My Genealogy Hound

JAMES A. CHITWOOD is a native of Schuyler county, Ill., and was born March 8, 1838. His father, Joshua Chitwood, was a native of North Carolina, but was reared in Indiana. He located in Schuyler county, Ill., when he was a young man, where he married and where he lived until his death, which occurred in 1877. The mother bore the maiden name of Sarah LaMaster, a native of Indiana. She died in 1879 a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal church and the mother of eight children, seven boys and one girl.

On August 1, 1861, James A. Chitwood enlisted in the Second Illinois cavalry. He was at the great struggle at Vicksburg and on the Red River expedition, and also at the fight at Champion Hills. He was mustered out in August, 1864. During his three years’ service he was never wounded or captured. After the war he returned to Illinois and engaged in farming. In 1868 he went to Linn county, Kans., and spent seven years there. He came to Franklin county, Nebr., in the spring of 1875 and took a homestead in Antelope township. There were only a few settlers there at that time but antelope were plentiful. He built a sod house in which he passed his early pioneer days. He was a great sufferer from the grasshoppers and in 1882 he sold out and purchased a farm on Center creek in Bloomington township. In 1880 he sold $900 worth of grain and then sold his farm for $800.

He was married January 5, 1865, to Sarah E. Gillette, of Schuyler county, Ill. They were old school-mates together. Her father was Elijah Gillette, a native of Connecticut; her mother was Eliza A. Foreman, a native of New York. They were married at St Charles, Mo., in 1828, and about one year afterwards located in Illinois. Her father died in 1871 and her mother in 1880. Her father was a cooper and farmer by occupation and he was the father of ten children.

Mr. and Mrs. Chitwood have three children — Wason A., born October 1, 1865; Orson, born March 3, 1867, and Arthur J., born September 3, 1874 (deceased). Mr. Chitwood is a stanch republican, and while he is no politician he has held some local offices and was census-taker in 1880. He owns one hundred and sixty acres of well improved land.