I see that I need to update this post -
Jay
Willis Pettigrew, b: abt 1860, IL, d: 2 Feb 1926,
Bradford,
Stark Co., IL. Married to TOWLLIGER
Jay and Laura were children of Jonathan Nathan
Pettigrew & Diana Elizabeth
Blaisdell.
Jay married a TOWILLIGER and a
Hattie A. SEELY.
Laura married a
Asa Lake.
(I have a photo of both Jay & Laura in my posted tree, as well as more data)
The following is a bio I found on-line, the link is not working so I have not included it. Yet it does give much information on the family:
George B. Harrington A.M., Past & Present of
Bureau County,
Illinois -
Bureau County,
Illinois Historical and Biographical Sketches, (Chicago, The Pioneer Publishing Company, 1906),
Pages 689-690,
" Jonathan N. Pettigrew is a retied farmer living on section 16,
Milo township. He has followed the natural course of events in a busy life, for nature seems to have intended that man should enjoy a period of rest in his later years. In youth he is full of energy and hope and these later are tempered by sound judgement and business experience and when industry is well applied and when perseverance is unceasing he eventually earns a competence which in the evening of life permits him to enjoy a well earned rest. Such has been the record of Mr. Pettigrew, a most respected citizen of
Milo township. He was born in
Dearborn county,
Indiana, December 19, 1834, a son of Nathan
Pettigrew, who spent his later years in this county and here passed away. In the family were nine children, of whom there were seven sons, Jonathan N. being the youngest. He now has one sister living, Mary Frances, of Martinsville, Indianna.
Mr. Pettigrew of this review was educated in the common schools of his native state and also attended school for two winters after arriving in
Illinois. He came to
Bureau County in 1849 when a youth of sixteen years, arriving here with only fifteen cents in his pocket. His financial condition rendered immediate employment a necessity. He had driven across the country with one horse, an old buggy and a saddle horse, and after reaching his destination he worked at anything that he could get to do that would yield him an honest living. Thus he made his start, carefully saving his earnings until in 1851 he had a sum sufficient to enable him to purchase three eighty-acre tracts of land, for which he paid three hundred dollars.
He has since lived upon the farm which at that time came into his possession. He now owns eighty acres where he resides, together with fifteen acres of timber land, and has a well developed farm property, his home being pleasantly and conveinently situated about five miles from
Bradford. He has seen the country grow from a rough prairie into one of the rich agricultural counties of the state and has done much toward making it what it is today.
Mr. Pettigrew was married to Miss Diana E. Blaisedell, of
Peoria county,
Illinois, who was born in
Mercer county, this state. They had four children: Jay, who married Mrs. Towilliger, by whom he has a son and a daughter, and lives in
Bradford, Illinois; Lou, who died in 1904, leaving a wife and two children; Laura, the wife of
Asa Lake of
Stark county, Illinois; and Benjamin, who married a Miss
Webster and lives upon his father's farm. He has one child.
Politically Mr. Pettigrew is a republican but has never had aspiration for office nor has he ever identified himself with fraternal organizations.
He and his wife are yet very active and he is a selfmade man, deserving much credit for what he has accomplished. He has been both the architect and builder of his own fortunes and the result of his labors has been gratifying.