Will County ILGenWeb Biographies..... 
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File contributed for use by:
Dori Leekly & Margie Glenn

Author: History of Will County, Illinois; Chicago: Wm LeBaron Jr & Co, 186 Dearborn Street, 1878.

Otis HARDY; P. O. Joliet; one of the early settlers of Will Co.; was born near Windsor, Vt., 
Sept. 23, 1810; in 1813, his parents left their Eastern home and made the journey to Marietta, 
Ohio, descending the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers on rafts; in 1819, they removed to Meigs Co., 
Ohio; when he was 14 years old, Mr. HARDY was apprenticed to the trade of a carpenter, serving 
an apprenticeship of six years, and receiving during that time the sum eighteen pence; he came 
to Joliet in 1836, making the journey from Cincinnati on horseback, previous to which he spent 
about four years in Louisiana; he continued the carpenter's trade until 1848, when he engaged 
in the lumber business for twenty years, or until 1868, since which time he has been in the 
banking and gas business; he is one of the original stockholders of the First National Bank, 
and a stockholder in the Joliet Gas-Light Co. since 1862; he has always been an active temperance 
man, and for the past two years has been President of the Joliet Reform Club; he is a zealous 
member of the M. E. Church, to which he has belonged since he was 22 years of age, assisting 
liberally in the support of all its enterprises; he built, at his own expense, the Richards 
Street M. E. Church and parsonage at a cost of over $5,000; he also bore about half the expense 
of building the chapel at the Rolling-Mills, which cost some $2,000, besides contributing largely 
to the building and support of the Ottawa Street Church; he has been a member of the Quarterly 
Conference since 1837, and President of the Will County Bible Society for the past forty years. 
He was married Oct. 14, 1838, to Miss Angelia HOPKINS, of Joliet, a native of Vermont; they have 
three children living - Mrs. W. J. MACLAY, of Napa City, Cal., Mrs. N. D. DYER, and Mrs. T. H. 
MCBRIDE, of Joliet.