Mr. Ticknor came to Illinois from his native State, New York, in the spring of 1858. He was born in Upper Lisle Township, Broome County, that State, Aug. 13, 1825, and is the son of Elias and Mary (Covy) Ticknor. Elias Ticknor, also a native of Broome County, was born on the farm that had been taken up in the woods by his father, Elias Ticknor, Sr., and was one of a family of nine children, six sons and three daughters. Grandfather Ticknor was a native either of New Hampshire or Massachusetts, and sprang from a family which had settled in New England probably during the colonial days. They were mostly engaged in agricultural pursuits, and were almost uniformly well-to-do, and people noted for their honesty and integrity. Grandfather Ticknor was married in early manhood to Miss Lydia Bingham, and not long afterward emigrated to Broome County, N. Y., where he settled in the woods, and gradually cleared up a farm. After living to the advanced age of eighty-four years, he was accidentally killed by falling from a shed. His good wife had preceded him to the silent land some years.

Elias Ticknor, Jr., the father of our subject, was reared at the homestead in Broome County, N. Y., and in that county was married to Miss Mary Covy, a native of New York State, who traced her ancestry to Holland. After emigrating to the United States, they settled in Broome County, N. Y., at a very early day. The parents of our subject, after their marriage, began their wedded life at the old Ticknor farm, where they lived for a few years, then removed to Grandfather Covy's farm in the same county, where they spent the remainder of their days; the father dying at the age of fifty-eight years, and the mother soon afterward at about the same age.

Four sons and four daughters comprised the household of Elias Ticknor, Jr., and his estimable wife, of whom Levi F., our subject, was the eldest. The children are all living and married, with the exception of one son, Horace. This son, during the Civil War, enlisted in Company K, 27th Illinois Infantry, and was killed by rebels at Mud Creek, Tenn., when about twenty-four years old. He enlisted as a private, and was promoted to Corporal. Levi F., like his brothers and sisters, was reared under the home roof, and at an early age taught to make himself useful about the farm. He acquired a common school education, and grew up sound in mind and body, and amply fitted for the future duties and responsibilities of life.

The life of our subject was passed in a comparatively uneventful manner until his marriage, which occurred in Cattaraugus County, N. Y., at the home of Miss Flora Thompson, who was a native of that county, and was born in 1826. The parents of Mrs. Ticknor were John and Mary Thompson, natives of Vermont, where they were born, reared and married, and whence they removed to Cattaraugus County, N. Y., while it was still a wilderness. The father took up a tract of Government land, from which he constructed a comfortable homestead, and there both parents spent the remainder of their days. Their family consisted of five children.

Mrs. Ticknor remained with her parents during her childhood and youth, receiving a common school education, and being trained to habits of thrift and industry. Of her union with our subject, there have been born four children. The eldest son, Leroy, married Miss Helen Farnham, and they are living on a farm in Gage County, Neb.; Elmer E. H. married Miss Eva Bramham, and they are living on a farm in township 15, range 11; Alena is the wife of Frank Losee, and they live on a farm near Gibbon, Buffalo Co., Neb.; Harry M. is at home with his parents. Mr. Ticknor, politically, is a sound Republican, in the principles of which party he is fully engrafted by the example of his father and grandfather before him, who belonged to the old-line Whigs.