William J. Behme, who is residing on section 22, Brushy Mound
township, where he successfully engages in general farming and
stock-raising, was born in Clyde, Cahokie township, Macoupin county, on
the 1st of October, 1861. Pie is the eldest child of William C. and
Catharine (Brechencamp) Behme, natives of Germany, the father having
been born in Brunswick and the mother in the vicinity of Berlin. They
emigrated to America in the late forties with their parents, who located
in Illinois. During the early years of his active business career
William C. Behme engaged in paper hanging in St. Louis, Missouri. He
withdrew from occupation alter his marriage, however, and devoted his
energies to farming, locating at Clyde. Two years later he removed to
Brushy Mound township, renting sixty acres of land on section 22. The
cultivation of this farm proved so successful that he was subsequently
able to buy one hundred and twenty acres of land on sections 4 and 9 in
the river bottom. There he resided for sixteen years when he removed to
his father’s farm, where our subject now lives. Here he passed away on
the 12th of September, 1909, having survived his wife fhree years, her
demise occurring on the 17th of March. The paternal grandfather, Julius
Behme, was born in Brunswick in 1806 and died in Macoupin county in
1893, on the farm where William J. Behme now lives, his wife died in
Clyde. He was a carpenter by trade, but for many years was engaged in
farming in this county. To Mr. and Mrs. William C. Behme were born five
children, those beside our subject, in order of birth, are: Henry, who
is a farmer in Brushy Mound township, where his wife, formerly Jerusiah
Emerick, was reared; Amelia, the wife of George Smith, a farmer of
Plainview; Matilda, the wife of William Hacke, a farmer of Brushy Mound
township; and Charlotta, who died in infancy.
Nearly the entire
lffe of William J. Behme has been spent in Brushy Mound township, whose
district schools afforded him a good, practical education, while he was
being trained in agricultural methods under the capable supervision of
his father. He remained at home with his parents, cultivating the old
farm, until he was thirty-one years of age, when he married and began to
work for himself. As his father wished to retire, he rented his farm,
which he cultivated until the former’s death in 1909, when he removed to
the place where he now lives, formerly his grandfather’s homestead. He
owns eighty acres in the home place and sixtyeight acres adjoining on
the west, sixteen acres of his land being natural timber, fine oak and
hickory trees. He engages in general farming and stock-raising, making a
specialty of feeding cattle and hogs for the market.
On the 2d
of November, 1892, Mr. Behme was united in marriage to Miss Lucy Taylor,
daughter of William E. and Martha (Keltner) Taylor, both natives of this
county, the father having been born in Gillespie township on the 27th of
July, 1837, while the mother’s birth occurred in Brushy Mound township.
William E. Taylor engaged in agricultural pursuits in Macoupin county,
where he spent his entire life with the exception of the years from 1860
to 1863 when he was prospecting in Nevada and California. He passed away
on his farm on section 22, Brushy Mound township, on the 15th of June,
1906. Mrs. Taylor is living and continues to reside on the farm where
she and her husband removed to in 1880. To Mr. and Mrs. Behme there have
been born three daughters: Nellie May, Flossie Ellen and Grace Lillian,
all of whom are attending school in district No. no.
Mrs. Behme
and her three daughters are members of the Methodist Episcopal church of
Mount Pleasant, and fraternally he is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen
of America, Carlinville Camp. In politics he is a republican and has
been a school trustee in Brushy Mound township for seventeen years,
while for the past two years he has been a director in school district
No. no. Mr. Behme is one of the progressive and enterprising citizens of
the township whose energy and enthusiasm is not ail consumed in the
development of his personal interests but is also expended in advancing
the public affairs of the community.
Extracted 18 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from History of Macoupin County, Illinois: Biographical and Pictorial, by Charles A. Walker, published in 1911, Volume 2, pages 687-689.
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