This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| The following is quoted from Portrait & Biographical Album of Henry County, Illinois:
Hon. Levi North, attorney and counselor at law, Kewanee,Ill, was born at Turin, Lewis Co., N.Y., March 12,1821. His parents, Darius and Joanna (Hurlbert)North, natives of Connecticut and Massachusetts respectively, and of English extraction, removed in 1829 to Highmarket, an adjoining town, and five years later, on to Mt.Vernon, Ohio. The senior Mr.North was a farmer by occupation and brought his sons up to that honorable vocation, though it appears that Levi was more of a mechanical than agricultural turn. His education was limited to the log-cabin schools of early days, with possibly a few months at a little academy at Louisville, NY, before he was 16 years of age. Just what accident led to the discovery that he really possessed a talent for drawing, does not appear; but certain it is that with opportunity he would have made his mark in the field of fine arts. As it was, he practiced more or less at the easel, doing some portraits with creditable success, and finally ,when about 18 years of age, determined to abandon everything else and devote his time to art. He was financially poor, untaught and untraveled, and the undertaking was a great one. He took his studies from life,not having the benefit of a reputably good painting before he was 20 yearsof age.However,like many another man who has achieved greatness by not knowing how much greatness had preced him, therefore knowing of nothing to discourage him, he itinerated from place to place, borrowed what books he could and read them; painted the images of the handsomest styles, made himself popular with respectable and intelligent people and absorbed altogether a pretty wide range of ideas.
In the winter of 1841-2, he took in the Ohio Legislature from the galleries,and also listened to learned dissertations upon legal questions by eminent lawyers before the United States Courts,and he became seized of new ambitions. To his knowledge of painting, anatomy, physiology and medicine he would add something of law;and to that end, in the winter following he began the study of Blackstone at Mt.Vernon, Ohio,with the Hon.E.W.Cotton as preceptor. For two years he alternated between teaching and painting, Blackstone and Chitty, and in October 1845, he stood a good examination and was admitted to the Bar. It appears he studied law as an accomplishment merely and with no immediate purpose to enter the practice.
As an artist he became acquainted with a number of professional men, and profited largely by their association. He possessed an inquisitive disposition, a retentive memory and a practicable adaptability in the methods of appropriating and utilizing everything in the way of learning that came in his way. Thus, what he lacked by early education he more than made up by absorption. In 1847 he left Ohio,and drifted to Peoria, Ill, where he applied himself to painting for nearly a year; and, removing thence to Princeton, he was variously employed for several years...coming to Kewanee in 1860...Sept 18,1847.
Mr.North was married at Chesterville, Ohio, to Miss Laura Johnson, who died Oct.18,1852, leaving one child, Maria, now Mrs.D.L.Murchison, of Wethersfield (see sketch of D.L.Murchison, this volume). At Dixon, Ill, March 9,1863, Mr.North married his present wife, nee Miss Charlotte C.Strong, and of his children we make the following memoranda: Milo, his eldest son, died in 1880,when about 24 years of age ;Foster and Arthur Tappan, graduated at the University of Illinois in June, 1885; the youngest, Charles Kelsey, is at home...
Information provided by Gene Meier |
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