Illinois:  History of Cass County, Illinois, ed. William 
Henry Perrin. O. L. Baskin & Co. Historical Publishers, 
Chicago, 1882. Cass County.

THOMAS AINSWORTH, capitalist; Chandlerville. Among the most 
active, upright and highly respected citizens of Cass 
County, who have achieved success by their own indomitable 
energies, rather than by any outside aid, is the subject of 
this sketch. His record is that of hundreds of others of 
the self made, self reliant men, to be met with in the 
every-day walks of life, and his career has been marked 
with the varied experiences common to all of the class 
referred to. Mr. Ainsworth is a native of Lancashire, 
England, having been born Jan. 30, 1814, to Thomas and 
Sarah (Townley) Ainsworth, both natives of England. He was 
denied the privilege of attaining other than a limited 
mental culture in youth; but his was an energy that was not 
easily thwarted by obstacles, and by dint of his own 
perseverance, he succeeded in gaining a fair business 
education; nor was he more fortunate in this world's goods. 
Standing on the threshold of his young manhood, he could 
easily count the dollars that were his upon the fingers of 
his hand. His had ever been a cradle rocked by the hand of 
adversity; but his heart was strong, his courage great, his 
energy remarkable; and lured by hope, he pressed steadily 
forward, placing his trust in Him who heareth ever the cry 
of the raven and who has promised to reward the faithful 
worker. His early life was spent at home, and at an early 
age learned to earn his own livelihood in a cotton factory, 
where his father was also employed. At the age of twenty-
eight years he bade his home and native country farewell. 
He emigrated to America in 1842, and the same year moved to 
Illinois, settling in Mason County, where he entered eighty 
acres of wild prairie land, and remained on the same for 
thirty-five years, and during that time saw this country 
develop from a wilderness to its present highly cultivated 
condition. In 1876 he erected, from his own designs, a neat 
and commodious residence in the stirring little town of 
Chandlerville, and moved to the same in the spring of 1877, 
where he may now be found, surrounded with those comforts, 
and enjoying those pleasures that are ever the result of 
honesty, industry and economy. Mr. Ainsworth is one of the 
largest stockholders of the Valley National Bank of St. 
Louis, is largely interested in Colorado mines, and is the 
owner of over two thousand acres of the best land of 
Illinois. His marriage occurred in 1837, to Miss Maria 
Abbott, a native of Lancashire, England, born in November, 
1814. The result of this union was ten children, of whom 
seven are now living: Nancy, the wife of Agustine Witt, a 
wholesale merchant of Decatur; William Henry, a prominent 
merchant of Rood House, Ill.; Alice, the wife of William 
Casey, a retired farmer, of Centralia, Ill.; Thomas T., a 
farmer of Mason County; Sarah E., wife of George Ransome, a 
farmer of Mason County; Mary A., wife of Thomas Saye 
furniture dealer, of Chandlerville, and Joseph, who is 
farming upon the old homestead farm, in Mason County. Among 
his children Mr. Ainsworth has divided over $80,000 worth 
of property. He and wife are connected with the 
Congregational Church. He was formerly an old line Whig, 
but is now a Republican. He has never taken part in 
political demonstrations, but evidently takes quite as much 
interest in what he has not done, as in that which he 
actually has accomplished.

Ainsworth Townley Abbott Witt Casey Ransome Saye 
=
England Mason-IL