Horton Chamberlin
Portrait Biographical Album of Peoria County, Illinois, Containing Full Page Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens of the County; Chicago: Biographical Publishing Co. 1890; pp. 477-478.
HORTON CHAMBERLIN, the father of Mrs. Thomas Hough, of Medina Township, died at his home near Vevay, in Switzerland County, Ind., in the fall of 1836. He was born on the Hudson River, in New York, being a son of Aaron and Hannah (Runnels) Chamberlin, who were also natives of the Empire State, whence, after a few years of wedded life, they removed to Ohio and still later to Switzerland County, Ind. After having lived in that county some years, Aaron Chamberlin sold his property there, and removing to Iowa located on a farm a few miles west of the city of Burlington. There he and his wife spent the remainder of their days, the one living to the age of ninety-three and the other to that of eighty-six years. They were active members of the Old School Baptist Church, as was their son Horton and his wife, known to all their acquaintances as people of deep religious feeling and consistent lives. They had eight sons and two daughters, the daughters only being now alive.
Our subject was in his boyhood when his parents became residents of the Hoosier State, going into a new country near Vevay, where the boy became a man. He adopted the occupation of a farmer, making Switzerland County his home until death. His career was cut short in his thirtieth year, he having been born in 1807. He was a Whig in politics, and in religion of the Baptist faith, having a consistent Christian character. He married Jane Dickison, a native of Switzerland County, born near Vevay October 2, 1813. She was reared to womanhood in that county, continuing to reside there until a year after the death of her husband, when she came with her parents to Illinois, bringing with her three fatherless children. In Medina Township, this county, her son Francis died at the age of five years, and Aaron in 1862 after his marriage to Sarah Robinson and the birth of two children, mother and children also being now deceased.
The parents of Mrs. Chamberlin were John and Mary (White) Dickison, natives of Virginia and Kentucky, respectively. The former had been taken to Kentucky when young and had there grown to man's estate, crossing the Ohio River and making a settlement in the wilds of Switzerland County, Ind., while yet a single man. There he married his wife, who had been reared on the opposite side of the river. After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Dickison purchased new land, beginning to improve a home on which they continued to reside until 1837. They then emigrated to Illinois, settling in Medina Township, this county, which was their place of abode during the balance of their lives. Mr. Dickison was sixty-four years of age and his widow sixty-six when called whence. The latter was a Baptist. Their daughter, the wife of our subject, was the second child in a family of four sons and four daughters. Three of the latter are still living, all now quite old and all widows of farmers.
The only living child of our subject and his estimable wife is a daughter, Hannah M., wife of Thomas Hough, to whom she was married on the farm they now occupy. Mr. Hough had come to this county in 1859, since which time he has been successfully engaged in farming and stock-raising here. He has a fine farm, the most of which is under cultivation and well stocked, being also supplied with good farm buildings and all necessary implements and machines. He was born in Bucks County, Pa., near Doylestown, September 11, 1826, coming of old Pennsylvania stock, of the Quaker faith. He is the only son of his parents and has one sister living. He grew to manhood in his native county and was there first married to Isabella Polk. That lady was born and reared also in Bucks County, belonging to an old Pennsylvania family, many members of which were quite prominent. She died when but twenty-five years old, leaving two children - Robert and Isabel. The former married Barbara Knupp and is farming in Washington County, Iowa. The daughter is the wife of James H. Paden, a dealer in musical instruments in Greeley, Col.
Mr. Hough lived for a time in Montgomery County, Pa., whence he came to Illinois, subsequently marrying the daughter of our subject. She was born after the death of her father and was but nine months old when her mother came to this county. She was given good advantages and, becoming very well educated, taught school for a time before her marriage. Mr. Hough has also had some experience in pedagogical work. Both are numbered among the most intelligent citizens of this section, worthily filling their spheres in life and being useful to those about them. Mr. Hough has held the local offices of the township and has been Deacon in the Baptist Church, of which both he and his wife are active members; he is a sound Republican. Mr. and Mrs. Hough are the parents of four children, of whom Mary J. and Elizabeth died young, and John C. and Charles F. are still at home.
The original member of the Hough family in America came hither from London as early as 1664. The first to abandon the Quaker faith, to which the family adhered strictly for several generations, was Robert Hough, the father of Thomas Hough. That gentleman was a farmer, occupying an estate which had been in the family three generations, in Doylestown Township, Bucks County, Pa. He was an ardent Whig, prominent in local politics. He died when fifty-five years of age. His wife was Miss Mary Evans, of the same county, who survived him, dying in 1876, at the age of seventy-six years; she was a Baptist. Robert Hough was the son of Richard Hough, and he the son of Joseph Hough. Going back yet another generation we find another Richard Hough, who, on settling in America, secured land from King George III, the same being held by his direct descendants until the death of Robert Hough. The family during all these generations were farmers, prominent among the citizens of Buck County.