"Portrait and biographical album of Coles County, Illinois"
  
REEDOM E. HOBART, whose home is on section 21, Seven Hickory Township, has been engaged in the occupations of both farmer and school teacher. He was born on the 16th of September, 1847, in Nelson Township, Portage Co., Ohio, his parents being John Sullivan and Margaret (Moore) Hobart. John S. Hobart was the son of Benjamin and Mary (Wheeler) Hobart, and was born on the 25th of November, 1806, in New Hampshire, and with his father and grandfather, William, moved from New Hampshire to Ohio about 1814. He was a school teacher in his early days, but was afterward variously employed in farming and merchandising. He was married twice; the first time to Margaret Moore, on the 10th of December, 1834, and she had nine children: Thomas Moore, born Sept. 6, 1835; Benjamin Elmer, June 23, 1837; Mary Elizabeth, born June 7, 1839, married Monroe W. Seibert, of Fremont, Ohio; Jefferson R., born Feb. 20, 1841, is a physician in Ashmore, Ill.; William Wallace, born April 20, 1 843, is a resident of Miami County, Ohio; Marcene, born Aug. 10, 1845, resides in Pemberville, Ohio; Freedom E., our subject, born Sept. 16, 1847; Hannah, born Nov. 8, 1849, married James Thompson, and both are deceased; they left two children. Marcellus, born June 15, 1852, is a resident of Fremont, Ohio.
The first wife of John S. Hobart died on the 29th of October, 1856, and he was again married, this time to Mrs. A. C. Alton, on the 1st of March, 1858. By this marriage three children were born: Addison and Allison, who are twins, and John S., Jr. His children, twelve in number, were all fairly educated, and at some time in their life all taught school. One child, Mary E., is a graduate of Oberlin College, and three of the sons are gradates of commercial colleges, and three of medical institutions. One of the children, Thomas M., has been admitted to the bar as a lawyer, but does not engage in active practice. William Wallace Hobart, brother of the subject of this sketch, was a soldier in the war of the Rebellion for about three years and three months, and participated in several. important engagements. Benjamin E. and Marcene, two other brothers, were also in the Union army.
Benjamin Hobart, the grandfather, was the son of William and Sallie (Taylor) Hobart, and was born on the 12th of March, 1777, at Thornton, N. H. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, and is buried at the Hurd burying-ground, in Nelson, Portage Co., Ohio, where our subject’s father, mother and grandmother are also buried. The paternal great-grandfather, William Hobart, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and his remains are buried in Windham, Portage Co., Ohio.
Freedom E. Hobart was raised on a farm, and availed himself of the opportunity to attend the district school during the winter months until he was eighteen years of age, when he went to Oberlin, Ohio, and attended school about three months; then he commenced teaching school, and followed that occupation in Ohio for two years, and in July, 1868, came to Illinois, where he taught a country school during the winter, and farmed in the summer months. In the spring of 1870 he went to Kansas, where he homesteaded 160 acres of land, and returned to Illinois to teach school during the following winter. In the spring of 1871 he went back to Kansas, and turned the homestead into a pre-emption, receiving a deed from the Government, and in the fall of the same year returned to Illinois, where he again taught school during the winter. In the spring of 1873 he attended school at the Normal University at Normal, Ill., and the following winter again taught school and conducted a Teachers’ Institute at Neoga, in the summer of 1874. In the fall of that year he again attended school at Normal, and remained until the following June, this being the only winter in which he omitted teaching from the fall of 1866 to the spring of 1887. In the summer of 1875 he again conducted a Teachers’ Institute at Neoga, during which time he was married to Miss Sarah Finley McNutt, which event occurred on the 29th of July, 1875. She was the daughter of James and Susan (McCullough) McNutt, of Neoga.
