JOSEPH VERTREES, son of Pioneer John and grandson of Captain John of the Revolution, married Lucinda Chenoweth,
daughter of the Pike county pioneers, Jacob Van Meter and Mary Haycraft Chenoweth. Coming to Illinois from Kentucky,
the Vertreeses settled first in Morgan county (in that part that is now Scott county). Jacksonville was then a
mere hamlet. Joseph and Lucinda, following their marriage, established a home near what is now Perry, in Pike county.
Later they moved to Brown county and then to McDonough county, near Bushnell, where Joseph Vertrees died.
Joseph and Lucinda Vertrees had eleven children, namely, Hester, Amelia, Cindrilla, Jacob Chenoweth, Mary Jane,
Charles Chenoweth, James Albert, John Chenoweth, Frederick, Edgar Chenoweth and Lucinda Vertrees.
Hester (Hettie) Vertrees, born March 9, 1835, at Perry, married Frederick Grimm, in Pike county, November 24, 1850,
with the Reverend William Hobbs, a kinsman of the bride, officiating. They had eight children. Hester died near
Bushnell, Illinois, October 11, 1875.
Amelia Vertrees, born March 11, 1839 at Perry, on February 10, 1857, in Brown county, married James T. Scanland,
with Justice G. W. Winslow officiating. They had one daughter, Susan Scanland, who married Charles Campbell and
became the mother of two children, Amelia (Millie) and Charles Campbell, James T. Scanland died and Amelia later
married Thol Bradley of Greene county, Illinois, and together they went to California, after residing for a while
in Missouri. They had three children, May, Ada and Ernest Bradley. Ada married a Whitcomb. Amelia and her second
husband both died in California and are buried there.
Cindrilla Vertrees, born at Perry in 1838, died August 7, 1852, aged 14. She is buried in Old Baptist cemetery
at Perry.
Jacob Chenoweth Vertrees, best known in Pike county of Joseph's and Lucinda's children, was born at Perry April
13, 1841. On October 15, 1866, in Brown county, he married Miss Julia Ann Rusk, a daughter of James and Abigail
Rusk.
Jacob Chenoweth Vertrees, when in his early twenties, served on the Union side in the Civil War. He was with Sherman on his famous "March to the Sea" in 1864, when the bluecoats cut a swath sixty miles wide through the heart of the Confederacy.
One day, while on this march to the sea, Jacob Vertrees observed a wounded graycoat, doubled up in pain, writhing under a blistering sun at the side of the line of march. Vertrees, unobserved, fell out of line, leaned above the wounded Confederate, slug his water canteen to his tortured lips, and gave him to drink. The wounded graycoat drank his fill, thanked the bluejacket with his eyes, and the two parted, unknowing each other, as Vertrees fell back in Sherman's line.
Forty years passed and the wounds of Sherman's march had mostly healed. Vertrees went on a visit to a relative down in Mississippi. While he was there, a great reunion of the Blue and the Gray was held. Vertrees attended, met a wearer of the gray who was still crippled from a grievous wound in his side. Vertrees asked him about his wound. The man told of how he lay wounded until a burning sun as Sherman marched to the sea and of how a bluejacket had stepped out of Sherman's line and held a canteen to his lips as he lay dying, thereby saving his life. "How I would like to see that bluejacket!" said the old Confederate. "You are looking at him," replied Vertrees.
Vertrees was then hoisted on the shoulders of the reunionists who paraded about the grounds amid the thunderous acclamations of both the Blue and the Gray who, as the story spread, vied with each other in acclaim of the northern soldier.
Jacob C. Vertrees and Julia Ann Rusk had seven children, two of whom died in infancy, in McDonough county, Illinois. The other children were Anna Alice, Cora A., John Itner, Essie Ida and Charles Corbin Vertrees. They also had in their family a foster daughter, now Mrs. May Shanahan of Denver, Colorado.
