Mr. Sturm was a son of the Buckeye State, born January 25, 1817, and had passed his three-score years and ten when called from time to eternity, the date of his demise being February 15, 1888. He had accompanied his parents to Medina Township, this county, where the remainder of his youth was passed and the many years of his active life. In this township he married Miss Elizabeth Dickison, who proved a true helpmate to her good husband, working hard with him to accumulate the fine property in which she now holds her dowry rights. She was born in Switzerland County, Indiana, November 10, 1825, coming to Illinois with her parents in 1837. She was the recipient of very careful home training and a practical education, and is now numbered among the kind matrons and genial neighbors of the section in which she lives. Her beautiful home is gladly sought by her acquaintances, and many are the social hours spent by them under its roof.

Mrs. Sturm is a daughter of John and Polly (White) Dickison, natives of the Blue Grass State, of Southern parentage and mixed ancestry. Soon after their marriage they located in Switzerland County, Indiana, among the early settlers. There their seven children were born, three of whom are yet living, all on farms, and two in Medina Township. In 1837 they made the overland journey to Central Illinois, bringing such articles as were necessary to furnish their home in a new country. They located on a tract of wild prairie which they reclaimed from its primitive condition, finally acquiring a large property. A part of the land upon which Mossville is located belonged to them. Mr. Dickison died in 1852 and his wife about two years later, each having reached the age of sixty-five years. They were highly regarded among the early settlers of the township as honest, upright and hospitable citizens.

Our subject and his good wife became the parents of eight children. A son, John, died in the flower of manhood soon after reaching his majority, and Alvin when four years old. The living members of the family are: Mary, wife of Frederick Webster, a farmer in Champaign County; Wallace, a farmer in his native township, who married Anna Bland; Frank, a farmer in the same township, who married Jane Bland, and after her death Elizabeth Schilwatcher; Albert, who married Nancy Buttles, of Indiana, and occupies a farm in this county, Mark, who operates and lives upon his mother's farm; Laura, wife of William Johnson, a farmer in Woodford County. Mark was first married to Miss Jenny Knupp, of Iowa, who died leaving one child, after which the widower married Sena Kruse, of Chillicothe.

(pages 499-500)