JEREMIAH MOFFITT, deceased, was in his day one of the foremost pioneers of Peoria County, who was prominently identified with every enterprise for the upbuilding of the city of Chillicothe, and at his death, April 3, 1857, it lost one of its most valued citizens. He was an early settler of this part of the county, and was at one time one of the leading agriculturists of Chillicothe Township, and later became interested in its commerce as a dry-goods merchant, carrying on business with a firm under the title of J. & J. Moffitt. A few years after he entered into partnership with H. McFadden, now of Havana, Ill., and they carried on an extensive lumber and grain trade until the death of our subject one year later. Mr. Moffitt through his business relations was widely known, and his name was greatly honored in financial and social circles, as he possessed rare judgment and exceptional business talent, and was hones and straightforward in his dealings.

Mr. Moffitt came to this county and State in the early ‘30s, and cast in his lot with the pioneers who had preceded him, and began the upbuilding of a home no land that he purchased from the Government as soon as it came into the market. He remained a resident of this county until 1856, when he made a tour to the Territory of  Kansas, designing to settle there f he was pleased with the prospects. He made his way to Topeka, then a new town, and bought property on speculation, but under the regimen then extant he did not lie the surroundings, and so returned to Illinois. In this connection it is noteworthy that after seeing Kansas in those troublous days before the war, he was converted from a stanch Democrat into a solid and unchangeable Republican, holding to that party to the day of this death.

Mr. Moffitt was born in Richmond, Ross County, Ohio, November 2, 1810. His parents, John and Lydia (Cox) Moffitt, were natives of North Carolina, and are thought to have been of Scotch-Irish descent. After a few years married life in their native State they removed to Tennessee, in early pioneer times, where one or two of their children were born, and then they made another move and located in Ross County very early in the settlement of Ohio, going there prior to 1810, when nearly the whole of the State was an unbroken wilderness filled with wild game and Indians. John Moffitt and his wife and small family, began their life there as pioneer settlers, and it is also thought that his parents had accompanied him there and died in Ross County when old people. The name of his father was either James or Hugh Moffitt, and he and his wife were of Quaker stock and were members of the Society of Friends. After the birth of all their children, and after they had mostly gown to man and womanhood, John Moffitt and his wife came to Illinois, about 1830, securing a Government claim in Chillicothe Township, which became their home. After making improvements and witnessing most of the development of the country into pleasant farms and thriving towns, they both passed away full of years, and as they were united in life, in death were not long divided, they dying within a few days of each other. Though reared to the Quaker faith, Mr. Moffitt had married out of the church, and ever afterwards declined all association with the Society of Friends. He was the father of a large family of some eleven children, all of whom are now deceased, but they have many representatives living in Peoria County, some of whom are among its leading citizens.

Jeremiah Moffitt, of whom we write, was well reared and received a very good education in the public schools during the log cabin days of Ross County. He was bred to the life of a farmer and was nearly of age when he came to this county, a single man. He was married near the present city of Chillicothe to Miss Elizabeth Mead, and to her able assistance he was greatly indebted for the success that he achieved. She is a very capable woman, possessing quite a talent for business, and is now managing with success the large property left by her husband. Mrs. Moffitt was born in Chillicothe, Ross County, Ohio, June 23, 1815, a daughter of Hezekiah and Julia (Tuttle) Mead, natives respectively of Connecticut and Massachusetts. Her father came of good New England stock, and from people well-to-do, and his father was a Revolutionary soldier, and saw the burning of the town of Danbury, Conn., by the British. Hezekiah Mead grew to manhood in his native State and there followed the trade of a carpenter. He went from Connecticut to Massachusetts, where he married his wife. She had lost her parents, who were Massachusetts people, when a young girl, and she was reared in that State by her maternal grandfather, John Bull, who was a prominent man of his town. After marriage, Mrs. Moffitt’s parents removed to New York, where Mr. Mead carried on his trade of a carpenter and builder, and he erected the first public hotel that was put up at Saratoga Springs, that now famous summer resort. He subsequently came with his family as far West as Ohio, and carried on his calling in Chillicothe, Ross County, until his death in the latter part of 1816, when in the prime of life, He was a skilled workman, and was in every respect a good man. His wife survived him and was marred a second time in Worthington, Ohio, taking as her husband David W. Bates, a native of Granville, Mass., a descendant of a good old Massachusetts family, and a cousin of Senator Isaac C. Bates, of Northampton, Mass. He himself was a prominent man, was a Major in the War of 18912, and fought at the battle of Lundy’s Lane. With his wife and step-children he emigrated from Ohio to Illinois in 1837, and settled on a farm in Marshall County, and there he died after some years at an advanced age. His wife survived him some few years, and died while staying with her daughter, Mrs. Rogers in Mason County, her death taking place in 1862, at the age of eighty-four years. She was a good woman, a sincere Christian, and a devoted member of the Episcopal Church. Her second husband, Mr. Bates, had been reared for the ministry, but he never entered the profession, as he grew rather free in thought, though he was always a very strictly moral man.

Mrs. Moffitt was reared by her mother and step-father, who brought her to Peoria County when she was a young woman. Her marriage to our subject was blessed by the birth of five children, one of whom, Jeremiah, died at the age of eighteen years. Her daughter Maud is the wife John M. Uhden, of Chillicothe Township. Our subject’s son, Frank B., who lives in Chillicothe, married Miss Maria Anderson, a Scotch lady who died in July, 1889, and left four children. Mrs. Moffitt’s daughter, Laura C., is the wife of George B. Temple, of whom see biography. Her son Eugene, who makes her home with her, is the Cashier of the Pruitt Mathews & Co., Bank of Chillicothe. He is one of the leading young men of the city, and is well-educated and well-read, being very fond of books. Mrs. Moffitt, who holds a high place in the community, and is known and liked for her liberality and charitableness, is identified with the Universalist faith and is a sincere Christian.

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