THOMAS N. KARRAKER was born three miles east of the town of Dongola, on
February 18, 1875. He is the son of Nathan Karraker, who also was born in
the same community, December 26, 1826, and died December 24, 1897. at the
advanced age of seventy-one years.
The Karraker family was established in Union county, Illinois, by Daniel
Karraker, father of Nathan Karraker, and the grandfather of Thomas N., the
subject of this sketch. Daniel Karraker and his son Nathan lived quietly and
modestly, devoting their time and energies to the careful operating of their
farm, and manifesting no particular ambition beyond the desire to attain a
fair degree of prosperity and to live blamelessly in the eyes of the
community. They were men of much stability of character, of a religious
temperament and were known as exemplary citizens, contributing always to the
welfare of their home town as their circumstances would permit them.
Nathan K., the son, married in Union county in 1854, taking for his bride
Sarah J. Knight, who was born in 1834 and who still survives her husband, he
having passed away in the year 1897. They were the parents of a goodly
family of ten children, those who yet live being: J. F., J. A. and J. W.
Karraker, all of whom are pursuing near Dongola the vocation in which they
were reared; Emma, who is the wife of John L. Cope, and Laura, who is the
wife of Alonzo Keller, also farming near Dongola; F. M. Karraker, who has
for many years been the representative of the Illinois Central Railroad
Company at Dongola; and Thomas N. Karraker, first named in this review and
the subject thereof, and who is the youngest of the family.
The education of the household of Nathan Karraker was quite as liberal as
his opportunities and the times would justify, and all of the family
received such educational advantages as was consistent with their station.
Thomas N. Karraker did his advanced school work in the Dongola High school
and in the Southern Illinois Normal University at Carbondale, Illinois. He
lacked but three months of finishing his course in the Normal University
when his ambition to get into business life overshadowed his desire to
complete his education, and he accordingly entered upon a course of business
instruction and training in a Jacksonville, Illinois, Business College,
taking his diploma in 1895.
In the interim he had taught a successful term of school in what was then
known as the Karraker District, where he had attended school as a care-free,
bare-foot boy, and when his business course was completed he accepted a
position as clerk and bookkeeper in the bank of Jonesboro. It was in the
year 1904 that he came to Mounds, Illinois, as assistant cashier for the
Bank of Beechwood, and when, in 1906, it was converted by charter into the
institution now known as the First State Bank of Mounds Thomas N. Karraker
was made assistant cashier and in 1907 was made cashier. Dr. Boswell was
elected president and Judge Wall, vice-president.
The career of Thomas Karraker has been purely a business one. Believing a
division of energy was but little better than wasted, he never allowed
himself to become affiliated in any manner with politics or other outside
matters which might by any chance be calculated to conflict with his duties
as cashier or detract from the dignity and conservatism of the institution
with which he is connected, and where he has acquitted himself so
creditably.
His life was not strewn with roses nor his success attained on flowery beds
of ease. He started in his chosen line of business as a bank clerk on a
salary barely meeting the necessary expenses of life, but with that
characteristic determination kept on pursuing until a goodly portion of
success was won.
Mr. Karraker is a member of Cairo Chapter, number 71. On April 3, 1904, he
was married to Miss Elsie Dillow, a daughter of D. J. Dillow, a merchant of
Dongola, and Mr. Karraker suffered irremediable loss in the death of his
wife, September 21, 1909. Their marriage was without issue.
Extracted 16 Jan 2018 by Norma Hass from 1912 A History of Southern Illinois, volume 2, pages 992-993.
| Jackson | Williamson | |
| MO |
 |
Johnson |
| Alexander | Pulaski |
