Biography - Jacob Cress
JACOB CRESS, who resides on section 26, Butler Grove Township, is numbered among the oldest of the pioneers now residing in Montgomery County. He was born in Indiana in 1818 to Jacob and Catherine Cress, who moved from North Carolina to Indiana, and then came to Illinois and settled in Montgomery County the same year our subject was born. They spent the remainder of their days in this county and were useful and highly-respected pioneers. They left at their death a large number of their descendants in this county. Of the large family granted to this worthy couple, there are yet living besides our subject: Caroline, who married Daniel Lingofelter, resides in Hillsboro; Sarah married Mr. Thomas McNitt and makes her home in Irving, Ill., and Margaret married Mr. David Gregory and lives in Irving, Ill.
Jacob Cress was brought to this county when less than a year old, in the year that the then Territory of Illinois was admitted to the Union as a State. The public lands had not yet been surveyed by the Government, and Indians were numerous. Wild game was very plentiful and settlers few and far between. Our subject received his education in the subscription schools of that period. He remained at home assisting in the clearing and developing of the farm his father had secured.
January 23, 1840, our subject chose as his life companion Miss Helena, the daughter of the Rev. Daniel Sherer, one of the pioneer Lutheran ministers of Illinois. As years passed by, children gathered around the hearthstone of our subject and his wife until there were eleven in number, nine of whom are yet living, as follows: Absolom A., a real estate dealer of Hillsboro, Ill.; John M., engaged in the real-estate business in Portland, Ore.; J. D., engaged in grape-growing near Dinuba, Cal.; William S., who is associated with John M. at Portland, Ore.; Samuel E., a hardware merchant of Sorento, Ill.; Benjamin L., a civil engineer engaged in mining at Red Cliff, Colo.; Sophia L., the wife of Dr. Blackman, of Dixon, this State; Joseph E., a farmer of Romona, S. Dak., and Thomas J., who is at home with his parents. Both Mr. and Mrs. Cress have been for many years connected with the Lutheran Church of Hillsboro.
Extracted 10 Jan 2017 by Norma Hass from 1892 Portrait and Biographical Record of Montgomery and Bond Counties, Illinois, pages 465-466.
