birth-place of James Lee Real, January 26, 1834. When our subject was but five years of age
his parents removed to Coles county, Illinois, where his father purchased a farm on which he
lived for a number of years. He then moved to the city of Charleston, where he resided at the
time of his death in 1868.

Doctor Real's early education was such as could be derived from the advantages offered in a
log school house, but later he attended the seminary in the town of Charleston, which was a
distance of three and a half miles from his father's farm, which distance he generally walked.
Here the educational advantages were equal to any in the West, being under the supervision
of some of our most eminent professors, and Mr. Reat soon acquired a great fondness for
study, and before leaving the institution he obtained a good collegiate education, subsequently
taking up the study of languages, familiarizing himself with Latin and German, at the same time
teaching school a number of terms. His natural tastes and talent were those of his chosen profes-
sion, which he began to cultivate soon after leaving school, by taking a regular course of studies
at the Medical College, Cincinnati, Ohio, where he graduated in 1858. He also attended the
Rush Medical College, Chicago, and graduated from the same.

The doctor, in order to complete his education and familiarize himself with drugs, engaged for
a time in the drug business at Charleston, Illinois, but afterward sold out his interests and traveled
through the principal states west of the Mississippi River, seeking a favorable location for the prac-
tice qf his profession, and in 1859, on his way home, he stopped in Tuscola, Illinois, and in August
of the same year took up his residence, where we still find him. Tuscola was then but a small
village, just springing into existence. The doctor soon established a practice which has grown as
rapidly as the now county seat of Douglas county.



UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL D/CTlOffAKY.

In the fall of 1862 Doctor Reat received an appointment as assistant surgeon, and was assigned
to a post at Louisville, where he remained for some time in charge of a hospital. March 2, he
was commissioned first assistant surgeon of the 2ist regiment Illinois infantry (Grant's old regi-
ment); July 22, 1864, he was promoted to surgeon of the same regiment. Returning to Spring-
field early in 1866, he was mustered out the last of January.

As an army surgeon Doctor ,Reat displayed the most admirable qualities, performing con-
stantly difficult surgical operations, and giving what encouragement his kind, religious nature
prompted, to the suffering and dying, and the experience which he had, in connection with his
thorough education, fully qualifies him to hold the rank where we place him in the opening of
this sketch. After the war he returned immediately to Tuscola, and resumed his practice, which
is now very extensive, he having a large consulting practice throughout the surrounding country.
He also holds the office of United States examining surgeon.

In 1861 the doctor married in Jacksonville Miss Sallie C. Callaway, a lady of fine literary
attainments, and possessing great Christian virtues, and to whose encouragement, and kind,
devoted nature he owes a great portion of his success. She is a native of Kentucky, and a
graduate of Berean College. Her father was the well known late Rev. S. T. Callaway, a Baptist
clergyman. They have been blessed with four children, three of whom are living. The eldest,
a daughter, is now at Evanston College, making painting her specialty, for which she has a
natural talent.

Doctor Reat is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, with which denomination his-
wife also united after her marriage, in order that they might tread the same path together. Both
have also taken an active part in the temperance movement, in which they are strong advocates.
The doctor has always manifested public spirit, and has contributed materially to his immediate
vicinity and county. For three years he was clerk of the board of education of Tuscola, ana
while in that position he took a deep interest in the erection of a public-school building, which is
surpassed by few in the state, and he is a man who is widely esteemed for his intrinsic worth and
social qualities.

JUSTUS STEVENS.

PRINCETON.

ONE of the best representatives of the agricultural and stock-raising class in central Illinois
is the gentleman whose name heads this sketch, and who settled in Princeton more than
forty years ago. He was born and reared in the Granite State, where boys are early taught to
work; where habits of industry are apt to abide, and where the soiling of the hands is one of the
least sins a lad can commit.

