JOHN J. LACKLAND
John J. Lackland, teacher and farmer, Tremont Township, Tazewell County, Ill., was born in the county where he now resides, September 23, 1855, the son of Col. William R. and Cordelia (Warner) Lackland. Col. William R. Lackland was born at Athens, McMinn County, Tenn., January 2, 1830, the son of David and Elizabeth (Hale) Lackland, and on February 15, 1849, was married to Cordelia Warner, born in Onondaga County, N.Y., the daughter of Hiram and Catherine (Miner) Warner. He was an active, public-spirited man, and on August 1, 1862, enlisted in the Union Army and was elected Captain of Company A, One Hundred and Eighth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, later serving as Staff Officer to Gen. C. C. Washburn until January 1, 1865, when he was appointed Provost Marshal of West Tennessee. March 8, 1865, he was made Staff Officer to Maj.-Gen. E. A. Carr, and on August 11, 1865, was mustered out of the service as Colonel. Colonel Lackland was an intimate friend and associate of Shelby M. Cullom and Colonel Merriam of the Pension Department. He owned 450 acres of land in Tremont Township, and his death, which occurred June 8, 1874, resulted from injuries received in a fall on the corner of a wagon box. David Lackland, the father, of Colonel Lackland, came, to Elkhart, Ill., in 1830, and later located in Tremont Township at a place then called Tennessee Point. The city of Pekin had not been platted at that time, and Peoria was chiefly known as Fort Clark.
The subject of this sketch received his education in the Wesleyan College, Bloomington. Ill., and afterward became a successful teacher. In 1882 he bought a half-section of land in Kansas, where he devoted his attention to agricultural pursuits until 1895, when he returned to Illinois, and is now living on the old homestead in Tremont Township. Mr. Lackland is a man of industrious habits, and through sagacious management has become the owner of real estate in Kansas, valued at $50 an acre, and 124 acres of valuable land in Bear River valley, Utah, besides his property in Illinois.
On June 3, 1885, Mr. Lackland was married at Axtell, Kan., to Miss Ida Billinsley, born in Nebraska, July 16. 1865, and of this union there are two children: Grace E. and Walter
C. Mr. Lackland is a Republican in political affiliations and with his wife belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mrs. Lackland’s parents are James and Sarah (Kelsey) Billinsley, natives of Ohio, who came to Axtell. Kan. in 1870, and for several years her father was employed in driving stage. He became a prosperous and prominent citizen, and was elected as Representative to the Kansas State Legislature. He still resides on his farm in Kansas, and is an enthusiastic fruit-grower.
Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Tazewell County - page 1036