Winans, Evans and Miller to LaSalle Co, IL
Extracted from Biographical and Genealogical Record of La
Salle Co., Illinois Volume 2
by Sandie Webber
Alva
Winans
The subject of this sketch is a retired farmer and one of the highly respected
citizens of Dana, Illinois and as such his life history is of interest in this
work and is as follows: Alva Winans was born on the Hudson River in the town of
Germantown, Columbia County, New York and in their family were nine children who
lived to be grown, five of whom are now living: Orrin, Alva, Robert, Bruce,
Lavina (the widow of Lyman Utter, of Lewistown, Idaho), Mary (the widow of John
L. Boyd, of Groveland Township, La Salle Co. Illinois).
Their father, a farmer, about 1855, came out to Illinois and located on a farm
in Groveland Twp, La Salle Co, where he bought a farm of 80 acres. He died here
in 1871, past the age of 73 years. His wife was about 72 at the time of her
death, which occurred three years after his. Both were members of the Advent
Church. During the War of 1812 he enlisted in the service of his country and
went down to New York City to enter upon active duty, but the war closed shortly
afterward and he never participated in any engagements. He filled various
township offices.
The subject of our sketch has in his veins a mixture of Danish and German blood, the former coming through his paternal ancestors and the latter through his maternal. Grandfather Lewis Winans was a native of Canaan, Massachusetts and was by occupation a farmer. He died in New York State over 70 years of age. His family comprised four sons and two daughters. the maternal grandfather of Mr. Winans, Andrew Hover, was a native of New York and although a farmer by occupation was a man of considerable education and was well versed in law. Being of German descent and a German scholar, he was frequently called upon by his German neighbors to draw up papers of various kinds for them. He was drowned in the Hudson River, when over 79 years of age. He was in a row boat with two other men and three women, when they were run into by an old scow, and all the lives in the row boat were lost. Mr Hover was the father of 14 children.
Alva Winans was reared to farm life in Columbia and Monroe counties, New York and also for a time lived in Greene County, that state. He spent three years on the river and Atlantic Ocean; ran from New York to Philadelphia on the steamer Kennebeck, and was one year on the steamer Roanoke. Then he spent another year as a farmer in New York and in 1853 came west to Illinois. Buying a yoke of a cattle, he began breaking prairie in Marshall County having bought 80 acres of land in La Prairie Township, this state. This land he sold not long afterward, and in 1856 he came to LaSalle County and bought 157 acres in the northwest quarter of section 2, Groveland Township, which he improved from raw prairie and which he still owns, it now being beging operated by his youngest son.
Mr. Winans resided upon his farm until march, 1898, when he retired from the active duties of life and has since been living quietly in a pleasant home in Danas. He was married Jan 1, 1853 to Miss Delia Sickles, a daughter of Christopher and Julia (Jenks) Sickles, natives of New York State. She is one of a family of six children, four of whom are now living, the other three being Emeline, the wife of John Phillips of LaPrairie Township, Marshall County, Illinois; Edward of Chillicothe, Illinois and Julia, the wife of Porter Lazelle. Mrs. Winans, grandfather was Thomas Jenks.
He was a native of New York, was a farmer by occupation and
lived to a ripe old age. He was the father of 12 children, of whom Mrs. Winans
mother was the eldest. Mrs Winans came with her parents to Illinois in 1850, the
family settling in Marshall County, Illinois, where she was reared. Her father
died in Chillicothe, Illinois, October 10, 1889 on his 85 birthday. Her mother
died in February 1887 at the age if 82 years. they were members of the Baptist
Church.
Mr. and Mrs. Winans have had 12 children, six sons and six daughters, three of
whom died in infancy. The following is a brief record of the other members of
the family:
Daniel T. married Mary White and lives in Groveland Township,
LaSalle County and has three children, Cassie, Dio and Belle; Ira, unmarried, is
the proprietor of a livery stable in Dana; Ellsworth married Ida Cox and lives
on a farm in Groveland Township; Eva, wife of James Hayter of Newton, Jasper
County, Iowa, has two children, Lulu and Beryl; Julia, wife of Richard White of
Pocahontas County, Iowa has eight children:
Ernest, Chloe, Ethel, Pearl, Harvey and Leo, Lila and Lela who are triplets;
Belle, a resident of Newton, Iowa has been twice married. By her first husband
George Griffin having two children, Amy and Alva, her present husband being
William J. Crawford; Ida, the wife of James Justice of Newton, Iowa, has two
children, Guy and Bernice; Ella the wife of Allen Martin of Dana, has six
children, Edna, Alva, John William, Agnes and Doris; and Bernice, the wife of
Williamm Mathis of Los Angeles, California.
Politically Mr. Winans is a Democrat. He has filled some local offices such as roadmaster and school trustee.
(Note from Sandy: Note: 1850 census for Greenville, Greene Co.
