Biography - Elijah Gollogher
REV. ELIJAH GOLLOGHER. The work of a minister in the Western States has ever entailed a great degree of severe labor and privation, and the brave men who have undertaken the work of the preacher among new settlements have had abundant opportunity to emulate apostolic self-denial and zeal, and have many of them quite undermined their health by the severe efforts which they passed through. Such an one is our subject who now resides in Stewardson, Shelby County, and who was born in Holland Township, March 21, 1841.
Mr. Gollogher is the son of Wesley and Sarah (Middlesworth) Gollogher, who were natives of Fairfield County, Ohio. The paternal grandfather of our subject, Thomas Gollogher, was born in Ireland and came to the United States while a young man. While living in Pennsylvania, he was united in marriage to a lady of German birth and soon removed to Fairfield County, Ohio, where they reared a pioneer family of eight sons and two daughters. Wesley Gollogher was the seventh son in that family, and he like his father, became a farmer by occupation and in 1837 removed to Indiana.
In 1839 the father of our subject came to Shelby County, Ill., and settled in Holland Township, purchasing a small claim and entering some three hundred acres of land. Here he made his home until 1878, when he removed to Shelbyville, where he died January 28, 1880. He and his affectionate and faithful wife had been most harmoniously related in their wedded life and their separation by death was brief, as her passage to the other world took place February 28, 1880, just one month after his. In their religious life they had been connected with the Methodist Church and were valuable and valued workers therein.
The children of this worthy couple are Mrs. Mary J. Allen who resides in Wallace, Neb.; Sarah A. who is now Mrs. S. W. Wilson and resides near Shelbyville; Elijah, our subject; Louisa M., married the Rev. David Gay and makes her home in Decatur; Minerva, whose husband, N. P. Smith, is a physician in Paris, Ill.; Thomas J. who resides in Shelby County, and Lucy M. who married H. B. Smith M. D. of Shelbyville.
Farm training and the life of a school boy in the common schools of Shelby County, filled up the early years of our subject, but he did not take all of his education by any means in the schoolhouse, for he has carried it on through life as he is an extensive reader and a man who delights in the pursuits of literature which is broadening and improving in its effects upon his mind. In 1866 he left the farm and for six years was in the grocery trade at Shelbyville, after which he returned to the farm for five years.
Elijah Gollogher was but sixteen years old when he gave himself to Christ and became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Being a nominal member of the church did not satisfy him as he became at once an active worker in both church and Sabbath-school, and for many years devoted himself to the work of a local preacher.
It was in 1876 when this earnest man became a member of the Illinois Conference, after which he located as pastor at Oconee for two years, at Lovington for two years and one year at Stewardson. Not having had the advantages of a thorough education in his boyhood, he endeavored to supplement this while carrying on his pastoral work, and owing to over exertion his health failed. This obliged him to devote himself again for four years to the cultivation of his farm, after which he became pastor for one year at Bismarck, then for three years at Murdock. and one year at Lerna, but on account of throat trouble he was obliged to leave the ministry permanently and in the fall of 1890 he erected a beautiful residence at Stewardson where he hopes to make his home for life. He owns eighty acres of land in Prairie Township, upon which he is carrying on fruit raising.
The Rev. Mr. Gollogher was married May 22, 1862, to Rebecca E. Young, a daughter of Thomas and Sarah (Wertman) Young, who has proved a faithful and true-hearted companion. This lady was born in Christian County, Ill. The Democratic party commanded the respect and vote of our subject in his early life but it was not long before he decided to ally himself with the organization which placed Abraham Lincoln in the Presidental chair. His deep and serious interest in the cause of temperance leads him now to vote for prohibition and to work for its success in both the moral and political field.
Extracted 07 Apr 2017 by Norma Hass from 1891 Portrait and Biographical Record of Shelby and Moultrie Counties Illinois, pages 210-211.
