Biography - Charles Ramsey
HON. CHARLES A. RAMSEY, President of the Hillsboro National Bank and Mayor of the city, is one of the representative men of Montgomery County, Ill. He came originally from Pennsylvania, that State which has contributed so much of population and intelligence to his adopted State. He was born in Mifflin County January 8, 1845, and his father, William H. Ramsey, was a native of the same county.
The elder Mr. Ramsey was reared in his native county, and secured a fair education there. He was a contractor and builder in Milroy, where he resides at the present time, He married Miss Mary Rarer, a native of Hamilton County, Pa., and to them were born eight children, five sons and three daughters. Mrs. Ramsey is now deceased. Our subject, who is the eldest child born to the estimable couple mentioned above, after receiving such an education as the district schools afforded, entered the Pine Grove Academy, of Pennsylvania, where he laid the foundation for his subsequent career. On the 8th of August, 1862, when the war cloud hung darkly over the nation, young Ramsey enlisted in Company D, One Hundred and Forty-eighth Pennsylvania Infantry, as a private under Col. James A. Beaver, now ex-Governor of Pennsylvania. He was promoted to be Sergeant-Major in 1864, during the Wilderness Campaign, and later to Adjutant. At the close of the war, or in 1865, he was mustered out at Harrisburg, after serving his country faithfully, and participating in many of the most prominent engagements.
Retiring to his home in the Keystone State, he remained there for a short time only, as in 1865 he came to Shelby County, Ill. To a youth of his energy and ambition, the better chances of the opening West became a temptation that could not be resisted, and he determined to seek his fortune in the Sucker State, toward which the tide of immigration was rapidly settling. During the winter of 1865 and 1866 he taught school, and in 1867 came to Irving, Montgomery County, Ill., where he engaged in the drug and hardware business. This he continued successfully until 1877, when he came to Hillsboro and embarked in the hardware business with John R. Challacomber. In all his business enterprises Mr. Ramsey has met with fair success, and is a man of good business foresight and talent. He has been the efficient President of the Hillsboro National Bank since its organization in 1882, and holds the responsible position of Mayor of the city at the present time.
In his political affiliations he is strongly Republican, and in the fall of 1892 was a candidate for Representative on that ticket. He is now serving his second year as Mayor of Hillsboro. Twice he has served as Supervisor of Irving Township, and once of Hillsboro Township, and has been Chairman of the Board, He is prominent in all enterprises, and has done much to develop and improve the city. He is a member of F. D. Hubble Post No. 403, G. A. R., and is an officer in the same. A prominent Mason, he is a member of Mt. Moriah Lodge No. 51, of Hillsboro, and Hillsboro Chapter No. 197, R. A. M.
October 27, 1870, our subject married Miss Elizabeth Corley, who was born in Shelby County, a daughter of B. W. F. and Lois Corley, natives of the same county, but both now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey have one bright daughter, Mary.
Extracted 10 Jan 2017 by Norma Hass from 1892 Portrait and Biographical Record of Montgomery and Bond Counties, Illinois, pages 385-386.
