NURS, Newell
Isaiah NURS, now deceased, who was the
father of Newel, came to Illinois July 4, 1836, and was one of
the honored pioneers of this section of the country, for many
years making his home in Hallock township, Peoria county,
Illinois, but also owning the farm in Marshall county, where our
subject now resides. He was born at Bainbridge, Chenango county,
new York, March 19, 1815, and dying on the old
homestead, in Peoria county,
August 12, 1894, his remains were interred at
Blue Ridge. On the 1st of July, 1836, he had arrived
in that county in company with his father, Roswell NURS, and
Ebenezer STOWELL, of whom mention is made in the sketch of Cyrus
ROOT. On the 4th of the same month he located on the land where
he made his home until called to the world beyond. He walked the
entire distance to
Quincy, in order to enter the tract, soon
after built upon it, and did not return to h is native state for
twenty years. His father, however, went back to New York, and brought the
family to this almost unbroken wilderness, dying, March 9, 1863,
at the age of seventy-five years. His wife had long preceded
him, dying in 1838, at the age of twenty-seven years. She was
one of the first to be interred in an old burying ground near
the edge of the brush, near Northampton,
but as her husband was buried at Blue Ridge,
fifty-two years later her body was taken up and laid by his
side.
In connection with his father, Isaiah NURS
entered several tracts of land, amounting to eight hundred and
eighty acres, lying along the boundary line between
Peoria
and Marshall counties, a portion
in each, but he made his home in
Peoria
county, one-half mile south of the county line. On the 1st of
January, 1838, at Northampton, Peoria county, he led to the
marriage altar Miss Mary Newell HILL, a native of New Hampshire,
and to them were born four children – Jerusha Barton, married H.
S. DAMAN, and both died in Know county, Missouri; Martha E., is
the wife of C. T. NEWELL, and they now make their home in
Princeville, Illinois; Henry H. married Lucinda STEVENS, and
lives on the old homestead; and Newel E., whose name introduces
this review, completes the family. The mother of these children
died June 15, 1892, after a happy married life of fifty-four
years.
In the home farm, Isaiah NURS had one
hundred and sixty acres, which he placed under a high state of
cultivation, and also a like amount in Marshall county, one-half
of which now belonging to his son Newel. He was a careful,
conscientious business man, who met with fair success, and was
quite prominent in township and county affairs, serving as road
commissioner when the roads were laid out through his portion of
the county. Being a strong anti-slavery man, he was therefore a
strong republican, and his eldest son, Henry, served for three
years in the Union army during the civil war, losing his left
leg below the knee at Silver Run, near
Goldsboro,
North Carolina, the last battle in which Sherman’s army
participated. While in the service he was a messmate most of the
time of Cyrus ROOT. He belonged to Company C, Eighty-sixth
Illinois Volunteer Infantry.
In 1847 the father became a member of the Methodist
Episcopal church, in which he served as class leader for many
years, and assisted in the organization of the Sunday school at
Blue Ridge, of which he was superintendent for some
time. He was a prominent member of the Old Settler’s society,
and was a strong anti-Mason until after his son Newel joined
that organization, now belonging to Lawn Ridge lodge, No. 415,
when he became more liberal in his views. Although he attained a
ripe old age, he was still well preserved, and was an
exceedingly intelligent and well informed man, never given to
argument, and never had but one law-suit.
Extracted April 2011 by Norma Hass from
The Biographical Record of Bureau, Marshall and Putnam Counties, Illinois,
1896.
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