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ROBERT PROUDFIT FROM: The History of Gallatin, Saline, Hamilton, Franklin, and Williamson Counties, Illinois (Chicago: Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1887). P. 736-737.
Robert
Proudfit, a pioneer farmer, was born January 18, 1811, in Fayette County,
Penn., one of a pair of twins Of nine children-the only one living--of
David and Sarah (Patterson) Proudfit, the former born in York County,
Penn., in March, 1770 , of Scotch blood, and the latter in 1773, in
Bedford County, Penn., of Irish origin. Soon after their marriage in
Bedford County, about 1798, they lived in Fayette County, and, twenty-six
years later, moved to Guernsey County, Ohio. The father was an Associate
Reformed Presbyterian Minister, and never missed but three Sabbaths during
his ministerial life-and that was unavoidable preaching two sermons the
last Sunday of his life, He died in 1830, and the mother in 1842 Our
subject was educated in his native county chiefly before thirteen, and
remained at 'home, helping manage the farm, until thirty years of age,
when he married and settled on his own farm in the same county. His wife,
Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel and Jane (Patterson) Wilson was born in 1820
near Elizabethtown, Penn., and married August 29, 1841. She died December
8, 1855, at the beforementioned home. But one of their eight children are
living, Mary I., now at home with her father, The oldest son, David W.,
was shot at Shiloh, April 6, 1863, and another, Samuel M., a physician at
Belle City about six years, died January 31, 1884. Our subject's second
wife was Mrs. Mary J. Campbell, widow of John Campbell, of Ohio, daughter
of David and Sarah (Patterson) Wilson, and a cousin of his first wife.
Their five children are Wilson H., Andrew P., William W., Robert B.
(deceased) and David M. In 1860, he moved to near Piopolis, Ill., and
after ten years here spent a year on the James Proutfit farm. Since about
1871 he has lived on his present fine farm of eighty acres, in Sections 3
and 10, and is
an
old, well-known and respected citizen. His present wife was born also near
Elizabethtown, Penn., February 25, 1824. Her son, Dr. John P. Campbell, is
living in Winchester, 111. Our subject is a Jacksonian Democrat. He was at |
