BLOCK 9
LOT : 80
ROW : 6
COLUMN : 10
SUB. R/C : ?
GRAVE # ?
|
Nathan Lowell Krone
b. March 14, 1833
Lewisberry, York County, Pennsylvania
d. March 3, 1916
Decatur, Macon County, Illinois
buried: March 5, 1916
|
FATHER
David Martin Krone
(1798-1867)
MOTHER
Ruth Worley
(1798-1883)
MARRIED
Eliza Jane Frederick
(1837-1932)
November 8, 1854
Decatur, Macon County, Illinois
|
CHILDREN
with Eliza
Charles O. Krone
(1855-1923)
Nellie O. Krone
(1858-1880)
|
|
Macon County, Illinois
a part of US Genealogy Express
Pages 226 thru 233
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
CHAPTER XLII
SOME LONG-TIME BUSINESS MEN
NATHAN L. KRONE
"Ask Nathan L. Krone. He'll remember."
This was the suggestion always made when some newspaper writer wanted to settle some point regarding early history of Decatur. For N. L. Krone was a sort of encyclopedia of information about Decatur's early days, and its succeeding years. He had come here in the year 1839, when he was seven yeas old, and he lived here with the exception of a few years absence, until his death in 1916. He was a quiet, observant man with a mind that retained much, and he was always ale to tell the events of early days which others had forgotten.
Mr. Krone used to like to recall the first meal he ever ate in Decatur. He never forgot that meal, though it wasn't as much of a meal as many that he ate afterwards, but it meant the family had arrived at the end of their journey. That first meal was eaten at the camping ground on the Town Branch, near the present site of the Prairie street subway.2
The Krone family, the head of the family being David Krone, had come to Decatur from Pennsylvania. In that day it was a big undertaking to transplant a large family from Pennsylvania to Illinois. The trip was by water from Harrisburg, Pa., to Beardstown, Ill., then overland to Decatur. From Harrisburg to Pittsburgh the family journeyed via canals, then came by steamboat over the Allegheny, Ohio, Mississippi and Illinois rivers. More than two months time was required for making the journey.
The camp ground on the Town Branch was an attractive and convenient spot for newcomers to the city to use for camping until they could get settled in homes. There was a fine spring of water, plenty of fuel and a grassy little plateau where tents could be pitched. At the time the Krones arrived there was no empty house in the tiny village of Decatur, but they found a cabin near Casner where they lived for a few months. In November they moved in to Decatur to a house on William street, between Jackson and Franklin, which Watson Culver had built for them. The next spring David Krone became the proprietor of the Macon house, Decatur's first hotel, and that was the home of the Krone family then for many years. Later the Krones built a home on West William street.
Nathan Krone's first taste of business life was had when he started to work for the S. K. Thompson dry goods store in 1848. From there he went to the W. J. Condell store, and then, in 1852, he began working for King & Read, druggists. From that time on he was in the drug business. He worked for J. F. Roberts, W. C. Armstrong, and E. A. West and then went into business for himself in 1893. He retired in 1915.
Mr. Krone often saw and talked with Abraham Lincoln, for Lincoln was a frequent visitor at the Macon house when Mr. and Mrs. David Krone were proprietors. He was at the Republican convention when Lincoln's name was suggested for the presidency and the Lincoln rails were carried in.
|
Being a curious little lad, the first thing Nathan Krone did on his arrival in Decatur was to take an exploration jaunt, to see what this new town had to offer in the way of sights. The next morning after the family had reached Decatur Nathan sauntered over to a stable across the way. There he found a boy, and it doesn't take long for two boys to get acquainted. Nathan found out the other boy was Dick and Dick learned the little lad was called Nat. Dick was considerably older than Nat, but that didn't matter. Dick was starting on a trip out to the Allen place east of Decatur and said Nat could go along. Nat went. Dick was after a load of corn and Nat helped him get it out of the field. They brought the corn in to the mill on East Prairie street. It was a bit of diplomacy on Dick's part to take Nat along, thereby having some help in getting that corn out, but Nat didn't care. He was hungry for companionship and he had found it. Dick was good company. That was the beginning of a long friendship between Nathan L. Krone and Richard J. Oglesby, afterwards war general, senator and governor of Illinois. The two boys attended a school taught by Miss Fordyce in a little house on Williams street between Franklin and Jackson. The house had been built by Mr. Fordyce who owned a good deal of land and who used the house for a shepherd's home. Captain David L. Allen bought the land from Fordyce, and his brother, Lemuel Allen, established a private school there, which lasted two years.
|
The Decatur Herald
(Decatur, Illinois)
4 MAR 1916 * page 3
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
