WILLIAM E. STEDMAN, M. D., one of the successful physicians and surgeons of Sullivan, Moultrie County, locating here in August, 1855, had formerly practiced in the little town of Horace, Edgar County, this State, where he began his profession in 1880. he is a native of Ohio, being born in Pike County, October 19, 1849, and is a son of Enoch Stedman, a native of Chenango County, N. Y., being of English parentage. Enoch was yet a small boy when his father, who was a seafaring man and captain of a vessel, was lost at sea. When Enoch had reached his majority and while still unmarried he came to what was then known as the Western Reserve in Medina County, Ohio, and there married Elizabeth McConkey who had been born and reared in that county.

Samuel McConkey, the father of Mrs. Enoch Stedman, was a native of the North of Ireland and came while yet a young man to this country and in Ohio married a Scotch lady. After marriage Mr. and Mrs. McConkey lived on a farm in Medina County through all the remainder of their lives, surviving until they reached extreme old age. They were highly esteemed for their honorable Christian lives and were members of the Presbyterian Church.

After Enoch Stedman and wife were married they began life in Medina County, Ohio, Mr. Stedman being a cabinetmaker by trade, but somewhat later they removed to farm in Pike County and there remained for many years. He has now reached the age of eighty-three years and has retired from active life, making his home with his daughter, Mrs. Cordelia Daley, of Waverly, Ohio. The Methodist Church was the religious body in which Mr. Stedman was for many years an active worker and he is still a member of its communion. He is a stanch Jacksonian Democrat in politics. He was bereaved by the death of his wife in 1887, as she died full of years in Pike County.

The thirteen children of this excellent couple were a source of great comfort and pride to their parents, and eight of them are yet living, all of these having established homes of their own. The common schools furnished the educational advantages which were conferred upon our subject and for eight years he was a teacher in Ohio and Illinois. He is by taste and habit scholarly and keeps up with the trend of the times upon every point of public interest. He was graduated in the Class of '80 from the Kentucky School of Medicine at Louisville, where he had been for three or four years. He had also studied under different preceptors in Waverly, Ohio, and Coles County, Ill., at the former place being favored with the instruction of Wells J. W. Jones, M. D., and at the latter place having as his teacher Dr. J. R. Hawthorn. Like many another poor boy he had to make his way upward by dint of push, pluck and perseverance and found it necessary to teach school in order to secure the means of acquiring a medical education, but his efforts have been crowned with success and he has readied the goal which his early ambition pointed out.

The happy wedding day of our subject, which united him with Miss Ella Jenkins, of Edgar County, this State, came upon January 12, 1878. This lady was born, reared and educated in Ohio and came to Edgar County with her parents, Martin and Amanda (Sillcott) Jenkins, who live in Sullivan, having retired from active work as farmers. They are active and useful members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and Mr. Jenkins espouses the cause of the Republican party. Mrs. Stedman is a bright, earnest, capable woman, who is prominent as a leader in social circles and faithful and efficient as a home-maker and a wife. Both she and her husband are useful in their church relations and belong to the Methodist Church. The Doctor affiliates with the Democratic party and is a member of the Subordinate Lodge of Moultrie, No. 158, I.O.O.F. He is also a Knight of Pythias, belonging to Moultrie Lodge No. 222.

Portrait and Biographical Record of Shelby and Moultrie Counties, 1891 - p. 609/610

Transcription copyright 2003/2007, Moultrie County ILGenWeb/USGenWeb