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PAST AND PRESENT OF THE CITY OF SPRINGFIELD AND SANGAMON COUNTY ILLINOIS
By Joseph Wallace, M. A.
of the Springfield Bar
The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, IL
1904



ISAAC N. LOWE. - Isaac N. Lowe, who owns and operates a good farm of one hundred and sixty acres on section 33, Chatham township, and is successfully engaged in general farming, stock raising and the dairy business, was born in Hunterdon county, New Jersey, on the 2d of April, 1841, and comes of a family that was founded in this country in colonial days. The first to cross the Atlantic was his great-grandfather, Richard Lowe, and a brother, one of whom located in Virginia, and the other in Pennsylvania. His grandfather, Isaac Lowe, was an early settler of New Jersey, in which state Richard L. Lowe, our subject's father, was born in 1802, and there grew to manhood. He was twice married his second wife being Sarah Williamson, also a native of New Jersey, and the mother of our subject. Richard L. Lowe was a miller by trade, but had other business interests both in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and in Louisiana. He spent some time in the Red river country and then returned to Philadelphia, where he carried on business until his removal to Illinois, in 1847. Locating in Jersey county, he opened up and improved a farm of considerable size, on which he spent the remainder of his life, dying there in 1887. His wife passed away two years later.

Isaac N. Lowe was only six years of age when he accompanied his parents on their removal to Jersey county, Illinois, and on the home farm he grew to manhood, his education being acquired in the common schools of the locality. On reaching man's estate he was married in that county in October, 1866, to Miss Helen Davis, a native of Jersey county, and a daughter of John W. Davis, who was from North Carolina and was an early settler of that county.

After his marriage Mr. Lowe carried on farming in Jersey county until 1872, when he came to Sangamon county and after operating rented land for eight years purchased his present farm in Chatham township. To its further improvement and cultivation he has since devoted his energies, and today has a very desirable place. His farm is divided into fields of convenient size by neat and well kept fences, having a hedge fence around each forty acre tract. For many years he has engaged in the raising of stock and in the dairy business and now sells his milk to the creamery, being a stockholder in the Chatham Creamery Association. An industrious, enterprising and energetic man, the success that he has achieved in life is due entirely to his own well directed efforts and good management for he started out with no capital.

Unto Mr. and Mrs. Lowe were born thirteen children, eleven of whom are still living, namely: Benjamin, who is deaf and dumb, is well educated and resides at home; Theodore is now engaged in farming in Indian Territory; John is superintendent of an eight hundred acre fruit farm at Flora, Clay county, Illinois; Elmer, Wilmer T., Perly and Homer are all at home; Anna is a professional nurse of Chicago; Clara is the wife of Frank J. Kessler, of Walla Walla, Washington; Edith and Lena are at home.

Mr. Lowe has supported the Democratic party since casing his first presidential ballot for General George B. McClellan in 1864, and has taken an active interest in public affairs. For three years he served as commissioner of highways and for fifteen years has been a member of the school board, serving either as president or clerk of the district most of the time. Fraternally he is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, and religiously his wife holds membership in the Methodist Episcopal church. Wherever known they are held in high regard and have a large circle of friends in their adopted county.



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