HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
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WILLIAM WRIGHT (deceased), pioneer,East Plato, Kane County, born in London, England, in 1813, came to the United States in 1836, and shortly afterward settled in Plato Township, Kane County, where he purchased Government land and engaged in farming, continuing this occupation until his death in 1872. A worthy gentleman and an estimable pioneer in all respects, he was highly regarded by all who had to do with him in the early days. His wife, Miss Sylvia Seward, was born in Binghamton. N. Y., a daughter of Levi and Harriet (Spencer) Seward, pioneer settlers in Kane County, where they reared a family of ten children, six of whom were living in 1903.
GEORGE R. YARWOOD, Assessor, Elgin, Ill., was born in Elgin Oct. 26, 1859, son of James R. and Sarah (Walter) Yarwood, and grandson of R. L. Yarwood, who came to Elgin in 1844. R. L. Yarwood came from OTiskany, N. Y., as the representative of the woolen manufacturing and merchandising interests of the Dexters, Eastern capitalists who operated largely in the West at an early day. Later the Yarwoods were prominent among the merchants of Elgin for many years. The elder Yarwood died in Elgin in 1864, and the son, James R., in Merced, Gal., in 1878. The maternal grandfather of George R. Yarwood came to Elgin in 1844, so that in both lines his ancestors were pioneers in that locality. George R. Yarwood was reared in Elgin, where he has spent the whole of his life; was educated in the public schools and Elgin Academy; and was for three years, while a young man, junior partner in the firm of Sherman & Yarwood, photographers, George H. Sherman being the senior member. After this he was engaged in the live-stock trade from 1880 to 1883, and from 1883 until 1892 was senior partner of the firm of Yarwood Brothers, who were engaged in dairy-farming and breeding horses near Elgin. In 1892 he was elected Tax Collector for Elgin, and the same year was appointed Deputy Assessor, holding the first-named office one year, and the latter for four years. In 1896 he was elected Assessor for Elgin, and is now filling his ninth consecutive term in that position. For several months prior to making the assessment for 1898, he was Deputy County Clerk, acting as Clerk of the Probate and County Courts of Kane County. Farming and other business matters have occupied his attention when not
engaged in the discharge of official duties. Mr. Yarwood was married in 1891 to Miss Hattie Stewart, daughter of George A. Stewart, a merchant of Belvidere, Ill., but later connected with the famous Stewart contracting firm of St. Louis. Mr. Stewart was a brother of the head cf this firm, and came of the family well known throughout England, Canada and the United States, as builders of great public works in these countries. The only child of Mr. and Mrs. Yarwood is Stuart K. Yarwood, born Feb. 20, 1893.
LOUIS H. YARWOOD, artist, Elgin, Ill., born at Oriskany, Oneida County, N. Y., Nov. 15, 1827, son of Henry and Katie (Wiggins) Yarwood; educated in the public schools of his native village, and at Whitestown Academy (Whitestown, N. Y.); came west in 1851 and lived in Chicago two years; removed to Elgin in 1853, where he became bookkeeper for the Elgin Woolen Manufacturing Company; later was engaged in the drug business as successor to Alien C. Lewis, founder of Lewis Institute, Chicago. Retiring from the drug trade some years later, he found himself free to give his attention to art, for which he had always had a fondness and for which he had shown talent in early boyhood. He has since devoted himself to this profession, and has painted many pictures of superior merit; was the first librarian of the Elgin Public Library and filled that position for several years; was one of the early members of the Board of Trustees of Elgin Academy. He married Caroline J. Drummond, born in Sherbrook, Canada, and their children are: Marc D., a leading musician of Elgin; and Mrs. Katie (Yarwood) Parsons, of Cleveland, Ohio, who is prominent both in Elgin and Cleveland as a soprano singer.
DELOS W. YOUNG (deceased), physician and surgeon, Aurora, Ill., was born at Jamestown, N. Y., Jan. 30, 1829, son of Richard and Eleanor (Pryne) Young, and when about twelve years of age, came with his parents to Illinois, the family settling in the vicinity of Bristol, Kendall County. Here the son grew up on a farm, receiving his education in the common schools of that locality. He early appears to have developed a natural capacity for surgery when, having dislocated his own wrist-, he set it himself, treating it with such skill as to attract the attention of Dr. Nicholas Hard, a prominent
Dundee Area History
