Page 689

BENJAMIN F. MCVEIGH This gentleman occupies a prominent station among the farmers and stock raisers of the county with whose interests he has been identified for more than thirty years. His estate is located on section 32, Clear Lake Township, and consists of two hundred and eighty-two acres of land, upon which all needful buildings have been erected and every improvement made which belongs to a well regulated farm. The dwelling now occupied by the family os one of the fine farm houses, so many of which are to be seen in this locality, and was erected in 1867.

Our subject is a native of Orange County, N.Y., born September 4, 1825, his parents, Brimson and Mary (Stanton) McVeigh, being likewise natives of the Empire State. The father was a farmer who spent his entire life in Orange County, dying in 1865 at the age of sixty-five years. The mother survived until 1877 and reached the age of seventy-five years. She held membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church. The paternal grandfather of our subject was Benjamin McVeigh, who emigrated from Scotland prior to the Revolution, during which he acted as guard on the frontier. He died in 1829. The maternal grandfather of our subject was Richard Stanton, a prominent farmer in New York.

The gentleman of whom we write was the recipient of but limited schooling, as he lived in the country and had three miles to walk to school and had many home duties to perform, even in early boyhood when the usual chores of a farmer's home fell to his lot. After the death of his father he went to live with an uncle and when sixteen years of age hired out to another man with whom he remained two years. He next went to New York City to learn house painting, but after working a year and a half found himself out of employment, and finally hired out at $4 per month to work on a farm. While painting he had received but $25 a year.

In 1847 young McVeigh arranged to come West, a friend paying his way to Buffalo and thence around the lakes to Chicago. He had but $5 in money when he reached that place and that was due to his friend. His comrade was going to Springfield, but was unable to pay our subject's fare to that city and the latter therefore set out on foot. When he stopped for lodging he offered in payment his $5 gold piece, which no one could change. When he reached Ottawa he offered the ferryman the usual fare to take him across the Illinois River but the ferryman could not make the correct change and refused to carry him, insisting that a young man who had a $5 gold piece must have more money. Mr. McVeigh was determined to cross the river and so stripped off his clothing and holding it above the water with one hand swam the stream. The day was quite frosty and he was severely chilled and was sick for some time as a consequence.

Mr. McVeigh reached Springfield after having walked two hundred and ten miles, sometimes having traveled forty-five miles in a day. He soon obtained employment on a farm at $10 a month and for several years labored as a farm hand. A few years after coming hither he was married and began housekeeping in a log cabin on Round Prairie, a short distance east of Springfield, where he sojourned five years. In the spring of 1858 he purchased a portion of his present farm and began to feel that he had indeed a habitation and a home. Mr. McVeigh has made a specialty of raising hogs and cattle and keeps good grades of both. He has brought his land up to a high state of productiveness and may well look with pride and gratitude upon the results of his labors.

The estimable woman who has shared Mr. McVeigh's cares and successes, his joys and his sorrows for nearly forty years, became his wife February 6, 1851, prior to which time she was known as Miss Eleanor P. Bishop. She was born near Syracuse, N.Y., in 1828, and is a daughter of Isaac G. and Mary (Hyde) Bishop, the former a native of New York and the latter of Connecticut. Mr. and Mrs. Bishop came to this State in 1838, lived in Morgan County two years and in Hancock County four years. They were on their way to this county to locate when Mr. Bishop was stricken by a fatal illness and breathed his last in Menard County. Mrs. Bishop died in 1863. Both belonged to the Christian Church, and under their careful training their daughter grew to a noble womanhood. Mrs. McVeigh was one in a family of ten children, two of whom are now living. Mr. and Mrs. McVeigh have had eight children, two of whom - Charles M. and Georgianna - have been removed from them by the hand of death. The survivors are Mary E., wife of John D. Ridgeway, residents of Whiting, Jackson County Kan.; Albert H.; Henry B., Franklin G.; Helen L., wife of Oscar L. James, of Rochester Township, this county; and Hattie W.

Mr. McVeigh believes in the principles of Republicanism and never fails to support them with his vote when the ballot box is open, and with his intelligent exposition of them at all times. He is one of the many living in this section of the State who enjoyed the personal acquaintance of our revered martyred President, Abraham Lincoln. Mr. McVeigh has been connected with the Masonic fraternity thirty years. He and his wife are Presbyterian in their religious faith but attend the Methodist Episcopal Church as more convenient to their residence, and aid in its support.