Charles E. Avery Biography

Charles E. Avery

Charles E. Avery carries on general farming on section 35, Butler township, where he has an excellent tract of land of three hundred and twenty-seven and a half acres. The modern improvements upon the place are the work of his hands, and the trees are of his planting. He was born in Boone county, Illinois, October 29, 1855, and is a son of Gilbert L. and Sallie A. (Sponable) Avery. The father was born in Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, February, 1827, and the mother's birth occurred in Ohio in 1834. When eighteen years of age Gilbert L. Avery accompanied his parents to Illinois. In 1859 when our subject was four years old the family removed to McHenry county, Illinois, where the mother died when her son Charles was thirteen years old. The father afterward lived for many years in that county and now makes his home with a daughter in Los Angeles, California. He still owns about five hundred acres in two farms in McHenry county and is very active for a man of his age. He began going to California merely for the winter months, but now makes his per-
manent home there. In politics he is a republican, and for two terms he served as county supervisor. His religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Baptist church. In the family of Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Avery were five children: Elizabeth M., the wife of V. D. Glass, of Los Angeles, California ; Charles E. ; Sarah, who became the wife of William Miller and died leaving one child ; Marion E., the wife of Frank Carpenter, of Omaha, Nebraska ; and George F., of Santa Ana, California.

Charles E. Avery remained in Illinois with his father until the fall of 1880, when he came to Butler county and has since resided upon the farm which has now for a third of a century been his home. It comprises three hundred and twenty-seven and a half acres of rich land on section 35, Butler township — land that responds readily to the care and cultivation of the owner, who follows modern and progressive methods in the development of his place. He uses the latest improved machinery and annually gathers good crops. The farm is pleasantly and conveniently located two and one-half miles north of Shell Rock, and all of its equipments have been secured by Mr. Avery, its trees set out and its buildings erected by him.

In 1880 occurred the marriage of Mr. Avery to Miss Carrie May Poyer, who was born in McHenry county, Illinois, December 28, 1858, and there resided until her marriage. She is a daughter of D. W. and Lydia Poyer, the former now deceased, while the latter resides in Belvidere, Illinois, with her youngest daughter. Mr. and Mrs. Avery have a family of eight children : Guy L., who was born August 2, 1881 ; George, who was born April 9, 1884, and is living in Marengo, Illinois ; Marian, who was born October 28, 1885, and is the wife of the Rev. W. H. Hoge, of Rochester, New York, who was a student in the Baptist Theological seminary; Dee, who was born February 5, 1888, and is at home ; Clark, who
was born July 17, 1891, and is a resident farmer of Butler township; Ernest, born March 19, 1893; Earl, born January 8, 1896; and Glenn, born July 2, 1900. The Avery family is well known in this county, where Mr. and Mrs. Avery have made their home since 1880, and their many substantial traits of character have gained them the warm regard and friendship of many with whom they have been brought in contact.