the Empire state. The paternal grandfather, Ira Sheldon, was also born in New York and was a farmer by occupation. He came of English ancestry and died in middle life. He married a Miss Sheldon, a third cousin, and she was quite advanced in years when called to her final rest.

Their son, Rufus H. Sheldon, was born on a farm near Sennett, New York, and followed agricultural pursuits as a life work. In 1847 he made his way westward to Illinois, settling at Yorkton, Bureau county, where he entered a claim of three hundred and forty acres. Upon that farm he resided until 1868 and transformed the hitherto wild prairie into richly cultivated fields. After carrying on his farm work there for twenty-one years he removed to Sterling, where he resided until about 1882, when he took up his abode at Rock Falls and there spent his remaining days, his death occurring in the fall of 1901 when he was eighty-six years of age. His wife died two months later, in December, 1901. Mr. Sheldon served as postmaster of Yorktown for a number of years and was also justice of the peace and a prominent and influential resident of the community. The farm on which he settled on his arrival in the county is situated on the division line between Bureau, Henry and Whiteside counties and is now owned by Clarence L. Sheldon. In the family were five children who reached adult age while four are yet living— Irving W., Clarence L., Rufus Harmon and William Chapman. A daughter. Ida M., became the wife of Newton Petrie and is now deceased.

In the maternal line, Clarence L. Sheldon is also of English lineage. His maternal grandfather was a native of the state of New York and followed farming as a life work. Both he and his wife lived to be more than ninety years of age.

Clarence L. Sheldon, whose name introduces this record, was but six years of age when he came to Illinois and upon the home farm he was reared, early becoming familiar with the duties and labors that fall to the lot of the agriculturist. He attended the district schools between the ages of six and seventeen years and afterward spent one year as a student in the academy at Princeton, Illinois, prior to entering the Western College in Iowa. There he spent one year, after which he became a student in the Lombard University at Galesburg, Illinois, where he remained for three years. He prepared for his profession by two years' study in the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and was graduated in 1868.

On the 2d of January of the following year he was admitted to the bar and soon after began practice in Sterling, where he has remained to the pres ent time, covering a period of thirty-nine years. He has won for himself very favorable criticism for the careful and systematic methods which he has followed. He has remarkable powers of concentration and application and his retentive mind has often excited the surprise of his professional colleagues. As an orator he stands high, especially in the discussion of legal matters before the court, where his comprehensive knowledge of the law is manifest, while his application of legal principles demonstrates the wide range of his professional acquirements. The utmost care and precision characterize his preparation of a case and have made him one of the most successful attorneys in Whiteside county. He has served as city attorney for two years and as mas

ter in chancery for six years. He was likewise alderman for two terms but has preferred concentrating his energies upon his professional duties rather than participating actively in political circles.

In 1870 Mr. Sheldon was married to Miss Mary Letitia Crawford, a daughter of James H. and Amanda (Galt) Crawford. Five children have been born of this union. Leslie C., the eldest, who was a soldier of the SpanishAmerican war and also saw military service in the Philippines, died at the age of thirty-one years. Carl Edmund, the second son, is his father's partner in the practice of law. He was graduated in 1899 from the College of Literature and Arts of the University of Illinois and from the law department of the university in 1902. In June of the same year he became a partner of his father under the firm style of C. L. & C. E. Sheldon and in April, 1907, was elected city attorney. He is national vice president of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon, a college fraternity, and editor of one of its magazines. John Rufus Sheldon is a practicing physician at Muskogee, Indian Territory. He attended the University of Illinois, Rush Medical College of Chicago, the Jefferson Medical School of Philadelphia, and was graduated from the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee, in 1904. He married Miss Maranda Page Turner and they have two children, Edith and Clarence. Edith Irene became the wife of Robert S. Butler, son of E. K. Butler, of Chicago, and they reside in Des Moines, Iowa. They have two children, Robert Sheldon and Margaret Letitia. Bertha died when about two years old. The wife and mother, Mrs. Mary L. Sheldon, died May 2, 1903, at the age of fifty-seven years. She was a member of the Presbyterian church.

