Daniel Polhemous Brokaw

In the summer after their first child, Abram, was born in 1842, Daniel and Catherine moved West. They traveled as far as Pittsburg, PA, in a covered wagon drawn by a two-horse team. There they loaded the wagon, horses, and goods onto a flat-boat and went down the Ohio River to the Mississippi and arrived at St. Louis on July 4, 1842. They then travelled east to Jersey County, IL where a former neighbor from New Jersey, William Kelley, was living near the town of Jerseyville. They resided in that area for 10 years. In 1850, Daniel bought 120 acres with a land warrant or allottment that had been given to a soldier of the Mexican War, and sold to Daniel. That land was in Montgomery County, IL, on the SW corner of section 29, near the town of Litchfield. In 1852, the family moved onto the land. At the time that Daniel bought the land it was inland from the river, undeveloped, and he cleared and cultivated it until it became one of the best farms in the locality. Daniel used his skills at carpentry and cabinetmaking to build their home and other buildings, wagons, and much of their furniture.
Daniel was a progressive farmer, the first to plant hedge fences; he invented a machine for trimming them. He planted the first Mock Orange seed in the county, in 1853. In 1856 he introduced the first Chinese, or sorgum, cane there, having paid $1.00 for the first few seeds which later multiplied into a field of cane. He made a rolling machine to extract the juice and made their own sorgum and cane sugar. He raised large fields of wheat.
Daniel and Catherine were charter members of the First Presbyterian Church in Litchfield and attended for the rest of their lives. Daniel's hobbies included study of homopathic medicine, botany, anatomy, zoology, and mineralology. He was instrumental in the placing of a comprehensive library in the school, which was called "Brokaw School".

Daniel died on March 13, 1884.

Children of Daniel P. and Catherine Brokaw

• Abram born February 18, 1842
• John T. born June 9, 1843, died January 25, 1861.
• Daniel Small born October 22, 1844.
• Cornelia P. (b. December 16, 1846. d. May 20, 1930). Married (December 20, 1866) to William J. Gorline. William and Cornelia had two sons, Henry and Ira. Henry married Barbara Moore, and they had a son Walter Casey Gorline; Henry married again to Miss Hill and had Morris Casey Gorline, Ralph Spencer Gorline, Melba Elizabeth Gorline, Betty Lee Gorline, and Walter Casey Gorline, Jr.
• Isaac Newton born February 6, 1849.
• Ellen (b. October 6, 1850, d. April 8, 1925). On December 25, 1871, she married Joseph Butler (b. August 12, 1851, d. January 1936), the son of Lemuel and Mary Butler, who moved to Litchfield in 1863. Children of Joseph and Ellen Butler were:
  • Emma E. (b. October 9, 1872, d. December 8, 1925) was married on October 4, 1896, to Howard Hayes. Later they lived in Columbus, OH. Their children were: Elma Ellen, Mayden Ruth, married to Ralph C. Kempton, Hazel Herma, June Evelyn, Howard Butler, and Emma Josephine, married to Matt C. Dodd.
  • Susie E. (b. June 3, 1875, d. December 5, 1875)
  • Bertha Brokaw (b. Aprill 11, 1877, d. February 22, 1955) was married on April 10, 1900, to Edwin G. Thorp, and had Katherine, married to Earl Armstrong, and Rachel E.
  • Mabel C. (b. September 1, 1881)
  • Lillian I. (b. March 2, 1884, d. October 12, 1934) married Samuel Towey, but had not children.
  • Ethel (b. September 1, 1888) married Harry Grassell and had a daughter Ellen who died before her fourth birthday.
  • Edward R. (b. September 1, 1888)
  • Harry W. (b. October 22, 1890) was born on the Butler farm south of Litchfield and went through grade school and 2.5 years of high school in Litchfield. He married Merle Stansifer, the daughter of Albert Russell and Della (Holbrook) Stansifer, on April 26, 1917. After the marriage, Harry entered the service, during World War I, and was attached to the French Army, in the Ambulance Corp, and became a sargeant. After his tour of duty was over, he returned to Litchfield and resumed his business, which was the "Butler's Grocery" which he ran for 29 years thereafter. Harry and Merle had two sons, Thomas Stansifer Butler and Robert Brokaw Butler. Thomas graduate from Litchfield schools, entered Northern Illinois College's School of Optometry in 1938 and graduate in 1942. He entered the Army and was assigned to the eye clinic at Baxter General Hospital in Spokane, WA. After the war, he opend up an optometrists office in Taylorsville, IL, and lived there. On December 4, 1943, Thomas married Virginia Kuhl; they had Caroline Virginia, Robert Brian, and William Stansifer. In 1960, Thomas was in possession of Daniel Brokaw's family bible.
    
