BUCK, CHARLES, who died September 18, 1914, was an honored veteran of the Civil War and one of the successful agriculturists of Cass County. He was born at Buffalo, N.Y., July 25, 1839, a son of Augustus and Eliza (Alexander) Buck. He was born in New York in 1811, a son of Frederick Buck, of Saxony, Germany. She was born March 13, 1811, and died in 1851, a daughter of John and Olive (Bolson) Alexander, natives of Connecticut and of the Mohawk Valley, N.Y., respectively. Augustus Buck, after marriage in New York state in 1834, located at Buffalo, N.Y., and later removed to Rochester. He was a woodworker by trade, and in the fall of 1854 came to Cass County, buying 320 acres in township 18, range 9, Chandlerville Precinct, and moved on the place. It was covered with brush and timber and it was hard work to clear it, but Augustus Buck commenced at once and gradually placed it under cultivation, and continued to improve it until his death in the fall of 1873. His children were as follows: Alexander, who is on the old farm; Lucinda, who died in infancy; Alonzo, who is in Pekin, Ill.; Charles; Eugene and Edgar, both of whom died while in service during the Civil war; and Eliza, who became Mrs. Charles Roberts, and died in Kansas. After the death of his first wife, Augustus Buck married Mrs. Rachel Hussy. The eldest son of Mr. Buck, Alexander, was taken when three years old by his maternal grandparents to Clarendon, Orleans County, N.Y., and there grew to manhood. He became a maker of musical instruments, and in 1857 came to Galesburg, Ill, where he was engaged in his line of work for two years. He then returned to Orleans County, N.Y., and in 1863 went to Cleveland, Ohio, and continued in that city until 1912, engaged in tuning organs and pianos. He then joined hi brother Charles in Cass County, and lived with him until the latter's death. He was married in 1867, at Cleveland, to Orphia C. Ticknor, of New York, who died September 25, 1912, leaving no issue. Another brother, Alonzo buck, is a painting contractor of Pekin, Ill. He enlisted from Illinois in the Fourteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry and served four years in the Civil war. He has three sons and two daughters.

Charles Buck remained with his parents until the death of his mother, when he was taken to the home of his grandfather Alexander. On August 22, 1862, he enlisted for service in the Civil war in the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth New York Volunteer Infantry, and was stationed for eighteen months at Baltimore, Md. In the spring of 1863 he participated in the battle of the Wilderness, and was with the army of the Potomac until the surrender of General Lee, which he witnessed. He also took part in the memorable grand review of the victorious troops at Washington. Following this, on June 5, 1865, he was honorably discharged and went to Orleans County, N.Y., where he spent a few months, then came to visit his father in Cass County, Ill., spending a year with him. Going then to Cleveland, Ohio, he began work in an organ factory and remained for years. In the meanwhile the father died and in 1876 he located on 280 acres of his father's farm, which he bought from the heirs. In the fall of 1887 he rented out the farm, and returned to Cleveland, where he worked as a carpenter and painter until October, 1903, when he came back to his farm and continued to operate it. He had about fifty-five acres under cultivation, sold eighty acres, and the balance is in timber and pasturage.

On May 7, 1878, Mr. Buck was married at Cleveland, Ohio, to Louisa Kugler, born in Germany, October 20, 1843, a daughter of George and Dorothy C. (Bernhart) Kugler, who came to the United States in 1848. Mr. and Mrs. Buck had one daughter, Iva Eugenia, who was born January 25, 1869, and died April 1, 1893. Mr. Buck voted with the Republican party. He was well known over the county and had many friends.