Conspicuous among the successful lawyers of LaSalle county is the
gentleman named above, who is a member of the firm of Gunn & Gunn, at
Tonica. He was born in Montague, Franklin county, Massachusetts, December
13, 1830, a son of Windsor and Abigail (Osgood) Gunn, natives also of the
Bay state. In both ancestral lines the first families in this country
settled in Massachusetts about 1632. The parents of our subject had five
sons and two daughters, and of these six are still living, viz.: John, a
resident near Mount Palatine, Illinois; Eunice, the widow of Charles Mudge
and now residing in Tonica; Henry, our subject; Levi, living in Barton
county, Kansas, seven miles from Great Bend; Cyrus, living near Mount
Palatine; and Mrs. Lucy Ullery, of Barton county, Kansas.
Windsor
Gunn, the father, was in early life a comb manufacturer and later a farmer.
He came west with his family in the autumn of 1842, locating near Davenport,
Iowa, and lived there till the winter of 1849; then he came to Putnam
county, Illinois, and remained a resident there till his death, which
occurred in February, 1871, when he had attained the age of sixty-nine years
and eight months. His wife survived till 1876, being about seventy-four
years old at the time of her death. In her religious proclivities she was a
Baptist, but was a member of no ecclesiastical organization. Mr. Gunn was
for many years a Unitarian. In his native state he was once a captain of the
state militia.
The paternal grandfather of our subject, Joseph Gunn,
was also a native of the Bay state, a farmer by occupation and was about
seventy-five years of age at the time of his death, in Schoharie county, New
York. He brought up a large number of children. The maternal grandfather of
Mr. Gunn, Samuel Osgood, was also a native of Massachusetts, had six
children, and died in middle life.
Henry Gunn, whose name heads this
sketch, was four or five years of age when his parents moved from
Massachusetts to Vermont, where their home continued to be until 1842. As he
grew up he attended schools in his native village, also in Brattleboro,
Vermont. a select school in Davenport and the academy and college at Mount
Palatine. Illinois. He is a good Greek and Latin scholar. The expenses of
his advanced education he defrayed from his own earnings. He began studying
law at Mount Palatine about 1852, and several years later was admitted to
the bar, first in Iowa and in 1859 in Illinois. He began practicing in
Putnam county, and after a few years came to LaSalle county and followed his
profession in Mendota for a time; then he moved to South Ottawa, and
finally, in 1860, he came to Tonica, where he has followed the law ever
since. His many interesting experiences in the practice of his profession,
as well as in many other phases of life, would fill a volume. Politically
Mr. Gunn was originally an old-line Whig, one among the many thousands who
became Republicans on the establishment of that party. In 1856 he addressed
the public in favor of the election of John C. Fremont to the presidency of
the United States. For four years he served as town clerk of Eden township.
In 1868 he was elected supervisor, and he satisfactorily filled the
responsibilities of that office till 1871. In 1883 he was again elected, and
by re-election he continued to hold the office until 1898. For four
consecutive years he was chairman of the board. For fifteen or sixteen years
he was police magistrate in Tonica.
In social affiliations he was
for some years an active Odd Fellow, and in 1870 he was a delegate to the
state grand lodge, and also to the grand encampment; but he has not been in
affiliation with the order for some time. His son Bert is a member of Tonica
Lodge, No. 364, A. F. & A. M., and is at present the secretary of the lodge.
Mr. Gunn's marriage was celebrated in 1858, when he wedded Miss
Cornelia L. Fisher, a daughter of Rev. Otis Fisher, a Baptist minister. Her
mother was Lydia (Osgood) Fisher. By this marriage were four sons and four
daughters, namely: Cyrus H., Mabel, Walter F., Edwin, Cora, Nellie, Bert and
Mae L. Mabel and Edwin died in infancy; Cora became the wife of George A.
McFerson and is now deceased; Nellie died in 1895, in her twenty-second
year; Cyrus H. married Emma Knapp and is a farmer in Vermilion township;
Walter F. married Hattie Van Tassel and lives in Putnam county on a farm;
they have four children — Sallie, Fred Henry, Luna and Flossie; and Bert,
the youngest son, is single and is a lawyer in partnership with his father.
He completed his legal course of study before he was of age and was admitted
to the bar in February, 1898. He is the present village attorney of Tonica.
He and his sister Mae L. make their home with their parents.
Extracted 13 Jun 2019 by Norma Hass from Biographical and Genealogical Record of LaSalle County, Illinois, published in 1900, volume 2, pages 672-673.
| Lee | DeKalb | Kane |
| Bureau |
 |
Kendall |
| Putnam | Grundy | |
| Marshall | Woodford | Livingston |