May Victoria Vertrees, the foster daughter, was born in New York State. At Parry, on June 9, 1897, at the age of 25, with Ella Carey and Jacob Vertrees witnessing the ceremony, she married Dr. Nicholas Collins Shanahan, a native of Cohes, New York, and a son of Thomas F. Shanahan and M. F. Catlin. The father, Thomas, was a first cousin of Speaker David Shanahan, so long identified with the Illinois General Assembly.
Dr. Shanahan was born shortly after the arrival of his parents in America from their native Ireland where four of their children had been born. He taught school in Sangamon county, Illinois; until he made enough money to take a medical course. His wife, May Vertrees, was also a school teacher, having taught in Scott, Pike and Brown counties.
Dr. and Mrs. Shanahan located first in St. Louis, going thence to Colorado in 1899. They established a residence in Denver, where Dr. Shanahan practiced his profession until his death on August 26, 1912. Mrs. Shanahan also was in business as a druggist. They had two children, Nicholas Vertrees and Athene Shanahan. The son, born October 31, 1900, died February 11, 1901; the daughter, born October 9, 1902, died December 11, 1903. The children and their father are buried at Denver, where Mrs. Shanahan still resides.
Anna Alice Vertrees, first born of the children of Jacob C. and Julia Rusk Vertrees to reach maturity, was born in McDonough county November 28, 1869. In Pittsfield, on January 10, 1893, she married Ernest Noble of Perry, with the Reverend Peter Martin officiating. He was a son of Benjamin Noble and Margaret Simpson. They had one son, Ivan Noble, who resides in the Hebron neighborhood in Brown county. He married Zoe McCoy and they had four children, Marlin, Juanita, Daisy Aileen and Rose Marie Noble.
Cora A. Vertrees, second of the Jacob C. Vertrees daughters, was born in McDonough county July 28, 1871. She married Frank O. Zimmerman in Brown county, February 17, 1892, he a son of Jacob and Eliza (Winters) Zimmerman, residents of Perry and of the Hebron settlement in Brown county. Mr. Zimmerman's grandfather, George Zimmerman, Sr., early settler in northern Pike county, was born October 7, 1810 in Germany came to America in 1833, stopped four years in New York, then in 1837 came to St. Louis, thence up the Mississippi and Illinois rivers to Naples, then in Morgan county, thence overland to Section 4 in Perry township, locating three and one-half miles north of the then new town of Perry. In 1836 he married Anna Maria Lutz, who was the paternal grandmother of Frank O. Zimmerman.
Mr. and Mrs. Zimmerman had four children, namely, Earl, Guy, Bernice and John Zimmerman.
Earl G. Zimmerman, one of the partners in the large Zimmerman Brothers garage and auto sales establishment on the east side of the square in Pittsfield, was born at Timewell, Illinois, August 3, 1893. On May 4, 1917, he married Vera M. Hill, daughter of James and Augusta Hill. She was born January 23, 1897 at Perry. They have six children: Ruth Elaine, born in Louisville, Kentucky, May 11, 1918, when her father was soldiering in the World War; Athene Hill (the first name for the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. N. C. Shanahan of Denver), born in Pittsfield December 1, 1919; Mary Elizabeth, born in Pittsfield, October 27, 1921; Norma Gene, born in Pittsfield November 23, 1925; Robert Earl, born in Pittsfield November 16, 1926; and Richard, born in Pittsfield October 22, 1932.
Guy F. Zimmerman, second son of Frank and Cora Vertrees Zimmerman, was born near Perry January 12, 1895. He married Lora Myrtle Binns, in Pittsfield, November 19, 1916, she a daughter of Alexander Campbell (Cam) Binns and Electa (Howland) Foreman. She was born at Milton July 26, 1897. Mr and Mrs. Zimmerman had five children, all born in Pittsfield, namely: Donald R., born January 16, 1918; Milburn Vincent, born June 22, 1919; Juanita Vey, born December 1, 1921; Wanda Lee, born January 29, 1925; Carolyn, born February 27, 1928.
Bernice Zimmerman, only daughter of Frank Zimmerman and Cora Vertrees, was born October 24, 1899 near Perry. For 11 years she taught mathematics in Pittsfield high school and is now teaching her third year at LaSalle, Illinois, in the Peru-LaSalle township high school and junior college. She is unmarried.