Justus Stevens was born in the town of Boscawen, now Webster, adjoining Concord on the
north, January 8, 1819, just four years after General Jackson won his victory at New Orleans,
behind cotton-bags. He is a son of John Stevens, a native of Canterbury, same state, and Submit
(Newcomb) Stevens, who was born in Greenwich, Massachusetts. The grandfather of Justus was
Simon Stevens, who lost a brother in Canada in the French and Indian war. The subject of
these biographical notes was educated at the Franklin Academy, near Boscawen, and Patridge's
Military School, at Norwich, Vermont. His father was a merchant and general business man,
and in due season the son turned his attention in the same direction, remaining in his native
state until past his majority. In September, 1842, before Horace Greeley had hinted to young
men to go west, Mr. Stevens stuck down his stakes in Princeton, then a very small village, and
there he is to-day, in a prairie town of 5,000 well-to-do people, himself second to none of them
in thriftiness. He came here with toil-hardened hands, and has never been ashamed to keep
them so, though of late years he has been more economical of his energies than formerly. For
nearly twenty years he was a merchant and general business man in Princeton, buying grain,
packing pork, and shipping all kinds of farm products to Chicago and Saint Louis, at first by way




H C.Conp.r Jr S Co



UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 539

of the Illinois River, and later by rail. He had at one period between two and three thousand
customers in four different counties, and was one of the best known men and one of the most
honorable traders in Bureau county.

Mr. Stevens entered a large tract of land in this county at an early day, and when the civil
war began he closed out his mercantile business, and turned his whole attention to farming. He
has 4,000 acres in one general farm, twelve miles northwest of Princeton, and under fine improve-
ment, and now managed by his only son, Justus M. Stevens, a thoroughgoing, efficient business
man. The old gentleman has spent no less than $30,000 in improvements on this farm, which is
now devoted largely to stock raising. Six hundred acres are planted with corn annually. He
has about one thousand head of cattle, the same of hogs, and usually a hundred horses. He is
one of the most successful farmers and stock-raisers in the state, and his great industry and
shrewd management have been amply rewarded. When he built his present brick mansion in
Princeton, thirty-three or thirty-four years ago, it was one of the best dwelling houses in the
state, and one of the very first in which a furnace was introduced, such comforts being rare in
this prairie state in 1850.

Mr. Stevens has held a few local offices, such as he could not well avoid accepting, and has
been thoroughly identified with local interests, such as the Princeton public schools, high school,
the building of a first-class hotel, etc. He was one of the first men in the county to move in
organizing the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad Company, of which he was a director for some
years. He also had a contract on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy road, and has shown him-
self at all times a wide-awake, enterprising, broad-minded citizen, one with whose services the
county could ill dispense.

In June, 1842, our subject was married to Miss Lurena McConihe, of Merrimac, New Hamp-
shire, and besides the son already mentioned, they have four daughters: Mandana, married to
James W. Templeton, postmaster at Princeton, and Fannie Harper, Darlene and Blanche N.,who
are at home.

HON. WILLIAM B. ANDERSQN.

MOUNT VERNON.

WILLIAM B. ANDERSON was born April 2, 1830, at Mount Vernon, Illinois, where he has
since resided, and witnessed the growth of that place from a small hamlet of log cabins
to the now beautiful city. His father was the late Hon. Stinson H. Anderson, who was of Scotch
and Irish descent, and born in Tennessee. The maiden name of his mother was Candace Chick-
ering. She was descended from a well known New York family. His father was a man who had
an enviable reputation not only in his immediate vicinity, but throughout Illinois, where he set-
tled as early as 1825. He served as captain of the dragoons in Florida for one year, having
been appointed by President Jackson, his commission being signed by General Cass, who was
then secretary of war. He subsequently served in the legislature during several terms of office.
In 1838 he was elected lieutenant-governor of Illinois, under Governor Carlin, and was subse-
quently appointed marshal of the state, which position he held for four years, Noah Johnson, of
Mount Vernon, acting as his assistant or deputy marshal. He was a man of remarkable energy,
and continued active and vigorous until 1857, when he died at Mount Vernon.*

The subject of our sketch remained at home on his father's farm until about twenty-one years
of age. His early education was that of most farm boys, and obtained under difficulties. He
attended Lebanon College for a time.

