HATTAN, William M.
William M. HATTAN. Among the prosperous
farmers and stockraisers of
Marshall
county, the record of whose lives fill an important place in
this volume, it gives us pleasure to commemorate the name of the
gentleman whose sketch you are reading. He is one of the active
and progressive agriculturists of Bennington township, his
home being located on section 33.
A native of Ohio, Mr. HATTAN was born in Brown county,
October 14, 1832, and is a son of Mark and Martha (CAMPBELL)
HATTAN, both natives of the old dominion, where their marriage
was celebrated. In 1830 they removed to Brown county,
Ohio, and subsequently came to
Marshall county, Illinois, settling in
Belle Plain township, where the father purchased land and spent
his remaining days. By trade he was a blacksmith. The mother’s
death occurred the next summer after their arrival in this
state. Our subject is the second in order of birth in their
family of seven children, five of whom are still living, one
son, Andrew, being a resident of Belle Plain township.
In the common schools Mr. HATTAN, of this
sketch, acquired a fair education, and at an early age began to
assist his father in the shop, but never followed the trade
elsewhere. At the age of twenty years he started out in life for
himself empty-handed, at first working by the month for thirteen
dollars, out of which he had to pay his board. IN the early
days, during the winter season, he would carry the mail on
horseback from
Bloomington to
Magnolia. After working by the month for a year he had
accumulated enough money to purchase a horse and bought another
one on time. With this team he began the operation of rented
land. Later he purchased an interest in a threshing machine, and
about 1856 bought eighty acres of wild land, a part of his
present valuable farm. The house he erected two years later is
still used as a dwelling, even the shingles being in a good
state of preservation, but in 1890 was built his present
comfortable residence. In 1872 he added eighty acres to the
original purchase, and today has two hundred acres of rich and
arable land under a high state of cultivation and well improved.
In 1858 Mr. HATTAN led to the marriage
altar Miss Nancy J. BENNINGTON, daughter of Thomas and Cynthia
(MASON)
BENNINGTON, and
to them were born four children, but two died in infancy. Emma
is the wife of Samuel PERRY, of Fillmore county,
Nebraska, by whom she has two children,
Lottie and Harry. James E. is married and living in
Farmington, New Mexico. Mrs. HATTAN was called to her
final rest October 12, 1893, and her remains were interred in
Belle Plain township.
Mr. HATTAN was reared a democrat, but on
the organization of the republican party he voted for John C.
Fremont in 1856, and has since been one of its stanch adherents.
He has served his fellow citizens in various township offices,
including those of clerk and supervisor, and in 1872 was elected
circuit clerk, which position he acceptably filled for one term.
Religiously he is a faithful member of the Christian church of
Belle Plain and socially is a Master Mason connected with the
lodge at Minonk. No man in
Marshall
county is held in higher esteem or has more warm friends than
William M. HATTAN.
Extracted May 2011 by Norma Hass from
The Biographical Record of Bureau, Marshall and Putnam Counties, Illinois, 1896.
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