BIOGRAPHY: Joseph Blythe, son of Thomas Blythe and Phoebe Dawdy.
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The History of Shelby and Moultrie Counties, Illinois.
ASH GROVE TOWNSHIP (Shelby County).
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Joseph Blythe:
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"WAS born in Lincoln county, Tennessee, March 25th, 1814. Both his father and grandfather were named Thomas Blythe. The latter moved from North Carolina to Tennessee in the early settlement of the state, first locating in Bedford and afterward in Lincoln county. Mr. Blythe's mother, Phoebe Dawdy, was a daughter of Howell Dawdy, who lived in New Jersey and served in the Revolutionary war. The subject of this sketch was the third of ten children, all of who grew to maturity. His father died when he was fifteen. His educational advantages were confined to the old subscription-schools, held in log schoolhouses with puncheon floors and their only furniture split-log benches. He secured a good education, afterward improved by experience with business affairs. August 4th, 1831, he married Sarah Crockett, daughter of William Crockett, and niece of the celebrated David Crockett, famed for his skill, as a huntsman and his daring adventures in the early annuals of Tennessee. In 1833, Mr. Blythe emigrated to Illinois and settled in the southern part of the present Ash Grove township. The settlements in the county were then few in number. After living five years on Congress land he made an entry. In the spring of 1841, he sold his farm at three dollars an acre, and bought eighty acres, where he now lives, at eight dollars an acre. His farm now consists of three hundred and thirty-six acres. His first wife having died on the seventh of September 1854, he was married on the following 18th of December to Mary Ann Crockett (age 35), sister to his first wife. She was born in Lincoln county, Tennessee, on the 25th of November, 1819. He has six children: Angeline, now the wife of William Webb, of Iowa; Susan, who married David Hall, of Windsor; William T., connected with the signal corps of the United States army and now in Texas; Sarah, who married Timothy Small of Richland township; and Ruth and Alfred, who still reside at home. He has always been a democrat from the time he voted for Van Buren in 1836. He has taken an active interest in public affairs. He was first elected justice of the peace in 1837, and was the first person elected to that office after the formation of Wabash precinct, which then embraced the present Big Spring and Ash Grove townships. He was twice re-elected to the same office."
Page 308.
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