There are in every community men of
great force of character and exceptional
ability, who become recognized as foremost
citizens, and bear a most important part in
the development and progress of the local-
ity with which they are connected. Such a
man is Mr. Sheldon, of Urbana, who has
been prominently identified with the inter-
ests of Champaign county for almost half a
century.

He was born in Clarence, Erie county,
New York, November 2, 1827, and is a son
of Corydon and Eunice (Brown) Sheldon,
natives of New York and Vermont, respect-
ively. Losing his father when only a year
old, the mother was married a year later to
H. W. Cunningham, and when our subject
was six years of age the family removed to
Huron county, Ohio, where he spent the
years of his childhood upon a new forest
farm, aiding in the various duties of the
same. When twenty-one he apprenticed
himself to the ship carpenter's trade at
Huron, Ohio, and for about four years fol-
lowed that occupation there and at Milan,
Cleveland and Buffalo, becojming proficient
in the work. Often when a craft had been
completed, he shipped as one of the sailors
for a season, and thus became something of
a seaman.

Mr. Sheldon received such an education
as the common schools of his day and local-
ity afforded, and later spent several terms in
an academy at Berea, Ohio, where he en-
joyed better opportunities than he had been
provided with in earlier life. In the autumn
of 1852 he went to Vermillion county, In-
diana, where he taught school for one year,
and then, being pleased with the country,
he settled in Champaign county, Illinois,
which has since been his home.

In 1854 Mr. Sheldon was united in mar-
riage with Miss Eunice M. Mead, of Clarks-
field. Ohio, and by this union were born five
children, but only one is now living, Nellie,
wife of Rev. C. B. Taylor, presiding elder
of Bloomington district. Their eldest son,
C. C. Sheldon, died in 1891, at about the
age of thirty-six years, greatly lamented by
his fellow-citizens of every class in Urbana
the family home.

During his early residence here Mr. Shel-
don began to invest in the rich lands of
Champaign county, having great faith in
them, when others predicted that they would
never be all settled. This wise policy has
resulted in his now being the' owner of more
than one thousand acres of land, divided
into productive farms. His faith in the lo-
cality has been more than realized, while
others, doubting, have failed.

Before leaving Ohio Mr. Sheldon spent
about a year in the office of an attorney,
studying law, a profession he had long de-
sired to follow. After coming to Illinois, he
renewed his studies in the office of Colonel
Coler, one of Champaign county's pioneer
lawyers, and after the requisite term and
examination was admitted to practice in all
of the courts of the state by a license issued
by the supreme court. He followed the pro-
fession for several years in partnership with
his preceptor, Colonel Coler, and afterward
with Frank G. Jaques, also of Urbana, but
in 1866 he retired, desiring to devote his
time and energies to the real estate busi-
ness, which he has since followed. His
practice as a lawyer often brought him in
contact with Abraham Lincoln, of whom he
was a great admirer, and with whom he was
often associated in cases.

Mr. Sheldon was reared in the Method-
ist Episcopal church and fully believes in
its doctrines, having been a consistent mem-
ber of the same for thirty-five years. He
has contributed most liberally to its support
and to the support of all its many benev-
olences in the meantime. In 1893 his church
society seriously needing more and better
facilities for public worship, and after
months of fruitless effort in trying to raise
the necessary amount to build a new church,
Mr. Sheldon proposed to the trustees that
he and his wife would erect the walls and
put upon it the roof contemplated by the
plans already adopted, leaving the balance
of the work to be done by the subscription
already taken, provided only that they be
permitted to place within the same a tablet
with the name of their deceased and much
mourned son, Clarence, as a memorial of
his life spent in the business circles of
Urbana. The proposition was gladly and
thankfully accepted by the board of trustees,
and the plan was fully carried out within
the next few months at an expense to Mr.
Sheldon of ten thousand dollars, and greatly
to the gratification of the church which has
ever since enjoyed one of the neatest places
of worship in the state. The following quo-
tation is taken from the report of the secre-
tary and treasurer of the board of trustees of
the church, made at the dedication of the
new church, March 25, 1894: "As to the
chairman of the committee, no parent could
have been more devoted to a loving child
than he to his work. No day so hot, no
day so cold or stormy but that he could be
found on this ground in the thickest of the
dust and grime, watching the placing of
every stone, brick and timber from the
foundation to the steeple top, from the door-
steps to the pulpit. A full year has been
spent by him in this work, to him a labor of
love as well as of duty. Every department,
from furnace to belfry, has been scanned by
his ever watchful eye. Not only has he
given his undivided time and attention to
this enterprise, freely, but has contributed
liberally of his means and made it possible
for this edifice to be erected and enjoyed by
this community.

