Scientific methods of farming disseminated through the medium of the
agricultural schools throughout the country have come as a great blessing to
those pursuing agricultural callings. Yet the farmers in our younger days
had no such advantages. They had to depend upon their own judgment, their
own foresightedness, their own intuition, as it were, to overcome many a
perplexing agricultural problem. Their success was more often than not
almost phenomenal; and we can pardon them if they look askance upon our
newer methods. The subject of the present sketch began his farming career
(on his own land) about the Civil war period, and his well cultivated land
today shows that his efforts did not go unrewarded.
John P. Xander,
of Richland county, Claremont township, was born May 26, 1833, in Lehigh
county, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Joseph and Mary (Dorney) Xander,
natives of that state, who in the year 1834; took a boat on the Ohio river
from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, to Evansville, Indiana, enroute to Illinois.
They brought with them on the boat their horses, wagons and all belongings.
During the voyage one of the deck hands happened to throw one of their wagon
wheels overboard and the voyage had to be interrupted to fish it out. They
landed in Evansville, Indiana, April 28, 1834, when they crossed the Wabash
river on the ferry boat and set forth on a journey by land settled in Wabash
county, Illinois. Mrs. Xander's parents also came along at the same time and
settled in Illinois. Grandfather Dorney took a farm there at that time and
Joseph Xander and his wife went to live with them for several years. Later
they took up eighty acres of government land, paying one dollar and
twenty-five cents an acre for it in Wabash county, and on this place they
continued to live until their death. John P. Xander's mother died about five
years before his father. He remained with his parents assisting them on
their farm until his twenty-sixth year when he started on his own account.
At the age of thirty years he married Mary Betebenner on August 23, 1863. He
then rented a farm in Wabash county, where he remained about seven years, at
the end of which period he bought a farm of one hundred and twenty acres in
Claremont township, Richland county, and moved onto same where he remained
for thirty years, again removing to the home he now occupies. His farm life
was all the time marked with industriousness and his improvements did much
to enhance the value of the land he settled on. He built every portion of
the substantial house he now lives in.
John P. Xander's wife was born
November 18, 1839, in Frederick county, Maryland. She was the daughter of
George and Lydia Betebenner, her mother's own name being Everheart, who were
natives of Pennsylvania. She was the fourth of nine children. Her parents
came to Illinois in the year 1856, coming by train over the early railroad,
where they settled in Wabash county, Mrs. Xander then being seventeen years
of age. She remained with her parents on their farm until the time of her
marriage. Her mother died at the age of sixty and her father survived about
five years, dying at the age of eighty-five. Both died on the farm they
occupied and were buried in the Lutheran cemetery in Wabash county, where
the parents of John Xander are also interred.
John P. Xander's
married life has been blessed with seven children, one of whom died in
infancy. In the order of birth his children are: Ida A., who is the wife of
Peter Crum, and resides on her husband's farm in German township; Furman,
who has married, and lives at home with his parents; William H. is married
and resides near Altus, Oklahoma, on a farm. Eva, the wife of George
Bragunier, who resides in Emporia, Kansas. James E. is married and lives in
Lincoln, Illinois. John H. is single and resides in Ogden, Utah, where he is
employed by a large meat packing concern.
At the time of the Civil
war John P. Xander was drafted for service in 1863, having responded to the
call to arms, but upon arriving in Cairo, Illinois, he was returned home on
account of a sufficient number of soldiers having already been obtained.
In his youth and early life, John P. Xander attended the subscription
schools in Wabash county, where he imbibed all the knowledge that
institution could give him. His school days were at the period of the
elementary spellers; first, second and third; and McGuffey's readers.
Arithmetics were also in use in the log schoolhouse. The old hewn planks,
pin supported, were the seats, and the desks along the wall were of the same
quality.
In politics the subject of this sketch is and has been a
Democrat and a loyal supporter of W. J. Bryan. The first Presidential
candidate for whom he exercised his right as a voter was James Polk. In
former days he took a man's part in the politics of the township and county.
He was for three terms Township Assessor in Claremont township.
John
P. Xander, his wife and the members of his family, belong to the English
Lutheran church. He has been very active himself in church circles, holding
both the office of deacon and elder, and is a man looked up to by all of his
co-religionists.
The subject of this sketch is now living quietly
upon his farm of eighty acres which through his industry and zeal has been
brought to its present state of cultivation. His health, which has always
been of a rugged character, has failed somewhat within the past year and he
is consequently a sufferer to some extent. He has always been unsparing in
his hardworking efforts to improve his land, and as a result his labors have
marked his frame. Aside from his ill health, his home life is extremely
happy.
Extracted 26 Apr 2017 by Norma Hass from 1909 Biographical and Reminiscent History of Richland, Clay and Marion Counties, Illinois, pages 317-.
| Jasper | Crawford | |
| Clay |
 |
Lawrence |
| Wayne | Edwards | Wabash |
