James Collins, gardener, nurseryman and farmer, residing in Erie, is a son of William and Charlotte (Rawles) Collins, and was born in Albany, N. Y., Nov. 19, 1823. His father was a stonecutter. His mother died when James was seven years of age, and a maiden aunt, Hannah Rawles, took him to Romeo, Macomb Co., Mich., a few years later, where he learned the blacksmith's trade. He then went to Florence, Oneida Co., N. Y., where he was employed on dairy farms several years. He then went to New York City, where he was employed by the Union Ferry Company at the South Ferry, between Brooklyn and New York, and remained with them from 1849 to 1853. After leaving their employ, he came to Erie, this county, and purchased a farm of 80 acres, and in company with Samuel D. Carr bought several hundred acres of land. He subsequently sold his interest to Mr. Carr, in 1859. Mr. Carr died in June, 1861, and Mr. Collins married his widow, Elizabeth (Ennis) Carr, Aug 31, 1864. She was born in Ohio, Nov. 17, 1822, and had by her first marriage four children, namely: Rebecca, deceased, was the wife of George Wilcox, one of the prison keepers in the Joliet Penitentiary; Louisa is the wife of James Worrell, a carpenter, residing in Erie; Mary, deceased, was the wife of Van Renselaer Rowe, a farmer in Erie Township; William E. is a clerk in R. L. Burchell's store at Erie.
Mr. Collins has one child by his marriage to Mrs. Carr, Sherman, born July 18, 1865. He still owns 170 acres of land in the vicinity of Erie, about 40 acres of which lie inside the corporate limits of that village. In 1869 he engaged in the nursery business, and has sold large numbers of evergreens and other kinds of nursery stock in this section, and raises numbers of sweet potatoes, cabbage, tomatoes and other plants. He also has a contract to build one and three-fourths miles of the main ditch of the Whiteside Rock Island drainage system. He has held the office of Justice of the Peace two terms, Township Clerk two terms, Assessor several years, and has been a member of the Village Board several years, and President of the same one year.
Mrs. Carr's first husband, Samuel D. Carr, was one of the pioneers of Erie Township, and married his wife in Rock Island County in 1843, and brought her to this county. He has resided in the county several years previous to his marriage. He built part of the Hotel known as the St. Nicholas Hotel, in 1851, and kept it until the fall of 1856, when he he rented it for a period and then sold it. Previous to that he had kept a hotel in a log house close by where he erected the St. Nicholas.
Portraits and Biographical 1895..
