Biography - KIMBALL GLASSCO
Kimball Glassco was born November 19, 1819, in Hardin county, Kentucky, three miles from the birthplace of Lincoln. His father, Enoch Glassco, a farmer, moved to Coles county, Illinois, in 1828, and there died in 1835; his wife was Rachel Carlton. The family of Enoch Glassco was the sixth that settled in Coles county, and located there while yet the Indians were quite numerous and wolves present by the thousand, and to reach a mill they had to go twenty-eight miles. Kimball Glassco had no school advantages for four years after coming to Illinois; then, with but few books, such as could be borrowed, he attended a subscription school and hoed corn to pay tuition. His clothing was one pair of shoes a year, made out of home-tanned leather, buckskin pants and linsey shirt. When Kimball was sixteen years old his father died; then he worked out by the month for three years to support the family, he being the eldest son at the time. He then learned brickmaking and plastering, worked at contracting and building seventeen years in Charleston, then went into mercantile business in Charleston for four years, then went to farming, owning one thousand acres of land. In 1862 he moved to Greencastle, Indiana, to educate his children. His sons enlisting in the war of 1865, he returned to Douglas county, Illinois, and again engaged in farming. He was married February 1, 1844, to Margaret Reat; she died December 26, 1880. His second wife was Hester Richards, formerly Hester Reat, sister of his first wife. Mr. Glassco was well acquainted with the Lincoln family, and often went to the grist mill belonging to Tom Lincoln, the father of Abe. He knew Abe from the time he was three years old and sat on juries in cases Lincoln was trying. Although Mr. Glassco was a life-long Democrat, he always voted for Lincoln when that lamented martyr was a candidate for office.
Extracted 03 Apr 2020 by Norma Hass from the Historical and Biographical Record of Douglas County, Illinois, published in 1900, page 283.