In 1851 Mr. Anderson began the study of law under the instruction of Judge Walter B. Scates,
now of Chicago, and in 1856 was admitted to the bar. While studying he worked in the survey-
ing business, and was thus enabled to defray his expenses. In 1856 he was elected to the legis-
lature, and was an active worker for Stephen A. Douglas for the United States senate, and took a
very active part, although he was one of the younger members of that body. He was reelected
53



540



UNITED STATES RIOGRA TIUCAI. DICTIONARY.



to the next session. At the close of his second term of office his father died, and he then returned
home, intending to remain only a short time, but, owing to various circumstances, he concluded
to settle down on the farm and carry on the business, which he did, and since that time has
devoted his principal attention to farming and stock-raising.

Judge Anderson was married January i, 1858, to Miss Elvira Thorn, the daughter of the late
William B. Thorn, of Mount Vernon. They have had four children, three boys and one girl.

In the fall of 1862 Mr. Anderson enlisted as a private in the Union army, and on the organi-
zation of the company was appointed lieutenant-colonel of his regiment. On the death of
Colonel Yoler he was promoted to colonel. He served in the Army of the Cumberland, i-jth
army corps; was in Sherman's march from Chattanooga to the sea, and took an important part
in many of the severe struggles, resigning his commission December 25, 1864, at which time the
secretary of war (Stanton) presented him with his promotion to the rank of brigadier-general.

After his return from the army he resumed his farming, and continued in private life until
1868, when he was elected democratic elector of the eleventh district, and stumped the entire dis-
trict, in joint discussion with General Ritchel, and in 1870 he made the race for the United States
congress against Hon. John A. Logan in the state at large, but was defeated after a severe con-
test, thereby reducing the general republican majority from 50,000 to 25,000. During the same
year he was a member of the state constitutional convention, which framed and organized the
present constitution.

In 1871 he was elected to the state senate to fill out an unexpired term of office. In 1874 he
was elected to congress by the greenback party from the nineteenth district of Illinois, and was
an active participant in the monetary discussions that came before the national assembly during
that session. In 1876 Mr. Anderson was nominated by the greenback and independent members
of the legislature as their independent candidate for United States senator, but missed the election
by a very few votes, and Hon. David Davis was tak;en by the party and elected. Mr. Anderson
then retired from public life until 1882, when he was elected judge of Jefferson county by the demo-
cratic party, which position he still holds.

As jndge he brings to the bench a very wide range of legal scholarship, is clear and able in
his decisions, has an eminently judicial mind, is honorable and just, has merited and won the
esteem of the profession, and is a pattern of benevolence and a worthy citizen.



DOCTOR WALTER A. STEVENS.

CHIC A GO.

AMONG the leading dentists of Chicago is the gentleman whose name we have placed at the
head of this sketch, and who has achieved a splendid reputation in his profession. This he
has done not because of any genius in that direction, but because he acquired a thorough knowl-
edge of his profession, to start with, and has been a close student for more than twenty years.

Walter Augustus Stevens was born in the town of Richmond, Ontario county, New York,
April 19, 1830, he being a son of Walter and Lucy (Osgood) Stevens, His grandfather, Jesse
Stevens, a New Englander by birth, was a revolutionary pensioner, and lived to be nearly ninety
years of age. Our subject received an academic education, at the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary,
Lima, New York, including quite a full course in the sciences, and he taught a district school six
months in Canadice, in his native county. He worked more or less on his father's farm until he
had reached his majority, his father dying when this son was thirteen years old. During the period
of youth, and subsequently, he devoted considerable time to the study of anatomy and physiology,
which studies have been of great use to him in his profession.

In the summer of 1857 Mr. Stevens came to the West; visited Chicago in June of that year;
made a trip through Wisconsin, Iowa and Missouri, and for four years was engaged in railroad-
ing in the last-named state. Reared in the North, he had a very strong attachment to the Union,



UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 541

and was early spotted by the confederates as a suitable man to leave the South. February 22,
1861, some of them kindly waited upon him at eight o'clock in the morning, and notified him that
he could have his choice, to leave forthwith or be hung at noon. As he had never seen any thing
of the kind, he concluded to wait and witness the execution ! He waited till June; the hanging
never came off, and he left in disgust. Taking up his residence in Chicago, he studied dental
surgery for two years with Doctor Honsinger, and in 1863 opened an office by himself. Since
that date Doctor Stevens has been a very busy man, giving his time assiduously to the study, as
well as practice of his profession, of which he has made a grand success. It is no uncommon
thing for him to have his appointments made out for every day except Sundays, for five or six
weeks ahead.

