JOHN H. DALE

FROM: The History of Gallatin, Saline, Hamilton, Franklin, and Williamson Counties, Illinois (Chicago: Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1887).  P. 690-691

           John H. Dale, farmer and mechanic, was born in Hamilton County in 1828, the seventh of twelve children of John, Sr., and Nancy (Hall) Dale, natives of Kentucky.  The father of English ancestry, was twice married: first, in 1804, to Elizabeth Shirley, by whom he had four children; and lastly in December, 1816, after which he settled in Hamilton County, near the present home of our subject.  He was a farmer, and an exceptionally good pioneer mechanic in wood or iron.  He made the first cotton-gin, and some of the first mills built in the State.  He was a remarkably strong man and hospitable, so that he was familiarly known as "Uncle John" among his hosts of friends.  He was captain of militia in times of general muster, and was once elected justice, but resigned.  He was born May 5, 1775, and died August 30, 1860.  The mother was born in 1798, and died April 16, 1870.  Both were members of the Missionary Baptist Church.  With a common-school education our subject began life, and was married in 1848 to Nancy, daughter of John and Malinda McLane, born in Franklin County March 30, 1830.  Their seven children are Dr. Marion C., of McLeansboro; John W., a druggist at the same place; Fannie, wife of W. J. Mangis; Robert M., Emery T., J. Riley and Charles A.  He has since lived on his present farm, which adjoins his birthplace, and is three miles west of McLeansboro, and consists of 263 acres finely improved, and which has all been gained through his own efforts, and in quiet, hard work.  He is a public-spirited man, and in all ways devoted to the welfare of all about him.  In 1887 he served as township collector.  Reared a Democrat and first voting for Pierce, he has since the war been a Republican.  Since his fifteenth year he has been an active worker in the Missionary Baptist Church, of which his wife also is a member.