My Genealogy Hound

BESLEY & WIGHTMAN, dealers in hardware, stoves, tinware, farm machinery, etc., Chenoa. This firm was established in 1866, and has had a steadily increasing trade in everything that pertains to their line of business; among the goods handled by them may be mentioned the following: The Harrison wagon, Nichols, Shepard & Co.’s threshing machines and the Sweepstake threshing machine, Buckeye reaper and mower, Furst & Bradley sulky plow and rake, etc., Marseilles corn-sheller and Keystone and Barlow rotary corn-planters; in cooking stoves they represent the Challenge Stove Works, of Peoria, and the Bloomington Stove Company; their leading base-burner is the “Climax,” manufactured by Tapplin & Rice, Akron, Ohio; besides these, they carry a complete line of heavy and shelf hardware, tinware and general house-furnishing goods. G. W. Besley, the senior partner, was born in Oakland Co., Mich., May 19, 1841; came with his parents to Waukegan, Ill., in 1853; in 1861, he left home, going to Oquawka, Peoria and Clinton, Ill., learning the tinner’s trade in the last-named place. In September, 1864, he enlisted in Co. D, 146th I. V. I., was promoted to Sergeant and served ten months, doing provost duty at Quincy, Springfield and Mount Sterling; returned to Waukegan and remained till his removal to Chenoa in 1866. He was married Feb. 3, 1869, to Miss Sarah M. Bacom, of Chenoa, and has two children — Winnie A. and Flora J. J. E. Wightman was born in Steuben Co., N. Y., June 10, 1837; in 1838, his parents removed to McHenry Co., Ill., where he remained till 1852, when he went to Chicago and learned the tinner’s trade; he first started in business in McHenry, Ill., in 1857; two years later he removed to Waukegan, and thence, three years afterward to Clinton, Ill., where he followed the hardware and stove business until 1866, when he came to Chenoa; he has served six years as Alderman, and is the present Mayor of the city, to which office he was elected in the spring of 1877; he has been President of the Board of Education for the past ten years. He was married Dec. 31, 1857, to Miss Isabella M. Atkinson, of St. Charles, Ill., and has three children living — Henrietta E., Hattie B. and John E., Jr.