-first year with about $4,000. He contemplated purchasing a half interest in the dry goods store of Henderson & Co., but the company making arrangements more satisfactory to themselves, our subject found he could invest his money to a good advantage by loaning it and did so, in the meantime entering the employ of the dry goods firm mentioned as clerk. About this time he bought 600 acres of his present home of 1,100 acres of land upon which he erected his present farm buildings, and where he now lives. Joseph S. Christman is the son of Isaac and Elizabeth Christman, who are natives of Ohio, but who came to Illinois when they were young. They were married Oct. 25, 1843, when they immediately moved to Warren County, Ind., where they settled on a farm which they conducted for two years, at the expiration of which period, they came back to Vermilion County, settling here on a quarter section of land where they now live. The family comprised the following children—Sarah J., is at home; Susan G., is the wife of W. H. Lincoln and is living in West Lebanon, Ind.; Mary H., is the wife of H. C. Swisher and they also reside in the same place; Eliza E., was killed when nineteen years of age by being thrown from a carriage; Maria C., is the wife of William Hunter, a farmer who is living in Warren County, Ind.; Joseph S., of whom this sketch is written; Frank is in the real estate business at York, Neb.; Mahala L., died when two years of age. The mother of this family Mrs. Elizabeth Christman, died July 8, 1872. She was an ardent member of the Methodist Church, and sustained a fine reputation in her neighborhood. Mr. Isaac Christman is quietly living with his son, Joseph, and enjoying his latter days in a manner which he has won by hard work. He is a Republican in politics, and takes great interest in his party. Mr. Joseph S. Christman is a dealer in live stock shipping considerable quantities every year to Chicago. He makes a specialty in breeding Hambletonian horses, of which breed he owns several fine specimens. Politically. Mr. Christman is a Republican and has held the office of Township Trustee for a long time. He is also a member of the Masonic fraternity, having joined that order in 1876, by uniting with Lodge No. 527 at Rossville. He is also a member of the Oriental Consistory which meets on Monroe street, Chicago. His career in business is a good illustration of what grit and intelligence can do, and should be emulated by others of the younger generation. Mr. Christman is unmarried, but has succeeded in making a very comfortable home, and the view given in this volume, represents a residence that in nowise displays the absence of a mistress.