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JOHN NORTH was born November 22, 1806, in Buckingham county, Virginia, and came to Sangamon county, Illinois, April 12, 1829, where he died December 15, 1880. He was married to Anna Giger, September 22, 1828, who was born in Jefferson county, Tennessee, November 4, 1807, and died February 24, 1844. Their four children were: Benjamin H., born November 19, 1832, and married November 15, 1855, to Minerva A. Miller, born May 18, 1836, in Loudon county, Virginia; Nancy N., born January 26, 1835, married to Sarah E. Prather, November 13, 1856; John W., born November 9, 1837, married to Maria McDaniel, March 8, 1866, and entered the Union army, August 7, 1862, in company A, Seventy-third Regiment Illinois Infantry Volunteers, for three years. Was captured at Chicamauga, and was confined in Libby and Andersonville prisons, in turn, from March 20, 1864, to December, 1864; Andrew J., born March 8, 1841, and died April 26, 1857. All live in this State, except B. H., who is in Kansas. Mrs. Anna North died February, 1844, and Mr. North married again September 19, 1844, to Susannah Eckels, who also died July 1, 1855, and on February 19, 1856, he married a third time to Mrs. Pemelia Woodruff, widow of Erastus Woodruff. She was born in Spencer county, Kentucky, May 16, 1824, and was first married to Mr. Benjamin West, an ex-lawyer and member of the Illinois Legislature in 1846-7, who died of consumption at Rochester, June 21, 1847. Two of her children met with violent deaths - her daughter, Fanny West, who was choked to death by her artificial teeth getting into her throat while asleep, and her son, benjamin West, was drowned off the coast of the Phillipian Islands, on Christmas, 1863.
Mrs. North was the daughter of Francis Taylor, of Kentucky, and came to Sangamon county, Illinois, in 1834. Her eldest daughter, Mrs. Rice, lives in Massachusetts, and another, mrs. Mary E. Wilson, resides in Illiopolis township. By her third marriage, with Mr. North, she had four children: Peter F., died in infancy; Robert F., born March 31, 1859, lives on the old homestead, and has full charge of the estate, and evidently is a success in life; Edward e., born January 14, 1861; and Pemelia A., born January 24, 1864. The last two are living with their mother on the home place.
Mr. John North was one of the early settlers of this county, and in early days labored hard to buy land, mauling rails for his neighbors and otherwise, before old age came upon him, and then farmed the whole of his large farm of one thousand, seven hundred acres. He is one of the stoutest men in the community. In politics, Mr. North was always a Democrat. For a number of years Mr. and Mrs. North have been Adventists, and he resided on the same tract of land to the day of his death, for more than fifty years, being widely and favorably known.