John Antis, physician and surgeon, Mazon, was born in Montgomery County, N. Y., in 1817, and early in life commenced the study of medicine, graduating from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Western University of New York, in the year 1838. He practiced his profession in North Brookfield, Madison County, N. Y., four years, and during that time, in 1840, married Miss Nancy A. Sweet, youngest daughter of Samuel G. Sweet. In 1841, they had born to them their eldest daughter, Eudora A. The same year (1841), Dr. Antis moved to Mixville, Allegany County, N. Y., and lived there four years, during which time his youngest daughter, Mary L., was born. In 1845, the Doctor moved to Morris, where he resided until 1879, when he moved out to his farm in Mazon Township, where he has enjoyed the full possession of health and happiness, and a large circle of friends and acquaintances. Thus have been chronicled the dates of the births and marriage of the Doctor and his estimable wife, whose lives have been intimately blended and molded into the interests of the county and city of their adoption. They have lived to see their daughters married to cherished husbands, and they, surrounded by children, the pride of their parents. The lives of this aged pair have been a series of experiences from which they have learned to judge wisely and live properly, and are now looking forward to that great change when the man proper will separate them from the man physical, and stand out in its own pristine worth, untrammeled by matter and its laws.1
Antis, John, M. D. (deceased), one of the pioneer physicians of Grundy County, was born in Montgomery County, N. Y., March 17, 1817, and came to Morris in 1845, continuing in practice for many years. He also became interested in farm lands in Mazon Township, and after the close of the Civil War moved upon his farm. He was one of the courageous men who traveled across the plains to California in 1849, and for two years mined for gold at Trinity. Politically he was a Democrat. While residing at Morris, he served the city upon two occasions as Mayor, and was a man of great probity and uprightness. Dr. Antis married Nancy A. Sweet, and they had two children: Eudora A. and Mary.2
John Antis, M. D.
The pioneer physician of any county, the first physician to locate permanently within its limits, and who practiced medicine among the original pioneers, riding horseback over the prairies and visiting the sick in the rude cabins of the early settlers, is an important figure in local history. Dr. Antis, one of the best-known early settlers in Grundy county, was born in Montgomery county, New York, March 17, 1817, a son of John I. and Catherine (Durkey) Antis. The Antis family was of the old Holland-Dutch stock which settled New York. The grandfather of Dr. Antis was John Antis, who spoke the language of his native Holland. He was a farmer and landholder, and a soldier in our Revolutionary war. His children were John I., Margaret, Henry, James and Conrad. Mr. Antis died at an advanced age in New York state.
John I. Antis, the father of the immediate subject of this sketch, was born in New York state and married in Montgomery county, New York, to Catherine Durkey, of New England ancestry. Mr. Antis was a blacksmith by trade, of the town of Root, Montgomery county, New York, and there he passed his active life; and in his old age he came to Morris, Illinois, to live with his son, Dr. Antis, and here, both he and his wife died. In politics he was a Democrat, and in every relation of his life he showed himself an industrious and upright citizen and won universal respect.
Dr. Antis received a good common-school education, studied medicine with Dr. Amos Reed as preceptor at Root, Montgomery county, New York, and gained the degree of Medical Doctor at a medical college at Fairfield, Herkimer county, same state. Dr. Antis began the practice of medicine at North Brookfield, Madison county, New York, where he remained three years. He then practiced his profession three years in Allegany county, that state. In 1845 he came to Morris, Illinois, and resumed the practice of medicine in the then pioneer settlement, where no physician had located permanently before him, though one or two doctors from Indiana had tarried there briefly. The entire community had only just begun to develop and the few scattered settlements clustered about the groves and water courses. The prairie lands were wild, wet and unbroken, and few people believed that they would ever be settled. The wolves were numerous and could be heard howling at any time of night and large herds of deer wandered at will over the prairies. While the pioneers were a hardy race of people, there was a great deal of sickness in this vicinity, malaria being the principal cause of disease. There were no supplies of medicine to be obtained at Morris, and Dr. Antis has traveled to Ottawa and Joliet, making the long, lonely journey on horseback to procure medicines, especially quinine, for which he paid frequently seven dollars per ounce. He had a large practice and for a long time was the only physician at Morris, and he was known among the pioneers far and wide. There were no roads across the prairies in those days and in a wet season the mud was something terrible. There being no fences, the Doctor rode across the prairies on horseback and often found the sloughs almost impassable.
Dr. Antis married Nancy A. Sweet, of North Brookfield, Madison county, New York. She was a daughter of Samuel G. Sweet and her father was a well-to-do farmer. His children were Mary, Nancy, Phillip, John, Jeremy and Benjamin. Mr. Sweet died an old man, at North Brookfield, New York. The Doctor came alone to Morris, in the spring of 1845, and his wife came out during the summer of that year. Their children were Eudora A. and Mary. Mrs. Antis, a woman of many virtues, lived to be seventy-two years of age, and died on their home farm in Mazon township, in 1889. The Doctor practiced medicine for many years, and was the best known among the pioneer physicians of the county. In the early days, about 1848, a serious accident occurred to Charles Huston. In pulling his gun out of a sled in which he was traveling he discharged the gun and the charge of buckshot passed through his arm above the elbow, shattering and tearing away the bone and solid flesh for nearly two inches and making a large hole in the arm. It was a terrible wound. At that time the Doctor had no regular case of surgical instruments and to this fact is probably due the salvation of the arm, as, had he been provided with the facilities, the Doctor would have amputated it, according to the usual practice in similar cases. It was with many misgivings and greatly against his judgment that he set to work to try to heal the wound and save the arm; but by skillful and careful treatment through several weeks the wound was entirely healed and the arm saved, and it proved to be for Mr. Huston a good and serviceable arm which he could manage almost as well as before the injury, and continued to do so until his death a few years since. In 1850 Dr. Antis bought his present farm in Mazon township, then consisting of one hundred and sixty acres. He has added to it and now owns one of the finest farms in the township, consisting of two hundred and forty acres of fine land. After the civil war he moved to his farm and has since made it his home.
The Doctor was one of the early gold-seekers to California, crossing the great plains in 1849 and mining for gold at Trinity for two years. In politics he is a stanch Democrat. He is an honored citizen of the county and has held the office of mayor of Morris several times and has been supervisor of his township. A man of broad mind, a clear thinker, of independent views and strong character, he has manifested much determination, and, like most pioneers, he is noted for his sturdy honesty. He has an iron constitution, and at eighty-two years of age he is a strong, hearty and well-preserved man.3
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