Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Demmond, Moses G 
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Author: Past and Present of Will County, IL; 1907

Moses G. Demmond, deceased, who for many years figured prominently in the 
control of extensive agricultural and other business interests in Will county, 
and was respected wherever known because of his reliability as well as energy, 
dated his residence in the county from 1839, at which time Joliet was a little 
village, containing scarcely a frame dwelling while the outlying districts 
were largely undeveloped tracts of land. A native of Massachusetts, he was 
born in Rutland, Worcester county, July 1, 1831, a son of Charles and Rebecca 
(Holden) Demmond. The Demmonds come of Scotch ancestry and the family was 
founded in New England at an early period in its colonization. The great-
grandfather of Moses Demmond was a Revolutionary soldier, while the 
grandfather, a native of New York, removed to Worcester county, Massachusetts, 
where his subsequent years were passed. His son, Charles Demmond, likewise 
born in the Empire state, married Rebecca Holden, a native of Massachuetts, 
and in 1839 they started westward with their family, traveling by wagon to 
Albany, New York, thence by way of the Erie canal to Buffalo, there boarding 
the steamer. Great Western, bound for Chicago. From the last named place they 
continued on their way by wagon, arriving in Joliet after three weeks spent 
upon the way. Charles Demmond, a builder by trade, became one of the early 
contractors of the city and erected many substantial structures of the early 
days. He died at the age of sixty-eight years, while his wife long survived 
him, passing away in Joliet, in 1885, at the age of eighty-two years. Brought 
to Will county when only eight years of age, Moses G. Demmond spent the 
greater part of his life in this locality. After acquiring his education in 
the public schools, he learned the carpenter's trade under the direction of 
his father and was thus employed until 1850, when he joined a party of 
surveyors, who were at Joliet in the employ of the Chicago, Rock Island & 
Pacific Railroad Company. Mr. Demmond worked with them as chainman and flagman 
until the road was completed, after which he went to Muscatine, Iowa, where he 
was similarly employed by the same company until 1855, when he returned to 
this city. On the 18th of March, 1856, Mr. Demmond was united in marriage to 
Miss Ann Eliza Higinbotham, who was born in this county, December 2, 1836, and 
is a daughter of Henry D. and Rebecca (Wheeler) Higinbotham, who came from New 
York to Joliet in 1831 and settled on a farm two miles east of Joliet, where 
Mr. Higinbotham engaged in farming and also conducted a blacksmith shop. In 
later years he took up his abode in the county seat and conducted a flour and 
saw mill for many years, but eventually retired, having won his way upward 
from a humble financial position to one of wealth. Further mention of the 
Higinbotham family is made on another page of this work in connection with the 
sketch of M. O. Cagwin, who was a brother-in-law of Mr. Demmond. The latter, 
following his marriage, was superintendent of the old Joliet. street railway, 
when the cars were drawn by mules. After a few years he turned his attention 
to clerking and later assisted his father in carpentering, prior to taking up 
his abode upon the Redmill farm, which he managed for his father-in-law. 
Removing to Twelve Mile Grove, near Joliet, he continued to engage actively in 
agricultural pursuits until 1864, when on account of illness he removed to the 
Higinbotham homestead to become manager of the estate of H. N. Higinbotham, 
who had removed to Chicago and who then owned over fifteen hundred acres of 
fine farming land in Will county. He continued to reside on the Higinbotham 
farm until 1898, when he removed to Joliet, where he lived retired until his 
death, which occurred September 18, 1901. Mr. and Mrs. Demmond were the 
parents of ten children: Henry C, now a guard at the Illinois state 
penitentiary at Joliet, married Maggie Anderton and has three children, Hall, 
John and Charles; Frank E., a tailor of Joliet, married Ortense Rowland; Ella 
A. is the wife of A. A. Parks, a milk dealer of Joliet, and they have two 
sons, Robert and Frank. Myra H. is the wife of George H. Porter, a railway 
conductor of Kankakee, Illinois; Mary E. is the wife of H. H. Pasold, a 
salesman of Joliet, living with Mrs. Demmond, and they have three children, 
Herman, who died in 1895; Ralph, who died in 1898, and Helen, at home. Moses 
G. Demmond, the youngest living member of the family, is living with his 
mother and sister in Joliet. Four of the children, William, Hattie, Mattie and 
Clara, all died in infancy. In early manhood Mr. Demmond affiliated with the 
whig party, afterward became a democrat and in 1880 became a stanch 
Republican. He was ever unfaltering in support of his honest convictions and 
his position was never an equivocal one. In his younger days he served on the 
police force of Joliet for a short time and was also a guard at the state 
penitentiary for a year. For two years he was alderman from the first ward and 
he also filled the position of superintendent of streets under Mayor W. A. 
Steele. During his residence in Wilton township he was collector for two years 
and constable for a year. He was a charter member of Matteson lodge, No. 175, 
A. F. & A. M., of Joliet, and he held membership in the Universalist church, 
to which Mrs. Demmond also belongs. In all of his business interests he was 
very successful, displaying an aptitude for capable management, together with 
keen discrimination in business enterprises. In 1886 he built the residence at 
No. 1004 Cass street, where his widow, son and daughter reside. Mrs. Demmond 
is now over seventy years of age and has spent her entire life here. Mr. 
Demmond held membership with the Pioneer Society of Will county, and the 
period of his residence here covered sixty-two years, for when Joliet was a 
village and Will county an uncultivated prairie he came to Illinois, and with 
the life of the town and the improvement and development of the county he was 
closely connected, his labors proving of wide-reaching benefit in advancing 
those interests which have worked for municipal virtue and pride and for the 
substantial upbuilding of the county through the utilization of its natural 
resources. 

Additional Comments:
PAST AND PRESENT OF WILL COUNTY, ILLINOIS By W. W. Stevens President of the 
Will County Pioneers Association; Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing 
Company, 1907

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