James McNutt was born in Blount County, E. Tenn., in 1808; Susan McCullough was born in the same county, Aug. 20, 1814; they were married in 1833, and immediately moved to Edgar County, Ill. Here were born to them eight children: Narcissa E., born Aug. 27, 1834, was married to Jonathan B. Morrison in September, 1854, and is now living near Neoga, Cumberland Co., Ill.; Robert was born Feb. 1, 1837, married Eliza H. Gale, Dec. 24, 1868, and is now living in Neoga, Ill.; Frances M., born Feb. 8, 1840, was married to John T. Waller, June 8, 1865, and is now living in Louisville, Ky.; Asa was born Oct. 16, 1842, enlisted in the 66th Illinois Infantry in the fall of 1861, and died in March, 1862. from cold contracted by exposure at the battle of Ft. Donelson; Houston was born April 1, 1845, and died in the spring of 1847; Melinda was born Feb. 15, 1848, and was married to Philip Welshimer Nov. 26, 1872, and is now living in Neoga, Ill.; Florence was born Feb. 11, 1851, married to Louis A. Fairchilds Sept. 3, 1872, and died at Smith Centre, Smith Co., Kan., Oct. 7, 1881. Sarah F. was born Oct. 17, 1853, and was married to F. E. Hobart July 29, 1875. The family moved from Edgar County to near Neoga, Cumberland County, in the spring of 1854. James McNutt died there in the spring of 1857; his wife, Susan McNutt, is still living at Neoga, now aged seventy-three.
Mr. Hobart followed teaching in the winter and farmed at the McNutt homestead during the summer of 1876, when on account of the excessive rains he did not raise anything and lost all the money which he had. He again taught during the winter and farmed rented land in the years 1877 and 1878, these farming operations being losing ones. In the spring of 1879 Albert Wyeth, a friend of his, furnished the money to purchase fifty acres of land, where our subject’s home is now located. From that time on he was moderately successful in his undertakings, and by means of the farm and the money earned by himself and wife, who was also a teacher, they succeeded in meeting the payments on their little farm. In 1882 he was employed as Principal of the High School at Charleston, where he remained one year, during which time he was chosen as Principal and Superintendent, and his wife as First Assistant of the public schools at Oakland, Ill. He remained there one year, and was then elected to a similar position in Casey, Clark County, and in this work he was also assisted by his wife. This position was retained for two years, and during that time he also carried on his farming operations. In the spring of 1883, while living at Charleston, he sold his Kansas land, and in company with his brother, Dr. J. R. Hobart, bought a stock of drugs at Ashmore. Ill., which was taken charge of by his brother, and our subject continued teaching. In 1886 he was elected Superintendent and Principal of the schools at Kansas, Edgar County, where he remained one year. In the summer of that year Mr. Hobart was instructor at the Annual Institution at Oakland, Coles County, and also at Marshall, Clark County. In the summer of 1883 he carried off a prize at a competitive examination in United States History at Fremont, Ohio. In 1886 he sold his interest in the drug store to his brother, Dr. J. R. Hobart. In August, 1887, he took a position with Chapman Brothers, of Chicago, as a biographical writer.
Mr. and Mrs. Hobart have had three children, one of whom died in infancy; the two living are Mary Florence, born the 1st of June, 1876, and at the age of ten entered the High School at Kansas, Ill.; she has dark eyes and brown hair. Maude Finley, born May 24, 1880, has blue eyes and golden hair. Mrs. Hobart has black hair and brown eyes, and is of a pleasant disposition. She is an excellent scholar and writes a good hand.
Mr. Hobart has a good education, and in his conversation and writing shows that he is master of the English language. He was early imbued with the doctrines of the Congregational Church, but when he was about nineteen years of age he joined the Missionary Baptist Church; upon coming to Illinois he gave his letter from that denomination to the Christian Church, of which he has been a member ever since. He is about five feet and eight and one-half inches in height, rather heavily built, has auburn hair, gray eyes, and while naturally inclined to be social, yet on account of the firmness required in the school room has been termed reticent, and to a certain degree unsocial. He has always been a rigid temperance man, and although raised by a Republican father, and surrounded by Republican relatives, he has always been a Democrat. He has recently purchased the interest of half the heirs to his father’s estate in Ohio, all of which indicates that his successes in later life are more nearly commensurate with his deserts than in earlier life.
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