NY, Page 203)
Winans, all born in NY
Alvah age 51 farmer. real estate $3500
Eva 47
Andrew 20
Lavina 27
Mary 18
Lewis 12
Robert B. 5
Georgiana 4 months
Edwin Evans, MD
Edwin Evans, M.D., a retired physician of Streator, was born at
New Durham, Greene Co., NY, Oct. 6, 1821, a son of Rev. William and Harriet
(Linsley) Evans, his father being a Presbyterian minister. Edwin Evans received
an academical education and took a two-years college course at Homer, NY. He
read medicine as Owasco, NY and took a course of lectures at Geneva, and later
attended lectures in the medical department in the University of New York, from
which he graduated as M.D. in 1846. He began the practice of medicine at Walden,
NY where he remained till 1851, when he came to Illinois and engaged in farming
in La Salle County for four years. He then went to Ancona, Livingston Co.,
Illinois and resumed the practice of medicine, which he followed about eight
years, when he engaged in the mercantile business at Pontiac, and also
speculated in livestock til 1868. He then came to Streator and
again resumed the practice of medicine and also speculated in town property.
In 1872 he abandoned the practice of his profession and devoted
his entire attention to dealing in real estate and building business houses on
Main Street, many of which he still owns. With the exception of collecting his
rents he has retired from business life. In 1880 he was one of the
incorporators of the Streator Window-Glass Company and served as its President
till June, 1884, when he resigned. In 1882 he was one of the one of the
incorporators and a stockholder of the Union National Bank of Streator. The
doctor is a member of the Illinois State Natural History Society and also of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, he taking an active
interest in both geology and paleontology, making a specialty of the later. He
occasionally reads papers before these societies. Dr. Evans makes annual trips
to the different parts of the American Continent, not only for the improvement
of his health but for amusement and to gratify his penchant for gathering
fossils and geological studies. He has visited all the principal points of
interest in the Rocky Mountains, including Yellowstone Park and has examined
rocks and fossils in all the southern states and in Canada and has collected a
large cabinet of paleontological and zoological specimens. He was married in
1849 to Jess S., daughter of Seth M. Capron, a prominent woolen manufacturer of
Walden, NY. They have one daughter, Helen, now married. The doctor is an
attendant and his wife a member of the Congregational church at Streator.
Bruce C. Miller
Bruce Clawson Miller, a successful agriculturist of Eden Township, LaSalle
County, has been the architect of his own fortunes, as he started out in the
battle of life empty handed and by the exercise of his native powers has won an
honored place and an assured competence for his later years.
The parents of our subject, Seymour and Polly (Clawson) Miller, were natives of
New York state. They had four children, but one son and one daughter have died
and only Bruce C. and Dwight, of Prattsville, New York, survive. The mother died
when our subject was a small boy and the father subsequently married her sister,
Lydia, and had one child by that union. After he death he wedded Harriet
Goodsell and in his old age, as death had once more deprived him of a companion
and helpmate, he married Mary Goodsell, a sister of his third wife. He was of
Irish descent and his father, John Miller, a farmer, was born in New York state.
He passed his entire life there, dying when upward of three score and ten years.
The father of Mrs. Polly (Clawson) Miller also was born in the Empire state and
followed agriculture as a means of livelihood. Seymour Miller learned the
carpenter's trade, which he pursued to some extent, later managing a farm and
running a hotel. His whole life was spent in Greene County, New York, the place
of his birth, and he reached the age allotted to man, three score and ten. He
was a conscientious, upright man and was a worthy member of the Baptist church.
The birth of Bruce C. Miller took place in Greene County, New York, July 24,
1836. He remained with his father working on the farm and in the hotel, until he
reached his majority. Desiring to locate permanently in the west, he came to
Illinois in 1862 and for some time worked for a farmer in the vicinity of Tonica.
At length he had saved sufficient capital to buy a farm of 80 acres in
Livingston County, but this being in the nature of an investment, he did not go
there to live. A few years later, he rented a homestead in LaSalle County,
selling the other place and at the end of seven or eight years he purchased his
present farm of 150 acres, which he had previously leased for three years. In
time he added another tract of 40 acres to his original farm, but this property
he afterward sold. Since 1877 he has lived upon his now well improved homestead
one mile east of Tonica, on section 24, Eden Township. Altogether he owns 310
acres, one farm of a quarter-section being in Franklin Co., Iowa. He is engaged
in general farming and stock raising and has been very successful, as he justly
deserves.
On the 15th of April, 1876, Mr. Miller married Miss Sarah Scott, a daughter of
William and Nellie (Hill) Scott, who were natives of Ohio, and farmers by
occupation. Mrs. Miller's grandfathers, likewise, were born in the Buckeye state
and her mother's father participated in the War of 1812. Mrs. Miller had one
sister, who is deceased, and her only brother, Mitchell Scott, who was sergeant
in a company of an Ohio resident of volunteers during the Civil War, is now a
resident of Ayr, Nebraska. Four children were born to our subject and wife,
Willie, who died when about 12 months old, and Ralph, Verna and Roy, who are yet
at home. Mrs. Miller's parents were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church
and she consequently was an attendant at the services of that
denomination. In his political belief Mr. Miller is a Democrat, but he devotes
little of his time to public affairs, as his business and domestic interests
take the first place in his heart.