McDonough County Genealogical Society
Humphrey Horrabin Blandinsville Township
Born near Liverpool, England in 1817, a boy grew up in a world of little means and education. The education Humphrey Horrabin received came from the church his family regularly attended. At thirteen, Horrabin was bound for seven years as a shoemaker’s apprentice and later a journeyman. Humphrey married Elizabeth Smalley in 1836 and their family grew to six children.
He continued in the profession in England until he decided to seek his family’s future in America. In Spring 1847, he sailed alone to New Orleans and up the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. He found employment in Lewistown, Illinois, and set to work for a company making leather into shoes.
Horrabin lived well below his means, saving back a good portion of his salary to have enough money to send for his family.
He took only enough of his weekly earnings for his room and board. The rest he saved with the company. When he’d accumulated $200, he asked for the entire amount to be paid to him, only to learn from his employer that the company was bankrupt. His situation seemed bleak. He was now unemployed and penniless.
Three Lewistown gentlemen heard about Horrabin’s situation and came to his rescue.
The men purchased a good stock of leather and tools needed so that Horrabin could work his way out of his predicament. In a short time, he was able to bring his family to Illinois and repay his friends, but the trip was a hard one for the family. Records indicate likely four of the children died on the voyage. The 1850 Census shows only Humphrey and Elizabeth and two children: Sarah, aged 12, and Jane, aged 6; living in Lewistown, Illinois.
Around 1852, he purchased from Charles Chandler, the SE quarter of section 14 of Blandinsville Township in McDonough County for $300. He built a brick house and began farming the 160 acres. (This writer could not find any mention of “Cherry Grove Nursery” in publications of the time, but in the History of McDonough County 1878 edition, it states that Horrabin rented out the property in 1859 for five years, possibly to his son-in-law, John P. Davis.) The 1860 Census shows Humphrey and Elizabeth living in Tennesee, Illinois, and he is back to his former trade of shoe making. He would return to the farm about 1864.
John P. Davis’ biography mentions his property in Kansas (Sarah, Horrabin’s daughter, and he will move there) had a fine orchard of fruit trees. Perhaps the name, Cherry Grove Nursery, was John Davis’ contribution to the farm. The 1860 and 1870 censuses show John and Sarah Horrabin Davis and children living on the Horrabin place.
Humphrey Horrabin’s age kept him from fighting in the Civil War, but he firmly sided with the Union. In 1868, he received the Republican nomination for Representative to the 26th General Assembly, and he won the election, beating Democrat Henry W.
Kreider. Humphrey Horrabin represented the district in the Illinois General Assembly between January 4,1869 and adjournment, April 20,1869.He was an active member of the Liberty Methodist Episcopal Church and the temperance league.
Humphrey Horrabin’s wife, Elizabeth, died in 1870. In 1872, the widowed Horrabin sailed back to England to visit his aged mother, and while there met a woman by the name of Mary Ockleshaw. They married in Lancashire on August 14, 1872, and Humphrey brought his new bride to his home in Blandinsville Township. In 1876, the final Horrabin child was born, a son named Humphrey James Horrabin.
According to the Macomb Daily Journal, The Honorable Humphrey Horrabin died at home in his chair on July 18, 1887 from heart problems. He was five months short, 70 years old. His son, Humphrey James Horrabin, took over the farm with his wife, Clara (Keys) and their four children. Humphrey Horrabin’s grandson, H. Waldo Horrabin, was well-known as a great educator, exceptional science teacher, and genius mentor.
The lab school on Western Illinois University’s campus bears his name and he helped design the building.
The brick house that Humphrey Horrabin built is still standing and occupied today.
Additions were added to it over the years.
From an apprentice shoemaker to a family that left a lasting mark on McDonough County, the Horrabins built more than a home, they built a legacy on the prairie.
This Pioneers of the Past is furnished by Lori Boyer of the McDonough County Genealogical Society, facebook.com/mcdcgs. For more Pioneers of the Past, go to https://www. mcdcgs.com/pioneers-of-the-past/
