Joel Acree

H. W. Beckwith, History of Vermilion County (Chicago: H. H. Hill, 1879)

page 629

Joel Acree, Catlin, farmer, with his father and family, arrived in this County in 1829, and located in Catlin township, coming from Alabama. His father bought one hundred and thirty acres of raw land and built a cabin, and the second year put in cultivation thirty acres and became one of the prominent farmers of the county. Milling was difficult on account of the long distances and unbridged streams. When a boy, Mr. Acree has often taken a single sack of corn on horseback as far as ten, and sometimes fifteen, miles in order to obtain a

page 630

little meal for immediate family use. For a number of years after the death of his father (who died in 1835) Mr. Acree continued to reside with his mother and family, filling, to the best of his ability, the position naturally devolving upon him as the eldest son. In 1848 he took to himself a wife, the object of his choice being Miss Eloessa Yount, daughter of William and Cathrine (Sacra) Yount, old settlers of the county. Mr. Acree remained on the old homestead and bought out the other heirs, and became sole proprietor. He has added to it until the farm now embraces four hundred and eighty-five acres of well-improved land. Mr. Acree is to be congratulated on his past success, and it is but just to add that in a large measure he has been assisted by a noble, self-denying wife who has not only saved her husband's hard earnings, but has materially added from time to time thereto. Two children only are spared to them as the fruits of their marriage: Mrs. Mary C. (Tho A. Taylor) and Mattie, wife of L. McDonald.