Among the representative citizens and leading farmers of Serena township,
LaSalle county, none perhaps is better known or more highly respected than
the subject of this sketch, William Perry Warren.
Mr. Warren is a
son of one of the early pioneers of LaSalle county, Nathan Warren. Nathan
Warren was born in the state of Maine, in the year 1806, a son of Samuel
Warren, also a native of that state; emigrated to New York state with his
parents when a child, and in 1836, accompanied by his family, came west to
Illinois, making the journey hither by wagon, spending a month en route and
landing in safety at his destination, Serena township, LaSalle county,
October 20. He bought land from the government, in section 8, and here
improved a farm and reared his family. Considering the many obstacles he had
to encounter incident to life in a new locality while he improved and
cultivated his farm and supplied the wants of a family, his success was
remarkable. He had little or no advantages for obtaining an education in his
youth, and it was not until he was the head of a family that he learned to
read and write, then being taught to do so by his wife. Later in life a
great reader, well informed on the topics of the day, and possessing a
strong individuality, he became a potent factor in the pioneer locality. On
all political matters he entertained decided views. The Morgan incident made
him a radical anti-Mason man and the slavery question found him on the side
of the most intense abolitionists. When the Republican party was organized
he identified himself with it and became one of the leading Republicans in
Serena township, which from time to time he served in various official
capacities, always promoting the best interests of the public. In every
sense of the word he was a Christian gentleman, and was a member of the old
"close communion" Baptist church. He died in Serena, in 1886. Of his family,
we record that his first wife, whose maiden name was Lydia Baxter, was the
daughter of Connecticut parents. She died in 1846. Subsequently he married
Maria Lester. The children of the first marriage were named William P.,
Fannie M. and Lucien L. The daughter is married and lives in Ottawa,
Illinois, and the son Lucien is a resident of Galesburg, this state. There
were four daughters by the second marriage, all now deceased, namely: Laura
and Emily; Mary, the wife of Almon Bristol; and Florence, wife of Elmer
Perkins.
Returning now to the immediate subject of this sketch,
William P. Warren, we find that he was born in Madison county, New York,
June 28, 1828, and was eight years old when he accompanied his parents to
Illinois. In the pioneer schools of the locality in which they settled he
received his early training. He relates an incident of his experience as a
school-boy calculated to undeceive the modern youth as to the actual
conditions under which the pioneer boys and girls of the west were educated.
Many of the early schools were kept in dwellings that had been abandoned or
for any reason were unoccupied, and in this instance a double log house was
being used by the school. One night it rained and some roaming cattle took
shelter on the porch connecting the two buildings. One of the animals found
the leather latch-string and began chewing it, which caused the door to
open, and in walked the cows and took possession of the school-room! Books
were scattered about the room and there were other evidences that cattle
were not the tidiest housekeepers in the world. The puncheon floor had a
passage through to the cellar and one of the cows found its way thither,
where it was found by our subject the next morning when he went to school!
The children of the closing days of the nineteenth century are scarcely able
to imagine that very many such incidents, and even more laughable ones,
actually occurred where now are to be found such modern and greatly superior
accommodations and appliances for their instruction.
On reaching
manhood Mr. Warren continued in the occupation in which he had been reared,
that of farming, and settled down to it in earnest after his return from the
Pacific coast, whither he went in quest of gold. It was March 20, 1850, that
he started for California. This journey he made across the plains, by
caravan, and after five months of weary travel he landed in "Hangtown,"' now
Placerville, California, where he began work as a prospector. While he did
not, in the language of the miner, "strike it rich," in the course of two
years he got enough of the shining metal together to pay for a large piece
of the land he now owns. He returned home by the way of the Nicaragua route,
purchased the partial swamp that is now so well improved and so tillable,
and has been a successful farmer ever since. The prairies of Illinois in
their wild state were full of "rattlers" and it was a continuous battle
between the snake and the settler as to supremacy. The ground was rife with
them in the spring, the fields were overrun with them in summer and the
meadows were guarded by them in the autumn. While stacking wheat on a chilly
day one season, these pests (having secreted there for warmth) would fall
out of the bundles upon Mr. Warren's head or be thrown from the load by his
father to be killed by the son, and on that particular day he killed twenty!
He says he never let a snake get away that he saw, heard or smelled!
Mr. Warren has ever been a Republican in politics, interested in the
success of his party and the general good of his township and county. He has
filled the office of deputy county surveyor, which business he acquired
while acting as assistant for Surveyor Brumback many years ago. He makes
plans for bridges and other structures requiring the services of a civil
engineer, and has acquired an excellent reputation for his work in this
line.
During the latter part of the civil war Mr. Warren was in the
Union armv ten months; was stationed at Mobile, Alabama, as a member of the
Forty-seventh Illinois Infantry, and saw the surrender of Fort Blakely. At
the close of the war he received an honorable discharge and returned to his
home.
At the age of twenty-six years Mr. Warren was united in
marriage to Miss Delia A., daughter of Samuel Flint, of Ohio. She died March
7, 1893. To this union we record the birth of these children, namely: Marion
A., the eldest; Horace, who married Lyda Roe; Geneva (deceased), who was the
wife of John Woolsey; Lewis E., who married Helga Holmba; and Harry and
Sherman, both single and still at home. In 1894 Mr. Warren married for a
second wife Mrs. Louise Granteer, nee Dann, of Pennsylvania birth.
Extracted 19 Dec 2018 by Norma Hass from Biographical and Genealogical Record of LaSalle County, Illinois, published in 1900, volume 2, pages 578-580.
| Lee | DeKalb | Kane |
| Bureau |
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Kendall |
| Putnam | Grundy | |
| Marshall | Woodford | Livingston |
