HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
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mail, and was a member oi the Board of Education; married on March 9, 1870, to Miss Edith Russell, of Jersey City, N. .7.
HARRY ADELBERT DEAN, Principal of Public Schools, Elburn, Ill., born at East Fox-borough, Mass., July 29, 1866; obtained his preparatory education in tne public schools of his native State and Arcauia, Iowa, and later attended Cornell College (Mt. Vernon, Iowa) and the State Agricultural College (Ames, Iowa) ; has been principal of the Elburn schools since 1893; married August 2, 1893, Eva E. Riplets.
HERMAN F. DEMMER, Aurora, ex-Sheriff of Kane County, was born in Germany, in 1849. His parents died while he was still very young, and his early boyhood was spent in Iowa and Illinois among strangers. In 1861 he came to Aurora, and for some time thereafter was in the employ of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company. From 1870 to 1875 he served in the United States army, a portion of the time being engaged in the suppression of the Ku-Klux Klan, and the support of the officers of the Internal Revenue Department in Kentucky, and the remainder of the time doing duty on the frontier. He was on the military escort that accompanied Red Cloud to the Union Pacific Railroad on his way to Washington, to make that treaty which he has since so faithfully kept. After leaving the army Mr. Demmer again entered the employ of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company, where he was engaged several years. In 1886 he became a member of the Aurora police force, and in two years rose to the position of chief, which he filled for ten years and four months. In the fall of 1898 he was elected Sheriff of Kane County, serving a term of four years. Since his retirement from that position he has been engaged in merchandising in Aurora. In 1903 he was a candidate for Mayor on the citizen's ticket. In 1881 he married Miss Alma Steele, who was born and reared in Aurora. They have five living children, all girls.
JOHN J. DENNEY (deceased), pioneer, Sugar Grove, born in New York, and came to Sugar Grove Township, Kane County, about 1838, where he settled on land purchased from the Government, soon becoming one of the noted pioneer farms of that region. The land on which he first settled continued to be his home until his death in 1871. Mr. Denney was twice Tax Collector, and held other local offices. His wife, born Nancy Snook, a native of New-York, died in 1868. Their son, William H. Denney, was born on the family homestead in Sugar Grove Township, Sept. 3, 1840, and was educated in the old time district school. Trained to farming, he has followed that business all his life. He became the owner of the paternal homestead, and lived in the house in which he was born until his death, March 27, 1888. In 1871 Mr. Denney married Miss Harriet A. Senaka, a native of Rockford, Ill., who was reared in DeKalb County, and is still living in the old home. Her mother, who had lived to the extreme age of 99 years and seven months, died at Mrs. Denney's home in 1903. The living children of Mr. and Mrs. Denney are: Mrs. Lottie Danker, of Colorado; Clarence P., George E., Eddy R., and Lottie G., of Sugar Grove Township.
JOSEPH DENNEY, retired merchant, Aurora, Ill., was born in Kirby Moorside, Yorkshire, Eng., Feb. 15, 1828, where he grew to manhood, meanwhile learning the cabinet-maker's trade. In 1851 he came to the United States, and after stopping in Buffalo, N. Y., for a time, he located in Aurora, where he engaged in business as a manufacturer and dealer In furniture. The same year lie was chosen village undertaker, and it is an interesting fact that, prior to his retirement from business in 1896, he had buried over 7,000 people. After he Lad been in the business for a time his brother William Denney became associated with him, and remained a member of the firm until his death in 1860. Later his brothers, Thomas, Hallifleld and Ebenezer Denney, entered into partnership with him under the firm name of Denney Brothers, one of the best known furniture and undertaking houses in Northern Illinois. Joseph Denney, the head of the firm, is probably the oldest undertaker in the Northwest. He is the oldest living member of the First Congregational church of Aurora, in which he has been an active worker for more than fifty years. In 1856 he married Miss Emeline Elliott, daughter of William T. Elliott, one of the first settlers of Kane County. She was the first white girl born in Kane County, and also the first in Aurora. The furniture house which Mr. Den-
