FRANK BOUR, for many years the owner and proprietor of a thriving farm in the vicinity of Mounds, is numbered among the settlers of the Civil war period, having come to Pulaski county with his parents in 1864. Since the death of his father in September, 1875, he has been the head of the house, eventually succeeding to the ownership of the farm, and there he has lived, quietly and industriously, and has prospered in a measure coincident with his industry. There he has reared a family of six children, and through his sterling qualities as a dependable, straightforward man, has come to be recognized in his community as one of the really substantial men of the district.
Born December 14, 1858, in Ohio, Frank Bour is the son of John Bour, born in Wurtemberg-Schwabenland, Germany, in 1833. In Cincinnati he married Carolina Moser, a girl of German extraction, and after some little time in that city he concluded to seek a new home in the farming district of Illinois. Coming down the Ohio river with his family, he disembarked at Mound City, then a point of importance as the base of the naval operations of the interior naval forces of the United States. John Bour had just been discharged from Company B of the Eightyeighth Ohio Infantry, in which he had enlisted in Cincinnati some time previous. He, with his company, did guard duty at Camp Chase for some time and later the regiment was ordered to the front, Tennessee being the field of their activities. He participated in the duties of his command until he was discharged in 1864, and he left the army in a permanently disabled condition. He suffered constantly for the remainder of his life as a result of rheumatic afflictions contracted while in service, and the last years of his life he was practically a helpless invalid. He settled on what is now termed the Bour Farm, and there he 1875, he had so far improved the property, which he found in a state of extreme wildness, that his family were able to continue with the cultivaspent the remainder of his life. When he passed away in September, tion of the farm, and a maintenance as a result of their labors was practically assured. He left besides his widow five sons and a daughter. They were Frank, Joseph, Charles, Bremen and Edward W., the latter of whom died in the same year as his father, as a result of a scourge of typhoid fever which attacked the family. The daughter, Adina, is the wife of W. Oliver Wallace, of Pulaski, Illinois. The eldest son, Frank, was but seventeen years of age when he virtually became the head of the house on the death of his father, and since that time his hand has been on the throttle. The substantial and attractive improvements which have materialized since he took charge of the homestead are all indicative of the solid character of the man and of his thrifty, progressive nature. His farm of two hundred acres of fertile and productive land marks one of the garden spots of his locality.
In 1884, the exact date being April 23 of that year, Frank Bour married Miss Sallie Palmer, daughter of Pleasant Palmer, a well known farmer of Villa Ridge community. He was a native of Hardin county, Tennessee, and settled in Pulaski county in middle life. Mr. Palmer's first wife was Mahala Biggerstaff,* who bore him three children. They are Mary J., the wife of William Lacky, of Pulaski county; Frances, who married John Burkstaller and resides at Roswell, New Mexico; and Harriet, the wife of David Dugan, of Charleston, Mississippi. For his second wife, Mr. Palmer chose Harriet E. Lacky, a daughter of Cyrus Lacky, and a granddaughter of Thomas Lacky, the founder of this numerous family in Pulaski county, and a settler of 1814 from North Carolina. Mrs. Palmer still lives, and makes her home with her only child, Mrs. Prank Bour, Mr. Palmer having passed away November 18, 1893, at the age of seventy-one years. Mr. and Mrs. Bour are the parents of Minnie, Frank, Robert, Henry, Clyde and Claud, the latter two being twins.
Extracted from A History of Southern Illinois, 1912, Volume 3, pages 1534-1535
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