1925 Biography - English
Abraham and James English came from County Kerry, Ireland, and settled in North Carolina, during colonial days. Abraham later removed to South Carolina. He assisted in the establishing of the Independence of the colonies by furnishing a horse to a messenger to notify the patriots that a company of Royalists were encamped on the Pedee River on which he lived. Abraham's son Johnathan who was the grandfather of George W. was born on the Pedee River, North Carolina, 1812. He left the South at the time of the Seminole War, coming north, finally settling in Illinois, in 1846, and spent the rest of his days in Massac County, and died in 1891. Manuel C. the son of Johnthan was born in Kentucky in 1842. He served in the Civil War in Company B. 120th Illinois Volunteers, three years. He married Rebecca Smith, who was a native of Massac. Her maternal grandparents were Scotch on one side and Swedish on the other. Americus Smith father of Mrs. English was a native of North Carolina and a Baptist minister. He began preaching when he was twenty years old and kept up this good work for more than fifty years, and was another minister who took up arms as a Regulator in the interest of law and order in Massac County in 1846, having come to Illinois in 1814. Manuel and Rebecca settled on a farm in Johnson County and their children were Caddie Elizabeth (2) who married a Mr. Barnham and left two children. Julia Victoria (2) married H. A. Roundtree and died in 1912, leaving two sons and five daughters. George W. (2) who was their second child was born in Johnson County in 1866, and was educated in the public schools of the county, Ewing College, and later entered Illinois Wesleyan, at Bloomington, and graduated in law in 1891. He was for a time employed as a teacher, but began the practice of Law in Vienna with H. M. Ridenhower, Jr., 1893, which he continued after Mr. Ridenhower's death in 1896. In 1906, he was elected as a democrat to the State Legislature, serving three terms. He was appointed under Wilson, as an attorney in the Treasury at Washington, D. C. After some years of service he resigned and came back to Illinois locating in Centralia, following his profession there. He was later appointed a Federal Judge by President Wilson, and the family now reside in East St. Louis, Ill. Mr. English married Lilly, daughter of T. G. and Amanda Farris in 1894. Their children were Thomas Farris (3), George W. (3), Virgil Carrol (3), and William J. (3). Farris (3) is married has two children and resides in Kasi St. Louis, where he is cashier of a bank.
Mr. and Mrs. English were residents of Vienna for many years where they and their family added much to the social life of the community. She was a devoted member of the Methodist Church and Mr. English assisted in its activities and support. He is a mason, an odd fellow, and they were both members of the Egyptian chapter O. E. S. number 30.
Extracted 06 Feb 2017 by Norma Hass from 1925 A History of Johnson County, Illinois, by Mrs. P. T. Chapman, pages 373-374.
