It was in the last of April 1856 when Peter Horner arrived in Illinois. He was one of three unmarried men and two families who came with their four horses. It was a long trip by boat down the Ohio River to Cairo, Illinois, then up the Mississippi and Illinois rivers to Peoria, and overland north to Carroll County. Benjamin didn’t move with Peter; he and his mother and other siblings are shown on the 1860 US Federal Census for Jenner Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania as living with his brother Henry and Henry’s wife.
In the fall of 1862, Peter and Wilhelmina Horner lived and farmed what was known as the “McAfee place” which was later owned by Rev. Sword. (I’ve been unable to confirm Rev. Sword’s first name.) They later farmed at other locations around Lanark, and at one time lived near what Martha Marsh Voss described as the old slaughter house in Lanark. Caralee Aschenbrenner tells me the old slaughter house was located near what is now 300 Dame Ave., on the north west side of Lanark.
Peter Horner may not have owned this farm. It appears on the 1893 Carroll County Plat Book as being part of the Stover Addition, and not as a separate farm. As such, the land would have been owned by Emanuel Stover.
In the 1880s there was a big red barn on his farm at Will and Franklin Streets where he kept four large Arabian horses he used for hauling, the moving of buildings, and as horsepower for his cider press. People typically brought their own apples and he make cider and vinegar from them. Wearing clean high rubber boots, he got into the press to stamp the apples into the mill. Samples of the apple juice were given to children who visited when the apples were being pressed. Peter Horner may have gone out of the cider business about 1893. The old Lanark school burned down in 1893 and Emanuel Stover donated the land for the new one. That land was apparently Peter Horner’s cornfield. I have no proof but I suspect the barn remained and possibly some pasture land, since he was still moving houses in 1900 and would have had to provide for his horses.
Both “Carroll County, A Goodly Heritage”
History of Lanark
and in “Please Don’t Quote Me” show photos which are incorrectly identified as being the barn housing the cider press on Peter Horner’s farm.
In fact, these photos are of the barn on Charles Bickelhaupt’s farm in Section 11, Mt. Carroll Township; he had bought the cider press from Peter Horner in the 1890s.
See the History of the Traveling Cider Press
The marriage of Peter Horner and Wilhelmina Biesecker Horner was blessed with five children:
1. William Edmund Horner, born May 30, 1861, married Hattie Emma Grush on December 10, 1885 in Polo, Ogle County, Illinois and died January 10, 1940. This couple had 3 children.
Peter Horner was born in Somerset County, Pennsylvania on December 26, 1834. His parents were Michael Horner (1813-1848) and Catherine Forney (1813-1895), both of whom were also born in Somerset County. He was the oldest of seven children; the others were Henry, Jonathan, Susannah,
Benjamin, Abraham, and Fred. Only Peter, his mother Catherine, and his brother Benjamin Horner moved to Carroll County, Illinois
Peter Horner’s first job when he arrived in Carroll County was breaking the prairie for the Telegraph Road, which crosses the southern part of Rock Creek Township and the northern part of Wysox Township and extends to Polo in Ogle County. He met Wilhelmina Biesecker during this time. She was also born in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Frederick Biesecker (who was born in Germany and immigrated with his family when he was only seven weeks old). She was the youngest of 12 daughters. Both the Horner and the Biesecker family belonged to Church of the Brethren, so it’s hard for me to believe they hadn’t met previously. However Martha Marsh Voss states they met when Wilhelmina was working in the home of Peter Horner’s uncle, Joseph Forney, in Buffalo Township, Ogle County, Illinois. I couldn’t find Joseph Forney on the 1860 US Federal Census for Buffalo Township, but I found a John Forney there who was married to Eles Ann Stahl, and believe it might have been their family that Wilhelmina lived with. In any case, Peter Horner and Wilhelmina Biesecker married February 21, 1860 in the “Old Stone House” in Buffalo Township, Ogle County. This landmark was in 1860 owned by Barber & Typer and called the Doty Place; in 1961 it was called the Mullen Stone House.
The last 45 years of their lives Peter and Wilhelmina lived on a small farm on the south eastern corner of Lanark. The farmhouse is at the corner of Franklin St. and Will Ave., and it’s still there although it looks much different, with an addition built on the Will Street side. They may have lived in this house as early as 1880.
When interviewed by a reporter late in life, Peter Horner said that although he’d never had a business, he had put his legs under more tables than any man in Carroll County. Besides being a farmer, he made and sold medicinal ointments.
(The ad on the left appeared in the September 5, 1923 edition of the Lanark Gazette). He had a hauling business which included hauling rock for building foundations. He also moved buildings (and declared himself a Building Mover on the 1900 US Census for Lanark, when he was age 66).
But for years Peter Horner was known as “the cider man.”
2. Mary Catherine Horner, born February 8, 1863
(Martha Marsh Voss’s manuscript & her obit give 1863,
but the date on tombstone is 1868).
She married Samuel Fowler Lowman on March 27, 1895
He died March 3, 1917.
This couple had only once child, who died as an infant..
Born September 24, 1865,
He married Mary Minerva Shiley, November 3, 1891,
He died August 14, 1949.
This couple had 12 children.
Married Frank A. Marsh on July 23, 1894
He died November 18, 1902
Married Orr Frank Anderson, February 2, 1904.
Ida died August 3, 1934.
She had 2 children each husband
5. Anna Elizabeth Horner, born December 19, 1873,
Married Charles A. Baldwin on December 25, 1895.
She died January 25, 1933. This couple had 3 children.
Refer to Alice Horner’s Rootsweb.com family tree,
“The Horner Family Of Carroll County, Illinois
(And Nearly Everyone Else)” for more information about Peter Horner’s descendants.
When asked by the same reporter what was the most interesting event in his life, Peter responded “when I became a Christian.”
He was baptized in the old Emmert Church, between Franklin Grove and Dixon, Lee County, Illinois, about 1861 or 1862. He was a charter member of the Church of the Brethren in Lanark.
He told the reporter of the cider presses he had worked, the threshing he’d done and the fact that at his age he wasn’t on the shelf yet.
He climbed up his 24-foot ladder into a tree to prove it to the reporter.
When he was 91 he helped a farmer husk corn, earning $74.48. With this unexpected addition to the family exchequer, he and his wife had taken a vacation to Rockford and Freeport. Many, many times he expressed his gratitude for the fact that he came to this bountiful western land. Wilhelmina had no outstanding events to recall, but just lived happily in the thought of the peace and unity in the home through the years.
Peter and Wilhelmina lived at their farmhouse on Franklin & Will Street the rest of their lives. From about 1900 on, their daughter, Anna Elizabeth, her husband, Charles Baldwin, and their three children lived with them. Wilhelmina died first, on September 1, 1927, and Peter died at 94 on December 15, 1929. They are both buried in Lanark Cemetery.
“People like Grandpa and Grandma Horner can’t be found any more.
They took people into their home and helped them.”
