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DANIEL STALEY is successfully pursuing farming on the fertile soil of Loami Township, and his skill and thorough, practical knowledge of agriculture in all its branches have made him no unimportant factor in preserving Sangamon County's prosperity, which his pioneer sire had aided in establishing on a solid foundation.
Our subject was born on the farm which is still his home February 10, 1841, and is a son of the late well-known Daniel Staley, one of the early settlers of this section of Illinois. The father was born in 1799 in Eastern Virginia. During some period of his life he removed to Cabell County, in what is now West Virginia. In 1826 he came to Sangamon County, making the entire trip across the rough, wild country by wagon in about six weeks. He located on section 9, Loami Township, where he purchased a small farm and entered considerable land. When he came his financial means were limited, but in the years of toil, hardships and sacrifices that followed he prospered, and finally became the owner of twelve hundred and fifty acres of fine farming land. He rounded out an honorable life in 1883, at the age of eighty-four years, and his memory is now cherished as that of one of our most active and useful pioneers. He was a son of Jacob Staley, who fled from Holland to America to escape religious persecution and settled in Virginia, where he passed his remaining years.
The mother of our subject was in her maiden days Rebecca Bowen, and she was born in North Carolina. She removed to Virginia with her parents, and was there married to the father of our subject. She died in Illinois in 1847, at the age of forty-five years. Four of her nine children are living. After her death Mr. Staley was married to Miss Nipper.
Daniel Staley, who forms the subject of these lines, was born in a log house and received his education in the primitive log schoolhouses of early times, which were conducted on the subscription plan and had slab seats, puncheon floors, and were heated by the fire in an old-fashioned fireplace. He early became conversant with farming, and at the age of twenty years adopted that calling for his life work. He now has a farm of two hundred and forty acres that is complete in all its appointments, is supplied with fine farming machinery and its fields are well tilled. It is finely adapted to stock-raising purposes, and Mr. Staley makes a specialty of that business.
Among the most important events which are to be recorded in the life of our subject is his marriage with Miss Elsie J. Hudson, which was celebrated March 7, 1861. Mrs. Staley is a native of this township and a daughter of Young M. Hudson, a native of Virginia, who was an early settler of Sangamon County. The following eight children have been born to our subject and his wife: Ada L., wife of Willis C. Park, a farmer of Loami Township; Arno V.; Alice D., deceased; Joe D. and William Y., twins; Norah J., deceased; Bertha Mary; and Lela May, deceased.
Our subject's career has been alike honorable to himself and to his township, and he is justly regarded as one of our most desirable citizens. His liberality and public spirit have helped forward many worthy causes that have enhanced the prosperity of his community. Socially, he has been a member of the Masonic fraternity for twenty-five years. Politically, the Democratic party finds in him a stanch advocate. His earnest religious nature finds expression the Cumberland Presbyterian faith, and both he and his wife are among the leading members of the church of that denomination, which he has served faithfully as an Elder for several years.