The student interested in the history of Richland county does not have to
carry his investigations far into its annals before learning that Edwin
Hedrick has long been a leading representative of its agricultural
interests, and that his labors have proven a potent force. More than half a
century has passed away since he came to the county. There was much
difficult work before the early settlers, like the Hedricks, in clearing the
land for improvement and for many decades Edwin has successfully carried on
the various lines of farming, and while he has prospered in this he has also
found ample opportunity to assist in the development of the county.
Edwin Hedrick, whose farm lies in Decker township. Richland county, was born
in Ohio county, Kentucky, January 23, 1830, the son of Samuel and Sarah
(Lucas) Hedrick, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of South
Carolina. Grandfather Philip Hedrick was born in Germany, where he was
reared and where he married. He came to the United States and settled in
Clark county, Ohio, where he entered a great deal of land, and became very
wealthy. He reared a large family of fifteen children and carried on a big
dairy. He made large quantities of cheese which he hauled to Cincinnati by
the wagon load every two weeks. He continued to buy government land, and
acquired many sections dividing it among his children, giving each a large
farm. He was a German to the core, and did not acquire much English
education. His cousin was Colonel Hedrick in the Revolutionary war. After
the war the colonel returned to Germany, where he had invested money and
became a millionaire. He never married and his fortune finally went to the
German government. Philip, the father of the subject, acquired a farm from
his father and considerable money from the estate. He sold out in Ohio, and
went to Kentucky, where he married and engaged in farming for several years.
He then sold out and in 1841 came to Richland county, Illinois, settling in
Decker township, where he entered about one thousand acres of land, paying
one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. It was a wild, unsettled country
at that time, and later he went to Palestine to enter land. There were no
roads at that time, and there was plenty of wild game of all kinds, turkeys,
deer, by the hundreds. He lived only five years after coming here, having
died in 1846, at the age of fifty-three years. He had been a minister in the
Cumberland Presbyterian church for several years. His wife survived him
twenty-five years, and she married a second time, her last husband having
been a Mr. Harrison. She was seventy-six years old when she died on the old
homestead in Decker township. She became the mother of eight children by her
first husband, of which number our subject was the third in order of birth.
Three of them are living at this writing; a younger brother, Mason Hedrick,
was a major in the Union Army during the Civil war, in the Twelfth Kentucky
Cavalry, having enlisted from Davis county, that state, and served until the
close of the war. He is now living at Odin, Illinois.
Edwin Hedrick
was eleven years old when he came to Richland county. Reared on a farm he
received what education he could in the public rural schools, which was
somewhat limited, school having been taught in the primitive log cabin, with
rude furnishings. He attended only a few months during the winter. However,
after the death of his father he went to Kentucky, and lived for several
years, where he secured a good education and taught school in that state in
an acceptable manner for a period of eight years. He was a fine penman and
taught penmanship during vacations. In 1857 he returned to Richland county
and settled on the old homestead, having bought the interest of the other
heirs and he has since lived here. But few improvements had been made on the
place. About that time he got married and began housekeeping in a small log
cabin. There were but few roads through the country, and he endured all the
privations and hardships of frontier life. Forty acres having been left him
by his father, he bought forty acres more from his mother, going in debt for
the same. He prospered from the first and bought more land, which he
improved, and is now the owner of six hundred acres, comprising one of
Richland county's model farms, besides having given six hundred acres to his
children. For forty years he was widely known as an able farmer, trader and
stockman, dealing in livestock on an extensive scale. He was a large dealer
in mules for many years and usually had from one hundred and fifty to two
hundred head of cattle every year for many years. He has been unusually
successful in whatever he has undertaken.
Mr. Hedrick was united in
marriage June 23, 1857, to Mary A. Adamson, a native of Union county,
Kentucky, the daughter of Aaron and Martha Jennings (Thompson) Adamson, the
former a native of Kentucky, and the latter of Tennessee. She moved to
Edwards county, Illinois, with her parents, when young. Her father died in
Kentucky when about forty years old. The subject's wife's mother died in
Wayne county, Illinois, when she had attained the advanced age of
eighty-four years. Grandfather Thompson served in the War of 1812. He was a
native of Louisiana, and came to Edwards county, Illinois, among the early
pioneers and located here.
Eight children were born to the subject
and wife, seven of whom grew to maturity. They are Elvira; Francis Marion;
Samuel Aaron, Eva McClelland, Mara Martha, Mary Elizabeth, Edwin, a
prominent lawyer in Chicago. All these children are living except Eva
McClelland, who died when thirty-six years old. These children have received
good educations.
In politics Mr. Hedrick is a Democrat, and has
always been very active, being one of the local "wheel-horses" for many
years in local affairs, and was for quite a long time very influential in
his township, but since he has reached old age he does not take much part in
political matters. He has never aspired to positions of public trust,
preferring to give all his attention to his business and in rearing and
educating his children.
In June 1907, Mr. and Mrs. Hedrick celebrated
their golden wedding anniversary on the homestead. There were sixty-five
relatives present. Both our subject and his wife received beautiful gold
watches in remembrance of the occasion, which they prize very highly. Mr.
Hedrick has been a faithful member of the Presbyterian church for sixty-five
years and he was an elder of the same for many years. Mrs. Hedrick has also
been a member of that church for many years.
Our subject deserves the
great credit which he is given for his success, for not a dishonest dollar
ever passed through his hands, and his lands, money and stock aggregate from
forty to fifty thousand dollars, all the result of his own efforts, for he
started in life with only forty acres of wild land.
Extracted 26 Apr 2017 by Norma Hass from 1909 Biographical and Reminiscent History of Richland, Clay and Marion Counties, Illinois, pages 373-375.
| Jasper | Crawford | |
| Clay |
 |
Lawrence |
| Wayne | Edwards | Wabash |
