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ANOTHER FINALITY.Uu.on H. I ve», a I’ione«r Settler, Gone toIlls Hfnttrd.G«*nTlowiget 1shipjustreceshij.toti.thevaincouButeveBUCLate on Saturday evening Mr. Alinon B.•ves, aged 72 years, died in this city, afteri protracted illness of several years’ dura-ion, the disease having been nervous pros-ration, terminating in congestion of thejrain. He was one of the last of the genu-uh pioneers of Illinois—the men who have slanted its business, political and financial Jr11,1? nstitutious on their present firm basis. He 1 -vas born in 1810, not far from Jamestown, Chautauqua county. N. Y. He emigrated o Illinois with his father’s family in IN.'M, talking the whole distance by the side of 1 J“* in ox team. He settled in Kendall county, °* tnd there, at the early age of 20, married | K? Sarah Ervin. The country was so new that i . 1 iis “claim” farm had not yet been surveyed JL11' ty the government. ’Here he entered vigorously into the lab- ??.eE ^rs and enjoyments of pioneer life. Athletic °! md active far beyond the average he was 0|J» the leader at the log cabin raising, at the a t e wolf hunt, or in the harvest field. His first fa e farm was at the edge of the present town of j!1U Plano, Kendall county,and afterwards built n ¥ and kept a store at Oswego, in that county. /1 He was concerned in the location of the 1 )e county *«t at Yorkville, and was at one time deputy sheriff of LaSalle county when I Jul it embraced a much larger territory than n,? now, and on one occasion carried the coun- | i ty’s share of the State tax to Springfield in ru! money at a time awhen robbers made a business of lying in wait for such money 11 carriers at fords and ferries. Very few who f* ^ knew Mr. Ives in his later years had any Jl^ idea of his share of the early settlement of ^01j this State. *ndHe performed nearly the labor of two or-dinary men as a farmer, and by overwork , laid the foundation of much of his later / • ^ suffering. He succeeded,however, in owning ,nt a good farm at an early age. which, when the father of five children, he rented out ,°t and resolutely began the study of law at the ' \ Chicago Law school, feeling that his broken health had unfitted him for farming in his ^sre o*n vigorous style. Previous occasional ^ practice before justices of the pea e in the country had given him this taste for a legal j life, and in this profession he achieved a m success little known to the present generation, although he at the same time carried on mercantile or real estate business. When he moved from Oswego, Kendall county, to Bloomington, in 1853, he carried on a store on Main street, but soon turned his whoie attention to law. He opened an office in ^ Springfield; his practice being larg«ly*pre- ^ ' emption and land cases in the United States land office, our State and United States j courts. He was well acquainted with Abra- * ham Lincoln, having tried cases with and against him, and they were always the best of friends.As a lawyer, as in everything he undertook, Mr. Ives was a man of most prodigious energy and perseverance. No obstacles daunted him, and no impediments were ever perceived in his way. One of his law cases, in which he had one of the largest fees ever earned before the war in this part of the State, $5,000, was decided against him in all the conrta, including the supreme court at Washington, when he fearlessly carried the same points before the secretary of the interior and won his case and earned his fee. Had he followed the law permanently with the same energy he did from 1850 to 1800, he would no doubt have been one of our leading lawyers. His success as a real estate and land lawyer enabled him to accumulate a large property , which eventually was nearly all invested in the mill near the eastern depot, in elevators at Ellsworth and Arrowsmitli, and in the grain business, all of which turned out disastrously in 1872, and in his later days fortune failed to smile as of old.Mr. Ives took a prominent part in poll* tics. He posted notices for the first Republican meeting evcr held in this county, and his name appears as secretary of the meeting which organized that party in this city in 1854. He was supervisor of Bloomington from 1804 to 1870, being chairman of the county board during several terms. His name is associated with the building of our court house in 1808, from the fact that as chairman he gave the casting vote, and the further fact that he appointed a building committee of such good men that the public almost unanimously approved of their acts as well as of the entire project carried out by the county board.Mr. Ives’ name as supervisor was signed to all the bonds issued by the railroads built into Bloomington between 1807 and 1872, the Jacksonville line and our two eastern roads. He was also a director in the Lake Erie road, and by risking his signature as supervisor, to the town bonds at a time when the construction of the road was in great doubt, and by his energy and push as a director, obtained the credit of his colleagues of actually securing the construction of the road—a service recognized by its officers to the last year of his life.Very few of our citizens have shown the same zeal and enterprise in advancing the city’s interests, and a brief recognition of some of his services appear due to the present generation.Mr. Ives’first wife died in 1851, and in 1M57 he uiarri-d Lucinda Baiber, sister of Eliel Barber, now of Chicago, and of Mr.S. D. Barher, of this city. The children of the first wife are Mrs. A. H.Oage, of Champaign county, Mrs. J. H. Burnham, Nellie 0., Win, W. A., Theodore and T. N. Ives, iu the order named. Ellis L. Ives is the ouly surviving child of the second wife.ltev. S. P. Ives, now of Stevensville,Mon., one of his brothers, was pastor of the Baptist church here at the t»ine the present church was built.ltev. F. B. Ives and E. J. Ives, of Chicago, and Win. E. Ives, of Amboy, all well known Baptists are also brothers. He has two sisters living, Mrs. Tooker, of Ottawa, aud Mrs. Seara, of Burlington, Kansas.Mr. Ives was a member of the Old Settlers’ club of Chicago—the only member of that club iu this county—and he greatly enjoyed its meetings. He attended the last meeting of the club in May. His circle of acquaintance was very large and his death will be mourned by many citizens in different parts o' the State. The funeral will take place in the First Baptist church, Tuesday morning at JO o’clock.onlt;asouidmtoomMefrilt;amcoitarta’iorOufrirejprlt;tinasretmigeiobteiinvistndPt(nkI\1i
Newspaper Details
Bloomington Daily Leader
Bloomington, Illinois, US
Mon, Dec 12, 1887
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Thurgood M.
MD, USA 11 Jul 2018
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