Doctor Stevens is a thirty-third degree Mason, and an active member of the supreme council of
the northern Masonic jurisdiction of the ancient accepted Scottish Rite. He had charge of the
Grand Consistory of the state, when it was disbanded in 1867. He is a member of the First Pres-
byterian Church, and is a man of sterling character.

September 22, 1862, Doctor Stevens was married to Miss Elanora Victoria Richards, of Lenox,
Berkshire county, Massachusetts, and they have three children.



HON. LEWIS D. ERWIN.

RUSHV1LLE.

EWIS DE BOIS ERWIN, a resident of Schuyler county since 1839, and a prominent man in
the county in railroad and other enterprises, hails from the Empire State, being born in
Plattsburgh, Clinton county, July i, 1815. His father, Cornelius M. Erwin, and his grandfather,
General David Erwin, were engaged in the iron business in northern New York, where the former
was a pioneer settler. General Erwin was with General Washington at the battles of Trenton
and Princeton, and was a general of the New York state militia. Cornelius Erwin was born in
Rutland county, Vermont; married Miss Lucinda Furman, and they had a family of seven chil-
dren, Lewis being the second son and fourth child. In 1831 the family moved to. Birmingham,
Ohio, where Mrs. Erwin died in 1833. Her husband died at Toledo, same state, in 1837.

The subject of this sketch had very limited school privileges in his youth, but has been a
learner all his life, and is a very well informed man on a variety of subjects. In Ohio he was with
his father in a forge and blacksmith shop; was a clerk in a store at Toledo for four years; came
to Schuyler county in May, 1839, and during the first year held a clerkship near Rushville for
Rensselaer Wells.

In 1843 Mr. Erwin purchased the first forty acres of a farm in Littleton township, eight miles
north of town. He added to it not long afterward, and has been cultivating his farm, directly or
indirectly, for forty years. He has 200 acres, all under excellent cultivation, except what is
reserved for timber. Since 1850 he has resided in town.

At an early day, while living on his land, Mr. Erwin held almost every conceivable office, and
did a great variety of gratuitous work, such as viewer for public roads, chain carrier, surveyor,
township trustee, school treasurer, etc.

In November, 1843, ne was married to Miss Elvira Wells, daughter of Charles Wells, of Little-
ton township.

Mr. Erwin was deputy sheriff in 1844-45; was elected by his democratic constituents to the
state legislature over Judge Minchell, a very prominent man among the whigs, afterward a mem-
ber of the constitutional convention, and at his death a judge of the circuit court; was again
elected to the legislature in 1856, and was reflected in 1858 and 1860, serving, in all, four terms and
five sessions, including an extra one in 1861. In that last session, as we see by the records, he
was placed by the republicans on the enlarged finance committee, and heartily cooperated with
the friends of the government in raising money to equip men and to aid in putting down the



542



r. \ITI-.D STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY,



rebellion. After the capture of Vicksburg and the battle of Murfreesboro, in 1863, money was
voted for the relief of the wounded soldiers. Mr. Erwin was appointed a member of the com-
mission for the disbursement of those funds, and he went to the South and faithfully performed
his duties. Meanwhile, before being elected to the legislature the second time, he held the offices
of sheriff and clerk of the circuit court.

He was for years quite prominent in the Schuyler County Agricultural Society, at times pay-
ing out, with other officers, considerable of his own money in order to keep its credit good.

Mr. Erwin was one of the commissioners appointed to lay out what was known as the Peoria
and Hannibal road, and which is now a part of the Buda and Rushville branch of the Chicago,
Burlington and Quincy road. He aided in getting the bill for its charter through the legislature,
and in securing stock for the road; was a director for nine or ten years, then vice president, and
finally, the last year before it passed into other hands, he was president of the company.

Nobody who knows Lewis Erwin will question his energy, his enterprise, his public spirit or
his executive ability. He has shown himself competent and eminently trustworthy in every posi-
tion in which he has been placed by the people. He is not only self-educated, but in all respects
a self-made man.

