Whiteside County IL Archives Biographies.....Old, Edwin 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com December 2, 2007, 11:45 pm

Author: Portrait & Bio Album, 1885

Edwin Old, farmer, upon section seven, Clyde Township, is a citizen of this 
country by adoption, having been born Feb. 26, 1815, in Wakefield, Yorkshire, 
Eng. His father and mother, Thomas and Elizabeth (Brooks) Old, were both 
natives of the same shire where the son was born, and were able to trace their 
line of ancestral descent to a very early period in the history of Great 
Britain. The father was a cloth manufacturer by profession and both he and his 
wife spent their entire lives where they were born. Mr. Old was 12 years of 
age when he began to acquire a knowledge of the calling of his father. He 
served a regular apprenticeship and followed the business until he was 25 
years old in the place of his nativity, In 1840 he emigrated to the United 
States and first located in the State of New Jersey. He went thence to Cairo, 
Greene Co., N. Y., where he obtained employment in the cloth manufacturing 
establishment of Horace Austin & Co., and operated in the interests of the 
firm five years. He was married June 17, 1841, in Cairo, to Ann Piatt, and 
they have been the parents of seven children, of whom four survive: William, 
who married Georgiana Rhodes and resides at Clinton, Iowa; Adaline married 
Robert Davis, who is a gardener at Morrison; Frances married Thomas Gulliland, 
a farmer in Ustick Township. Ellen lives with her parents. The father and 
mother of Mrs. Old, John and Betty (Beens) Piatt, were natives of Yorkshire. 
Her father was a weaver. They came with their family of three children to 
America. Mrs. Old was born Jan. 12, 1822, in Yorkshire, and is the oldest 
child and at the time of the removal of the family to the United States she 
was six years of age. They located in Cairo, Greene Co., N. Y., and there her 
father died in 1849. The mother died about 1831. After they had been married 
five years, Mr. and Mrs. Old went to Hobart, Delaware Co., N. Y., and in the 
year following returned to Greene Co., N. Y., locating in Windham for a time, 
whence they went to Haverstraw, in Rockland County, in the same State. After a 
residence there of three years they went to New Jersey. One year later they 
made a final change in their affairs and set out westward, coming to Clyde 
Township, where a number of English families from Yorkshire had located 
together with others from the eastern portion of the State of New York. Mr. 
Old purchased 40 acres of land on his arrival and set diligently about the 
work of improving his property and developing the general welfare of the 
community so far as lay within the reach of his individual influence. The 
entire section was almost wholly unimproved, and houses were few. There were 
literally no fences. The family encountered the novel experiences of pioneer 
life, but instead of being disheartened pressed eagerly forward in the work of 
making a home. The homestead estate now comprises 200 acres, with 160 acres 
under improvement. Mr. and Mrs. Old are members of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church of England.

Additional Comments:
Portrait and Biographical Album of Whiteside County, Illinois, Containing Full-
page Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative 
Citizens of the County. Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1885.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/whiteside/bios/old1850nbs.txt

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