"Portrait and biographical album of Coles County, Illinois"
  
ENRIE CHAMBERS, a gentleman in the prime of life and in the midst of his usefulness, is numbered among the worthy residents of Morgan Township, where he has built up a good homestead on sec. 19, and has fully kept pace with his neighbors in thrift and enterprise, tilling the soil and marketing annually some of the choicest products of the Prairie State. Our subject has spent the greater part of his life in this county, having been born and reared in Charleston. His birth took place Sept. 16, 1842. His parents, Thomas G. and Olivia (Monroe) Chambers, came to Central Illinois in 1838, and for nearly fifty years have watched with interest and satisfaction the development and growth of the Prairie State. They experienced all the hardships and vicissitudes of pioneer life and have reaped their reward in the accumulation of a competency and the profound respect and confidence of all who know them. They are residing in Charleston.
The father of our subject was born in Harrison County, Ky., Jan. 22, 1816. and is the son of James and Sallie (Rankin) Chambers, who descended respectively from Irish and Scottish ancestry. He emigrated from his native State in about 1838, and after locating in Charleston, this county, was married to Miss Monroe, March 12, 1840. Of this union there were born eleven children: Alice, the eldest, is the wife of J. A. Parker, a farmer of Charleston Township; Henrie, of our sketch, is the second child; John was married and died in about 1869; Lucy died in infancy; Belle is the wife of D. II. Calvert, a druggist of Charleston, and they have one child; George R. is a merchant at Charleston, and the father of three children; Maggie is the wife of Charles Rickets, who is employed in the Census Department at Washington, D. C.; Nannie married W. E. Hill, who is engaged in the grocery trade at Charleston; William M. is a resident of the latter-named place; Alfred is studying law; Thomas G. died in 1874.
Our subject spent his childhood and youth under the parental roof, pursuing his primary studies in the schools of Charleston, and completed his education at Jacksonville, Ill. The next important step in his life was his marriage, Dec. 31, 1867, with Miss Clara R. Conditt, the adopted daughter of Mrs. M. G. Braddock, formerly of Charleston, but now of Humbolt Township. Mr. and Mrs. Chambers became the parents of six children, namely: Edwin, born Nov. 19, 1868, and now at home with his parents; Mary E., born June 12, 1871, and who died Feb. 25. 1872; Francis B., born Nov. 3, 1872, and died July 25, 1874; Olivia B., born Dec. 5, 1874, at home with her parents; Nannie May, born June 21, 1877, and Ralph M., Jan. 1, 1880.
In 1872 Mr. Chambers purchased 100 acres of his present farm, and afterward added twenty acres. He is engaged to a considerable extent in the breeding of graded stock, including Clydesdale horses and Durham cattle, and he carries on general farming. He built his present residence in about 1874. The house which first stood on the place was burned in 1874, together with most of its contents. Our subject and the various members of his family are connected with Salem Baptist Church, of which Mr. C. has been a member for the last twelve years, and his estimable wife for twenty-three years. He is a stockholder in the Coles County Agricultural Fair Grounds, and has been identified with many of the enterprises calculated to advance the prosperity of the county.
During the late war, Mr. Chambers fulfilled faithfully the duties of a loyal citizen by proffering his services for the preservation of the Union, en- listing in Co. C, 54th Ill. Vol. Inf., in the fall of 1861, and enduring the vicissitudes of a soldier’s life for a space of three years and eleven months. He marched by the side of his comrades over the greater part of the South, and met the enemy in the siege of Vicksburg, at the capture of Little Rock, Ark., and in many other important battles of the war. He went out under the command of Col. Harris and came back with the troops of Col. Mitchell, now Warden of the State Penitentiary at Chester.
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