DIVELBISS, Jonas
Jonas DIVELBISS. This gentleman occupies no
unimportant position among the leading citizens of Henry, where
he is now living a retired life, passing his declining years in
ease, and enjoying the respect and confidence of his fellow men
in the highest degree. He was born in
Franklin county, Pennsylvania,
May 7, 1819, a son of John and Catherine (RUSSELL) DIVELBISS,
the former of whom was a native of
Maryland, and the latter of the keystone
state. His paternal grandfather, Michael DIVELBISS, in company
with his brother George, came from Germany to America
in 1731 and settled in Maryland,
the former in
Hagerstown and
the latter in Frederickstown. In their journal appears the
following: “Michael DIVELBISS and George DIVELBISS, raised in
Palatinate, sailed from Rotterdam, Holland,
September 16, 1731, in the English ship Brittania, Captain
Franklin. The ship touched at Southampton.”
The grandfather served throughout the entire Revolutionary war
in the Continental army. He continued to reside at
Hagerstown until his children were all grown, and
then removed to Franklin
county, Pennsylvania,
where his death occurred at a ripe old age. His family were as
follows: John, Jacob, Michael, George, David,
Frederick, who was a soldier of the war
of 1812; and Catherine, wife of David MILEY. All had gone to
Kentucky before the parents’ removal to
Pennsylvania, and have now passed away.
John DIVELBISS, the father of our subject,
learned the tanner’s trade with his father, later worked at
saddle-tree making until his marriage, and then followed the
occupation of a farmer. He was well educated, having attended a
German school for seven years and an English school four years.
He was a natural mathematician, an excellent accountant and was
well informed on the leading subjects of the day. For fifteen
years he served as justice of the peace by appointment of the
governor of
Pennsylvania
and for the same period filled the position by election.
Our subject is the youngest in a family of
ten children, the others being as follows: Jacob, a wagon-maker
by trade, married Catherine SCHENCK, and removed to Springfield,
Illinois, where his death occurred; John, born in 1800, came to
Illinois, but later went to Kansas, where he passed away;
Michael, emigrated to Ohio and later went to Indiana, where he
opened up a farm and there died near Columbia City. He married
Miss Margaret SCHWENCK, daughter of one of the Hessian soldiers,
who were hired to aid the British in the revolution; George, a
shoemaker by trade, wedded Mary FOSNOUGH, and on coming to
Illinois first located in the city of Peoria, but spent his last
days upon a farm in Peoria county; Frederick married Miss
Elizabeth HENILINE, and died in Huntingdon county, Indiana,
February 25, 1896, at the age of eighty-seven; Daniel, a
wagon-maker by trade, married Rosana PHENICIE, and died at
Angola, Indiana; Samuel moved to Peoria county, Illinois, in
1845, and after a time spent in that county went with our
subject to Marshall county in 1850. In 1875, while he and his
wife were on their way to camp meeting in Stark county,
Illinois, his team became frightened by
the cars and ran away, throwing him out of the buggy. After
three days’ unconsciousness he passed away. Both he and his wife
were devout members of the Methodist Episcopal church;
Catherine, who married Jacob McCOWN, and Margaret, who married
John McATEE, spent their entire lives in
Pennsylvania.
Being reared to agricultural pursuits,
Jonas DIVELBISS continued to follow the same throughout his
active business life, and still owns a good farm of one hundred
twenty acres in Marshall county, which he
rents. He and his brother purchased a soldier’s warrant and
entered land in the county, the cultivation and improvement of
which he continued until his removal to Henry. He was numbered
among the substantial, enterprising and energetic farmers of the
county, and is one of the honored and valued citizens of the
community, one who has the happy faculty of easily making
friends and retaining them. His political support is
unswervingly given the republican party, and in early life he
was a whig, casting his first presidential ballot for William
Henry
Harrison. Although he has acceptably filled
several local offices, he cares nothing for political
distinction.
In
Pennsylvania, on the 11th of February,
1845, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. DIVELBISS and Miss
Nancy PHINICIE, who was born May 16, 1816, a daughter of Joseph
and Nancy (LONG) PHINICIE. She died May 24, 1891. She was a
faithful member of the Dunkard church. One child was born of
this union; Frances Louisa, now the wife of Newton RAY, a
retired farmer of
Chillicothe,
Illinois, by whom she has two
children: Cludia Madge and Clemens Sumner.
Mr. DIVELBISS was again married May 6,
1894, his second union being with Mrs. Sarah N. HECOCK, a native
of Canada and a daughter of Charles and Britanna (HOWARD)
DAVISON. Her mother was also born in
Canada, and was the daughter of
Dr. Peter HOWARD, an eminent physician of that country. Charles
DAVISON was born in
Massachusetts, July 7, 1800, and died
September 3, 1873. He was twice married, his first wife being
Britannia ELLIS, by whom he had three children: Patrick,
Elizabeth and one who died in infancy. After her death he wedded
Britanna HOWARD, who was born August 17, 1806, and died May 30,
1851, and they became the parents of six children: Amelia, widow
of Rev. John BREDEN, a Wesleyan minister of Ontario, Canada;
Charles B., also a resident of
Ontario; Mrs. DIVELBISS; Peter H. and
Adaniram J., who died in infancy; and Emma T., wife of Frank
PHILLIPS, a farmer of Lawrence county, South Dakota. The parents
of these children wee faithful members of the Baptist church, in
which Mr. DAVISON served as deacon for many years.
On the 31st of August 1848, was consummated
the marriage of Russell E. HECOCK and Miss Sarah N. DAVISON, and
immediately after their marriage they came to the United States. He was born in Canada, December 19, 1816, and first came to Illinois in 1837, locating on the Fox
river, where for some time he worked at the mason’s
trade. Later he went to what is now the city of
Chicago, and in 1841, came to
Marshall
county. After working at his trade in Henry, in 1857, he removed
to a farm a mile north of that city, which he made his home
until his death February 22, 1889. He was one of the family of
ten children born to Nathan and Elizabeth HECOCK. His sister
Elizabeth is the widow of John HINDMARSH, who was killed by
lightning and was the first to be interred in the new Henry
cemetery. Another sister, Minerva, is the wife of a Mr. GYLE, of Canada. Mr. HECOCK was a charter
member of the Odd Fellows society of Henry, and was one of the
honored pioneers and well known citizens of
Marshall
county. For four years after her husband’s death, Mrs. HECOCK
continued upon the farm, and then removed to Henry, where she
later became the wife of Mr. DIVELBISS. She is a most highly
esteemed lady and a worthy member of the Methodist Episcopal
church.
With her for the past twenty years has resided Miss
Mary E. SMITH, a daughter of Thomas T. and Maria R. (EGGLESTON)
SMITH, natives of Westchester county,
New York, both now deceased, the former
dying in 1866, at the age of fifty-eight years, and the latter
in 1859, at the age of fifty-two. Mary E. is the youngest of
their three children, the oldest being Warren E., and the other
Prosper E., who was a soldier in the Union army during the civil
war. Her maternal grandfather, Prosper EGGLESTON, was a
revolutionary soldier, and erected his house on the site where
General Washington camped. In 1872, Miss SMITH came to Illinois, and soon
afterward took up her abode with Mrs. DIVELBISS. She too is a
faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
Extracted May 2011 by Norma Hass from
The Biographical Record of Bureau, Marshall and Putnam Counties, Illinois,
1896.
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