BIOGRAPHY - Henry Atwood
HENRY ATWOOD has longer resided in Pella Township than any other of its
citizens. He has here made his home for thirty-five years, and is now living
on section 22. With the history of Ford County, he has been prominently
identified and has ever borne his part in the work of upbuilding and
advancement. As he is widely and favorably known throughout the community,
we feel assured that this sketch will prove of interest to many of our
readers.
Mr. Atwood was born in Chelsea, Mass., February 6, 1832. His grandfather,
Stephen Atwood, was born at Cape Cod, spent his early life as a sailor and
afterward became a farmer. His son, William H. Atwood, father of Henry, was
born on Cape Cod, and when about eight years old went to Boston with his
father, who bought a farm at Chelsea. William went into a store and was ever
afterward connected with mercantile interests. He learned to read by poring
over newspapers, and was entirely self-educated, but through his own efforts
became a well-informed man. With his brother, he did a large business as a
wholesale and retail dealer in oysters. He was married in Chelsea, to Miss
Lenora Atkins, a native of Cape Cod, who died when our subject was about
twelve years old. He then married Ruth Newcome, and, after her death, was a
third time married. He served as Captain of a military company and
throughout his life was a Democrat. He died in the old home at Chelsea, in
1878, at the age of seventy-four years.
The children of the Atwood family were Franklin, who died at the age of
twenty-one; Henry, of this sketch; Lenora, who died at the age of
twenty-one; Cordelia, who is living in Newton, Mass.; Daniel, who served in
the Twenty-seventh Massachusetts Regiment throughout the late war; Thomas
H., who was in the Fourth Iowa Cavalry; and Otis, of Massachusetts. By the
second marriage were born five children and of the fourteen, ten are now
living.
Our subject spent the first twelve years of his life in Chelsea and then
went to Boston, where he attended the public schools for two years. He
afterward went to night school for two years and was a student in the
Brocton School, but ill health forced him to abandon his studies. He was
afterward engaged for nine years in the wholesale drug business. In 1857, he
determined to try his fortune in the West. He spent a short time in
Minnesota for his health, and was at Minneapolis when the first building was
erected in that city. Later in the year, he came to Illinois and purchased
eighty acres of wild land in Pella Township, where he has since made his
home. It was not long before he had his entire farm under a high state of
cultivation. A home was built, trees were planted and many other
improvements made, which add both to the value and attractive appearance of
the place. Mr. Atwood was one of the earliest settlers of the county and has
been prominently identified with its growth and progress during all these
years. He served on the first jury of Ford County, in Paxton, and has been
called upon to fill many position of honor and trust, the duties of which he
has ever discharged with promptness and fidelity.
On the 16th of November, 1859, in Onarga, Iroquois County, Mr. Atwood wedded
Miss Mary Wyllie, who was born in Warren, Me., and is a daughter of William
and Harriet Wyllie. She taught the first school in Pella Township in her own
home. Three children have been born of their union: Lillie A., who was born
and reared on the old home farm and educated in the public schools and
Onarga Seminary, is the wife of David E. Tufts, a farmer of Steele County,
N. Dak.; Wyllie is a successful teacher of North Dakota, and Flora B. is a
teacher of recognized ability in Pella Township.
Mr. and Mrs. Atwood are charter members of the Presbyterian Church in Piper
City, to which their children also belong, and he is now serving as one of
its Elders. He cast his first Presidential vote for John C. Fremont and has
since been a Republican, stanch and true. The cause of education has found
in him a warm friend and he has done much for the advancement of the schools
in this neighborhood. During the thirty-five years of his residence in Ford
County, he has won the confidence and regard of all with whom he has been
brought in contact and this work would be incomplete without the sketch of
Henry Atwood.
Extracted 28 Mar 2020 by Norma Hass from Portrait and Biographical Record of Ford County, Illinois, published in 1892, pages 267-268.