John Corbin Zimmerman, fourth and youngest of the Zimmerman children, was born near Versailles (Brown county), November 13, 1905. He married Marguerite Scanland Main in Pittsfield, August 19, 1931, she a daughter of Frank A. Main and Iva Scanland, both of whom are descendants of pioneer Pike county families. Immediately following his marriage, John Zimmerman (now Dr. John, having obtained his doctor's degree) began teaching in Millikin university at Decatur, being now in his seventh term as professor of chemistry in the university. The Zimmermans have one son, Roger Frank, born in Decatur February 19, 1936.
Frank O. and Cora Vertrees Zimmerman have been residents of Pittsfield for the past 17 or 18 years, occupying a beautiful home on East Washington Street. Mr. Zimmerman is owner and proprietor of the Shell Service Station at the intersection of East Washington and North Jackson.
Mr. and Mrs. Zimmerman's sons, Earl and Guy, came to Pittsfield in the fall of 1914 and have since been engaged in the garage and auto sales business in the Pike county seat. Beginning in a small way, the Zimmerman brothers expanded their business, adding new lines from time to time until they outgrew their original quarters. They then secured additional ground and on the east side of the Pittsfield public square built the large garage and display building which accommodates their business on the ground floor and houses the Lions club room and office rooms on the second floor.
Third of the children of Jacob Chenoweth Vertrees and Julia Ann Rusk was John Itner Vertrees, born in Brown county February 27, 1873. He married Anna Reathaford of Chambersburg June 4, 1896, and they had three children, Edward Dee, Helen and Charles Loise Vertrees, the latter of whom, born February 13, 1904, died February 20, 1904. The mother died March 31, 1937, aged 61. She and Charles Loise are buried in Brown cemetery at Chambersburg.
Edward Dee Vertrees, born at Perry, at the age of 21 married Nadyne Allen, 18, also a native of Perry, and a daughter of Charles Allen and Nellie Cryder. They were married at Pittsfield, June 30, 1919, with the Reverend J. C. Brown officiating, and Guy Zimmerman and Mrs. Brown witnessing. Mr. Vertrees resides at 513 South Memorial Avenue, Pittsfield, and is employed in the Zimmerman Brothers garage. Mr. and Mrs. Vertrees have four children, Herbert Logan, born at Perry April 8, 1920; Donald Dee, born at Pittsfield June 22, 1923; Cleon Lacy, born at Pittsfield April 12, 1927; and John Dee, born at Pittsfield May 27, 1931.
Helen Vertrees, only daughter of John Itner Vertrees, resides with her father in the Hebron neighborhood in Brown county.
John Itner Vertrees was for some time a resident of Pittsfield, removing thence to Milton and then to the Hebron settlement, where he now resides.
Essie Ida Vertrees, next in order of birth in the Jacob C. Vertrees family, was born near Perry on April 2, 1876. She married Irving Stewart, January 9, 1895, and by him had three children: Mrs. Merle Lashbrook, residing near Baylis, who has two sons, Maurice and Francis Lashbrook; Wesley Stewart, who is married and has three children, Charles Wesley and two little girls; and Grace Stewart, who married Dr. Everett Sykes of Beverly, resides at Anahuac, Texas, and has two children, Norman and Lowell Sykes. Essie Ida Vertrees's second husband was James L. Baldwin of Perry, whom she married at Perry November 14, 1912; he was a son of Lewis H. Baldwin and Maria Jane Elledge, the latter a descendant of the Boone family. The Reverend G. G. Maple officiated. There were no children by this marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin are both dead. She died December 26, 1928 and is buried in McCord cemetery at Perry.
Charles Corbin Vertrees, last of Jacob C. Vertrees's children, was born in Brown county July 22, 1878. He was never married. He died March 13, 1905 in St. Louis, of smallpox which he contracted while engaged in hospital service. He is buried at St. Louis.
