JOHN MILES

 

            John Miles, deceased, was a pioneer of Kelly Township of 1830, being one of the first to located in that township.  He made his claim on section 25.  He was more fortunate than many of the pioneers in that he possessed both oxen and horses, and after building his cabin of logs he proceeded to the work of improving his claim.  During the first year he broke quite a quantity of land, and succeeded in raising a good crop of corn and a fair quantity of vegetables.  When the Black Hawk War broke out, he joined the “Regulators.”  For the services he rendered in that decisive conflict, the Government of the United States gave him a patent of 160 acres of land.

            Mr. Miles was born in Hardin Co., KY., October 2, 1794.  His parents removed to Harrison Co., Ind., when he was 12 years of age, and there he passed the remaining years of his youth.  On attaining to the age of manhood, he studied law, and was admitted to the Bar of Indiana, at Corydon in Harrison County.  He went to New Albany, in Floyd County, and opened his career as an attorney there, where he remained and engaged in his profession until 1829.  He came then to Illinois and passed the first winter in that part of Sangamon County which now belongs to the County of Menard.  He remained there until the spring of 1830, when he came to Warren County as has been stated.

            After the termination of the hostilities of the Black Hawk War, he was at once admitted to the Bar of his adopted State and practiced law to a limited extent, at the same time giving his attention to the improvement of his land.  He was prominent in local affairs from the first, and was elected the first Justice of the Peace in the part of the county where he resided.  He was the first Supervisor of the township.  He was active and energetic, and always accomplished a great amount of other business while improving a large farm and erecting a good set of frame buildings thereon.  He died May 23, 1872.

            In 1822, Mr. Miles was married to Sarah Froman.  She was born January 21, 1800, in Indiana.  Their children numbered 12 and nine of them are now living.  Harriet married Samuel Brown, and they located in Vancouver, Washington Territory.  Mary is the wife of J. I. Myers, a citizen of Marshall, Ill., Evaline is the widow of George Weir, a resident of Bourbon Co., Kan.  Henry C. is a farmer and business man of the township of Cold Brook: a full account of his connection with the development of this part of the State is given (Below) on other pages of this volume.  Joseph W. and Fielding are residents of Willes, Kan.   James F. Lives in Brunson in that State.  John J. is an attorney-at-law in Ashland, Wis.  Sarah J. is the wife of Theodore F. Bullman, who is the manager of the Miles homestead ( See Sketch. Is below also.)  Their mother died June 14, 1855.

 

HENRY C. MILES

 

            Henry C. Miles represents one of the most important industries of Warren County.  He is a brick and tile manufacturer and is located on section 1, in the township of Cold Brook.  He is also interested in the manufacture of lumber and is the owner of a saw-mill.

            He was born in Kelly Township, July 6, 1832, and is the son of John and Sarah Froman Miles.  He is as member of one of the earliest of the pioneer families of the county in which he has passed most of his life.  After he had spent about the allotted time at school and had worked on the farm until about 17 years old, he commenced to learn the trade of a carpenter.  He operated for a short period as a journeyman, and afterward commenced to act in the capacity of an independent builder and contractor and has since managed his business as a craftsman in those departments, to which he has also added bridge building.

            In 1858, Mr. Miles bought the Ferris steam-mill in Henderson Knox County, and was engaged in its management until 1862.  The civil war interfered with his business and he took up arms in the defense of the union.  IN August of the second year of the war he enlisted in Co., B, 102d Ill. Vol. Inf., and after a service of six months was discharged for disability.  He returned to his home, resumed his former business and continued to conduct the affairs of the mill for four years, when it was burned.  He immediately rebuilt the structure and continued to conduct it for a period of two years.  Then the boiler exploded and blew the mill to pieces, killing two men.  The pecuniary loss to Mr. Miles was $3,00.  He then turned his attention exclusively to the business of a contractor and builder, in which he was occupied two years, after which he bought a quarter interest in the steam-mill in Kelly Township, and in which he is at present interested in connection with other business.  For the first six years he had a partner, but at the end of that time he became by purchase the sole owner and has since operated singly.  He added the tile and brick business in 1882, and is prospering in the several industries in which he is interested.  The clay beds are situated about two miles from the factory.

