SAMUEL T. BOURNE, an old soldier and a well-known citizen of Decker Township,
residing on section 16, has made his home for more than a quarter of a century
in Richland County. He was born in Decatur County, Ind., February 20, 1841. He
comes of an old English family that lived near the town of Bourne, England, and
that was established in Massachusetts in 1620. The grandfather of our subject
served in the War of 1812.
The father, Ransford Bourne, was born in
Massachusetts November 8, 1818, and with his parents went to Indiana when a boy.
The family located in Franklin County. The journey had been made with a horse
and wagon, on which the wife and children rode alternately. The grandfather
accumulated a considerable fortune and died at the age of eighty-seven years.
Ransford was reared amid the wild scenes of pioneer life. He acquired a good
education and became a school teacher. In 1840 he married Eliza Smith, who was
born in Pennsylvania, of German parentage, and the same year removed with his
bride to Decatur County, Ind., where he opened up a new farm in the midst of the
beech woods, making it his home until 1853, when he took up his residence near
Sumner, Ill. In the spring of 1862, he enlisted in the late war, in the One
Hundred and Thirtieth Illinois Infantry, and was killed eight months later at
Memphis, Tenn. The mother had died in the summer of 1857. After the death of the
parents, the family separated. There were six children who grew to mature years:
Samuel T., of this sketch: Zaccheus, who participated in twenty-nine hard
battles of the late war, and is now a successful and wealthy farmer, living near
Ellsworth, Iowa; Nancy, a resident of Indiana; Mary, deceased; Henry, who
resided near Shelbyville, Ill., and was murdered for his money at Westfield,
Ill., February 6, 1891; and Lucy, of Franklin County, Ind.
Our subject
was thirteen years of age when the family came to Illinois. On that trip he
drove an ox-team. He was educated in the common schools of Indiana, to which he
made his way by following a course indicated by blazed trees. On the 9th of
July, 1861, he joined the boys in blue of Company A, Eleventh Missouri Infantry.
After the regiment was drilled at St. Louis, the troops were sent to help
fortify Cape Girardeau, after which they participated in the battles of
Frederickstown, New Madrid, Island No. 10 and Point Pleasant. During those
campaigns they waded through swamps, where the horses could not go, and dragged
the cannon. After the engagement at Ft. Pillow, they went to re-enforce Grant,
and took part in the Corinth campaign and the capture of the city. Then came the
battle of Iuka, where Mr. Bourne was hit almost simultaneously with three balls.
The first passed through the left shoulder blade and took away a part of his
backbone. The second lodged in his left lung and he still carries that piece of
rebel lead. The third passed through the spleen and lodged in the spinal column.
This produced an abcess which has never yet healed. Mr. Bourne was marked by the
surgeon as mortally wounded, but the surgeon died nine years ago, and he is
still living. He remained in the hospital until December 11, 1862, and then
received his discharge. From the effects of his injuries, however, he will never
recover, and as a slight remuneration the Government has granted him a pension
of $72 per month.
On his return home Mr. Bourne, not content with his
education, entered Miami University and after a four-years course was graduated
from that institution in 1866. He then engaged in preaching for the Methodist
Episcopal Church for two years, in Ohio and Illinois. Soon after locating in
Richland County, he changed relationship with the church, owing to the absence
of any Methodist Episcopal congregation in the locality, and united with the
United Brethren Church. In 1868 he located in Richland County, where he has
since made his home. For fourteen years he engaged in teaching in the winter
season. He is still in the ministry as a local preacher, and as he is a highly-
cultivated man and able speaker he has done good work in the cause of
Christianity.
In Franklin County, Ind., in 1867, Mr. Bourne married
Sallie Carter. She died in 1878, leaving six children: Minnie R., wife of N. R.
Frost, a farmer of Decker Township; H. D., a minister of the United Brethren
Church, now a student in Westfield College; Nellie, who keeps house for her
father; Mary, Samuel T. and Ora P. In 1878 Mr. Bourne married Melinda Brock,
daughter of Rev. P. Brock. She died July 2, 1892, leaving five children: Cora,
Clarissa, Bertha, Walter and Edgar.
Mr. Bourne has devoted much of his
life to religious work and was the founder of the United Brethren Church in
Wynoose, with which he and his six eldest children now hold membership. He cast
his first Presidential vote for Lincoln in 1864, and was a Republican until
1884, since which time he has supported the Prohibition party. He now owns two
hundred and sixty-six acres of good land in Richland and Wayne Counties and
devotes the greater part of his time and attention to general farming. The
community finds in him one of its best citizens. A worthy man, upright and
honorable in all his dealings, he has the respect and confidence of all who know
him, and it is with pleasure that we present this record of his life to our
readers.
Extracted 12 Apr 2020 by Norma Hass from 1893 Portrait and Biographical Record of Effingham, Jasper and Richland Counties, Illinois, pages 248-249.
| Jasper | Crawford | |
| Clay |
 |
Lawrence |
| Wayne | Edwards | Wabash |