While we recognize the fact that many
others made sacrifices just as great as he,
by paying their single dollars to this cause,
yet the fact remains that to him more than
to any other are we indebted for this beau-
tiful temple of worship. It was he who
made the undertaking possible when failure
stared us in the face for the want of funds.
Fortunate, indeed, were we to have one in
our society possessed of means and a dispo-
sition to use them for the benefit of the
Methodist church in Urbana. No towering
monument, however high or costly, erected
in the city of the dead, could ever speak or
record the noble impulses of a generous
heart as this temple does, standing in the
city of the living. This society appreciates
this generous act, and coming generations
that will worship here in future years will
rise up and bless the name of Bro. J. C.
Sheldon and his noble wife."

Mr. Sheldon cast his first presidential
vote for General Zachary Taylor on the day
he was twenty-one years of age. He allied
himself with the Republican party upon its
organization and voted for all of its candi-
dates up to and including James G. Elaine,
in 1884, but since then has acted with the
Prohibition party from a high sense of duty
to God and humanity. Upon that ticket he
ran for Congress in 1888.

In November, 1870, at the first election
after the adoption of the constitution of that
year, he was chosen as a Republican mem-
ber of the Twenty-seventh General Assem-
bly, from the Champaign district, Hon. R.
C. Wright, of Homer, being his colleague.
Soon after his election, the regent and trus-
tees of the Illinois Industrial University,
located near his home in Urbana, needing
more and better buildings, began to plan
for an appropriation from the Legislature for
the construction of a main university build-
ing, contemplating the erection of a building
two hundred and twenty-five feet by one
hundred feet, and four stories in height with
a basement. They also wanted a mechan-
ical and drill hall, together with liberal
appropriations for machinery and apparatus,
the maximum sum running up to many
thousand dollars, much more than the Legis-
lature had ever appropriated to any state
institution. The burden of securing this
appropriation naturally fell upon the local
member, and without any previous expe-
rience or tact in legislative matters, Mr.
Sheldon bravely assumed the responsibility.
He was expected to take the lead in intro-
ducing and managing the bills, and to push
them to a final passage. The senate con*
sisted of fifty members, the house of one
hundred and fifty-six, making it necessary to
have seventy-nine affirmative votes to pass
a bill in the house. At that time the state
house, the Southern Normal and the insane
asylums at Elgin and Anna were being built,
besides large expenditures upon other state
buildings, making in all enormous sums for
public institutions. In the midst of it all
came the effort of Peoria, with a big follow-
ing, to arrest the work upon the new state
building at Springfield and remove it to the
bluffs at Peoria. To stand in with all these
interests in such a way as to retain the sup-
port of the members, or at least not provoke
their opposition to the university bill, was a
problem that required wise and constant
effort on the' part of Mr. Sheldon. At that
time the university had but little to show
when a committee from the legislature visit-
ed the institution. A three-story brick
building which had been donated to the
state by Champaign county, and which has
since been torn down, and a two-story
frame building constituted the mechanical
department. There was a small board
stable for the veterinary department, with a
fairly good frame barn out on the farm.
These compared with the magnificent group
of buildings now occupied by the university
were a mere nothing. The bill met with
opposition from many, indifference from
others and cordial support from a good num-
ber. At last, after various references,
mostly for delay and amendments, the final
vote was reached in April, 1871, and the bill
passed by the hard and earnest work of its
friends, led by Mr. Sheldon. It had passed
the senate several weeks before.

Mr. Sheldon was elected to the senate
in November, 1872, for a period of four
years, serving through two sessions as a
member of the upper branch of the General
Assembly. During the first session further
appropriations were made to complete the
buildings before named and to make other
important improvements. The total appro-
priations for buildings secured by Mr. Shel-
don for the university during his legislative
career aggregated one hundred and sev-
enty-five thousand dollars. During these
sessions and the one in the house, an entire
revision of the statute was made to conform
to the provisions of the new constitution.
In the passage of these amendments he took
a prominent part, and they are still the law
of the state. Throughout his life Mr. Shel-
don has been actuated by noble, yet practi-
cal principles, and has been of important
service to his fellow citizens through various
avenues of usefulness. His career has ever
been such as to warrant the trust and confi-
dence of the business world, for he has ever
conducted all transactions on the strictest
principles of honor and integrity, and his
devotion to the public good is unquestioned,
arising from a sincere interest in the welfare
of his fellow men.

The biographical record of Champaign County, IL
Published in 1900 by S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, Chicago
Pages 332-337