Illinois: History of Cass County, Illinois, ed. William Henry Perrin. O. L. Baskin & Co. Historical Publishers, Chicago, 1882. Cass County. JOSEPH WEAVER, contractor and brick-layer, Beardstown; was born in Putnam County, Ind., Oct. 22, 1832. George W. Weaver, subject's father, was born in Fluvanna County, Va., and moved to Kentucky when a boy; in 1833 he came with his family to this county, then Morgan County, settling on a farm in Jersey Prairie, where he lived for many years; he also lived several years in Virginia, this county, where he was engaged in brickmaking; he built the Virginia Seminary. He came to Beardstown about the year 1850, where he engaged in the milling and lumber business about fifteen years. He served one term as County Judge of this county, some time between 1840 and 1850, and was Mayor of Beardstown for three terms. He retired from business life several years before his death, which occurred March 8, 1881, he being then in his seventy-seventh year. His wife, Martha Carver, bore him twelve children, of whom three sons and four daughters are living, Joseph being the eldest living son. Our subject learned the trades of bricklaying and brickmaking with his father, and took his first contract in Beardstown, in 1856, and has since been contractor and foreman on brick work there, with the exception of four years, which he spent in Hancock County, Ill. In Beardstown, in April, 1862, he married Mary Collins, daughter of Edward and Thalia (Beard) Collins. Edward Collins was born in Enfield, Ct., in 1797, and in 1836 moved with his family to a farm in Beardstown Precinct, this county, where he farmed until about twelve years before his death, spending his last years in Beardstown; he died in 1863; his wife died in 1860. He came to Beardstown from Ohio in 1832. Weaver Carver Collins Beard = Putnam-IN Fluvanna-VA Morgan-IL Hancock-IL CT OH