Lake County IN Archives Biographies.....Carlin, Bernard F. 1869 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 25, 2006, 11:23 pm

Author: T. H. Ball (1904)

BERNARD F. CARLIN.

    Emerson, the Sage of Concord, has said that the true history of a nation is
best told in the lives of its aggressive and progressive citizens, and what is
true of a nation is likewise true of the units of a nation, the county and
township. Lake county has reason to congratulate herself because of a man of
this type who has recently located within the county boundaries, for in Mr.
Bernard F. Carlin are found the qualities which make for success personally and
collectively and which are beneficial to the general tone and standard of any
community. Coming as he does from the great agricultural state of Illinois, Mr.
Carlin will be in his proper element as a factor in the rich agricultural
enterprises of Lake county, and will make his influence felt not only in a
personal way and as a public-spirited citizen but as a power and producer of
wealth in the material affairs of the county.

    Mr. Carlin was born in Lexington, McLean county, Illinois, May 8, 1869, and
is the fifth in a family of eight children, four sons and four daughters, born
to Bernard and Bridget (Murray) Carlin. Six of this family are still living:
Anna is the wife of P. H. O'Neill, a wealthy stockman of Faulkton, South Dakota,
and they have five children; Patrick J. is in the real estate and insurance
business at Kankakee, Illinois, and he married Miss Carrie Klein; Mary is the
wife of J. E. Herrington, a farmer at Fairbury, Illinois, and has three
daughters; Bernard and Katie are twins, and the latter is the wife of John P.
Degnan, of West Creek township, and has two children; John, the youngest, is
also in the real estate and insurance business at Kankakee.

    The life of Mr. Carlin's father is an interesting narrative of self-achieved
success. The senior Bernard Carlin was born in county Mayo, Ireland, in 1830,
and is now living in advanced age in Fairbury, Illinois. At the age of
twenty-two he set sail from his native land and landed in New York, a stranger
in a foreign land, with less than twenty-five dollars in his pocket. For a time
he was a wage-earner in Philadelphia at fifty-five cents a day. In 1854 he came
to Chicago, when that then small city lacked fifty years of growth before it
should become the present-day metropolis. From there he sought employment in New
Orleans, and after eight months arrived in Bloomington, Illinois, in 1855, where
he remained until 1862. In the latter year he came to Lexington, Illinois, and
began sawing wood for the Chicago <& Alton Railroad. He was always willing to
accept any labor that would earn an honest dollar, and his industry and
perseverance are the grounds for his success. He lived at Lexington until 1870,
and during four years of this time he was engaged in farming. In 1859 he had
married Miss Bridget Murray, who was born in Galway, Ireland, and who died
October 3, 1894, when nearly sixty years old. Both he and his wife were devout
Catholics, and he assisted in the building of St. Joseph's church at Chenoa,
Illinois, where he lived so many years. In politics he still casts his vote for
the Democratic candidates.

    Mr. Bernard F. Carlin was reared in Chenoa, Illinois, and besides a good
practical education in the public schools he took the teacher's course at
Valparaiso College for two years. In 1895 he and his brother Patrick began
dealing in live stock and in the butcher business at Chenoa, and continued that
with success beyond their expectations until 1899. In November, 1899, Mr. Carlin
embarked in the grocery business at Fairbury, with his brother John, and
continued this line of enterprise also very successfully for three years. While
in this business he and his brother purchased seven hundred acres of land in
West Creek township, Lake county, and it is to a part of this that Mr. Carlin
has recently decided to devote his attention as a practical farmer. Prior to
this purchase of Lake county land he and his brother had bought out the
interests of the other heirs in the old homestead in Livingston county,
Illinois, but they have since disposed of this property.

    September 5, 1899, Mr. Carlin married Miss Katie F. White, and they are the
parents of three children, Katherine, John B. and Walter P. Mrs. Carlin was born
in Lexington, Illinois, June 26, 1873, being a daughter of John and Katherine
(Doody) White. There were four daughters in the family, and two besides Mrs.
Carlin are living: Anna, who was educated in the public schools, is a resident
of Lexington, Illinois; Mary, who was educated in the Lexington high school and
completed all but three months of the course at the Illinois State Normal
University, is a resident of Lexington, and is a teacher in the public schools
of Pontiac. Mrs. Carlin was reared in the vicinity of Lexington, receiving her
education in the schools of that city, and for seven years was a teacher in the
McLean county schools. Her father, John White, was born in county Tipperary,
Ireland, in 1821, and is living at the present writing in Lexington, being
eighty-three years old. He came to America in young manhood, landing in this
country with but a shilling to his name, and the greater part of his life has
been spent in the employ of the Chicago and Alton Railroad. He has also followed
farming, and has been very successful in his life work. He is a Democrat in
politics. His wife was born in Queen's county, Ireland, in 1844, and came to
America when she was two years old. She died June 1, 1904.

    Just before disposing of his business interests in Fairbury, Mr. Carlin was
appointed joint agent of the Pacific and the Adams express companies at that
place, and remained in that capacity one year. He resigned April 16, 1903, and
took a district agency for the Continental Insurance Company, and continued in
this business until November, 1903. At the latter date he and his family located
in West Creek township, Lake county, and during the past year he has been
devoting his time and attention to farming and stock-raising, which pursuits he
intends to carry on perhaps permanently. His favorite stock are the Durham
cattle and the Poland China hogs. He has already shown great sagacity in the
management of his enterprises, and is taking full advantage of the great
opportunities offered to the stockman and farmer of Lake county.

    Mr. Carlin is independent in politics, and usually scratches his ballot
according to his own best judgment of the men and principles at stake.
Fraternally he is a member of the Court of Honor No. 206, at Fairbury, and the
Yeomen of America in the same place. He and his wife are members of the Catholic
church at Lowell.


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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