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HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.
in a night-school, which he attended two winters. In 1849 he became a local Methodist preacher, came to the United States the next year, settling in Pennsylvania, where he pursued his trade, preaching on Sundays. His views on the atonement having gradually been changed towards Unitarianism, his license to preach was revoked by the conference, and, in 1839, he united with the Unitarian Church, having already won a wide reputation as an eloquent public speaker. Coming to Chicago, he began work as a missionary, and, in 1860, organized the Unity Church, beginning with seven members, though it has since become one of the strongest and most influential churches in the city. In 1879 he accepted a call to a church in New York City, where he still remains. Of strong anti-slavery views and a zealous Unionist, he served during a part of the Civil War as a camp inspector for the Sanitary Commission. Since the war he has repeatedly visited England, and has exerted a wide influence as a lecturer and pulpit orator on both sides of the Atlantic. He is the author of a number of volumes, including "Nature and Life" (1866); "A Man in Earnest: Life of A. H. Conant" (1868); "A History of the Town and Parish of likely" (1886), and "Lectures to Young Men and Women" (1886).
COLTON, Chauncey Sill, pioneer, was born at Springfield, Pa., Sept. 21, 1800; taken to Massachusetts in childhood and educated at Monson in that State, afterwards residing for many years, during his manhood, at Monson, Maine. He came to Illinois in 1836, locating on the site of the present city of Galesburg, where he built the first store and dwelling house; continued in general merchandise some seventeen or eighteen years, meanwhile associating his sons with him in business under the firm name of C. S. Colton & Sons. Mr. Colton was associated with the construction of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad from the beginning, becoming one of the Directors of the Company; was also a Director of the First National Bank of Galesburg, the first organizer and first President of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank of that city, and one of the Trustees of Knox College. Died in Galesburg, July 27, 1885. -Francis (Colton), son of the preceding; born at Monson, Maine, May 24, 1834, came to Galesburg with his father's family in
