Edward T. Milby Biographical Review

EDWARD T. MILBY was born in Sussex county, Delaware, August 4, 1835. His father, Nathaniel J. Milby, emigrated with his wife and four children to Illinois in 1840, settling in Rushville township. The journey was made by canals and rivers and proved a tiresome one. The father bought a tract of land and hastened to make it ready for settlement. Two acres of land had been cleared and a plain log cabin had been built. This was all. But deft and willing fingers soon made things assume a fairly comfortable shape, and western life was fairly under way. This log cabin, by the way, was the first permanent house of its kind in Illinois. Mr. Milby, Sr., occupied the farm to the day of his death. The maiden name of the mother of the subject of this sketch was Mary Wilson [See Note #1 below], born in Sussex county, Delaware. She died on the Schuyler county home farm. In those days nearly every one lived in log cabins of one room. The housewife spun and wove the cloth used for the clothes for both sexes. She also had many other duties to which the wives of farmers now are strangers. Edward attended school attired in homespun that his mother had made for him with her own hands. Notwithstanding his school duties he assisted on the farm and continued to do so until his marriage, when he began for himself on rented land in Huntsville. He continued to pay rent for land for about ten years, when he bought two and a half acres in Buena Vista township. He lived in the latter place but two months as he went to his father’s farm, where he stayed for seven years and then bought eighty acres in section 23. After ten years’ residence there he sold out and bought the place where he now resides. On his farm of 223 acres he does general farming and stock raising. Mr. Milby has been married thrice. The first time he was twenty-three years of age when he married, and the lady who honored him with her hand was Lydia Hillis, of Rushville, the daughter of John and Jane Ferres Hillis [See Note #2 below]. She died in 1865 and Mr. Milby remained single until 1872, when he again entered the married state. The second lady was Lizzie J. Davidson, of Kentucky, and she died in 1879. Mary A. Bauer, of Highland county, Ohio, the daughter of Valentine Bauer, was the lady to whom he was married January 21, 1886. Mr. Milby has had six children, all of which, save one, are living. Three of the children are the issue of the first marriage: Frank, Clement and Lizzie, and the other three are the issued of the second marriage. The second child of the second marriage, Herne [See Note #3 below], died when three years old, but the other two, Walter and Ida, are living. Mr. Milby is an earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, while the present Mrs. Milby is a member of the same church in the North. In politics Mr. Milby is a disciple of “Old Hickory,” he being a Democrat.

Notes: Joanne Walters provided the following corrections to the bio information given above:
Note #1: The mother of this subject was actually Elizabeth (Eliza) Burton Wilson. Source for this information: Will of David Wilson of Sussex County, Delaware and pictures of her tombstone in the Milby Family burying ground on the old homestead. Also have handwritten notes by her granddaughter who was named after her. She did die at home – she fell down the cellar steps and broke her neck.
Note #2: Lydia Hillis’ mother’s maiden name was Ferris not Ferres. The Ferris family was from Fleming County, Kentucky. Source: Handwritten notes from her granddaughter which are in my possession.
Note #3: The second child of the second marriage – name should be Homer N. not Herne. Source: Schuyler County, Illinois Death Records, FHL #1311550.