Vermilion county Illinois,JOHN M. McCABE ==================================================================== Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives Joy Fisher ==================================================================== p. 265-266 JOHN M. McCABE. This friend of the laboring man has made for himself an undeniably fine record in connection with the important question which is to-day absorbing the minds of intelligent men everywhere. A man of more than ordinary talent and possessed of large information, he has not only studied this but many other questions of political economy, and his published opinions have had a marked effect upon the complexion of party politics in this part of the State. A man of broad and liberal ideas, and with the faculty of giving voice to his opinions in forcible language, he has for years been a power in the community, and has, it is evident, sought to exert his influence for good and good only. Mr. McCabe, while affiliating with the Union Labor party, is also a strong advocate of prohibition, and favored a union of the two parties. We are constrained, before proceeding further, to glance at the home surroundings of Mr. McCabe, who has one of the most pleasant and inviting mansions in Fairmount and vicinity—a large, old-fashioned house, built in the early days, and situated on the corner south of the Methodist Episcopal Church. It stands on an eminence gently sloping to the south, while stretching east is a fine orchard containing large and spreading trees, a useful old-fashioned garden, and twenty acres of pasture, in the midst of which is a fish pond stocked with German carp. Recently the .School Directors have purchased two acres of the twenty for the purpose of building a fine graded school building. The whole premises are both comfortable and elegant, and form one of the most attractive features in the landscape of this region. The tile works, of which Mr. McCabe is proprietor, and which lie at the north end of Main street, were erected in 1882, and have been prosecuted successfully since that time. The subject of this sketch was born in Dearborn County, Ind., Feb. 19, 1844, and is the fifth child in a family of nine, the offspring of Alex and Rhoda (Knapp) McCabe, who were natives respectively of Ohio and North Carolina. The father followed farming after his marriage, in Dearborn County, Ind., to which he had removed with his parents at an early day. Grandfather Knapp was a native of New York State. Alex McCabe, after his marriage, continued in Indiana until 1872, then removed with his family to Stanberry, Mo., where he and his excellent wife still live. Six sons and two daughters lived to become men and women. Mr. McCabe, our subject, attended school quite regularly until a youth of eighteen years, mostly in the winter season, and worked on the farm with his father. In 1863, desirous of starting out in life for himself, he left home, arriving at Fairmount with a capital of $2.37, and in debt $5 to his mother for money borrowed to help him get away. Arriving at Fairmount, be engaged in work for Mr. James M. Dougherty, about one mile northeast of town, and with whom he remained until the fall of that year. The winter following he taught school at Walnut Grove. The year following he attended school at Danville a short time, and subsequently resumed work on a farm. In the meantime our subject had his mind intent upon establishing a home of his own, and in the fall of 1864 was united in marriage with Miss Mary E., daughter of Mr. Samuel Dougherty. The maiden name of Mrs. McCabe's mother was Jane Dalby, and Miss Mary was the third child in a family of seven. The newly wedded pair settled on a rented farm, where they struggled along amid many diiliculties and drawbacks, Mr. McCabe farming in summer and teaching school in winter until the spring of 1880. He then resolved to change his occupation, and abandoning the farm, secured an interest in a flour mill at Fairmount. He withdrew from this eighteen months later, and turned his attention to the manufacture of tile. He put up an old-fashioned Indiana tile shed on a small scale, using one kiln. By the exercise of great industry and energy his business advanced slowly but surely, and in time he was obliged to enlarge his facilities. He now has one of the most extensive factories of the kind in his part of the State, and in addition to the first products, has added brickmaking and roofing-tile of a new design known as "Donaldson's patent," which is by one-half the lightest roofing-tile ever manufactured in any country. Mr. McCabe has now the only manufactory, excepting a flour mill, in the town, and the people of this vicinity are justly proud of this enterprise, which gives employment to a number of men, and enters largely into the success and reputation of its industrial interests. At present (June, 1889) the works demand the services of fifteen men, with a prospect in the near future of the number being doubled. The buildings and equipments are fully in keeping with the demands of the business, which is not only a credit to the town, but to its instigator and proprietor. In politics Mr. McCabe always has an opinion and is never afraid to express it. He was in former years an ardent Republican, but of late has not been tied to any party. He was a delegate to the National Labor Conference at Cincinnati, Ohio, and was nominated for Representative in this district on the Union Labor ticket in 1888. He has officiated as Justice of the Peace, Village Trustee and School Director, and has been for years a member of the Knights of Labor, the Good Templars, the Grange, and the Masonic fraternity, holding in each organization important offices. He and his excellent wife are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church at Fairmount, and for some time Mr. McCabe was Superintendent of the Sunday-school. Only two of the four children born to our subject and his estimable wife are living, both daughters. The eldest, Effie, was married in March, 1889, to Owen McClenathan, and they live five miles east of Fairmount. Elsie, a bright child of nine years, is pursuing her studies in the village school, and is a fine amateur musician, playing well on both organ and guitar. Among other valuable features of this volume, the portraits of influential citizens of the county hold no second rank. And of these portraits an important place belongs to Mr. McCabe, the friend of the laborer.