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Elias Buckles, now living retired in Mount Pulaski, is a worthy representative of the honored pioneer families of Logan county and was for many years prominently identified with agricultural interests here, still owning about one thousand acres of valuable land. He was born on his father's homestead in this county, his natal day being September 30, 1848. His parents were John and Esther Jane Buckles.

The father, whose birth occurred in White county, Illinois, on the 7th of October, 1822, was only three weeks old when brought to Logan county by his parents, who erected a cabin in the forest near the stream known as the Buckles branch. He remained under the parental roof until the time of his marriage in 1847, when he entered forty acres of land three miles southwest of Mount Pulaski and erected thereon a small frame house-about the first of its kind in the county. John Buckles was the first man in Logan county to foresee the value of prairie land. While all his neighbors bought timber land, he alone entered and bought the wild prairie land and at the time of his death he and his children owned about four thousand acres of the finest farming property in Logan and adjoining counties. John Buckles and his wife celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary in 1897 and among those present on that occasion were their three children - Elias, Darius, and John M. - ten grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. At the time of his death in 1909 John Buckles conveyed by will eighty acres of Logan county land to each of his five grandsons and fifty-three and a third acres to each of his granddaughters. The period of his residence in this county covered practically his entire life, or eighty-seven years, and he will long be remembered as one of its most respected, influential and wealthy citizens. His wife was called to her final rest in 1904, when seventy-six years of age.

Elias Buckles was reared under the parental roof and early became familiar with the duties and labors that fall to the lot of the agriculturist, continuing to reside on a farm and devoting his attention to general agricultural pursuits until 1905. In connection with the tilling of the soil he was for many years extensively engaged in the feeding and shipping of stock, also breeding Hereford cattle and Percheron horses on a large scale. At the present time he owns about one thousand acres of rich and productive land in Logan county and his home farm-a beautiful country place-is situated four miles southwest of Mount Pulaski. From 1889 until 1902 he was engaged in the grain business at Lake Fork, also acting as postmaster of the town during that period. In 1905 he came to Mount Pulaski and built one of the finest butcher shops in the county, remaining its proprietor until 1910, when he sold out to his son Harry and Jacob Schmidt. He is now living retired in the enjoyment of well earned ease, having won a handsome competence in the course of an active and honorable business career.

In 1868 Mr. Buckles was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth A. Dyer, a native of Logan county, by whom he had ten children, as follows: Harry, who wedded Miss Ida Rowe and has two children; Ira Lee, who died in infancy; Ora Etta, who is the wife of Thomas L. Rothwell, by whom she has five children; Dee, who likewise died in infancy; Myrta Ella, who wedded George Litterly and is now the mother of four children; Elias Frank, who wedded Miss Rosa Brennan, by whom he has one child; Jennie, who is the wife of Oscar Mayer and the mother of two children; Hubert, who married Miss Ella Briggs, by whom he has one child; Roy, who wedded Miss Jennie Erlenbush, by whom he had two children, but one died in infancy; and Cecil. All of the children reside on Logan county farms with the exception of Harry and Jennie, who live at Mount Pulaski. Mrs. Elizabeth A. Buckles, the wife and mother, was called to her final rest May 17, 1910.

In politics Mr. Buckles is a stanch republican, exercising his right of franchise in support of the men and measures of that party. His religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Christian church at Mount Pulaski. The Buckles family has been prominently identified with the agricultural development of this county from its earliest settlement to the present time, and Elias Buckles has ever sustained the honorable reputation borne by his father and grandfather. He has always stood for public improvement and progress and many know him to be a man of keen insight, unfaltering in his devotion to the best interests of the county.

Source: History of Logan County, Illinois, by Lawrence B. Stringer. Chicago: Pioneer Publishing Company [1911]. pp. 62-64.

Submitted by Cheryl Rothwell who is the great great granddaughter of Elias Buckles.