**************************************************************************** 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: Portrait and Biographical Album of Fulton County Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago, 1890 **************************************************************************** The Biography of Isaiah PRICKETT Pages 211-213, transcribed in full by Danni Hopkins [Surnames: KNAPP, LAUGHRIDGE, MACOMBER, MORGAN, NELSON, PRICKETT] ISAIAH PRICKETT. This county is the home of a goodly number of men who began their life-work without capital other than that afforded by their native abilities, the education which was obtained in pioneer schools and the industrious habits which they were taught in boyhood. Taking up the battle of life with a determined spirit, they have succeeded in surrounding themselves with comfort, bestowing upon their offspring good advantages in the way of home care and educational privileges, and while accumulating property have won the thorough respect of their fellow-men. One of this number is Isaiah Prickett, a resident of Lewistown Township, where he owns two hundred and twenty acres of land, also having the title to eighteen hundred acres of swamp land in Waterford Township. Tradition states that three brothers by the name of Prickett emigrated from England to America during the early Colonial days, one locating in Virginia and the others farther south. From the former is descended our subject, whose grandfather was killed by Indians, having his career cut short before he had reached the prime of life. His son, Nicholas, the father of our subject, grew to manhood in his native State, and there married Catherine Knapp, an estimable woman of German ancestry who was born in Pennsylvania. After their marriage the young couple removed to Ohio, making their home in Clermont County for a time and then removing to Clarke County, where the wife breathed her last in 1847. The father of our subject bought a mill site on Buck Creek at the landing known as Lagonda, now included in the city of Springfield and occupied by the Champion Agricultural Implement Works. In company with his brother he built a mill which was one of the first put up in that county. About 1826 he visited Vermilion County, Ill., with the intention of buying land and locating, but was taken sick and died at the home of his friend, Ack Morgan. Our subject was thus left fatherless when ten years old, his birth having taken place in Clarke County, Ohio, March 7, 1816. During his youth he attended the pioneer schools, the temple of learning in which he pursued his studies being built of logs, heated by a fireplace, and having the light admitted through greased paper which covered the opening cut from the logs. It was supplied with home-made furniture, the benches being of slabs with wooden pins for legs, and desks being unknown except one around the sides of the room where the advanced scholars stood to write, this being a board laid on wooden pins projecting from the walls. Young Prickett began his life's labors as a farm hand, receiving $6.25 per month when seventeen years old, and the following year driving a team from Lagonda at $13 per month. In 1836 he emigrated to Indiana, making the removal with a team and took his place among the early settlers in Noble County, where there were more Indians than white men at the date of his arrival. He bought a tract of Government land and built a log house, but a few months later sold the place and entered another tract upon which he also built. Before moving into his new house, however, he sold the land and entered still another tract, where he cleared a considerable acreage. There he made his home until 1852 when, on account of the unhealthfulness of the region, he started with his family for the Prairie State. They left the home which he had rented on the 1st of September and eleven days later arrived in Lewistown, since which time they have made this county their home. Mr. Prickett lived on his brother's farm until February, 1854, then bought a tract where he now resides. A clearing of eight acres and a hewed log house constituted the improvements. The farm now contains one hundred and thirty acres, has been supplied with well-built, commodious and conveniently-located frame buildings and the other improvements which might be expected of an energetic man. Eighty acres of section 10, of the same township, together with the swamp land before mentioned, have been purchased by our subject, who has shown himself a thorough farmer, a worthy citizen and a good neighbor. The home of our subject is presided over by an estimable woman who, prior to November 20, 1834, was known as Miss Eliza Laughridge. She is a daughter of Abraham and Susan (Nelson) Laughridge, natives of the Old Dominion, who are numbered among the pioneers of Ohio, to which State they removed in 1817. In Greene County, that State, Mrs. Prickett was born September 13, 1818. She received the education usual to the sons and daughters of pioneers in a section where schools were early instituted, together with the training in useful domestic knowledge which has qualified her to thoroughly discharge her duties as housekeeper, wife and mother. Of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. Prickett four are now living--John is settled on his own home in Lewistown Township; Nicholas A. still remains under the parental roof; Susan C. is the wife of Orville M. Macomber; Eliza J. is the wife of John Macomber. A son, Harrison, died in Lewistown in 1867. He devoted four years of his life to the service of his country, being Captain of Company A, Fifty-fifth Illinois Infantry. Mr. Prickett was a Whig until 1856, when the Republican party was organized and he, like most of his associates, took his stand in the ranks of the new organization, to whose principles he has stanchly adhered from that day to this.