SIMON A. GEEDING. It is always pleasant to read an account of those men, who realizing that life is earnest, have made for themselves "footsteps on the sands of time" that will serve as a guide to the younger members of society who have not yet commenced a struggle for fame and fortune. Agricultural pursuits when given careful attention yield good results, and there is a freedom about the life of an agriculturist that is enjoyed by no other class of bread-winners.
Our subject was born in Rock Island County, April 18, 1849, being the son of John and Lovina (Smith) Geeding. He was only six years of age when his parents removed to Adams County, and still young when he removed with the family to Calhoun County. He learned the carpenter's trade under his father's instruction, and upon his twenty-first birthday his father gave him forty acres of fine farming land. At the time of his marriage he located on this farm and has added to the original forty acres until at the present writing he owns eighty-five acres on section 4, Point Township. He personally superintends the improvement of his estate, and by means of energy and good management has all his land in a splendid state of cultivation.
Mr. Geeding was married, April 18, 1881, to Miss Annie Seidler, whose birth occurred in St. Louis, Mo. This union has been blessed with one child, Mabel. Mrs. Geeding is a daughter of John Seidler, a ship contractor by profession who worked in St. Louis a number of years, and after losing his health removed to a farm in Calhoun County, where he died in 1871. He married Miss Elizabeth Roth, a daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth Roth, natives of Germany. After coming to the United States, Mr. and Mrs. Roth settled in St. Louis, and after the death of her husband, Mrs. Roth married Peter Willdershutz, making her home in Point Township. To her first marriage were born seven children, viz: Henry, Annie (Mrs. Geeding), Rosa, Win, John, Barney and Julia. To her second marriage was born one son, Edward.
Our subject's father, John Geeding, was a native of Maryland, being born in that State in 1815, and there learned the carpenter's trade. While still quite a young man he removed to Ohio, where he followed his trade up to the year 1847, at which time he removed to Rock Island County. In 1853 he purchased a tract of land near Burton, Adams County, and for six and one-half years continued to make his home there, working constantly at his trade and clearing his land. At the expiration of that time he removed to Calhoun County, where he bought one hundred and sixty acres of land in Point Township. Only forty acres of the land was cleared, the rest being covered with heavy timber and brush. Mr. Geeding set to work and soon built a number of frame buildings, cleared the ground and planted an extensive orchard. He made his home on this place up to the time of his death, which occurred December 17, 1884.
Mr. Geeding's mother, who previous to her marriage was Lovina Smith, died on the home farm, June 28, 1888, after attaining her seventy-second year. She raised eight of her ten children, viz: Amanda, Jane, Andrew, Margaret, Simon A., Newton, George, and Janson.
The subject of our sketch has climbed slowly and surely up the ladder of fortune, and is a popular and highly respected gentleman. From childhood he gave evidence of that undaunted courage and perseverance in well doing, that invariably achieve success. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. They are both very much interested in the welfare of the community in which they reside and use their influence in behalf of educational and religious matters.
Extracted 23 Mar 2017 by Norma Hass from Portrait and Biographical Album of Pike and Calhoun Counties, Illinois, published in 1891, pages 670-671
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