He is an elder and trustee of the Presbyterian Church, and a man the purity of whose life is
unquestioned. Mr. and Mrs. Erwin have ten children living, and have buried one son.



THOMAS MUNROE..M.D.

RUSHVILLE.

THOMAS Munroe, physician and surgeon, has been practicing his profession in Rushville for
forty years, and is well known in Schuyler county. He is a son of John Munroe, in early
and middle life a shoe manufacturer and shoe dealer at Annapolis, Maryland, and later, post-
master in that place, where Thomas was born, January 4, 1807. His mother was Ann Wells, who
was English on her father's side, and German on her mother's. John Munroe was a confidential
agent of the government during the second war with the mother country. William Munroe ;
grandfather of our subject, was one of one hundred and thirty-five men, residing in and near An-
napolis, who, in 1774, signed a protest against certain acts of the colonial government then under
British rule, and when war broke out the next year he espoused the cause of the colonies against
King George.

Doctor Munroe was educated at Saint John's College, Annapolis, taking the full classical
course, finishing in 1826; studied medicine in that place with Doctor Dennis Claude, who had
been a surgeon in the army; attended lectures at the University of Maryland, Baltimore; received
his medical degree in 1829: practiced at Baltimore until 1835; came to this state in December of
that year; practiced at Jacksonville, Morgan county, until 1843, and then settled in Rushville.
Here he was in steady practice till 1862, when he was appointed surgeon of the ngth Illinois
infantry; which was in the i6th army corps, and he remained in the service until June, 1864, when
his health broke down and he resigned. Returning to Rushville, he resumed practice, which he
still continues, though in a restricted degree. He rarely goes into the country, but does a village
and office practice. He has always been a careful man, the people have great confidence in his
skill, and his old rural patrons would be glad to send for him, but he refers them to a younger
class of practitioners.

Doctor Munroe has been largely identified with the cause of education; was a school director
for a number of years, was a director of a female academy, which once had an existence in Rush-
ville, and was a subscriber to a fund for building a house for a private school, which house was
afterward sold fora public school.

The doctor was for years a class leader in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is now, and
has been for a long time, a steward and trustee of that religious body. While at Jacksonville, he



UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 543

was one of the men who introduced the Washingtonians into that place, having long been an
indefatigable worker in the cause of temperance. His heart is on the right side of every reforma-
tory movement.

Before settling in Rushville, Doctor Munroe was married in 1841, to Miss Annis Hinman, from
Utica, New York, daughter of Major Benjamin Hinman, a descendant in direct line from Sergeant
Edward Hinman, who settled in Stratford, Connecticut, about 1650. Her father was an officer
in the revolutionary army, one of thirteen Hinmanswho were commissioned during the war, from
Woodbury, Connecticut. He was aid to General Greene. He married Anna Keyser, daughter of
Captain John Keyser, who, with two sons, was a prisoner in Canada for three years. Mrs. Munroe
is a niece of General Ephraim Hinman, a noted revolutionary officer.

Doctor and Mrs. Munroe have had seven children, losing their first-born, John, in infancy.
Thomas, the eldest son living, is a lumber manufacturer, Muskegon, Michigan; James Edward, a-
graduate with honors of the Illinois College, Jacksonville, is a lawyer, Chicago; Mary Anna is at
home; Hinman and Charles G., are in business in Rushville, and William, also a graduate of
Illinois College, is a law student, Rushville, and local editor of the " Schuyler Citizens."



J. H. MAXWELL, M.D.

NE WTON.

PROMINENT among the leading physicians and surgeons of Jasper county, is J. H. Maxwell,
who was born December 26, 1835. His father was William Maxwell, of Scotch ancestry,
a farmer by occupation. The maiden name of his mother was Martha Utter; she also was of
Scotch ancestry, and both are of revolutionary stock. Samuel Utter, an uncle of our subject,
was a companion of Hon. Samuel Houston, governor of Texas, and a member of the United
States senate, and they served side by side in the Creek war.

The subject of our sketch passed his early education and life on his father's farm, his experi-
ences being those common to most farmer boys ; he worked during the busy seasons and attended
school during the winters. Later he was sent to the seminary at Paris, Illinois. When twenty-