SAMUEL P. LILLY. It is a grateful task to the biographer to record the life of a man whose efforts have not been entirely centered upon self, but who has willingly and gladly devoted much of his energies and time to the good of the community and to the upbuilding of the institutions of religion and morality ,which constitute the true basis for the healthful life of the community. Such a career has been that of Mr. Lilly who has made his temporal prosperity secondary in importance to the happiness of his family and the responsibilities which his church and Sunday-school work have devolved upon him.

This gentleman's parents were Joseph and Mary J. (Wright) Lilly, both of whom were Kentuckians by birth, the former being born in Harrison County in 1812, and the latter being a native of Oldham County, born in 1816. Upon coming to Illinois they settled where our subject now lives in East Nelson Township, Moultrie County, and were still young [when] they were deprived by death of a mother's love and tenderness and now a double duty fell upon the father of this little flock. To bring up his children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and to give them as far as lay within his power the attention and training which motherless children so sorely need has been his aim and endeavor.

Mr. Lilly has been a member of the Christian Church since about the year 1856 and for twenty-five years he filled the office of Deacon and has now become an Elder in the church. His keenest and broadest interest in church work centers about the Sunday-school in which he has been active for a long term of years. He is one of the prominent men of Moultrie County, and his public-spirited course receives the warm endorsement of his neighbors. He has always been a law-abiding citizen and has never had a lawsuit in his life, having made it his aim to live at peace with his fellow-men.

The office of Supervisor of East Nelson Township has been placed in the hands of Mr. Lilly and he has also held school offices. He at one time took an active part in political affairs and was formerly a Republican but now feels that all other political issues since sink into nothingness compared with the necessity of freeing our land from the bondage of the saloon and the distiller, and he has allied himself with the Prohibition party. He has always been engaged in farming pursuits and in stockraising, and upon his fine estate of four hundred and thirty acres he has erected a suitable and commodious set of buildings and his home is most delightfully situated. Mr. Lilly has been correspondent of the two county papers for a number of years.

Portrait and Biographical Record of Shelby and Moultrie Counties, 1891 - p. 541/542

Transcription copyright 2003/2007, Moultrie County ILGenWeb/USGenWeb