M. Cleary

CLEARY, Michael.—Livingston County offers no more inspiring example of practical and successful adaptation to its largest needs and opportunities than is found in Michael Cleary, a name and a personality which carry weight in monetary, political, ethical, social and religious circles. and which spells success, not only because of extensive land accumulation and general wealth, but by reason of connection with the broadest and most public spirited legislation known to the history of this part of Illinois. In his departure from merely average accomplishment, Mr. Cleary fulfills a natural expectation; for his family has been one to conjure with ever since its establishment in the country in the beginning of the '40s. Its shifting to the land of the Stars and Stripes has meant material strengthening of the popular estimate of the best class of Irishmen uprooted from their native soil and transplanted remote from the limitations of their beautiful but tax-ridden fatherland. For five centuries those bearing the name tilled the soil in County Tipperary, Ireland, Parish of Cahir, where Micheal was born February 9, 1840, and where were born also his parents, Philip and Mary (Heffenan) Cleary.

Philip Cleary was the first of his family impelled by sufficient discontent to discard romantic national attachment for the practical results of labor. His ambition led him on March 25, 1840, when his little son Michael was less than two months old, to embark in a sailing vessel which, after nine weeks of storm and calm, arrived in Philadelphia. Mr. Cleary soon after took his family to Youngstown, Ohio, where he secured employment on the Hocking Valley Canal, and in 1841 he came by way of steamboat and prairie schooner to what then was Spring Creek, but now Spring Valley, Bureau County, Ill. Here he rented and finally bought forty acres of land, but, in 1244, when werk was resumed on the long discontinued Illinois Canal, owing to funds having been raised in England, he found continuous employment thereon until the completion of the waterway., During four years of this time he lived three miles west of Morris, Ill., where he cut the logs, moved them with a yoke of oxen purchased for the purpose, and erected the log cabin which was to remain his home for eight years. In 1848 he moved this weather defying little above twentyvue miles to Ottawa, on one of the lots of William Reddick, one of the wealthiest men in the State, and in 1868 he settled in Odell, Livingston County, and made his home with his son Michael until his death, May 17, 1884, at the age of eighty-two years, eight months and fifteen days. He had been a widower for twenty-three years, his wife having died in Ottawa in September, 1861. Mr. Cleary was a Democrat in politics, but no officeseeker, and he was a deyout member of the Roman Catholic church. Sharing his growing fortunes were eleven children, of whom four living, namely: Margaret, wife of John Condon, of Chicago; John, a resident of Jacksonville, Ill.; Michael; and Lawrence, a farmer of Odell Township.

Michael Cleary laid the foundation of his business success by study at the subscription school at Ottawa, later attending the public schools while helping vo assist his father on the home farm. At the age of twenty-one years he became manager of the property, and in 1865 bought half a section of land, paying for the same in a characteristically original and resourceful manner. This land was of the prairie order, part of it obtained from the Government, and he began paying for it at the rate of twelve bushels of corn per acre. He did not occupy it, however, until the indebtedness was entirely cancelled in 1868, the year 1867 yielding a large crop of corn which netted him a dollar a bushel. He began housekeeping with his wife and daughter and father, and so well were his affairs managed that continual increase in his possessions has resulted, he being the owner at the present time of 1200 acres in Odell, Union and Nevada Townships, Livingston County, 200 acres in Indiana, 280 acres in Iowa, and 440 acres in

Will County, Il., besides property in Odell and other nearby towns. It will be seen that the faculty of accumulation has been surprisingly developed in Mr. Cleary, the more so as his advancement has been along entirely honorable and legitimate lines, partaking in not even the smallest degree of the irrational or speculative element, and achieved by the invariable retention of the highest of business principles and ethics.

