History of Lee County, Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY 175
proved this property, making it one of the model farms iu Lee
county. He enlisted in Battery G, Second Illinois Light Artillery
on December 25, 1863, and served until the close of the war. He
died in November, 1899, at the age of seventy-four, having survived
his wife since 1887. Both are buried in East Paw Paw. The
paternal branch of this family is of German origin but its repre-
sentatives have been in America for many generations.
Mrs. Leonora Abell was still a child when her parents came
to Lee county and she acquired her education in the public schools
of East Paw Paw, attending until she was fifteen years of age and
afterward remaining at home until after her marriage. On the
11th of March, 1869, she wedded John M. Abell, a native of St.
Charles, Kane county, Illinois, and a son of Jabez and Susan
(Miller) Abell. John M. Abell came to Lee county when he was
still a child and acquired his education in the public schools. After
laying aside his books he turned his attention to farming and car-
pentering, following both occupations until his death. He erected
many of the fine residences in Lee county and also the United
Biethren church and many public and jirivate buildings iu Comp-
ton. He also gaA-e a great deal of attention to the development of
his farm in Viola township, erecting excellent buildings upon it
and making it one of the finest and most productive properties in
this section of the state. His interests extended also to the field
of public affairs and he was honored by his fellow citizens by elec-
tion to various positions of trust and responsibility, serving witli
credit and ability as supervisor, justice of the peace, tax collector
and assessor of Viola township. Lie was a member of the United
Brethren church and of the Masonic fraternity conforming his
life to the principles of those organizations. His public and priv-
ate lecords were alike exemplary and his death, which occurred
Febi'uary 13. 1912, when he was sixt^^-seven years of age, de])]'ived
Lee county of one of its most valued and i^epresentative citizens.
Mr. and Mrs. Abell became the parents of ten children:
Charles J., engaged in the restaurant business in Compton; Philip
S., a resident of Shabbona ; Harry H., a mail carrier in Compton;
Laura Ij.. the wife of Judson Beemer, a farmer in Brooklyn township;
Mary Cecil, who married Zene Johnston, a farmer in Viola
township: Mildred I., the wife of W. C. Potter, foreman of the
steel mills in Gary; Stella M-, who married Lawrence Lutz. who
resides upon the home farm ; R. Leslie, a graduate of the Paw Paw
high school and now a mail carrier in Sublette; Ruth, the wife
of Hei^bert Carnahan, a meat cutter residing in Compton; and