CATHERINE SAUNDERS, who has kept a little store for years at La Grange, Brown county, Illinois, is the widow of John Saunders, and was born in Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, in 1826. Her father, John Whited, and her mother, Mary Sheckler, were the same place in Pennsylvania. Her husband was from Maryland. Mrs. Saunders is the fourth child of a family of eleven. As her parents were poor, Mrs. Saunders has had no educational advantages, but has worked hard from early childhood.

She was married at the age of twenty-three to William Thomas, with whom she lived ten years, bearing him four children, all of whom have died. In 1855, she came West to this part of Brown county, where she has lived the most of the time. She was married a second time when she was thirty-four years old, to George Welbourn, of England. By this marriage, there were two children, one of whom died in infancy, the other at eighteen years of age. Mr. Welbourn died in 1862, aged thirty-two years, of congestive chills. She was married to her last husband, John Saunders, of Virginia. By this husband, she had one daughter: Lizzie, now Mrs. John Cisco. Her husband is a native of Ohio, and a farmer by occupation, working by the day. They live at home with her mother. She received a good education at the public schools, and now conducts the store for her aged mother.

Mrs. Saunders has seen some hard times in her life, but she has bravely met her troubles and conquered them. She owns her little home and store, which are nestled under the hill on the banks of the Illinois river, where she has done a snug little business, paying as she went. Mrs. Saunders is not wealthy, but she owes no one, and expects to finish her days here happily. She is a good and worthy woman, and deserves much praise for the way in which she has supported herself, keeping out of debt as she has.