**************************************************************************** File contributed to the Fulton County ILGenWeb Project Copyright 2008, all rights reserved. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format without the written consent of the author at http://fulton.ilgenweb.net. **************************************************************************** Source: The Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Fulton County Munsell Publishing Co., Chicago, 1908 **************************************************************************** The Biography of Omar J. MOORHOUSE Transcribed exactly according to the original complete text by Alice Stipak. [Surnames: MOORHOUSE, MUNSON, SHAW, VAN HOUTEN, VEATCH] [starting on page 1001] MOORHOUSE, Omar J.--The career of Omar J. Moorhouse reflects practical and useful ideals and its range of activities has included the promotion of agriculture, education, religion, politics, banking and insurance. A native son of Fulton County, Mr. Moorhouse was born on a farm in Liverpool Township, January 15, 1853, a son of Eli and Susan (Shaw) Moorhouse, natives of and Ohio, respectively. The elder Moorhouse came at an early day from England to Ohio, where he married, developed a fine farming property and died in 1896, at an advanced age. His wife, who had passed away in 1892, was the mother of ten children, three of whom are living. Of these Marvin is a farmer in Kingman County, Kans., and Ollie is the wife of E. E. Veatch, of Kentucky. Throughout his youth Omar Moorhouse was animated by an earnest desire to secure a good education, and this he did, often at the expense of much needed rest, after long hours in the harvest field. He attended the common schools of Cuba and Lewistown, and thereafter applied himself to school teaching in the winter time and farm work during the summer season. After five years of this combination of effort he devoted himself exclusively to farming on a tract of 160 acres, in Section 12, Bernadotte Township. This land placed him among the land owners of the county, as well as among its most intelligent farmers, for he had left no stone unturned to become an enlightened exponent of scientific agriculture. On June 11, 1874, Mr. Moorhouse married Carrie E., daughter of Samuel and Jane (Smith) Munson, the former an honored pioneer of Fulton County. Mrs. Moorhouse was born October 12, 1856, and is the mother of seven children: Lulu, wife of M. R. Van Houten, a resident of Kansas; Clarence, of Canton, Illinois; Dr. Charles V., a practicing physician of Marietta, this State; Leroy E., a farmer in Cass Township; Blanche E., living with her parents; Frank D. and Hansel O. As he was one of its most successful educators, so has Mr. Moorhouse been one of the most successful farmers of Fulton County. His property in Bernadotte Township grew to express his regard for method and order, and became one of the most comfortable and pleasant, as well as most profitable, farming enterprises in the neighborhood. He continued to be the leading and most progressive landsman in that section until 1902, when he sold his farm and bought 165 acres of land on Section 2, Bernadotte Township, and 172 acres on Section 35, Cass Township, making 337 acres, practically all in one body. In 1903 he moved from Bernadotte to his farm in Cass Township, pending the erection of his present beautiful and modern country residence on Section 2, Bernadotte Township. The county does not [Page 1002] afford a finer rural home than this, which has ten rooms, a furnace, gas, complete water equipment and those general advantages which bring the comforts of the city dweller within range of the rural resident. The barns and outbuildings afford ample facilities for an extensive stock and general produce business. A capacity for accumulation, which, after all, is an expression of thrift and economy, is one of the leading and most desirable traits of Mr. Moorhouse. It has made him one of the largest stockholders in the Farmers' State Bank and a stable factor in the County Fire Insurance Company, of which he has been President for several years. A Democrat in politics, his principal and most meritorious party service has been as Supervisor of Bernadotte Township, to which he was first elected in 1891, and which he has held uninterruptedly ever since. No one in the township has a larger or more comprehensive knowledge of its needs and possibilities than has Mr. Moorhouse, nor has any one presented and promoted those needs more practically and intelligently. So satisfactory has been his tenure of office that he has several times been tendered the chairmanship of the committee, but owing to the pressure of other business, he has been obliged to forego the honor. He has the fullest confidence of all members of the board and his judgment is consulted and advice followed upon all important matters which arise for adjustment. Ever since young manhood Mr. Moorhouse has been a member of the Baptist Church, and with his family is an active worker in the local church. He is particularly interested in the Sunday-school, of which he is Superintendent, and he is very popular with the children, over whom he has great influence. One would search far for a man guided more implicitly and continuously by his good genius, who has the well-being of the community more at heart, or who is more unfailingly to be depended on from the standpoint of good judgment, morality and public-spiritedness.