FAWCETT, J. W. (deceased), was a leading farmer in his part of Sangamon county, and late in life was for some years an influential resident of Buffalo. He was born in Clay County, Indiana, December 12, 1846, and died April 3, 1899. His parents were John and Minerva (Jenkins) Fawcett, natives respectively of Virginia and Indiana. His father moved form his native State to Indiana, where he lived till 1858, when he came to Illinois, locating in Jasper County. There he farmed ten years, then moved to Sangamon County and located on a farm near Buffalo Hart, on which he lived out the remainder of his life and where his wife also passed away. They had five sons and three daughters, of whom the following survive: Frank is a school teacher at Springfield; John is in the real estate business at Des Moines, Iowa; Walter is a farmer in Shelby County, Ill.

J. W. Fawcett was educated in country schools in Indiana and passed his boyhood and youth in assisting his father in the operation of the home farm. He gave his life to agriculture with considerable business success. He was a member of the Christian Church, with which his widow has long been identified. In political affiliations he was a stanch Republican. He married, at Taylorville, Ill., August 6, 1868, Miss Margaret Burch, who was born in Miami County, Ohio, February 4, 1846, a daughter of Daniel Burch. Her father also first saw the light of day in Miami County, Ohio; and her mother was born in Piqua, that State. It was at Piqua that they were wedded. Mr. Burch farmed in Ohio till 1851, when the family moved to Jasper County, Ill. There he continued in the same occupation till 1858, then settled in Sangamon County and was a farmer in Mechanicsburg Township till 1869, when he removed to Montgomery County, Kansas, where he bought land which he operated till July, 1909, when he died, aged ninety years. His wife died there in August, 1886. They had five sons and two daughters, all of whom are living: Harrison, the eldest, is a citizen of August, Kansas, a retired farmer; Mrs. Fawcett was next in order of birth; Louis is a farmer in Jasper County, Ill.; Charles is farming in Oklahoma; Webster is an Arizona farmer; David is farming in Oklahoma; Mrs. Mary (Burch) Dosh lives in Kansas.

Mr. and Mrs. Fawcett became the parents of seven children, of whom the oldest living is Mrs. Emma (Fawcett) Nuckolls, wife of Samuel Nuckolls, an elevator manager at Osbornville, Christian County, Ill.; Maggie F. married Louis Mulkin and lives at Niantic, Ill.; Minerva is the wife of Omar Hall, a farmer of Christian County, Ill.; Whit and Emmett live with their mother. Mrs. Fawcett has four grandchildren.