From the "Historical
Encyclopedia of Illinois,
BECKWITH, HIRAM WILLIAMS, lawyer and
author, was born at Danville, Ill, March 5, 1833. Mr. Beckwith's father, Dan W. Beckwith,
a pioneer settler of eastern Illinois and one of the founders of the city of Danville, was
a native of Wyalusing, Pa., where he was born about 1789, his mother being, in her
girlhood, Hannah York, one of the survivors of the famous Wyoming massacre of 1778. In
1817, the senior Beckwith, in company with his brother George, descended the Ohio River,
afterwards ascending the Wabash to where Terre Haute now stands, but finally locating in
what is now a part of Edgar County, Ill. A year later he removed to the vicinity of the
present site of the city of Danville. Having been employed for a time in a surveyor's
corps, he finally became a surveyor himself, and, on the organization of Vermilion County,
served for a time as County Surveyor by appointment of the Governor, and was also employed
by the General Government in surveying lands in the eastern part of the State, some of the
Indian reservations in that section of the State being set off by him. In connection with
Guy W. Smith, then Receiver of Public Moneys in the Land Office at Palestine, Ill., he
donated the ground on which the county-seat of Vermilion County was located, and it took
the name of Danville from his first name-"Dan." In 1830 he was elected
Representative in the State Legislature for the District composed of Clark, Edgar, and
Vermilion Counties, then including all that section of the State between Crawford County
and the Kankakee River. He died in 1835.
Hiram, the subject of this sketch, thus left fatherless at less than three years of
age, received only such education as was afforded in the common schools of that period.
Nevertheless, he began the study of law in the Danville office of Lincoln & Lamon, and
was admitted to practice in 1854, about the time of reaching his majority. He continued in
their office and, on the removal of Lamon to Bloomington in 1859, he succeeded to the
business of the firm at Danville. Mr. Lamon-who, on Mr. Lincoln's accession to the
Presidency in 1861, became Marshal of the District of Columbia-was distantly related to
Mr. Beckwith by a second marriage of the mother of the latter. While engaged in the
practice of his profession, Mr. Beckwith has been over thirty years a zealous collector of
records and other material bearing upon the early history of Illinois and the Northwest,
and is probably now the owner of one of the most complete and valuable collections of
Americana in Illinois. He is also the author of several monographs on historic themes,
including "The Winnebago War," "The Illinois and Indiana Indians," and
"Historic Notes of the Northwest," published in the "Fergus Series,"
besides having edited an edition of "Reynolds' History of Illinois" (published
by the same firm), which he has enriched by the addition of valuable notes. During 1895-96
he contributed a series of valuable articles to "The Chicago Tribune" on various
features of early Illinois and Northwest history. In 1890 he was appointed by Governor
Fifer a member of the first Board of Trustees of the Illinois State Historical Library,
serving until the expiration of his term in 1894, and was re-appointed to the same
position by Governor Tanner in 1897, in each case being chosen President of the Board.
Our family connection
Wilson, born Nov. 21, 1825, died Oct. 1912, married Judith Burroughs.
Daughter married Charles Allen.
Major
Wilson
Burroughs.
Among the self-made men of Vermilion County none deserve greater credit than the
subject of this notice who is in possession of a comfortable amount of this world’s
goods, obtained by downright hard labor and wise management. At the beginning, when
he started out in life for him-self, he made it a rule to live within his income, and this
resolve closely followed has given him that independence than which, there is no more
comfortable feeling in the world. In possession of a fine home and a splendid
family, together with the respect of his fellow men, he surely has much to make life
desirable. His occupation through life has been principally agriculture, but he is
now retired from active labor and has wisely determined to spend his remaining years in
the comfort and quiet which he so justly deserves.
The ancestors of the
Major were Southern people mostly, and his father, Jesse Burroughs, a native of Kentucky,
was born in 1803. Early in life he married May 8, 1823, to Miss Mary C. Wilson who
was born in 1804 in Pennsylvania, the wedding taking place in Dearborn County, Ind., to
which place the young people had emigrated with their parents. They resided in that
county for sixteen years, then coming to Illinois, in 1839, settled on a farm near Catlin
this county, where they lived a number of years, then changed their residence to
Fairmount. The father died on the 5th of March, 1880, aged seventy-six
years, ten months and sixteen days. The mother survived her partner less than a year
passing away February 25, 1881, age seventy-six years, three months and twenty-four days.
To the parents of our
subject were born nine children, six sons and three daughters, five of whom are living and
whom Wilson was the second child. He was born Nov. 21, 1825, in Dearborn County,
Ind. His early education was conducted in a log school-house with greased paper for
window panes and other finishings and furnishings common to the buildings of that place
and time. It was never his privilege to attend a higher school. He had the
ordinary experience of a farmer’s boy in a new country, assisting in the development
of the farm, plowing, sowing and reaping, becoming inured to hard work at an early age.
