Celebrating the People who impacted the Village of Hampton
THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
From the 1870s into the turn of the twentieth century, few figures were more closely woven into everyday life in Hampton, Illinois, than Samuel Heagy. Through his coal ventures, his grocery and dry-goods trade, and his long-running civic service, he helped supply jobs, goods, and steady local leadership at a time when villages like Hampton depended on a handful of reliable enterprises and public-minded residents to thrive.
Heagy was born April 20, 1838, in Taneytown, Maryland, the son of Samuel and Mary (Smith) Heagy. Orphaned young—his father died when he was about two and his mother when he was about six—he was bound out to farm work until age sixteen. Like many young men of his generation, he then set out westward in search of steady employment and a chance to get ahead. After a period of farm labor in Ohio, he arrived in Rock Island County in 1856 and worked as a farmhand until 1860. He spent about a year in Davenport, Iowa, employed at a sawmill, then returned to Rock Island County to farm again. In 1864 he moved to Hampton, and within a few years his work with a local coal company—and then on his own account—placed him in the middle of one of the village’s most important sources of wages and trade.
On July 4, 1861, he married Henrietta Birchard, daughter of Morris and Mary (Harrison) Birchard (Morris a native of Vermont; Mary of Maryland). The Birchards settled in Rock Island County, where Morris continued farming. Henrietta, born in Maryland, came to the county as a child. The couple had one son, Morris S. Heagy (born in Hampton on December 25, 1862), who attended Hampton’s public schools and, at eighteen, began clerking in his father’s store. For Hampton families, the Heagy store represented more than a private enterprise: it was part of the village’s day-to-day infrastructure, a place where residents relied on consistent supplies and familiar service. After Samuel’s death, Morris S. took over the business and continued it successfully. In 1884, Morris S. married Emma J. McNeal, daughter of James and Mary (Wilson) McNeal of Hampton; their children were Maud and Mabel.
Heagy’s importance in Hampton was not limited to business. During the decades when the village’s institutions were still being built and maintained—especially from the 1870s onward—he was a steady presence in local affairs. Accounts of his politics vary—some sources describe him as a Republican, while others place him with the Democratic Party and note his service as a convention delegate—but either way, he was closely engaged with the civic life of Hampton. He served the village as a trustee and held the office of school treasurer for his township for more than twenty years, roles that mattered in practical ways: keeping village decisions moving and safeguarding the funds that supported local schools. Neighbors described him as upright and dependable in business and public dealings, with an easy manner that helped him build trust across the community.
Coal was central to Heagy’s story and to Hampton’s early industrial identity. In the late nineteenth century, the mines he invested in near the village were among the first developed in that part of the county, and their influence was felt beyond the pit mouth: they provided regular work for local men, drew commerce into Hampton, and helped connect the village to broader regional demand. Over time, the work became more expensive as the vein deepened, and those mines were eventually abandoned. Heagy also partnered with A. R. Stoddard in coal operations at Carbon Cliff. That venture ran profitably for a period, but labor unrest—especially after wage reductions led to a miners’ strike—added pressure, and the business was later suspended. Through these ventures and his later retail work, Heagy earned a reputation locally as systematic, progressive, and careful about the practical ethics of business.
Heagy’s community standing also showed in the organizations that shaped village life in the 1880s and 1890s. He belonged to the Masonic fraternity and was counted as a charter member of both the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Modern Woodmen of America—groups that, in that era, often provided social ties and practical mutual aid for families. Records differ on the exact date of his death: one account places it on February 11, 1897, in Hampton, while another reports January 28, 1896, with burial at Oakdale Cemetery in Davenport. Even with that uncertainty, local memory is clear on the larger point: by the time of his passing, he had helped anchor Hampton’s economy and civic routines, and the continuation of his business by Morris S. carried that stabilizing influence into the years that followed. His widow, Henrietta, was reported to have remained in Hampton afterward, where she was well known among friends and neighbors.
Bibliography
Co., S. J. (1897). The Biographical Record of Rock Island County Illinois. Rock Island: S. J. Clarke Publishing.
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