• Henry (b. April 11, 1852, d. November 20, 1973)
• David (b. January 27, 1854, d. May 20, 1856)
• Gertrude (b. June 26, 1857, d. July 1, 1950) was married on February 22, 1877, to John W. Griswold, son of Ambrose and Martha (Williams) Griswold. John was born near Kane, Green County, IL, on April 1, 1852. For years, John and his family lived in Montgomery County, IL, where for years he was sheriff, and for a time served as Justice of the Peace. He then went to St Louis, where he operated a livery stable and later had a real estate business. John and Gertrude had three children, born in Litchfield, IL: Bessie K. married Edward Bockewitz, lived in Litchfield, and had John Edward and Gertrude; Mayme, who died young; and Ross W. Ross attended the school of medicine in St. Louis, graduated in the class of 1911, and spent one year as an intern, and then practised medicine for 45 years, mostly in Litchfield. Ross married Camilla Seymour. Their children were Ross W., Jr., Margaret Jane, who married Vincente Benitez and moved to Mexico City, and John.
  
• Anna E. (b. February 8, 1860, d. October 22, 1929) married Elbert Elmer Meisenheimer on September 3, 1879, and they went to live in Kingman, Kansas. There, they had children: Martha, Orrie Elmer, Amy Edna, Charles Henry, Frank William, Paul B., Dwight M., Artie Bell, Anna Agnes, Ross Elbert, and Daniel Ray.
  
• Carrie Rogers (b. September 20, 1862, d. June 9, 1918) was married on February 22, 1888, to Thomas Andrew Stiefel, brother of Sarah, who was the wife of Carrie's older brother Isaac. Thomas was born on October October 21, 1858. He was only six years old when his father, Godfrey, died, and his brother Jacob, then 9 years old, and a half brother, William Harkey, assumed the responsibilities of the farm for their mother, Talitha. When he was old enough, Thomas helped out on the farm, and consequently was not able to attend school but for a few months each year, at the Hardinburg school. William Harkey left the farm and went to California, and the two young boys had full responsibility for the work on the farm. Then Jacob Stiefel married, which left only Thomas to carry the full load of work until his sister Sarah and her husband took over the farm. Thomas then went to California for a while before returning and marrying Carrie. They moved onto a rented farm adjoining his brother Isaac. After his mother died, Thomas bought 40 acres of land, with a house and other buildings, which was just across the road from the portion of his father's farm that he had taken as his inheritance. After the deaths of Carrie and Isaac, Thomas's sister, Sarah, made her home with him for a while, and then he retired and went out to California and spent his last years with his brother, Jacob.
  Thomas and Carrie had one son, Ira Brokaw Stiefel, born August 17, 1889, on their farm NW of Litchfield. Ira graduated from the high school in Litchfield in 1908, and entered the University of Illinois, graduating with an Electrical Engineer's degree in 1912. He went to work for Westinghouse Electrical Co., in Pittsburg, PA and held, successively, positions as Asst. Supt. of the Coils and Insulation Dept.; Asst. Supt. of the Motor Division, and of the Mill Foundry, then as Manager of the Feeder Division, No. 1. In 1937 he became manager of Industrial Relations, and Asst. Vice President. On retiring in 1954 he received an Order of Merit from the company. Ira was a member of the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America, a member of the University Club, and a member of the board of the Braddock General Hospital.
  On September 10, 1919, Ira married Helen Mary Jones, whose father John emigrated from Wales with his parents in1848. Helen was born and grew up in Minneapolis, and eventually went to work at Westinghouse, in Pittsburg, where she met Ira. Ira and Helen had a son, John Thomas Steifel, born January 15, 1921, who married Jane Brown and had a son, Thomas Andrew Steifel, born June 13, 1949. Jane died and John married Evelyn Sorg. Ira and Helen had a daughter, Carol Jane, born May 12, 1926, who married Richard L. Swift and had Kathleen Ann, William Douglas, and Robert Wallace.

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  Where this information came from.