Francis H. Rearick, the subject of this sketch was born in Berleburg, in the province of Westphalia, in the Kingdom of Prussia, October 12, 1829. He was one of five sons of Jacob Rearick, who was a copper and tinsmith in the old country and having a large family of five sons and one daughter conceived the idea of moving to the United States. Having a great horror of the forced military service which his sons would have to render to the king of Prussia, he decided to go to a new country, the United States, the "home of the brave and the land of the free," and emigrated in 1836 in the month of June from his home in Prussia for the United States of America and after a two months' sea voyage with many tempestuous storms and privations reached Baltimore in August of the same year.
After having sought for a brief time for employment for himself and family in Baltimore and having failed to find it he moved by wagon to Franklin county, Pa., and located at Mount Alto in that county, where his family grew up about him. Here, the subject of this sketch grew to manhood, having received such education as the village school afforded him, which was very imperfect, as not over three months a year of schools were then conducted in the village, and these, very crude and imperfect. At the age of 14, he was obliged to stop school and give himself to various employment, largely doing farm work and the other manual labor and at intervals working with his father at the tinner's trade which he learned, and so continued until he arrived at the age of 21 when he determined to go westward and in September 1850 he left his home in Pennsylvania and came west and located in Beardstown in November 1850, where he commenced work at his trade for an older brother, who had preceded him to this place. There he continued to work for his brother using all his spare hours to improve his lack of education in his younger years, and by reading and studying the history of our country, and becoming familiar with the prominent men of the land became interested in the politics of that day.
His political leanings were with the democratic party. At this time the political parties in Cass county were very evenly divided numerically; the whigs sometimes filling the offices of the county, and sometimes the democrats. At this time the office of circuit clerk was filled by Thomas R. Saunders. The county clerk's office was held by L. F. Sanders. The sheriffs's office was filled by Col. J. B. Fulks all of whom were whigs. Soon after this, the democratic party rather gained in strength in the county and the offices were filled more generally by democrats than whigs.
About these times, the subject of our sketch was active in his political preferences and having been recognized as one of the leading young men of the county in political affairs, was elected to the office of city treasurer of the city of Beardstown. About this time Beardstown was the commercial center of all that region of country, drawing nearly all the trade of Cass county, a large part of Menard county and also drawing largely from Morgan and Sangamon counties, for at this time there were no railroads in the state of Illinois, except a short piece of railroad running from Naples on the Illinois river, to Springfield, Illinois, and all grains, pork and other farm products had to be hauled to the river in wagons, then carried mostly to St. Louis by steamboat.
At this time the leading merchants of Beardstown were such men as John McDonald, E. R. Saunders, Billings, McGee & Warner, Miller Hagerman & Bros., Nolte & McClure. Most of these firms were engaged at the same time in buying and packing pork, which was a very important business carried on at Beardstown at this time. The hogs were driven from adjoining counties often as far as from Logan county, in this state, to beardstown to be there slaughtered and packed and shipped to market.
Among the prominent professional men of Beardstown at this time, of the attorneys were Henry E. Dummer, John B. Shaw, J. Henry Shaw, Isham Reavis, Sylvester Emmons. And among the leading doctors were Dr. Charles Sprague, John Christy, Dr. J. R. Dowler and Dr. Francis Erhardt. The only newspaper in Beardstown at this time was the "Beardstown Gazette, which was published by Sylvester Emmons, who was elected clerk of the circuit court in 1852. About this time L. U. Reavis made his appearance at Beardstown, and became the publisher of a newspaper called the "Center Illinoisan," now called "Illinoian-Star"; associated with him in the publication of this paper was Mr. J. B. Shaw. L. U. Reavis took Horace Greeley as a patron saint and his great hobby was to remove the capitol from Washington to St. Louis and his enthusiasm in this direction made him the butt of ridicule oftentimes and newspapers were known to caricature him as bearing on his back the capitol from Washington to St. Louis. Reavis was lame, one leg being shorter than the other. he lengthened the shorter leg ay adding to the height of the heel of the shoe.
During these years between 1850 and 1853, the subject of this sketch continued to work at his trade for his brother. In the spring of 1853 his brother sold out his interest to him and went to California. Then he began to conduct the business on his own account and continued in this business for many years, almost continuously for 20 years.
In the fall of 1853, Oct. 12th, he was married to Helen M. Shaw, who was the daughter of Joseph Shaw, a man well known in Morgan and Cass counties, and she was the sister of John B. Shaw and J. Henry Shaw. By this union were born nine children, six surviving and three dying in childhood.
In the year 1858 his political friends prevailed on him to accept the office of Sheriff of Cass county to which he was elected in the fall of 1858 and served his term of two years, going out of office in 1860. In the meantime he continued his interest in the hardware and tin business in connection with a younger brother, William J. Rearick. In 1861 he was again prevailed upon to accept the nomination of his party to the office of Judge of the County Court of Cass County and was in the fall of 1861 duly elected to this place of honor and served his term of four years. During his term of office, his associates were William McHenry and G. W. Shawen. At this time the offices of the county were all filled by democrats, Allen J. Hill being county clerk, Henry Phillips being clerk of the circuit court, and James Taylor being sheriff of the county.
After the expiration of his term of office he again gave his undivided attention to his business for a time. In the year 1870 upon the death of Judge Hoffman, who was then filling the office of county judge, he was re-elected to fill the unexpired term of Judge Hoffman with unanimity, without any opposing candidate in the field, both parties supporting him. After the expiration of his second term as Judge of the county court, in the spring of 1874, Mr. rearick found a family growing up about him of sons and daughters and having a desire to give them the benefit of a good education he sought for a new location and upon investigation, finding he could purchase an interest in the hardware business of Boyd & Brother, of Galesburg, he decided to make a change of location and in the spring of 1874 moved to Galesburg, the firm name being Boyd & Rearick, which firm continued in the hardware business for about ten years, when he purchased the interest of his partner and has since continued in the hardware business part of the time being the sole proprietor of the business, and afterwards associating with him in the business, his oldest son Harry F. Rearick. To the business at Galesburg, he has given his undivided attention in all these years and is still actively engaged in the business with his son, doing as H. F. Rearick & Son. Since coming to Galesburg, he has several times served on the Board of Supervisors of Knox county.
Mr. and Mrs. Rearick were permitted to enjoy a long and happy married life, having lived together as husband and wife for over fifty years, sharing in each others joys and sorrows of life; were permitted to live to celebrate their Golden Wedding on the 12th of October, 1903, on which occasion all their children were permitted to enjoy this happy event with their parents. Mrs. Rearick's days were few after this occasion, being taken away April 1st, 1904, 6 months after.
The church relations of Judge Rearick have always been with the Congregational church. He united with the Congregational church at Beardstown, in 1855, and continued his membership and united with the First congregational church at Galesburg with his family and entered on the union of the two churches, the old First and the Congregational church and became a member of the Central church. He was always in his younger years, active in the Sunday School work and other church work and has always been ready to contribute of his means to the help fo the church and other Christian work.
At this time Judge Rearick held the office of county judge of this county, he, with his two associates performed the duties which now devolve upon the board of county commissioners. Some of the latter named officials have been charged with being very zealous in their efforts to benefit the neighborhood of their residence to the neglect of other portions of the county, but no such charge was ever made against Judge Francis H. Rearick. He possessed such breadth of mind as to be absolutely impartial and was watchful of the interests of every section of the county he so faithfully and efficiently served. No more capable or honorable man ever filled an office among us, and his departure from beardstown was a serious loss to Cass county.