NancyP. Seckman

 
NANCY P. SECKMAN was bornin Harrison county, Kentucky, August 18, 1814. Her father, James Taylor,and her mother, Katie Bishop, were both born in Maryland, near Snow Hill.They went to Kentucky, when young, were married there, and were well-to-dofarmers. They moved to Illinois in the fall of 1832, when this daughterwas nineteen years old. They brought ten children with them in a prairieschooner, being twenty-one days on the route. They hired a man to bringthem with his five-horse team, and they brought three horses and saddlesof their own. They had a most delightful time, a continual picnic of twenty-onedays, from the time they left the old Kentucky home until they arrivedat grandfather Taylor’s in Morgan county. They bought 160 acres in whatis now Scott county, and this they made their permanent home. They hadtwo more children in Illinois, making twelve in all, and all but two grewto adult age, Mrs. Seckman being the eldest. The mother died at the ageof sixty-five, on the farm in Scott county; the father lived many yearsafter, but finally passed away at the ripe old age of eighty-five years,leaving a fine estate to the ten remaining children.

Mrs. Seckman had very littleschooling at the every-day school, as they were then termed. She was marriedin her twenty-second year to Jonathan W. Seckman, born near Chillicothe,Ohio, in 1810. His father was William Seckman, and his mother, Susan Wright,both from farmer families of Ohio. They came to Illinois after this soncame. Jonathan came here a poor young man, and began working for the lowwages of those times. He drove teams and broke prairie, and worked andearned and saved, until in his thirtieth year he had two horses, six oxen,and several head of horned cattle, and some hogs. He was married to oursubject, March 31, 1844, and began domestic life on an island in MenardCounty, on lands his father owned. They purchased forty acres in 1842,in Cooperstown township, near the present home of Mrs. Seckman. He tradeda good house and his last horse for it. He worked out by the day and paidfor the use of a six-horse team, with which he tilled the land for thefirst crop. Their life on the island for the three years they were there,was a living death from fever and ague, and when they left for Brown countythey were reduced in means, having but $40. They bought a log house onan adjoining claim, which they moved on their small farm. The timber waslarge and dense on this land, and he built his old house on and over severallarge stumps. They moved into this abode, January 1, 1842, and in abouttwo years he bought eighty acres adjoining. In 1865, they built the presentcommodious frame house in which Mrs. Seckman now resides. Here he died,August 8, 1885, aged seventy-five, leaving his widow with seven livingchildren. They had buried one daughter when an infant, and one son, JohnWilliam, aged twenty-eight. He left a wife and son. Mr. Seckman owned athis death 720 acres of land, and several lots in Mount Sterling. Theselands are well-stocked and well-improved. He was well and favorably knownin this section. His life of toil was not only successful financially,but he left a good record to his devoted wife. His father had been a preacheramong the United Brethren, and he also left a large estate to a large andhonorable posterity.

The names of Mrs. Seckman’sliving children are: James R., a farmer of Nebraska, has five children;Kittie J., wife of William Shultz, of Nebraska, has twelve children; CharlesH., farmer on part of the old homestead, has six children; George D., alsoa farmer on the homestead, ten children; Jonathan, farmer in Brown county,eight children; Joseph L., also on the homestead, seven children; Archie,also on the homestead, in the house with his mother, four children.

Mrs. Seckman says that sheis a monument of God’s mercy and love. She has had great health and strengthduring life, has worked hard in the house and field, has helped make fence,stack grain, and has done everything in the house from rocking the cradleto spinning and weaving. She is now as strong and vigorous as ever, andher mind is as strong as ever, and in every respect she is a remarkableold lady.

Biographical Review ofCass, Schuyler and Brown Counties, Illinois, Biographical Review PublishingCo., Chicago, 1892, pages 264-265.

Copyright2000-2006 Judi Gilker; all rights reserved. For personal use only.Commercial use of the information contained in these pages is strictlyprohibited without prior permission. If copied, this copyright must appearwith the information.

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