Untitled Document

TYLER MCWHORTER

Born in Steuben county, New York , August 29, 1815 . His parent's names were James and Anna (Parker) McWhorter. His ancestry on his father's side was Scotch. The name of Tyler was given him by reason of the fact that his grandmother, whose maiden name was Tyler , was first cousin of president John Tyler, of Virginia . Mr. McWhorter never had the advantage of a regular college course of education, but his leisure hours, both in his early and later life, were devoted to a studious and searching course of reading.

At the age of twenty-one he went to Branch county Michigan, where he followed school teaching, and during two years had charge of the public school of Coldwater , the county seat of Branch county, Michigan . While engaged in. teaching he applied his leisure time to a close study of higher mathematics, and was subsequently elected county surveyor of Branch county.

He married his first wife in Michigan , in May, 1842. She was a woman of culture, though of a delicate physical organization. In the spring of 1845 he moved from Michigan to Illinois , and located in Duncan township, Mercer county, three miles west of Millersburg, and engaged in horticulture. His nursery, under the name of "Pome Roy Nursery," became extensively known and patronized. At his Pome Roy place, he raised an extensive market orchard, which is the largest in the county.

His horticultural business afforded an ample field of investigation for the inquiring proclivities of his mind. During the early years of his residence in Mercer county, Mr. McWhorter was elected school commissioner of the county, an office which he held for two successive terms. Also, while a resident of Duncan township, he held for twenty years the office of township treasurer. Mr. McWhorter, by his first wife, had three children, all of whom are living in Iowa . He married his present wife August, 1859, her maiden name was Clara M. Luce. Of this union there is one child, a boy, Laon A. McWhorter, now twenty years of age, who lives with his parents. In the spring of 1869, Mr. McWhorter moved from his Pome Roy place to his present location, one mile south of Aledo.

Mr. McW. has been connected with the horticultural societies of the State for neary thirty years ". in 1869 , he presided over the State Horticultural Society of Illinois, and in 1873 presided over the northern state society. Mr. McWhorter is continually a student of nature. What time he could spare from secular business has been devoted to scientific investigation ; allowing himself also some time to travel, he made a trip to Vicksburg during the war, and has since made an extensive tour of the southern states. He has been for eleven years a member of the "American Association for the Advancement of Science," in attending the annual meetings of which he has had occasion to visit various parts of the United States and Canada. He is also a member of the State Natural History Society, of Illinois. Mr. Mc Whorter, though now in his sixtyeighth year, is in complete possession of all his natural strong faculties of both mind and body, is hale and hearty and thoroughly enjoys life.

History of Mercer and Henderson County

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Illinois Ancestors