WILLIAM T. INGLE. There is a peculiar charm attached to the lives of those
men who have been familiar with the pioneer days of their county and who can
recall incidents that seem truly wonderful to one beholding only the progress of
civilization on every side. It is difficult to realize that but a short time ago
the now highly cultivated lands of Richwoods Precinct, Calhoun County, were
covered with heavy timber, and that in place of intellectual and active business
men, red men roamed at will through the land of their fathers.
The subject of our sketch was born in Sullivan County, Indiana, April 4, 1822,
and was six years of age when he came with his mother to Calhoun County. She is
in point of settlement one of the oldest residents in this county, and while our
subject was quite young she went through all the trials and hardships of pioneer
life, cooking, raising cotton and flax and weaving clothes for the family. He
wore buckskin pants and coat, taking the skin from deer and dressing it himself.
At an early age he commenced assisting his mother in the management of her
affairs by tilling the soil and making himself generally useful.
Mr. Ingle left home when sixteen years of age and engaged with a farmer named Denny who lived on Garden Creek, St. Charles County, Mo., receiving in compensation for his services first $12 per month and after a time $18. While working in this way he saved enough money to purchase a small farm, and after building a log house on an island he engaged in hauling wood to sell to the steamers. He continued to deal in wood until the time of his marriage, and then rented land in Point Precinct, and afterwards took possession of the place where he now resides. It was covered with timber and brush, but he has cleared the land and cultivated the soil most successfully, and to-day owns a valuable estate. His farm embraces two hundred and eleven and one-half acres of highly improved land and he is generally conceded to be one of the finest farmers in Calhoun County.
Our subject married Miss Mary V. Winchester, November 7, 1843. She was born in Tennessee March 16, 1827, and died January 2, 1872. After her death our subject was again married January 28, 1873, to Miss Margaret A. Johnson, whose birth occurred in Fayette County, Ill., April 12, 1844. His first marriage was blessed with nine children, viz.: James M., Keziah J., George W., Joel E., Mary E., William H., Benjamin F., Sarah A. and Diton U. Of the second union were born two children, viz.: Eva and Columbus.
Mrs. Ingle's father, Isaac Johnson, was born in Tennessee, and her grandfather, Henry Johnson removed from that State to Illinois, settling in Fayette County and from that point moved to Missouri. Her father was young when the family removed to Fayette County, and in that place he received his education and afterward learned the blacksmith trade in Shelbyville, Ill. He moved to Shelby County in 1845, and there followed his trade up to the time of his death which occurred in the year 1858. Mrs. Ingle was an infant at the time of her mother's death, and resided with her grandparents until her father was married the second time, and then lived with her step-mother in Shelbyville until she reached her fourteenth year. She then passed two years in Calhoun County, and from this place went to St. Louis, where she lived up to the time of her marriage.
Our subject's father, Aaron Ingle, was a pioneer of Sullivan County, Ind., and spent his last years there. In 1828 our subject's mother came with her children to Calhoun County by way of the Ohio, Mississippi and Illinois Rivers to Bloom's Landing. The family located in what is now known as Bellshollow, in Richwoods Precinct, which was formerly known as Cave Spring Hollow. The country at that time was very wild and turkeys, panthers, and many different kinds of animals abounded everywhere.
Extracted 23 Mar 2017 by Norma Hass from Portrait and Biographical Album of Pike and Calhoun Counties, Illinois, published in 1891, pages 689-690
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