Among the venerable
and well known citizens of Allen township, LaSalle county, Illinois, is M.
C. Lane, who has been identified with the county since 1856. A resume of his
life is as follows:
M. C. Lane was born in Brown county, Ohio,
February 9, 1819, and is descended from English and Irish ancestors. The
Lanes were English people and were among the first settlers of the Old
Dominion. Elias Lane, the grandfather of M. C., was a Revolutionary soldier,
born in 1755, and died in 1820. The father, Elias Lane, Jr., was born in
1786. Elias Lane was reared on the Kentucky frontier and was there married
to Miss Jane Neeper, daughter of John and Tabitha Neeper, who were of Irish
descent. Elias and Jane Lane were the parents of a large number of children,
of whom William H. and Emily Dow, residents of Nebraska, and the subject of
our sketch, are living. One son, Thomas, went, in 1852, to California, where
he was supposed to have died, as nothing has been heard from him since 1853.
Two of the sons, Frank and Alexander, were Union soldiers in the Civil war
and lost their lives in the army, Alexander's death resulting from wounds
received in battle, and Frank dying of disease. The father of this family
lived to the ripe age of ninety-one years, and died in Allen township,
LaSalle county, Illinois, in October, 1877. The mother also died in Allen,
her death having occurred in 1866, at the age of seventy years.
On
his father's farm and in his native county M. C. Lane passed his boyhood
days, receiving his education in the public schools and, when not in school
assisting in the farm work. At the age of twenty-two he married, and the
young couple went to housekeeping on a farm of one hundred and sixty acres,
the house on which contained only three rooms. He remained in Ohio until
1851, when he moved his family to Illinois and settled in Putnam county.
Here he remained until 1856, when he moved to Allen township, LaSalle
county, where he was for many years actively engaged in farming operations,
and where he owns a fine farm of four hundred acres, carefully cultivated,
and improved with first-class buildings, included among which is his two
thousand eight hundred-dollar residence and his large barn, 40x60 feet, with
twenty-four-foot posts.
Mr. Lane was married August 7, 1840, to Miss
Amanda Evans, born December 23, 1820, a daughter of Benjamin Evans, and,
like himself, a native of Brown county, Ohio. Their union was blessed in the
birth of ten children, namely: Marcus J., a soldier in the civil war, a
member of Company D, One Hundred and Fourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry,
Captain William H. Collins; Mary Hawk, of Doniphan, Nebraska; George, of
Oklahoma, who also was in the civil war, a member of the Sixty-third
Illinois Infantry; Eliza; Thomas, of Allen township; Eldoras, of Doniphan,
Nebraska; Albert, of Aurora, Nebraska; Lincoln, at home: Joanna, wife of
Oscar Folk of Rolfe, Iowa; and Ida, at home. Two, Amanda and Fremont, died
in infancy. The mother died December 8, 1895, at the age of seventy-five
years.
Mr. Lane is politically a Republican, and throughout his long
and useful life has always taken a laudable interest in public affairs; and
while he has never sought official honors he has frequently been called upon
to fill local offices and in several capacities has served the township,
faithfully and well.
Extracted 13 May 2019 by Norma Hass from Biographical and Genealogical Record of LaSalle County, Illinois, published in 1900, volume 2, pages 620-621.
| Lee | DeKalb | Kane |
| Bureau |
 |
Kendall |
| Putnam | Grundy | |
| Marshall | Woodford | Livingston |
