John J Sands, Marshall & Peoria County

When John Sands wrote to the Asylum in 1873 he was elated to have learned that Ebenezer Wright was in Normal, Illinois. It was his plan to attend college at ISNU and asked Wright for his help in finding him a boarding house. Sands did not like the hard winters farmers endured and wanted to become a school teacher.

In 1870 he was living in La Prairie, Marshall County with John and Mary Wiley, and in 1880 he was living in Steuben, Marshall County and working as a school teacher. John was married at this time to Rosa Adams. In 1900 John and Rosa (Adams) were living in Peoria, Illinois with two sons, John and Charles. John Sands was a lawyer in 1900. Working as a teacher and then becoming an attorney was not an uncommon career path. Working as a teacher could finance law school. In 1886 he passed an examination at the appellate court and then set up a practice in Lacon, Marshall County. Sadly, he died August 5, 1901 in Peoria and was buried at Springdale Cemetery. The obituary above appeared in the Henry Republican.

John Sands parents had come from Ireland and England, and he was sent to Illinois at the age of 14 in 1869. Oddly enough, both of John's sons lived in the East in the 1910s and 1920s.