Macoupin County
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Biography - MRS. M. A. IBBETSON

Two daughters were born to Charles Dana and Mary Merriam Whipple Monroe, namely, Mary Augusta, the subject of this sketch, and Lucy Annette. Their birthplace was Grafton, Mass. Mrs. Ibbetson was born April 9, 1845. Her father was a druggist at Grafton and he died when Mrs. Ibbetson was four years of age. The mother with the two daughters, decided to move West about 1850. She had two brothers, Josiah Whipple, of Chesterfield, and Perley Whipple, of Alton. Mrs. Monroe made the long journey by rail to Lake Erie, then to Chicago and down to Alton by water. Arriving in Alton, they remained about two years, then moving to Chesterfield, where Mrs. Monroe married Judge Z. B. Lawson. Mrs. Ibbetson was educated at Greenwood Academy, a select school for girls maintained at Chesterfield by Miss Matilda Williams. She finished her education with two years at Mt. Holyoke College, at South Hadley, Mass.

Returning to Chesterfield she taught for one year in the Chesterfield school. October 24, 1866, she was united in marriage with William H. H. (Tip) Ibbetson, of Chesterfield. He was a veteran of the civil war and served in Company D, 122d Illinois infantry. They resided at the old homestead four miles west of Chesterfield until 1882 when they moved to Carlinville to the Weer property on East Main street. Mr. Ibbetson engaged in the grocery business on the south side of the square. He died in 1883, at the age of 43 years. To their union were born the following children, and at the time of the death of the father, the eldest was 16 and the youngest about one year of age: Harry Monroe, deceased; Marie Annette Goldsborough, of San Antonio, Texas; Robert Edwin, Los Angeles, Calif.; Clara Ann Palmer, who died in Carlinville May 11, 1934; Ernest Albert, now mayor of Carlinville; Mabel Augusta Schuele, of Carlinville; William Henry Harrison, of Los Angeles, Calif. Harry Monroe died Oct. 9, 1899. Left with this large family Mrs. Ibbetson reared them to manhood and womanhood, displaying courage and fortitude which deserves the greatest praise.

It does not fall to the lot of many women, or men either, to have lived through such marvelous changes as have taken place in our country, as Mrs. Ibbetson has witnessed. She recalls the days of the tallow candle and remembers quite well the first coal oil lamp in Chesterfield, at the home of her uncle, Josiah Whipple. And Mrs. Ibbetson remembers vividly the days before and during the civil war. Before the war, runaway slaves were passed through Chesterfield on their way to Carlinville via the underground railway and thence to Canada, where freedom could be found. Josiah Whipple was one of the main men in the traffic to free the slaves. Meals were cooked and mysteriously taken away and no questions asked. The negroes were placed under straw in wagons and brought through at night. The Carlinville station was located on what was once known as the Braley property on East Main street. The house was destroyed by fire a number of years ago.

None in Carlinville is more loved by her children and revered by her many friends than Mrs. Ibbetson. She has lived a long and useful life. All who know her congratulate her. Mrs. Ibbetson has a sister, Mrs. Annette Loomis, residing at Centerville, Cape Cod, Mass.


Extracted 15 Dec 2018 by Norma Hass from History of a Famous Courthouse, by W. B. Brown, published in 1934, page 42.


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