In keeping with his material success, Mr. Cleary evidenced many side interest in the affairs of the communities which have profited by his sagacity and business judgment. An earnest champion of Democratic principles, he has been Supervisor continuously since 1874, for a part of that time being Chairman of the Board. His most prominent service was rendered, however, as Representative in the General Assembly, to which he was elected for three successive terms (1882-88), and during which terms he was a member of many important committees. He himself was the author and secured the passage of three bills, that regulating the charges at the stock yard, the Farm Drainage and the Game Laws. In 1898 he was again elected and took part in many discussions and measures calculated to improve the general conditions of the farmer. He vigorously supported the bill appropriating $50,000 to send Mr. and Mrs. Murphy to Paris to promote the American flour and meal industry, and he has been chairman of the Public Property Committee of the county both in and out of the Legislature. He was also one of the Presidential Electors at the time of the last election of over Cleveland (1892), and was in the thick of the Logan-Morrison contest in 1885. Thorough disinterestedness and public spiritedness characterized his legislative service, and set a precedent for men who recognize their duty as active factors in the political world around them.

The marriage of Mr. Cleary and Helen Burke occurred at Ottawa, Ill., August 14, 1865, the ceremony being performed by Rey. Father Tuner. Mrs., Cleary is also a native of County Tipperary, Ireland, a daughter of Jeffery and Catherine (Boyle) Burke, natives of County Tipperary, who immigrated to the United States in 1852,

‘At Detroit, Mich., Mr. Burke had much to do with public works and was interested along ' the same line after moving to Sandwich, Ill, where his death occurred in 1879. To Mr. and Mrs. Cleary have been born the following children: Katherine, who lives with her father; William P., a biographical record of whose life appears in another page of this volume, and who was killed in a street-car accident, August 2, 1907, leaving a wife, formerly Mary Savage, and four children—Marion Kathleen, Michael I., William P., Jr., and one who died in infancy; John, who is a prominent attorney of Kansas City, Mo. for many terms was Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus, and married Mollie O’Rourke; Frank, a farmer of Odell Township, who married Tena Halm and has two children—Eugene and Leona; Alice, living at home; Michael Albert, Joseph, Nellie, Lillian, and Leo. Mr. Cleary’s fine appreciation of the value of an education has led him to furnish the. best available opportunities for his children, and one would travel far before coming in contact with so harmonious and thoroughly capable a household. The daughters have been trained in the arts of housewifery and are otherwise accomplished, and the sons are excellent business men and prominent members of the Knights of Columbus. The family since 1879 have occupied a beautiful rural residence, admirably furnished and affording every convenience for the development of hospitality and refinement.

A character study of Mr. Cleary reveals a man of bluff and kindly nature, having the Irishman’s appreciation of human and irresistible smile. The sterner side of his nature often is uppermost, but in the contrasts thus displayed, one but recognizes the altogether lovable nature which makes the sons of Erin welcome in any land under the sun. It is not known that any one in need ever has appealed to this jovial man in vain, and certain it is, that all efforts toward the enlightenment and advancement of the community have found in him a wise and generous supporter. Aided by a most excellent wife, who is also a most devoted mother, he has shifted his position from humble to affluent circumstances, proving himself the master rather than the slave of conditions, the arbiter of a broad, tolerant and encouraging destiny.

In 1873 there were but a few Catholic families in the vicinity of Odell, Ill. Mr. Clearly, with the assistance of Messrs. Edward Collins, Frank Craven, Bernard Lyons, T. G. Lyons, and James Langan, called a meeting for the purpose of bouding a Catholic church. Bernard Lyons was elected president, Edward Collins secretary, and Michael Cleary collector and treasurer. ‘They employed Mr. -liam Buchanan as contractor and builder and erected a church 40 by 80 ft., and paid for the same. When Bishop Spaulding was made Bishop of the diocese in 1877 he appointed as their pastor the Rev. Bernard Boylan, of Rhode Island. The succeeding pastors have been Rey. James Halpin, Rey. Louis Selva who built the convent at a cost of about $12,000, and the present pastor, Rey. P. Griffy, who built the fine church and parochial residence at a cost of about $50,000. There are now about two-hundred and twenty-five Catholics in the parish,

As printed in 1909 Illinois And History Of Livingston County Vol 2 (1909). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.