History of Macon County, Illinois.  With Illustrations Descriptive Of 
Its Scenery, and Biographical Sketches of some of its Prominent Men and 
Pioneers.  Published by Brink, McDonough & Co., Phildelphia, 1880.  
Reproduced through efforts of The Decatur Genealogical Society, 1972. p. 
159 [Bourbon County].

DAVID MARTIN.  Among the older business men of Decatur is David Martin, 
who became a resident of the town in 1858, but whose business 
transactions with the county date back to 1842.  He is a Kentuckian by 
birth, and was born within six miles of Paris, in Bourbon county, on the 
first of April, 1820.  Aaron Martin, his grandfather, was a Virginian, 
who served on the side of the colonies during the Revolutionary war.  
The Martin family as of English descent, and among the early settlers of 
Virginia, locating on the James river.  About the year 1790 Aaron Martin 
moved with his family from Virginia to Kentucky, and settled in what 
became Bourbon county.  This was at a time when the Indians were yet 
numerous, and in some parts of the state gave great trouble to the 
pioneer white settlers.  Mr. Martin's father, James Martin, was born in 
Virginia on the eighth of March, 1783, and consequently was about seven 
years old when the family took up its residence in Kentucky.  He was 
raised in Bourbon county, and married Catharine Layton, a native of the 
state of Delaware, and daughter of David Layton, one of the early 
settlers of Bourbon county.  His marriage occured about the year 1808.  
In the fall of 1829 James Martin emigrated to Clark county, Indiana, 
where he remained till the fall of 1835 and then moved to Sangamon 
county, in this state, and settled near Rochester, where he lived till 
his death on the twenty-seventh of August, 1857.  Mr. Martin's mother 
died in Bourbon county, Kentucky, in the spring of 1829.  
        David Martin was the fifth of seven children by his father's first 
marriage.  He was nine years old when the family left Kentucky.  On 
account of the defective eyesight with which he was born, he was unable 
to enjoy the school facilities which fell to the lot of most boys.  He, 
however, went to school some time in Indiana.  He was fifteen when he 
came to Sangamon county in this state.  In the year 1840, when he was 
twenty years old, he began to work for a man in the lime business in 
Sangamon county, and has ever since been enaged in dealing in lime.  In 
1842 he began to burn lime for himself, and had a kiln in the north-west 
corner of Christian county, twelve miles from Springfield and twenty-
eight from Decatur.  This was in the day before railroads were in 
operation, and farmers were accustomed to haul their wheat to 
Springfield and Beardstown.  Mr. Martin sold lime in Macon county as 
early as 1842, the farmers stopping at his kiln for a load of lime on 
their return home.  The most of the lime with which to construct a great 
part of the early buildings in Decatur came from this kiln.  After 
running this kiln ten years he concluded to go into business on a larger 
scale, and in 1853 moved to Alton and went into the business of 
manuacturing lime extensively.  In 1855 he bought out the leading 
manufacturer at Alton, and operated the first Page patent kiln ever put 
up in that town.  While in business at Alton he supplied with lime 
Decatur, Springfield, Peoria, Bloomington, Clinton and Champaign in this 
state and also made shipments along the Mississippi from New Orleans to 
St. Paul.  Edward Ulrich, of Springfield, was his partner, and the firm 
was known as D. Martin & Co.  Their sales amounted to two hundred 
thousand barrels a year.  The losses with which the firm met in the 
financial crisis of 1857 crippled their business at Alton, and in 1858 
Mr. Martin established himself at Decatur.  August, 1859, he bought back 
an interest in the business at Alton, which he retained till March, 
1865.  Since 1858 he has carried on business at Decatur.  From 1858 to 
1869 thirteen other parties entered into the lime business in opposition 
at Decatur, but since the latter year he has had no competitor.  His 
business is both wholesale and retail, and besides Decatur he supplies 
many of the adjacent smaller towns.  According to gentlemen acquainted 
with the lime busines, he has the best arranged buildings for handling 
and keeping his stock to be found in any western state.  He keeps full 
supplies of lime, hair, plaster, cement and Frear stone.
         He was married on the first of April, 1858, to Miss Sophie 
Granger, a native of Palmer, Hampden county, Massachusetts. She was 
living at Clinton, De Witt county, at the time of her marriage.  He has 
had four children, Louisa, Edward, Lucy, who died at the age of four 
years, and Annie. In his politics he was raised an Old Line Whig, and 
cast his first vote for President for that great Kentucky statesman and 
champion of the Whig party - Henry Clay.  The great speech of Abraham 
Lincoln, at Springfield, in 1854, in reply to Douglas, made him a 
Republican, and he is still a firm believer in the principles of that 
party through whose agency slavery was abolished and the Union saved.  
His time has been devoted to his personal business, and he has never 
been a candidate for any office.  He has been a member of the Methodist 
Church since 1838.

Clay Douglas Granger Layton Lincoln Martin Ulrich
=
Alton-IL Beardstown-IL Bloomington-IL Champaign-IL Christian-IL Clark-IN 
Clinton-De_Witt-IL DE Decatur-Macon-IL New Orleans-LA Palmer-Hampden-MS 
Peoria-IL Rochester-Sangamon-IL Sprinfield-Sangamon-IL St._Paul-MN VA

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/bourbon/martin.d.txt