A. NEY SESSIONS. As a man who has interested himself in all that
advances the business and public welfare and development of the city of
Anna, A. Ney Sessions has proven himself one of the representative citizens
of Southern Illinois, and has taken his place among the prominent business
and professional men of his community. He is a man of versatile talents, and
not satisfied with rising to the front ranks of the legal profession he
entered the business field and associated himself with some of the leading
enterprises of the city. Mr. Sessions was born in Union county, Illinois, in
1859, and is a son of Richard W. and Mary A. (House) Sessions, the former a
native of Virginia and the latter of Kentucky. Mr. Sessions' father was a
grain merchant and farmer, and a prominent citizen of his day who took a
great interest in political matters but never sought public preferment on
his own account. Both he and his wife died in Union county.
A. Ney Sessions attended the common schools in the vicinity of his father's
farm, and was reared to agricultural pursuits, following the vocation of
farmer until 1883. He then began selling farming machinery in Anna, and was
in business for about seven years, in the meantime prosecuting his legal
studies. During this time he learned every detail of the implement business,
and this experience has since proved very profitable to him as a member of
the W. W. Stokes Company, with Mr. L. J. Hess and J. K. Walton, this firm
being probably the largest implement concern in Southern Illinois, and
owning the best equipped blacksmith shop in this section of the state. In
1889 Mr. Sessions was elected to the office of justice of the peace, which
office he resigned November 21, 1890, on being admitted to the bar. He was
elected to the office of city attorney of Anna in April, 1891. In 1892 he
resigned that office and was elected state's attorney, in which capacity he
served four years, and in 1896 and 1900 was the Democratic nominee for the
state senatorship, but owing to the large Republican majority was defeated.
He had been in constant practice in Anna ever since being admitted to the
bar, and has a lucrative clientele.
Mr. Sessions is the owner of one thousand acres of excellent farming land in
Union county, which is operated by tenants, and there he superintends the
raising of alfalfa and the breeding of Duroc Jersey hogs. He is vice
president of the Anna National Bank, of Anna, a member of the board of
directors of the Jonesboro Lumber Company, of Jonesboro, Illinois, a
director of the Anna Loan and Improvement Company, of which he is the
attorney, and has interests in Mexican rubber plantations and in cocoanut
cultivation. He is also president of The Anna Democrat, a corporation that
publishes the Democrat, one of the leading newspapers of Union county, is
president of the school board and a member of the Commercial Club of Anna.
In 1898 Mr. Sessions was married to Miss Elizabeth E. Woodworth, who was
born in Minnesota, daughter of Dryden Woodworth, of Ohio They have no
children. His many and varied business connections have given him a wide
acquaintance throughout Illinois, and he is universally respected as one of
the men who are making for progress and whose extensive interests are
bringing new capital into Union county to develop its resources. Personally
Mr. Sessions is very popular, and he has many warm personal friends both in
business and social circles.
Extracted 16 Jan 2018 by Norma Hass from 1912 A History of Southern Illinois, volume 2, pages 1048-1049.
| Jackson | Williamson | |
| MO |
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Johnson |
| Alexander | Pulaski |