On the 2d of September, 1905, Mr. Sheldon wedded Miss Annie McCartney, a daughter of David McCartney. She is a member of the Congregational church, and, like Mr. Sheldon, has many friends in Sterling. Always a warm friend of the cause of education, Mr. Sheldon gave to his children good advantages in that direction. His daughter, Edith I., having graduated from the Wallace high school of Sterling and later from the Sterling-Coloma township high school, afterward became a student in the Washington Seminary, a girls' school at Washington, D. C., from which she was graduated in 1902. Leslie was a graduate of the Wallace high school of 1889 and Carl E. an alumnus of 1894.

Mr. Sheldon is a member of Rock River Lodge, No. 612, A. F. & A. M.; Sterling Chapter, No. 57, R. A. M., and a charter member of Sterling Commandery, No. 57, K. T., of which he is past eminent commander. He also affiliates with Medinah Temple of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine at Chicago. He has always been interested in matters of progressive citizenship and has been a co-operative factor in many measures for the public good. He was the first man to suggest the location of the feeder line of the Hennepin canal from Dixon to Sterling and was appointed on the committee with C. C. Johnson to go to Washington, where he made the argument in support of the line, which was finally changed. Many other tangible proofs of his devotion to the public welfare might be given. In his early manhood he taught school at different times, thus practically earning his way through college. The elementa! strength of his character which he thus displayed gave proof of future possi

bilities which have been realized in a successful career. The law firm of C. L. & C. E. Sheldon is now a prominent one. Added to the broader experience and learning of the father is the zeal, enthusiasm and energy of the young man and the combination is one which works well in legal circles. Their clientage is of a distinctively representative character and they have won many honorable forensic contests in the courts.

LEWIS EDWIN BROOKFIELD.

The specific and distinctive office of biography is not to give voice to a man's modest estimate of himself and his accomplishments, but rather to leave the perpetual record establishing his character by the consensus of opinion on the part of his fellowmen. Throughout Whiteside county Lewis Edwin Brookfield, now deceased, is spoken of in terms of admiration and respect. His life was so varied in its activity, so honorable in its purposes and so far-reaching and beneficial in its effects that it became an integral part of the history of Sterling and this portion of the state.

He was born in Coleta, Illinois, June 5, 1860, the eldest son of Ephraim and Harriet (Yeger) Brookfield, whose family, however, numbered two daughters: Helen, now the wife of Thomas Crawford, of Clinton, Iowa; and Dorothy, the wife of Dr. Hopkins, of Sterling. The father, an early settler of this state, conducted a store in Coleta and was afterward a banker at Rock Falls. While in Florida for the benefit of his health he died at about the age of thirty-nine years. He is still survived by his wife, who has since married Henry Green, of Sterling.

Lewis E. Brookfield spent his boyhood days in his native city and began his education there, while later he attended the Edward Seminary of Sterling, of which he was an alumnus. In his business life he began the manufacture of caskets and later extended his trade to include the manufac ture of hearses. He built up a large business and received several medals at different expositions, including a silver medal which was awarded him at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis in 1904. It was at the early age of seventeen years that he left school and took charge of the business of the Rock Falls Manufacturing Company, which was organized in August, 1877, and which, directed by his remarkable ability and governed by his keen insight, developed into one of the large enterprises of the kind, becoming known throughout the entire country, its output being sold in all parts of the United States. The house aimed at high standards in the character of its materials, in the methods of manufacture and in its service to the public and met competition in the rivalry of merit rather than in a war of prices. Throughout his business career Mr. Brookfield was notably reliable as well as determined and energetic. He allowed no obstacle to bar his path if it could be overcome by determined and honorable labor, and in business circles he sustained an unassailable reputation as one whose word was above question, commanding at all times the uniform trust and respect of his colleagues and the general public. As he prospered in his undertakings he