Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Page, Nathaniel ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com October 4, 2007, 11:15 pm Author: Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County NATHANIEL PAGE. The record of a useful life is worthy of being perpetuated in the annals of biography. In writing this memorial of a good man, long since passed to his eternal reward, we are doing an act of simple justice to one whose active life was inseparably associated with the pioneer history of our county, and one whose influence for good was felt in his home neighborhood even after he had passed from it. As an early settler he participated in the work of clearing and cultivating a portion of the county's fine farming region. In an early day Nathaniel Page, Sr., migrated from Massachusetts to Vermont and settled in Windsor County, where he died at an advanced age. Nathaniel, Jr., was born in the latter county in 1788 and remained on a farm near his birthplace for many years, but in 1838 he removed to Will County, Ill. His first location was in Lockport, where he followed the carpenter's trade for a year. In 1839 he moved to New Lenox Township, settled upon a farm and began the clearing of land. Upon the farm which he improved the remainder of his life was passed, and there he died, February 4, 1866, at the age of seventy-eight years. During his residence in Vermont Mr. Page married Nancy Gifford, a native of that state, born in the same year as himself; she died in 1865, at the age of nearly seventy-seven years. Their oldest son, Harvey, who was born in Vermont, came to this county in 1858 and engaged in farming here for twelve years. About 1870 he moved to Indiana, where he cultivated farm land. He died in that state in 1886, at the age of seventy-two years, leaving a widow and two children, Archie, and Catherine, who is the widow of Benjamin Thomas. The second son, Seneca, who was born in Windsor County, Vt., came to Will County, Ill., in 1837, being the first of the family to remove west. Much of his after life was passed in New Lenox Township, where he cultivated a farm and was also active in local affairs. He died in 1876, at the age of sixty years, leaving a widow and three children who now reside in Joliet. The third son, Austin, was born in Vermont in 1819 and migrated to Illinois in 1839; here he spent the remaining years of his life, following the carpenter's trade and general farming until his death in 1890, at seventy-one years of age. Two daughters, Mary and Nancy, died in girlhood, and a son, Charles, born in 1826, came to Will County, Ill., in 1839, and died here in 1856, at twenty-eight years of age. The only surviving member of the family is Miss Oranda Page, who has made her home in this county since 1839; she took care of her parents during their declining years, and has since continued to reside on her place of thirty acres in New Lenox. During her young womanhood she taught two terms of school, and she has continued to the present to be deeply interested in educational and literary work: As one of the pioneers of the county she has shown great interest in its development and is justly proud of its high standing among the galaxy of the counties of the state. Additional Comments: Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County Illinois Containing Biographies of Well Known Citizens of the Past and Present, Biographical Publishing Company, Chicago, 1900 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/will/bios/page993gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ilfiles/ File size: 3.8 Kb