Biography - I. W. BURGETT
I. W.
Burgett. deceased, was, during his residence in Douglas county, one of its
leading and most successful farmers. From the time he was ten years old he
spent the whole of his eventful life in Sargent township. He is a descendant
of English and German ancestors, who were among the early residents of Ohio.
His grandfather was in the war of 1812. His father, Abraham Burgett, lived
in Pickaway county and there married Eliza Wells, a native of Ohio. He and
his wife continued to live in that county, and there Isaac W. Burgett was
born. The family shortly afterward removed to Indiana and settled in
Vermillion county, near Perrysville, on the Wabash river. Here Abraham
Burgett followed the occupations of cooper and farmer. He died in 1840,
leaving five children.
Isaac W. Burgett was born June 18, 1829. When the family removed to Douglas
county they settled hear the mouth of Brushy Fork. He went to school in the
Sargent neighborhood and in the vicinity of Newman. On coming to Douglas
county his mother rented land, and when a mere boy he had charge of the farm
and with a younger brother performed nearly all the labor. This continued
until his mother's second marriage. In the summer he worked at home and in
the winter went to school. When about eighteen years of age he started out
for himself and worked on a farm for from eight to ten dollars a month. Two
or three years were spent in this way.
December 28, 1848, he was married to Telitha Howard, a native of Jackson,
Ohio, whose parents had emigrated to Vermillion county, Indiana, and then to
Douglas county, Illinois. At this time his capital consisted of twenty-five
dollars in money and one horse, and on this he rented land on Brushy Fork
and began farming, renting land for two years. He afterward bought, on
credit, twenty acres of timber and entered eighty acres on which he moved in
the spring of 1853, and at the time of his death owned over one thousand and
six hundred acres of land. He became not only prominent in farming, but also
an extensive dealer in live stock. Mr. and Mrs. Burgett had eleven children:
William B., Margery A., John Wesley, Hezekiah W., Eliza Ellen, Sarah
Elizabeth, Scott, Wilson S., Maud L., Carl S. and Thomas P.
Extracted 22 Jul 2019 by Norma Hass from the Historical and Biographical Record of Douglas County, Illinois, published in 1900, pages 234-235.