            Miss Harriet T. Rogers became the wife of Mr. Miles in September, 1854.  After their marriage they located in Galesburg, and after a residence there of two years went to Brown Co., Kas., and pre-empted a claim of land, on which they resided six months.

            At their expiration of that time they returned to Henderson, which was their place of abode until 1882, when they removed to section 1, in Cold Brook Township.  The farm of Mr. Miles contains 120 acres and is in thorough, good condition for prosperous farming.  He is also proprietor of 160 acres of land in Kelly Township, situated on section 24, and has a tract, which includes 20 acres on section 25, of the same township.  The farms are under the manage of his sons.  The household comprises seven children—John H., Eddie H., Frank G., George C., Willie, Theodore and Helen.  Mrs. Miles is a native of New York.  Mr. Miles is a Republican.

 

THEODORE F. BULLMAN

 

Theodore F. Bullman is a farmer in the township of Kelly.  He is a native citizen of the State of Illinois, where his father settled in 1830.  Joshua D. Bullman, his father, was born in Somerset Co., NJ, February 21, 1806, and was a resident ion the county where he first saw the light of day until the fall of 1829.  He then went to Indiana and stopped on season in Fayette Co.  He was accompanied there by two sisters and a brother-in-law.  They started from their home in New Jersey with covered wagons and traversed the entire distance across the intervening country.  In the fall of 1830 Mr. Bullman left his relatives in Indiana to seek a home in the Prairie State.  He set out alone, on horseback, and came to Marshall County.  He made a claim in what is now Hopewell Township, in the county, and returned to Indiana to pass the winter.  In the spring following he set forth a second time, with the same party with whom he left the State of his nativity and came to Marshall County.  They built a log house near Lacon, two miles from the Illinois River, on the east side, in which they passed a year together.  Then each of the two men of the party erected his house on his own property.  When the Black Hawk War engaged the attention of all there was of the Western Country, Mr. Bullman volunteered and was in the military service until the declaration of peace.  He received as recompense a barrel of flour and other supplies.  After returning to a life of peace and safety from Indian invasion, Mr. Bullman set himself to work in the earnest to improve a farm.  He is till the owner of the land he received from the Government, and also of an additional amount, which has increased his possessions to 400 acres.  He has also assisted all his children to obtain good farms.  His homestead is supplies with good and suitable farm buildings.  He is in his 80^th year.

In the year in which he left New Jersey he was married to Catherine F. Hall, of the same county where he was himself born.  Of their six children, five are still living.  Hetty M. is married to S.R. Lane, of Marshall Co., Ill.; Theodore F. and Mortimer C. are living on the homestead, in Marshall County; Clementine is the widow of Hirman Smith, and lives in Marshall County;  Theresa also lives with her father.

Mr. Bullman, Theodore F., of this sketch passed the years of his youth and boyhood in his native county.  He was born n Marshall Co., Ill., December 9, 1836.  He was brought up a farmer, and was educated in the common schools and in the high school at Lacon.  He was married in Warren County, February 3, 1863, to Sarah J. Miles.  She was born in Kelly Township and is the daughter of John and Sarah Froman Miles, of who a sketch is given elsewhere, and also of her brother, H.C. Miles, of Cold Brook Township.  Mrs. Bullman has been carefully educated and is a graduate of Lombard University, at Galesburg.  For some years she operated as a teacher in the schools of Knox, Marshall and Warren Counties.  At the time of his marriage, Mr. Bullman located on a farm in the township of Hopewell, which was given him by his father.  He and his wife were its occupants six years, and in 1875 they came to the Miles homestead, which he now owns and occupies.  The farm contains 283 acres in advanced cultivation.  Jushua J. is the name of the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Bullman.  The father is a member of the Presbyterian Church,  the mother adheres to the belief of the Universalists.  When the Senior Bullman settled in Marshall county he was accustomed to haul his crops to Chicago with teams of oxen and sometimes he sold his wheat for 30 cents a bushel.  He assisted in raising the first mill in the county.