Biography - STRODER M. LONG
Stroder
McNeal Long, who was the second president of the Bank of Newman, Illinois,
was born in Fayette county, Ohio, October 6, 1840, emigrated with his
parents to the state of Illinois in 1848 and located on a farm nine miles
north of Paris, in Edgar county. He is a son of Andrew and Margaret (Mark)
Long, who were natives of Ohio. He worked on his father's farm in the summer
and attended school in the winter until 1860, when he commenced an academic
course at Paris, Illinois. In the year following the Civil war broke out,
and he enlisted in Company E, Twelfth Illinois Infantry. After three months'
service, on account of a severe spell of sickness, he was honorably
discharged and returned home. He engaged in farming and school teaching
until the spring of 1867, when he moved to Douglas county, where he
purchased eighty acres of land on South Prairie, three miles south of
Newman. He remained here until 1880, making farming and stock raising a
specialty. He represented Sargent two terms on the county board of
supervisors, 1878-79. In 1884 he was elected a member of the Thirty-fourth
General Assembly of the state by a large majority in the district. His
fidelity to party as well as to the people's interest, his sterling
integrity and rectitude of purpose, won for him the appointment by the
Republican caucus a member of the advisory committee that directed the party
on all political questions. He was a member of the committees on education,
farm drainage, house contingent expense, state and municipal indebtedness
and canals and rivers. When he retired from the house of representatives at
the close of the session he had made a host of friends and few enemies. In
1898 he was again nominated by his party of the fortieth senatorial
district, but his death occurred before the election. In the spring of 1888
he succeeded I. N. Covert as president of the Newman Bank, which position he
held most acceptably to all parties concerned up to 1898, the time of his
death. He was one of the promoters of the organization of the Newman
Building & Loan Association, and was one of its prominent and ruling
directors. He was also a charter member of Templestone lodge, No. 76,
Knights of Pythias, and an enthusiastic worker in that order. Mr. Long was a
shrewd business man, straightforward, upright and capable. During the
World's Fair he was a member of the board of congress from Illinois.
In 1872 our subject married Mary E. Pound, of Newman, Illinois. She is a
daughter of John M. and Rosalinda (Kester) Pound, the former born in Clark
county, Indiana, and the latter in Shelby county, Kentucky. To Mr. and Mrs.
Long were born five children: Mabel M., wife of Henry A. Wine, of
Indianapolis, Indiana; Potter P., married and residing on his farm south of
Newman; Garnet A., wife of William McGee, of Mattoon, Illinois; Cecile R.
and Fay E. reside with their mother. Mrs. Long and children own seven
hundred acres of land, one hundred and twenty acres of which lies in Edgar
county, also other valuable city property. She has recently completed one of
the most imposing and beautiful residences in Newman.
Extracted 09 Jun 2019 by Norma Hass from the Historical and Biographical Record of Douglas County, Illinois, published in 1900, pages 198-199.
