Our subject is of English antecedents and birth. His father, Richard Bishop, and his mother, Elizabeth Brewer, were natives of Cornwall, England, where they married and spent the early years of their life. In 1848 they came to America and settled in Pennsylvania, where Mr. Bishop was chiefly engaged as manager for different mines. They removed from Pennsylvania to Virginia, where he accepted the position of manager of the mining department of Iron Works, having charge of one hundred men. He removed with his family from the Old Dominion to the Lake Superior country, and located at a place called Cape Hope, where he engaged in a copper mine as foreman for a mining company. The family subsequently returned to Virginia, and after living in different places, finally came to Illinois about 1856. Mr. Bishop purchased a coal mine about one mile above Edwards’ Station, and operated it for some two years. He then removed to Tazewell County, and worked a mine there for Jacob Funk. His death in that county, in 1858, of congestion of the brain, was a blow to the industrial interests of the county and a good citizen was lost to the community. His widow continued to reside there for about four years and then married John Felton, of this county. They located in Radnor Township, where her death occurred June 15, 1888. There were five children born of her first marriage, one son and four daughters.

Henry Bishop was the oldest of the family, and he was born in Cornwall, England, April 30, 1846. He was quite young when his parents brought him to America, and he remained an inmate of t heir household until the death of his father, when he started out in life on his own account, being employed as a farm laborer the ensuing four years. At the breaking out of the war he was in the prime and vigor of early manhood, and with patriotic interest he watched its progress, and in June, 1861, volunteered to take a part in suppressing the Rebellion. He enlisted in Company G, Sixty-seventh Illinois Infantry, for a term of three months, which was extended to five months. At the expiration of that time he was mustered out and returned to Peoria County, and the ensuing two years followed coal mining and teaming. After that he again enlisted in Company G, being attached to the Eleventh Illinois Infantry, and joined the regiment at Memphis, Tenn. He remained with that nine months, and was then transferred to the Eight Illinois Infantry, as a member of Company I, and for three months was located in Texas. He was in the Department of the Gulf and bore a gallant part in several skirmishes, being in the charge of the Spanish Fort, at which time he had a narrow escape from being wounded in the leg, a ball passing through his pantaloons.

After his experience of military life Mr. Bishop returned to Peoria, and for three years was actively engaged in coal mining, operating a coal bank in company with H. Walters, of Limestone Township. A year later he turned his attention to farming on his step-father’s farm, in Radnor Township. He remained there one year, and then rented another farm in that township, which he operated one year, when he again went into the coal business, though he still continued farming, being located in Limestone Township. About 1873 Mr. Bishop gave himself up wholly to farming, continuing to live in Limestone Township until 1879, when he settled on section 10, Kickapoo Township, where he owns one of the most desirable farms in the locality. It comprises one hundred and sixty acres of very fertile land, which is carefully cultivated and provided with substantial improvements.

While residing in Limestone Township, Mr. Bishop contracted a matrimonial alliance with Miss Mary M. Bontz, who is to him one of the best of wives, the ceremony that made them one being solemnized May 10, 1871. Mrs. Bishop’s parents are Conrad and Mary N. (Bettelyon) Bontz, natives of Bavaria, Germany. They met and married in Peoria County and settled in Limestone among its pioneers, and still reside there. He is a farmer by occupation and has a good farm under his control. Mrs. Bishop was the second of nine children, and was born in Limestone Township August 26, 1848. Three children have been born of her union to our subject: Estella, Grace E. and Gertrude A.

Mr. Bishop is justly held in high consideration by the entire community, as he possesses in a full degree those qualities that mark him as a loyal, public-spirited citizen, and a man of high principle and unswerving integrity. In his relations with his fellow-citizens he is always kindly and considerate, and his domestic life is above reproach. He has held the offices of Highway Commissioner and School Trustee in Kickapoo Township, and in politics is a true Democrat, although in local elections he votes for those whom he considers best fitted for the office. He is active in religious matters, and he and his wife are devoted members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he has held the office of Steward. Mr. and Mrs. Bishop are also zealous promoters of the Grange movement, and with their two eldest daughters are members of Orange Grange.

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