Biography - David Settlemire
David O. SETTLEMIRE, President of Car and Machine Company, Litchfield, was born in Cape Girardeau County, Mo., in 1827, and the year following his parents emigrated to Greene County, Ill., settling ten miles from Alton. Mr. SETTLEMIRE was raised at Brighton, Ill., on a farm, and his education was limited to six months' attendance at a log schoolhouse of the primitive kind, having slab seats, and the marked lack of school comforts characteristic of the school buildings of the frontier. In his seventeenth year, he left home to serve an apprenticeship to the cabinet-maker's trade at Carlinville, Ill., where he worked three years; he then gave up that trade and commenced carpentering, at which he continued until 1858, at Brighton, Bunker Hill and Gillespie, as contractor; his last work was a large flouring-mill at Gillespie, Ill., and he ran it until 1861, when he sold the mill to J. D. MARTIN, and engaged in the grain business, in connection with merchandising, at that place, until the fall of 1866, when he purchased property in Litchfield, and, the following year, erected his present homestead, and the grain elevator now known as the O. K. Mills and Elevator, it being the first regular grain house kept in operation here throughout the year. In that year he brought his family here, and has since been a resident of this city. In 1870, he closed out the mills to J. B. L. KEATING. Mr. SETTLEMIRE built the Wabash Elevator, and furnished it with a "dump" and corresponding machinery for handling, unloading, shelling and cleaning corn, it being the first one used in the State; consequently, it attracted much attention and admiration, and succeeded in revolutionizing the methods of handling grain. In 1871, he built the Harvel Elevator, and, with Maj. R. McWILLIAMs, laid out the town. In 1873, he rebuilt the elevator at Mt. Olive, and, six years later, bought and remodeled the elevator at Morrisonville, which he is still running. On March 20, 1876, Mr. SETTLEMIRE was elected President of the Litchfield Car Manufacturing Company, which had made an assignment, on March 3, to Mr. M. M. MARTIN, as assignee, for whom our subject ran the business until August, 1877, when he purchased the property of the car manufacturing company, and then organized the Litchfield Car and Machine Company, of which H. H. BEACH was elected first President. On August 14, 1878, Mr. SETTLEMIRE was elected President of the company, and ever since has been annually ere-elected to that position. By careful management and shrewd judgment, Mr. SETTLEMIRE has greatly increased its value, and the product in 1881 was about $1,000,000. Mr. SETTLEMIRE's marriage occurred November 29, 1849, the lady being Sarah J. ADAMS, daughter of John ADAMS, a native of Massachusetts; their children are George L., Iola E., the son being married.
Extracted 19 Nov 2016 by Norma Hass from 1882 History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois, Part 2 Biographical Department, pages 168-169.
