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SILAS BIGGERSTAFF FROM:
The
History of Gallatin, Saline, Hamilton, Franklin, and Williamson Counties,
Illinois (Chicago: Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1887).
P. 677-678.
Silas
Biggerstaff, farmer, was born October 8, 1839, in Hamilton County, the
second of ten children, three deceased, of Alfred and Evaline (Garrison)
Biggerstaff, the former of German-French descent, born in Ulenberg County,
Ky., in 1803, and the latter of English origin, born in 1813 in
Tennessee. They were married in Hamilton County, and settled on a
farm in Crooke Precinct, where the father died in July, 1861. The
mother is still living on the same place. Our subject was educated
in the common schools, and when twenty-two married and settled on a farm
in Beaver Creek Township, where he remained twelve years. He then
sold and moved to the "Ira Munsel farm" which he sold about two
years later and bought an interest in the Belle City Grist and Saw
Mill. After six years' residence there in that business, he returned
to his farm, and in January, 1885, sold it and bought the old "Judge
Crouch farm" in Crouch Township. His wife, Sidney, daughter of
William and Sallie (Boyer) Fields, was born in 1841, in White County,
Ill. Their six children are John M. (deceased), Paris R. (deceased),
William A., Mary L., Charles S. and Sallie. In March, 1864, our
subject enlisted in Company K, Eighteenth Illinois Infantry, at Enfield,
White County, and was soon appointed second lieutenant, but resigned on
account of ill health, and after but four or five months' service was
honorably discharged. He has, by hard work, made
the chief part of his property, and now owns 440 acres, about 200 of which
are cleared and cultivated. It is in Sections 27 and 28.
Politically he is an independent Democrat first voting for Douglas.
He has been constable several years, and in Belle City was justice four
years. His Belle City Mill burned about 1880, and his loss was about
$4,000, but he has recuperated from the financial loss. He and his
wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. |
