My Genealogy Hound

JOHN WEEDMAN, farmer, stock-dealer and banker; P. O. Farmer City; residence Weedman Station; one of the early pioneers of McLean Co.; born in Perry Co., Ohio, Feb. 3, 1828; his father, John Weedman, was born in Pennsylvania in the year 1797; he emigrated to Ohio, and, in the fall of 1830, removed to McLean Co., Ill., and was in Bloomington when there was but one log house in the place; after living in McLean Co. seven years, he removed to De Witt Co., near Farmer City, and entered land upon which he lived many years, then emigrated to Iowa, where he lived until his decease, which occurred at his home in Webster City, March 2, 1867; Mrs. Weedman was born in Maryland, and died in De Witt Co., Ill., in 1853; her maiden name was Rachel Wilson; their children were seven sons and three daughters, of which all save one lived to grow up. The subject of this sketch made his home with his father until 1850, when he, with four of his brothers, went overland to California, going by the old Oregon route, crossing the Rocky Mountains at South Pass and arriving at Placerville, upon the 26th of July, having been four months upon the trip; he then for nine months engaged in mining and trading, and, upon April 1, 1851, left San Francisco upon a sailing vessel via Panama, which they crossed upon mules, foot and by boat; from there by steamer to New York, having been six weeks upon the trip; he then returned to Illinois, and for two years engaged in farming in De Witt Co., where he located upon his present place, where he has since lived during a period of twenty-nine years; he has upon his home farm 660 acres, upon which he has fine buildings, and 234 acres in De Witt Co., with good buildings, also fifty-two acres within the corporation limits of Farmer City, a large portion of said city being laid out by Mr. Weedman, his brother and Mr. McCord; he is largely engaged in buying, feeding and shipping stock to Chicago and Eastern markets; in 1870, he associated in the banking business at Farmer City, under the firm name of Thomas & Weedman, and, in 1876, he purchased his partner’s interest, since which time he has continued the banking business under his own name; his business card appears in another part of this work. Mr. Weedman related to the writer many incidents characteristic of frontier life that this brief space will not admit; in 1847, he went with Isaac Funk with a drove of cattle to Chicago, and finding a dull market, he for many days assisted in herding them on land upon which a part of the city of Chicago now stands; he also assisted in driving hogs to Pekin, and to Eugene, upon the Wabash, at one time driving 1,200 head; about the year 1843, he with his father, took a load of apples and peaches to Chicago; the dealers at that time would not purchase so large a load, and he was obliged to peddle them out from house to house, in lots of from one peck to a full bushel; he also made many trips to Chicago with grain, selling the same at 50 cents per bushel, freighting goods to Springfield from Chicago at $1 per hundred. His marriage with Mary A. McDonald was celebrated March 31, 1853; she was born in Madison Co., Ohio, Sept. 22, 1834; six children were the fruit of this union, of which four are now living — Harriet J., born Dec. 21, 1857; Cassius M., Aug. 12, 1860; Rachel, March 4, 1862, and John S., Dec. 15, 1865; the oldest daughter, after attending the Wesleyan University, entered the Female College at Jacksonville, where she is now attending, and from which she expects to graduate the coming season; of the other children, the oldest son is attending the High School at Farmer City, the young children living at home. Mrs. Weedman is the daughter of Thomas McDonald; he was born in Tennessee in the year 1802; he emigrated with his parents to Ohio, at an early day, and located at Farmer City in 1851, where he now lives with his wife, to whom he was married in Ohio, where she was born and raised; her maiden name was Rebecca J. Erwin.