Jules Brechon, a French-born immigrant, was a well-regarded farmer and stock raiser in Lee County. His eighty-acre farm in South Dixon Township displayed his farming aptitude. Born to Joseph and Margaret Brechon, who emigrated from France in 1864, Jules lived in the county since he was two. He received a local education and became devoted to agriculture, improving his land with modern facilities and livestock breeds. Married to Illinois-native Margaret Ulrich, they had a daughter named Mary Margaret. Both are devout Catholics and established community members in Dixon, with Jules being a consistent Democrat. Their family was entrenched in farming and local church activities.
Jules Brechon. Lee County has a large percentage of citizens of foreign birth among her population, who are potent in developing, sustaining, and carrying forward the great industries that flourish within her borders. Our subject, although reared and educated in this country and has known no other home, is one of this class. His business is that of a farmer and stock raiser, and his farm of eighty acres on section 33, South Dixon Township, gives abundant evidence of the skill and intelligence with which everything about the premises is managed.
Our subject is of French extraction and birth, born February 20, 1862, in the province of Alsace when it formed a part of France. He is a son of Joseph and Margaret (Blanc) Brechon, the father late a prosperous farmer of this section who was for many years closely identified with the agricultural interests of this county, which lost in his death a valuable citizen. Both he and his wife were of pure French blood, and they were natives of Alsace. After the birth of all their children, they decided to emigrate to this country in 1864, and took passage from Havre de Grace on a ship bound for New York, where they landed twenty days later. They came direct to Lee County, and settling in Bradford Township on a farm that was mostly improved, began life there as farmers. They made further improvements, and nine years later sold the place in order to remove to South Dixon Township, there Mr. Brechon had purchased a quarter of section 33, which was then only slightly improved. After he had made it into a pleasant home with the assistance of his wife and children, he rested from his labors in the sleep of death, which fell to him October 4, 1886, sixty-one, years having passed since his birth in the land of his fathers across the sea. He was ever a consistent Christian, and the Catholic Church under whose teachings he had been reared found in him a worthy member. In politics, he was a Democrat. His good wife survives him, making her home with her children. Three score years and ten mark her age, but in her activity and retention of all her faculties she gives but little sign of being elderly. She too has been a lifelong member of the Catholic Church.
Our subject is the second child and the second son of the three children born to his parents. His brother Gustave owns and occupies eighty acres of the parental homestead. The sister, Mary, is the wife of Thomas Ford, a thrifty young farmer occupying the Dan McKenney farm in Dixon Township. Jules Brechon received the benefit of a common-school education in the district schools of this county, where he has lived ever since he was two years old, nine years of his boyhood being passed in Bradford Township, and the remainder of his life he has been a resident of South Dixon Township. He has devoted himself to farming from his youth to good purpose and has owned his present farm two years. It is well supplied with buildings and with modern machinery for carrying on the various operations of farming, and it is well stocked with fine breeds of cattle, horses, and hogs, which bring him a good yearly income.
The marriage of Mr. Brechon with Miss Margaret Ulrich was duly celebrated in Marion Township. Among the blessings it has brought them is the little daughter, born August 15, 1890, to whom they have given the sweet, old-fashioned name of Mary Margaret. Mrs. Brechon is a native of this state, having been born at Sandwich, in De Kalb County, April 20, 1869. She was chiefly reared, however, in this county, her parents, Joseph and Margaret (Hunt) Ulrich, removing to Marion Township and settling there on a farm when she was a child. They are yet living in that place and have a comfortable home. They are members in high standing of the Roman Catholic Church. Mr. Ulrich was born in Alsace and came to this country when a young man. In De Kalb County, he met and married his wife. Mr. and Mrs. Brechon are connected with the Catholic Church at Dixon and are generous in their contributions to its support. In his political affiliations, Mr. Brechon is a Democrat.