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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 Marcus L. TANKESLEY 

Pages 375-377, transcribed in full by Danni Hopkins 

[Surnames: BAILEY, EMERSON, GILLHAM, McDOW, TANKESLEY, WATERS] 

    
MARCUS L. TANKESLEY, President and General Manager of the White Oak Roller Mills, and President of the village board of Astoria, stands among the foremost of the prominent business men who have contributed so largely to the financial prosperity of this part of the county. With true public spirit and characteristic liberality, he has aided every enterprise that would in any way advance the welfare of the community, promote the growth of the town, or improve its condition. 
    
Our subject came of good old pioneer stock, and numbers among his ancestry some of the early settlers of this State. He is himself a native of Illinois, born in Scott County, June 1, 1844. His father, Lawner B. Tankesley, was a native of Breckenridge County, Ky., and a son of Charles Tankesley, who was born in South Carolina. The great-grandfather of our subject was a wagon-master in the Revolutionary War. The grandfather was reared and married in his native State, taking as his wife Nancy Waters. He continued to make his home in South Carolina until 1790, when he removed to Kentucky, and was a pioneer of Breckenridge County. He bought a tract of timber land and built a cabin in the wilderness where the Indians still made their homes, and deer, bear and other wild animals roamed at will. He was obliged to build pens of heavy logs to protect his pigs and calves from the ravages of the bears. Mr. Tankesley lived in his Kentucky home nearly forty years, and then, in 1828, left it to accompany his family to the primeval wilds of Illinois, making the entire journey with a team. He settled in that part of the State now known as Scott County, where he entered a tract of Government land. He erected suitable buildings, and there his death occurred at the ripe age of seventy-five years. His wife lived to be eighty-three years old when she too passed away. 
    
The father of our subject was sixteen years old when his parents came to Illinois. When the Black Hawk War broke out, though he had scarcely attained manhood, he enlisted and did good service in helping to drive the Indians from Northern Illinois. He was of a studious thoughtful turn of mind, was ambitious to secure an education, and making the best of his opportunities became quite learned. He commenced teaching when he was in his teens and was one of the pioneer teachers of Scott County, conducting a school in the winter season and the remainder of the year engaging in farming. He made his home in Scott County until nearly the time of his death, when a valued citizen and a good man was removed from the community where he had so long made his home. A short time before his demise, he went on a visit to his daughter in Texas, and he died while with her in 1887. In early manhood he married Margaret Ann Gillham. She died on the home farm in Scott County when only thirty years of age. Mrs. Tankesley was a daughter of Capt. William Gillham, who is thought to have been a native of North Carolina. He removed from that State to Illinois, and was one of the early settlers on the American Bottom, east of St. Louis. He lived there a few years and then removed to Scott County, where he bought land. He dealt quite extensively in live stock and accumulated a goodly fortune for those days. He became one of the most prominent citizens of the county. He was very active in its political life as a Whig, and bore an important part in public affairs. He commanded a company in the Black Hawk War and represented his county in the State Legislature. He married Margaret McDow. His useful and honorable career was brought to a close by his death at an advanced age and he was buried on his own land. 
    
Marcus Tankesley was very young when he had the sad misfortune to lose his mother by her untimely death. He continued to live with his father until he was seventeen years old, and was given the advantages of an excellent education attending school quite steadily. He was scarcely more than a boy when the war broke out. With a deep and patriotic love of country inherited from his forefathers, he determined to volunteer to fight for the old flag, and in August, 1861, he enlisted in Company B, Twenty-seventh Illinois Infantry. Our gallant young soldier took part in thirteen general engagements and among the most important battles in which he fought we may mention Belmont, Island No. 10 siege of Corinth, Stone River and Chickamauga. He was in Sheridan's division at Missionary Ridge, Resaca, New Hope Church, and Kenesaw Mountain. His brave soldierly qualities, his fidelity in discharging the duties that fell to his position and his general trustworthiness gained him the good opinion of his superiors and made his war record a creditable one. After more than three years of experience of a hard life on the Southern battlefields, he was honorably discharged from the service at Springfield, September 20, 1864, and returned home to his rejoicing friends. 
    
In 1865 Mr. Tankesley, ambitious to secure a better education, attended school in Springfield, and for a year closely applied himself to his studies there. After that he entered the employ of the Chicago & Alton Railroad, as a station agent and telegraph operator. Later, he was with the Wabash Railroad Company in the same capacity. In 1870 he went to the territories in the employ of the Union Pacific Railroad to assist in building a line of telegraph wires. At that time Western Nebraska, Western Kansas and Colorado were practically unsettled, and deer, antelope, elk and buffalo were plenty on the plains, where thriving towns have since sprung up. Our subject stayed four months in the West, and on his return to Illinois became station agent and operator in the employ of the Rockford, Rock Island & St. Louis Railroad Company. Seven years later he resigned that position in order to give attention to the manufacture of flour with W. H. Emerson. They built the White Oak Roller Mills, and our subject has since devoted himself to the management of the big business that he and his partner have under their control. They have their mills supplied with all the most approved machinery, and have a large capacity for making flour of a fine quality. 
    
Mr. Tankesley and Miss Anna Bailey, a native of New Orleans, were married in 1869. They have five children: Emma, Roy, Fred, Walter and Wade. Their home is attractive and within it hospitality reigns supreme, the pleasant, womanly hostess and courteous, kindly host always extending a cordial welcome to any who cross its threshold. 
    
No man has done more for the upbuilding of Astoria and its general improvement than our subject, who has proved a valuable acquisition to the citizenship of this locality. His prompt and methodical business habits, good financial talent and tact in the management of affairs have brought him before the public as a desirable civic official, and as President of the Village Board of Trustees he is pushing forward the interests of his adopted home with characteristic ability. He is a man of much decision of character and intelligent and pronounced views on all subjects, particularly in the matter of politics, acting with the Democratic party.