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File contributed to the Fulton County ILGenWeb Project
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Source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Fulton County
Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago, 1890

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The Biography of Henry CONE 

Pages 312-315, transcribed in full by Danni Hopkins 

[Surnames: ALSBURY, CANDEE, CONE, CUTTER, EGGLESTON, FIELD, HAYS, HOADLEY, JACK, JAMES, MILES] 

    
HENRY CONE. To show the mettle of the man it is not necessary to enter the marts of a crowded city, take a place among the dwellers on the tented field, or journey far from home and friends in order to make wonderful discoveries. Opportunities are not lacking even amid the peaceful surroundings of pastoral life, to teach high living, high thinking, and show energetic action for individual and public good. The subject of this biographical notice is one who has prospered by steady industry, and by ever keeping in view the great principle of doing to others as he would be done by. He has found abundant opportunities during the course of his long life, to promote the welfare of his fellow-men by assisting in their worthy undertakings and by suggesting or instituting movements which tend to mental or moral culture. 
    
The gentleman of whom we write is the eldest of six brothers, whose father, Joseph Cone, was the founder of Farmington, naming it in honor of a Connecticut town in which he was reared. Their mother, Elizabeth Candee, was, like her husband, a native of Connecticut. The parental history is noted at some length in the biographical sketch of Spencer Cone, a brother of our subject, which is included in this volume. A sketch of another brother, George W. Cone, a farmer near Farmington, will also be found in this volume. Besides these the fraternal band included Joseph, David C. and Charles. Joseph, a farmer, now lives at Ashland, Neb.; his wife, formerly Mary Ann Miles, died in 1888. David married Harriet Cutler and had four children--Eddie, George, Joseph and Hattie; his home was in Kansas at the time of his death, in 1885. Charles is a gold miner at Shasta, Cal. 
    
The subject of this notice opened his eyes to the light in Oxford, Conn., September 17, 1809. While he was still an infant his parents removed to Harwinton, where he was reared on a farm and where day after day he followed the old wooden mouldboard plow on his father's large estate of three hundred acres. Among the stones of the Connecticut hillsides the barefooted lad learned the lessons of industry, perseverance and self-reliance, which fitted him for life upon the frontier to which he accompanied the other members of the parental family in the spring of 1834. The previous year, in company with his father and his brother Joseph, he had visited the Prairie State, prospecting a site in Fulton County being determined upon. 
    
Our subject married Miss Sophia D. Hoadley, the wedding ceremony taking place March 19, 1834, and the young couple coming Westward as soon as they could pack their household effects for the journey. The Erie Canal, Lake Erie and the Ohio Canal were traversed to Portsmouth, Ohio, where the party took boats for St. Louis and Peoria. There they hired teams to bring them to what was known as the Merchant Settlement, which they reached in June. Mr. Cone says "A more fertile tract or one supporting a more luxuriant vegetation, no man's eyes ever viewed." The father of our subject had paid $300 apiece for three squatter's claims, upon which log cabins had been built, and in these rude edifices the various members of the family were housed upon reaching their destination. Our subject at once set about breaking, fencing, and otherwise preparing the land for crops, swinging a maul from morning until night like many another Illinois rail-splitter. Many hardships were endured by the new settlers, but Mr. Cone says "I liked this country, for I was glad and contented." 
    
The first great sorrow of Mr. Cone's life was the death of his first-born, Elizabeth C., who died at the age of ten years. A still greater blow befell him in September 1846, when his companion crossed to the other shore. She left four children‹Sophia, H. Jennie H., Nellie M. and Luther Hoadley. The eldest of these married William Field, of Boston, at one time a dry-goods merchant in Farmington and now a real-estate dealer in Los Angeles, Cal.; the second daughter married Silas Hays, of Bloomington, Ill., and they also are now living in the Golden State; Nellie M. married Daniel James, of Burlington, Iowa, their home now being on a farm near Grinnell; Luther H. remains at Farmington, of which he is one of the most popular residents. 
    
Mr. Cone was married a second time, in September, 1847, his bride being Miss Mary Eggleston, a native of Oneida County, N. Y. This union has been blessed by the birth of three children, of whom the first-born, a son, Henry, died when three years old. Merritt H., a farmer near Farmington, married Miss Mary Jack and has three children; Maggie E. married Morrison M. Alsbury, formerly of Springfield, their home now being in Boston, where both are acquiring fame in the musical world, the one as a violinist and the other as a vocal teacher. 
    
Mr. Cone has always been a farmer and has raised thousands of bushels of wheat, corn and other cereals, as well as hundreds of dollars worth of cattle, hogs and horses. Although now eighty-one years old, he is hale and hearty, in full possession of all his faculties, and as interested in the work going on about him as when he was looking forward in early youth. He attributes his remarkable health and mental preservation to the fact that he has always been a temperate man and of regular habits. His description of early pioneer experiences is given with historical accuracy and a fascination equal to that of a romance. His wealth is the product of industry and economy, as he has never engaged in speculations of any kind. He is known as one of the most responsible men and most prompt to meet his obligations, of the State. He and his son Luther own in common an estate of about three hundred acres adjoining Farmington on the northeast, which is well improved, with three residences, one the old Joseph Cone home, which is now occupied by our subject. Besides his interest in this estate Mr. Cone owns four hundred and eighty acres in Thayer County, Neb. 
    
Mr. Cone took a very active part with his father in bringing the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad through to Farmington. They subscribed $3,000 in stock, which practically amounted to a donation, and a few years later subscribed liberally to the Elmwood branch of the same road. Our subject got out timber from his own woods, hewed it, and built nearly all the bridges between Farmington and Elmwood. All this work and donation proved a loss, as the road, although graded, was never completed. Mr. Cone has always done all he could toward supporting the religious and educational institutions of this country. He has served as School Director and prides himself upon the fact that Farmington has an excellent High School. He is of a rather quiet, retiring nature, never craving office or putting himself forward in public affairs. Recognizing his impartiality, his fellow-citizens while he was living in Knox County were pleased to elect him Justice of the peace, which position he held four years. 
    
The virgin vote of Mr. Cone was given to Gen. Jackson. He supported the Whig party and their leaders, William Henry Harrison and Henry Clay, for the latter of whom he twice deposited his ballot. When the Republican party was organized he identified himself with it, voting for Gen. Fremont and afterward helping to elect Lincoln in 1860-64. He has supported Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Blaine, and Harrison with all the ardor of a firm Republican. He has borne a large part of the expense connected with the building and support of the Congregational Church in Farmington. Taking a retrospective view of his life he recalls mistakes, as who can not? But rejoices in the fact that his aim has been the "prize of the high calling" and that he has grown gray in the service of the Lord. That his declining years may be like the golden rays of the setting sun, bright with promise, and like the autumn filled with sheaves, is the wish of his many sincere friends, who will be pleased to notice his portrait on another page. [pages 311-312]