My Genealogy Hound

J. W. PUGSLEY, hardware merchant, Saybrook; was born in Athens Co., Ohio, Feb. 8, 1828, when he was but 2 years of age, his parents moved to near the city of Columbus, and one year after located near Mechanicsburg, Champaign Co., where his parents died. The subject of this sketch, at the age of 23, started in life to carve his own fortunes with no resources but his energy and determination, and first rented a farm and worked it until the fall of 1854; in February, 1855, he came to McLean Co., and first settled in Empire Township, where he remained until the spring of 1864, when he commenced farming for himself one mile west of Cheney’s Grove, continuing there until the fall of 1867, when he moved to the village of Saybrook, and was first engaged in the stock business until April, 1876, when he opened his present hardware store, the largest in that village. He was one of the first Commissioners of Highways after the organization of the township. He married Miss Rachel Brittin (daughter of Nathan Brittin, of Champaign Co., Ohio), Oct. 29, 1851; she was born in Champaign Co., Ohio, May 4, 1829; they had four children, one living — Sarah E. (now Mrs. Charles C. Cheney); three died — Marseilles, Owen D. and Alice B.