Jacob Chenoweth Vertrees died near Perry May 29, 1913, aged 72 years, one month and 16 days. His wife, Julia Ann Rusk Vertrees, born August 28, 1841, died in Brown county February 15, 1915, aged 73 years, six months and 27 days. Both are buried in Old Baptist cemetery at Perry.
Mary Jane Vertrees, fifth of Joseph's children, born at Perry July 21, 1843, married Lucian Gerrish December 27, 1865, and by him had one daughter, Nora Agnes Gerrish, born July 8, 1867, who married Jesse Hill of Brown county. Mr. Gerrish died August 24, 1869, and on November 16, 1871 Mrs. Gerrish married David J. Noel of Brown county, by whom she had two sons, Joseph and Clarence Noel. Joseph resides at Decatur, Clarence near Chicago; both are married. Mary Jane died near Hersman (Brown county) October 29, 1932 and is buried at Marden Chapel in lower Brown county, as is also her husband, David J. Noel.
Charles Chenoweth Vertrees, born August 28, 1845 at Perry, married Elizabeth Banning in Missouri September 15, 1881 and they had two sons, Edwin and Ernest Vertrees, residents of Harrison county, Missouri. Charles Vertrees and his wife resided in Harrison county, Missouri, where Mrs. Vertrees died and is buried. Mr. Vertrees later went to California and lived with his brother, Edgar. He died at San Jacinto, California, November 16, 1912, and is buried there.
John Chenoweth Vertrees, born at Perry June 13, 1850, married Vici Campbell (a sister of Charles Campbell who married Amelia Vertrees's daughter, Susan Scanland). They had four daughters, one of whom, Effie, was born in 1876 and is now deceased. John Vertrees, one of many bearing the name of the Revolutionary ancestor, Captain John, died at Denver, Colorado, September 6, 1935.
Frederick Vertrees, born April 20, 1852, died in childhood, as did a brother, James Albert, who died August 24, 1849 at Jacques Mill in Brown county. They are buried in Old Baptist cemetery at Perry.
Edgar Chenoweth Vertrees, born February 26, 1856, married Nancy Radkin at Good Hope, Illinois, January 21, 1880. They settled first in Missouri and later at Bell, California, where, advanced in years, they still reside, he at the age of 81, she 79. They have three children, Leonard, Clarence and May Vertrees, all residents of California. Leonard, married, located in the Imperial Valley. He has two children. Clarence, married, has no children. May Vertrees is single.
Lucinda (Lou) Vertrees, last of the children of Joseph Vertrees and Lucinda Chenoweth, born November 18, 1858, married Frank Arthurs at Bushnell, Illinois, October 21, 1877. They moved to Kansas where she died May 3, 1879, his death occurring also in Kansas a short time afterwards. They had no children.
Joseph Vertrees, father of the foregoing children, died at the family home in McDonough county, Illinois, near Bushnell, January 23, 1884, in his 80th year. He is buried in Bushnell. His wife, Lucinda Chenoweth Vertrees, descendant of the Lords Baltimore, survived him many years, her death occurring at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Mary Jane Noel, near Hersman, Brown county, October 18, 1898, in her 85th year. She is buried in Old Baptist cemetery at Perry where also are buried three of her children, and her parents, Jacob Van Meter and Mary Haycraft Chenoweth.
Jacob Van Meter Chenoweth died in 1851 at Perry. His wife, Mary Haycraft, a daughter of pioneer Samuel Haycraft, founder of Haycraft's Fort in the Severns Valley of Kentucky, near the site of present Elizabethtown, died at her daughter's home in McDonough county, near Bushnell, July 27, 1868. The body of the pioneer woman, who was cradled in a savage Kentucky wilderness that her father helped conquer, was brought by her son-in-law and daughter, Joseph and Lucinda Vertrees, to Perry where it was interred in Old Baptist cemetery beside the husband. There was no railroad then into these parts. Placing the body in a pine box, it was loaded into a two-horse wagon and Joseph and Lucinda drove all night across the western Illinois prairies, bringing the body of the mother to the old burying ground at Perry.