History of Lee County, Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY 127
and later was on the relief committee which organized nine bouroughs
into a city known today as Johnstown, Pennsylvania. In
1864 he came to Illinois, settling in Lee Center township, Lee
county, where he became a prosiDerous farmer. Lie died in Decem-
ber, 1910, when more than eighty-two years of age.
Unto Mr. and Mrs. X. F. Gehant were born six children:
Grrover W., George M., Kosalie F., Evelyn E., Edmund W. and
Mary O., but the last named died in infancy.
ALBEIJT WOODS.
Albert Woods, a representati-^-e of a well known pioneer family
of Lee county, has lived in Wyoming township since 1869 and dur-
ing the intervening period has made many substantial contribu-
tions to general growth and development. He is now- the owner of
one hundred and twenty acres of fine land on section 16 and has
brought this from an unimproved tract into a model and produc-
tive farm. He was born in Bridgeport, Belmont county, Ohio,
February 13, 1848, and is a son of George W. and Susan (Coss)
Woods, the former of whom came to Lee county with his family in
1869, settling on a fann in Wyoming township. He improved this
property and there made his home until 1900, when he passed away
at the age of seventy-eight years. He and his wife became the parents
of seven children besides the subject of this review : Cather-
ine, who died in 1883 and is buried in Wyoming cemetery; Louisa,
who became the wdfe of Reuben Furkins and who died in 1890,
leaving four children; Mary R., who married Harry Norton, of
Earlville; P. L., a farmer in Wyoming township; I. N., engaged in
farming in the same locality; Effie, the wife of Owen Cornell, a
farmer in Wyoming toAvnship; and Olive, the widow of Rev. R(»bert
Shaftoe, of Paw Paw. The Woods family came originally from
County Tyrone, Ireland, and was founded in America by William
Woods, grandfather of the subject of this review^ who came to
America before the War of 1812 and fought dining that conflict.
Albert Woods acquired his education in the public schools in
the vicinity of Bridgeport, Ohio, laying aside his books at the age
of twenty-one. He afterward came to Lee county and assisted his
father with the work of the homestead, also engaging in farm labor
in the employ of others. He continued thus until his marriage and
then bought the property in Wyoming township upon which he