There were very few settlers in this region at the time of the arrival of the
Burroughs family, there being a few Indians and French on the Sault fort of the Vermilion
River.
Four days before
attaining the nineteenth year of his age young Burroughs was married Nov. 17, 1844 to Miss
Martha Ann Thompson, daughter of John and Esther (Payne) Thompson, who came to Illinois
from Dearborn County, Ind., in 1830, and settled on a farm in Vance Township, this county.
Their family included eight children, four of whom are living and of whom Mrs.
Burroughs the second child was born May 11, 1827, in Dearborn County, Ind. Her early
education was conducted in a similar manner to that of her husband, and her father
officiated as a pedagogue for several years. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs.
Burroughs settled on a rented farm near Catlin, and like their neighbors frequently had
difficulty to make both ends meet. There was an abundance of labor and with but very
little return. They raised their own flax and wool, and Mrs. Burroughs spun and wove
the fashioned the garments for her family. Mr. Burroughs often thinks of the time
when he went to church dressed in home-made line shirt and pants and a straw hat. He
maintains, however, that those were happy days, during which mutual affection and mutual
purposes
enabled them to bear with courage the burdens of life and sustain their hopes for the
future.
Our subject operated
five years upon rented land to such good advantage that at the expiration of this time he
was enabled to purchase 100 acres – eighty acres of prairie at $5 per acre and twenty
acres of timer at $4 per acre. He paid cash down for the timber but was obliged to
go into debt for the other. He put up a frame house and haled the finishing lumber
for it from a point east of Eugene, Ind., the trip occupying three days. He lived at
this place seven years then traded it for a tract of raw land, three and one-half miles
southwest of Fairmount. Removing to this he went through the same process as before,
bringing the new soil to a state of cultivation, putting up another house and hauling the
lumber as before from the same place. This continued the home of our subject and his
little family until after the outbreak of the late Civil War.
Although there was much
to engross the time and thoughts of Mr. Burroughs in connection with his personal interest
he, nevertheless, responded to the call of his country and in August 1862, entered the
army as Captain of Company E 73d Illinois Infantry. He participated with one
exception, in all the battles of his regiment, being prevented by illness from taking part
in the fight at Murfreesboro, Tenn. On the 18th of December, 1864, he was
promoted to the rank of Major. Although in many of the important engagements which
followed he was never wounded except, as he expressed it, “in the hat.” He
has a vivid recollection of the battles of Perryville, Chickamauga, Mission Ridge, Rocky
Face, Burnt Hickory, Kenesaw Mountain, Peach Tree Cree, Atlanta, Jonesboro, Lovejoy’s
Station, Franklin, the two days at Nashville and the fight at Dalton and Resaca.
After Lee’s surrender he was mustered out in June 1865, at Camp Butler, Ill.
Upon retiring from the
army Major Burroughs returned to his farm which he occupied until 1867. Then,
removing to Fairmount, he purchased a home and has since lived retired from active labor.
After giving to his two children each a farm he still has 324 acres left.
There were born to him and his excellent wife of four children, of whom Melissa,
the eldest daughter, became the wife of I. N. Wilcox, who died Sept. 19, 1887, leaving his
widow with one child, Harry B; Elsworth Thompson Burroughs, the eldest son of our subject,
married Miss Laura Custer, and is the father of two – Fred and Frank—living near
Westville: Esther M., is the wife of William P. Witherspoon and the mother of three
children—Stella, Wilson W. and Myrtle; they live in a home adjoining that of Mr.
Burroughs. The youngest child Newton W. remains at home with his parents.
Mr. Burroughs usually
votes the straight Republican ticket but further than this takes no active part in
politics and has avoided the responsibilities of office, although serving as Director and
Trustee in his district. He has been a member of Town Council and as ex-soldier,
belonged to George N. Neville, Post, and G.A.R. until its discontinuance. Major and
Mrs. Burroughs together with all their children, are members of the Cumberland
Presbyterian Church at Fairmount. This was organized in 1869 and the Major has been
one of its Elders since that time. He has always entertained an active interest in
the Sunday-school in which he has held the office of Superintendent many years. He
ranks among the foremost temperance men of this community and in all his dealings has
preserved that honest and upright course in life which as been the unrest guaranteed of a
substantial success and paved the way to a position in the front ranks among the
responsible men of his community. He knows by what toil and struggle his possessions
were accumulated, and has a faculty of investing his capital to the best advantage.