| Cyrus Horrom |
CYRUS HORROM dates his birth in Dearborn county, Indiana, September 4, 1820. His father, Benjamin Horrom, was born in New York state, and when a young man moved to Ohio. A few years later he continued his way westward, and took up his abode in Dearborn county, Indiana, where he lived till December, 1828. At that time he started with his wife and nine children for Illinois, making the removal with ox teams, and landing in Cass county the following March. Here he entered a tract of Government land in township 18, range 10, and erected a log house. The maiden name of his wife was Sarah Austin, she being a native of the same locality in which her husband was born. They reared nine children, and on the home farm the parents died.
Cyrus Horrom was eight years of age at the time the family moved to Illinois. At the time Central Illinois was sparsely settled, and in the northern part of the State the only inhabitants were Indians. Game of all kinds was plenty throughout the State, and the people dressed in homespun. Little of the land in Cass county had been entered, most of it belonging to the Government. The means of transportation being limited, farm produce necessarily brought a low price. Corn was ten cents per bushel, good steers sold at half a cent per pound, and pork brought seventy-five cents per hundred pounds.
Mr. Horrom lived with his parents till he reached his majority. He then went to Marshall county and worked on a farm three months. Returning to Cass county, he rented land of his father, and in 1845 settled on the farm he now owns and occupies. This farm is located on section 17, contains 145 acres, and is well improved with good buildings, etc.
Mr. Horrom was married in 1845, to Mary J. Briar, a native of Pennsylvania, and a daughter of James and Mary (Davis) Briar. Joseph Briar, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this volume, is a brother of hers. Mr. and. Mrs. Horrom have seven children living, viz: John H., Matilda J., Mary E., William H., Martha Ellen, Preston W., and Cora Alice. Charles, Addie, Millard and George A. are deceased.
Biographical Review of Cass, Schuyler and Brown Counties, Illinois, Biographical Review Publishing Co., Chicago, 1892, page 181.
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