Lake County IN Archives Biographies.....Ayers, Alexander E. 1847 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 25, 2006, 10:17 pm

Author: T. H. Ball (1904)

ALEXANDER E. AYERS.

    Alexander E. Ayers is a recent addition to the already fine personnel of
Lake county citizens, and his energetic character and successful prosecution of
his business affairs make him a valued factor in the material and civic progress
and prosperity of the county. He has been in the county for the past three
years, and is already well known throughout the township of West Creek.

     He was born in Shelby county, Ohio, December 15, 1847, and is the seventh
of eight children, four sons and four daughters, born to Alexander H. and Julia
(House) Ayers. He has two brothers still living. Michael, now a resident of Lake
county, was a soldier for four years in the Civil war, was under fire for one
hundred days during the Atlanta campaign under Sherman, then was on the march to
the sea, was wounded at Stone River, December 31, 1862, being struck in the
hips; at Marietta, Georgia, was struck on the head by a piece of shell, and
received his honorable discharge at Louisville, July 17, 1865. Samuel is a
retired farmer of Heyworth, Illinois, and is a man of family.

    The father of this family was born in Butler county, Ohio, December 12,
1812, and died December 20, 1885. He was reared and educated in his native
county, and throughout life was a great reader and profound thinker. He was an
active Whig and later an equally ardent Republican, and cast his votes for the
candidates of the party from Fremont until his death. He came out to Woodford
county, Illinois, in 1865, and lived there the greater part of his remaining
years. He was a Universalist in religion, and his wife was inclined to the
Methodist faith. The ancestry of the Ayers family is traced to the French. Julia
Ayers, the mother of Mr. Ayers, was born in Butler county, Ohio, September 15,
1810, and died in 1897, December 21, being then eighty-seven years of age.

    Mr. Alexander E. Ayers accompanied his parents to Woodford county, Illinois,
in 1865. He is in the main a self-educated man. He lived with and took care of
his parents for many years. He has been married twice. His first wife died
without issue, and on February 25, 1885, he married Miss Alice V. DeBolt, who
became the mother of eight children, six of whom are still living: Arthur H.,
who has reached the eighth grade in his school work; J. Emerson, who is a bright
lad in the eighth grade of school, with an especial fondness for mathematics and
history; N. Guy, who has received his diploma from the eighth grade; Ava Ray: H.
Bernard, who is in the fifth grade; and Frank Leslie, the baby of the family.
Mrs. Ayers was born in Woodford county, Illinois, October 5, i860, and is the
oldest of the three children and the only daughter born to John and Eliza J.
(Drake) DeBolt. One brother is living. John M., a successful grain merchant at
El Paso, Illinois. Her father was born in Greene county, Pennsylvania, January
1, 1830, and died July 28, 1898, at the age of sixty-eight. He was a farmer and
went from Pennsylvania to Virginia, where he was reared. In 1857 he located and
purchased land in Woodford county, Illinois, near El Paso. He w<as a strenuous
Jackson Democrat in politics, and was a man of broad intelligence and ability.
He was a member of the Christian church at the time of his death. His wife was a
strong Methodist, and she was a bright and intelligent lady. Mrs. Ayers is a
lover of the choicest literature, and she finds books to be her best companions.
She is an ardent Methodist, and joined a class of one hundred and twenty-one
under Rev. Milsap.

    Mr. Ayers owned fifty acres of excellent land in Woodford county, and
resided there until March 1, 1902, when he purchased and removed to his fine
estate of bottom land in West Creek township, consisting of four hundred and
fifty-five acres, on which he has already placed many valuable improvements and
which in time will be one of the model farms of the county. He is very much
interested in stock-raising, and keeps some fine grades on his place. He is a
Republican in politics, and has supported the candidates since casting his first
vote for General Grant. He holds in the highest respect the tenets of
Christianity, and for himself has tried to guide his path according to the
golden rule. During their short residence he and his wife have gained the
confidence and high regard of all with whom they have become associated in Lake
county, and are people of the best personal worth and character.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

ENCYCLOPEDIA
OF
Genealogy and Biography
OF
LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA,
WITH A COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY 
1834—1904

A Record of the Achievements of Its People in the Making of a Commonwealth and
the Founding of a Nation.

REV. T. H. BALL
OF CROWN POINT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO   NEW YORK
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1904


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