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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 Joshua WEAVER 

Pages 386-388, transcribed in full by Danni Hopkins 

[Surnames: BURSON, CORNWELL, DODDS, DYKEMAN, FISK, LAWSON, MARTIN, REED, SUMMERS, WEAVER] 

    
JOSHUA WEAVER is one of the oldest and most honored citizens of Fulton County. He is a retired farmer, now living in Ellisville. Although he has suffered from rheumatism for many years, he has not lost his entertaining ways and jovial spirits, but retains the social qualities which, added to his upright character, make him well liked wherever he is known. 
    
Mr. Weaver comes of a good family, his paternal grandfather, the Hon. Isaac Weaver, having been a prominent man in the Keystone State. He was born in Philadelphia and became a farmer in Greene County, owning one thousand acres of land. He subsequently engaged in the sale of general merchandise in Carmichaels, successfully pursuing that calling and becoming wealthy. He was elected to the State Senate in 1816, served two terms and then filled the office of Auditor of State several years. He was of English descent and zealous in the Quaker belief, to which he had been reared. He lived to be more than fourscore years old. 
    
The father of our subject, William Weaver, was born in the Keystone State, reared on a farm and engaged in agriculture in Greene County, having land near Clarksville. He became an influential citizen of that locality. In 1835 he emigrated to Illinois, locating in Deerfield Township, this county. He bought eighty acres of land there, began its improvement and six months later purchased three hundred and twenty acres of Government land in Young Hickory Township. There he built a double log house, which was finally replaced by a better edifice. He lived there until the death of his wife, when he broke up housekeeping and resided with his children. He possessed the quiet ways peculiar to the Friends and retained his religious belief until death. In politics he was originally a Whig and later a Republican. He was once a candidate on the Whig ticket for member of the Legislature, but as his party was in the minority he was not elected. He died in Young Hickory Township in 1877, at the age of eighty-eight years. 
    
The wife of William Weaver and mother of our subject was Mary Cornwell. She was born and reared in Washington County, Pa., and possessed many sterling qualities. Her father was engaged in boating on the Ohio River, dying at Maysville, in Kentucky. The family of which our subject is the third member includes also Mrs. Abigail Reed, whose home is near Glasford, Peoria County, Ill.; Isaac, who died in Prairie City, in February, 1890; David, who died in Canton when thirty years old and while he was studying medicine; Nancy, who died at Yates City, Ill., twenty-five years ago, was the wife of Dr. Burson, of that place; and Mrs. Mary Dodds, of Chattanooga, Tenn. 
    
Joshua Weaver was born near Carmichaels, Greene County, Pa., December 31, 1820. He was a child of five years when his fath4er removed to Castile Run, near Clarksville, where he was reared on a farm. He attended school in the old-fashioned structure which has been so frequently described, doing his writing with a quill pen and having but few text books. He early learned to work and until fourteen years old drove cattle and horses in a hilly country. He well remembers the journey to this State, which took place in April, 1835. The party drove four miles to Mononaghela, embarked on a boat which conveyed them to Pittsubrg, and by the rivers they continued their journey to St. Louis and thence to Beardstown. Fourteen days were consumed on the route. 
    
The family remained at Beardstown three months while the father looked for land, traveling about on horseback. He selected a tract and the family went thither in a wagon drawn by two yoke of oxen. There were very few settlers in the neighborhood and wild game was still plentiful in the timber and on the unbroken prairies. A wolf hunt was a source of excitement, and several are recalled by our subject, whose father also killed a deer. After coming here the lad had but three months schooling, being kept busy in helping to develop the farm. He drove a breaking team, mauled rails, and assisted his father in various ways until his marriage in the spring of 1842. 
    
Mr. Weaver then rented land in Deerfield Township and after a few years bought eighty acres on section 3. There he improved and built upon the land, adding to his acreage from time to time until he possessed two hundred acres in that and two hundred and eighty in Young Hickory township, for which he paid from $5 to $40 per acre. It is now improved so as to form four distinct farms, which have been divided among his children, except a quarter section, which Mr. Weaver retains, but since September, 1885, has rented it and lived in Ellisville. The land has been devoted to the cultivation of grains and the raising of stock, high grades of which were always to be seen there. Forty acres are left in timber. Although Mr. Weaver has been a physical sufferer since 1858, often confined to his couch, he superintended the estate until his removal to the village. 
    
The lady whom Mr. Weaver won for his wife, in April, 1842, was Mary A., daughter of John Dykeman. She was born in Indiana, but came hither with her parents in 1837. She passed away in the spring of 1850, leaving three children. The oldest, Mary E., was a student in Abingdon College and is now the wife of D. M. Lawson, a farmer in Deerfield township; John William, who died at the age of seven years; Harmon, who studied in Hedding College, moved to California on account of the health of his wife, and now operates a fruit farm there. 
    
Our subject was married October 21, 1851, to Eliza Ann Martin, who has lived in this county since 1830, and is therefore one of the oldest residents now living. She was born in Muhlenberg County, Ky., in 1826, and reared in this locality with the privileges of the common schools. She is the mother of four children. James A. is farming in Deerfield Township, Martin in Young Hickory Township, and Henry I. operates the homestead; Martha J. is the wife of G. L. Fisk, an undertaker in Ellisville. 
    
Mrs. Weaver is a granddaughter of Hugh Martin, a Virginian, who made one of the Daniel Boone colony in Kentucky. One of his children was the first born in that State. Like his associates, he carried on farm work, although on account of the Indians the families lived in stockades for several years. He died in Millersburg County. The father of Mrs. Weaver was John H. Martin, who was born near Lexington, February 22, 1789. He was reared in his native State and there married a young lady of an equally good Southern family. He began school teaching when seventeen years old and followed that occupation during a great part of his life, adding to it the cultivation of the soil. 
    
In the fall of 1828 Mr. Martin located in Jefferson County, Ill., teaching there two years. He then came to this county, spending the winter of the deep snow in Smithfield. In the spring of 1831 he bought eighty acres of land in Farmers' Township, which he improved, teaching also for years. In the fall of 1835 he changed his location to Deerfield Township, entering eighty acres on section 1. After a few years he removed to Fairview, where he clerked. In 1843 he returned to the farm, remaining there until his wife's death, after which he made his home with his children. He died at the home of his eldest son, in Lyon County, Kan., in 1871. He was the first Supervisor of Deerfield Township and was Justice of the Peace for years. Religiously, he was a Presbyterian. 
    
The mother of Mrs. Weaver bore the maiden name of Martha Summers. She was a daughter of William Summers, who, like herself, was born in North Carolina, and who is numbered among the early settlers of Kentucky. She became the mother of five children, Mrs. Weaver being the second in order of birth. Thomas C. died in Emporia, Kan.; William A. was killed at the close of the war; Charles C. died in Greenwood County, Kan.; James H. has not been heard of by his friends for some time and his fate is uncertain. William A. enlisted, in 1862, in a Missouri cavalry regiment and became Captain of a company. He served until the close of the war and near Little Rock was shot from ambush, presumably for his money, as he was robbed. 
    
The subject of this sketch has been a School Director nearly all his life and has aided in building several schoolhouses. He served as Commissioner of Highways several terms, was Assessor two years and Supervisor of Deerfield Township for three years. After having voted with the Whig party in early life, he became a stanch Republican and has frequently acted as delegate in county and Congressional conventions. He has served on the grand and petit juries, and as foreman of the former. He was identified with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, which is now extinct in this vicinity, and held the office of Elder.